NationStates Jolt Archive

{NISAK-SOLARNET DATABOOK}
[file:worlds:jupiter:satellites:thebe]
THEBE, ID:MOONJUPITERXIV

Thebe was a nymph, daughter of the river god Asopus

Mass (kg) 7.77e+17 _
Radius (km) 55x45 _
Mean density (gm/cm^3) 1.5 _
Mean distance from Jupiter (km) 221,895 _
Rotational period (days) 0.674536 _
Orbital period (days) 0.674536 _
Mean orbital velocity (km/sec) 23.93 _
Orbital eccentricity 0.0183 _
Orbital inclination (degrees) 1.0659 _
Escape velocity (km/sec) 0.0434 _
Visual geometric albedo 0.05 _

http://www.solarviews.com/thumb/jup/thebe3.jpg

_ Done
[eof]


***********

Matthew "Arly" Arledean, leader of task force FISHER, first thought that this nymph must be lonely, floating out here. Despite all the skytraffic, this rock was more or less left alone. Quiet and peaceful, this one had as of yet, been untouched.

That was going to change.

The thing is so bloody small, it probably can't hold something in orbit very long, he thought. "FISHER groups report in. Are we good?"

"AKHEN, check."
"KARETO, check."
"NORTHSHORE, ready."
"SOLARIS, check."
"DELPHI, I'm ok."

A short pause, then the last: "AVALON, we're good here."

"Ok, FISHER, I want you guys to be real careful-like with this one. I don't wanna hafta spend a few days chasing it again."

"Gotcha, Arly," a voice replied. The view on the console changed, with the collective of Interspace, Advanced Aerospace Corp, and Starfleet ("Armada") ships moving into position around Thebe. The ships deployed landers, and they began moved closer to the rock, dangerously close... and the landers hooked on, deploying Thebe's first stablizers.

"Alright! Petros Station, this is FISHER, the deed is done, the rock is caught." Arly turned to the group in the control room. "Who's up for a drink?" There was some laughter, and the cork was popped.

Eastern Sisgardia, the Utharian Peninsula
The Vortex Corporation
Uthar

The colony on Ganymede. The WTE craftworld and restructuring. The Abu Dhabi colony being attacked. Negotiations to do a complete technological refitting in Tarakalar. Civil war almost emerging in the Grand Duchy. With everything going on, Councilhad been surprised she was able to find competent crews to man the ships that were dispatched to work on the Thebe project. But she had succeeded. A full battlegroup had been equipped and deployed to ensure the protection of the Somtaaw miners and engineers that had been sent to the moon. Now, she sat in one of the white chairs in her office, staring at the holographic projectors that showed the front view of the lead ship of the expedition.

Jovian System
Thebe

A large Exploration class vessels slided out of hyperspace. The craft, almost the size of a large Destroyer, was a vessel designed for missions of exploration, science and engineering, filled as she was with laboratories, scientific systems and computing capacity. Behind her, more smaller hyperspace portals were opened, as civilian frigates, barges and two carriers entered normal space.

"This is the SMV Morik hailing all JL vessels in the vicinity. We are the TVC elements assigned to this operation. My name is Meka Somtaaw, I am the commander of this flotilla. We have brought four drone frigates with worker drones, as well as several support frigates with machinery, equipment and crews."

Awaiting a reply, the two carriers took up formation left and right of the Morik, as worker and maintenance corvettes, loaded with crews and equipment, were exiting their docks. Five minutes later, the total of 12 frigates that accompanied the 3 large vessels had also taken up their base positions near their commanding vessels. Patiently, the ship captains awaited the green light from Meka.

The Engelsstampf turned, slowly, constantly decelerating.

It wasn´t the most impressive of ships, about 200m long, and equipped with the older Charlston drives, who were responsible for the slow deceleration.

However, it had brought them to Thebe, and that was what counted. On board was a 'crew' of thirty- six men... well, 'crew'... They were specialists for restructuralising Thebe... and for drone operations.

Finally, the ship stopped, relatively to Thebe. The problems were, of course, the same as with the 'smaller brother' of this project, Themisto... increased by an order of magnitude.

Well, they would get around them.

Manfred Engelhard, one of the men in the team, could hardly wait for it... "I see... they already cought it, eh? Perfect... Well, guys... lets get to work!"

A female comms officer inside the ship floating at what had become Checkpoint KARETO spoke into the microphone: "Engelsstampf and SMV Morik, this is FISHER task group, it's good to see you made the trip." She stops to take a record of their arrival. "Thebe is currently being stabilized; we intend to begin drilling sometime soon." Elsewhere, some of the cemet that would eventually line the tunnels was being mixed on a ship specially designed for this purpose, under the watchful eye of the captain. Wiring was being spooled; pipes were being sealed. One of the Konanian drills, not the only one on the project, began preperation for its descent.

Arly looked over the plans for the rock. On the exterior, they were actually quite boring, except for some types of communications equipment, weapons, and a few other things that needed to be outside. On the inside, though, things would really take shape.... the whole affair, he thought, was really a work of art. A powerful work of art, but art nonethelesss. It... was... beautiful.

A second comms officer interrupted his thoughts, sending a message to all present ships: "O-kay, as far as we know, landers are reporting Thebe's rotation and orbit to now be pretty stable." Or, as stable as they're gonna get. "I think we can go ahead and deploy the first drill, now, folks. Carefully, now, don't wanna shake the thing up too much."

[ooc: I'm going to let someone else do that (deploying the first drill, I mean) ]

As soon as the Konania checkpoint gave the green light, one of both carriers opened it's main hangar bay. Slowly sliding into space, illuminated by the blue lights from the inside of the carrier, the drill and some accompanying corvettes and towing vessels exited. Following a carefully plotted course, set by electronic beacons, it proceeded slowly to the Thebe surface, all the while being carefully monitored by the scientists and engineers on board of the [i]Morik. When the drill was about to touch down on Thebe, several hyperspace portals opened. Out of them came a group of military vessels, carrying the symbols of the Corporation on their hull. These vessels were the military addition to the taskgroup.

Not wanting to disturb ongoing procedures with unnnecessary radio chatter, they simply dispatches a recognition signal to the Morik, after which the Exploration class vessels confirmed the warships' identity to the other vessels in the vicinity.

In the meanwhile, the drill had touched ground and was being set up by engineers and technicians around it. A quick scan was made by one of the corvettes, to reconfirm that this location was the right one for the first drill. Minutes later, everything had been set up, and as the escort vessels returned to their mother vessel, several drones hovered over to the drill. they would monitor it while it was at work, and make necessary corrections if needed.

As the main dock of the carrier opened its doors again, the drill was activated, starting to chew away rock and minerals, laying the foundation for what would be made of Thebe.

EDIT: ack, Vortex was a few minutes faster <.< But the post works anyway, so... *shrugs*

"Roger." The ship closed it`s communications with the Konanians, and released it`s 'drone'.

It was actually fairly large, a piece of... well, tech to attach itself to the moon, to drill into it, to create the hole through which they would enter... In the end, it would be their shuttle bay.

Well, one of them.

Slowly, the object descended, glowing black even in the darkness of space...

The ship had complete control over it, the half- telepathic connection between them constantly exchanging data...

Finally, it hit Thebe, slowly, almost teasing it...

Connected.

And the work begun...

Meanwhile, more ships were coming, carrying materials, drones, specialists.

And it didn´t take long until the area of space around Thebe was quite literally crowded.

"Allright, let's make this somewhat more structured then. Set out navigation beacons and create some flight vectors. I want at least three paths through all this heavy traffic for easy transport from and to the moon. If we have to move ships that are in the way every time, it'll only be a useless waste of time."

Immediately, the navigation personnel on board of the vessel started to obey their new orders. Electronic pulses were initiated to direct all vessels to the most efficient locations at this time. Several beacons were released into space, using small thruster engines to reach a fixed position. A few minutes later, each vessel in the Thebe vicinity received a set of data with the navigation plans, flight vectors and the flight schedules that Navigation had created. Long before the mission, this whole plan was created and agreed upon by the JL engineers of each member nation, so it would be quite easy to get all the craft into their proper position.

[OOC: Ok. So I had a really long and uber-cool post written, and it was eaten, :mad: so here's the skimmed down summary]

The Konanian drills soundlessly dropped to a point on their side of the rock that would later become a large hangar bay. Next, what seemed like a few hundred drones were sent to carve the rock into something usable-- smooth out some of the pointier outcroppings for example-- before pouring in the concrete-like sealant for the walls of the hangar, and forming the "fixtures" for weapons and communications systems to be added later.

ooc: *chuckles* Copy copy copy...

Anyway *kicks Indy and Kaenei for not showing up*

---

ic:

Aeka had just arrived from Themisto, and she was already walking along the corridors of one of the konanian vessels present, to... organise, as they (her superiors) called it.

She prefered to call it a waste of time, though...

Well, everyone has the right for his own opinion...

---

Meanwhile, on Thebe, the work continued, the drones drilling long tunnels into the moon.

Of course, the 'waste' could be used... Raw materials for the mining industry, or as parts for the Thebe expansio program... Since Thebe isn`t a sphere, but look more like a... giant potato, further work was necessary to optimise its form... and its volumina.

They did, of course, have some advantages. Mining camps on large asteorids and small moons, as well as the Themisto project, which was basically a test for the Thebe- operation, had given them plenty of opportunities to test their abilities for this kind of operation...

And thusly, it all worked... perfect. It wouldn`t take them too long until the shuttle bays and quarters would be finished, until they could finally place people o the moon...

It was almost too good to be true...

It -might- be too good to be true. They had had good luck as of yet, and if there ever was a time to be worried, it was now. What was about to happen was what most engineers called "A very delicate operation." The preliminary drilling was done, it was now time for the first layer of sealant

Which, of course, meant that if anything went wrong, they would lose thier jobs. So nothing could go wrong. The mixers had stopped, so this had to be done quickly. "Ready?"

"Aye, sir!" The an officer replied from the bridge. "Sealant drones ready?" Arledean called again. Another "Yes, sir!" came from the speaker. "Alright, let's get this over with."

The drones 'dropped' through space, landing inside the great mouth carved by the drills. They looked like the drills themselves, actually; except these would press the first sealant onto the walls of the cavern. It would take a while, but he felt it would be a success, and yet expected it to fail, the way any engineer would for such a project.

Aeka schuckled lightly. Thats insane... But I like it... Nonetheless, it looks... strange... She looked at the mirror, watching herself in the rather skimpy (but fairly fancy) underwear she wore. He wont be able to resist this...

However, she didn´t have the time... Yet. Work came first.

Whistling, she left her room, going to work... The further expansion of the tunnel system was rather boring, but the first preparations for the biocrystalline structures would be made today... And this was her department.

Of course, watching the progress the drones made in the tunnels, joining Thebe, deeper and deeper, wasn`t exactly something she enjoyed... It reminded her too much of something else...

And this had little to nothing to do with work.

[ooc: *Fast forwards a bit, as there's little to do as long as they're digging.]

Architecture is very complex. It takes a real master to know it, James Townsen thought. It was as much an art as it was a science. He was at the controls while Arly looked over his shoulder.

The ship managed to keep a stable course while propelling supplies into the newly built hangar, as they prepared to add the air pumps that would make the rock livable. For a moment, all construction stopped, and the drones returned to the surface to block anything from exiting the hangar; and then the air was pumped in.

The hangar door and airlock worked beautifully, allowing very little air out into space. Still, it was a leak, and they'd have to find it.

[ooc: and... wow... we're running out of things to post...]

The structure grew... Aeka was currently occupied with the structure of the outer hull, directing drones to change the formerly chaotic surface of the moon in something... spherical.

Well, relatively spherical.

It was, of course, a fairly complex work. Themisto, the moon she had sort of... well, tested the process had only 1/10 the diameter of Thebe... which meant that she had to cover 100 times the surface area of themisto, using about a hundred times the amount of materials to fill the empty space.

It was... annoying.

At least she thought so.

Of course, the materials inside of Thebe, the materials they had removed from there, came in handy. So, she wouldn´t need to worry about the sheer size of her work...

Her problem was the structure of what the drones build. She was, of course, connected to them, watching them building up structure after structure... Some organic, some crystalline, some metal alloys...

It was, basically, a very, very complex kind of work.

And annoying when something didn`t exactly work the way it was supposed to. Which, incidentally, happened all the time.

And this was, of course, the reason for her constant overtime... twelve hours a day, she worked with, or rather cursed about, the drones, watching the structures grow, watched Thebe, slowly turning its shape... slowly expanding.

Meanwhile, in the inside of the moon, things were moving forward...

With the first quarters finsihed, the work became far easier, and the drones working their way through the moon would soon be finished...

And following them, always close by, were the construction crews creating halls, passageways, computer nodes, networks, contines, sleeping rooms, shuttle bays, repair facilities, diplomatic quarters, shipyards, a strange ring quite similar to a particle accelerator, installing coffee machines, water coolers, planting trees (For they made the whole thing look nicer) and so on...

Ad Infinitum

{NISAK-SOLARNET DATABOOK}
[file:worlds:jupiter:satellites:thebe]
THEBE, ID:MOONJUPITERXIV

Thebe was a nymph, daughter of the river god Asopus

Mass (kg) 7.77e+17 _
Radius (km) 55x45 _
Mean density (gm/cm^3) 1.5 _
Mean distance from Jupiter (km) 221,895 _
Rotational period (days) 0.674536 _
Orbital period (days) 0.674536 _
Mean orbital velocity (km/sec) 23.93 _
Orbital eccentricity 0.0183 _
Orbital inclination (degrees) 1.0659 _
Escape velocity (km/sec) 0.0434 _
Visual geometric albedo 0.05 _

http://www.solarviews.com/thumb/jup/thebe3.jpg

Thebe is the site of a new Jovian League (see more) natural satellite conversion project; particularly a defensive station, hangar, and shipyard.

_ Done
[eof]


***********

*double post.*

Arledean cracked his knuckles. They were done.

"Allied ships, I'm -quite- pleased to announce that our heavy work here, for the most part, is complete. The remainder of the work inside will be done by our interior specialists and engineeers. We thank you for your participation in this project for the benefit of the nations of the Jovian League, and resultingly, for nations around the world!"

And from the bottom of this first ship, more engineers were loaded onto shuttles to the station. The exterior construction ships of Task Force FISHER began to depart.

A few drones, remote controlled from the inside of the moon, waved at the departing ships. It wasn´t like they could actually be seen, but it was amusing enough.

The construction of the surface area was now almost complete, Thebe an almost perfect sphere, and more and more parts became... well, inhabitable.

Inside the moon, or rather, ex- moon, the construction continued.

Within the cleaned rooms that were about to be finsihed, wild discussions took place... Surreal discussions, one should say.

"No. No, this is just ugly. We need something more... sophisticated, something more... elegant!"
"As you wish..."
"Oh, and this ceiling is way to low! reconstruct the entire room! And make it pink!"
"But... above this is a fusion reactor..."
"And? This is about style, not some technological gimmicks. You need bright colours and wide, open spaces! Oh, and... Ah, there you are. Thank you my dear. Thank you so much. Many kisses. Yes... THIS is it! This is the plan!" Francois took the package from his pink- clad assistant, kissing his cheeks, and showed it to his adjutant. It included his personal plans for the station... A dream in pink and quillings.
"Oh my god..."

In the foreground, amongst the overlapping blanket of dark that passed as outer space, spread across infinite distance and time, the stars burned as a billion, trillion one.

Some wearily, their great nuclear furnaces scraping the last vestiges of hydrogen from their empty innards, falling to a ruddy glow as they pass from visibility and keen memory. Others shone furiously, young in their existance and eager to make an impression against the whizzened, aged universe that bore them.

Against this aged and young combined starscape, the sleekened form of the Zi^Kioni crept through. Marble trims of deepened green almost acted as a muted mask and support to the elongated ship.

The Kaeneian starcraft closed in on its destination. The first of many, the beginning of the chain that would see the Serene^Union assist and join in the efforts of the Jovian League to establish Thebe as its basis of operations.

http://www.angelfire.com/psy/kaenei0/Stafleetpics/approach.JPG

Slowly, she eased towards the Jovian moon. Already a buzzing around her was under way. Der Angst, Konania and the Vortex Corporation had visited and remained on Thebe beforehand. It remained only for The Serene^Union to complement the members, and push work onwards.

"Finally, they arrived." Aeka let out a short sigh. Now, this should speed up the process... a bit. Following this thought, she continued her work. Now that the first part of the project, the mere 'digging' into the moon was basically done, the harder parts had to be finished...

Luckily, the reactors near the core were already working, energy problems didn´t exist... Anymore. Now, the infrastructure could be done... sensor arrays, optronic circuits, and the like...

It was, simply, a pain. Of course, it was more interesting than simply drilling tunnels into the moon, but still-

"OUCH! F*cking circuit."

It could be annoying.

However, as time moved on, the work continued...

And slowly (Very slowly), the moon was turned into the thing t was supposed to be...

"A space station of doom."
"Meh. Couldn`t you act a bit more... girlish? You sound almost like my brother in the merchant navy..."
"Hey, now!" The next thing one could hear was Aeka`s elbow hitting Max`s stomach... and a suppressed groan.

As the work continued, Thebe became inhabitable, it wouldn´t take long until the work was done...

Drilling through the moon... that part had been finished. The interior construction, reactors, offices, living quarters, a couple swimming pools, the in- door tennis court...

"One can live here."
"Certainly."

The two men talking were members of the Angstian staff, settling in. Though the work wasn´t yet finished, their new home was basically operational, so they were... well, settling in.

Of course, a few things were still a bit... creepy, with everyone having included at least parts of their own technologies or characteristics (Some thought that the 'new' Thebe looked almost like a museum), but that problems would surely be settled over the time...

Hopefully.

[/cleverly disguised bump]

His accent is too thick, the worker noted to himself, leaning back against the wall. He should be teaching in a university somewhere.

"The Thebe station commander's quarters ought to be the most fit in Jupiter's orbit. On the left wall, a rather elegant electronic bookshelf shall be installed, for the commander's luxury at any time. Ahead, a desk. To your right, we shall include his or her basic necessities: a bunk, a small restroom of sorts, including a small shower."

"Any questions?" Heads shook. "Ok then. Let's get to work, eh?"

* * *

That had been a few months before. The wood paneling along the walls combined with the rather utilitarian-looking ceiling-- there wasn't one, pipes and wires were visable-- made it look... odd? was that the word? Maybe. Well. It would do.

Christening of the station would have to take place one day soon.