NationStates Jolt Archive

From interstellar space, a message echos forth, beamed towards Titan, moon of Saturn. Blue shifted so far that it is in the extreme Gamma rays, when slowed down and stretch out it says.

Greetings to the sentiences around (spectra of Titan). We have overheard your transmissions and have come to see if other intelligences exist.

Further analysis of the message reveals evidence that what ever transmitted it is traveling on an intercept course with Titan and highly relativistic velocities. Also, the apparant course does not intersect with any known stars, planets, or galactic structures but appears to have originated within intergalactic space, with no obvious source galaxy.

OOC: Ok, the last RP with the nation died, but I like it, so I'm bringing him back and starting from scratch. As some basic things are known about him, I will speed up the beginning.

William Terrel Radio Observatory
Extra-Ring Polar Orbit (8Gm out from Saturn)

"Wow, that's... interesting."

"What?"

"We're getting a signal from bearing two-thirty inclination twenty-three Saturn Standard reference. Gamma burst."

"Quasar? Those are usually redshifted into the x-rays, though."

"Nope... it's an RF message, blueshifted into gamma." Flipping a switch, the decoded transmission blinks across the screen, typed letter for letter. "Something's moving at high relativistic and it's coming practically right for us."

"And, of course, we can't pick whatever is sending it up, so no heading, no distance, no velocity."

"Exactly."

"Well, send the call down the line..."

Undisclosed Location in Scolopendra

Razak puts down the phone. "Just when you thought it was safe, eh Speeks?"

The kzintosh nods. "Jon, what do you think?"

"I think that this happening right after Angelus goes Organian on us is our traditionally hopeless timing and luck coming into play. Standard procedure for these kinds of things is to send out the SDS, which is right now playing CSP around the WorldDisc..."

"Send them. The Combined Fleets can protect our space; the Defense Squadron has experience."

"I really don't think sending the entire squadron is wise," Razak grumbles. "Really, only a detachment-sized force is necessary. We've always sent whole fleets in the past out of paranoia, but that's not good operating procedure. Best to send out reconnaissance first."

Speaker nods. "Then we will leave it up to Flag Colonel K'zta."

Aboard SWS-HCR Arthropod

"Thank the Fanged God we have two medium cruisers," K'zta growls. "FleetCom, new orders to Silverfish. Move out along transmission reception line and keep eyes peeled."

"Acting, sir."

Aboard SWS-MCR Silverfish

"Well," Colonel Nagaththaal muses as he scratches the back of his head, "anyone up for a first contact? Helm, take us up one hundred megaclicks over the plane of the ecliptic, along the vector of that transmission. That trans could be gigaclicks out or even whole leeches; one obviously gives us more time to dawdle or tell our kids to do it than the other.

"Comms, once we get there, set an outgoing transmission, follow it's coding scheme."

[code:1:de0e48b7a2]Greetings. We have recieved your message and are answering in kind. Please divert course to meet with the origin of this transmission so we may speak further more easily.[/code:1:de0e48b7a2]

Our courses are diverted towards your locations. We are beginning our decelerations.

OOC: It would appear to be coming in at close to light speed, to arrive it about 3 months time

Two months and twenty days later, a reply is received. It's not overly relevent because long-range scanners now had a firm fix on the incoming object and Silverfish is again deployed to the rendezvous position, its beacon turned on and advertising its position with a regular ping on all EM communications wavelengths.

DGNT D'pression, somwhere between Saturn and the Belt.

<beeeeppp>
<Message recieved>
The anntennia on the surface of the ship slowly rotate, bringing more sensitive instruments to bear.
<Decoding>
<Message decoded>
"You've got mail!"
The comm operator jumped.
"Sir, we err...have a message." He read the message off to the captain.
"Well, thats interesting. Gawd, why were we out here again?"
"Apparently were patroling for killer asteroids or something, sir."
"Really...what was it I did to deserve this job?"
"I think it was that time you accidentaly rammed the docking hatch on EOS-3..."
"Ah, yes. Well, with nothing else to do, let us go and greet our new space-nation, full speed thataway!" He pointed dramaticaly in the wrong direction.
"Its thataway sir..."
"I know, I was trying to be funny..."
"Oh...err..." The comman was sweating "Er...hahaha, sir."
This was echoed around the bridge by officers and guards who wanted to be payed.
The ship jumped, and was gone.

OOC: Sorry if I'm intruding, if you want a private RP just say so and ill leave.

OOC: I'd prefer to keep this with nations that I'm familiar with, but thanks for the offer.

IC: The Seed is now about 2 weeks out, and is still traveling at a significant fraction of c, though is decelerating at what would appear to be the exact rate necessary for it to come to a stop in exactly the location where the Silverfish is.

Readings on the Silverfish reveal that The Seed is proceeding under gravitics and has a mass of approximately 11,100 megagrams, though it's size is still uncertain (certainly under 6Km). There are no visual signatures as off yet. For that matter, besides the listed transmissions, there are no Signatures (either admission or absorbtion) immediately detectable in EM.

Aboard Silverfish, the KSPA laison placed aboard all TYCS vessels, usually in the form of a sensor operator, speaks up.

"Sir, the KSPA maintains a large database of ship signatures. Permission to cross-reference our readings with KSPAHQ in Port Aurora?"

Colonel Nagaththaal shrugs. "Knock yourself out. Sensors, give our resident KSPA spook the numbers, and check it against any known spectra in our databases. Comms, keep pumping juice out into the bands. No point in communicating at this range, but we might as well make it obvious that we're here and that we're not trying to hide."

"Sir, the KSPA database does not have an exact match. Only datapoint that came up was the absorbtion spectrum. It is very close to that of Quartz."

"Alright, then." The captain looks to his communications officer. "Send out a message, to read..."

[code:1:ee8c5f9003]Greetings. We are waiting and wish to meet you.[/code:1:ee8c5f9003]

OOC: Oops, forums told me there was nothing new here . . . .

IC:

Your messages have been received.

Coming in from off the solar plane is a giant dodecahedron with edges approximately 2 kilometers long. Though it allows light to transmit through it, it distorted beyond all recognition, suggestion a highly complex, yet non-random, internal structure. It has slowed down greatly and will come to a stop at a distance of a bit over 3 times it's diameter from the ship in question.

The Seed comes to a stop slightly over 3 times it's diameter from Silverfish. It is dodecahedral in shape, but does not have a well defined surface, but instead simply appears to become less dense the further out it goes with a certain distrance after which there is a rapid drop off.

It is translucent with identical absorbtion spectra as silicon. It is slightly radioactive (alph, beta, and gamma), and creates a fair amount of mild gravitic "noise".

We are here.

Though transmitted in standard radio waves, there are similar gravitic waves at the same time.

"Well well well," the sensors officer muses, "that's curious."

"What?"

"We're getting gravy pulses in time with the radio pulses. Interesting, really."

"So that's why I get this odd bass feeling in my gut." Colonel Nagaththaal frowns. "Comms, respond back in radio so they get the idea that gravypulse may not be the best format for communication. Sensors, do these pulses present any sort of threat?"

"No... not really, sir. Better safe than sorry, though, in my opinion."

"Fair enough. Read everything you can on that crystal-thing. Comms, prepare a message."

[code:1:dc549e80d1]As are we. This is Colonel Nagaththaal of the SWS-MCR Silverfish, representing the Federated Segments of Scolopendra, greeting you to our star system. Who are you, and where do you hail from?[/code:1:dc549e80d1]

We give our greetings to you. We were sent by our source. They had thoughts that there might be other sentiences in these universes. And thus, we were sent here to investigate. We are The Seed. We do not know how to describe the places from which we came, but we have traveled for very long times.

What are you and what are your forms? Are these things that we see before us you?

OOC: The grav pulses continue in time with the trasmissions. These ones were never that strong to begin with, just enough to be detected, but since it is inverse-square die off, the people probably aren't really feeling it much, if at all.

"Hrm... I knew I shouldn't have eaten that burrito..."

"Problem, sir?"

"No, not really. I'll be fine. So... 'this form they see before them...' what do they see?"

"They see us, sir. There's nothing else around."

Nagaththaal shakes his head. "That's hardly a form. You think they're talking about the ship?"

"It's possible, sir. We're just getting a chaotic fractal crystalline pattern from the insides of the crystal, so it may not be a ship to them... it may be them. The concept of a vessel may be completely alien."

"Hrm. Science, prepare an intoductory text on biology, nothing really above the sixth-grade level. Throw in some cellular biology, concentration on molecular."

"Acting, sir."

"Comms... you know the drill."

[code:1:d96a0c6623]We are mostly what are called 'humans,' lifeforms based primarily on carbon compounds such as proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates. The metallic form you probably see is a... shell designed to safely carry our forms in an environment hostile to us, as we need dense gaseous oxygen, liquid water, and a good deal of pressure around us to survive. This shell maintains those conditions for us. There are normally five-hundred fifty-one forms aboard, each one with an individual intelligence, but there are an additional two-hundred aboard who are dedicated to additional scientific research. We are, by nature, curious.

What is your source?[/code:1:d96a0c6623]

Processing messages: Difficult. There are many unknown forms.
Begin parsing: unknown forms, unknown concepts

We are mostly what are called 'humans,' lifeforms based primarily on carbon compounds such as proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates. The metallic form you probably see is a... shell designed to safely carry our forms in an environment hostile to us, as we need dense gaseous oxygen, liquid water, and a good deal of pressure around us to survive. This shell maintains those conditions for us. There are normally five-hundred fifty-one forms aboard, each one with an individual intelligence, but there are an additional two-hundred aboard who are dedicated to additional scientific research. We are, by nature, curious.

What is your source?

Intermediate conclusions: These forms before us are not the sentiences, however they contain the sentiences which control them. These are extensions of their wills that are not parts of them, very curious. Begin scans of forms (OOC: Gravity waves ripple through the ship. Not strong enough to break any thing, but they can be felt, and a pencil or two may fall off a table) Forms of the natures described are present within the things before us. These are truly alien sentiences, if sentient at all, more processing required. Further processing of messages impossible without clarifications.

Our Source are like us. We split off from them to explore. They are far older and wiser. We do not understand all of your communications, and have sent them back with the concepts alien to us highlighted.

Nagaththaal holds onto his chair as the gravity waves scan the vessel. "Oh-kay, that's not my burrito. Sensors?"

"Looks like active scanning, sir. No threat."

"Sir," the comms officer looks up, "response inbound. Displaying on monitor three."

Looking over it, the colonel rubs his chin. "Hum. This is going to be interesting. I suppose no concept of individual is understandable, but having difficulty with number? There are nine planets in this system, and they figured that much out..."

"I don't think it's the concept of number, sir," the weapons officer suggests, "but the concept of number attached to intelligences. It thinks in the plural, because our singluars are all highlighted."

"Well, that's fun. Comms... here we go."

[code:1:936bbd8cea]Starting from the beginning...
"Form" was used because you used it. In this case, the concept equals the concept of "thing" or "object," referring to the metallic object (which we call a 'ship') that we inhabit.

By "shell," we mean any one thing that encapsulates any other thing, much like gaseous atmospheres encapsulate planets. Our 'ship' encapsulates us, as you may have seen from your scans, and thus it is our 'shell.' It is a reference to other, nonsentient organisms who have coverings to protect from external harm or injury... organisms you probably have no experience or maybe even concept of.

"Environment" equals "surroundings" or "that which an object inhabits." The extremely low-density vacuum of space acts as your "environment," our natural "environment" is the high-density gaseous oxygen already mentioned. These two environments are different, as one is conducive to our existence and the other is not, and so we have the concept of different environments. One of those environments would be 'an' environment, indicating it to be a subset (determined by conditions) of all possible environments.

Without our 'ship' to act as a 'shell,' it would be impossible to exist as our conditions (gaseous oxygen) would expand into space. Even as molecules are constituted of atoms that make them up, our 'ship' is constituted of smaller subunits that perform functions; one of these subunits ensures that the 'ship' continues to be able to hold in our atmosphere and regenerate wastes caused by our life-processes in which chemical energy in carbohydrates are transferred to organic phosphates via an oxidation reaction that produces carbon dioxide. Diatomic oxygen is required for this process and not carbon dioxide, and so the aforementioned subunit replenishes diatomic oxygen in our atmosphere. The process of this replenishment 'maintains' our environment, meaning that it keeps it at a near balance. Ionic bonds 'maintain' their bonds between the conflicting forces of atomic repulsion and ionic attraction; external electromagnetic forces can modify these bonds which then change in an attempt to 'maintain' energy conservation.

We have a concept of number and a concept of singular concept (the concept of 'individuality' or 'individual'). There is one star in this system, and so there is a basis of unity in number. There are also nine planets, but they are all different from each other. Each planet is a conceptual entity in its own regard based on characteristic properties that a planet-unity has that are not shared with the other planet-unities. Thus we have a distinction for unity in concept. The third planet in this system is a unified conceptual entity from all other planets in the system, as it has different characteristics from the rest. All other planets are also separate, different, conceptual entities from the rest in the same fashion. Thus we tend to describe things in the singular, as we think in terms of categorical differences... for example, our 'ship' is different from you; our ship is composed of metal and yours appears to be crystalline quartz. That makes them two different, 'individual' entities in concept.

This is why we describe minds in terms of 'each' and 'one' and 'individual.' The mind which operates the 'ship' subunit that sends this message is different in seperation, unity, and concept from the minds that have, working together as a group in the same way that all electrons around a nucleus generate a net electric field, generated the message.

While you and we are sharing a common form of communication, apparently how you think and how we think are somewhat different.[/code:1:936bbd8cea]

OOC: I hate when life catches up with you.

IC:
Analyzing communications: Confirming definition for many words. Communications are working. Description of selves matches the results of our scans.
Analyzing physical structures: As communicated informations match those we acquire from the scans, we will use them to avoid invasive scans.

Structures lack any consistent forms.
Only a low cardinality of structures appear to have the necessary levels of complexity to maintain sentience.
Structures are not compatible with any known forms of sentience.
Probabilities that these are sentient is low.


Analyzing remainder of communications: Use of numerous concepts unknown to us. We can derive no meanings from the rest of the messsage.

Thank you for confirming our understandings of the concepts you provided to us. We still do not understand the particular forms of the concepts, but they are close enough to our own that we can understand your meanings. However, we do not understand the rest of your communications. We do not know what you mean by: singular, individual(ity), one, nine, unity, third, singular, two.

We have examined your forms and must ask you, "Are you sentient?" You're forms do not appear to have the necessary levels of complexity. Are these you? (Transmission of accurate diagrams of circulatory and respiratory systems). We do understand (in theories) how you processess energies. We do so by converting types to (silicon spectra).

"'Are we sentient?'" Colonel Nagaththaal raises an eyebrow. "How are we supposed to answer that?"

"Depends on their definition of sentience, I guess," the helmsman shrugs.

"Well, that's great and all," the colonel paces across the bridge, arms folded behind his back, "but we don't know what that is, do we?"

"Maybe we should ask."

[code:1:3a161b5ecc]Yes, those are us. As for sentience... we would like to think that we are. We are creative, curious of the universe around us, and act in a more complex manner than simple reactions to stimuli. However, sentience is a very vague term. What do you define sentience as?[/code:1:3a161b5ecc]

We define sentient beings as those able to generate new responses to new stimuli. Also, sentiences must strive for more information. You appear to express the traits of sentience. We would like to stay here and meet others so that we may gain more information to bring back to our Source in the futures.

Are there dangers in these locations that we must beware of?

"These locations? Did they or we specify... oh..." The weapons officer smirks. "No concept of an individual whatsoever."

Nagaththaal nods. "Right. Send over our most current threat report on the Solar System after editing out all incidences of singulars. Hopefully the concept of different entities with different names won't confuse them."

"Might that scare them off, sir?"

The colonel shrugs. "I wouldn't blame them."

[code:1:252aa9c614]Here is our threat assessments of these locations. We are afraid to say that you have stumbled across some rather violent areas. There should be no great threats this far out but we must always be vigilant.

<Transmitting>[/code:1:252aa9c614]

Most interesting. There appear to be α threats in our immediate vecinities, however, hopefully they will not prove to be dangers to us. You have also implied that there are more sentiences here. We would greatly enjoy meeting them and learning as much about these groups as possible. We also believe that our alliances may prove to be mutually beneficial. We do not think alike, and may well prove to be complementary.