NationStates Jolt Archive

The giant consciousness moved through the plasma that composed the outer layers of the sun, consuming a few subconscious, subsentient entities as it moved deeper into the core, the temperature rising, from about 6000 Kelvin to something slightly more than ten times that.

It catched a few particles it found on its way. Carbon, Sodium, Lithium, the likes. Remains of asteorids and comets that had crashed into the sun. It, like all the others, was fairly used to it.

Yet, so far, this things had been pointless, even annoying, a needless disturbance in their world of protons, electrons, and a few light proton/ neutron nuclei.

It stretched out, a concentrated bit of high frequency EM radiation entering the core, trying to reach others like him. Soon enough, replies came. They agreed.

Not all of them of course. They weren't a nation in the sense the ones on the cold, formerly thought to be dead worlds understood it (Indeed, the Giant in question had worked itself through a few bits of data being sent by The Caloris Basin, and it had found the very concept of a nation to be... Incomprehensible at best), and as such, a combined efford wasn't something they would even consider.

Yet, a few of them, and it among them, had decided that they wanted to know more about this outside world they barely understood, this outside world they hadn't even been aware of for aeons.

They wanted to visit it.

Of course, there were problems. Interplanetary travel is somewhat hard to achive when you're a plasmatic being that needs a temperature of at least 5000 Kelvin to stay alive, and doesn't feel good until it's at least twice that.

And it gets even more problematic when you intend to build a suitable vessel inside the sun.

But the (Tiny) group of Suncritters involved in the greater scheme of this particular idea (Or insanity, as most of the others thought. Their kind wasn't exactly known for thinking or acting fast, and as such, spreading new ideas was a painfully slow process, although not too slow, when compared to the time it took to convince others of said ideas), three of them to be correct, didn't care about this particular problems. At least not more than absolutely necessary, which is to say, they had to get around them, somehow.

Their amorphous bodies met, touching, merging, as they kept together, the occasional flare of electromagnetic radiation coming from them as they 'talked', exchanging ideas. Their first experiments from a while ago had been... Insufficient. Knowing next to nothing about how they could work with the precious few materials available to them, their first constructions crumbled even before they started to exist. Cooling the materials to sufficient temperatures by way of building up a rather unlikey 'barrier' of sorts to protect them. That much they could do. Getting enough suitable materials to construct wasn't too much of a problem, either, as there were enough asteorids flinging into the sun, and heavier elements could be 'constructed' by way of their very own oversized fusion generator (The Sun). Admittedly a somewhat complex process, but it worked, and like cooling particular pieces of material, this had been done before, experiments done by generations to amuse themselves when they weren't moving accross the sun like multikilometer long, amorphous whales, swallowing what useful piece of ordered electromagnetic fields, subsentient beings, 'animals' one could call them, they could find.

Yet, unfortunately this didn't make up for the more or less complete lack of engineering knowledge they suffered from.

Of course, they could spend a few millenia experimenting, but then, given the short-livedness of the outside, the tiny, cold worlds, not all of them intended to wait that long.

Information had to be gathered.

Everything always seems to happen at the same time. Austar Union in Brahms, the Order in a civil war, the Dominion at Nod, and now strange rumblings being detected by the deep sensors in the Sun. Luckily, the Suncritters were a patient sort.

Still, they were a valuable (if somewhat unreliable) ally. He cued up one of the transmitters, a strangely encoded signal -- specially designed to be understandable by the 'talkative' Giants -- was sent up to one of the orbiting Daedalus satellites and then bounced around until it was sent to the deep probe.

Floating in the searing plasma of the sun, the deep probe received the message and started transmitting:

I noticed that there's some interesting activity going on. Anything you care to share?

~Elijah

The three giants are still discussing the matter (And experimenting with a few grams of carbon) as the message arrives. Not only at them of course, but they're pretty much the only ones that care (Only three messages of 'Nothing Special' were sent back over the next few hours, by Suncritters who weren't involved in this particular experiment).

Still, it takes a few hours for them to 'discuss' a possible reply, short, quick bursts of EM radiation transmitting comments, points, confusion, snide remarks, SG style.

Eventually, the position that The Basin might (Well, should) have the knowledge they seek wins (The probe sort of proving the point in advance), and a reply is formulated while the three almost merge into each other, creating an especially hot spot roughly 12000 kilometres beneath the sun's 'surface'.

Sending the message goes quickly, interference from the Sun's own reactions, radiation and mass being negligible since they worked out just how to get around this nuisances (Another development, or rather, discovery triggered by the initial contact with The Basin), the only remaining problem being the somewhat odd style the Giants use when communicating, but such can be translated into a more readable form, anyway.

The three giants suddenly flung away from each other, their plasma, kept together with insane magnetic fields, shot through the general body of the sun, and the message bursted out, propagating towards the probe, eventually reaching it.

"Yes. In fact, you might be the person we would have contacted, anyway. We have... Developed an interest in the worlds you're living in, and are intrigued by what lies-"

The next part of the message was somewhat chaotic and couldn't really be understood, the interpretation (An argument, lustful moaning, simple chaos or interferences) being pretty much open, but the understandable part continued soon enough.

"-Beyond our star. Unfortunately, we aren't exactly... Capable of leaving it, or at least, leaving it without dying, so we're currently trying to find a way to do so without dying.

"However, we're lacking the knowledge necessary to construct anything comparable to the apparatuses your kind uses to travel through the medium in question (Although we do possess sufficient amounts of raw materials fitting the basic materials you seem to use within your 'probes'), and..."

Apparently, the Suncritters could be embarrassed, too, as the message ended here, with a second message being some kind of follow-up, coming a few minutes later.

"We require exactly this kind of knowledge, that is, the knowledge needed to construct apparatuses like your 'probe', capable of surviving inside our star as well as outside of it, while including an environment that is suitable for our survival.

"In which case it would even be possible for us to... Visit the cold worlds, which is the point of this whole endeavour."

The latter was, of course, more than just a little problematic. There were other options, however, the Giants weren't yet thinking of them.

Elijah reviewed the message, smiling a little to himself. He enjoyed dealing with the Solar Giants, partially because they were so completely and utterly alien. And they, well, some of them were highly curious; a trait that appealed to the scientist in Elijah.

'Melting' down into a pool of quicksilver, he flowed through a series of conduits in the 'Basin until he found himself in one of the main research stations. He rose up from the pool, reforming himself and shooed away one of the drones monitoring an experiment that could sit by itself for awhile. He powered up a computer and skimmed over some data and schema. He pondered for awhile before responding.

An interesting proposition. I have started to work on a possible craft that would allow you to leave the surface of the Sun without... disasterous effect. Each craft will probably only be able to house one of you, and may not be especially comfortable, but I should be able to maintain internal temperature and pressure, while allowing you to communicate with those around you.

Once I've finished, I'll forward the plans to you for review. If needed, I should be able to construct such a craft here and send it to you. I'm not sure the extent of your manufactoring capabilities.

~Elijah

Scarcity? A concept barely known to the Suncritters, understandably so, given that they do have the not entirely insignificant resources of a sun available. Sure, they have the occasional, petty argument when it comes to subsentient critters one of them considered a pet, while another one considered them to be something that came rather close to the human concept of 'food'. But in the end, those were just that, petty problems, nothing that would keep them occupied for more than a few years.

It was due to this that neither of the three Giants involved even thought about it probably being better to have the capacity to build such a device, a spaceship, all by themselves. Their desire to learn about it, to possess it, was entirely based on curiosity. Not a desire to create a better life for themselves (For they already had a fairly ideal life, given the availability of the virtually infinite resources the sun offered them. Incidentally, this would raise a question that would keep human scholars occupied for decades to come: How did the Giants actually develop higher intelligence when they hadn't had any kind of need for it, as they already had everything they required, why did it develop despite there being no obvious evolutional advantage, nothing? Of course, the curiosity would be mutual, given that the Suncritters would ask themselves comparable questions: Why did Humans develop higher intelligence despite the distinct lack of an obvious evolutional advantage, given that the environment of their home... Rock didn't actually require them to know about the way an object so complicated and awe inspiring as a sun worked? Of course, being the comparatively slow beings they were, they would be occupied for centuries, rather than decades, just answering this question), but the most simple, most basic curiosity of a child wanting to know how the things around it work. Well, in a manner that was somewhat more sophisticated than that of a child, but the principle still stood.

For them, Elijah (And his ability to create something as alien as a device enabling them to leave their home star within 1/1000 of the time they would have required to create it) was the mildly odd object of innocent curiosity, intriguing and possibly worth closer examination, should an opportunity present itself.

Pretty much a Giant's definition of a 'friend', really.

In any case, the three were a little exhausted from their previous 'play', yet quite excited by Elijah's answer. The result was a reasonably interpretable reply.

"This is equally fortunate and surprising. We are of course waiting excitedly, and hope that you will be able to finish your work, soon. We aren't certain. Was this supposed to be a sort of 'Surprise', as it seems to be?"

A pause of perhaps a minute followed, after which a second message (Slightly distorted due to another Suncritter playing on the surface of the sun, forming, moving plasma to make it resemble the strange, utterly alien things they had recently learned about, due to the contact with the Basin as well as due to them (Finally) listening to the myriad of transmissions and pieces of raw data sent back and forth in Sol. It would have been a vaguely intriguing sight, if anyone else had been there to witness the creation of magpies and frogs, whales and ants hundreds of meters in diameter, with vaguely curly 'skins', glowing brightly from being a few hundred degrees hotter than their surroundings, a result of the forces manipulating them, moving in more or less surrealistic ways (For the Suncritter had no real idea of how to move them in realistic ways. It would probably have bored him, anyway, though.) clashing, merging into each other, just to cut off, again, to drop, splash back into the surrounding plasma, to once more become a part of the vast ball of plasma that is the sun.

The Giant responsible was enjoying his little game. It helped him imagining the world(s) out there, worlds that intrigued so many of them, worlds that were at the same time utterly alien (And as such, the most fascinating objects they could think of) and unreachable.

For now, anyway.

All Elijah caught of the 'game' was a mild (But easy to compensate for) distortion in the second part of the three especially curious Suncritters' reply (Lacking proper grammar, as they had certain troubles with some terms The Basin had introduced them to. 'Ship', 'Construction', the likes).

"Of course, we will be intrigued to learn more about this'Craft' as you call it, as well as of the knowledge that is behind the construction. We can hardly wait and are anticipating the results eagerly."

Another (Shorter) moment of... Hesitation was probably the proper term, then the message continued.

"Your selfless action will definitely accelerate things, which makes the near future all the more exciting." [Mild distortion due to one of the Giants consuming a nearby, subsentient entity] "Should you require anything, we would of course be there to assist in any way we can."

None of them did yet think about the problems they would have even when they would finally be capable of using such a craft. After all, leaving it to visit the surface of some planet would still be mildly... Problematic.

But first things first. They would have more than enough time to care about this second problem, later. After all, if there was anything the Suncritters had, it was time. Lots of time.