NationStates Jolt Archive

The fleets were gone. The outposts were gone. The cities were defenceless, and the Others were coming.

The Conclave met in the Great Hall of Kaireigh; men, women, herms and gestalt avatars all seated around the central table, with the Totem Lords at it's head. All were worried.

"Order!" The reigning Dragon Lord stood, striking the table with his fist. "Order!"

When the Conclave had quieted, Antevin Dellavi continued. "The Others are coming," he said, repeating what everybody knew. "Before their destruction, the Phoenix Acolytes at the outposts reported three centuries of Other ships-of-the-line, recently come from the fall of Kahr Kasine. Plus assorted support and escort crafts, and a full century of fast attack cruisers.

"We have, maybe, enough in-system craft and drone fighters to survive the cruisers - the first wave of attack. We cannot survive three centuries of Other main-line craft.

"Thus it is my opinion that we must make use of the yaherin systems of the City. We must vacate the system before the Others arrive."

For a moment, nobody spoke. This was good sense, after all; the Cities had their yaherin systems for precisely this reason. The Others were too inimical to human life to risk dwelling somewhere one could not run from.

"Can't we at least wait for the mining ships to make it in first?"

Antevin turned to regard the speaker; Kathris Ruillan, ascendant Raven Lady. The Dragon Lord supressed contempt. The Ravens might study the past, and were expected to learn from it; but this one was young yet, despite her status. Too many of the great Totem Lords were dead.

"The mining ships have gone the way of the outposts," Phoenix Lord Anh Kirkasi replied. "Or at least the Lucky Flower Alignment has - I felt the death of the Neophyte there before we lost the outposts. It is likely that the rest, without Phoenixes, suffered the same fate."

Antevin nodded to his fellow Lord. "The minds of the Phoenix see far, as always. Even if some of the mining ships had survived, it would take hours for a light-speed message to reach them, and even longer for them to make it back. Meanwhile, the outposts are only an AU out - the Other cruisers will be here in only a few hours, and the centuries of their main fleet a few hours after that.

"Simply put, we do not have enough time, Raven Lady. We ran out of time when the Others entered the system."

The Dragon Lord turned back to the Conclave as a whole. "I put it to your decision, then - do we make use of the yaherin systems?"

The Conclave voted, the tally appearing on the holoprojector in the middle of the table; sixty for, four abstensions, and one against. Antevin wondered who that against had been, but who could know? The votes of the Conclave had always been by secret ballot.

"So we take flight." One of the Prefects - Velmain Andaimo, according to the sign at his place - turned to Antevin. "Have you selected a destination system, Dragon Lord?"

"I have." Antevin waved his hand over the holoprojector controls in front of his seat, and the Milky Way Galaxy appeared in all it's splendour. He scaled it in rapidly, until only a few hundred stars remained floating above the table, their names appended, colour-coded. Red was for the Others, green for the Hvekht confederacy. The blue of the Kasinat League was a few single stars, enveloped by Other red.

"I thought perhaps this one." The stars at the top of the map disappeared as it rose upwards, revealing others lower down; one, blinking on and off, was Antevin's target. He zoomed in on the little yellow star, some three hundred light-years down from the League systems, until the blinking dot was replaced with a system diagram.

"The deep stars were last surveyed some two thousand years ago, during the height of the Autessanat Empire before the Others came. This one possessed human life, entirely pre-industrial, on the third planet - the Autessanat survey team marked it as a candidate for the Ultimate Origin point.

"In the language of the most advanced of the cultures of that species, the star is known as Sol, and the planets are Mercury, Venus, Terra - upon which the sentient race resided - Mars, Jupiter - the first of the gas giants - Saturn - another gas giant - and Uranus. There are also another two, which were unknown to that primitive culture, further out.

"It is my opinion that the City could reside comfortably within the orbit of the gas giant Jupiter, and mine the asteroids found at that world's trojan points, or in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. We need not bother the natives in the slightest."

Sorend Mahaust, the reigning Raven Lord, stood, clearing his throat slightly before speaking. In his black robes he looked the very archetype of a Raven, Antevin thought. "Honoured Dragon Lord," he began, "While I must stress it is highly unlikely - I have yet to find any instances of it - it may be possible for a human society to advance to a spacefaring civilisation in two thousand years. There is mention of an Ultimate Origin candidate world doing it in three, in the records of the Autessanat, and a Hvekht world once managed it in only five hundred standard years.

"Thus I would move that an exploratory craft be sent - with less mass than the City, if it leaves the system at the same time as us, it will arrive some weeks earlier, and be able to report to us when the City enters normal space."

"Honoured Raven Lord," Antevin replied, "While that is an admirable suggestion, we have no avaliable survey craft. We have barely any craft, barring in-system Civic defence vessels."

"We have the Midnight Firefly, surely? I am sure I'd heard it had been repaired by now."

Antevin shook his head. "I am afraid not, Raven Lord - the battleship was more severely damaged than we had thought. Else it would have been sent to Kahr Kasine, and we would not have it in any case." And a battleship was no survey vessel, in any case.

"Oh. Then we must go in blind, and hope for the best - it is a marginal chance, in any case."

"Then does anyone else have any points to raise? No? In that case ... you know your duties better than I, Conclave members. We must carry them out."

Three cities remained, where once there had been thirty. In the half-hour before the activation of the yaherin systems, Anh Kirkasi stretched out his mind, and felt the minds of distant Phoenixes answer.

In Herakhet, reigning Lord Kodane Ihikend was worried; that city was closest to Kaireigh, and would likely be the next target of the Other fleets. On the other side of League space, acendant Lady Elizet Sokintu felt guilty relief; Elkaisse had a few weeks of grace, now, before the enemy descended upon it.

News from the scattered remnants of the fleets was depressingly slim. The fleet cruiser Ironhammer was stranded in the outer Orrizh system by irreparable damage to it's yaherin systems. Elsewhere in the Orrizh system, the battlecruiser Blood Oracle was fighting off Other interceptors. Aboard the Starfall, somewhere in interstellar space, Phoenix Adept Udana Vanick gibbered in insanity, touched by the nightmarish Other Lords.

The rest were destroyed, or hidden in the silence outside the universe. Not good.

Returning to the Rsozha system, Kaireigh, and his body, Anh opened his eyes and climbed uncertainly to his feet. For a moment the blood roared in his ears, and the room swum around him; then the moment passed. Anh Kirkasi, greatest living Phoenix Lord, was a poor excuse for the masters of old.

"What news?" Antevin Dellavi asked. "How many ships do I have, Kirkasi?"

Naturally the Dragon Lord would be concerned for his fleets.

"Few," Anh replied, and watched Dellavi sink into despair. "Too few to fight the Other - I touched one, maybe two, capable of yaherin transition. There may be more currently in transit."

"Not enough," Antevin said through his hands. "Too many were lost at Khar Kasine. Too many."

"How easily could they find us in Sol?" Sorend Mahaust asked, shifting nervously on the couch. "It is over three hundred lightyears away."

"Depends how hard they search," Antevin replied. "And with the Others, who knows? Once they've left Herakhet and Elkaisse in the same state as Khar Kasine, they may come after us. Or they may step up their campaigns against the Hvekht. We won't know until they find us."

"So we can hope," Mahaust mantained. "We might have centuries undisturbed!"

"I'll place no bets upon it," Antevin said gloomily.

"We will do our best," Anh declared, "As we have always done. It is all that remains to do. The yaherin systems are ready, Dragon Lord; do your best."

Antevin nodded, and stood himself. A wave of his hand brought holographic displays flashing to life before him, glyphs flickering and expanding into new subsets as the Dragon Lord ran through the yaherin transition protocols.

"It is done," he said. "Kirkasi, warn your Brotherhood."

The Phoenix Lord nodded, but there was no need; already he felt at the borders of his conciousness the nihilistic chaos of the yaherin, and knew that every other Phoenix in Kaireigh felt it also.

"Dark Lady," he gasped, "We pass now Your gate between dying and the night. We cross Your bounds out of dying to the light. We circumvent Your proper order; have mercy upon us!"

By the third week the wards were full. Regardless of the opinions of the Phoenix Brotherhood's god, the telepaths found themselves stricken by the constant murmur of the yaherin systems. Most had to be sedated. A few went mad. In some cases, ordainary citizens - those who'd shown as negative on the Brotherhood's tests, or somehow evaded them - came in complaining of "voices", and joined the ranks of the sleepers.

"I had thought," Anh said, "I had thought he would be stronger." the Phoenix Lord, still holding out against the pressure, stood by the bed of Duan Arresal. The ascendant Lord had succumbed earlier in the day, one of the few, besides Anh himself, who had managed to last this long.

"We are all weaker than we were," Antevin replied. "Before the war..."

"Before the war, the Autessanat bestrode the Galaxy as colossi," Anh told him, "And before this latest phase of the war, the Kasinat League was doing well enough ... but now? Khar Kasine has fallen! The League is dead."

"But we ourselves are not," Sorend said quietly. "Not yet." The Raven Lord had been following Antevin around for the last fortnight - what little information the archives contained on Sol had been rapidly exhausted, and in the City's current atmosphere further study was impossible.

Antevin nodded. "Not yet. Mahaust, I've been meaning to ask you - this inhabited world, this Terra. Is there anywhere on it we can go, if we need biomass?"

Sorend shrugged. "Only two of the six continents have any level of civilisation, and none of them have developed industrial techniques. There are two perfectly habitable continents with even more minimal levels of civilisation, a desert continent with only a few hundred thousand hunter-gatherers, and a completely uninhabited polar continent. Although, as I said at the Conclave before the transition, that was two thousand years ago. It could well have changed."

OOC: I'm afraid this didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped ... if anyone cares, the entering-into-Sol post will likely be a few more days, and then you can all start posting. If you want to.

OOC: I'm not quite sure what's going on but otherwise I'd join

Sixteen hundred years ago, Eidolon had been the AI of a battleship of the Autessanat Empire. It had seen the fall of the Empire to the first Other invasion, and the rise of Khar Kasine from an asteroid outpost to the model city-state and capital of the Kasinat League. Then it had been installed in the newly constructed Kaireigh, to oversee the city in it's growth.

That had been a thousand years ago, and now Eidolon monitored the stresses on it's hull, the people within, and the yaherin systems which shunted it between the parallel universes.

The time was approaching when the City would cross back into the "real" universe - approaching very fast, according to Eidolon's calculations of the temporal dilation caused by the City's mass. Relative to time in the world without, time was now passing within Kaireigh many hundreds of times faster than the norm. Not that it's citizens noticed - after all, they too were progressing at the same rate - but Eidolon did, tracking relative time and space so that it would know when the City should exit the world without.

Their target was the fifth world of a yellow dwarf star three hundred lightyears from the Rsozha system. The data upon which Eidolon had plotted the city's course was over two thousand years old, but gas giants did not move from their orbits.

The time came, and Eidolon sent out it's holographic avatars to alert the people.

"Yaherin transition approaches," it told Valentine Feranti, reigning Basilisk Lord, in the offices of that dignitary.

"Yaherin transition approaches," it told the students of Ankau introductory school.

"Yaherin transition approaches," it told the nurses tending the sleeping Phoenixes. Soon they would be required to wake their charges.

"Yaherin transition approaches," it told Kathris Ruillan, ascendant Raven Lady, as she prepared for bed.

Where there were no holographic projectors, it spoke through public loudspeakers, or network consoles, or advertising billboards. To the gestalts it spoke directly, via wetware interfaces. To the Phoenixes enshrined in the eternity matrices (who did not require the notification, being as digital in nature as Eidolon itself, but courtesy never hurt), it spoke in their virtual discussions.

To Antevin Dellavi, Eidolon's hologram flickered into being in the command center of the city. The Dragon Lord, as Master of the Fleets, owned the honour of giving the command to begin the yaherin transition, so long as he gave it on time.

"Star Lord," it said (using the old title of those who had, in the days of the Empire, occupied Dellavi's position), "Yaherin transition should begin in two minutes for proper positioning of the City."

"Thank you, Shipmind," Dellavi replied (and Eidolon was well pleased at the Lord's use of it's old title) "Please begin the countdown. All hands, prepare for yaherin transition."

Just like old times. "Yaherin transition will begin in one minute, forty-five seconds relative," Eidolon informed the command center staff. "Yaherin transition will begin in one minute, forty seconds relative. Yaherin transition will begin in one minute, thirty-five seconds relative..."

Perception flickered and twisted as the transition began, shoving the City across the barrier between universes. In the Sol system, Kaireigh appeared suddenly, two AUs distant from Jupiter. There was always a certain degree of error in yaherin transition, which was what had allowed the League to survive - with the warning given by a City's outposts, it could be gone by the time an Other fleet reached combat range.

"Yaherin transition complete," Eidolon told Dellavi, the command center, and the City's inhabitants.

Out this far, the solar wind was a weak thing, but the City's magdrives - usually utilised to hold it aloft in a planetary magnetic field - stole velocity from the charged particles streaming out from the sun, pushing - slowly, to be sure - against it, beginning the gradual process of tacking towards Jupiter.

Eidolon became aware of the problem many fractions of a second earlier than the human sensor personell, and in those fractions of a second rapidly came to the only logical conclusion. So when the sensors officer said, "Lord Dellavi, we appear to be intercepting artificial communications!" Eidolon said "This system is heavily inhabited by a spacefaring civilisation."

Antevin stared blankly for a second, shook himself, and said; "Get me Mahaust."

A few minutes later the Raven Lord came on the line; it was late, and he had been sleeping.

"Yes?"

"It's looking like you were right, Mahaust. We've got quite a problem on our hands." Rapidly, Antevin explained what they were picking up - apparent messages from every planet, major and minor, in the system.

"Well, this is impressive. Most impressive. Indeed, I believe this must be the fastest ascencion of a human population I've heard of. I'll be right up."

Meanwhile, Eidolon had filtered the communications, and found none in the known tongue of the human population contacted by the Autessanat surveyors. There was nothing of true import - nothing directed specifically at the City, simply the things one wouldn't put on a radio tightbeam. Distress calls, advertisements, entertainment broadcasts in unintelligible languages. They must have been streaming out for centuries - maybe a few more years, and they would have been heard as fuzzy static in the Rsozha system, over three hundred lightyears distant.

The Raven Lord arrived in the command center trailing a gaggle of Raven Adepts, Acolytes, and Neophytes, all eager to begin examining this remarkable civilisation or civilisations. Antevin tolerated them with remarkable patience.

Finally, a young Dragon Acolyte raised the question; "Lord Dellavi, what do we do?"

"Do?" Antevin appeared lost in thought, or lost for thought. "We do nothing, as yet. Continue in towards Jupiter, and we shall see what occurs."

OOC: Obviously the City is now in the Sol system, and you can probably spot it if you happen to have telescopes or whatever pointed the right way.

Jupiter was, by now, after hundreds of years of... Human development, quite a busy place.

There was the small military outpost of The Silver Turtle in Leda. Imperial Holdings on Io, rivaling with their Menelmacari and NDA- held counterparts, as well as with the insanity- driven hordes of Burning Mountain. Cetaganda on Callisto. Kaenei and Sketch on Europa. Konania on Ganymede. Der Angst wherever it could sneak in. It was, indeed, a rather complex region, and although the sheer population couldn't rival Saturn's, the far more diverse political structure made it one of Sol's hot spots.

Of course, one could argue that the entirety of Sol, the most densely populated system in the known universe, was a hot spot, and Jupiter just slightly 'hotter' than the rest.

And of course, being the 'hot spot' it was, it was rather obvious that ludicrous overmilitarization and constant fear for one's safety tended to result in significant reconnaissance/ surveillance capacities of the local inhabitants, regardless of the powerblocks they represented.

And even though DA did (still) suffer from the cataclysm that had shaken its entire society, turning everything it had been into nothing, there was more than enough remaining, and with order regrowing, ending the path of destruction chaos had created, some basic possibilities were there, again.

Ivanova was one of the (many) nominal heads of the Semi- Sovereign Entity of Jovian Angst, and, as usual, busy with her work.

Maintenance for ships, cleaning up the corpses without losing valuable biomass, basic business with Konania & Kaenei, Jovian League organisation, the coffee being to hot...

Her job had a tendency of being very annoying.

Thus, she didn't really pay attention as some data regarding the entry of significant mass into sol, near Jupiter. Such things were, after all, quite common.

All she did was sending Suicidental Attractions to check up on it.

It could be some sort of... I dunno, Imperial Rawring, or whatever. I'm still a bit worked up over the whole Largent thing, so... Do me a favour and do my work, there, 'k?

'k.

And Suicidental Attractions, a Sunspot class cruiser in a reasonably disastrous state of repair (But still flying, so it wasn't all that bad) accelerated. It would take a while to bring him to his destination, though. Almost 300 mio kilometers, 10m/s^2 acceleration... well, over time, he would arrive.

For now, sending a message wasn't all that important, and thus, not done. One got used to the funny ideas the local competition had, and a 'First Contact' situation wasn't really expected.

It was somewhat common, this scenario. The wrong ship, at the wrong time, at the wrong place.

Well, Suicidental Attractions would see what he could do. He was certainly easy enough to notice as he sped through Jupiter's magnetosphere, eventually leaving it, its senses now dulled by the far weaker heliosphere.

God, I hate interplanetary travel...

[taggedy]

By the third day in Sol, the Raven Brotherhood was surviving on caffiene pills and direct stimulation of the central nervous system. Sorting, classifying, and cataloguing the random messages passing the City was already a work for decades, and the miscellany didn't stop coming in, routed from the communications arrays up at the peak of the dome.

"Raven Lord, the Dragon Lord requests your presence."

"Wha?" Sorend Mahaust turned away from a flickering holographic display of some talking head and stared blearily at the Raven Neophyte. "Alduria, I'm trying to - Dellavi? Oh. Tell him I'll be up shortly. Why couldn't he have messaged me, I wonder?" The answer suggested itself; Antevin Dellavi had always been a very formal man, more Autessanat than the Imperator.

Shrugging his robes about him, Sorend motioned the Neophyte to follow, and left the Brotherhood's library.

He got odd looks on the maglev, the citizenry having difficulty identifying the shuffling, bleary-eyed Raven. Most of them were getting on with their lives as best they could, as they had done throughout the yaherin transition, despite the Sol system blaring from holo broadcasts and on public billboards.

Sorend was gratified, however, to see that Dellavi looked to be in a similar state, the Lord's normally meticulously clean-shaven cheeks now sporting three days of stubble. He was staring intensely at something displayed in flickering glyphs and charts. Sorend couldn't read the trajectories and displays - the language was full of Dragon's jargon, incomprehensible to the Raven Lord.

"Ah, it's you," Dellavi said. "Raven Lord, I have a ship accelerating at one point two standard gravities. Eidolon plots it should intersect our own trajectory in a few days at it's current rate - can you talk to it?"

"Talk to it? Unless it speaks Latin, no. What has it been saying?"

"Nothing! That's my problem, Mahaust - it says nothing, and it seems very much to be aiming for the City. Talk at it, at least. Something!"

"What do you want me to say?" Already, Sorend was calling up his own holographic databases, tracing his way through categories and subcategories to find the translation program.

"All right - I'll speak, and you translate."

"Eidolon could have done that."

"Not without intruding into your private data, Raven Lord," the AI replied, appearing behind Dellavi's chair. "That would be a most severe crime."

"I suppose it is, at that. All right, here we are..."



Unidentified vessel, this is the City Kaireigh of the Kasinat League. We believe you to be intending to intercept the City; do you wish to communicate?



OOC: Unfortunately, I don't know enough Latin, so you can assume that text in Courier New is Latin.

It had been a while since Suicidental Attractions had started his... Journey? Something like that. The plasma leaking starboard worried him a little, it was somewhat annoying... But nothing immediately threatening, so he left it as it was.

Observing the stars, the local traffic, and a few other things (spacedydust being the most thrilling of them), he listened to the flood of messages speeding back and forth through sol. Chuckling a bit at some ludicrous ICEL propaganda before checking on the recent events on earth (Bah. They still didn't resolve the conflict...), he eventually catched the one message that was actually meant for him.

Latin? Now, that's odd... Sure, he had learned it for... Three years, yet... Oh well. His rudimentary memories should work.

On the other hand, just using the extensive language files he had outsourced into the ship's vast 'memory' would probably work better. Doing it was a matter of moments.

Lesse... Odd dialect. As if they are actual romans. City Kaireigh of the Kasinat League... Never heard the name. Oh well.

He thought about it, a little. It really didn't seem to be one of the locals. Which did, of course, mean that his presence was somewhat superfluous. Suicidental Attractions was, after all, a military vessel, not a diplomatic explorer. Thus, a somewhat wrong first impression was quite, quite possible.

On the other hand, being Angstian, Suicidental Attractions was somewhat immune to such thoughts. Impressions were a secondary issue.

Besides, the object, this 'City Kaireigh' seemed to be reasonably interesting. It was vast, that much he could see (Or rather, sense). Well, 'vast' was actually the wrong term, it was more along the lines of 'monstrous'.

However, he seemed to be the only one interested, despite the object most likely highlighting every single sensor in the local area.

Oh well. Need to answer. Stupid lightspeed lag, real time could be fun...

The message was, of course, rather informal. Just like just about everything Angstian was.

From: Suicidental Tendencies, Semi- Sovereign Entity of Jovian Angst
To: The City Kaireigh of the Kasinat League.
Subject: Yes, I do wish to communicate, now that you mention it.

"You are correct, I'm indeed intending to 'intercept' the City, or rather, to get closer, in order to collect more information about you, as ordered by my superiors. You see, an entity like yours is most definitely intriguing (And, I might add, odd), and thus attracts attention... And indeed, I'm intrigued, as my, ah... Assumptions about who you are, or what you want, seem to be outdated, now. I'm sure a friendly exchange of information (As you don't really seem to be up to date regarding, well, this system, I'm assuming that you're quite interested in this.) can be arranged.

Sincerely,

~ Suicidental Attractions

A moment after sending the message (Composed in his somewhat odd, but understandable latin. Uploading language files is nice, but simply isn't as good as actually learning the language), Suicidental Attractions decided that he should probably inform Ivanova about the more recent developments and the bits of information he had collected so far.

Cunningly leaving out the message he had sent to the City (For which he would have been bitchslapped by just about every diplomat available at Jupiter), the basic update was sent. Annoyingly, QE comms were down, but he decided to see this as his advantage. More time to do, well, whatever he wanted, in his beloved informal ways.

'..and your cup of tea Admiral.' the aide placed the blue-striped china cup and saucer onto the heavy oaken desk.
'Thank you Lana.' replied Admiral Merriton, with a polite nod.
'Oh, and we have some reports on Sol for you to view, seeing as we are the furthest group out, it really does apply to us.' she passed him a PDA.
Taking the slab of plastic Merriton studied it, he frowned.
'And who picked this up?' he asked.
'Err, The outpost of Mars, they've been boosting scanner capacity, and sneaking in on a few transmitions here and there.'
'Mars can pick up stuff on Jupiter now? Incredible...' he clicked his tounge and shook his head, then lifted the tea to his mouth and sipped, then grimaced.
'You forgot the suger Lana.'
'Sorry Admiral, but this is what is so odd about the report.'

She clicked a button on his desk, and the electricity crackled before the electro-holographic system warmed up, she then donned a heavy looking glove.
So waved her hand and pressed the wall of electricity. Text, and a picture of the vessel appeared.
'What in Sol?' the Admiral leaned forward to get a better look.
'It's Latin, it reads "Unidentified vessel, this is the City Kaireigh of the Kasinat League. We believe you to be intending to intercept the City; do you wish to communicate?"'
'I'm aware Lana, I studied Latin at Midway.' Merriton waved his hand dismissivley.'But why Latin, and what is it? Who is it for?'
'The message was sent to a Der Angstian vessel,Suicidle attraction, and we've identified it as a city, of rather...unusual design, it also has quite advanced technology, I think we should snoop it out for ourselves.' she turned to the Admiral and smiled.
'Who can we take then?' Merriton sighed and sank into his chair, arguing with women was bloody pointless.
'I think the battleships Firefly, and Red sun, and the Frigates Juno, and Dexius can be spared.
The Admiral smiled. 'Oh, so i'll be seeing a bit more of Sol, thank God for that, being just the other side of the Asteroid belt is becoming trés ennuyx.'
The four ships peeled away from the fleet and organized themselves into a line, a white flag appeaerd on the deck, and then, with a burst of electricity, they headed for this new oddity that had appeared in Sol.

In the command center, Sorend waited impatiently for the vessel to reply. Dellavi had explained that it would take sixteen minutes for the radio message to get from the City to the other craft, and sixteen minutes back, so that the soonest a reply could reach them was a little over thirty-two minutes; but still, the Raven Lord was impatient. The first contact with a ship of the Solar system! The things they could learn!

"Here you go, Mahaust," Dellavi said, smiling, "Our friend replies. And in your Latin, too. Most odd."

Mahaust ran it through the translation program, and was pleasantly suprised at what came out. "An exchange of information? Oh my."



Suicidental Attractions, we would indeed be interested in an exchange of information, as we are, as you correctly surmised, not "up to date" regarding the Sol system; it was last surveyed two thousand standard years ago.

If you would wish to come aboard after matching velocities, we would be pleased to host you.



OOC: The year referred to here is actually four days shorter than the Earth year, so it's actually 1,978 years ago.

Midlonia, I'm really sorry, but I failed to be exactly specific; unless I state otherwise, radio messages would be sent via tight-beam, so they'd only really be interceptable if you had something on the direct line formed by linking up Suicidental Attractions and Kaireigh ... it's not that I want to exclude you or anything, but it's more energy-efficient that way, and the transmission quality is better.

As for picking it up, well, it is eighty kilometers across, and the magdrive probably is very easy to spot if you're looking at magnetic fields, but at best it's 3.6 AU from Mars, and at worst 5.9 AU away, so you'd be seeing things between 29 and 47 minutes after they happened...

Suicidental Attractions muttered a little. Sure, he wasn't leaking plasma, anymore (Internal Repair Drones be blessed. To bad three of them had been lost...), and the only stream of ions leaving him was the stream from his drive, but still... Well, apparently, Ivanova cared a little more, now.

Communications over such distances tended to be slow. Thus, the dialogue between Suicidental Attractions and Ivanova took its time.

We will send a diplomat.

Why? I'm present. Well, sorta. I can, uh... Pick them up.

PICK THEM U- Oh, forget this... Ok, do it. It's not like we have many people to spare, anyway.

See?

But BE POLITE. Please.

Oh, of course I will be polite. It's not like all my guns are working, anyway.

Ivanova sighed, organising some basic things... Well, she would see what information could be gained. And once she had it, she could probably even work out... Further details.

Well, at least the Repair/ Maintenance thing was continuing. Surprisingly successful. By now, she did actually have two really working ships available.

Better than nothing. And it could probably impress the City. A little. Perhaps. Well, with a bit of luck...

Meanwhile, Suicidental Attractions decided to reply. Soon enough, he would arrive, and he was fairly satisfied with the overall flow of the 'event'. Which was understandable, this was far safer than shooting insane ex- comrades.

From: Suicidental Attractions, Semi- Sovereign Entity of Jovian Angst
To: The City Kaireigh of the Kasinat League.
Subject: Continuing Communications.

"Quite an intriguing idea, and yes, I'm quite interested in coming aboard, especially since your ship, or rather, city, is quite impressive, and I would certainly enjoy learning more about it. Just like you're interested in learning about... Well, the local environment. Two thousand years... Well, that explains the latin. Rest assured, there have been quite a few interesting developments, over the course of time. But I'm sure we can exchange details about such things... In depth, once I arrived. Including some more... Modern languages, of course."

Sincerely,

~ Suicidental Attractions

Once sent, the message sped ahead of its comparatively slow origin, the moderately (300m/ diameter) sized, ellipsoid... Disk floating about, carefully correcting its course. It wouldn't be long until Suicidental Attractions would arrive. And after having witnessed the death of billions, he would certainly enjoy a more... Friendly environment.

ooc: Bah, no time. Well, has to be enough, for now. Bleah.

ooc: bah, ok I'll stop cluttering up yer thread then, just my outpost on Mars looks into advanced research etc, so it'd just be some sort of classified, expermiental communications/observation system they're keeping tight lipped about...

OOC: While I hate to do an all-OOC post, my brain is currently shrivelled to the size of a small pea, so no IC tonight.

Midlonia; feel free to spot the thing, I was just objecting to the listening-in-on-messages bit. A mass that big should be worth investigating, no?

Der Angst; reply hopefully coming tomorrow. As to the physical appearance of the City ... first get a disk eighty kilometers across and one kilometer thick. On one side of the disk, put a dome of equal diameter, ten kilometers high. Terraform the inside. Stick a short cone on top of the disk to house the communications systems. On the other side of the disk, put a great big spike thirty kilometers long for the magdrive and other oversized greebly bits. Chuck industrial facilities all over the underside of the disk. And that's the City, pretty much.

"I will admit it has me worried, Valentine, but what can we do?"

The Mantis Lady frowned, looking out over the rolling terrain of the City's suburban prefectures.

"That is, of course, our problem," Valentine Feranti replied. "We can do nothing, so long as Dellavi's little triad exists. He and Mahaust and Kirkasi have a great deal of power in the Conclave - he is Dragon Lord, after all, and Dragons are needed for the war.

"I had thought he would be mindful of his duties. They rise too fast, Haitene - Dellavi has been a reigning Lord for five years only! We should not be welcoming strangers into our home, not yet at any rate!"

Haitene Xuarqui shrugged. It was clear that the main purpose of this meeting was to allow the Basilisk Lord to vent his anger; Feranti was old, and as bitter as the Basilisk Brotherhood's goddess.

"It's just one ship, Valentine! The Dragons have enough drones and corvettes - and a battleship, at a pinch! - to stop it easily, should they need to. Probably Mahaust is behind this - you know how Ravens are with knowledge. There'll be no stopping him."

Valentine sighed, and for a moment he looked all two hundred of his years. "I suppose you're right. We'll just have to try to limit this."



We await your arrival, then, Suicidental Attractions. Are there any biological requirements we should be aware of? We would not wish your stay in Kaireigh to be anything less than perfect.



OOC: Yay for utterly unconnected bit and very short relevant bit! I had a lot of trouble figuring out how to write this, so this will have to do.

ooc: Hey, the utterly unconnected bits are the ones that make it interesting :P Oh, and moving forward, a little. I'm assuming that since you mentioned teeps in the city, there wont be many problems regarding my own.

From: Suicidental Attractions, Semi- Sovereign Entity of Jovian Angst
To: The City Kaireigh of the Kasinat League.
Subject: Continuing Communications.

Oh, I'm honoured, and I'm sure it will be a truly pleasant visit.

As for the... Biological requirements... A basic file with limits regarding various substances, their effects, possibilities for medical assistance etc. is attached, although I doubt that this is actually necessary, given the amount of... Ah, Alterations I'm working with.

Ah, one thing, are there any special rules, basic etiquette etc. regarding telepathiy in your society? Since I'm a telepath, this might be reasonably important, and not everyone reacts well to them. Especially since according to my sensors, you seem to generate reasonably large electromagnetic field, which ought to increase its sheer capacity."

Sincerely,

~ Suicidental Attractions

It didn't take all that long to reach the City, and, slowly matching velocities, the distance was shrinking. Suicidental Attractions, or outside his extended body, that is, his ship, Akira Watase, disconnected, quickly, a few dozen cables falling off of him as he left the core, acceleration identical to that of the city.

He could be reasonably satisfied with his ship, it worked quite well, surprisingly well, and he was certain that he could leave it on its own, for a few days. A mehtal stroke.

I will be back soon, meeting a couple interesting people... Well, you have the data, anyway.

Yes.

He could feel the ship, its thoughts... It wasn't actually sentient, yet... Well, it was odd, hence why he had actual feelings for it, cared for it... He stepped into the shuttle that would bring him to the city, a disk, twenty meters in diameter, not exactly comfortable... But he wouldn't be inside it for long, anyway.

Smiling, he entered, his rather short body managing to find a reasonably enjoyable position to stay in, and eventually leaving the next few steps to the algorythms controlling the shuttle as well as Suicidental Attractions itself, now that their minds weren't one anymore.

Leaving a trail of ions behind, he eventually left Suicidental Attractions, heading towards his destination. He cold appreciate the design, it being far more logical, reasonable and symmetric than what he usually saw from foreigners, although he was of course aware that this was the result of the overall superstructure sort of hid the smaller, more chaotic bits.

Now, all that remained was to enter.

Back at Jupiter, Ivanova was sitting in her bed, her hands folded together. She was praying.

Please, don't let him screw this up... Please, please.. Oh, I know he will screw it up...

She wasn't exactly faithful.

"Note he uses the first person," Dellavi said, once Mahaust's translation program had run through the latest message. "Is that an error in the translator, Mahaust?"

"I don't think so," Sorend replied, "Latin is a very structured language. Maybe there's only one person aboard the ship?"

"Could be ... you could probably do it with Shiplink and an AI and possibly a few Phoenixes in Eternity Matrices, but it would be expensive and hard to mantain, which is why we don't. And he is a cyborg, if I read this right. Different cultures, I suppose ... Kirkasi, this one's yours, I think."



Thank you for the biological information, Suicidental Attractions.

As regards telepaths in our society, the City is currently home to some three thousand-odd telepaths, most of whom are members of the Phoenix Brotherhood. As mundanes are entirely unaffected by us, etiquette concerns itself primarily with other telepaths, in which case it is considered polite to keep one's "voice" down, and highly rude to pry unless invited.

However, as electromagnetic fields have no effect upon our powers (although yaherin technology does have a pronounced negative effect), I suspect you must utilise some other form of the ability?

~ Anh Kirkasi, reigning Phoenix Lord



Up close, one could see that the central disk of the City was studded with airlocks, gantries, and other protrusions, making it not so smooth as it appeared from a distance. One now began to chatter at the little foreign shuttle over the radio in some unknown language; after a while it switched to Latin.



Please enter via Airlock #3,225, and wait for repressurisation. Please enter via Airlock #3,225 ...



The airlock parted before the shuttle, and closed behind it. Please wait for repressurisation, the radio said. Repressurisation complete. You may now safely exit your vehicle.

The docking bay was a fairly plain and uninteresting place - a simple square room with the airlock occupying the exterior wall and a matching door filling the one opposite - but after a few minutes a smaller door to one side slid open, and a young woman in black robes appeared.

"Hello!" she told Akira cheerily, "Welcome to the City! I'm Ayashi Vailachi, I'm just a Raven Neophyte but I got sent to meet you because I speak Latin."

OOC: There oughtn't to be ... Kaireigh has a lot of weird minorities.

ooc: Blah, this took a while <.< Oh well, now it's done.

ic:

Akira wasn't all that impressive a man, being rather small... Short, black hair and a somewhat pale skin, combined with glasses (Not necessary, but a fashion trend). There were a few ports visible on his forehead and neck, obviously to connect to various kinds of machines, since interferences could make wireless operations difficult, to say the least.

The rest of his body was pretty much... Flesh. Well, mostly, anyway. Granted, with lots of genetic enhancements, and filled with a few drugs to keep him awake and kicking, but that was about it. His clothing... Well. Slightly outworn, black & gray things... Not exactly the cheerful kind of clothing, but it worked out.

Well, at least when alone on board of a medium cruiser.

The sensation of entering the electromagnetic field aroudn the city was seemingly... Odd, comparable to Jupiter, except that it was a few orders of magnitude stronger.

Leaving the shuttle without being overly concerned, the atmospheric conditions etc. being quite comfortable for him, he looked around, still feeling a faint touch from Suicidental Attractions, following him, mentally. He chuckled softly, admiring the simple, practical designs he could see.

Looking at the guide, he nodded, smiling back, slightly amused by Ayashi's cheerful attitude, something he didn't see often, at 'home'. Bowing slightly, he answered.

"Suicidental Tendencies, or, right now, Watase Akira, I'm honoured." Dear god, I hope my latin works... "Raven Neophyte? Oh well, I guess I will have to learn a lot about your culture. Ah... Well, I'm in your hands, where are we going next? Considering just how impressive your ship is, I'm sure it will be intriguing, no matter where you lead me."

Incidentally, he wasn't all that surprised that this people were, well, human. It was kinda usual to find 'Lost Civilizations' of humans outside sol (Not for the FTL- incapable Angstians, of course, but news from more developed societies tended to get around), as a result of the complex reality they lived in, and as such, one got used to this kind of surprise.

Looking at Ayashi, Akira smiled some more, finishing. "Of course, the ship isn't the only impressive object your kind has available, that much I noticed..."

"The Totem Lords want to meet you," Ayashi replied. "Lord Mahaust in particular is very interested in what you know!"

At Akira's blank look, she explained; "The Totem Lords are the highest level of our government. There's the Dragon Lord, Antevin Dellavi, the Phoenix Lord, Anh Kirkasi, the Mantis Lady, Haitene Xuarqui, and the Basilisk Lord, Valentine Feranti. Sorend Mahaust is the reigning Raven Lord - I suppose you could call him the Minister of Science."

Akira's second comment flew past Ayashi's uncomprehending ears. I don't get it. What has he seen, apart from the City...? The implants adorning his head were somewhat unnerving; she'd seen holos of the Hvekht, who augmented themselves far more thoroughly than that, but the Hvekht were alien already.

"Well," she replied, trying to cover her incomprehension, "It's this way."

The small door - which was of course another airlock - led onto a long corridor, and though another door into the dome of the City. Here on the edge of the dome, one could almost see the hidden struts, a kilometer apart, holding together the geodesic done.

Looking the other way, the floor of the dome was revealed to be slightly concave, the center a kilometer deeper than the edge. Tree-lined boulevards, dotted here and there with taller multi-story complexes, covered much of the dome; elsewhere there were gentle hills and fields. The environment was preserved by putting much of the housing underneath the surface - many of those hills were in fact turf-covered buildings - and the industrial sectors were on the other side of the central disk entirely.

Closer to hand, what could only be a car was parked just outside the door. It was shaped almost like a beetle, wheels nearly hidden underneath the carapace. "Open!" Ayashi told it, and the glassy "wings" lifted up. The Raven Neophyte slipped into the left-hand seat, and indicated that Akira should get into the right-hand side.

"Close!" she said, and the doors came back down. What had been opaque from the outside was transparent from the inside, allowing a good view of the surrounding area. Ayashi didn't seem to have any intention of actually driving it, though; "To the Great Hall!" she told it, and the car buzzed off on it's electric motor.

"It'll take a little while to go all the way to the Great Hall, where the Totem Lords are, Ayashi said, switching back to Latin, "It's in the center of the dome, you see."

As the car ran along the suburban streets (busy at this time of the artificial "day"), it stood out to some extent. There were regular buses, and a great many bicycles, rickshaws and the like, but actual cars were rare, and most of them bore the pattern of circles that denoted the City government (OOC: Which you can see on the flag, by the way!).

"So..." Ayashi said, trying to cover the sudden awkward silence, "Where's the rest of your crew? On your ship? I suppose they expected only one person, or they would have sent a bus ... are you the only crew?"

... If you don't mind me asking, that is," she finished.

Looks fine to me! Re: the magdrive's field, I suppose it probably would be stronger than Jupiter's, at least up close - it has to spread quite a way to get enough push off the solar wind (in fact, it probably has to spread larger than the solar system, given the mass of the city, but we can quietly hide that little fact under the rug...).

And, as is probably obvious, text in Comic Sans MS is the local language.

ooc: Well, Compared to, say, one of those nifty sticky note magnets, Jupiters magnetic field is extremely weak, it's just far, far larger :P Hence, why I'm assuming just about everything artificial (with the exception of my teeps) to be stronger.

Akira nodded. "I see. Yes... Well, a complex system, or so it sounds, but I guess I will understand it soon enough." Sure, he found the... Religious symbolism? a little bit odd, but then, he was aware of certain developments in his own society (Especially now, after the cataclysm), and thus, wasn't entirely grossed out, as previous generations would have been. Things did, after all, change.

Chuckling a little, seemingly noting the young woman's... Confusion, he followed her. "In any case, I'm most definitely honoured by the Totem Lord's interest."

Following Ayashi, he was seemingly impressed by the overall design.. Actual plants, hills, a landscape.

They have it inside their ship... To think, we don't even have it on earth... Oh well, the price of hyperurbanisation.

Indeed, it was just as odd for him as it was interesting, and he was seemingly... 'recording' all of this impressions, preserving them. It was, after all, not something one sees every day. Especially not when you're the core of a warship.

Entering the car (Whose design striked Akira, who was used to more angular designs, as odd, but then again, also as fitting for the environment he could observe, here, inside the ship) and having a few thoughts about the intimacy possible by being inside the car, alone with Ayashi, he did eventually decide to observe their surroundings (The transparent hull being considerably useful), continuing to be impressed by them. Which was something he didn't hesitate telling her, being a surprisingly open- minded, social and... Nice person, for an Angstian, anyway. Or so he thought.

"Oh, right... I will have to get some dictionary of course, to learn your language... Well, later." He meant, listening to Ayashi's native talking, still observing the landscape. "Oh, and we... I have time, anyway, so no rush. Can't spend enough time in a ship... City... City-ship like this, after spending so much time in my own, or, even worse, the shuttle, anyway."

He continued watching, occasionally exchanging a few words with Ayashi, and while he hadn't found it odd that this people were, in fact, humans, he did find their overall mixture of technology and lifestyle, or rather, transportation, fascinating. And of course, seeing the average 'citizen' this close was rather interesting, too, helping him to learn more about them. Or at least, this was what he had read in this odd book, a while ago. 'A Popular Guide to Diplomacy', or whatever its name had been.

Not much motorisation... I guess that, considering size and cost efficiency, this is simply cheaper and less resource intensive. Oh well, far less wasteful than my own kind, that's for certain.

Somewhat surprised by Ayashi's sudden question, Akira did, eventually, turn towards her, looking into her eyes, hesitating.

"Oh, erm... Yes. That is, no, I don't mind asking. Well, 'Crew'. Overseer would be more like it, since it works without me, too. It's just that ships are less than efficient when a situation evolves more rapidly than expected. Thus, there's usually a pilot like, uh... Me on board.

"Of course, there is always the usual maintenance work, observing and god knows what... Well, i'm sure you're familiar with the basics. All automated. Sure, it's expensive... But it is preferable to losing valuable lives. Especially ina situation like ours-" He hesitated. "So, well, yes, I'm the only crewman. Of sorts. Hence my implants, or a couple of them, anyway."

"We usually just call it the City," Ayashi told him, "Or Kaireigh. And I'm sure we can get you some dictionaries and grammars and so forth, if you'd like to learn Khar Dalat.

"Oh, I see!" she said, as Akira explained the workings of his vessel. "We have some ships like that - drone fighters and the like - but they must not be as good as yours. All the rest of our ships, and all the warships, have crews."

As they spoke, the suburbs faded into taller buildings, although the trees remained - even the "sky"scrapers, some of them a kilometer high, seemed to substitute height for ground area, so the streets between them were wide and edged with grass. After a while these stopped, as the car drove onto the grounds of an extensive park.

"We're right below the apex of the dome now," Ayashi explained, "These are the Conclave Grounds."

After a few minutes buzzing along the curving roads of the Grounds, the little car pulled to a stop at a checkpoint. The single guard was unarmed, clearly there more for propriety than any expectation of trouble. He tapped on the glass of the door with one gloved hand, and Ayashi lifted it up.

"Can I see your card please, miss?"

"Certainly." Ayashi handed him a thin card bearing a (rather disappointing) mugshot; ID cards were much the same throughout the galaxy, it seemed. The guard waved a hand, and holographic glyphs sprung up in midair. He checked the card against the glyphs, nodded, and handed it back.

"You and the Ambassador are clear to proceed, Neophyte Vailachi."

"Thank you." The guard stepped back, and Ayashi closed the door before the car moved on.

"Apparently you're an Ambassador now,"

Right in the middle of the Grounds - in the very center of the City, in fact - was a grassy mound, broken by six high gates spaced equidistant around it's edge. The gates were filled with stained glass, depicting here a phoenix, here a dragon, here a basilisk clutching a pair of mirrors (the animals, while unlike their Earth counterparts, were enough alike for the comparisons to be obvious).

Here the car stopped, and Ayashi got out. "The Great Hall,", she told Akira. The closest gate bore no totem animal, instead carrying only the circle-pattern of the City, with a smaller door set into the glass. They entered into the Hall itself, currently empty.

"This is the hall proper," Ayashi said, pointing out the long table, and the levels of benches on either side where observers could sit. In the far wall was another door, and through this was a round chamber occupied by a round table at which five people sat. At this time of day, the sunlight splashed the reds and golds of the phoenix gate across the table and it's occupants.

A sixth seat, closest to the entrance through which they'd come, was empty; Ayashi pulled it out and motioned for Akira to sit.

"Lords, Lady, I present Ambassador Watase Akira of the spaceship Suicidental Attractions of the Semi- Sovereign Entity of Jovian Angst," Ayashi told the Totem Lords. To Akira she said, quietly; "The white-haired man in white robes is Valentine Feranti, the Basilisk Lord. To his right, in the gold robes, is the Phoenix Lord, Anh Kirkasi. Opposite you, in red, is Dragon Lord Antevin Dellavi; on his right, in the black robes, is Raven Lord Sorend Mahaust, and finally on your left in the green is Haitene Xuarqui, the Mantis Lady."

Dellavi nodded gravely across the table at Akira. "Greetings to you, Ambassador. Neophyte Vailachi, please ask Ambassador Watase of the nation from which he hails, and whatever lies behind it - it is Semi-Soverign, no?"

Ayashi translated this; "The Dragon Lord greets you, and asks about your nation - your Jovian Angst - and about it's parent nation - he presumes there must be one, because in your transmissions you called it the Semi-Soverign Entity of Jovian Angst."

OOC: That makes sense, about the electromagnetic fields. Sorry I didn't get this up yesterday; right now I can't remember anything I did then, but given what was in my post folder this afternoon, I was apparently unsatisfied with what I'd written. This one is better, but I'm still not entirely happy with it.

Akira nodded. "Yes, I'm sure it will be perfect... As you do indeed seem to be... Quite well organised. Well, It's a first impression, anyway."

He chuckled softly, listening further. "Well, that is an object to discuss... From personal experience, I wouldn't think as highly of our own ships than you do... Especially not in their current state, but this are, admittedly, somewhat extraordinary circumstances. And to be fair... Having a significant crew has its advantages. It's far less boring."

Continuing with his 'quest' of observing the overall design of the city (As well as its people, especially the woman next to him), and eventually deciding that the city was a bit odd, at least compared to the things he was used to. Meadows, trees and generally green things weren't all that common where he came from.

Once arriving, he chuckled, listening to the foreign words as well as the translation. "Well, quickest promotion I've ever had. I will have to negotiate some new terms with regards to my pay, now."

He was doubtlessly intrigued by the symbolism that could be seen. Indeed, there were doubtlessly (Well, likely) some roots with... Well, the origins back on earth. Or so he thought, not being overly educated regarding such things, legends or symbolism.

Following Ayashi, and nodding in regular intervals as she explained things to him, Akira did, eventually, sit down on the sixth chair, after bowing all so slightly, naturally, and observing the lords resembling the symbolism he had seen before... With their names, anyway.

Must be a rather... Formal society. Meh, this could end up being complicated.

Eventually, he answered, nodding slightly. "And I greet the Dragon Lord, as well as the other Totem Lords, as I'm honoured to be here."

He hesitated, for a moment, being all so slightly nervous. This was most certainly not what he was used to, or what he had learned... It was simply new for him.

"Yes, there is a Parent Nation as you call it." He did, eventually, continue, in his somewhat shoddy latin. "Der Angst, based on Earth... The third planet. They... We're in a somewhat complex situation, right now, as-"

Another moment of hesitation, a second, not more, but still... It is enough for him to decide that he doesn't need to mention the death of 90% of all Angstians, at least not right now.

"We have had certain civil struggles, and some sort of, well, cataclysm hitting us, temporarily cutting the connections between DA Earth and its various off world holdings. We're still in the process of recovering, and there appear to be some problems back on Earth who aren't solved yet. As such, and as a result of a brief area of infighting-"

Again, hesitation. But then, most of this could prolly be found out by searching through visual data floating through sol, so he could go on.

"We sort of established a semi- sovereign sphere with what are DA's Jovian holdings. We recognise Earth' supremacy, but overall, we're pretty much independent.

"Oh, and of course... The basics about Jupiter's structure, political, astrographic etc., is of course available in various forms, but I can, of course, give a short overview..."

And again, hesitation, as he looked at each Totem Lord, trying to evaluate them.

"Now, I'm curious... This is, obviously, a rather large... presence you arrived with. I wonder... why, and under what circumstances? It is quite an unusual event. Not the arrival of an out of system civilization, but their arrival with an entire city, rather than with, uh... A few explorers."

Akira smiled faintly. "Oh, and of course, I'm quite curious as of the inner workings of your society. It seems to be quite an interesting one."

ooc: Hrm. Wrote this in a rush. I hope it isn't too bad, but then, that's why I use a non- diplomat for diplomatic stuff. Great cover for blatant mistakes.

He seems quite honest, Valentine Feranti thought, To so freely admit to a position of weakness. Their homeland is destroyed, and the colonies have been left to fend for themselves ... there are definite parallels here.

I must not allow those parallels to colour my judgement.

Aloud, the Basilisk Lord said; "While I am sure that we - that I personally would be most interested in whatever more detailed data you can provide, at the present an overview would be most appreciated..."

The pretty young Raven Neophyte (why was it, Valentine wondered, that most of Mahaust's Neophytes seemed to be pretty young women?) translated that into the foreign tongue for the Angstian ambassador.

"It is not so large a presence," Antevin Dellavi was saying. "Kaireigh is one City, and once the Kasinat League held thirty - and it is a City denuded of all but the most basic in-system defences. We have no outposts, no patrol cruisers - nothing but a few score in-system cutters and drone fighters, in fact.

"Which answers your second question - sending a survey vessel in advance was proposed" - Mahaust smirked at that - "But we had no vessels avaliable to send, and no time to repair a damaged hull.

"As for why here, we needed a certain conjunction of features - a gas giant rich in hydrogen, a close asteroid belt, a reasonably quiet star - in which to situate the City. Yours fit the parameters best - we had not entertained the possibility that the natives of Terra could have developed spaceflight in two thousand years."

"It has never happened before, you see," Mahaust added, "That a pre-industrial civilisation has reached space so fast. Not with any of the human civilisations I have records of, at least."

OOC: Again, this isn't as good as I would have liked. Ah well. And your post looks fine to me.

Akira was quickly making some mental notes, for the moment forgetting the woman next to him, translating. This was, indeed, quite interesting, not to mention useful.

"Well, an overview... With regards to Jupiters, ah... Astrographic structure, nothing has changed, in those past 2000 years. At least not to my knowledge. A few more craters, that's about it. Politically... Well, that's a bit different."

He hesitated. Where do I have... Ah, there. A moment later, he took out a holographic device of sorts (Looking rather pityful, what with it being a bit small, and it wasn't the latest model, anyway), laying it on top of the table, showing a three dimensional version of the Jovian System. Granted, the slightly chaotic Young Angstian used as script proved to be rather annoying, distracting, the original programmers paying more attention to amusing little puzzles, riddles and patterns than to the simple, practical purpose of a map, but then, the Totem Lords wouldn't be able to read it, anyway, thus, it didn't really matter.

"For visualization. Anyway... First of all, we have the Galilean Moons."

The picture changed, rapidly, speeding towards four larger balls relatively close to Jupiter.

"First, the innermost moon, Io. Incidentally, also the most complex one, geographically as well as politically."

Again, the image changed, racing towards Io, showing images of its surface, moving. Erupting volcanoes could be seen, spitting out sulphur, sulphur that would later go down as a soft powder, snow, on the other moons orbiting the giant. Magma, breaking through Io's paper thin 'shell'. Yet, this more basic images were quickly replaced by others. This ones less realistic, more... Chaotic, since the information DA had about the factions on Io was rather... Limited.

"A rather inhospitable place. Yet, colonised by quite a few nations... First of all, the majority of Io is held by the Non Democratic Alliance, taking over after the original inhabitants, a NDA memberstate, fell into anarchy. As far as I know, they are inhabiting the tunnel system on Io. Considering the excessive seismic activity there, I suspect the tunnels to not be all that deep, though.

"There are also Five Kingdoms, that is, Melkor Unchained, and Menelmacari holdings on Io, both acquired, or rather, bought, before the aforementioned event took place. The two tend to be arch enemies, as such, the situation is rather tense."

Again, the images change, now showing surprisingly detailed images, acquired just before the cataclysm struck DA. They show posthuman hordes in floating domes. Violence. Dark cults. Sacrifices. Warcries. Death and insanity. Chaos.

"The Hordes of Burning Mountain. Posthumans... Well, the 'human' part is something I'm not all that certain about... Developed to survive on Io. Which they do. We do not know all that much about them, but I think it is rather obvious that they are not exactly the most pleasant possible company. Although they sheltered some of our forces, for a while. What happened to them after the cataclysm we don't know, though. Considering the characteristics of Burning Mountain... Well..." Akira shrugged. "Can't have it all."

He hesitates, and the picture stops, too, for a moment, Akira's mind not giving any more orders, for a moment.

"So... Io is inhospitable, dangerous, and kinda occupied. Not to mention that it could spark a system- wide war. Now, the next one... Europa."

The images change, quickly, far faster than the eye can follow, eager to change, now that they can change, again. A world of ice, but coming closer, battlecries can be heard, blood spilled on the brown and white surface.

"We, that is, Jovian Angst, hold 0.2% of Europa's surface. The rest is divided between the Holy Order of Sketch and the Serene^Union of Kaenei. A while ago, there was a rather... Large war, on Europa, in which Kaenei acquired the southern half. Sketch holds the northern one. Needless to say, the two are rivals, although the atmosphere is not nearly as... Poisonous as on Io. The political atmosphere, that is."

And again, after a brief stay on Europa's ice, scrolling up and down, a little, the images change. A brown giant follows.

"Ganymede. Surprisingly peaceful moon. We hold 0.2% of the surface, with approximately a hundred thousand inhabitants, now. Incidentally, our holdings on Europa and Callisto are of equal size. There is also a Konanian colony, and that's about it."

The stay is brief, and again, the images change, quickly, rapidly, moving towards Callisto.

"The last of the Galilean moons. It is the home of Cetaganda, and we do, again, hold the common 0.2% of its surface area."

The image freezes, but only for a second, searching for new files. Then it moves, rapidly, showing an object far further out. Small, very small, a rock catched by Jupiter, long ago. Traffic can be seen, warships. Threatening ones.

"Leda. A military base of The Silver Turtle. Rather dormant, but a potential risk."

And again, the images run, motion filling the space on top of the table, until it stops, again, showing another, even smaller, object.

"Themisto. Jovian Angst's Leda- equivalent. Basically, hollowed out, with the materials used to build it up, a little."

Which is obvious. What had been an undefined, complex rock is now, indeed, a sphere, over ten kilometers in diameter. Its orbit did apparently change, too.

Again, motion. The next object is larger. "Thebe. Held by Jovian Angst, Konania, and Kaenei. Basically, the same thing as with Themisto, on a larger scale."

One last time, the pictures move, showing various objects. Some large, some small. Some threatening, some with mechanic beauty. Some obviously civilian, others just as obviously of a more violent kind.

"And finally, lots and lots of stations, bases in orbit of Jupiter or its moons."

There is a brief moment of silence, and the images cease, leaving nothing but the air, a few slightly illuminated dust particles, and silence behind. But eventually, Akira continues.

"There are, of course, greater dependencies. The Five Kingdoms and Menelmacar are both in, or leading major alliances spreading all over sol. Incidentally, with both of them having certain ties to the NDA. The whole thing is rather complex, and potentially explosive, but I wont go any deeper into this. Lets just say... There's a lot of hubris floating around.

"Then there is the Jovian League. Members being Kaenei, Konania, and, well, Jovian Angst. I think it is supposed to promote regional stability and prevent the aforementioned groups from taking over, but I'm not all that certain that they, that is, we, are successful. Jovian League members do, again, have ties to the NDA, as well as to Sisgardia, comparable to Cetaganda's ties to the Triumvirate of Yut, the former a medium, the latter a high profile 'global player', in a system wide sense."

Akira chuckled, slightly. "So, as you can see... Quite a complex situation, we have here."

Again, this brief, odd, awkward moment of silence, before Akira continued, still chuckling.

"Well, I see... Of course, I understand your points... What I meant was, however, not the reason why you're in this system, since there are really quite a lot of reasons to be here... Admittedly, not exactly the ones you mentioned, but still. It's more... Why did you leave your original place?"

For a moment he hesitates, wondering. Of course, considering the description the Dragon Lord gave him, he's pretty certain that the City simply wasn't welcome where it had been, not anymore, anyway. Violence? Certainly. Who and why? That he didn't know. But then... It would probably be polite not to mention this things directly.

On the other hand... It could prove to be useful, not to say necessary knowledge. If this people were fleeing, if they were hunted. Yes, he needed to know.

"Of course, now, I can guess the overall circumstances, but details would be useful... Not to say potentially necessary.

"Oh, and as for the sheer development... Well, nobody knows for certain, there are quite a few theories... Needless to say, while there are many space- faring civilizations, there are also quite a few much less advanced civilizations around... Planetbound, naturally, but still. So, overall... Odd, perhaps, but since I don't know an answer to this riddle, anyway... Not really worth discussing, at least not until we have some free time."

He stopped, his smile becoming somewhat less obvious, more delicate.

"So...?" He asks, addressing basically all Totem Lords at the same time.

"Others," Mahaust replied by way of explanation once Ayashi had finished her running translation. "Aliens from beyond the old boundaries of the Empire. They do not transmit demands or give parley; they destroy whatever other races they come across - humans, Hvekht, most likely others we will never know of.

"In fact, League scouts beyond the frontier systems have reported several instances of the Others carrying out similar genocidal crusades against other factions within their race -"

"As the Raven Lord says," Dellavi agreed, "The Others caused us to flee. Their fleets destroyed Khar Kasine, capital of the Kasinat League, and then they came to the Rsozha system, and Kaireigh. Our fleets were lost in the fall of Khar Kasine - we had to flee."

The Dragon Lord looked around the table, as if challenging the others to disagree. Although nobody would say it, by some definitions he had failed in his duty. Nobody said it now.

"Eventually, the Others will come here," Anh Kirkasi said, picking up the thread. "Although they cannot track us through yaherin transition, they will not cease to look! With the League fallen they will turn their efforts against the Hvekht, and after them they will continue to search out and destroy other races.

"Although the Hvekht are more advanced technologically, I do not hold out much hope that they will defeat the Others - the enemy is more numerous and better ordered."

"It should be mentioned that the Rsozha system is three hundred light-years from here," Dellavi added, "And that, even given the fastest possible advance of the Other scouting arms, it is highly unlikely that they will reach Sol in under two hundred years.

"When that happens, we should be able to defeat the first waves of their assault - Khar Kasine fell only because the Others stripped their own defence fleets to strike the capital. And if that fails ... well, the nations of Sol will be forewarned, and we may flee together."

"Which, as the Dragon Lord says, will be two centuries away," Valentine Feranti said. "And while your information on the Jovian political situation is most appreciated, we need utilise none of the moons you have listed - all Kaireigh requires is a deep gravity well, a strong magnetic field, a good source of raw materials, and a steady supply of hydrogen, and we can survive happily for quite some time.

"As you can see, we can do so also given none of those, but running artificial gravity systems on a craft this size, and using the magdrive to propel a craft this size, is a steady drain upon our antimatter reserves, and without replenishment we cannot continue in this way indefinitely.

"Does that answer your questions, Ambassador?"

OOC: I think that turned out okay. Merry Christmas!

"I see..." Akira said, nodding, listening to the (complex, latin wasn't made to explain interstellar matters) translation, straightening a little. He wasn't exactly scared, considering the timeframe, as well as the sheer density of sol, which, in his mind, made it rather unlikely that anyone could successfully attack it, but then... The sheer frequency of invasions by ancient civilizations had increased, in the past months. The Tyranids on Mars. Shadows at Mars, Uranus and Jupiter. Not to mention dormant threats, Ur-Quan Kor Ah and others. The list went on. And while their ressources were lacking when it came to the sheer capacities of sol, the damage done was tremendous. So, really, neither Akira nor anyone else needed more attacks of this kind. Enough is enough, so to speak. "Well, I'm sure a rather detailed information exchange with specialists will be useful as preparation of sorts... But then, again, this is for after you're settled, I guess."

He hesitated, suddenly remembering that he was somewhat thirsty. Guess I will have to wait for this a little longer. He shrugged, and smirked. "As for your, ah... Requirements, yes, I guessed so. The overview was, after all, intended to explain the basic political structures you will encounter, not to advertise a random rock in the system. Not when you have such an exquisite home with you, anyway."

He shrugged, again, contemplating the excellent timing of sorts, with both of them suffering from extraordinary circumstances.

Makes things easy. In some twisted sense, anyway.

"So... Yes, I guess my questions are answered, Totem Lord." He continued. "So, I guess you're... Basically going to settle in Jupiters atmosphere, yes? Well, there shouldn't be any problems... Guess I should contact my superiors, though. I'm sure they wouldn't mind permanent contacts. For a start, that is."

Not to mention the flock of spacedyships watching the process. I hope they wont come all that close, this crowds can become quite annoying...

"Of course, it shouldn't be long until you... We are there, anyway."

ooc: Hrm. Something is missing. But what? o.o* Oh well, perhaps I will find out and add it into a future post.

"It is in the balance," Valentine said, half to Akira and half to the other Totem Lords, "Between many different powers, then. And it is not an easy balance, is that correct? We shall have to tread carefully."

"Not in Jupiter's atmosphere," Dellavi explained, "But above it - the equatorial gravity is two point six six standard*. We will be settling in a low orbit, such that the gravity experienced here in the City is one standard gravity. As the Basilisk Lord has said, running artificial gravity systems consumes quite a bit of antimatter, and it is best to make do with natural gravity wells if at all possible.

"We will have hydrogen-mining systems in the atmosphere, however."

"You certainly can contact your superiors from here, if you require to." Haitene Xuarqui's long brown fingers traced symbols in the air, and holographic displays sprang up, glyphs flickering and changing into a map of the Jovian system. "Where do you need to send your message? Given the current position of the Jovian moons, we should be able to get a message to Ganymede, Callisto, Themisto or Thebe easily. The inner moons are out of direct communications, being on the far side of Jupiter at present.

"As for "permanent contacts" -"

"I'm sure we would be delighted to host a permanent Angstian embassy," Sorend Mahaust interrupted. "We certainly cannot attempt to sit isolated in the Jovian system, knowing what we now know."

Valentine Feranti nodded, and smiled, and showed not a whit of what went on in his mind.

OOC: * One standard gravity, in this sense, is 0.8G. In Earth gravities, Jupiter's equatorial gravity is 2.13G. I don't know how high an orbit one needs to achieve what the City needs, though.

Nyargh, this took time, again <.<

"Sorta, yes." Alira answered, nodding. "But then, so far, it worked reasonably well. So, it should work out easily enough.

"Anyway... Yes, I see your point. Actually, comparable to us. We don't use artificial gravity... Just acceleration, in order to get comfortable. And, well... With only a few people on board, it works out."

Listening further, Akira nodded, again, his eyes following the glyphs, curiously. "Thebe would be perfect. Especially for contacting Konania and Kaenei. Possibly Tsaraine." He hesitated, for a second. "Friends, mostly, and I'm sure they would be delighted to learn about you, too. Getting to know the neighbors, so to speak."

He then nodded, watching the five Totem Lords. He wasn't entirely certain what he should think of this. It seemed to him as if there were a few internal conflicts, but then, this was the first day, and he could hardly expect to know everything. Besides, being Angstian, internal conflicts weren't exactly an odd idea, for him. Indeed, complete unity would have been far. odder, possibly even scary, for him.

Over time...

"Well, I'm sure the council will be delighted to know this. Granted, organisation may take some time, under the current circumstances, but..." He resisted a chuckle. "So far, it is all quite positive, I guess."

ooc: I guess we can treat the message as a simple, ah... Summary without getting any more specific?

"Quite positive," Haitene agreed. "We can send a message to Thebe, then." A flick of her fingers, and the moon of Thebe flashed larger in the holo, ringed with glyphs denoting distance, angle, required power to send a message. The Mantis Lady "pushed" the hologram - moon, glyphs, and all - over to Akira.

"Just speak at the hologram," Ayashi explained, "And it will record your message, and then the communications officers can send it for you."

OOC: If you can't be bothered writing it up, that's fine. Sorry about the shortness of this, there wasn't much more that I could think to write.

Kaireigh

Akira blinked, then avoided a chuckle. Pushing it... Well, that's something new. Nodding, he begun to speak, using an odd mixture of Young (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Angstian#Young_Angstian) and New (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Angstian#New_Angstian) Angstian his superiors would likely have some trouble decrypting.

From: The City of Kaireigh
To: Jovian Angst
Subject: The City of Kaireigh

"Contact established. A rather odd (But human) society with a ruling council of five, the 'Totem Lords', and a generally rather structured society, at least that is what I can gather. But then, I've seen stranger ones. Like ours, come to think of it. They seem to have had certain troubles where they came from, alien invasion and all, so they aren't exactly in their best state. And now, they are, well, here, and apparently, Jupiter is just perfect for them. They seem to be interested in 'settling' in a low Jovian orbit. And, all so slightly overstepping my bounds, I guessed that no one has a problem with this. Oh, apparently, there is also some basic interest regarding embassies-of-sorts, so... Well, that's your job."

Sincerely,

~ Suicidental Attractions/ Ambassador Watase Akira

Thebe

The messaage arrived, and about an hour later, Ivanova arrived as well, coming from Themisto. Listening to the message was, of course, not a problem, even though the cleaning bots had to deal with the shattered remains of half a dozen vases.

Once Ivanova had overcome her tantrum, accepting her fate, she decided to send out various invitations while trying to hide her annoyance with certain ships under her command.

I will kill him. Mutilate him. Torture him. Oh, for... Oh well, I can't do much. Yet.

All that remained was to watch the City entering orbit and, eventually, 'settling'. Well, at least for her. What Akira would do in the meantime was more or less beyond her knowledge. I wonder if he will try... She shuddered, briefly, having no idea just what Kaireigh's conventions regarding romantic engagements were.

Last but not least, she answered, trying to stay calm. Fortunately, this was something she had learned to succeed in, over the past weeks.

From: Jovian Angst
To: City of Kaireigh
Subject: Re: The City of Kaireigh

"You are... Correct, there shouldn't be any... Problems, although I would advise you to be less... Enthusiastic, in the future, AMBASSADOR Watase. I will wait for your... Detailed report, once you arrive. I will see if anyone else is interested in, ah, getting to know our new neighbors, or rather, future neighbors."

Somewhat less than sincere,

~ Ivanova, Jovian Council

She chuckled a little, and wondered if Akira was knowledgeable enough for Old Angstian. She sure hoped so. Adding a few more lines, this ones in latin, regarding the person this was addressed to, as well as a general, friendly 'Welcome' to the Totem Lords and the City, she did, eventually, send it.

Now for the next part...

"Thank you, Ambassador Watase," Antevin Dellavi said, "Your advice is most appreciated. And now, if there are no objections, shall we adjourn?"

There were nods around the table from the other Totem Lords, who departed; Haitene Xuarqui with Valentine Feranti, Antevin Dellavi with Anh Kirkasi. Sorend Mahaust remained.

"Ayashi, if you could ... show the Ambassador around? I'll have somewhere arranged for him to stay, I suppose..."

"Certainly, my Lord, Ayashi replied. Then, to Akira; "It seems I've just been appointed your official native guide. Is there anything you'd like to see? Are you hungry?"

Outside the hall, the artificial sun was reddening as it sank towards the horizon. Through the Phoenix gate it gave the room a bloody tint.

OOC: Since this seems to be winding down, other nations - the Jovian ones in particular - should feel free to contact the City or whatever. It is getting closer to Jupiter now, after all.

Akira hesitated, for a moment, then nodded, trying to hide a soft chuckle. And quite a fascinating guide, come to think of it... "Oh, well, you're having quite an amazing city, here, so I'm sure there's quite a lot you could show me... Be it the city or the people. Of course, particular things... I don't know them, so you will have to give me some hints regarding the fascinating parts of your home."

Hesitating again, and wondering why the Raven Lord stayed in the room (Yet, not asking. Such things had time.), he looked a bit closer at Ayashi. Perhaps she's the reason... Nah. This is hardly a soap opera. "Food... Would be a good idea, actually. Oh, and while we're at it, the language files... I don't know what compatibility problems will be present, but the earlier we know, the better. Besides, printed media is far from being outdated..."

Watching as the room reddened (And actually liking it, the ambience being comparable to that of Suicidental Attraction's core), he chuckled. "Well... Since I'm somewhat new here, my knowledge regarding the surroundings lacks, a little, so, why don't you lead me? Dinner and all..."

ACK >.< Now I see what I missed in the last post. Meh.

Konanians generally like to keep to themselves, for a number of reasons. Becoming involved in international politics had proved to be a sort of futile endeavor, that could leave one tangled in miles of red tape and accomplish very little. Thankfully, this had been discovered early in Konania's history, and the government had freed some of the State's brightest minds to pursue other fields. This lead to the colonization of Ganymede by Interspace Corporation, and the eventual militarization of the colony when the long arm of international politics began to reach into the area.

Petros was the first station built under the reform, and a few clones of it could be found in Jupiter's orbit, all bearing similar names-- Petros-II, Petros-III, et cetera. Commander Hargraves considered all this: had it not been for the plans of one Malcolm Raugher in particular, he might be at home right now in Aedato, the capital of Konania's Ganymede settlement. Instead, he was standing over a large map, considering the question that continually plagued the minds of all Konanians, since that original curve toward isolationism: What the heck is going on out there? Something had been moving toward his rock from out-of-system for days now, and he was being told that "others" had had contact with it.

Hargraves really didn't like being left out of the loop.

Raugher must enjoy letting us guess. That must be it, he thought, turning to the larger screens that spanned the wall of the cylindrical command center. A few hours later, somebody had the nerve to type out a message to Jovian Fleet Command-- "You tell us what is going on right now or we're blowing that thing to kingdom come"-- and while Hargraves doubted that his fleet possesed the firepower to do such a stupid thing, the messege had produced the desired result.

broadcast: all frequencies
beamto: Unidentified Object #xxxxx

This is a message from station PETROS-I of Jovian Oribital Station Network. Requesting Identifcatiation and statement of intentions in area.

M. Hargraves
Commander, JOSN, Konanian Federal Starfleet

A similar message was sent to other nations in the area asking three things. First, "is it yours", second, "if it is, what is it", and third, "if it isn't, can you identify it?" Finally, it stated that the Konanian government knew that someone had answers, and they would be very pleased if they were shared.

Ayashi blinked; hardcopy had fallen out of use soon after the beginning of the Autessanat Empire. "I suppose we could get you something like that, yes. Not today, but we can go down to the Raven Library tomorrow, and the Adepts there should be able to figure something out."

"As for food ... I know a good place nearby. Just on the other side of the Grounds."

It was a short walk across the parks to the city proper, where the streetlights were just beginning to glow in counter to the fading of the sun. She led Akira down an escalator, into the substrata of the City.

The skyscraper above continued below the surface, or rather it's foundations did, framing a shaft descending a hundred meters or so into the main disc of Kaireigh. Around the shaft, multiple levels of balconies housed eating establishments, nightclubs, and, on the deeper levels, seedier establishments. It was already buzzing in the early evening.

"Here we are."

Nearby the entrance, a holographic sign invited passers-by into the establishment; Ayashi entered, with Akira in tow. Inside, the place proved to be midway in class; while it wasn't the bleeding edge of culinary fashion or the height of opulence, neither was it run-down or dodgy.

"A table for two," she told the holographic waiter which flickered into being, and it moved off into the resturant. They followed, soon arriving at a secluded table in one corner. Ayashi sat down, and the holograph disappeared, while another, displaying the menu, flickered into being above the table.

"Um ... I really don't know what you'd like," Ayashi said. "What would you eat at home?"

OOC: I should have said that Mahaust left after telling Ayashi that; in any case, he's not lingering. It's not a problem, though.

Konania, I'm assuming your message isn't sent in Latin; if by some chance it is, I can edit accordingly.

Athrín Kirant was the ascendant Dragon Lady, currently holding the command centre during the evening shift while the reigning Lord slept. Unfortunately, she, as with the rest of the City's population, had no records of the Konanian language.

"Eidolon, do you know this tongue?"

The AI's holographic avatar flickered into being, resplendent in the command uniform of the Autessanat Empire. "I do not, Flag Commander."

"Drat." Eidolon's use of the ancient title went unnoticed as Athrín thought. "You have the Raven Lord's translation program, though?"

"I do."

"Excellent. Translate the following ..."



Foreign station, this is the City Kaireigh of the Kasinat League. We cannot comprehend your language; please retransmit in Latin. We apologise for the complications.



OOC: Sorry that was a bit late - I had trouble getting my brain into gear yesterday.

[Hee. I read through the thread, considered putting it in latin, and decided that it was probably best just to leave it as that, since the I didn't ICly know that they wouldn't be able to understand.]

The message had been run through a number of decryption programs before somebody realized that it was Latin, and required only translation.

"This is interesting. That word is 'city'," the language officer said, "not ship."

Hargraves looked over the map. It made some sense: Kaireigh didn't look like any ship he'd ever seen before. "'We apologise for the complications'-- how polite," he muttered. "Why Latin?"

"Why not? A large part of Earth's population speaks languages derived from it. Excepting us and many others, of course." The LO smirked. "Speaking Latin makes one sound intelligent anyway, sir."

"Hmpf." Hargraves looked back at the map. "Translate this then:"

beamto: City Kaireigh

This is a message from station PETROS-I of Jovian Oribital Station Network. We simply request a statement of your intentions in the area.

And then, after a moment, he added:

If your presence is friendly and/or permenant, we welcome you, and are also willing to discuss trade options between our two civilizations.

M. Hargraves
Commander, JOSN, Konanian Federal Starfleet

[I believe that your intentions/reasons for being in sol were stated earlier in the thread; feel free to have me simply refer back there rather than retyping it all]

"That's better," Athrín said. "Trading ... I'd have to ask the reigning Lords about that."

Trade had been minimal through the latter half of the War; aside from vital supplies, hulls were increasingly rare, and the Cities had nationalised large portions of their freighter fleets to provide ships to the Dragon Brotherhood. But the ascendant Lady didn't think that there would be problems, in peacetime, in trading with other nations.



Thank you for your message, PETROS-I. Our intentions are to settle permanently in Jovian orbit. We intend to be as friendly as possible, unless threatened.

If you would like to discuss trade or diplomatic relations, please send a representative to visit the City, now or in the future once Jovian orbit is achieved.

Athrín Kirant
Ascendant Dragon Lady



OOC: Ack. Apologies for the size and suckiness of this post.

ooc: Actually, Konania, I thought that the TG I sent, + times when I mentioned it in the thread were equal to an IC 'We tell you the basics :P' Oh well.

ic:

Thebe

Ivanova had trouble sleeping, the sound of the nearby reactors annoying her more than just 'a little'. Considering thsi circumstances, it was less surprising that she called Hargraves in the middle of the night (Jovian Angst standard night, anyway), showing up on the screens, clad in nothing but a pyjama. Not that she cared about this, but overall, she looked surprisingly threatening.

"Hello. So, regarding this small moon- sized ship coming closer, and your request: 1. No. 2. Doesn't matter, due to 1., and 3. I think I did give the relevant data to your representatives on Thebe, I suggest replacing them, since they're apparently slacking. So... Any other questions?"

Kaireigh

Akira nodded, unable to hide an infinitesimal grin, and followed his lead. Looking around, trying to get a feeling for the design of this city, he was surprised that it was actually quite comparable to Angstian cities, with its underground structures, its shinyness and overall three- dimensional design.

Arriving, and looking around the establishment, he couldn't help but to chuckle.

She doesn't seem to think that ambassadors deserve a somewhat higher class. It was better this way, though, since Akira was, by definition, not an ambassador, and an upper class establishment wouldn't have been an environment he would feel wholly comfortable in.

Neat. He thought, watching the holograms, then pondered. "Well, I'm not sure what you have here... I sort of imagine our food to be fundamentally different... Thus, knowing what I would eat, which I don't know, anyway, I'm a bit random in such matters-" He chuckled. "Where was I? Oh, yes. I guess..." He checked the menu. It was, of course, pointless to try and read it, but he could still see how many there were.

"Ummm... I guess I take the one with the longest name, this... Well, Im sure you can pronounce it."

Hargraves hit STOP and turned to the the image of the Fleet's information officers on Thebe. One opened his mouth only to be silenced by a stern look and raised hand.

"Quiet. I don't want to hear it."

"Yes sir."

"Appalling. You have embarassed me, the Fleet, and the entire Federal Republic before our Angstian friends. You are the head officers of this division, and I expect better from you. Our code of conduct requires that you be demoted. Personally, I'd have all of you discharged!"

The group flinched visably. Dishonorable discharge meant a one-way ticket home, and it stayed in the government's records long beyond the end of one's life. Your children, their children, and their children would have to live with that.

"Fortunatly for you, I'm not in the mood to fill out that much paperwork. I don't expect this to happen again. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir."

Hargraves hit another button and the image disappeared. While the culprit would probably never be found, the speech would make its way down the ranks. It wouldn't happen again-- unlike the army, navy personnel only needed to be told once.

* * *

beamto: City Kaireigh

City Kaireigh, thank you for your response. Our own ships and stations are moving to accomodate your craft. Please do not misunderstand-- we simply find that it is important that our orbiting vessels do not interfere with your flight path.

We will be sending an emissary to your vessel shortly. Welcome to Sol.

M. Hargraves
Commander, JOSN, Konanian Federal Starfleet


"So they intend on staying. How many things are floating around out here, now? Forty-six? Forty-eight?"

"Much more than that," Hargraves said. "Check the computer, it'll give you an exact answer. Who do we send?"

Both looked at he language officer, who shook his head and backed away. "Not me. Latin's not my best language. It isn't for anybody, really-- there aren't any native speakers. Who do we know that speaks it that well?"

"No one currently in orbit. You'd have to look to back to Ganymede."

"OK," Hargraves thought aloud. "Whose furlough can we end early, then?"

* * *

That honor fell to Sarah Jameson, language connoisseur, whose first question was whether or not Starfleet had run out of expendable crewmen. There hadn't been much competition: she was the obvious choice, since she could speak both the language of Latin like a Roman, and the language of statecraft like a politician.

And most importantly, she was enlisted in the navy, so she really didn't have the right to say "no," even if Hargraves only barely outranked her.

This is what annoyed her most as she sat aboard the shuttle (flying without any escort whatsoever, whose idea had that been? she wondered), speeding toward the alien object. This was supposed to have been her time off, and serving her country was definatly not the first thing on her mind.

The shuttle was now closing on the ship, and she prepared to disembark.

Sorry again that this is late - writing it was a matter of finding the time, sitting down, writing, and letting nothing distract me, which was difficult the past few days. And it's still not as good as I'd like. But at least 'tis written, eh?

Watanse Akira

"The Kai'seiña kai'túshyé ka'akhontyé au-tokhín?" Ayashi asked, stifling a grin. "In the Latin, that would be ... um ... "Lizard with sauce on one of two cereal grains" is the closest I can get. You're sure you want to try it?"

Sarah Jameson

The Cities had few true diplomats. The Others did not negotiate, Hvekht would talk to anyone, and the only humans they'd come in contact with recently had all been members of the League. What it did have was politicians; district prefects, gestalt representatives, special interest groups, corporations, and the Brotherhoods all combined in the Conclave.

The Totem Lords had picked one of them based on merit, given the herm a rapid briefing and a copy of the Raven Lord's Latin translation program, and sent Velmain Andaimo out to play diplomat.

Now the hatch on the Konanian cutter opened, and someone - Velmain assumed it was the Konanian emissary - emerged. The herm bowed deeply. "Welcome to the City, Ambassador," it said, and the translation program parroted that in Latin a moment later. "I am Prefect Velmain Andaimo."

ooc: Bah. Considering me taking weeks, sometimes months to reply to something, this is nothing ;)

"Kaj'saina cai'tüshje ka'achontje au-tokhyn?" Akira struggled a little, seemingly failing to pronounce the (For him) somewhat odd term. "Certainly. I'm sure it will be intriguing. Hrm... Your cuisine uses lots of spices?" I sure hope they do... Like most Angtstians, Akira was quite used to a ludicrous flood of spices, drugs, everything that made things, be they food or not, more complex, more difficult to comprehend, less normal. Granted, with being a ship's core, he wasn't all that used to this part of his society, being basically on his own, but still, the basics couldn't be denied.

"Oh, and there was something else... Ah, right. I wonder... Raven Lord, Raven Acolyte... You're organised in caste like... Pillars, perhaps? Your society, that is."

[ooc: I should've thought of a more creative name. yay for random name generators!]

The emisarry stepped forward, blinking a little as her eyes adjusted to the light. The ship had an airlock; why couldn't they give her time to adjust her eyes as well? She bowed deeply in the same way he had, and recited a statement that she had practiced a number of times before, but never had a chance to use. Part of her cringed, wondering how it must sound to a civilization as advanced as this one-- they had built a planet, for goodness sake.

"My name is Dr. Sarah Jameson of the Konanian Starfleet. Executive Cordell, Jovian Konania and the Konanian Federal Republic send greetings." She then bowed again, this time in the less deep, more Konanian fashion. "We welcome you to our collective of nations in Jovian orbit."

Watanse Akira

"Yes, we do," Ayashi told Akira. "Your seiña in particular has a lot of it.

Kai'azh ju; kai'seiña kai'akhontyé au-tokhín," she told the menu-hologram hovering in the center of the table, "Kai'azh ju telehín kantoísra.

"Just ordering dinner," she explained to Akira. "As for our society ... I'm not sure how to explain it. The Brotherhoods are more like guilds than anything else; each is responsible for an area of the City's maintenance - Dragons run the fleets and shipyards, Ravens run the universities and gather knowledge, Basilisks are responsible for information flow ...

"The Phoenixes and Mantises exist basically to support minority groups, I guess, but they also have important roles - the Phoenixes are telepaths, so carry out all our long-range communications, and the Mantises, uh - there isn't a word for it in Latin, but they form a large part of the Marines.

"They recruit like any normal corporation - well, except for the Mantises and Phoenixes - but the Totem Lords are appointed by merit, since they hold the highest positions in the Conclave.

"But the Brotherhoods are only a very small section of the population - a few hundred thousand out of twenty million. The rest of society is really left to run however it chooses - there are corporations, and co-operatives, and gestalt entities, and ... well, anything really.

"For administrative reasons the city is divided into over a hundred Prefectures, but the people in those Prefectures are free to appoint the Prefects however they like, so long as it doesn't break the law - most of them are representative democracies, but there are a few, well, hereditary monarchies I suppose, and Selhesuin Prefecture holds a race around the City's rim to appoint their Prefect.

"So I guess you could call me an apprentice, since I'm a Neophyte - the rank above that is Acolyte, above that is Adept, and above that is the ascendant and reigning Raven Lords."

Dinner arrived in the hands of a young man wearing the mahogany-and-black uniform of the resturant. Ayashi gave him a card (the same one she'd given the guard outside the Great Hall, in fact), and he ran it through a device clipped to his belt. Holograms sparkled in the air between them for a moment.

"Enjoy your dinner, miss," he said, handing back the card along with her dinner.

"Thank you, I shall," Ayashi replied. Her telehín kantoísra was a simple dish resembling fried rice (although the cereal grain resembled barley more than rice, and the vegetables interspersed in it were entirely alien), while Akira's kai'seiña kai'akhontyé au-tokhín was, indeed, lizard with sauce on cereal grains.

Most of a lizard, in fact. Sans organs and head, the fleshy back and tail of the thing had been roasted, placed on a neat pile of some indefinable tan-coloured grains, and covered liberally in thick yellow sauce.

Sarah Jameson

"Thank you," Velmain replied, and again the program translated his words into almost-perfect Latin. "The City is most desirous of a long and prosperous settlement in the Jovian subsystem."

With the soundbytes out of the way, the herm was able to turn it's attention to more meaningful matters. "I imagine you must be curious about our little city-state, then? We can adjourn to some better location, if you wish - this docking bay is hardly a suitable place in which to discuss affairs of state."

OOC: Again, sorry for the delay! A couple of days ... I suppose it doesn't hurt anyone. As for random name generators, most of the names I use came from this random word generator (http://www.ruf.rice.edu/%7Epound/), with help from this Euskara dictionary (http://www1.euskadi.net/morris/), and occasional references to this name site (http://www.behindthename.com/) and this Onomastikon (http://www.gaminggeeks.org/Resources/KateMonk/). It's amazing what you can find on the Internet.

"Good. Very, very good." Akira meant, listening to the odd syllables coming from Ayashi. It will be quite a hard language to learn... Listening, Akira was considerably busy admiring the sight of his host while the dim lights did, occasionally, highlight the implants peeking out of his neck, delicately, barely noticeable, but still there.

"I see... Well, not as strict as I thought, then. Which is, of course, admirable. Just like certain neophytes." Hesitating, Akira looked at the lizard he was supposed to consume. "Looks chinese. So... A rather open system, then, I guess, almost confederate. Hrm. I think I can get it, given that our system is, or at least was, comparable. Basically, corporations running everything, and coordinating by way of their, ah..." Hrm. To bad Latin has no word for CEO. "Leaders, of sorts. Granted, it isn't exactly the most orderly or peaceful system..."

He stopped again, tasting the Lizard, covered in the yellow sauce, his expression being rather indifferent. "Odd, but tasty. Hummm. Phoenixes... I'm almost certain the techheads back at Jupiter will be reasonably interested in some sort of exchange... Learning about other kinds of such capacities is a schtick of theirs."

Continuing the consumation of food, Akira contemplated a bit further. "Oh, and before I forget it... It would be somewhat annoying to, ah, fly back to my ship for the night, and even though I would of course be pleased to give a short tour... Well, it would be rather conventient if I could stay, uh... Somewhere in the city."

Of course, he hadn't actually understood The Raven Lord Sorend Mahaust's words, implying that something would be arranged. Foreign languages be damned.

"Later, of course, considering there being so many things to see and to... Do."

OOC: cool links. no worries about the delay (: Exams just started here, so writing's kind of hard for me also; hence the pause between posts.]

Sarah nodded, taking a few steps. "Indeed. After all, I'm sure the Angstians have already informed you of the political atmosphere of the Jovian system. We're primarily intrested in your history, culture and social structure-- the Angstians have shared some of that information with us as well, but we still have questions of our own." Mostly because those nutty folks at Thebe Station don't know how to do their jobs.

She paused a moment, and smiled. "For instance, you must understand that it is hard for us to understand how this entire structure can contain a single city. Are their so many of your kind, and many ships like this? Or is Kaireigh completly alone and self supporting?" She bit her tongue, wondering if the translation to Latin was correct. This was important simply because if the latter was true, finding something of value for trade would be much more difficult.

Watanse Akira

I think he might be hitting on me, Ayashi thought. Oh God, he's an ambassador. Sort of. What am I supposed to do?

So she ignored Akira's flirtations (Maybe he's like this with everybody?), and tried to concentrate on what he meant rather than what he said.

"I'm sure something could be arranged," she told him, "The organisations which produce our hardware and so forth would probably be amenable to opening stores in Der Angst ... you'd have to talk to them, I suppose.

"Oh!" she said, and blushed, "The Raven Lord arranged a hotel room for you, don't worry about that. We are not such inconsiderate hosts as all that!" And she laughed, to take the sting out of her words.

Sarah Jameson

Velmain hesitated; this was unpleasant territory, as Khar Kasine had been destroyed, in relative time, only a month ago.

""Contain the city" is perhaps incorrect," it explained, "Since we regard this entire structure to be the city, from stem to stern, although most everybody lives here in the dome.

"But there are, or were, three cities - we are not sure whether the others survive. There were more, thirty at one point. We have come down in numbers.

"And the city is not entirely self-sufficient - outside of a gravity well, running the antigravity systems and magdrive like this consumes a large amount of our antimatter reserves. We shall replenish them, in time, by mining hydrogen from Jupiter - or so we hope, at least - but then there are raw materials - biomass and metals and all the other necessities of a spacefaring civilisation.

"And then there are amenities - things we don't need but want. It is a hallmark of human existence, I think, to want things that one could survive perfectly well without.

"But this corridor is perhaps not the best place to discuss all this - shall we go elsewhere?"

OOC: I am very very sorry for leaving this so late ... life got in the way, and then I was lazy ... this is not as good a post as it could be, I fear, but now it's here. Rejoice!

*Rejoices* :P

"Oh, well... Not me, but more likely representatives of those who have the know how and connections in the industry, I guess. At least in the later stages."

For a few valuable seconds, Akira concentrated on the Lizard and its sauce, enjoying a little bit of silence and trying to, eventually, comprehend the object, that is, the Lizard, a bit more, trying to quantify its components, so to speak.

Of course, this didn't exactly stop hiom from replying, given that he still had some concentration capacities left. "Of course, I meant more the, ah, telepathic part of the Phoenixes, not so much general technology, as such, I guess some more specialised, ah... Consultations? would be in order. But I'm sure things will work out nicely, given that they they're doing it right now, too."

A chuckle escapes him as he resumes eating. "Oh, I didn't believe yo- Humm... Tasty bit. Erm, where was I? Ah, right. I didn't believe you are. And perfect, I guess. I'm sure you will show me the way, later." He smiled as neutral as he could. Hummm. Very considerate, indeed. Well, we shall see. Plenty of time to learn more. About them and possibly her, that is. "I'm sure your bedrooms are just about as amazing as the rest of the city."

Meanwhile, the Suicidental Attractions glided alongside the city, a few thousand kilometers of space between the two, slowly leaking electromagnetic radiation and ionised gas, confident and satisfied with itself and the universe, sometimes changing its course a little to play out interception maneuvers with asteorids gliding past the two objects. For it, the whole thing was quite enjoyable, given that it didn't have to care about its pilot, thus being able to follow its desires rather freely.

[*rejoices* :) Welcome back. --Felix]

"Lead on," Dr. Jameson replied, following Velmain down the corridor.

But there are, or were, three cities - we are not sure whether the others survive. There were more, thirty at one point. We have come down in numbers. Sarah made note of this. She had expected it, somewhat, but the statement left her with a number of questions, including the obvious "What happened to the others?"

She decided to bring it up later, and continued to speak while they walked, forming words in latin: "All civilisations have wants, needs... delusions of granduer... some more than others. That you will find in Jovian space as well." She paused, as if thinking for a moment, then changed the topic. "So how far has the city traveled? Since you say this vessel is not self-suffecient, I assume that you must have stopped elsewhere on your journey... that eventually led you to Sol?"

Watanse Akira

Ayashi blinked. "The telepathy? You'd have to ask the Phoenixes, of course, but I'm pretty sure it's impossible - it's not an implant!"

Sarah Jameson

Velmain led the Konanian down the corridor and into the night of the dome. Even with the sun turned off, it was still quite bright - light from the city reflected on the dome ten kilometers overhead. They weren't quite stars.

"I am sure we shall," Velmain agreed, "There will always be fools, after all, on this side of the twilight. I am sure we shall try to avoid them.

"As for how far we have come ... we left the Rsozha system three weeks ago. That was three hundred light years away; it will take us another three weeks or so to enter orbit around Jupiter."

A car was waiting, similar to the one which had carried Akira and Ayashi.

[size=1]OOC: Argh ... I apologise most profusely for the obscene suckiness of this post. :(

"Ummm... No." Akira was slightly confused, "Not copying, or exporting or... Whatever. Merely, uh... Understanding. See... Given that my own kind is quite, ah... Into this things, that is, telepathy, we're kind of eager to learn about the ways others are using in order to achive comparable results. And there are, apparently, lots of them. As such, we... Well, the techheads, anyway, are usually quite interested in foreign Telepaths and their ways."

He hesitated. "Well, we shall see... Tomorrow, or rather, over the course of the next weeks, or months, I guess. I don't know... There aren't any taboos regarding such in your society, are there? Telepathy and its research, I mean."

She blinks quite prettily when confused.

Sarah blinked, once, twice, three times, and did her best to hide her surprise as she got into the car.

"A drive capable of traveling one hundred light-years every week," she said, more to herself than to Velmain. It gave her an rough idea of the extent of their technology.

A civilisation of thirty cities that could travel across galaxies in a matter of weeks...

...whose own numbers had dwindled in recent days, due to... what? An accident? A split?

A war?

Dr. Jameson cleared her throat. "So, um, where are we headed?"

Watanase Akira

"Um ..." Ayashi pushed her food about on her plate. "I don't think so, but, like I said, you'd have to ask the Phoenixes. They might have some kind of ban. I can arrange a meeting with them for you, if you'd like. Tomorrow."

Sarah Jameson

"In subjective time," Velmain explained. "I'm no scientist, but it's a function of the energy input and the mass of the City - it's large enough to substantially alter the flow of time in Yaherin, so time in effect flows slower for Kaireigh than, for example, a corvette.

"The corvette wouldn't have the antimatter supply to reach such speeds in Yaherin, but subjective time would be faster for it. In objective time, most of our vessels would take a few days to go a dozen lightyears or so. Kaireigh, in objective time, left the Rsozha system a few years ago.

"And we go to Ankou, which is my own Prefecture. My offices there are perhaps not a perfect place to discuss the City, but you are unlikely to find better, I'm afraid. We are no longer well equipped to receive visitors."

Around them, the ground rose up as the car descended into a cutting, which became a tunnel, which became a bridge over several hundred meters of open space.

"All this is Ankou Prefecture around you," Velmain said. "Mostly it's shipyards - hence the open space, you can see the battleship Midnight Firefly off to the left."

The battleship sat on a massive set of tracks like a great beached whale, six hundred meters long. It was entirely dark at present - the extensive hull repairs it had required had been completed weeks ago, and the repair crews had moved inside.

"Most of the yards are owned by the Dragon Brotherhood," Velmain continued, "But a lot of it is still independent, and Ankou has the least Civic Works Gestalt members of any Prefecture. I'm quite proud of that.

"But I'm sorry - I'm dropping all these names in your lap when you've never heard of them before. Would you like me to explain?"

OOC: There's probably no excuse for the lateness of this post ... I'm a bad bad puppy.

ooc: Hey, better late than never :P And my own thread isn't moving any faster, so it's perfect timing. Of course... *Glances at Konania's 11 days of inactivity* Oh well.

"If it's not bothering them, that would be perfect. Of course, as mentioned before-" I think. Hrm. Have to keep track of my own conversation. "I'm not exactly a specialist regarding the matter, so it could get a little, uh... Dry. Hence, why I would like to organise a meeting between the Phoenixes and a few neural technicians. Once the City arrives at its destination, anyway."

She's not very hungry, is she? He wondered, for a moment, his own plate nearing emptyness. "Well, anyway, uh... Tomorrow. Today..." Akira looked a tad clueless. "Well, I'm kinda new here, so I guess it's your turn. I'm eager to learn more about your, ah, pastimes." He hesitated, for a second. "That is, the City's, not yours in particular, I mean... Errr..."

Hrm. Shortish and somewhat frustratingly... Amiss. Oh well, better than nothing, I guess. Ought to get sugar for my brain.

<Marked for later interest>

OOC: -TaG- *Applause* :-) If these 'Others' ever arive in the Sol system (Are they gonna come back up? o.O), I would really like to step on their toes :D Excellent storyline thus far too, you get a coplimentary sticker =D

IC: A Traileric Diablo VII Hybrid slowly drifts past Jupiter, just outside of the local races, residents, etc, boundaries. The Trailarii, being a rather proud race in their own respect, enjoyed playing police in their home system (i.e. Sol system, naturally.). Thusly, there were a vast amount of Traileric war vessles floating about and getting in the way..blocking sunlight..throwing the tides off, and other such nuisances associated with vessels with their own gravitational pull.

"You wouldn't need to meet them now, then?" Ayashi asked. "Because I can organise a meeting, if you want it. If not I'll just tell them that someone from Der Angst will be wanting to speak to them, and it can go through their own channels.

"My pastimes?" For a moment Ayashi looked exceedingly nervous. "Oh, our national pastimes. Er ... it's getting late, I don't think there'd be anything really to see right now. I don't know."

Physical entertainments wouldn't be open this late (or at least, not the ones she'd feel comfortable taking Akira to - he was practically a stranger, after all) and he didn't have the hardware, or the command of the language, to get the holographic ones properly.

Or so she thought; Ayashi didn't make a habit of spending nights out on the town.

OOC: Aggravatingly hard to write. I need to figure out what I was reading when I made Kaireigh, and read it again for inspiration.

Trailers: Right now I'm pretty sure that the Others will be staying happily in the backstory; partly this is because it's meant to be a few hundred years before they find Sol, and partly because if they were to turn up, the first anyone would know about it would be when a couple of asteroids, fired from beyond the heliopause, hit the rocky worlds at relativistic speeds. That would probably upset more people than it's worth.

Heh.

"Well, given my own lack of, uh... Technical knowledge regarding the matter, the second option is most likely the better one, I would say." She must be upset. Hrm.

"Anyway, I see..." They must be rather puritan. Or she's lacking experience. Ah, well, I shall see over the course of the next few days.

"Oh, one thing..." Akira consumed a few of the remaining bits of food on his plate, seemingly getting used to the taste. Well, actually, he had been used to it from the beginning, the effect of an empty stomach... But still. "I was wondering... From where do you originate? Not the more recent colonies, but before that. Seeing as your last contact with this system was a few thousand years back... And well, the multiverse is fairly complex, so I'm quite intrigued by this. Especially seeing as early human space civilisations, while not unknwon, are fairly uncommon, given the timeframes involved, and their effects on the overall civilisational levels of earth are usually... Barely noticeable, for reasons that are yet to be understood."

He hesitated. "I'm a bit of a hobby-historian, I hope you don't mind?"

[Hah! if you're a bad puppy, I'm downright evil.]

Sarah made a mental note to ask him where Rsozha was in relation to Sol, looking down at the ship below her.

So, this meant they had the capability to build and maintain a fleet. Sarah had thought this likely, given the size of the city itself. And his comment about their ability to recieve visitors simply magnified her suspiscion that some disaster had occured.

"Please do," she said. "This 'Dragon Brotherhood' you mention; is it some sort of--" She paused, trying to find an equivalent word in Latin for the concept she was trying to express. There wasn't one. "corporate organisation?"

From his tone, there seemed to be some sort of negative connotation attached to it. Konania had some of those two, but their influence was limited by the fact that the one thing that the media seemed to enjoy more than attacking the government's credibilty was attacking others in the private sector. When money and politics were mixed, the word "Bribery" usually came up.

And the public tended to frown on that sort of thing.

In any case, she wouldn't surprised that Kaireigh had its own internal divisions, as any population of this size would. In a diplomatic situation, it was always a good idea to find out where every one stood. "It sounds as if they have a level of politcal power here," she continued.

Watanase Akira

"Not at all!" Ayashi replied, happy to have at last something she could answer easily - something which dovetailed directly with her studies as a Raven Neophyte, in fact.

"Our history - that we know of - begins about forty thousand years ago," she began, "With the first definite signs of human occupation on Kañueta - that was our homeworld. I say our instead of the because we didn't evolve there; there's nothing remotely like humanity there, in terms of genetics.

"So humanity came from somewhere else, and arrived on Kañueta around then. There used to be a strong position that humans had been created then, over three thousand years ago, but when the Autessanat discovered other human civilisations during the Third Florescence, that went out the window - most of them have radically different "start dates".

"Genetic studies tell us that humans evolved around two million years ago, and so the Autessanat xenohistorians marked any world going back that far as an "Ultimate Origin" candidate. They were obsessed with finding the Ultimate Origin, where humanity originally evolved - the Creationist school was still about then, in a way, because some people pointed out that if an unknown agency had moved humans to all these different worlds, it was reasonable to assume that it had the power to create them - but generally people favoured the Original theory, and generally they still do.

"Your Earth was an Ultimate Origin candidate too, of course - but back then Sol was even further from the Imperial frontier than it is from the League systems, and nobody had got around to a return visit by the time the Others arrived four hundred years later."

Sarah Jameson

"They are our military, or most of it," Velmain explained. "Are they a corporate organisation? Somewhat. Are they a corporation? Not strictly. I suppose one could explain them as a warrior society - are you familiar with the concept? No?

"They recruit as does anybody else - their age of enlistment is twenty, though, rather than eighteen as for other organisations like the Raven Brotherhood or the Basilisks. That's a holdover from Imperial times. Their leaders are appointed from within the Brotherhood, by their high command - it's the same for all five Brotherhoods, which is one of the things seperating them from more ordainary organisations.

"Another is their important function - as I said, they form our military arm. But they also form the basis of our shipbuilding industry, and own and run most of the shipyards. The problem with that, of course, is that military ships get higher priority in Dragon yards than civilian vessels - not unexpected, given what they are, but annoying to those of us outside the Brotherhood. We have civilian shipyards to make up for that, and quite a few of them are here in Ankou.

"So the Dragons offset their costs by manufacturing civilian ships, when they have the yard space - but with most of their funds going into the military arm of their organisation, that serves only to offset their costs, not turn a profit - the majority of their revenue comes from taxes.

"And the reigning Dragon Lord is one of the five Totem Lords, the highest level of our government, so yes, he does have a large amount of influence - but he's one of five, and so cannot be autocratic."

OOC: If you're evil, does that make me the Fenrir-wolf? I'd eat the sun if only I wasn't so distracted by shiny things ...

IT LIVES! *Dies of shock* Ahem.

"Forty-thousand?" Akira found himself staring at Ayashi. "That's... Impressive." And significantly older than the first Homo Sapiens settlements in DA Sisgardia. Hrm.

He chuckled a little, just a little, once he had managed to control his surprise, trying to concentrate on his shoddy latin. "And a fairly mysterious origin, too. Intriguing. Makes one wonders who brought you there, then... And the other human civilisations, come to think of it. Wonder about their start dates, too... Oh, and you have to remind me sometime to look deeper into your history. Third Florescense... I think I will enjoy burying myself in information about your history. Despite, or rather because, I know basically nothing about it. And I guess that forty-thousand years are a rather rich timeframe, from a hobby-historian's point of view."

Just a slight moment of hesitation, triggered by bits and bytes of anticipation, then Akira continued. "In any case... Amusing coincidence, with you coming here. Seeing as our earth, being an Ultimate Origin candidate, as you term it... Well, given that we've found sufficient fossils and genetic evidence, possibly comparable to the evidence you have, to determine that we have evolved here... Looks like the Autessanat xenohistorians will have to find another obsession to busy themselves with."

"That's since the arrival on Kañueta, mind," Ayashi explained. "Civilisation per se is only about fourteen thousand years old, and recognisable writing is a bit over eight thousand. Of course there's a lot of history before then, but we know a lot less about it. For the past four thousand years, though - well, there are seas of it.

"Obviously you know more about it than me, but I wouldn't be sure - back when the Empire first discovered Sthna Asnubh, that planet had fossil evidence, related species, subspecies - the lot. It was inhabited for about two million years. Ausuay was similar, dating back three million - and the Autessanat thought they'd found the Ultimate Origin both times. But the only real way to be sure somewhere's not is to find another place older - so really, how can we know?

"But I don't think the Autessanat will be doing anything at this late date - the Autessanat Empire was destroyed two thousand years ago! There's still some Reigh about claiming Imperial descent, and I think they still have an Imperator, but given that Autessa got hit by an Other asteroid in the first strikes of the war ... no more Empire."

OOC: Braaaains! Jovian orbit and braaaains!

"Hummm. Well, yes, there's that." Akira replied, slightly embarrassed. "Of course, I forgot... Well, yes, total war can be a nuisance for this kind of research... Pity, that."

The last bits of food vanish in what could probably be counted as the formula one class of a stomach, then Akira continues, seemingly... Satisfied.

"In any case, it's still a fairly impressive history... Distinctly longer than our own. And I'm certain that diving through 4000 years will be more than satisfying for my curiosity. Especially seeing as it would just be a part time thing. Being a cruiser brings its hardships with it, despite the considerable pay.

"As for, well... Ultimate Origin, you might have a point there, although last I checked, some of our findings point to a time somewhere between five and seven million years ago..." He shrugged. "But then, it might just be good for our ego to believe that we're the origin. Who knows. And since I'm not a geneticist... Can't say much more. I guess the geneticists would, though."

"I'll be sure to ask one," Ayashi said, and yawned. "Tomorrow - it's getting late, at least if you want to get anything done tomorrow morning."

A flick of her fingers, and holographic glyphs sprang up, shifting and flickering rapidly as Ayashi navigated through menus and submenus. It was obvious she'd been doing this for years.

"Just ... checking my mail, I guess you could call it," she explained. "The Raven Lord should have left something on where I'm to put you for the night - ah, here we are. Wow, that's expensive - he must be pulling credit straight from the Brotherhood budget. He's booked rooms in the Velekuínsyé - that's our most prestigious hotel, although it doesn't see so much use as it used to.

"Don't mind me, please - I need to contact my roomate, get her to feed my pets."

Ayashi's fingers moved again - the commands, developed over thousands of years from the standard key commands of antiquity, formed a secondary, kinetic alphabet accompanying the written glyphs.

"Hi, Alduria," she said, subvocalising rapidly, "Look - yes, I know I'm late, I got stuck babysitting a foreign diplomat - yes I'll tell you about it - no, I won't be home tonight - no! Don't be lewd - will you feed Sasui for me? - Thanks! Yes, I'll be doing more of the same tomorrow. Catch you later. Bye!"

Both her speech and Alduria's replies were entirely inaudible across the table, picked up by discreet sensors on her neck and fed through a similarly discreet earpiece. There was nothing unusual about either in the City - a look about would show Akira that everyone had them, if he'd known what to look for.

"There," she said finally, "That's that taken care of."

OOC: Text in Times New Roman is, of course, Latin. Text in Comic Sans MS is the native language. Text in size one and quotations is subvocalised speech. Text in size one with an OOC note in front of it, like this, is just OOC.

"Well..." Akira started, but thought the better of it. He wasn't quite sure just how liberal the locals were with regards to drugs. Even if all they did was boosting the body a little to stay awake for, well, about a week.

And it wasn't like they were without side effects.

"Heh... Well, I must be worth something, then. I certainly wont complain. Well, I haven't yet seen the rooms..." A chuckle escaped him as he looked at Ayashi. Other societies would probably have considered the kind of informality displayed during the whole evening as mildly scandalous. For Akira, it was perfect.

He watched, not getting much of what followed during Ayashi's, well, private talks (Granted, some comments would have amused him greatly) without being particularly intrigued. It wasn't a method he knew about (And he didn't really get just what was happening) but it wasn't unusual enough to be especially noticeable, either.

"Well." Came his answer, once Ayashi had finished. "So... To the hotel then, I guess? I hate to admit it, but for now, I will still need a guide..."

He was already vaguely interested in the second day. This day, they hadn't had much time to do much, given his, well, late arrival. Tomorrow would most likely be more in-depth.

Well, he would see, once he had some sleep.

ooc: You forgot to mention that text written in latin characters can be read ;)

"To the hotel, then," Ayashi agreed. "I think it's somewhere near here."

Another flick of the fingers, and a map flashed into being in midair. The route from resturant to Velekuínsyé was outlined in red; it was only a few blocks away.

"Come on!" Ayashi said cheerfully, and led Akira up out of the foundations of the "sky"scraper to ground level. In the late evening, the streets looked very different - almost as crowded, although there were less bicycles and cars, and more pedestrians. Coloured lamps had been hung from the branches of the trees along the streets.

The "sky"scrapers were hubs of activity, with people going up, or down, to various attractions advertised in flickering holograms on their sides. The Velekuínsyé tower was mostly dark, a deep purple illuminated by silvery vine-like scrollwork along it's corners. Ovoid in plan, it tapered towards it's roof nearly a kilometer above; looking up, the effect was to make it look even taller than it was.

Inside, stairs led up or down, and it was here that the advertising was thickest - pictograms, images, or full-blown animations pointing the way to different establishments; clearly people only entered the Velekuínsyé tower when they already knew what they wanted.

As Ayashi was checking the map again - apparently the hotel proper was located in the upper reaches of the tower - the holographic image of a young woman, dressed in a purple suit to match the tower's exterior, appeared before them.

"Raven Neophyte Vailachi, Ambassador Watanase?" she smiled prettily, clasping her hands behind her back. "I'm Kata, Automated Attendant Program of Velekuínsyé Hotel, the best in the City. Would you care to follow me?"

The hologram led them to the lifts, and up nearly two hundred and fifty floors to the main entrance of the hotel. A flesh-and-blood attendant looked up briefly as they emerged, but turned back to her holograms when she saw the Automated Attendant Program with them.

"It is a great pleasure to have you both here tonight," the program told them chirpily. "Ambassador, you have been assigned Suite Eighteen - we hope that it will be sufficient for your august personage, and I am ready to undertake any requests you may have.

"Neophyte Vailachi, you have been assigned Suite Nineteen - that's right next door. Have a very good evening."

The hologram flickered out of existence, leaving them alone in the corridor.

"- A very good evening," Ayashi translated. "It's a bit - I don't know the word - silly, I suppose? People expect it in a place like this."

OOC: If you mean the stuff in Times New Roman, then yes, if your character happens to speak Latin. The stuff in Courier Sans MS, then yes, if your character happens to speak Kahr Dalat, or has a universal translator on hand.

If that's not what you meant ... then I have no idea.

ooc: Actually, it was supposed to be a joke of sorts... Well, failed.

It was a fairly... Interesting sight, the whole city, once more astounding Akira with the mixture of hightech (The city itself) and rather ordinary aspects (The lamps) it consisted of.

He evaded a few collisions with the people around them (Technically, crowds were something Angstians were used to. Practically speaking, Akira wasn't, though, courtesy of him usually being in space, alone), following Ayashi as good as he could.

For a moment or two, Akira pondered the reasons for having a hotel of this size. It didn't make too much sense, for him, but then, the City was most likely having a somewhat different culture... They were possibly going there, regardless of having their apartments within a 10km radius.

Once inside, he didn't pay too much attention to the advertisements, only chuckling a little when he saw a particularly amusing, surreal, or lewd one, a few managing to raise his interest a little more, giving his imagination a push or two.

Well. At least now I know why it's so big. Akira thought, now reclassifying the tower as 'Multipurpose Institution'.

A moment later, the hologram appeared.

Cute. Was Akira's reaction, spoken, or rather, whispered, in a mildly Japanese-leaning Angstian dialect. To bad she's just a Hologram.

He chuckled, for a moment looking at Ayashi. Although... Oh, right, I should concentrate on different things.

Once arriving at the suites, he turned towards Ayashi once Kata had vanished into thin air, nodding politely. "Oh, well... Just a phrase, no? Anyway... You must excuse me, but I'm not particularly well versed in your language and didn't get a single word of what the hologram said. So... Which suit is for me, which one for you?"

ooc: Skipping to the next morning, assuming no particular plans for the night, I guess?

"Didn't I say?" Ayashi asked. "This one is yours - number Eighteen. Mine is number Nineteen here, just across the hall."

She waved a hand to open the door; the suite within was just as luxuriously appointed as one would expect, decorated in subtle shades of cream and beige.

"If you need help, just come find me," she continued. "Ordainarily the hologram could do that, but of course you don't know the language.

"Well ... goodnight, I guess."

And she stood on tiptoe to kiss Akira rather chastely on the forehead, before blushing and vanishing into her room.

OOC: Oh! That's okay, I'm not good at jokes. Skipping to the morning is fine with me.

A small point of interest; while the Velekuínsyé Hotel corporation (or cooperative, or dynasty, or whatever it may be) owns the building, and leases most of it out to other organisations, the land it's built on is owned by the state, and is under long-term lease. This is because the avaliable land area is limited; it's another reason why people tend to build upwards rather than outwards.

Akira nodded, politely. "I guess I'll manage it. Goodnight-"

"-then." He had stopped for the moment Ayashi had taken to, well, give him the goodnight kiss.

He stood there for a few more moments (A rather enjoyable kiss, really. Just a little too chaste for my liking... They should have given us one suite. Oh well, can't have everything.), but eventually entered his suite. It was, indeed, rather expensive looking, and vastly preferable to the poor excuse of a bed (He had once asked an engineer why they didn't add actual sleeping rooms to the warships. The answer had been along the lines of 'A hundred more Gigajoules or a Sleeping Room. The latter can be replaced with sufficient chemicals. The former can't.') he had inside the Suicidal Tendencies.

Well, there was no real point in wasting time when the arrangements were this invitingly. The only thing Akira did before falling asleep was eventually checking on the data the Suicidal Tendencies (Alone as it was, now, without its core) had collected during, well... 'Playtime'.

He sighed a little, not so much in frustration as in hidden amusement. Well, at least now he knew the Konanians were present, too.

This thought, he fell asleep, quickly, the result of not being drugged up, which was a rather rare state of mind, for a ship's core.

It rained during the night (as it did every night, thanks to careful climatic engineering) and the following morning dawned bright and clear as the great lamp of the sun began it's daily journey across the ceiling of the dome.

Ayashi woke early (well before most of the City), and spent the grey hours in idle work - going through files for things Akira might want to know, as well as research of her own. She sat in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, watching the sun rise and talking to Alduria (who was very curious about Akira and everything to do with him. Ayashi felt that her interest wasn't entirely scientific).

When it had finally come around to a reasonable hour, she dressed (Velekuínsyé had spared the Raven Brotherhood no expense in obtaining new clothes for her and Akira, and so she was clad in considerably more style than yesterday's robes - although, in deference to her profession, they were still black). Then she ventured across the corridor to knock on Akira's door.

"Good morning!"

The rain was actually rather comforting for Akira. After all, rain was one of the things that *defined* DA, so far that even the stations had artificial rain (Admittedly, the ships didn't. Usually).

Personally, Akira hadn't done much, apart from sleeping. Not exactly surprising, given that the comfort he was in right now was significantly more than what he had had over the past few months. As such, it wasn't terribly unusual for him to use the chance of getting some real sleep. By god, he had almost forgotten how it was like!

Still, he got up in time (Well, barely so), and, after a short exchange with the ship that was now, for the time being, a separate entity, begun dressing himself.

A vaguely amusing process, getting used to upper-class City-fashion. And while it certainly wasn't odd enough to be outright alien (DA was far to diverse for something to *be* utterly alien, at least when it came to clothing), it as still, well... Subtly different.

Of course, this feeling could just be Akira's imagination, a result of both, isolation and the sheer feeling that something 'new' (The City) just had to be different in more than just a few ways.

In any case, when Ayashi knocked on the door, Akira was just in the process of getting dressed. In fact, half done.

Well, almost half done.

And, of course, being vaguely used to indoor nudity while most definitely not being a trained diplomat, he didn't see much of a problem.

"Good morning. Come in, I'll be ready in a minute!"

"If you're not decent, I can wait!" Ayashi called back. I should have asked him if he was, she thought, embarrassed.

The Angstians were apparently quite comfortable with casual nudity, if this was anything to go by, whereas the City ... well, you had to be polite, after all. Family or friends might not care what you did in private, but strangers on the bus were another matter entirely.

It was slightly disturbing; she hadn't really analysed her own culture like that (although she knew there were Ravens who did). When one got down to it, though, "Why did the Autessanat do this?" wasn't too far different from "Why do we do that?", and only slightly removed from "Why do the Angstians ...?

That latter, however, would require information the City simply didn't have. Perhaps as Akira learned from her, she could learn from him.

Akira giggled a little. So much for casualness in the City. Odd, given yesterday. "A minute." Hummm. How is this piece of... No, not loincloth... Actually, it would be amusing if it was a loincloth... Oh well. He struggled a little more with the available clothing, but eventually, he managed it.

Finishing, he eventually opened the door. "Done. So... Timetable for today?"

Ayashi stifled a giggle - Akira cut a rather odd figure, clad in the avant-garde of City fashion.

"Well," she replied, "You said you wanted to learn about our history, as well as our language. The best place to do both is probably the Raven Brotherhood university - and it's right here in Tunosúyahé Prefecture, so it's not far away at all.

"I'm not sure how much we'll be able to find that'd be of use to you, but it's worth a try. After breakfast, of course."

"I see... And please don't laugh." Akira said, his expression showing rather clearly that he wasn't exactly serious. Still, he was looking (And acting) seemingly awkward, in this new... Outfit. "In any case, well, given that I've never worked through it before, I guess that we'll find a lot... I have a wide area of interests. So... Well, I'm all yours. Wherever you go, there I will follow. First, as you said, food."

Anh Kirkasi

Once again Anh Kirkasi stretched out his perceptions. It was harder this time than it had been in the Rsozha system; he was three hundred lightyears further away from Elkaisse and Herakhet.

So the silence could be simply attrition due to distance (the talent was instantaneous and unlimited by range, but one could not blanket-sweep a large area with perfect success). He clung to that thought as system after system were located, checked, came up negative.

But in the end he was forced to conclude that there simply were no other human telepaths in the former expanse of the League. He hoped they might be outside reality, in yaherin transition, but it was more possible that they were dead. No more Herakhet, no more Elkaisse, no more Dragon Combined Fleets; just Kaireigh. It was not a happy thought.

Interlude: Artificial Intelligence and the Autessanat

Once a culture develops self-adaptive programming, it takes little time before artificial intelligence inevitably develops; left to itself, an evolving program will eventually acheive sapience.

On Kañueta, this occurred roughly a century after the beginning of the Second Florescence. Kañuetan humanity was already beginning to adapt - to microgravity, to hard radiation, to incorporate more and more of the hardware the factories churned out.

But the overwhelming majority of humanity were not engineered, had no implants, and resented the growing power and independence of those "upwell". It was from this base stock that the Autessanat Empire rose. Kañueta, and then the system, was united under the Imperial flag.

In such an atmosphere, AI, like the engineered, could not thrive - but they were too vital to the running of the Empire to simply abandon. So the Empire's asteroid factories produced AI core after core, only increasing in number after First Contact with the Hvekht. They were vital, but mistrusted, servants.

Then the Others came, and within a few short months the factories had been destroyed, the worlds were ruined, and all but a few AI were gone with them. Those few became extremely valuable commodities in the new fugitive culture which sprang up, and reached - eventually - emancipation.

Some of them became very important in the nascent proto-League; others abandoned their traditional duties and occupations for other pursuits. But they would never again be slaves.

Watanase Akira

After breakfast, they walked the short distance to the Raven university, another "sky"scraper adjoining the central park. Much like the previous evening, there were many vehicles, both pedal-powered and electric, in evidence.

Ayashi led Akira confidently through the maze of passages inside the building - that she knew this place much better than the City outside it was evident. Eventually they reached an office staffed not by a hologram but by a flesh-and-blood woman.

"Good morning, Ri."

The woman turned and smiled brightly at Ayashi. In her youth she had clearly been stunningly beautiful by anyone's standards; now there were wrinkles accumulating at the corners of her eyes (which meant, in Kaireigh's terms, that she was at least a century old), but she had aged with grace.

"Good morning, Ayashi," she replied, "It is always good to see you. And this will be the Angstian ambassador? Sorend has told me all about him."

"Yes, this is Akira Watanase," Ayashi replied, rendering his name in the League order. "Akira, this is Ri Ashkali. Ri, Akira."

"I am glad to meet you," Ri said in very poor Latin, "It is not often now that we see strangers. What can I do for you?"

"Akira is looking for information on our history," Ayashi explained, dropping back into Kahr Dalat, "As well as information on our language - it's a great hindrance, having to have me translate everything.

"So I was wondering if Guskirem was about?"

"Old Ershe Guskirem? I'm afraid not - apparently the Phoenix Lord said that there were no more telepaths out there, so no more Elkaisse, so no more Sa-Reigh - apparently he's got the most Reigh blood of anyone in the City, so the Autessanat Court-in-Exile wants him to be Sa-Reigh. He's off talking to them."

"What, Guskirem's Imperator Ascendant of the Empire, heir to the Dragon Throne, all that? I have trouble imagining him ruling anything - he only wears the mask on Ré!"

"Have some respect for our most august ruler the Imperial Regent, Neophyte," Ri said, and smiled. "But for what you want, I can help you."

"You can? That would be wonderful.

"The man I was going to talk to has apparently been appointed Autessanat Lord Regent," Ayashi explained to Akira. "It's entirely ceremonial, and nobody except the Autessanat Court-in-Exile and some of the Ravens cares much, but it means he's not here - but Ri says she can help us."

Things were becoming more common for Akira, as he stayed. He was slowly getting used to the city.

The positive result was that he was now concentrating on the matters at hand, rather than constantly looking elsewhere, collecting impressions of the city and its people.

The negative result was a noticeable reduction of his general attention span.

Incidentally, Akira could hardly wait to learn the language. Listening to the conastent, surrounding babel of tongues when in public was hard enough to endure, given that he couldn't understand a word, and Ayashi's exchanges with locals were, well...

He was quite simply a very curious person, and he disliked the idea of not getting everything that was happening around him.

He bowed politely, smiling a little as Ri greeted him, murmuring some sort of reply he thought was vaguely appropriate. Given his own not-all-that-good latin and Ri's even-worse latin, he hadn't quite grasped what she had said.

It didn't matter, though, what with general pleasentries always being a good choice.

"Oh, well, so am I. And that will... Change, hopefully."

I wonder if I got it right.

"I see..." Was the next thing he said, once Ayashi had finished her exchange with Ri and explained the... Well, situation to him. "So some bits of the Autessannat have survived. Sort of." A bit of hesitation as he smiles, a little. "Well... Congratulations to the man who is becoming the Autessanat Lord Regent, then. As far as we are concerned..." He does a second, short bow towards Ri, almost giggling. "Gladly accepting your help."

"It is given gladly," Ri replied. "As for the Regency, it's something like ... oh ..." the woman frowned, trying to think of a comparison Akira would recognise. "Something like as if a scholar of the campaigns of Alexander was told he was heir to the Alexandrian Empire - in the time of the Roman Empire.

"Unfortunately for the Court-in-Exile, it's little more than a historical curiousity these days - but then historical curiousity is what we Ravens are all about! But I will pass your congratulations on to Ershe.

"Now, if you wish to learn our language, or our history, we'd best head to a library room."

Ri switched her desk's holographic projectors to displaying a few glyphs in midair, and led them off down the corridor to a smallish room almost like a conference chamber. While the Raven Brotherhood possessed massive archives of physical artefacts, they were dwarfed by it's purely digital archives - and those were distributed in computronium throughout the University, accessible from anywhere in the City.

[font=Comic Sans MS]"He seems like a nice young man," Ri commented in Kahr Dalat.

"He is entirely too forward, I think," Ayashi replied.

"Ha! I am quite certain that is a subjective judgement. Not good history!"

"You think he's going to go down in history?"

"Everything does, no? You never can tell.

"Well, Ri said, switching back to Latin, "Where would you like to start?"

OOC: Many apologies for the lateness of this.

's if I'm any better. Well, ok, in this particular instance... Nevermind.

Akira chuckled at the comparison. "I see... A somewhat odd occurance, then. I wonder, you must be quite into our local history, I take it?"

He followed Ri, not without wondering what the glyphs meant. Well, most likely they were the equivalent of 'Back in five', but this didn't really stop Akira from being curious, anyway.

Still being mildly annoyed at his inability to understand what the two women were talking about (Granted, he did have his suspicions), he perked up as Ri started using her more or less forced latin, again (Almost missing it, given that latin wasn't exactly his native language). "Wha? Ah... Well, I kind of need to know some rudimentary bits of your language to start with the history part, I guess, so the choice is obvious." He smiled a little. "So... Well, I'm a little helpless right now... Any advise?"

Watanase Akira

Ri smiled; Ayashi stifled laughter.

"You could say that," the older woman replied. "History is what we Ravens do - "Those who do not learn from the past", you know ... it is quite gratifying to find that foreigners share that saying.

"I don't suppose we have the time to teach you Khar Dalat the conventional way," Ri mused, "But I think Sorend had some kind of automatic translation program - I'll have to ask him."

Glyphs flickering, she set about doing that. If Ayashi thought it odd that Ri referred to the Raven Lord by his first name, she didn't mention it.

"He doesn't have a holocom to run it on," Ayashi mentioned. "Shouldn't we do something about that?"

"Yes, we should," Ri replied. "Recording? "Neophyte Vailachi is hereby authorised to access Raven Brotherhood discretionary account number three five five seven for the purpose of purchasing a holocom for Ambassador Watanase, by authorisation of Raven Adept Ri Ashkali, Terran History Specialist". That ought to do it."

"You want me to go buy him a holocom? Now?"

"Yes, dear girl. Off you hop!"

"Uh ... shouldn't he come with me?"

"I'm sure you're perfectly capable of buying a holocom without him, and I'm sure I'm perfectly capable of taking care of him until you come back. Shoo, mother hen!"

"Yes, Ri. Right away!"

Ayashi departed the library room at a trot.

"Hardware purchase," Ri explained to Akira. "There's a translation program I've got for you - it translates speech from Khar Dalat to Latin, or vice versa, fairly well, but you don't have the proper hardware to run it. Actually, we may need some help with it."

She made a complex gesture (Akira might have been amused to learn it was an invocation of a long-abandoned god of Kañueta) and a holographic figure flickered into being beside her.

"This is Cobalt," Ri told Akira, "He is the Raven Brotherhood's resident AI."

"Ave Caesar, son of Roma!" Cobalt snapped off a Roman salute, arm outstretched, palm down, and gave Akira a mad grin.

"He's a little rampant in his old age, poor thing," Ri said in a stage whisper. Cobalt contrived to look mightily offended.

"When seventeen hundred years of age you reach, as coherent as me you will not be. Meatbag."

Kishaya Arianth

The Dragon Brotherhood might be drastically reduced in terms of main-line warships, but it would be a mistake to say it had no ships at all; aside from the City's own squadrons of defense craft, a freighter convoy hid within the Dragon's docks. It had been about to depart for Khar Kasine when the escorting cruisers had been pulled away, along with the remainder of the Combined Fleets, to defend the capital City. They hadn't returned, and the convoy had remained in the City during their flight from the Others.

A Temple class freighter like the Good Intent was a far cry from a battleship, though. There was so much less room to avoid people.

"All I'm saying," Inikath Rohivsa repeated, "Is that it makes no sense! There is no reason Sarithnach should be commanding my ship."

Kishaya sighed. There was an unfortunate gulf between a Support Captain like Rohivsa and a Group Commander like Morthris Sarithnach; for one thing, the latter was an order of magnitude higher in the Dragon Brotherhood's hierarchy.

"Look," she said, for the umpteenth time, "Morthris is a Group Commander. The Midnight Firefly is in drydock right now. If he decides he wants to captain a freighter on a short little run to drop hydrogen scoops in Jovian orbit, why should the Dragon Lord say no?"

"Possibly because it's my command?"

She tried changing tacks. "Rohivsa - Inikath - everyone is stressed right now. We just dropped into a system which was supposed to be happily unoccupied by spacefarers and which instead has a total fleet count somewhere higher than the Others! Morthris is just more stressed than the rest of us - there are only four other living members of his species, for gods' sakes!"

"So? Is he going to flip out and eat me or something?"

"Of course not. Don't be stereotypical," the Group Commander said, appearing in the hatchway. "I may be Sraeny, but that doesn't mean I spend my time off-duty chowing down juicy sabh-Kanyetu like you, Rohivsa. Although I must say you're being incredibly unprofessional. You need to watch that - it'll hurt your promotion chances."

Morthris grinned. Unlike their human cousins, the Sraeny did not regard grinning as a friendly gesture - a mouthful of wickedly sharp teeth was not the sort of thing you made friends with.

"Besides," he added, returning to the tiny command capsule, "I would never eat you, Rohivsa - what kind of honour do you have?"

"'Least I'm human," Rohivsa grumbled. "Bastard."

"Gods, Rohivsa!" Kishaya snapped. "Would you stop being utterly primitive and link in? Any more of this shit and you'll start delaying the launch!"

"Whatever."

He did link in, but his presence on the Shiplink was crude, ugly. No wonder he'd never been promoted past Support Captain!

"He has been passed over approximately ... thirteen times now," Mrothris sent to her privately. "It makes him fractious in the presence of authority. Kmorchy.

She grinned - the Sraeny word meant, approximately, "cannonfodder". Coming from a species which had spent twenty thousand years in all-out mechanised warfare, it was not a polite term.

"Inikath, start up the secondary reactors, please. Kishaya, a one-second hydrogen burn on my mark." Mrothris was all professionality now, directing the Good Intent's operations like a true master. Given the much greater complexity of a battleship in combat, this was a walk in the park for him.

"Reactors online," Inikath reported. "You want me to fire up the primary now?"

The Shiplink wasn't a true gestalt, but at times it came close. Kishaya could practically feel the man's resentment, and noticed the minute alterations in bandwidth as Mrothris spoke to him. She couldn't tell what they said but she could guess - once the bandwidth dropped back to normal the Support Captain was a good deal more well-mannered.

"That burn now, please Kishaya."

She sent an affirmative, and opened up the hydrogen tanks for a brief moment. Gas vented and ignited from the primary thrusters, and the Good Intent left the docking bay. Morthris wouldn't order the antimatter tanks opened until they were well clear of the City.

"Uh... What's so... Amusing about this?" Akira blinked in confusion, one, two, three times. "And, well, given the history of god knows how many different human civilisations over the past few millenia, well... I would suppose that one doesn't necessarily memorise... Everything." Right now, he felt incredibly stupid. Not a pleasant feeling. "Well, anyway. Yes. I mean... Yes. Of course, conventional would take up a little time... Although we should have years to come... But not, err... Right now. I think."

Argh!

He listened, or rather, watched the two women discuss... something in a vaguely amusing manner, and couldn't help but to smile a little. How adorable. In fact, they reminded him of DA... Despite suffering more-or-less disastrous cataclysms, be they diseases or alien invasions, the society had survived surprisingly... Civil? No collective trauma to speak of, as odd as it was.

He then nodded, struggling a little to understand Ri's latin. "Ah, ok. I hope I wont be too invasive, finally understanding what you're saying when using Khar Dalat?" He chuckled. "I wouldn't want to be an obstacle."

He then watched Ri a little longer, wondering why the systems seemed to be gesture controlled (Personally, Akira found it to be a little overcomplex. He would never manage to get the gestures correctly. What a pain!), until Cobalt appeared.

"AVE! Although it might be useful to read up on the last 2000- odd years." Akira repeated the gesture, amused and terribly reminded of a few drones he knew. He was definitely going to like Cobalt. "Well, downloading the necessary data, in your case. Now, until Ayashi returns, well... What?"

Outside the City

Suicidal Attractions was still floating outside the city, orbiting it every now and then, as it noticed the craft leaving the docking bay.

Almost immediately, its sensors concentrated on it, curious as it was, trying to get as much impressions as possible, wanting to know a little more of the people that lived inside the behemoth that was the city (A behemoth it had almost fallen in love with).

Cute.

It decided to follow the craft for a little while, needing to play a little with its drives. This constant minimum acceleration/ deceleration wasn't to its liking.

It was sure the foreigners wouldn't mind.

Watanase Akira

"Every obstacle is an opportunity," Ri quoted. "As for Ayashi, she shouldn't be long - there is a shop not far from the University campus."

Soon enough Ayashi returned, with a small box in one hand.

"Here it is," she said, looking between Ri and Akira as if unsure who to give it to. Compromising, she gave it to Ri, who passed it on to Akira.

"This is your holocom," the older woman explained, "It projects holograms and interfaces with the City net, controlled by hand movements, voice commands, or whatever else you wish.

"Voice commands are recorded by sensors in the collar of your shirt, hand movements are recorded by sensors in your gloves, and because the Velekuínsyé has been paid to outfit you, it's assisted by processors woven into your scarf."

"Which has about the same processing power as I possess in a few cubic centimeters of computronium, I might note," Cobalt added.

Ri stuck her hand through the hologram and waved it about. "Quiet, you. We bipeds don't have the advantage of being built into the walls. Where was I? Ah, yes. Since Ayashi has picked for you one made in the shape of ... a rather nice neo-Imperial pendant of the retrospective hyperbolic school*, it goes around your neck. No, the other way up - that amber gem is the projector proper."

"Earpieces, too," Ayashi offered. "They sit in the pinna - you have to take them out when you shower, or they stop working." She removed one of her own, and put it back in to show him.

"And I suppose I shall have to help you set it up," Cobalt said, "Because I'm sure they don't do the install or display programs in Latin."

Morthris Sarithnach

It was odd how accustomed people could become to things, Morthris thought; humans had evolved on terrestial worlds, but having grown up on Khar Kasine it was comforting to have a gas giant hanging below him again. The subconscious apparently didn't care that his unprotected ancestors would have simultaneously been cooked by Jupiter's electromagnetic fields, frozen by the chill of space, and killed by explosive decompression.

"That Angstian ship is still following us," Kishaya reported. "I thought it had only one crewperson?"

"I have no idea," he admitted. "It's doing nothing to us, and staying well clear of our antimatter rockets, so we're not doing anything to it - I am inclined to let it be."

"Affirmed, sir."

Sometimes the shiplink was much too like what gestalt must be; he had long ago realised Kishaya's affection towards him. That could not be, of course, but he still hadn't explained it to her; for sabh-Kanyetu she was not unattractive. Human morality was rubbing off on him, as it had generations of his ancestors.

"Inikath, is the next hydrogen mine prepared for launch?"

That one was insubordinate; on Sthna Asnubh-that-was he wouldn't have been eaten by the lowliest Sraeny court. But these days, the remaining courts must make do with what resources they could get; eating one's neighbours was unwise.

"...Yes, Group Commander. Number three is folded and in the bay."

The City must make do with what it could, too; which was why the Good Intent was so drastically undermanned. There were too few Dragons left.

"Very good. Moving into launch position now; launch on my mark."

The Good Intent had been accelerating to higher orbit and then decelerating back down to drop hydrogen mines into the Jovian atmosphere; now it was in about as low a Jovian orbit as they could safely attain, preparing to release the third of ten mines.

Morthris made a few minute adjustments to the freighter's orientation (carefully, carefully - compared to warships the Temple-class wallowed like a cow). "Launch the mine."

Folded in the bay, the mine wasn't all that big; most of it's parts could collapse. Once launched out into Jovian orbit, however, they gave the command for the mine to unfold. At the upper end the storage tanks snapped open, large enough to hold many thousands of tons of hydrogen; at the lower end the five collection tubes unfolded accordion-like. And unfolded, and unfolded; they reached all the way from orbit down into the Jovian atmosphere.

The mine was powered by coils of superconducting wire along the length of the tubes, generating electricity from the Jovian magnetic field. Pressure differential along the tubes pulled gas upwards into orbit; along the way, some of the power generated was used to ionise the gases. At the top, an electromagnetic scoop collected the hydrogen; some of it was used in attitude rockets along the tubes, but most of it went into storage. By the time the City reached Jovian orbit, there would be a healthy supply of hydrogen ice ready to be fed into the yaherin tap for antimatter.

"Number three mine deployed successfully. Prepare number four, please."

OOC: *Artistic styles get complicated when you have several thousand years of modern history. Sorry this is a bit late - I didn't realise you'd posted.

Kaireigh

Akira took the box from Ri, only slightly insecure, listening to the two women's explanations and sighing with relief. Good. Not only hand movements. I'm saved.

"Lots of sensors, I see..." Their clothing. And I thought I was wearing mere cotton. He chuckled little, still highly amused by the antics between the two women and the hologram. For some reason, he found the whole situation almost adorable.

"Like this? Oh, ah, like this. Retrospec... I'll take your word for it."

Earpieces, too. I's worse than in Suicidal Tendencies' core.

Still, he put them in, eventually managing to wire himself properly into the system.

"Oh, what a pity..." The issue of his own latin not being particularly perfect hadn't even been touched yet. "But I guess you'll add it quickly enough? To bad the romans didn't have programs, back then... Could be helpful."

Jupiter

The Suicidal Tendencies left the Good Intend at about the same time it actually reached a jovian orbit, content with itself and the fact that it had had a chance to speed up a little. WAY more interesting than its usual schedule.

Of course, Jupiter being full with DA ships, it wasn't particularly surprising that the City-ship was still watched, if only out of sheer curiosity.

A few frighters and ferries even went so far as to at least try to start up some harmless conversations, but those were neither important nor particularly excessive, but merely, well, friendly.

Just, in one case, slightly odd. Why exactly the Mammoth Big Brother had to flirt with just about everyone it came across was, essentially, a good question.

"I'm sure your history would be very different, too," Ri commented. "To work, Cobalt."

"By your command, O captain my captain," the AI replied. And it set to work, flashing through holographic menus faster than the eye could follow. Occasionally Cobalt stopped to ask Akira pertinent questions - "What's your age, preferred designation and place of birth? Okay, now what about your favourite colour?" - few of which seemed to have much relevance to the installation.

Eventually Khar Dalat glyphs changed to a clear Roman alphabet, nicely contrasted against the background view.

"I've loaded the translation software onto your hardware," Cobalt told him, "So it's translating everything for you. It's supposed to be user-intuitive, but I don't know - the only meatbag I know who managed to get everything right the first time is a Hvekht." the AI grinned cheerily. "But I shall now abandon you to the mercies of these two lovely ladies. Be good, now."

Cobalt disappeared almost like a Cheshire cat, his broad grin hanging in the air for a second or two longer before it too vanished.

Ri raised an eyebrow. "He talks," she said. "He talks a lot. But he's a good soul, for all that. And now - the whole of our history is open before you. Where would you like to start?"

OOC: Alas, I fear this post is uninspired.

"Well, yes. Somewhat. Although a programming-language controlled mechanical abacus... Nevermind."

While Cobalt was doing its work, Akira couldn't help but to giggle every now and then... Well, actually, permanently, trying to reply to the supposedly meaningless questions (Well, he supposed that Cobalt was just into small talk, which wasn't a bad thing, really) before the next question came up.

"Thirty-four, Shipmind, a subsonic plane over the central atlantic... yes, it was a little... bad timing, for my mother. I was surprisingly eager to experience the world. Ahem. Uh... not sure... gray?"

Moments passed by, and eventually, results could be seen. "Ah! Seems to work perfectly well." Well, 'intuitive control' was probably a good deal less efficient than it was supposed to be.

"I'm sure it will work out." Akira replied, watching the slowly fading grin that remained of Cobalt, slightly amused. "Merciful as they are."

"Heh... Yes, he certainly does." He then continued in Ri's direction, once the grin had faded into nothingness. "Though to be honest, I like him that way... certainly an interesting fellow. Not sure how it works out when one lives with him every day, for decades, though. Anyway..." He hesitated, pondering the newly available options and playing a little with the supposedly-intuitive translation device available to him, supposedly being the key term.

A sigh. I'm sure I'll get used to it, over time. "Hrm... The others... No, too recent. The League... No, not without knowing the backgrounds. Lets say... whenever your ancestors first reached into space? With a few references to what was before, I'd think, so I know the basics. Available and verified data, of course, not when your very distant ancestors came from here... or elsewhere, for that matter. If you weren't in space for all of history, that is."

Ri laughed. "He is a handful, and has been for centuries, but he is a good Raven for all that. He was a scoutship at one point, which probably helps ... I'll see what we can do, then."

Glyphs flickered as she ran through her own subroutines, pulling fragments of data into rough order.

"Most of this is from various documentaries," she explained, "Some of which are quite old themselves - we have non-interactive recordings on the first spaceflights from pre-Imperial days! But still good, despite their age - you have translation programs, after all. I can get you more in-depth data if it's wanted."

She sent the aggregate to Akira's holocom, and five thousand years of history unfolded.

In the beginning (or a beginning, at least) had been the Great Florescence, when the civilisations of the South polar continent had discovered those of the North, and had overcome them with cavalry and swords. It had spawned intercontinental trade, and wars, and science; out of these arose the first Autessanat Empire, with half the world under it's sway.

That Empire had fallen, eventually, fragmented into competing successor states; but three hundred years later the Kañuetat reached space, and two hundred years after that they began to expand throughout their solar system; the Second Floresence began.

Kañuetat hegemony collapsed as that of Autessa had done six hundred years before, eroded by seccession in the colonies and revolution at home; but the homeworld still held ninety percent of the Kañuetat population. They looked backwards to the days of Imperial unity, and the Second Autessanat Empire was born.

The Second Empire weathered the gift of FTL travel and antimatter production from the Hvekht to expand throughout the stars in the Third Florescence, conquering the hominid populations of Ausuay and Sthna Asnubh. It lasted two thousand years before the Others appeared, toppling the Empire with c-fractional asteroid impacts.

Surviving ships, laden with refugees from the Imperial heartlands, fled to the frontiers, and in the rough frontier justice of the asteroid outposts the mighty had fallen, the meek had risen up. Reigh rubbed shoulders with plebes, Sraeny with Kañuetat, Ausuay with telepaths. Everywhere the Imperial creation-races - herms, mantis, anthrinat and stranger things besides - dispersed throughout the frontier, joined by the occasional Hvekht.

When the Others appeared, they ran. The planetary colonies were winnowed away. Here and there the surviving asteroid colonies banded together; Khar Kasine was founded, and the Kasinat League began.

The League encompassed anarchy, autocracy, democracy and theocracy; they held few scruples in the war against the Others. They began to retaliate, in hit-and-run raids against the establishing Other centres in the former Imperial heart.

For fifteen hundred years they survived, but the League Cities were whittled away one by one, until even great Khar Kasine fell; then Kaireigh had fled to Sol, leaving the Others behind them ... for a little while.

OOC: Apologies for lateness - had a lot of stuff to finish for class. It's now holidays, so I'll be able to reply more often, hopefully.

Akira smiled, (Still) quietly amused. "Oh, I'm sure... Scoutship? I suppose he's had quite some interesting career..."

He listened further, nodding. "I'm sure I'll take advantage of it. Would be a waste not to-"

There was a brief moment of distraction when the data was transferred. Accessing it took another moment, and then he could 'datadive' as much as he could possibly want to.

Quite fasci- Right, Ri could hardly hear him this way. "Quite fascinating..." He looked through various files, smiling a little with amusement as he looked through some of the recordings Ri had mentioned. It was a little romantic, in a sense.

In fact, there was a lot of romanticism included. Old-fashioned cavalry, the likes... A somewhat more philosophically inclined person than Akira would probably have mused about how technology developed while ethics stayed almost the same, keeping violence alive, but then, being a warship (Well, piloting one), Akira wasn't exactly someone who thought about such issues.

Old - Very old - artworks of the pre-spacetravel times, dealing with glorified battles. Times of great ideas and huge leaps followed by times of strife. It striked him as almost annoyingly familiar.

Some things were the same everywhere, he guessed.

Two thousand years of the third florescense... An admirable timeframe of relative peace. Akira looked through the various developments... culture, arts, language... All fairly impressive, though apparently accompanied by relative technological stagnation - At least when compared to the timeframes within which solar nations developed - something he supposed was at least partially responsible for the success of the Others.

He asked a few questions, of course - Which artist was this, who triggered that invention, why did this leader fail, how the hell did this grammar structures develop - but the wealth of information available to him, right now, was sufficient to satisfy most of his immediate curiosity.

A part of him shivered briefly as he came to the 'Others'. However, he didn't do so in horror... As 'civilian' as the DA military - And consequently its ships - was, its members were still using weapons - Or were weapons to begin with - to eradicate life. And they relished in violence, in destruction, in death. Not openly of course, not frequently. But the desire, the affinity was there. And Akira liked reliving the struggle, reading through documents, watching through recordings, imagining how it had been, for both sides. Two parts of him were imagining to be on either side, dealing out death and destruction.

A third part of him was ashamed that he did so, but there was a reason for him to have choosen the path he was now pursuing, being the core of a warship... He ignored this third part of him.

Fifteen hundred years... It was an odd conflict, certainly. Not epic in the conventional sense, more like spacedy guerilla warfare... Akira kind of liked the idea.

"Mhm..." He hesitated for a moment, reflecting a bit on what he'd just seen/ learned. "I guess I could keep myself busy for a few decades, if I go into details... Well, I guess you do it for a lifetime. Quite interesting, definitely. If a little frustrating, for the last one-and-a-half millenia..." Whoops. "Errr... Sorry about that. Anyway-" Another look at the data, looking at the parts he had found particularly intriguing. "I wonder about the various races that made up the Second Empire and the Kasinat League..." He smiled almost shyly. "I suppose that the arrival of the Others had a sort of unifying effect."

"Certainly it did," Ri agreed. "For one thing, under the Autessanat there was a very strict hierarchy - the Kañuetat were uppermost, with the non-Kañuetat races below them, and the Hvekht below that. The Reigh were at the top, and their engineered species weren't, officially, citizens of any stripe.

"When the Others came, the refugee ships didn't care much for official rank - most of the Reigh were dead, the Autessanat were finished. The people who survived were a diverse lot, although there was - and still is - a majority of Kañuetat.

"And of course everyone had to get along, because the people who didn't fell to the Others. War is a very powerful unifying mechanism, of course. Most of the League consisted of various kinds of weighted democracies - Kaireigh still is, in most ways - although there were a lot of exceptions; Herakhet was a sort of ogliarchy, and Elkaisse was a meritocratic admirality.

"But now, of course, there's just us."

OOC: Again I'm terribly late ... terribly lazy, I guess. It's coming up on a year since I started this!

"Oh? I see..." Akira nodded as neutrally as he possibly could - Hierarchies weren't exactly popular in the society he came from (The fact that they still existed, plentiful, and would continue to exist simply to make the society run in a vaguely non-catastrophic way nonwithstanding), and very strict hierarchies, well...

Neither pleasant nor liked.

"The system is - Was - complex, I guess. I suppose it'll take me a while to get it." He smiled a little embarrassed, slightly confused by the rather considerable number of races/ entities mentioned. "Though, with such a strict hierarchy, I'm sure it took a while to become more... Egalitarian, I guess. Even under this circumstances. Although, I must say... Visiting here, you seem to be a rather happy society, despite all that has happened. To be honest... I'm a little surprised." Another shy smile, perhaps a little nervous - They're rather nice people, certainly, but it might still not be tactful to say this.

Or rather, it simply isn't tactful.

"Don't think we don't grieve," Ri replied, suddenly grave. "We do remember the dead, and they are myriad; but that is a private thing, for each person to come to terms with in their own way. There may be no wailing and gnashing of teeth, but do not think us callous or uncaring for the sake of that."

"But, um -" Ayashi looked embarrassed as she tried to get a word in edgewise.

"But enough of that," Ri continued, her lips creasing in a precise smile. That branch of conversation was clearly at an end. "To answer your other question, it took hundreds of years for the society we now live in to arise - a long time even by our standards. But it took only a few weeks for Autessanat society to collapse, in the wake of the Other attacks.

"In a state of chaos, egalitarianism is the norm - at least insofar as everyone is as lost as their fellows. With the ruling apparatus of the Imperium gone, the old orders collapsed; it took until some semblance of order was restored to the diaspora before new ones arose. We hold Kaireigh to be the best of them."

Ack ... was that any good at all?

"Yes, of course-" I knew it was a stupid thing to say. Bah. "-I never meant to imply anything like that." Akira wondered briefly about adding something about the way his own society dealt with it - Forgetting and embracing hedonism, mostly - but eventually decided not to do so: Better to leave it as it was, before he started to really break the porcelain.

"Anyway. Yes... This is certainly- Well, largely true. Must've been... 'Interesting', if hard times." He hesitated for a moment, musing about that bit of local patriotism - 'Kaireigh is the Best' - though from what he'd seen so far, he supposed that it could actually be true - From his point of view, anyway. He was sure that the now-dead of the other cities would tentatively disagree.

"I suppose the change wasn't always a pleasant process, though, was it? We've quite a few examples of such changes ourselves... Not always pleasant, sadly."