NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: Initially, only Hyperspatial Travel will be involved, and then only after a couple of posts. Other Universe II (http://z14.invisionfree.com/UniverseII/index.php?act=idx) members can talk with me and HT about entry in the forum. (http://z14.invisionfree.com/UniverseII/index.php?showtopic=137)

At the Gnich*ah Triumphant Destiny's Ch*!!Triumphant Destiny rocked back on its heels, surveying the carcass of the vicious predator its retinue had just hunted down and slain, absently scratching the underside of its chin before speaking. The beast's dark blood pooled beneath its severed neck; looking at it, the Gnich*ah felt deep pleasure; looking around, it saw that its Gnich* were all paying it the utmost attention. There's nothing like a good hunt, it mused, to bring everyone's mind into focus.

“In many ways,” it said softly, “These aliens are a great discovery.”

Some of its Gnich* appeared puzzled. The Gnich*ah's face split from brow to chin as it grinned.

“This is why World Strider urged us outward, to the stars,” the overlord spoke, its quiet voice belying its excitement. “'Violence is the lifeblood of the People',” it intoned, reciting Striker-of-Stars' First Principle, the foundation of the Gurrruthr. “If we do not find something else to fight out here among the stars, then we will have to fight one another. Not,” the Gnich*ah added with pleasure, “That this would be a bad thing in and of itself. But an alien enemy would be better, and we appear to have found such an enemy.”

“Can we be certain of this?” asked one of Triumphant Destiny's Gnich*. “We thought the Ylii were the adversary we sought, and yet they have done nothing but disappoint us.”

“The Ylii,” observed the Gnich*ah, “Met our blows with pleas for peace. They are a slave species, self-bred for that purpose. Their destiny is to serve us as a tool of our will, and this they do exceedingly well.” Triumphant Destiny paused before it looked at its assembled lieutenants. “These aliens struck first, without any provocation at all. They came armed and ready for war. They will not disappoint us.”

“But what if they aren't equal to the challenge,” asked another Gnich*. “If they fall too swiftly...”

“Then we will enslave or annihilate them and move on,” said the overlord simply. “Their mere existence proves that World Strider was right - or at least that in some cases he was right: before a species can fly among the stars, it must conquer its home world, and in this struggle only the strong survive. The Ylii were an exception; we and these aliens are the rule.

“Thus. even if we should defeat them,” Triumphant Destiny continued, “There will be others. As one of our physicists once said, the only logical numbers of anything we should expect to find in the Universe are zero, one, and infinity. Before we encountered these aliens,” the Gnich*ah said with obvious joy, “There was some basis for believing that we were unique among species. But now,” it observed, “We quite clearly are not, and this is a great discovery. A joyous discovery, for the sake of Grrruch*¹ - for it means that there are an infinite number of enemies out here among the stars. Kavaluchk² is at hand.”

“That is all very well,” said Krii'k, one of Triumphant Destiny's lesser Gnich*, “But these aliens' vessels are huge.”

“Scared?” teased Triumphant Destiny. Krii'k growled deeply in its throat, but the Gnich*ah waved dismissively. “The bigger, the better.”

“Fighting stupidly will not advance Kavaluchk,” replied Krii'k icily.

“We will not fight stupidly,” Triumphant Destiny replied coolly. “We will probe these aliens' weaknesses and exploit them. Which means,” the Gnich*ah added, “That we must find out where they come from, and then lay in close and study them unseen.”¹The Enlightenment of the People.

²World Strider's concept that the Vah would achieve enlightenment through the violent conquest of the Universe - or become extinct in the attempt, as a matter of Destiny.

OOC: Next step: Reconnaissance...

"...that's not funny."

"I wasn't trying to be funny, esteemed Councillor. We're looking at speeds that dwarf our own in-system utterly, and the ability to change their vector at will.. it suffices to say that our own fighters have been made obsolete by the discovery of this enemy."

The two men stood there, talking. Two of the most important men in the EarthGuard, one of the Councillors, the few who determine the course of the EarthGuard, and the First Sergeant. Both were deceptively low in rank, but, then again, to strike off the head of an enemy, one must know where the head is.

"So, you're telling me of the discovery of an enemy that somehow harnesses pseudo-FTL travel in-system, by means of some.. collapsing energy field?!". The Councillor looked at the Sergeant somewhat suspiciously. Such a thing had never been heard of before, and nor did it fit with any verified methods of FTL.

The Sergeant, Ionar, spoke in reply. "Yes, Jonathan. We're looking at an enemy that can easily outmaneuver us in combat, although, from the method they used for their escape, we suspect our ships will be more easily able to move from system to system. And, besides, it's not their aspect of travel that pertains the most to us. It is the power the EarthGuard may gain from this."

He spoke bluntly, and Jonathan, however, used to Ionar's harsh speech from time to time, smiled. "Indeed. We know what is best for Earth. It may seem.. hypocritical, but only the existence of an enemy can unite humanity behind a single banner for good. Without the enemy, humanity would fall to squabbling amongst itself, and, from the social trends we've seen, government itself would be dissolved, leaving us weak, and vulnerable. Castrated, if you will."

"Perhaps this is for the best. If we cannot maintain control covertly, we may do so overtly, and with the blessing of those we seek to protect. We are the arm of humanity, the sword-arm, the shield, the dagger in the night.. We must annihilate these aliens, that much is obvious. But nonetheless, in their contemptible existence, they provide us with the needed catalyst for humanity's advancement into the galaxy. With a foe, we can justify expansion, justify an empire ruled from Earth. I suggest we begin.. dramatisation of those battle records. A well-played, animated script, and we'll have the populace eating out of the palm of our hands..."

He clasped his hands together, bowing his head to the statue of the founder of the EarthGuard above. The words, inscribed in Global upon the statue, were simple. "To serve as we see fit."

"Indeed we shall", Ionar muttered. "Indeed we shall..."

At the Gnich*ah Triumphant Destiny's Ch*!!

“Given the way these aliens jump about from system to system, I'd be curious as to how you think we're going to be able to find them.” sneered Krii'k in a voice laced with sarcasm. “Your own report,” the Gnich* said, leveling a critical finger at One-Who-Ponders, “Said that we have no idea where they came from. There's a lot of space out there to search.”

“We don't have to look everywhere,” One-Who-Ponders replied. “We only need to look at systems with unusual emissions in the radio and microwave bands.”

“Radio and microwave? Light waves?!? It will take years for those signals to reach us.” Krii'k objected.

“Not signals that left years ago,” observed One-Who-Ponders. “Even civilizations capable of traveling faster than the speed of light aren't likely to expand faster than the speed of light. Sure, we'll be looking at potential enemy systems as they appeared in the past, but chances are that they'll have jumped in on us from someplace not too far away where they've been building up a presence for quite some.”

“That will take a very large number of radio telescopes and...” Krii'k began to protest before One-Who-Ponders cut it off.

“Not at all,” the scientist declared. “All we need to is run a query against past observational data going back as far as we have records. We look for systems that have what appear to be solid objects – terrestrial worlds, moons, and the like – emitting too much energy in the radio and microwave spectra, as well as systems where the output in these spectra has grown steadily over time without any obvious explanation.”

“How long do you think that analysis would take?” asked Triumphant Destiny with some interest.

“Two or three weeks – no more,” replied One-Who-Ponders.

“Do it,” ordered the Gnich*ah.

In One-Who-Ponders' Laboratory
Two Weeks Later

“Why do you think that's a terrestrial world and not a failed star or a brown dwarf?” asked Shch*ah.

“Look at the energy output: see this pattern?” One-Who-Ponders replied. “It repeats itself every 13 hours or so. Stars, failed stars, and gas giants rotate faster than that, so it's likely a rock of some kind.” The Gnich* then pointed at the pattern itself. “Furthermore, there's been very little change in the pattern for years, other than a slow spread by the peaks into the troughs and a gradual increase in overall output.”

“O.K.,” said the lab assistant, “I see what you mean about rotation rates.” It had been eyeing data on various known gas giants as a comparison. “But I don't understand why a fixed pattern matters.”

“Liquids and gases flow,” replied the scientist. “These sources aren't moving, so they're resting on – or embedded in – a solid surface of some kind. Most things that radiate large amounts of radio or microwave energy are too hot not to melt their surroundings.”

“So you're thinking cities?” Shch*ah asked with raised brows.

“Yes,” answered One-Who-Ponders. “Which explains the irregular pattern of emissions – the distribution of radio sources is uneven because cities and settlements don't spread across the countryside evenly. Geographic factors ensure that.”

“So what about these other emission sources,” asked the assistant, pointing to other parts of the plot.

“Off-world facilities: moons, asteroids, orbital platforms, navigational beacons, and that sort of thing,” One-Who-Ponders replied. “Notice that many of them emit more heat than the main source, relative to their energy output; that's the atmosphere of the main world at work, holding in that heat while the airless worlds let it out into space.”

“And so what's this fuzzy halo of heat throughout the system?” Shch*ah asked with some puzzlement.

“That bothered me, too – or it did at first, anyway” admitted the scientist. “Then I thought about the fact that these aliens don't use their 'jump' drives much in system. They have to use old-fashioned fusion engines to get around...”

“So that's their exhaust!” proclaimed Shch*ah triumphantly.

“Yes, that's what I think, too,” One-Who-Ponders replied with a grimace of joy. “But the best part is the way in which all of these anomalies didn't shwo up until a few centuries ago, and then gradually materialized until they arrived at what we're seeing today.”

Shch*ah paused for a moment and then said, “So this is an alien colony – or even their home system?”

“We can't be sure, but I think so,” replied the Vah scientist.

In the Gnich*ah's Audience Chambers
A Few Days Thereafter

“This is all guesswork,” protested Krii'k.

“Most science is,” admitted One-Who-Ponders. “But it's educated guesswork.”

“Still,” observed Triumphant Destiny, “We're looking at making a very large effort on the basis of that 'guess'.”

“I appreciate that fact,” agreed the scientist. “Which is why I decided to test our methods scientifically.”

“How?” asked the Gnich*ah, with equal parts interest and skepticism.

“I ran the same analysis on a number of our own systems, including Ka'avk'ah. Take a look,” One-Who-Ponders offered, passing its hand-held computer to the overlord.

Triumphant Destiny looked at the various plots, nodded, and then passed the computer to its other lieutenants. When it was Krii'k's turn, the latter glanced at the data for a moment, and then demanded: “Why do these other systems have so much background heat compared with ours?”

“Because we use stutterwarp for in-system transit; our systems therefore have a lower heat signature but a larger output of gravity waves,” the scientist replied, its face splitting open in self-congratulation. “That, to me, is the best sign that we're looking at an alien civilization here – one whose technology is similar but not identical to our own.”

“I'm convinced,” Triumphant Destiny said with a wave of the hand. It then turned to Krii'k and the others. “I want you all to divide up the list of suspicious worlds that One-Who-Ponders has generated and dispatch reconnaissance missions to them as soon as possible.”

OOC: Decide which world(s) we'll find first. The data is suggestive rather than definitive, and if there are human “splinter” worlds, we're as likely to find those as we are to find yours. In our next post, we'll discover one: if you want to write about that world before we find it, feel free.

At this point, I'm also going to open this to other human spinoff (Universe II) civilizations that may have settled worlds within 50-100 LY of Old Earth.

OOC: I figure contact with non-Earth Republic humans could be quite fun, especially considering

IC: It was a cold day in the arctic wastes of Freedom. The world itself was a thriving one - although it had not been terraformed, giant habitats took in the ammonia of the poisonous world, and expelled sweet oxygen, slowly turning the world into an Earthlike one. This process had been successful enough to allow the colder, northern areas to become habitable almost entirely - of course, the colony itself had been funded privately, and so little weaponry remained among the humans on the surface.

For a planet that only truly had one loyal extrasolar colony, Earth had a surprising number of offshoots. Then again, with the versatility of the rift drive, it was easy to discover habitable worlds - worlds that could support human life if minor tweaks were made. However, Earth decried the existence of such colonies - and with good reason. Not a single colony had the wealth, or the sheer versatility of Earth.

Unlike the colonies in the Americas in the ages of the Spanish and British Empires, colonies in space were prohibitively expensive to maintain - colonists demanded creature comforts, tools, and everything they demanded was another drain on the comfortable mother-planet. Very few of the colonies could be made into contributing members of the Earth dominion in a timeframe that was not measured in centuries - Mars, and Hope, were the two exceptions.

Why? The first was in-system. The immense cost of rift fuel was the thing that kept stellar expansion from truly taking place - there were but a few sources of it, and, like the fossil fuels of the previous millenium, if they were required to run everyday life, society would collapse, once they ran out of fuel to prop themselves up with. Mars, however, did not require rift fuel to travel to.

Hope, on the other hand, was prohibitively expensive to maintain. But it was a Gaia-class world. Now, the word Gaia has meant many things. But in a colonists terminology, it means a world that is just like Earth, that supplies its own air, food, water, and, overall, could survive without extrastellar interference - in essence, if you dropped a few thousand naked humans onto the surface, you should be able to come back in a few years, and see some sort of thriving society.

However, Freedom used a lot of rift fuel. Naturally, the world was independent of Earth. They had nothing to trade, and, with a single major factory on the world, they had learnt to produce whatever they might need. But Freedom, in a show of sly intelligence, had found a major use for rift fuel - cutting. It was simple, but the rift drives gave them the ability to slice up asteroids with ease, constructing ships, and other useful spacefaring equipment in the planet's only station.

Of course, nothing they had was geared for war. A few mining ships, a few asteroid habitats, used to combat viruses in the utmost sterility, and a few transports. Which was, of course, a disadvantage. Because the people they were about to face were.