NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: If you want to jump in go ahead although I would appreciate it if you didn't bring an entire fleet to the system. You can find out about the capacities of the ship here (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=149911)

IC: "What is it?"

"I can't tell, sir. Agatha is only getting eratic readings from it and we only found it because AL scanned visually. We think its pretty old because of the damage to its hull. As you can see there are a lot of micrometeorite impacts."

http://www.desktopstarships.com/SciImages/sfzaon_sordrid_cruiser.jpg

Well this would certainly look good on his record. He had thought this would just be a routine survey mission, but now it looked like things would become much more interesting.

"Alert command about what we found and ask them to send 2 Mercury's down here so they can pick it up. In the meantime, manoeuvre the ship closer and then send out 2 crewmembers to see if they can't find any accesports or something like that. For all we know it could be a ship or a work of art."

"Yes, sir, moving closer to the thing. I'll stop when we are within 15 meters of it."

Bump

{TAG}

Kary didn't like this one bit. She and crewman Boyl had been fortunate enough to be picked for this little assignement. Zero-g just made your stumach do horrible things not to mention that the look of that 'thing' was definetly a bit too alien for her.

When they landed on the object there was no sound, but still she got the distinct feeling that she was walking over a stone surface instead of a metal one as se thought it would be. Boyl seemed to be suffering even more from the gravityless enviroment then she, his face seemed to have gotten green.

"This is ensign Rin, the objects surface looks like some kind of stone, definetly metal. No hatches for maintenance or some other way to get in that we can see. We are moving to what seems to be the front of this thing and see if we have more luck there."

"We have reached the front and it doesn't look like we will have more luck he.... Hey what is that? It seems to be some kind of hieroglyph or something like that."

"Yes, ensign we can see it. Could you get closer so we can have a better look?"

"Okay, moving closer. I wonder if there are more...
But before she can finish that sentence she slips and in a reflex she tries to use her hands to steady herself. One of them lands on the glyph and it starts to glow.

"Ehm, Vrees. We have a proble. It seems as if I activated something."

OOC: Not too late to participate.

The glyph becomes brighter and brighter until it becomes to bright to look at. Then the light vanishes, revealing a hole were the glyph once was. Inside the hole it looked like a geode with multi-coloured crystals twinkling and flashing.

Ensign: "Wow, will you look at that."
Captain: "What is it?"
Nav officer: "It could be a computer of some kind. But we can test that I think. Ensign could you place the direct link node so that we could keep an eye on it and also look around to see if there are any more markings."

"Yes, sir."

OOC: Sorry, more later. And if anyone wants to participate just go ahead.

OOC: No response yet, but I know you are watching! :D

IC:
An hour later the two crewmen had been brought back aboard. The AI of the Ares had analyzed the data they had collected and had proposed a way to communicate with the device.

Vrees theorized that the crystals were exchanging and receiving information through those flashes. This was different from any electronic system they used but Vrees was certain that a makeshift interface could be made using a few lasers and the camera which was positioned to cover the 'geode'. They could now communicate with it at a slow rate and hopefully get some answers.

[Tag for later]

Hmm. Intresting. #Tag#

After a good night sleep the senior staff gathered in the conference room. It wasn't big and there was only room for a table and 6 chairs. Present were the captain, the first officer, tactical 1st officer, the 1st engineer and of course Vrees

"Ok, Vrees you have had 6 hours to chat with the thing. Can you give us some information now about what in the 10 islands that is?"

"Yes, Commander. I have been able to discern what the object is and its purpose. I have managed to speed up the interface but there is no hope that I can go through all the information stored in its memory."

"How so? No, wait. Start at the beginning with what it is."

"Very well. The probe itself was placed in this system roughly 2 billion years ago. It's mission..."

"Wait just a sec. Are you telling me that thing is sitting here for 2 billion years?"

"Yes, give or take a few million years. It was placed here by a race that I haven't found any information about yet to gather information about this galaxy and its inhabitants. The probe had gotten regular maintenance checks every 10.000 years and they also downloaded the data gathered thus far. These stopped 1.3 million years ago for unknown reasons and the probe has been collecting and storing data ever since."

"Well, this is certainly a treasure. A database containing information about everything going on in this galaxy. We wouldn't need survey mission anymore and the technology it must have seen will be very valuable as well. We will let the Mercury's tow this to the nearest starbase because I doubt we could hold all the information in our databanks."

"Don't forget", said the tactical officer,"that we are currently at war with the Shivans. That probe could have been monitoring subspace as well and give us the edge we need to defeat them. And the cloaking technology on the probe as well as the power source are very advanced."

Vrees: "I am afraid that the probe only gathered information about objects in normal space. Both subspace as hyperspace have not been monitored by the probe and there is another problem."

Captain: "What kind of a problem, Vrees?"

"The probe is capable of maintaining its own systems and its suprisingly durable but lately wear and tear have taken their tole. The repairsystems can't keep the power source working anymore and it is slowly becoming unstable. The resulting shocks have damaged the cloak which is why we were able to find the probe in the first place. If it had been completely functional it would have been impossible to find for any nation we know of.
These problems have been made worse due to the fact that it has problems storing any more data. It's memory banks have flooded and it has started to use other parts of its memory originaly dedicated to running its own systems to record its observations. I estimate that the probe will destroy itself in about 3 hours taking the system with it, but it can go up at any moment before that time."

The captain felt like banging his head against the wall. The mercury's were at least a few days away and they couldn't tow it away fast enough...
"Could we repair the probe, mr. Salda?"
"I am afraid not. We don't know what kind of a power source it has or how any of the equipment works. Hell, we don't even know where the thing is located?"
"Aha, but perhaps Vrees could give us the answer to that."
"I am afraid not, captain. The makers have indeed put detailed schematics of every piece of machinery in the probe in its memory but they are safeguarded. If I attempt to break into them, it will detonate itself in an attempt to protect the technology."

"Okay the, on to plan B."
[i]To be continued...