NationStates Jolt Archive

Andromeda, far enough away to stop worrying about the old fears, but far away enough to have to worry about new ones.

The DNS-3 was progressing well, the finding of a planetoid... well, it was just a bit ball of rock, but it was too big and too circular to be called an asteroid. But the mining operations were going well; it had been a stroke of bloody genius to build the ship into the planetoid. Free armor, and there was enough metal that they didn't have to go off-site for much in the way of materials. The DNS-1 was nearing retirement age, and the DNS-2 was... unreachable.

But otherwise... the Wormhole should work, at least they thought it should work, but you know, we can't really be that sure. But there's a 90% likelihood of it working, so nothing to worry about, really, and why don't you just go back to politician sir, and .

The scientists didn't have a great respect for authority, but he didn't mind that so much. They didn't cause the kind of problems that he had to deal with... well, except for that incident with the reformed Sirithilist and the infinite probability matrix, but that had worked itself out... At least, everyone assumed it had, all the people connected had oddly dissipated.

But now his mind turned the Big Question of the Year. Was life limited to the Milky Way, or would Andromeda have the same mix of being odder and far more interesting than they could imagine?

DNS-2 was a month away from radio range, they would have to sit and wait for a while longer. Operation Columbus had started out nearly 40 years ago, and communications from them had been scant for 30 years. Hopefully they would establish the wormhole and contact within the timeframe, but no one really knew except for the 500 mil on the ship.

His lips upturned at the idea that a half-billion people knew what he could not. This might be a unique series of events, the more people that knew, the harder it was for him to find out.

Ironic even.

Orlanth paced the bridge with a useless kind of nervousness. He knew everything was fine and that there really was nothing he could do to help, but he was still nervous. A week away from a strange new world, and all he could think of was if the guns were working right. He'd seen all the movies; Guy leads expedition, runs into little green men, everyone dies but the cute chick and the nerdy scientist, who go off to get married. The problem was that Orlanth wasn't a nerd, and he certainly wasn't a chick. So he was screwed. Seemed logical enough.

“Sir?”

“What Commander?” Man that little Commander Recote was annoying, always sneaking up on him and with that stupid little smile. He hated men like that.

“We're nearing the broadcast point, sir. I was wondering if you wanted to record a message.”

“Um... should I?”

“It's expected sir.”

“Really? Well... um... I don't really... I don't suppose... sigh...”

“I just so happened to have written a speech for the occasion sir. Perhaps you would wish to use it?”

“Ah.. Yes, thanks Commander. You're dismissed.”

“Stupid little git. If his father wasn't the civilian leader...”

“Did you say something?!”

“Nosir, justgoingnowsir, goodbysir” That was odd, Recote usually walks a lot slower... Sigh, guess I have to go read that speech. I wonder if Recote's the nerd who gets the hot chick?

-------------------------

“He gets dumber every day, I swear. Do we really want to put that face forward? I mean, if any aliens see that they're gonna think we're all idiots in the Milky Way. You only get one first impression.”

“Yeah, but what choice do we have? It's not like he's going to step down or have a convenient accident.”

“Yeah... but... Maybe we could reroute the broadcast message so it's not his. And then we just have to get the communications staff to keep him in the dark if they try to contact us. I'm the 2nd in command, I should be able to get them to reroute the calls to me...”

“What if his father finds out? The civilian authority is technically in control, and a coup d'etat on our hands.”

“We might be able to keep them in the dark long enough for the damage done by Orlanth to be prevented... and that would be for the greater good. Not to mention the place in the history books... Actually... the way Orlanth was, he might be relived enough that he didn't make first contact that he could say he delegated the task to me.”

“And then take credit for telling you what to say, because he'll lie and say that it was his idea, just so that should the aliens turn out hostile, the ship will still have it's captain if they tried assasination.”

“Sigh, yeah, you're right. Still, it's better than nothing.”