NationStates Jolt Archive

#ComRelay : [PanNorm Command] > [TRD Foreign Ministry] OPEN#

I am pleased to announce that the Coordinated panNorm Hives, upon the decision of the OverCoordinators of both Alpha and Beta Hives, now desires to build an embassy to house a permanent diplomatic mission to your nation. Our previous contacts have been nothing but cordial, and we are made to understand that such things are rare and are therefore to be prized. We also believe that there is much we could learn from each other's cultures and peoples, and therefore in a spirit of curiosity and cooperation ask that you grant our request.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

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AdminCoordinator 67521 of the Blue Mother of Us All
Speaking on behalf of the Mothers of Us All
Coordinated panNorm Hives

#ComRelay CLOSED#

To: AdminCoordinator 67521
From: Thomas Jansen, Foreign Minister

We would gladly accept a panNorm embassy in Tarana and would also like to dispatch a permenent diplomatic delegation to the panNorm.

#ComRelay : [PanNorm Command] > [Foreign Ministry, TRD (Minister Thomas Jansen)] OPEN#

It is our pleasure to reciprocate. You have your choice of embassy location, either aboard our orbital hive Alpha or our Eärendil surface hive Beta. The first may perhaps seem a bit more extreme, as apparent gravity can range from null to fourty percent greater than what standards you are probably used to; however, Alpha is essentially a self-sufficient ecosystem with numerous biomes. Those who have visited always comment on the scope of it. Beta Hive is probably nearer your standard tolerances, but (rather paradoxically) is by no means as naturally stunning.

For diplomatic purposes, either location works although Alpha Hive is probably closer to what is normally thought of as a "capital" and there would be greater opportunity to meet the top-level OverCoordinators in person there. Otherwise our teleconferencing technology should be sufficient, but those are merely elements that should be taken into consideration for your decision.

We plan on having a Blue Coordinator lead the mission to your country, with several Blue Scientists and Red Engineer attaches. A very small defensive unit, no more than twelve Red Soldiers, can provide embassy defense contingent on your permissions. In turn, your mission may include whomever you may desire, although we recommend at least one natural historian and reserve the right to place limitations on defensive needs--our territories are quite secure.

Would it be more convenient for you if we constructed our own embassy, or do you have particular structures in mind for us to occupy?

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AdminCoordinator 67521 of the Blue Mother of Us All
Speaking on behalf of the Mothers of Us All
Coordinated panNorm Hives

#ComRelay CLOSED#

To: AdminCoordinator 67521
From: Thomas Jansen, Foreign Minister

We would prefer to send our delegation to Alpha Hive. We have citizens able to survive the climactic things who emphasize our cultural uniqueness even better than those citizens whom you have previously met. We intend to send a mannikin ambassador, ten paroseme researchers, ten kubera staff, two ondine diplomats, twelve glome guards, and one glome natural historian. We do not mind providing a building or providing you land to construct one upon. The choice is yours.

#ComRelay : [PanNorm Command] > [Foreign Ministry, TRD (Minister Thomas Jansen)] OPEN#

That is certainly acceptable. The EngCoordinator will direct the construction of several diplomatic quarters in the portion of Alpha's habitat space that most closely approximates Terrestrial gravity, starting immediately unless you have some special requirements for your intended staff that we may not be aware of.

We would like to construct our own embassy, but we will of course respect any construction regulations that are standard for your nation. We can easily adapt whatever buildings we make, both on the surface and underground if need be, to whatever space you decide to allot us. We would like to reserve at least a kilometer-long strip of flat field within ten kilometers of the embassy for use as a soft-ground airstrip; otherwise, we will settle for reserving hangar space at whatever similar facilities you may have. Noise and ecological impact information, as well as planned use cycles, will be forwarded upon request.

Are there any other matters of concern we should address before commencing with a diplomatic exchange? We can easily pick up your diplomatic mission while we drop off our workers to construct our embassy, and then a second trip will deliver our own mission and retrieve our workers--if this is acceptable, of course.

http://www.weirdozone.0catch.com/projects/nationstates/s14/blue1.jpg
AdminCoordinator 67521 of the Blue Mother of Us All
Speaking on behalf of the Mothers of Us All
Coordinated panNorm Hives

#ComRelay CLOSED#

To: AdminCoordinator 67521
From: Thomas Jansen, Foreign Minister

Our people require the presence of natural minerals and vegetation in their living quarters. We shall lay aside a twenty acre plot outside Tarana for the construction of your embassy with adjoining land for an airstrip, if this meets your needs. We are now capable of providing our own transportation thanks to recently aquired equipment from friendly powers.

#ComRelay : [PanNorm Command] > [Foreign Ministry, TRD (Minister Thomas Jansen)] OPEN#

Your offer meets our needs quite well. Thank you for your consideration and efforts in this.

When you say that your delegation will need natural minerals, do you mean minerals in ore form, in concentrated elemental form, crystalline minerals, or something else? Vegetation can easily be arranged.

http://www.weirdozone.0catch.com/projects/nationstates/s14/blue1.jpg
AdminCoordinator 67521 of the Blue Mother of Us All
Speaking on behalf of the Mothers of Us All
Coordinated panNorm Hives

#ComRelay CLOSED#

To: AdminCoordinator 67521
From: Thomas Jansen, Foreign Minister

We mean we require rocks and minerals in the form in which they occur in nature. We also require that both our embassy to the panNorm and the panNorm embassy in Tarana be entirely lacking in cold iron.

Ianneiros Wyvernjack pulled a light coat over his white, plastic husk, looking thoughtfully about his store. He had recently been appointed ambassador to S-14 and was only waiting for a few more details to be decided. To be honest, Wyvernjack was a little nervous. By all accounts, this race was different from any Danaan people by quite a goodly amount.

Meanwhile, the spacedy ants immediately set portions of themselves to task, creating the Danaan embassy from the space set aside by the EngCoordinator. The desired minerals are imported from Beta Hive and, far from being strewn about naturally, are set up in simple hexagonal piles every so often, with Reds being detailed to stay on site so if the minerals need to be rearranged, they can assist. The structural members around the embassy are stripped to aluminum supported by the usual rodmium and beryllium steel behind it, keeping the relatively iron-rich steels as far away from the living and working areas as feasible. Modular components are moved in, plastic walls and foam-core insulation, all with modular electrical sockets and conduits that can power secondary devices and transfer information to and from Alpha. Greens in their shopping-cart wheelchairs direct the placement of flora from all over Alpha, selected from a range that should have the least likelihood of any sort of causing an allergic reaction with anything Terrestrial.

The AdminCoordinator, on her part, finds herself--and the panNorm--at a loss when it comes to what kind of being a "mannikin" is... or any of the other species mentioned, although there are similar words in various lexicons. She decides that it is time to do some research on the matter.

The Galaxy was loaded up with all sorts of interesting things. There were a number of pipes and flutes of various kinds, most made of light woods. There were two large containers or water and two portable reflecting pooks to fill with said water. There were several large rocks and minerals. It did not seem that any personnel beyond the usual crew boarded the ship.

After the diplomatic vessel, an Akatoni airship refitted for space travel with better life support systems and a "Black Knight" FTL engine, was fully loaded, it rose through the atmosphere and into the cold space beyond, approaching Alpha Hive over several hours.

Captain Ravamorel Battleheart stood pacing the bridge as the ship approached. The towering Trolless leaned over her communications officer and opened the com. "Greetings, Alpha Hive. This is Captain Battleheart of the Galaxy. We're here to deliver the embassy staff and supplies."

Alpha Hive, aka S-14, is about yea long, if by "yea" one could put one hand on the easternmost coast of England, east of Norwich, and the opposite hand due west on the Atlantic coast of Ireland... 515 kilometers, to be exact, from the nose of the oblong command section to the tip of the massive fusion ramjet's nozzle far, far aft. Essentially radially symmetrical, the ship-station is dominated by a huge habitation cylinder 480 kilometers in diameter and 180 kilometers wide, and the entire ship rotates slowly for gravity.

The hangar deck replies to Galaxy, directing it to land at one of the flight bays in the forward side of the habitation cylinder, providing telemetry and guidance for the vessel. Once Galaxy is inside and has cycled through the massive airlock into the far more massive hangar deck, a detail of Blues and Reds make up a party to escort the diplomats to their new embassy, the larger, spikier Reds seeming quite effective in the role of baggage handlers.

Galaxy docked as per instructions. The Reds were instructed to carry the minerals and water and pools and pipes and several plants to the embassy area. The diplomats themselves now seemed to be in the same storage bay. The apparent leader resembled a human only he was made of plastic. The colors were slightly off. The movements were off. He seemed to hollow, to light, without depth. The oddest part was the hair which did not move at all but remained fixed in a permanent form upon the overly pale head. This is the being who first stepped forward. "Good evening. I'm Ambassador Ianneiros Wyvernjack and this is my staff."

Ten other beings had roughly humanoid form made of wood. All of these creatures seemed strangely charming, as though infected with a contagious joy in and love for life. Thirteen stoic looking beings made of jagged rock and mineral stood near them. Two sad looking watery beings looked about. Of the so-called Parosemes, there was little visible sign but sort of misty, airy, vaguely humanoid forms floating about.

The Blue inevitably dispatched to meet the TRD party isn't sure what to think of the plastic man. Normally, rigid plates are better than floppy flesh, which is why the panNorm inevitably react better to people in hardsuits than plainclothes diplomats. However, as demonstrated previously, centaur-like mixes of the two are simply abominations that bring up ancient racial hatreds that are still a large (albeit submerged) part of panNorm culture and psychology. This... this is different. A mannikin is just a series of rigid plates made to look fleshy... there is no relation to the panNorm, no arthropodic or insectoid lines at all, so it cannot be a true 'abomination.' However, it isn't a humanoid, which, over four hundred years of dealing with the fleshbag Noldo and humans, isn't as distasteful as it once was (but still infinitely inferior to a streamlined constant-volume carapace).

No... it's just weird. The Blue doesn't let this into her voice, and she has no facial features to give away her mild confusion, although her antennae do tap together slowly as she speaks. "Greetings, Ambassador Ianneiros Wyvernjack. I am Coordinator 239197. Hopefully we can construct your quarters to the specifications of you and"--her head remains motionless as she simply concentrates on the other beings in her field of vision--"your associates."

The panNorm do feel oddly easier around the wooden people, and they quickly attach the word "kubera" to them from context. The parosemes perhaps pique the panNorm's curiosity the most, as miasmatic creatures are wholly unknown in conventional biology... which make these new and curious. Certainly everyone in the delegation is new and curious, but these are the newest and most unexplainable. The fact that these apparent elementals--wood, air, stone--exist means that there is science to be done, and questions to be asked.

The Coordinator, however, is far too polite to start asking these questions now. "Is there anything in particular we can get for you right now?"

Wyvernjack inclined his head to the PanNorm. "The pleasure is mine, Coordinator 239197. I think, right now, we'd all like to take some time to get settled in if that's quite alright." As he spoke, the lines of his face seemed a little off from what one would expect in a humanoid. He mimiced the same movements of muscles but it was just a little too slow, a little too rigid.

"Certainly." The Coordinator bows respectfully. "You have come a long way and so the need for rest is certainly understandable. If you need anything, we can be contacted via the communications terminals located along the perimeter of your modular quarters." Gathering up the rest of the panNorm drones with a series of clicks, radio-frequency signals, gestures and pheromones, the Coordinator respectfully makes an exit and leaves the representatives up to their own devices.

The ambassador and his staff spend the next hour or so making themselves at home. Anchors are set up all around the quarters, in the form of pools of water, small trees, woodwind instruments, and rocks. The Glome guards adopt at attention positions. The Ondines sadly sink into their pools, watching the others with wide eyes. The Parosemes dart around through the air. The Kubera seem to speak energetically, flirting with themselves and the other delegates. After everyone is relaxed, Wyvernjack makes his way to the commications device. "This is the Danaan ambassador. We're all settled in and ready for whatever might be planned."

"Outstanding," the Coordinator replies through the speaker grille of the terminal, the system itself replicating the function of a translator box, albeit the user being rather far removed by several hundred meters as opposed to holding it in her mandibles. "We are extremely flexible as to 'the plan,' but I am certain that our mutual curiosities are essentially equivalent in this circumstance. We can arrange a general tour of Alpha, although that would take several days and thus is inappropriate for something as impromptu as current... perhaps we can simply arrange a meeting to share information between us, a mutual question-and-answer session instead? That may be the most efficient way to get to know each other better."

Wyvernjack pondered a moment before responding. "That sounds quite agreeable. I'll be waiting for someone to show me to the appropriate place. See you then."

After a while, Coordinator 239197 returns through the hatch in the floor. Oddly enough, all of the hatches into and out of the irregular honeycomb that is the embassy are on the floor. "It occurred to us, Ambassador Ianneiros Wyvernjack, that constantly referring to us by station and number is perhaps unnatural for your kind. While we see no need to assign individualistic designations to single panNorm who go out on short missions, I will be working closely with you over the duration of your stay in my position of Coordinator of Local Diplomatic Foreign Offices."

She points to a yellow sticker splayed across the front of her thorax, the size, shape, and shine of a removable bumper sticker labeled in thick, bold Microgramma letters: OYZU. "I have been assigned by pseudorandom phoneme concatenation this designation." She pronounces it as "OY-zoo" in the smoothly synthesized voice of her translator box. "You may use it if you so wish; I will do my best to remember to respond to it." The latter part is said with just a touch of good humor inflected into her voice.

"If you will please follow me," she changes subjects, "I will escort you to an appropriate meeting location." With that, she returns down the hatch from whence she came to a transport car, waits for everyone who is coming to file in, then taps in a few coordinates with the light pen beside the pedestal.

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The destination follows the standard panNorm honeycomb organization, a central hexagonal cell surrounded by six adjacent cells. The central cell in this case is open on two sides, opening up into a room made of two cells combined graced by a utilitarian metal and plastic conference table that resembles an abstractly angular barbell. The other four walls, unpainted except for the thin coat of antioxidation lacquer over raw aluminum plating as is standard for the panNorm, have angular archway doors cut into them, leading into smaller offices that are darkened at the moment. Inside, bathed in unintentionally sinister underlighting from the screens of their desks, several Blues take advantage of direct neural interface technology obtained from the Sakkrans in compiling and organizing vast amounts of data.

The conference room has the low-budget and industrial appearance of an interrogation room, no effort wasted on accoutrements or design absolutely unnecessary to the purpose of having a room large enough for several beings to sit around and talk to each other, none of the warming effects usually found in corporate boardrooms. The seats, simple black oblong cushions, slide out from under the table; expecting their humanoid guests, they are hinged and tracked so they can be folded into comfortable chairs with the 'feet' sitting inside the empty bottom of a drawer. The table of itself would look at home inside a nuclear submarine and has two small holoprojectors mounted into it, one in the center of each hexagonal 'bell' on the ends. Two blocky recording and control pedestals sit beside the far walls, and ventilation ducts in the ceiling and floor quietly pipe in air.

After the Coordinator quickly sets up the chairs for her visitors, she settles down at the head of the table, folding her thin legs up under her. Behind her, on the wall, is the only decoration in the room: the insignia of the Coordinated panNorm Hives consisting of four triangles of equal size and different colors, all interlocking; three (red, green, and blue) create a trefoil while the fourth (mottled grey) loops through all three, point-to-flat.

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"The panNorm welcome you to Alpha," the Blue says cordially, "and we hope that the trade of embassies will bring us closer together as societies. With that in mind, do you have any questions or concerns I can help you with?"

Wyvernjack smiled. "That was not truly necessary, though it is remarkably considerate of you. Oyzu..." He pronounces the name, getting a feel for it, before looking up at the panNorm. "Oyzu."

"Of course." he said. As he followed the spacedy ant, he was joined by one Kubera, one Ondine, and one Paroseme.

Wyvernjack and the Kubera sat normally. The Ondine settled into her chair with a sort of splashy, watery effect. The Paroseme flitted about around his chair. Wyvernjack apparently took all this for granted. To him, it was the strangely functional panNorm rooms which were odd.

He thought a moment at the question he was asked. "Well, I suppose the best place to start is the ordinary relations between nations, since there is no particularly extraordinary issue of common concern at the moment. We are always interested in trade and in cultural contact."

'Oyzu' nods passably well, bobbing her head up and down once slowly as her antennae wave, idly smelling the breeze. Her black compound eyes with gold highlights in the reflections are impossible to define in the normal sense; she can't be said to focus on any individual, giving the impression that she is watching everyone simultaneously.

Which she is.

"Of course. The panNorm always need natural resources--for reasons which must be readily apparent--and we are also inherently curious about those that surround us, especially species with such unique traits as your own. As you could probably hypothesize, the experiments our scientist performed to try and assist in your genetic anthropology studies have caused quite the commotion in our scientific circles--we have never seen anything like it, and indeed it seems to violate basic principles of how we understood life to operate. Our science is in error and needs to be repaired to explain the inconsistency you delightfully pose." Her voice is beaming. "Puzzles are always wonderful things to us Blues.

"We do understand that your nation is relatively unadvanced technologically and so that does give us options as to trade; we have technologies and experience that you can profit from while you have resources and additional datasets for us to explore. To us, this suggests a natural flow of resources both physical and intellectual that could be mutually profitable to our cultures."

She pauses momentarily, a most unnatural stillness like a freeze-frame in a roll of film, before she just as suddenly returns to her constant motion, manipulator hands and antennae accenting and speaking along with her words. "As for cultural exchange, we suppose that the most efficient route for that is continued communication and dialogue. There is no way, we have found, to effectively summarize the varied nuances of culture into single paragraphs for easy transmission, and the best way to learn is to expose oneself to other cultures and ask questions in the free knowledge that they will be answered honestly without offense. I assure you now that we will accept any questions you may ask as honest queries and will do our best to respond in kind so as to improve your understanding of us; no offense will be taken and no subject is taboo unless we inform you otherwise. In return, we only hope that you extend us the same favor. Does that seem acceptable to you?"

Wyvernjack nodded slightly. "We generally believe the matter to be unexplainable by the positive sciences. However, your continued interest and research into the matter is most welcome."

Wynvernjack considered the next proposal. "Perhaps comparatively that might still be true. However, it has changed a great deal in recent years, largely through our having previously entered into deals similar to the one you just offerred. It is now the case that the requisite information for most wide-spread advanced technologies and a few more specialized ones is in the hands of the Danaan government and are in use for military and other purposes. What is needed now is to build an advanced infrastructure to spread these technologies to the broad public and to increase the number of Danaans, especially native born Danaans, with the training necessary to create and operate such technology. Much has been done in these areas but more remains to be done."

The Mannikin nodded to the last proposal. "That does sound quite acceptable, though it is not quite what I meant. I was perhaps hoping that cultural contact occurr beyond thediplomatic level."

The Blue nods again, tapping her antennae together. "Thank you for the clarification; our apologies for not understanding your meaning fully. We believe that the apparently separate goals of cultural and technological exchange may actually be one and the same in operation. Individuals of the panNorm are not wont to travel for pleasure, as it were, but if we are to assist in building up your national infrastructure it would require an appreciable application of technical resources in terms of workers and knowledgable overseers. In this way our people could interact directly with yours in everyday circumstances and mutual learning could occur.

"Simultaneously, Alpha and Beta Hives are open to coordinated visits by citizens of your nation, which perhaps lends itself best to scientific explorations by ecologists, taxonomists, biologists, and pleasurable travel by what you call..." She taps her antennae slowly again, her translator box momentarily silent. "...tour groups. Alpha's near-closed ecosystem should provide a wealth of information to those in your nation interested in life sciences; the surface of Eärendil may assist your ecologists as they observe how we transplant life from Alpha to establish successful ecosystems within biomes. Our habitats are built on entirely utilitarian models, so your civic engineers should be able to learn from them on the ideal construction of modern utility and transportation systems--although we fully understand that a nation such as your own has concerns over... aesthetics which are to be taken into consideration."

Wyvernjack nodded. "That sounds like a most agreeable arrangement. Unfortunately, aesthetic considerations must take precedence, generally speaking. People could not survive otherwise."

The Mannikin smiled a plastic smile. "If I understand correctly, the current plan is that the panNorm will seek infrastructure based construction contracts with Danaan companies who might be directed to you through the Commerce Ministry. The embassy here will issue work visas to these panNorm and shall also issue research visas to panNorm anthropologists (by which is meant, in this context, scientific researchers into sentient beings) seeking to study the population of the Resurgent Dream. In return, the panNorm embassy in Tarana will issue visas or equivalent papers for Danaan tourists and researchers to visit both Alpha and the panNorm colony on Earendil."

He paused a moment. "Depending on the amount of traffic, it might be more efficient to route Danaan tourists through Menelmacari Earendil, where extensive Danaan travel already takes place, than to open entirely new travel routes."

"Indeed. That plan, including the more efficient method of transferring through Menelmacar, is most acceptable to us." 'Oyzu' sounds quite pleased by all this, a successful negotiation. "All that remains is closer coordination between us and your civil engineering and civil planning departments so we can plan current and future developmental assistance."

Wyvernjack and the spacedy ants worked out all the little details over the next hour or so before they got a detailed and fully functional schema for the proposed cultural contact worked out. The Danaan ambassador then said his good byes and returned to the embassy quarters to discuss the new relations with his staff.

FIN

As the elected governing official of Pancaketopia, I hereby authorize an embassy for your nation inside our borders. However, due to cramped space in our small young country, the only lots we have available for embassies happen to be located between the Special Forces and Marine Corps training grounds. This is an ensured safe location, but I advise that you do not do anyhting to upset our nation, as the streoids tend to make the "gorilla-geurilla" unit of our special forces very easily angered, and are known to go on violent rampages, eliminating those who cause them discomfort. That unit is our infantry difision's pride and joy, and we would hate to have to have any of them contained in cryogenic stasis, punishment offered as comprimise for those who opposed the program. But don't worry. You guys are nice, right?