NationStates Jolt Archive

the small ship headed for open space, plasma balls bursting around it. one hit just a little too close, and the entire ship shuddered.

"just lost a couple of centimeters of armor off the port stabilizer fin, boss. not a worry once we get out of the atmosphere, but it's going to make the ride a bit more... erratic."

"no bad thing, Rikkard, no bad thing."

"you guys are way too calm about this! oh, we're gonna die, we're gonna die, we're gonna die!!!!"

"hehe. only if they hit us."

another burst

"and.. there goes the starboard thruster... "

"told ya stealing a prototype was a bad way off this rock!"

"Jeni, just shut the hell up and let me fly!"

"yeash, you don't have to be mean about it!"

"SHUT UP!!!"

the ship went through some sickening maneuvers, and then the engine noise died down as it came free of the atmosphere.

"well, that's it for the ground defenses. now we've just gotta get past all the orbital crap and we're home free"

"actually" Rikkard spoke up "if Jeni would stop panicking long enough to actually operate that console in front of her, we can skip that all together."

"we can what now?" the pilot spun around in his seat to look at Rikkard

"Araji! eyes on the road!"

"what road, boss?" Araji asked, batting her eyelashes innocently

"damnit! you know exactly what i mean!"

"alright, all right already. yeash." Araji went back to actually flying the ship

"now, Rikkard, the question stands... we can do what now?"

"this ship has a rift drive. and between you and me, it's a friken AWESOME rift drive. lower mass and fuel consumption than any previous model, apparently."

"right. well," the entire ship shuddered and the distinctive sound of fire suppressant foam being deployed somewhere could be heard. "i suggest using it now." Araji spoke up again "before that nice battleship over there gets a decent tracking program tagged on us!"

another shudder "and there goes the upper stabilizing fin. landing this hunk of tin on a planet again's going to be a nightmare."

"tell me something i don't know, Rikkard!"

"i got it!" Jeni flipped one last button on her console, and so far as the outside universe cared, the ship winked out of existence.

mere fractions of a second later, two P/S warheads detonated where the ship had just been.

for those on board the ship, however, it was another story.

"well, according to this, it's gonna take us three days to get where we're going."
Jeni swiveled her seat around and then stood up, stretching.

"and that is?"

"honestly, boss? i haven't a friken clue. hopefully somewhere no one's gonna start shooting at us."

"so, you're saying" Araji asked acidly as she also stood "that we are, for all intents and purposes, lost in space?"

"i don't know. i haven't figured out the navigation systems yet. apparently they were one of the new systems this ship was testing."

"wonderful." Rikkard commented "well, at least according to the logs there's enough supplies on this ship for a couple of weeks."

"well" the man so far referred to only as 'boss' spoke "i guess we'll just have to hope to all the relevant spirits and deities that we come across somewhere habitable before we die of starvation. or thirst. or cabin-fever induced homicide. now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go find a bunk, preferably in a cabin, claim it, and try to get some sleep."

so saying, he turned and left. of the others, Rikkard stayed on the bridge to keep an eye on things, Araji wandered off making noises about inspecting weapons, and Jeni followed their boss's lead.

Capitans log. date: I've lost track, and this ship's clock had, for some unknown reason, not been set before we left.

i suppose, really, i should start by identifying myself. officially my name is Aregad Nohphan. most people just call me 'boss', including in reports.

heck, the ship it's self has gone unnamed so far, which is, i'm told, bad luck. I'll get a proper ceremony done some time, i guess, but for now i'll just put it here. this ship shall be named Exploritar.

It was a routine patrol; a pair of corvettes shaking down part of the Outer Belt for smugglers; even in a liberal and enlightened society, a few things were still illicit and better done under cover, and obviously this had to be stopped...
Some of the corvettes on this duty turned a (well-paid) blind eye. Those commanded by young, up-and-coming Lieutenants were a little more zealous, and the Karina and Irene were commanded by two such - Lieutenants Isla Jones and James Hamon.

"Getting some weird energy readings here Skip!"
"Do please go on P.O."
"There's a fluctuation in the zero-point, and it's growing steadily. I predic-"
"Ifni's Tits! There's a ship there!"

OOC: Feel free to build in a bit more stuff over the three days, just this is what happens when they arrive.

two days, 23 hours and 50 minutes of boredom.

two days, 23 hours and 50 minutes of the girls squabbling over one petty thing or another.

two days, 23 hours and 50 minutes of trying to figure out all the weird bits and pieces that had been loaded into this ship.

two days, 23 hours and 50 minutes since engaging the rift drive.

ten minutes until they came out God alone knew where.

Aregad sighed. they might not know where they were going, but the Count they'd stolen the ship from probably did. the whole thing had been rigged for telemetry transmission. and why not? it was a prototype, after all.

they'd managed put a stop to it, in the last couple of days, but none of them were absolutely sure they hadn't damaged anything else in the process.

he flopped down in the captains chair. logically enough, it was set against the back wall, with the doors into the bridge on either side and a little way forward of it. this entire ship was built with the possibility of hostilities in mind. it even had weapons, after a fashion. grav-rail launched missiles, useually only found on larger ships.... but the missiles themselves were just casings. no drives, no warheads. if actual hostilities arose, they'd make distractions, at best.

pressing the intercom button, Aregad spoke "all right guys, we've got," he checked again "9 minutes until we come out. get your butts up here, we need to be ready."

each arrived, and took the seats they had had before. not that it mattered, save from position and the captains chair being a little more decorative, they were all identical. there was another such control station in the engine room. any of them could do any task. one simply had to select which one from the default screen. theoretically, one would then need to enter a password and no more than one console would do any one job at a time. no one had set any passwords yet, though.

"last check. what doesn't work?"

"we can't land in atmosphere, and all our weapons are duds... that's about it, so far as i can tell" Rikkard responded "com's go, engine's go, C-in-C circits seem to function properly..." he grinned "about the only things that don't function right are the girls."

"shut up!" the offended parties responded in unison.

Aregad also laughed quietly "glad to see you two finally agree on something. now, get ready. i don't know about you, but I've certainly never made this transition before, and we have no idea what we're going to land in. errr... as it were."

at one minute, Jeni started counting, reading off the timer on her screen. not that the others couldn't see it too, but no one complained.

"sixty
fifty
forty
thirty
twenty
ten
five
four
three
two
one
tran-"

she didn't even complete the final word before 'normal' reality resolved it's self around them.

then she blinked "Boss, we've got unknowns"
"big surprise there" Araji muttered.
Jeni ignored her "two unknown, dead ahead. they're not doing anything, and the ship doesn't recognize them by any method available to it."
"wonderful. keep the drive hot. let's see who they are."
Aregad keyed one of his own consoles controls.
"unknown ships, this is Capitan Aregad of the Exploritar." he paused for a moment "could you tell us where we are?"

GENERAL QUARTERS! GENERAL QUARTERS! ALL HANDS TO ACTION STATIONS! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!

The corvettes were reacting in a near-panicked rush. They hadn't been expecting any contact for days, to be honest, and having a ship pop out of nowhere right on top of them was...testing their training, to put it nicely.

"Skip, incoming transmission. Half is gobbledigook, but the other half is comprehensible:
unknown ships, this is Capitan Aregad of the Exploritar.
*pause*
could you tell us where we are?
"First things first, find out who the hell they are."
"Sir."
Exploritar, this is Terror Incognitia Ship Karina, part of the Outer System Command, on a patrol in the Incognitian asteroid belt. Be advised you are welcome in our system if you act well. Now who are you, where are you from, and what brings you here?
"Now, don't prep any weapons yet. No need to spook 'em, and there are no obvious weapon-signatures from their ship. Just have them ready all the way short of flipping the switch."
"Sir."
"Oh, and Irene? James? Hold position on us for now. Again, no spooking them before we find out what the hell they're doing."
"Agreed."
"Finally, transmission, tightband, Fleet Command. Priority: medium. Encryption: Fleet Standard. Message follows: unknown contact appeared in empty space right in front of routine patrol by Karina and Irene. Co-ordinates and sensor scans shown. Comms received in English and unknown language, sample follows. Investigating situation now."
"On it's way now Skip."
"Let's see what they do next..."

"well, this is interesting" Rikkard remarked to no one in particular.

"yeah, maybe in the ancient sense" Araji responded acidly "i don't know about you, but i don't particularly Want to live in interesting times."

"personally, i don't mind the living" Aregad spoke calmly. " but i'd rather not die in them. so if you could please be quiet while i deal with this?" he looked at the other three one after another, until they looked away and went back to what they were doing "thank you."

after thinking for a moment, Aregad activated the communications link again:
"Terror Incognitia Ship Karina," then half under his breath, and in his own tongue rather than English "oy, that's a mouthful" he switched back and continued "excuse me if i miss speak, English is hardly a language spoken much in the principality. we're... effectively independant operators at this point. we're here because, well... avoiding explosions and calculating courses on prototype systems we've never had access to before at the same time... something is going to get screwed up. in this case, the navigation.

as for where we're from. well, the only completely truthful and simple answer i can give is 'the Principality of Angermanland'. things get... messy, if i try to explain further."

a pause

"does that answer your questions? it is in our best interests to get moving again as soon as possible."

"We have a reply. Apparently Anglic isn't their first language.

They claim to be operating independently, in a prototype vessel they don't fully understand and had never operated before.
They say they are from the Principality of Angermanland, wherever that is."

"Ok Chief, put those facts together."
"Sir?"
"They're in a prototype but were dodging fire. They don't know their vessel. And they're 'independent operators'. So...they stole the vessel they are in from its rightful owners, and fled the response."
"I see sir. Shall we arrest them?"
"No. They've committed no crime in our jurisdiction, and we will not involve ourselves in their internal quarrels, at least not yet. Ask them to accompany us to Base Kimon, where we can set them on their feet for further travelling."
"Sir?"
"Just do it Chief."
"Ayeaye sir."
Very good Exploritar. Please follow us to Fleet Base Kimon where we can offer you repair, re-supply and star-charts of the surrounding area, as well as confirm safe passage through our territory.
- Lieutenant Isla James, TIN

"understood" Aregad responded, then cut the connection.
"Araji, if you'd be so good as to follow the nice patrol ships there?"

"sure thing, boss."

"Jeni, be so good as to work on the navigation set up, would you? blind jumps are bad. we got lucky."

"on it."

"how are our supplies looking?"

Rikkard briefly checked his console before replying "apparently enough fuel for a good twenty jumps, food for another couple of weeks, water the same, atmosphere good for a month."

"good, good. I'll be in my cabin. try not to disturb me if you don't need to, humm?"

an affirmative response obtained, Aregad did just that.

Capitan's log. Date: three days of rift travel after aquisition of the Exploritar, one hour real-time since same event.

well, we've set the ship's internal clock, removed the telementry devices, and generaly familiarised ourselves with the ship's systems. things go well enough.

we appear to have been fortunate in that, wihle we don't know exactly where we are, our unschedualed and blind rift jump landed us right in the backyard of civilization. not Our civilzation, this sure an't the principality, but civilzation of a sort none the less. we might still get arrested, or blasted, or suffer untold other possible fates, but we're not going to die of starvation, thirst, or asphyxiation any time soon.

i only hope things go well back home. taking this ship from the duke was really only an added bonus. the information we carry could win or lose the war. if the war ever actually begins, of course. huh. at least taking the Exploritar will slow the Duke's progress some, take away some of his edge.

reguardless, getting home is a high priority. not dieing is a higher one.

for now, we follow these Incognitian patrol ships to their fleet's base, for repair and resupply. at least, so they tell us.

we live, it seems, in interesting times.

"They will comply, Skip."
"Take us home then. Good and slow. Keep the crew at weapons stations in case they try anything funny."
###
Fleet Base Kimon; the linch-pin of the defences in the Outer Belt. It was originally built on a fairly regular spheroid, about 1km in diameter. The facilities had since covered the entire thing and gone beyond. In a controversial re-engineering project the rock itself had been given a rotation, thus giving it an apparent gravity. Fortunately it had been built with half an eye on this possibility.
It was a monstrous thing, all control towers, defences, repair gantries, and motion, like a huge mechanical beehive.
However more recently it had begun seeing civilian traffic, as security in the Outer Belt improved and thus traders, miners and settlers swept in.
Karina and Irene led the Exploritar in towards an empty repair gantry of appropriate size, in the civilian section.
"This is Fleet Base Kimon. Please dock on the gantry there; you will be met there. If you have any appropriate goods, you will be able to trade for services there; if not the Fleet is empowered to pay for sufficient repairs, provisions etc to get you to the first settled world outside our jurisdiction.
That assumes, of course, that you wish to leave at the earliest opportunity which, dependent on the state of your vessel, should be between 12 and 24 hours from now."
Karina sent her skiff, carrying Lt. Isla James, which darted down and docked at the next point on the gantry, allowing Lt. James to meet the, hmm, Angerman she supposed, at the entry. If appropriate, they might end up meeting the Port Admiral, but for now their presence was low key - just a straggler picked up in space by a Fleet patrol and brought back for repairs.

Aregad, now back on the bridge, responded "acknowledged, Fleet Base Kimon, docking as instructed."

he relayed the instructions to Araji, who then proceeded to demonstrate both her skills and the advantages of the GRAV drive by bringing the ship to a perfect halt literally millimeters from the gantry docking point.

"small problem, boss."

"what's up, Araji?"

"we can't actually dock. the seals don't match."

"you can't be serious."

"she's right" Rikkard was looking at his console, then pushed a few buttons. faint clicking noises could be heard from the direction of the docking hatch "does it match now?"

"close enough that we can actually dock."

"thought so. I'm not sure how well it'll hold air though."

"all right" Aregad keyed the com again "Kimon, this is Exploritar, be advised that we cannot guarantee an airtight seal at this docking point. what is procedure for this situation?" he then turned to Rikkard "what'd you do?"

"the joys of flying a prototype, boss. variable docking clamps. there's a limit to what it can do, but" Rikkard simply shrugged.

Shoulda seen that one coming...was the thought running through Lt James' head.
"Acknowledged Exploritar, we'll monitor the situation and rig something up if the leakage is troublesome."
"Exploritar, Lt. James is groundside with a small welcoming party, anywhere from one to all of your crew are welcome to head through the lock when ready."

Having been surreptitiously alerted by Irene on approach, all sensors in and around Fleet Base Kimon had been trained on the incoming vessel. Several drive specialists with appropriate clearance on the base were now trying to figure out how in hell they had just stopped.
The neatness of the approach - hell, any corvette in the Fleet could match that. Doing it without any visible thrusters? That was mad...

Isla James was waiting, with a couple of Port Constabulary men standing a little way behind her, in a nearly featureless corridor in zero-gravity. The Constabulary men were in their blue uniforms, armed only with stunners, which were currently safely holstered. Lt. James was in Naval uniform of very dark blue jumper and trousers; working dress; with her beret moulded on her head and carrying Outer Belt Command's cap badge.

"acknowledged, Kimon."

"all right, even if there's a leak, there should still be pressure enough in the 'lock, so we won't need suits. oxygen content's going to be the big issue. we've got masks somewhere?"

"five of them" Jeni responded "right by the 'lock, too."

"well, the ship's meant to have an engineer as well, so that makes sense."

"right" Aregad started giving orders 'assuming the ship will hold position relative to the station OK" he looked at Araji, who nodded "we're all going across. one at a time, I'll go first."

the four made their way to the airlock, donned the face obscuring breathing equipment, and then, one at a time, entered.

Aregad, as first to enter, was logically first to exit as well. before doing so he reported to the other's exactly what was happening "ok, we're losing air here, but pressure loss is slow, as expected. anyone going in or out is probably going to need masks, but it should be a while before we need full suits. depends how much atmosphere we can afford to lose."

he left the airlock, it cycled, and while the next of his crew made the transition, he looked around.

all the waiting Incognitians could see at this point was a slightly tall man in black shirt, pants, boots, and gloves, which all appeared to have had numerous insignia removed. the air tanks attached to the mask still bore a pair of crossed swords over a book of some description, however.


taking off the mask,exposing light brown hair and green-gray eyes in the process, Aregad went to step towards the 'welcoming comity,' as he mentally termed it. he was somewhat surprised to find himself floating up off the floor. "Hami tsu" he exclaimed, then blinked as he looked around more carefully.

he activated his personal com unit briefly, "guys, be advised, there's no Grav in here."

recovering his composure and regaining control of his motion, he bowed towards the Incognitians, in the polite manner of one who is unaware of his position relative to the other party. the effect was a little odd due to his position floating above the 'floor'.

switching to English so they could understand him, he spoke "sorry about that. didn't expect something this big not to have gravity. Capitan Aregad, of the Exploritar, at your service."

as he spoke, the other members of his crew came through the lock, also removing masks.

Jeni was first to appear. her attire was hardly any different from Aregad's, though clearly designed with the female form in mind. blue eyes and hair just a little too dark to be called blond went with a facial structure that could easily be described as 'elfin'.

Araji followed next. she was almost as tall as her captain, with eyes a pure, hard gray. light brown hair was tied back out of the way, and her expression was unreadable.

Rikkard came through last. a good head taller than Aregad, he gave off an aura of competence. his hair was short and black, and his eyes a disturbing green.

none could be accurately described as graceful or comfortable in the zero gravity environment, but they had enough control not to go careening off into the walls when they moved.

"Captain Aregad, welcome. We're sure we can help you out here, though obviously we'll have a few questions for you also.
First, if you'd follow me, I'll lead you to where we can talk and start organising what you need."
She turned to head for a nearby briefing room, while trying to overcome her shock at the comment about somewhere this big having gravity...did they have gravity manipulation?
They would see a short-ish brunette pacing briskly away from them, flanked by two taller male police. What sight they'd had of her from the front was of a youngish woman with a face that was 'interesting' rather than beautiful.
"Oh, and Captain? What was it that made you flee your home planet?"

after indicating that the crew should follow, their grasp of English was not as good as their captain's, Aregad followed and responded.

"we didn't flee our home. i was sent on a mission by my lord, the count of Mentez Belt, who is one of the Prince's loyal retainers. i chose this crew from amongst my own retainers to accompany me. the mission was completed, the extraction went south, and here we are. not that i know where here is relative to there, sadly. flight under fire and unfamiliar prototypes do not mix so well, as you might expect."

"On a mission? Against what enemy?"
"Also, if you don't mind explaining a few words, I'm having problems with 'lord', 'prince' and 'retainer'. Are they terms of military rank in your nation?"
"Ah, we're here."
She turned into a new room. This was set up for debriefings of returning fighter pilots, thus having recording equipment and all facilities.
Basic facilities, to be sure, but sufficient for their needs. Here were several representatives of the necessary specialisms to repair and resupply the Exploritar, while finding out as much as they could about it.

"Prince is a title, simply put, our ruler. lord is a general term. it covers count, duke, etcetera. simply put, it is one to whom others owe their allegiance, and usually a land owner. a retainer is one of a lords underlings, useually having sworn an oath of personal allegiance to the lord in question. generally they do not own land in their own right, though some do. various lords will often swear allegiance to those more powerful than themselves, and all swear allegiance to the prince.

as for enemies... well, lets just say that not everyone keeps their oaths, and the Prince's job is a giant juggling act of loyalties and favors. there is no war yet, but things begin to head that way.

and that's even before you take into account the various squabbles between factions... those end in explosions, often enough."

as he spoke, Aregad bowed to those in the room in the same manner as before, still unsure of his position relative to the Incognitians, and indicated that his crew should do the same.

"anyway, Lord, Prince, and so on aren't military ranks so much as social, though the two often carry over from one to the other, and most with the funds to afford it have their own soldiers and ships, which they often command personally."

he paused, then gave a wry grin "the system has it's ups and downs, but it works well enough over all."

Fortunately one of those present had studied sociology.
"Lieutenant, it appears these people have a form of feudal society. None of our best theorists believe a feudal society can reach the stars, but apparently it is true."
"So your prince sent you to do something about a retainer of his who is getting a bit uppity, I suppose; you fled and found yourselves here.
The important questions for us, in that case, are these:
What is the chance of your Prince following you? What is the chance of your enemies following you? And what will be the attitude of each to us?"

having decided it was better to tell the... problematic... truth than be caught in some sort of lie at this point, Aregad replied readily enough.

"the prince didn't send me. he may not even know i exist, for all i know. twenty four inhabited worlds and asteroid clusters, with their attendant stations, hold a lot of population, after all. but that's the general gist of it, yes.

so, effectively nil chance of the prince himself following. the odds of the count showing are almost as bad. i don't know about the prince so much, but the count would probably take a fairly polite, neutral stance unless something persuaded him to do otherwise.

honestly, at the speed we were traveling when following your ships here, I'm surprised there aren't battleships on your doorstep already, after us. the ship was transmitting telemetry right up until transition. it's not Now, but it was."

pausing for a moment, Aregad translated the remark about their society for his crew. they spoke briefly, then he turned to the one who had made the comment

"there are apparently two situations where a feudal society could manage it, I'm told. one, is a society that managed to make the transition to industrialization without losing it's functional feudal structure, and then simply continuing along it's way. the other is that the civilization in question colonized the various worlds, and then found that without faster than light communication between stars, light speed communication within systems so slow, and such large populations, no other system was exactly practical.

"from what my crew remembers of what the historians say, the principality kept significant elements of it's feudal structure in place through it's industrialization, and it was re-established proper upon colonization of worlds outside our home system.

and there is a mystery solved for you." he smiled very slightly, and bowed again

"So we may well have this count showing up wanting his ship back. I can tell you that the Fleet's, and the government's, response to that is far from certain. Actually, I'd better pass that up the chain of command now, so a decision can be reached, and preparations laid.
While I'm gone, you can get down to arranging any minor details with the Engineering Chief, Chief Maine there."
She pointed out a fattening, balding little man, who looked as though he belonged in a library rather than an engine room.
Chief Maine blinked at the Angerman Captain.
"I understand your ship is in need of some repair Captain? What materials and work will you need?"

Aregad was puzzled for a moment "the count i was referring to is my liege. he's unlikely to care about the ship overly much. the one you've got to worry about is a duke. more resources, more ships, etcetera. not a huge proportion of the Principality's over all military, but more than the count would send.

sorry, i keep omitting stuff like that. there's been a lot going on lately."

he consulted with his crew briefly, then turned to the engineer "we've lost a little armor here and there, one of the atmospheric maneuvering fins is totally gone, and we're down a couple of emergency thrusters

other than that, it's just a case of working out some of the typical prototype bugs, you know, dodgy pipes and weird software bugs, and topping up the fuel and supplies." he laughed "we have a good pilot"

more consultation and some thought, then he continued

"ummm... I'm not sure if you'd have the fuel for the rift drive or not though. it's rather heavily dependent on Traginium, which is a byproduct of certain mining and smelting processes. i wouldn't be surprised if most of your industries just vented the stuff into space, if they generate it at all.

we're good for another fifteen or so jumps at least, though, on what we've still got.

honestly, the biggest troubles are coming mostly from working out the new gear, and the lack of a trained engineer. technically, the ship is running short one crewman."

"Minor external battle damage I take it. The most important thing to know is how much of a rush you are in.
If you're in a tearing hurry, we can jury-rig our closest equivalents to your parts in maybe 24-48 hours.
If you've got maybe a week, we can fabricate parts to actually fit; if you have blueprints that can cut off one, maybe two days.
However much time there is, I can set aside one, maybe two people to help you with teething problems; and I can put you in touch with engineers who might be interested in joining you, if you'd have them."

"we're not in that much of a hurry. in the normal course of events, grav and rift drives don't leave much trail. and we have to figure out where here is in relation to home. that'll take a while.

taking on new crew presents interesting language issues. we'll have to see how that goes.

anyway, sounds good."

the captain smiled "while we're here we're basically bound by your whims and will, regardless.

though i do have one additional request... new cloths. wearing the uniforms of our foes is not exactly something we relish.

actually, if we intend to go back home, there's a lot of things like that which will need fixing. the heraldic markings on the ship and it's equipment, both physical and in data form, are all wrong for it's current... owners.

mostly, we can live with it, but it is distasteful, and things be... better... if they were changed."

"If you can give us star charts of your home region, we should be able to match it up within minutes.
We've been charting the heavens with extremely powerful telescopes for decades. All it will take is matching up the distance scales, then we can read in a matrix of star types and positions relative to one another, and an AI will do the rest."
"And, since it seems the Lieutenant is responsible for you for now, and she's satisfied with you, we can go and look at your ship. If you don't mind I'd like to bring, hmmm, three of my assistants. A drive tech, a thrusters man and one manouevering surfaces specialist."

"all right... though the drives seem to be the one thing that works perfectly.

we are, as i said, at the mercy of your whims.

ummm... i should mention that the 'lock between our ship and this station isn't actually sealed properly. it's holding tolerable pressure, still, but it's leaking atmosphere. take what precautions you will to deal with that.

we can return as soon as you are ready, or go on ahead and await your arrival, as you wish."

"We're keeping an eye on the airlock situation. We know that there is a leak; at the moment the level is manageable, and it's being replaced from our supplies not yours.

Go ahead to the ship; we will follow very soon. I'm sure you must feel you are almost prisoners here; I assure you that is not the intent. We obviously have to be careful, and follow the commands of our superiors, but we have no ill will towards you."

ooc: i honestly have no idea what to put here other than "they went to the ship" so...

IC:

"understandably so. this is, in effect, what i meant. in the here and now, pretty much everyone official is our superior."

the Exploritar's crew returned to their ship to await the commencement of repairs.

ooc: if there was something else you were going for here, i can edit this post easy enough.

OOC: Know what you mean, I didn't really know what to write there either.

IC: "Ooooh, shinyness."
"Elara, will you please shut your face and get on with understanding this sub-system."
"I am, I'm just showing appreciation for it at the same time."
Though billed as a drive tech, Elara was really an all-round maverick. Usually tolerated because she was useful, sometimes she crossed the line. She was now comparing schematics of the Angerman crafts engines with the real thing. Suffice to say she was in heaven, contemplating an entirely new technology; teetering on the edge of understanding how it worked, how it could be applied...
"Captain, what would we have to pay you to be able to copy the schematics of this engine?"
"Elara!"
"What! You know it's worth it."
"Not out of my budget!"
"Out of the Fleet budget then..."
"Hrmph."

"budgets aside, miss Elara" Aregad responded "it's not my decision to make. i neither own the rights to it, nor do i have the authority to share sensitive data. it is bad enough, in some ways, that i must let you have access to this ship before even my liege has seen it.

if the situation were such that it were sufficiently advantageous to do so, I'm sure that such a purchase would be perfectly possible. properly arranged trade is generally advantageous. but i am not in a position to make that decision."

"Ah."
That was the last that was heard on the issue, for now. However Elara made her way at the end of that shift to the Engineering Office, where she sweet-talked a certain gentleman, and the end result was a report to the Admiral strongly recommending that a mission be sent to obtain this technology, one way or another.
Meanwhile there arrived at Exploritar a general merchant.
"Gentlemen, I hear you have some need of apparel? Mark Allford, at your service. All I need is to be told your requirements, and I can make them up for you, including any rank badges etc.
So, what do you need?"
Isla had quietly informed him of the request for clothing earlier on, as a local man in good odour with the Fleet and thus considered worthy of the work. She hadn't expected him to come in person, but his robot looms would throw off anything in almost any cloth at high speed, so the Exploritar's crew could soon be suitably dressed.

the clothing required could only be called 'uniform' in that it was very distinctive as to what group the person wearing it belonged to.

or more accurately, groups.

each crew member had something in the order of twenty different symbols they were variously entitled to, or in some cases required to, wear.
liege lord [and sometimes his lord as well], schools, masters, guilds, disciplines, major qualifications, families, unions, and other assorted affiliations, as well as some awards. the list was extensive, and the crew far from unaccomplished in their various fields. a second set with only family and lord would be used for work that would result in potential damage to the cloths, or for off-duty, informal occasions.

when the crew were done listing out the requirements, and Aregad presented it to the merchant.

"if they could be made to offer some protection from weapons as well, it would be helpful, but not particularly necessary."

"This is rather more...precise...than I was expecting Captain. I suppose each and every one of these symbols has meaning, and that it is vital they appear correctly?"
"Anyway, with all this added complication...if we devote one loom to it, we should have what you've asked for with you tomorrow.
As to weapons protection, I'm afraid not. All my fabrics are hard-wearing and fire-resistant, but nothing more."

###

Meanwhile the Admiral of the Port, extremely busy man that he was, read merely the recommendation from one of his trusted advisers, checked that the commitment required was low, and signed off on a proposal he hadn't really read. Elara's pet plan was approved...

"our thanks.

in most cases, yes, it is necessary for them to appear correctly. some errors in some of them would cause only confusion... others, depending on what the error was, gross insult. in the highly unlikely event that exactly the right error were made, there are a few laws it could even violate... but that would require rather large errors, and I'd like to think we'd notice them before it became relevant"

Aregad smiled "the weapons protection was more hopeful wishful thinking than anything. figured, seeing as how we weren't actually paying for this, at least, not directly, we may as well see what we could get. fire resistant is a bonus though."

"Well, fire resistance is standard for anything out here, because working on a ship you never know what might go wrong...
In any case, a pleasure meeting you, but business calls. I'll have someone deliver the clothing when it's done."
And he sauntered off, like a fat, happy bumblebee. The fact that around a tenth of all commercial dealings in the Outer Belt passed through his hands was not apparent at all.

Elara's comm buzzed gently. When she accepted the call, her earpiece could be heard, but the words not made out; and it was picking up her sub-vocalisations. Which was fortunate given some of the potential audience to what was said.
"Elara!"
"Dyello! What is it?"
"Well m'dear, the mission to these peoples' home to check out their technology, has been approved."
"Great! Who told you?"
"Sources, sources, you know I never tell you sources."
"Damn your integrity Tommo! Ok, now who can get me a place?"
"I can probably give you a few hints."
"Cool. Catch you later."

Purely incidental to the call Elara had just received - of course - an aide approached Aregad.
"Captain, we have approval for a mission to your home planet, primarily to obtain access to your drive technology; we were wondering if you could liaise with our mapping AI to work out where that is, incidentally allowing you to plot a course for home?"
Assuming compliance, he instantly went on
"The access point for the AI is located this way." and began walking down the corridor, either certain Aregad would follow, or not particularly bothered.

"i can do that," Aregad responded, then went to say something else. he stopped when he saw the aid leaving already, "lead on, i guess" he continued, quietly, and began walking.

When they reached the AI Interface, the aide gave Aregad a brief explanation of the facilities, then left about other business.
A voice issued from a series of small speakers, focussed on where Aregad was standing. Soft, androgynous, and slightly monotonal - AIs had realised humans liked to be able to feel superior - it said:
Welcome Captain Aregad. I am Cartos, and incarnations of me run all high-level mapping in Incognitia.
I understand you are far from home, and wish to work out where your home is. What information can you give me about the general vicinity? Proximity to major features such as large black holes (twenty or more of this sun's masses) or nebulae are particularly useful, as is approximate distance from galactic centre.
Alternatively if you have a chart of your home region I can assimilate that and work it out. That's easier, but sooo much less fun...

Did you ever get the idea that an AI might be bored by its work? Cartos was. It did it well, out of a sense of duty, but most of the time it got no new charting to do, and was stuck with assimilating a variety of other data. So...eager was perhaps the word...Cartos was eager for this new challenge, and would be all too disappointed when it was over.

"humm. well, if you have some sort of interface for my com unit here, i can give you the ship's charts.

'home', as in the principality, is several systems in a fairly bland area of space, no black holes that i know of... nor anything else of any great significance. just some planets and stars and asteroids and things like that.

so i guess, sadly, we're going to have to go with the easy way this time. "

After a little calculation on form of communications, Cartos found that it did indeed have an appropriate port. Forcing the dumb com unit to give it the data in a suitable form was somewhat harder...but that just added to the fun, right?

And with the data on board, a fairly complex form of matrix comparison commenced. Complex in that it compared many different variables for a number of bodies with the same variables for all the star-groupings in the galaxy.

Right, well, that'll take a few minutes. I've put a tracker showing confidence level of the best match so far, and percentage of candidate systems checked, on your com pad.
While we're waiting, I don't suppose you play Go? A very ancient game, and somewhat under-rated I find.
Alternatively I can just show you shiny holograms until it's time for you to go away.

"i never was very good at Go. nor chess, for that matter. one can simply learn the specific moves, and that's the end of it. whoever has memorized more, and whoever goes first, are all that matters. chess is bad too. computers from centuries ago, possibly millennia, could simply brute-force the game, and win every time as a result. no, i prefer something a little less predictable, with more options."

Aregad fiddled with his com unit for a bit "see if you can run this. an old style of game where the preparation matters as much as the play, luck almost (but not quite) as much as skill, and flexibility as much as knowledge."

the game he had called up was called 'forward to victory', and consisted of assembling, moving, and fighting various ships against one another. it had originally been designed to be played with cards, but variations had rapidly appeared in digital form.

"so, shall we see if you can beat me?"

If it is war that you want, war you shall get.

Cartos began preparing its ships. Its tactics would match its personality - methodical and grinding, with an occasional flash of risky tactical madness when it got bored with the predictability of the whole thing.

Set. How are your preparations looking?

"humm... i wonder. you're an ai, there for, we're essentially playing this game in your mind. i take it that taking advantage of this fact to cheat would be beneath you?

regardless, my preparations are also complete"

Aregad had an interesting style. it mostly focused on trickery. the smaller ships were often more powerful than the larger ones, the crews could alter the flow of battle unpredictably, 'hidden' weapons and tactics abounded. while it could, and did, sometimes fail catastrophically, it was just as prone to winning in interesting and devastating ways, and almost always produced a game which gave at least the illusion of being close.

What point would victory hold, if I obtained it by cheating? If I win then that's fine, if I lose it is clearly because the game contains a chance element. It would take a long series of games with you winning more than 50% to dent my ego.

The heavy meatgrinder of assorted types of ship began moving into action. Let battle commence.

Cry Havoc! And let slip the dogs of war! I predict that I will win a narrow victory in this combat. I will keep you updated if I change my mind at any time.

"very well"

Aregad's ships scattered in ones and twos all over the map, as if asking to be attacked

"part of the challenge in this game is overcoming the bad chance, and using the good to your advantage. "

Aregad activated one of his crews' abilities, and his ships flickered, before apparently moving randomly.

"it is your turn"

Cartos' ships split into fewer, larger groups. These remained fairly close - close enough to support one another - but began hunting down Aregad's small groups.
The idea was to catch as many as possible piecemeal, while avoiding his small groups coalescing to do the same to Cartos' own ships.
Every move was taken cautiously.

I wonder what you hope to achieve by that move.

"you shall see"

Aregad's ships were not, in fact, where they appeared to be. the illusion would be seen through quickly enough if any of Cartos' ships got close, but for now it did the job.

some of the ships really were where they appeared, some ships were where there appeared to be ships, but weren't the one that seemed to be there, and some ships were places they didn't appear to be. so, while Cartos was being cautious and attempting to avoid being caught by a coalescing group of Aregad's ships, many of Aregad's ships were doing just that.

small ships disguised as large ones would act as shepherds, large ships disguised as small ones as bait, it appeared to be working so far. Aregad now simply had to position his ships, and wait for the right time to spring the trap.

The hunting down of Aregad's ships was tantalisingly close to working. That in itself made Cartos reconsider. Most projections had predicted either successful contact or significant losses by now.
Its ships received new orders, and began following a different pattern. A few light, expendable vessels were sent careering at high speed directly towards Aregad's ships. The rest turned tail and began recombining into a full fleet, at a significantly faster pace than the one they had split up at.
Caution was the watchword, after all. There might be a trap, there might not. But for now, the fleet would hunt together, with light scouting vessels in front to make sure what appeared to be there truly was. Aregad would have to join his vessels together, or be slowly but surely destroyed.

"humm. a change in behavior. you believe you see what i am doing then? very well."

Aregad had included rift drives in some of his ships. they were limited in how often each could be used, could only be used once in a turn, and they gave away where that ship was, as well as the fact that anything disguised as it wasn't it at all, but...

four battleships vanished from their previous positions, in the process revealing one of the other visible ships to actually be a small fighter, and reappeared in front of a few of Cartos' ships that had been just that little bit further away from the main group, isolating them. the battleships then opened up with everything they had.

"and, with that done..." Aregad moved the rest of his ships, intentionally revealing some lighter ones to the scouts, while moving still hidden or disguised heavies around outside their field of view.

Cartos sacrificed the trapped vessels, sending them straight for the battleships and overloading their drives to produce a vast explosion. No messing.
The remainder of the fleet continued gathering, much closer together now. Having come close enough, they now realigned into formations; the bigger vessels at the core of sub-groups of smaller supporting ships. These powerful sub-groups would now work as a team to hit the enemy hard.
It was not so totally unexpected. Now let us see how we go.

the explosions had destroyed two of the battleships, and a third was now sufficiently damaged as to be almost useless. the fourth was relatively unscathed, however, and used it's rift drive again, placing it's self in what appeared to be empty space between one of Cartos's sub groups and the location where Aregad's main fleet appeared to be gathering.

a pair of his hidden ships had laid mines in this area, and then backed off. the mines themselves were so small as to be essentially undetectable.

now, two other ships still hidden there activated their own abilities, giving off sensor ghosts around themselves. where there had been one battleship, there now appeared to be five.

hidden by these ghosts, fighters and other small ships moved up behind the minefield, while off to each side of Cartos's fleet, small ships appeared, and began loosing missiles in a grid pattern designed to hit the fleet no matter which way it moved, though it would waste many shots and each ship only had a fixed number. there was one opening in this missile blanket, however. should the AI's fleet continue forward towards the now apparantly multiplied battleship, it would avoid the missiles entirely.

Obviously Cartos' ships had missile defences. They used these, to maintain their freedom of action - the one opening was too obviously a trap, in an otherwise extremely carefully laid barrage.

Damage was taken; a few ships hit. But in the main the barrage was shot down, as Cartos' ships were designed to withstand such fire and more.

The nearest four sub-groups, two on each side, at once turned off and began their own barrage of Aregad's missile firers, a combination of their own missiles and energy weapons, some from battleships and heavy cruisers.

"ehh... should have seen that coming. " Aregad's fighters maneuvered madly to avoid the missiles. some did, some didn't. "perhaps this will help"

the rest of his fleet had moved to a point 'above' Cartos', and discarded the illusions of being other than where and what they were. now the larger ships started spraying plasma balls and missiles with the unstable gravitational warheads 'down' on Cartos' fleet.

the battleship that had been in front of his fleet now took the opportunity to use it's rift drive for the last time, appearing in the midst of the AI's fleet and fireing it's full compliment of weapons, as well as revealing those ships that had been hiding behind it and it's ghosts.

"perhaps you will see the ... humor... in this move" Aregad smiled, as he activated an ability called 'AI Control'. he now no longer controlled his own small ships. in exchange for giving up control of them for several turns, and increasing the predictability of their movements, they now supported each other more effectively, were more capable of evading, and did more damage with each and every hit.

meanwhile, the mine layers had left an arc of mines from the field the battleship had been in, down and around until they were below Cartos' fleet.

here they had deployed another field, and were now out of mines. they too began firing, using p/s warheads on their missiles.

The folly of jumping into the middle of a fleet composed of many sub-parts was soon exposed, as the battleship was, indeed, in the midst of the fleet, but between its subdivisions, and thus hit from all sides by heavy fire. Three unfortunate lighter vessels were as good as annihilated by Aregad's battleship, but otherwise only fairly minor damage was taken.

Against a human the realignment of axis would have perhaps baffled them. Cartos simply switched the axis on which it was mentally operating.
Ah, so your hand is shown.
And yes, so each subgroup had to realign to face that way, but that swift work. The overall alignment of the fleet remained the same, just the individual ships turned to face.
A few vessels with longer-ranged weapons were detached to hit the mine-layers without having to approach them. This would allow them to re-direct to hit the ones from what had been the 'front' swiftly at need. A few shots were directed that way in any case, to warn them off.
The rest, even as they began to be hit by plasma balls and missiles, moved in. This was their business, the slog of pitched battle, and they set about it with a will.
Fire from heavy lasers on the heavy and medium vessels was concentrated on Aregad's own heaviest ships. Cartos' lighter ships hit targets of opportunity. Once the heaviest of Aregad's ships were destroyed or fled, fire would be redirected to progressively smaller ships; and given his expenditure on trickery, on ghosting devices, on rift drives, Aregad would have less armour, fewer missiles, lighter lasers.
Enough of this playing. Either you flee, or this is the decisive combat.

the battleship's primary purpose had not been destruction. this was merely an added bonus and a distraction. more importantly, prior to it's destruction at the hands of Cartos's fleet, it let loose many small pods, which drifted all but silently, inactive....

until they came close enough to a ship.

as each pod came close to a ship and went off, great searing flashes across all the available spectrum began to appear. these didn't damage the AI's ships much... but many had their sensors fried to the point where they were essentially flying blind.

still, unleashing this little ploy was the last thing the battleship in question ever did.

"humm.. decisive combat, you say? perhaps it is, at that."

Aregad's smaller ships made continuous attack runs under their AI, some of them unfortunately caught by his own stray pods. at the same time his larger ones pulled back and out, behind the first minefield again, being careful to avoid the mines themselves.

"it is, after all, difficult to hit that which you cannot see"

The core of Cartos' formation was thrown into disarray by this particular trick.

The offensive on the edges, still going strong, was no longer backed by enough vessels to be tactically sound. Repair works were of course already underway, and some ships had been fortunate enough to have sensors near their main weapons batteries come through intact, and were thus still combat-worthy.
However, for now the offensive halted. The affected ships could essentially only fight with missiles, not their major armament, and so those unaffected would have to hold the line while their sister-ships jury-rigged solutions to let them rejoin the fray. How many of them would be unable to...was as yet unclear...but in the very best cases it would take some minutes.

Cunning. Most cunning. It will avail you little, but it is nonetheless a good throw.

"indeed? we shall see"

Aregad's larger ships nudged the minefield out to open a gap, and formed into a column, the front of which was four ships in a square, first the mid weight ships, then the heaviest, then the lightest of them.

"sometimes the foolish is wisdom."

the column began to move forward, clearly intent on punching into the now blinded, or at least partially blinded, opposing fleet. on their way in, few weapons could be brought to bear on the target, but the point defenses overlapped significantly, and while the first ships may be doomed if the pods had not had sufficient effect, the ones behind them probably would not be, and the ones behind those would be amongst the enemy before they fell, and the ones behind those would be further through still, and so on.

"what shall you do now, humm?"

it was highly unlikely that many of the AI's ships would recover at all before the enemy was amongst them.

The answer was not too complex. It was jury-rigged, and it would lead to blue-on-blue incidents in the coming combat, but it would allow Cartos' ships to all bring fire to bear.
Four ships on the edges of the fleet all sent their sensor picture to the entire fleet. Each ship then combined these to place itself with relation to everything else.
The process was far too slow to hit a fighter, and perhaps a little too slow to hit a corvette. Anything else could be hit with the full wrath of Cartos' fleet, however.
In anticipation of these ships becoming especial targets, other intact vessels were tasked to protect them.
The Fleet shook out into a somewhat flatter formation, facing the column, and the combined fire of the lot, short a few whose crews were still labouring to patch in the combined sensor picture, lashed out at the front of the column.
The missiles would be held for now, til the chaos of close quarter battle hit, at which point the sharing of sensor data would be more complex, and the missiles' stupid brains might be better able to discriminate enemy than some of the ships that fired them.

"ahh. i see what you're doing there."

Aregad's fighters returned to their pilot's control, the AI disabled.

"we'll have to put a stop to that now, won't we?"

as the capital ships closed, the fighters disengaged from their general attack, and began to specifically target those ships that were coordinating the actions of the damaged craft.

"bombs away" Aregad smiled, as the first released a limpet bomb towards it's intended target.

Cartos' fighter force hadn't made much appearance yet. Initially they had been preserved out of caution; then because the AI assessed Aregad's fighters to be superior in co-ordination.
Now they were truly needed. The hub-ships responsible for communications were protected by a hail of fire, but one was already heavily damaged, and would be down before the fighters could reach it to defend; the other three were less badly hit, so far.
A replacement was already being readied; though the network could function with three hubs, a drop to two would make it nigh on useless.
To maximise their effect, Cartos' fighters were split into two groups, attempting to wipe out Aregad's fighters in detail.
The capital ships continued to fire on the advancing column; those further out on the formation hitting out at the deeper parts of the column, the centre only able to effectively hit the front of the formation.

unlike the larger ships, Aregad's smaller craft did not spend overly much mass on fancy tricks. apart from the AI control, the ships where stripped down to the bare minimum required to function, then loaded with weapons and armor.

this added up to their being slightly less agile than those belonging to Cartos, but packing a greater punch and able to take a bit more damage, a slightly nearer miss, without being destroyed.


working in wings of 5, three fighters and two 'bombers', with one of the fighters as the leader, they tended to fly in wedge formation. at the 'bottom' of their arcing attack runs, the bombers would drop lower to the target than their escorts, release their loads, and fly back up into formation.

as the target ship was destroyed, the wings attacking it would split, moving on to aid the other groups in their tasks.

as expected, the front ships soaked up the bulk of the damage. even once they had been rendered little more than smoking, lifeless hulks. they continued to drift along their paths, shielding the rest of the fleet. deeper into the column, where it's flanks were being hit by the ends of the AI's line, the defenses of the various ships overlapped so much that only a very small number of plasma rounds got through to do anything. most of the plasma fired at the fleet expended itself on chaff and debre, while the missiles simply didn't make it through the grid.

very soon, now, the fleet would close enough to begin to do significant damage.

Much as I hate to interrupt our game, I wish to announce that I have a match. We know where your planet is, and thus how you can return home.

Do you wish to see?

Cartos paused all movement of the ships in the simulation.

"why does the timing of this not surprise me?" Aregad laughed "very well, show me. with this information it'll only be a couple of days before we can leave."

You speak as though you truly expected to attain victory. If you regarded, as I have, the correlation of forces, you would see that is highly improbable.

In any case, regard

A holographic projection of the Incognitian system appeared.
We are here.
A red ring around Fleet Base Kimon.
Looking a little further afield, this is the local group.
A small cluster of star systems.
I show you this so that at the next level you can pick it out.
Now the Incognitian system was barely visible, but for the helpful red arrow Cartos had added.
Going up one further level, we see your home here
This time a green circle.
The overall distance is approaching 3,000 light years, in our terms. We have not explored this region, and have no allies there. It is however at least in the same spiral arm, and trade is conceivable along a rough route here
A route was traced in blue between the two marked areas.
In any case, I have placed all this on your pad, so you should be able to make your way home now. I am happy to continue our game, but doubtless someone will be here to fetch you shortly.

"once battle commences, one should never give up on the possibility of victory before the battle is lost. that alone can win when all else is against you, at times. certainly in games. "

Aregad took another look at the numbers

"wow. at that kind of a distance, it's amazing we didn't arrive in the middle of a star or planet. even with a navigation system we were familiar with, one thousand is normally the upper limit of reliably safe jumps."

he changed track again.

"you're right regarding continuation though. we'll call it an end, and you can take a look at what i had left, see whether you're so confidant of victory then."

in truth, most of Aregad's ships had been carrying a few missiles with gravitational warheads, and there were more blinding pods and various other nasty tricks remaining and yet to be used.

"i suspect you'll find that victory or defeat may well have hinged on a single random number"

Cartos revealed it's numbers. The missiles. The lasers. The armour plate. The level to which the interoperability of sensors could be carried.
Debatable, but ultimately uninteresting

In any case, a mission to your home has already been authorised, primarily for purposes of technological exchange I believe. That will now enter a more advanced stage of preparation, and will probably follow shortly behind you.

At this point Isla arrived. "Captain Aregad, I understand you have what you need? Your advice would be appreciated by members of the mission to your system, if you wouldn't mind?" clearly indicating that she'd like him to follow her to a briefing room.

"very well. thank you, Cartos, you have been both helpful and interesting."

so saying, Aregad turned and followed the Lieutenant, being sure not to leave anything behind.

It wasn't far. They still weren't sure how far knowledge of the Angermans presence here should spread, thus the assumption was - as little as possible - and everything requiring them was being conducted as close as possible to their ship.
A selection of senior officers and staff specialists occupied the room they entered, arrayed around a long table, engaged in heated discussion which stopped as they entered. Clearly Angermanland, or some aspect of it, was the cause of discussion.
"Ah, Captain Aregad. Please, sit. Thank you Lt. James, you may leave."
"Thank you sir, but I'll sit."
"Excuse me?"
"Well, I am commanding this mission, am I not?"
"Who told you that!"
"Leave to remain, sir?"
*sigh* "Granted. Now, to business. Captain, we need your advice on the best way in which to approach your people; who, where and how. We ask specifically for whom to avoid, since we understand your society has barely buried conflict bubbling."

Aregad sat as indicated, then set about replying.

"if your people are going to follow fairly close behind my ship, or even come with us, which could well be a better plan, their best bet would be to seek out the count of Mentez Belt for your first contact, as i can... smooth the way a bit for them, in that regard. they would then be passed up the chain, not too many links, until they gained audience with the prince.

as for who to avoid, i honestly do not know who will be in what position by the time we return, but Duke Heitherland was a key... opponent and agitator. it might be wise to avoid him.

as for where to approach... " he paused for a moment, consulting memory and, to a lesser extent, his com unit. "where is very much tied to who. assuming you could make rift jumps, the best place to arrive is at the edge of the territory of the person you wish to contact. otherwise...."

he did a little work on his com unit, then slid it across the table "that rout would probably offer the least problems, beyond the woeful lack of fuel efficiency." it passed through the territories of mostly loyal or disinterested lords, and no known oposition "it'd still be wise to keep an eye out though."

a slight pause "as to how. how is easy. ideally, you arrange your ship to emit a set pattern of signals.. effectively digital heraldry, paint it in the equivalent manner, arrive, announce yourselves, and proceed to be very polite , though as straightforward as possible, until you are done being all official. that'd be after you've left, or when you're told by whichever lord you're dealing with that it is appropriate.

when dealing with the prince, in public, Always Always he is the prince, and distant. he is never you're good friend Chargone, for example. in private, he may allow you to do so. you will be told if that is the case. it is unlikely to be for some time, if ever.

that's... probably the extent to which i can answer your questions. there's ... a lot of subtle things going on there. "

"Sounds simple enough. Right, many thanks Captain. Our expedition should be ready in time to go with you, and those preparing will be told to specifically aim for such.
Now, we do not wish to detain you, and I am sure your ship will require your attentions."

The spokesman began rifling through his pad, evidently searching for something of relevance to the next part of the briefing.

###

A decision had already been taken on the ships to send. The Irene and Karina, since they were small patrol vessels already off station; one would, once they reached Angerman, be visible in normal space. The other would hold station in hyperspace; relay comms home; and watch for any trouble.
It had also been decided not to 'augment' their crews at all, though both their AIs were being upgraded to the latest models before they left.

Aregad stepped out of the airlock, though 'lock' wasn't quite accurate at the moment, and back into the Exploritar.

"well?" Jeni's face appeared at the upper edge of his field of vision. she was lying in one of the maintenance tubes, and had leaned out the access hatch to see who was coming past.

"supplies, repairs, possibly heraldry changes... all taken care of. all that remains is for them to actually happen. we know where we are now, too, so if you've figured out the navigation side of things, we can go home within the week."

"that is good news"

"yeah, it is. but it means hanging around for a while longer. and now, if you'll excuse me, it's been a long day and i would like to get some sleep"

"oh, of course. sorry, boss"

"it's ok. 'night"

"'night, boss"

Aregad then returned to his bunk and proceeded to do just that.

A few hapless techs and engineers were working through the night preparing the two corvettes that would go. As a result, when they were replaced the following morning, little remained to be done. By 1000 hours, both Irene and Karina were ready.
They departed at once, without fanfare or any particular fuss. Lt James had orders to move at a reasonable clip in Level A Hyperspace, as this should bring them out a little way behind Exploritar.
The assumption was being made that they would not be detected in hyperspace, as these people appeared to have no knowledge of it, knowing only their 'rift'. If they were detected in their transit to the territories of this Count of Mentez Belt, they would deal with that as it happened; otherwise they would re-enter normal space once they reached his territories and take it from there.
Isla looked once more over her screens, and gave the order to Jump Alpha; an order she had never given before, not having leapt to Level A before.
The corvettes disappeared, and began their journey.

The crew of Exploritar were, of course, welcome to ask any of the many engineers to be found near, or on, their ship if they needed anything. The clothing they had requested had been delivered overnight, dropped in a parcel just outside their ship. Otherwise, it was assumed that they would leave when they were ready. A helpful guide to Traffic Control Protocol had been left on top of the clothing.

two days later, all repairs were made, all systems in readiness.

as the Exploritar un-'docked', Aregad spoke to the crew.

"now, with a little more time and a little luck, we should get home within 6s,3o days. we are going to manage that, aren't we, Jeni?"

"err, we should boss. Araji, we need to be" Jeni hit a few buttons on her console " ... there... to make the jump"

"all righty." the relevant data had appeared on Araji's own console, and she very carefully maneuvered the ship into place.

Rikkard was talking to the Kimon station's traffic control officer. "thank you. Exploritar out." he turned "and, we're cleared to jump as soon as we're ready, boss."

"good, good. whenever you girls are ready."

"in position boss"

"transition in.. ten
nine
eight
seven
six
five
four
three
two
one
transi-"

a twisting of energies, and the ship was gone from view.

"-tion"
"Jeni,"
"yes boss?"
"may i suggest you find a shorter word than 'transition'?"
"sure... why?"
"that way you might actually get to finish the word Before we jump." Aregad stood "if you need me, I'll be in my cabin. you guys know the drill."

affirmative responses, and he left.

Capitans log, exploritar, some days later than the last entry because the techs stuffed up the clock again and i lost track.

thanks to the Incognitians, we're now on our way home. two of their ships left before us. in theory, we should arrive a day ahead of them. they don't use rift drives, apparantly, though they do have some other FTL capabilities. with any luck, we should be home in 6s 3o days, leaving us a day to prepair the count for their arrival.

we'll have to be sure to make allowances for the incompatibility of standard docking ports. easy enough though, the data's in the ship's computers.

i must say, it'll be good to get home, at last.

Karina and Irene coasted serenely through hyperspace. They had long since reached their intended speed; deceleration didn't need to start until they were nearly at their destination.
A probe was periodically dropping out of hyperspace to scout around, taking a look-see, jumping back and sprinting to catch up and be refuelled. Thus far nothing of interest.
Then:
"Skip, we've got something!"
"What?"
"Latest probe dump; EM transmissions suggestive of civilisation."
"And this is about where we expected the edge of Angermanland, right?"
"Yes Ma'am."
"Cloak the probe from now on."
"Aye Ma'am. Next dump is in one minute."
After that dump it was unmistakeable, they had reached Angermanland. Deceleration began almost immediately, so that it could be gentle.

A few hours later they reached the territories of this Count, and Karina descended to normal space, transmitting on a loop:
Greetings, this is TIS Karina, to meet the Count of Mentez Belt on diplomatic business.
The transmission was vaguely directed inwards at the Count's territories, rather than broadcast.

a flicker on some instruments, and there appeared a group of five corvettes.


"you're expected. facilities have been prepared for your ships. you will stay within our formation at all times." the tone shifted from formal to more friendly "most teritories in the principality have designated arrival areas for rift travel. a ship comes in, and accelerates hard out. reduces the odds of collision. can't have you straying into one of them."

there were other reasons as well, some of which were simply complex to explain, such as the paths of the asteroids in the belt, and some of which it would be better not to mention, such as the various military installations.

four of the corvettes formed a square, with the fifth taking station ahead of the Incognitian ships.

"if you will follow the lead ship, please?"

each of the transmissions was sent first in Angerman, then after a ... significant delay, in English.


ooc: compliance [or lack there of], and then I'll post the relevant arrival things. this territory doesn't include any habitable or inhabited planets, just fyi. lots of floating rock though.

"Ma'am, we have incoming transmissions."
"Oh, what a surprise, I thought our five new friends were just here to dance."
"..."
"Out with it, what did they say?"
"Something in their language, computer is still crunching it. Oh, wait, we have English transmission coming in.
Telling us to stick with this lot, they've prepared for our arrival. And...another one, saying please follow the lead ship."
"Well, we could jump away, but Irene is still up there as top cover, and that would mean abandoning our mission. So follow."

OOC: Just to note Irene is still in hyperspace, though stationary, so it's unlikely you'd be able to detect her.

the capital of this territory, such as it was, was a very large asteroid. dubbed "Bandforge" by some imaginative ancestor of the current count, it contained the largest port in the belt, some third of the belt's population, and all of it's administration. primary resource production such as agriculture and mining, and all industry, including ship building, were scattered across the belt, mostly, but large amounts of the more basic foodstuffs were grown in specially constructed environments here. evidence that Bandforge had once been a shipyard as well was still apparent, but it no longer served that purpose for a number of reasons.

the belt neatly split the small system in two. inward of it were two small, rocky worlds, each being a small element of the fiefdoms of other lords who had their main holdings elsewhere, while the outer system was one of the Prince's direct holdings, and contained a pair of 'small' gas giants. they and the processing plants on their moons were not insignificant full sources for the various Angerman space going vehicles.

the Incognitian ship was lead to Beltforge, and then directed to dock at a specially modified gantry. unlike when the Exploritar (now safely hidden away in a special dock in another part of the belt) had visited the Incognitians, there would be no issues with airlocks and the like.

standing just inside were Aregad and Araji, the count himself, a squad of ten of the Count's guards, armed for low integrity environments, and a pair of customs officials.

Count Yegone of Mentez Belt blinked slightly, then pulled out his com and checked it's display. "Aregad, did you not say they sent two ships?"

"so far as i'm aware, sir, yes."

"care to explain why only one showed up?"

"there are a number of possibilities, but I'd suggest just asking them when they dock, sir." he paused, glanced at Araji, then continued "and probably sending the escorting pickets back out. the odds of them doing something deliberately problematic at this point are... low. they don't even know what we can do in response, for one thing."

"hummm. you're probably right. it shall be as you suggest." the Count tapped his com unit a couple of times then put it away.

ooc: and now they're a little suspicious. heh. time for your ship to dock and the relevant entities to board.

OOC: Did I ever tell you ICly that two ships were going? I don't think I did...

IC:Karina docked. Docked beautifully, in fact, with a bare minimum of thrust, and coming to a nearly absolute stop right alongside the gantry.
That's 'fin piloting for you, of course.

Lt Isla James, in full uniform, accompanied by two of the Regulating Section as a form of escort, as well as her most experienced CPO, Chief Maine, stood inside the airlock.
"Ma'am, they've prepared for us, the airlock fits perfectly."
"Very good. Establish a seal and get us dirtside."
"Ma'am."
Seal established...a gentle hissing as the lock equalised...and then opened.
Seeing reasonably senior figures on the other side, Isla saluted.
"Lt Isla James of the Incognitian Navy, sir."
At this point Elara came dashing up behind, and completely ignored Chief Maine's urging her away to join the group.

ooc: I'm put it down to observation and logic, i guess?

IC:

Aregad, now in his full official 'uniform', was quite a splendid sight. of those gathered, only the count was more... decorated.

"greetings, Lieutenant. welcome to Beltforge. allow me to introduce my lord Yegone, Count of Mentez Belt."
the count himself stepped forward slightly at this point, and nodded just enough to indicate acknowledgment and that it was he who was spoken of.

then the count himself spoke. he was , physically, best described as 'average', right down to his plain brown eyes and dark hair. this did not stop him radiating an aura of command, however.

"these men" he indicated the customs officials "will inspect your ship. they are not engineers, so they will not be stealing any of your secrets, but we cannot allow anything in the way of vermin or the like to sneak aboard, and there are some things that are prohibited here. they will not be taken from you as long as they remain on your ship, and they will point out to you what things fall under this limitation. primary among those prohibitions are projectile weapons and anything with enough power to damage Beltforge's structural integrity." a wave of his hand, and the customs officials entered the ship and set about their business "if you and your party would come with us? we shall conduct our business proper somewhere more... suitable..."

with that, the count turned and, followed by his escort, began walking back down the corridor, towards the interior.

Araji made just one comment as she turned to follow "don't try anything. there are Powers at work here. in more ways than one" she actually managed to pronounce the capitalized P.

<Aren't they suspicious> Elara thought to herself <Maybe they can detect the Irene, or just guessed she was here...>. She supposed she should really be staying to help the searchers, and keep an eye on them, but the rest of the Engineering section could do that.
In any case, they followed the Count.

With all that happened within a reasonable range of Karina being relayed to Irene, Lt James Hamon was keeping a careful track of things. He reached a decision, that they would appear having "been called in to triangulate", a reasonably common practice for searching out transmissions, and thus forced to remain stationary for some hours. Based on SOP, that gave them another three hours. Now all he needed was a way to communicate with Isla...

a few minutes of walking through corridors and open spaces, and a few minutes on the asteroid's equivalent of a light rail system, and they had arrived at the relevant area of the Complex.

Araji had gone elsewhere, having things to do, and some of the guards halted outside the door. then they proceeded to a conference room. nothing fancy. chairs, a table, com access, a large screen. the normal trappings.

indicating that they should take a seat, as he himself sat at the head of the table, Yegone spoke "so, what brings you here?"

Everything looked in good repair, and most of the technology was entirely recognisable to Elara, or at least could be figured out.

And when they sat down, in front of Yegone, Isla had her thoughts well in order.
"The first point is that we, and by we I mean the TerrorGens Council and the Admiralty, wish to obtain this gravitational manipulation technology of yours. Secondly we're on a factfinding mission, to report back something of the status of your nation to our superiors."

"For the first, I guess the specific question is, can you help us in obtaining the right to work with the GRAV drive, or any unprotected knowledge behind it's operation? Frankly, anything that can help us to work out how it works, and be able to replicate it, without trampling on the rights of whoever owns them.
For the second, just being able to spend a little time looking around here, talking to people, would be appreciated."

*** conference room ***

"humm. the basic principles are publicly available, and are, in fact, taught in our educational system. that i can share with you easily enough.

beyond that..." the count sighed "well, i can start the process, but it's unlikely to get anywhere with only me and my retainers to vouch for you.

as for fact finding, well, facts can only be found by going, looking, seeing, doing... we'll see what facts you find along the way, shall we?" Yegone smiled. "you'll discover much about our people simply here on Beltforge... but i doubt that'll satisfy you. i'll see what i can do about arranging something."

*** Karina ***

the two customs officials entered the ship and looked around. deciding that the best way to be sure to check everything was to start at one end and on opposite sides, they set off towards the stern.

"Well, at least the science behind it is of help, we have...no more than hints of this in our physics. It was thought the field equations were fully understood when we knew enough to hit hyperspace..."
"And anything you can do, even telling us who we might be able to speak to, or selling us a few old models we can tinker with, would be appreciated."
"If obtaining rights to the engine is going to be a long, complicated process...well, that should give ample opportunity for fact-finding, should it not?"

* * *
The customs officers were accompanied by Chief Fear, and one of his P.Os. The gruff old chief would happily explain any part of his domain, to anyone, and since on a small ship most of it was his domain, and on this class none was that classified, that would have no effect beyond speeding the official's task. The PO being somewhat less experienced, knew a little less....but had less tendency to talk too extensively.
As long as the officials weren't so stupid as to start pressing buttons they didn't understand, there was unlikely to be a problem; yes these were ships of war, but that meant all the hazards were known, and tightly controlled, and as for contraband...well, if Chief Fear hadn't found it, these men probably wouldn't either.

"indeed. though in truth, there could be something of a shortcut to the system. if the Prince can be convinced that it is worth his time and effort to deal with you personally, it would... expedite things, significantly. well, probably, at any rate. i shall have a message sent off to that effect. we should get a response within the week." the count started tapping buttons on the screen in front of him.

as he did so, Aregad spoke "could you explain to me some of the nature of hyper space, at some point? not the detailed mathematics, it's probably beyond me, but..." he trailed off "i think, we have much to learn from one another, your nation and ours."

"Hyperspace? I don't understand the detailed physics, or mathematics, myself.
Essentially it requires a specialised drive, which then allows you to 'jump' into hyperspace. Once you're there, it looks quite like normal space, just...smaller. Or faster. I'm not sure which is technically correct.
There are several levels to it. Jumping to level D is quite easy, but travel there is fairly slow. Level C is harder to reach, and so on; until it takes a major jump to reach level A, but that is fast enough to cross the galaxy.
Then you have to jump to return to normal space. With care, and the right equipment, it is possible to scout the surrounding normal space before jumping back."

###

Back on the ship, the customs man with Chief Fear was progressing well. They had reached the midsection of the ship, and encountered the crew quarters. Here, right in the centre of the ship, was the Pool. This was to extend the endurance of both the ship and certain members of her crew, because in the Pool, a fin could actually swim. Nothing quite replicated that. And in emergencies, a reserve of water of course. Just leaving the pool was the ship's main pilot, Laureki.
"Chief! Who's this bizarro?"
"This is a Customs man Laureki, go easy or he might impound you for unpaid duty."
"What you saying Chief?"
"Well, if we have to pay duty on alcohol, I figure your body is the main shipboard stock."
"Very funny, Jimbo, very funny."
"Well, catch you later Laur."
"Sure thing."
Laureki got into his spider walker, and returned to his duties.

"i can see the advantages of that, definitely. makes navigation less of a challenge too, i suspect" he stopped, as a soft whurr came from one of his pockets. "a moment" Aregad removed his com unit from his pocket, read it, tapped a few keys, then moved over to the count and showed him.

the count looked up, somewhat startled "he is sure?"

"quite sure, my lord. they... checked." Aregad glanced at their guests briefly as said this.

"very well." the count turned to the Incognitians "would you care to explain the decidedly non-human biological sentience aboard your ship? the customs officers are sufficiently concerned as to have ordered a temporary isolation of your ship, and yourselves, until this is cleared up." he sighed " which can be done easily enough. even if it's a problem, it's possibly too late.

first off: biologicals. viruses, harmful bacteria, toxins, and the like. then what they actually are. the entire description reads "talking fish", which is not helpful. speak."

"Ah, Lieutenant, I think they'll have run into Laureki."
"You're right McGrath. Ok, I'll handle this." Isla then turned back to the Count.
"Laureki, our pilot, is a neo-dolphin, or fin. Fins are the result of the Uplift project, started...a long time ago...before we could travel the stars. We were lonely, and we made ourselves companions. By a combination of highly-skilled genetic and other manipulations, and ruthlessly selective breeding, from the original stock of bottle-nose and other dolphins has come a species as intelligent as ourselves. Each and every tursiops novus is a full citizen of Incognitia, and they serve with distinction in the Fleet, especially as pilots.

Chimpanzees were the other target of these efforts, and though that project took a little longer, they are now also full citizens of Incognitia.

All three peoples of Incognitia are represented on the TerrorGens Council.

So while we understand both your concern and your caution, we would thank you to end the quarantine, as Laureki is probably less of a threat than we are; we carry more bacteria that can affect you."

"bah. should have thought of that, too. oh well." as he sent off a message telling the customs officials to rescind the isolation order, Yegone continued "would have been nice if you'd mentioned that little fact earlier. oh well, no real harm done.

humm....

the best move, now, i think, would be to send you, along with some of my own people, to see the Prince. I'd suggest that when you arrive you Do mention your fin friend. the officials there are ... less relaxed... than our own.

the Prince is in a position to make arrangements as required. there will, of course, be trade offs, one thing for another, and it may take some time. one can't afford the various factions to get so far out of balance as to destabilize things, after all..."

"We didn't think to mention it only because it is a fairly basic part of our society.

And that sounds perfectly acceptable. My thanks for your help, and when can we hope to leave? Obviously I'll need to alert my crew."

OOC: That's my last before I go away for the weekend. Get back to this Sunday/Monday.

"this depends. would you have some of our people go on ahead? or simply accompany you? turning up unannounced and unknown would probably be a bad idea. also, entering your heraldic markings, or nearest equivalent at any rate, into the official records would be... helpful.

of course, we only send our records once a month, useually, and the officials in charge of such things in the capital useually only send out revised and updated issues of the full record once a year. fortunately, we don't have to keep track of every single person's full heraldry, merely what all the symbols represent. generally speaking, such information is recorded in the census every four years, along with sundry other data.

anyway. that will take but an hour or two at most to organize, and is a matter for minor functionaries. if you wish to have one of our ships go on ahead of you, I'd advise waiting a few days. they'd have to be organized, then get there ahead of you, then make arrangements, you see. if you wish to take some of our people with you... oh, call it an official envoy. i need to send reports and things to the prince anyway... then everything can be in place by the middle of tomorrow."

"We would be happy to accompany a ship of yours to the Prince. We have no real heraldry, but there are a few symbols we use, such as the Incognitan roundel" (OOC: think of the NATO symbol, in black and gold) "and certain symbols for units, though these are not widely used."

"In any case, we are happy to co-operate with any such efforts by your officials, and would like to aid understanding in both directions as much as we can."

"very well, it shall be added to the dispatch. for now, there are guides awaiting you outside. one of my ships shall leave before nightfall. I'd suggest a couple of days R&R for your crew. I'll have an aid send you the relevant legal notes so no one ends up in the holding cells unnecessarily. now, if you'll excuse me, i have things to do, alas. fiefdoms don't run themselves. "

ooc: in other words, I'm setting up to totally skip over everything until you get to the prince, and beyond, if you wish.

A couple of days later, Karina left to see the Prince. For some absurd reason Isla found herself humming an archaic song we're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of oz...

In any case, they were soon to reach the meat of the negotiations, the point of the entire expedition.
<why didn't they send someone more senior than me? why a mere lieutenant to negotiate with a prince?>
Unanswered questions, and with the workings of the Fleet they would remain so, at least for another thirty years.
No matter. She gave the helm orders to jump, and they rejoined Irene in hyperspace, and set course for the Prince.

OOC: Totally separate note, apart from involving our two nations and FT.
An ally of mine, Asfaltum, is under very severe threat in the "present" timescale, not this -50 time we're on here.
Looks like I'm going to have to send all the ships I can spare, and more.
So I was wondering if you, as an ally, could assist me with my home defence? My system is under no threat at the moment, so it shouldn't be arduous duty.
Also, I'd like to buy any ships you'll sell me, and hire any "mercenary volunteers" you happen to have available (if necessary pay you for use of part of your fleet.)
Basically any warmaking potential you can free up, sell, lend, or whatever, I'll welcome to weather the present crisis and fulfil my duties to my ally.

ooc: because i am getting absolutely fed up with diplomatic negotiations [it seems to be all i write these days], here's the end result of what's happening here:

this thread took place about 50 years in the past, so things change between this and.. anything else.

i get uplifted cats.
terror gets the GRAV drive.
my navy gets built up.
embassies are established, etc.
everyone goes home.

'now':

i'm going to send 5 carriers, 3 battleships, 300 corvettes and 1000 small craft [on the carriers] to assist Incognitia as requested above.