Grasp the Stars (Stellaris: Overlord)

You give the order immediately. Human lives come before scientific or historical curiosity.


With Beatrice gone MIA, Sophie has taken over advocating for kindness to hypothetical future aliens. You are beginning to suspect there is more than collegial friendliness between the two of them.

Dr. Wang's report on the sociological impacts of space exploration makes for dry reading, but it is cogent and concise even though it is clearly outside of his area of specialty. Given that the settlers on Delling are now getting established planetside, and that humanity's third colony is now en-route to Sirius, it's a topic that could prove extremely relevant. His next project is a bit more inside his wheelhouse, investigating selective defoliants to clear space for colonists to live and farm more quickly without huge damage to local ecosystems.

What should this new colony be named?
[] (Name) Kore, a Roman name for the Greek nature goddess Persephone
[] (Name) Gengen Wer, an Egyptian god who protected a cosmic egg
[X] (Name) Kannon, a Japanese goddess of mercy and compassion

The extra Unity produced by Dr. Wang's research is enough to unlock the next Tradition tree!
[] (Tradition) Adaptability: Reduce population housing usage
[X] (Tradition) Expansion: New colonies will develop faster
[] (Tradition) Harmony: Reduce population food and mineral usage
[] (Tradition) Prosperity: Improve output of mining stations


Captain Okada confirms the candidate in the Sumoneta system is too dry for sustained human habitation. Unfortunate, but at least it provides Dr. Wang with some interesting xenobiology data.

The construction fleet and ISS Canada colony ship have arrived in Sirius safely, thank god. You don't need yet another source of stress as you scan the live feed of the Maui exiting hyperspace into the Ribblor system. The Einstein's life support systems should have been sufficient to keep the crew alive this long, as long as they haven't been pulled into the crushing gravity at the core of the gas giant. But for now, all you can do is pray.

The ISS Canada has touched down, and the ship's structure is being slowly disassembled to form the first planetside infrastructure of the Kannon colony. The settlers had apparently found the name similarity to be appealing. A local orbital laboratory and mining station are in the works to support the colony's economy. Or more precisely, the colonies, plural - plans are in the works to send settlers to the second of the habitable worlds around Sirius. The volunteers for that mission have already chosen to name their future home Kore, to match first letters with their sister colony.

Captain Okada has sent back photographs of ruins on Feldazir B3. Paranoia is now growing among the United Nations leadership at having found so many dead or disappeared aliens.

As for the rescue of the Einstein, No word has been heard from the trapped crew, even over high-powered short-range channels - you fear the worst. The Maui has entered orbit of the unusual gas giant which sucked in Captain Reid and her crew, and are carefully scanning for signs of the missing ship. It makes sense to be cautious - it would be catastrophic to lose the rescue ship as well - but it is still nerve-wracking.

The Einstein has been successfully towed from the tempest of Ribblor III, and incredibly, everyone on board appears to have survived! However, none have any memory of the time spent in the grasp of the planet. Not seeming especially perturbed by this, Captain Reid insists on continuing her survey work in the system, though you aren't sure it's a great idea.

Captain Okada's report is a sobering one. The former civilization of Feldazir B3 appears to have hit an industrial revolution at full tilt and fallen victim to exactly the climate change issues which your own people struggled so hard to overcome. The thick, choking atmosphere of the planet produced a runaway greenhouse effect akin to what Venus experienced.

Less sobering is the news from Alpha Centauri: the initial colony setup is officially complete! In a slightly pompous ceremony, Secretary-General Lebouef proclaims from the steps of the UN headquarters that humankind is a fully interstellar species.

Captain Reid appears to not have lost a step for her months of amnesia. Upon arriving in the Procyon system, she immediately identified a possible (if unlikely) colonization candidate. Once it became clear the planet was far too dry for sustained agriculture, she nevertheless insisted on extensive followup scans of possible mineral deposits.

At the same time, with his return to Sol, Pavel is finally able to begin investigating Mars in earnest.

With great fanfare, the ISS Unity departs at midnight Greenwich time for the soon-to-be colony of Kore.

In their annual updates, Dr. Zhivenkova continues to focus on energy production on Earth - specifically, coordinating production on a global scale to maximize efficiency - while Dr. Ngwanya continues to focus on mineral extraction, now via geothermal fracking.

Finally, it turns out that yet again Captain Reid's drive to triple-check everything has paid off. Procyon 2a is, it turns out, a rich source of geothermal energy and natural gas!

"You're telling me there were actual Martians?" you ask, incredulously.

"No, I'm telling you that someone dug a huge underground vault or cavern of some kind on Mars. We have no reason to think they lived there, much less evolved there," Captain Dragomirov says, either missing or ignoring your incredulity.

"Okay, dig it up then. Don't get caught in a cave-in." You close the video window, as well as the news coverage of the opening of city hall on Delling. The rapid expansion of interstellar colony efforts has led to a surge in public interest - by the time the two Sirius colonies are finished establishing themselves, it's projected they will have accumulated twice as many people as first thought, mostly by means of private space travel!

"You want to investigate another anomalous reading inside a gas giant's atmosphere?" you ask Captain Reid incredulously.

"Of course. There's something big floating there, and I can't leave without checking it out," she replies simply.

You pinch the bridge of your nose and sign out. If these damn ship captains don't start calming down, you're going to have to be a hypocrite to Bea and Sophie, and start on serious painkillers for the headaches. At least Captain Okada seems sane.

...just in case, you knock on the wood of your desk.

---

Nothing to vote for this time, but the update was getting long. Will post more after dinner!

You watch the recording from the Martian excavation site again, trying your best to disbelieve your ears.

"Are you ready?" a deep, rumbling voice asks from nowhere. The video shows the excavation team looking up, around, at each other, at the walls, trying to find the source.

"...and then he went further into the structure?" you ask, already knowing the answer.

"Yes, madam Secretary," Pavel's right-hand man confirms. "The Captain was insistent he take point, in case the structure proved dangerous or structurally unsound."

"More like he wants his name listed as the discoverer", you pointedly don't say out loud.


An odd request comes across your desk the next month - a remote work request from Dr. Wang. Something to do with funguses near the Chiron colony that showed a rudimentary form of rapid, possibly electrical communication. He thinks they may serve as a case study for the evolution of nervous systems and wants to study them in person.

[X] (Science) Approve the project (Pay Alloys for a new science ship & pay Unity to promote a scientist to cover for Dr. Wang at home)
[] (Science) Hmmm. Are the fungi edible? (+ Food & + Influence, which is used for constructing starbases)