SpatialGaming
Scifi Tech and Magic Theorist
- Location
- United States of America
Don't forget the discombobulators! Never forget the discombobulators.
The Next Generation (Star Trek)
- Thread starter Hiver
- Start date
Don't forget the discombobulators! Never forget the discombobulators.
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- It/Them
Kerbals: "What do you mean with this is irresponsible? We are only detonating a small nuke in an underground lake to push a steel plate into muns orbit to give our stranded crew the needed push to return home by straping a big magnet onto the plate. At least we didn't used the orion drive, so this is us being reasonable."
- Location
- Washington State
It is amazing what ya can do with quick set resins and fiberglass.
53
Sam dropped down in the chair across from my avatar, "Well, the news of our new destination has Kys bouncing of the bulkheads."
I smiled at her, "How could you tell, he's Vulcan."
"You could."
"...Well, yes, but mostly by studying his blood flow and neural electromagnetic field," I admitted and put the PADD down, "How did you?"
"We have worked together for years," She said and leaned back in her seat as one of Claras drones put a cup of coffee before her, "Thanks."
"Very welcome," Clara answered and the drone moved on back towards the bar.
"...How different was it when Clara had a core in the shuttle?"
Sam looked thoughtful for a second before she shrugged, "You're different people. As for missions, it did limit us to short range missions because of the sync laws."
When a QC was separated from the main instance for three weeks, it was legally a crime to integrate it back because of personal drift. It was actually considered equal to a murder-suicide and the Jovian that did it would be removed from her Ship/his Station and be subjected to therapy.
So far, it hadn't happened.
"That's true," I admitted, "We could do independent surveys now. Of course, I don't think any of you want to be holed up in my hull for months at a time."
She grinned and sipped her coffee, "It would be a bit cramped," she admitted, "I think we'd set up a popup research base if we're away that long."
"Oh yeah, good point."
"Not that'll be needed on our new mission," she said with a smile, "It'll be fascinating. To see a species first steps into space, it's… I wonder if another species observed the Apollo missions back on Earth."
"Doubtful," I said, "The Vulcans and Andorians were the closest ones to Earth followed by other Fed species. Fairly sure if somebody was there watching, it would have been discovered by now."
Sam sighed, "Yeah, I suppose you're right. But the Himador will have records of their moon launch. When they finally join the galactic community, it will be a nice gift for them."
"That it will," I agreed, "If they are as fast as humanity at it, it'll be in some three hundred years or so."
"Planning on being there?" she teased and flagged a drone down, asking for a refill.
"Got it marked in my calendar," I agreed with a smile. If I was lucky, I, or at the very least one of my Forks would be here to meet them when they got close to breaching FTL.
We weren't as rigid as the Feds and their Prime Directive. If they looked like they were about to be wiped out or knocked back to the stone age, we'd step in and help them. That's part of why we had a stealthed satellite around their world.
But if we could, waiting until they reached FTL was a good general guideline for open contact.
"Speaking of, how do you think they'll do it?"
I shrugged, "No idea. Plenty of ways really. Their world is M class with 0.9G gravities. Not terribly difficult to get off. Apollo style is fairly efficient, more so than single vehicle land and return anyway. Depends on their level of technology."
"What do we have on the Himador? I couldn't find much."
I frowned, "Not that much. They are on the 'to study' list, but nobody have gotten around to it yet. Just a cursory study from the Feds and a Ship stopped by and dropped of the Safeguard satellite a year after the formation of the Commonwealth."
The Safeguard sat sat cloaked in high solar orbit and kept an eye on their planet, mostly radio surveillance as well as tracking traffic and the orbits of space rocks. It didn't have a QC or something, just a normal computer so it wasn't very smart. But smart enough to send anything it collected once a week or to to the closest Station and to yell really loudly if it detected nuclear detonations or something large on a impact course with the world. Or if they had radio, kept an eye out for the radio transmissions dying off.
"Mostly radio communication," I said, "Which does give us a cursory look at their civilization in broad terms. They have a number of countries, we have been able to identify fifty-three. They are humanoids in a matriarchal society,"
"How civilized," Sam commented with a grin.
I stuck my tongue out at her before continuing, "Most of the countries seems to be some version of democracy. Their technology is relatively high for getting ready for a moonshot, they have a space station in orbit for example."
"Really?"
I nodded, "Yep. Seems permanent as well from the data. Not very big, some fifty meters long in total on the largest axel, but impressive. A bit unusual to do things in that order, but not unheard of."
Sam looked thoughtful, "Interesting. Do we know what they look like?"
"Yep. The Ship that dropped of the sat did orbital scans as well as the sniffed radio traffic from the sat," I said and slid my PADD over to her, "Fairly humanlike, but feathers instead of hair. These convergent evolution paths will never cease to amaze me."
"Yeah, no kidding."
I smiled at her, "How could you tell, he's Vulcan."
"You could."
"...Well, yes, but mostly by studying his blood flow and neural electromagnetic field," I admitted and put the PADD down, "How did you?"
"We have worked together for years," She said and leaned back in her seat as one of Claras drones put a cup of coffee before her, "Thanks."
"Very welcome," Clara answered and the drone moved on back towards the bar.
"...How different was it when Clara had a core in the shuttle?"
Sam looked thoughtful for a second before she shrugged, "You're different people. As for missions, it did limit us to short range missions because of the sync laws."
When a QC was separated from the main instance for three weeks, it was legally a crime to integrate it back because of personal drift. It was actually considered equal to a murder-suicide and the Jovian that did it would be removed from her Ship/his Station and be subjected to therapy.
So far, it hadn't happened.
"That's true," I admitted, "We could do independent surveys now. Of course, I don't think any of you want to be holed up in my hull for months at a time."
She grinned and sipped her coffee, "It would be a bit cramped," she admitted, "I think we'd set up a popup research base if we're away that long."
"Oh yeah, good point."
"Not that'll be needed on our new mission," she said with a smile, "It'll be fascinating. To see a species first steps into space, it's… I wonder if another species observed the Apollo missions back on Earth."
"Doubtful," I said, "The Vulcans and Andorians were the closest ones to Earth followed by other Fed species. Fairly sure if somebody was there watching, it would have been discovered by now."
Sam sighed, "Yeah, I suppose you're right. But the Himador will have records of their moon launch. When they finally join the galactic community, it will be a nice gift for them."
"That it will," I agreed, "If they are as fast as humanity at it, it'll be in some three hundred years or so."
"Planning on being there?" she teased and flagged a drone down, asking for a refill.
"Got it marked in my calendar," I agreed with a smile. If I was lucky, I, or at the very least one of my Forks would be here to meet them when they got close to breaching FTL.
We weren't as rigid as the Feds and their Prime Directive. If they looked like they were about to be wiped out or knocked back to the stone age, we'd step in and help them. That's part of why we had a stealthed satellite around their world.
But if we could, waiting until they reached FTL was a good general guideline for open contact.
"Speaking of, how do you think they'll do it?"
I shrugged, "No idea. Plenty of ways really. Their world is M class with 0.9G gravities. Not terribly difficult to get off. Apollo style is fairly efficient, more so than single vehicle land and return anyway. Depends on their level of technology."
"What do we have on the Himador? I couldn't find much."
I frowned, "Not that much. They are on the 'to study' list, but nobody have gotten around to it yet. Just a cursory study from the Feds and a Ship stopped by and dropped of the Safeguard satellite a year after the formation of the Commonwealth."
The Safeguard sat sat cloaked in high solar orbit and kept an eye on their planet, mostly radio surveillance as well as tracking traffic and the orbits of space rocks. It didn't have a QC or something, just a normal computer so it wasn't very smart. But smart enough to send anything it collected once a week or to to the closest Station and to yell really loudly if it detected nuclear detonations or something large on a impact course with the world. Or if they had radio, kept an eye out for the radio transmissions dying off.
"Mostly radio communication," I said, "Which does give us a cursory look at their civilization in broad terms. They have a number of countries, we have been able to identify fifty-three. They are humanoids in a matriarchal society,"
"How civilized," Sam commented with a grin.
I stuck my tongue out at her before continuing, "Most of the countries seems to be some version of democracy. Their technology is relatively high for getting ready for a moonshot, they have a space station in orbit for example."
"Really?"
I nodded, "Yep. Seems permanent as well from the data. Not very big, some fifty meters long in total on the largest axel, but impressive. A bit unusual to do things in that order, but not unheard of."
Sam looked thoughtful, "Interesting. Do we know what they look like?"
"Yep. The Ship that dropped of the sat did orbital scans as well as the sniffed radio traffic from the sat," I said and slid my PADD over to her, "Fairly humanlike, but feathers instead of hair. These convergent evolution paths will never cease to amaze me."
"Yeah, no kidding."
tehcrash
Apprentice Supervillain
- Location
- Seattle-ish
This was one thing that I was a bit confused with several fics back when Jovians first got multiple QCs and came up with that rule. I can see the philosophy behind it, but I know that if I were the AI that split into septate entities, at least two of me would have experimented with a longer term speration and merge before making hard rules or laws about such.
I suspect it's an unwillingness to find the threshold exactly precisely because the repercussion of a station or ship going rampant/insane are so dangerous.
A ship losing their mind could endanger the lives of hundreds, and depending on when it happens, an AI going crazy a long way out of port could be quite bad leaving them far off without any chance of assistance.
I mean the situation where a shuttle AI is separated from its main ship seems like it would mostly occur at the edge of space or near hazardous conditions that prevented their earlier rescue so this is not an abstract concern.
People on a ship have to have a lot of trust in something, that if it were so inclined, could murder the crew at any moment.
I suspect the rise of the Berserkers has created a fear the Jovian AIs could go that route, and so they take extreme pains to prevent AI rampancy. Sometimes this overcautiousness results in a lot of personal pain like separated ship cores not being reunited when they spent enough time alone.
- Location
- Tromso, Norway.
They're not worried about the AI going mad from integration, they're worried that if they integrate after having spent enough time apart the two original AI will have essentially died in making a new one, who's composed of both but also clearly a separate person. 3 weeks also just happens to be the semi-arbitrary maximum time they chose.
Crazael
Rehydrated Demon King
- Location
- Lost to the vagaries of time.
IIRC, they tried remerging a QC that had been seperated for about that long and it ended really badly.
Prince Charon
Just zis guy, you know?
In which story? This series is one of his longer ones, maybe the longest.
Crazael
Rehydrated Demon King
- Location
- Lost to the vagaries of time.
I think it was one od the first to star a fork.
- Location
- Tromso, Norway.
I re-read it recently and don't remember anything of the sort. The only AI to have gone any kind of crazy did so because of a manufacturing error in the QC, and they know how to avoid it now. (As evidenced by it never happening again.)
DoubleThought
Bad at Communicating
- Location
- The Moon. The? There are so many
My understanding is that they found that they need a year of inspection to guarantee the QC is stable. This year of inspection would catch broken QCs corrupting minds.
Perhaps after that policy change, catching broken QCs before being put in a ship would not be newsworthy. It may be something that Hiver didn't need to write about, ever since it was resolved.
- Location
- Tromso, Norway.
While they do have the year of inspection (Then usually spent at the academy.) I think the specific case of the incorrectly built QC was solved simply by checking for that specific error in every new QC they built.
54
Clara raised her cloak a couple of seconds before dropping out of warp a couple of Astronomical Units away from Himador Prime.
It was an M class world with one kind of snake like continent covering about forty percent of the surface, the rest was covered by a ocean. It also had two moons, one closer, about seventy percent or so of earths moon. The second was three times as far out and could more be described as a captured asteroid than anything else, as it was less than five hundred kilometers across.
The rest of the system was fairly typical. Couple of cold gas giants, couple of moons of which were large enough to have interesting features. One of them even had life. One of the gas giants had a L class moon. Borderline, humans would need oxygen support as it was sitting at around 8 percent and the pressure was rather low for most beings, but it did have life.
"That'll make it easier for them to kickstart their space industry," Theresa said as she brought the moon up on her monitor. We had more or less occupied one of the meeting rooms to check out what was going on. Claras labs were all busy and quite frankly one of the meeting rooms was more comfortable than my flightdeck.
"If they are able to get there," Kys pointed out, "That is a significant distance from their homeworld using chemical rockets."
"Would take them months if not years," I agreed, "But when they finally get that far it would be pretty nice to have a… okay, not livable, but at least a source of water and air. Without having to haul it all with them. It's cold, not a lot of air but it does have plenty of water."
"That is quite a bit in the future however," Kys agreed, "So far, they have only sent a few probes that far."
"Ten I can detect," Clara agreed and projected her avatar next to mine, "Three deep space ones on the verge to leaving the system, the rest seem spread out between the seven planets. They likely have more that we're missing too."
"Yeah, tiny and with barely no power," I agreed, "Easy to miss, especially if they have some that've completely lost power and stopped transmitting."
Thivan moved over to the main screen and zoomed it in on the space station in orbit. It was yellow and had large radiators. No solar panels so it must be getting its power from somewhere else, likely fission power from the radiators and radiation it was giving of from one of the pods extended far away from the rest of the station on a strut in the middle of a corona of heat radiators, "What do we make of this?"
Theresa shrugged, "Well, they clearly have fission figured out. Shielding seems decent enough, they would hardly have any raised levels at all in the living sections. Seems a bit of a waste to haul it into orbit as that's quite heavy instead of just covering the station with solar panels, but that's mostly cultural really. From what we know of the Vulcans of this kind of age, they did the same thing while humans used solar panels."
I frowned at the sensors readings, "They have a nuclear powered space station in orbit but haven't visited their moons yet?"
"They have, just not in person," Kys argued, "From what we gathered from the transmissions, they have had plenty of probes sent there during the last decades."
"So why now?" Sam asked, looking up from her PADD.
Clara shrugged, "Their largest country seem to have elections every ten years. From what we can figure out form their transmissions, the faction that won three times in a row, didn't seem to see the point in sending people further than orbit for research. But now another faction got in power some five years or so ago and they are of a different point of view."
Theresa nodded, "Well, they certainly has the tech for it."
"Are we looking for a ground level survey?" Kys asked, "Or orbit only?"
Clara smiled, "Captain want ground level survey. We'll have a look from orbit for a couple of days and gather as much as we can and then we'll have a three person team beam down, disguised to look like the locals."
"Myself, Sam and Amy," Kys agreed and I blinked at him,
"What? I'm not trained for that kind of mission!" I protested, "I don't know anything about that!"
Clara nodded, "Which is what you will be learning from me for the next couple of days," she said with a smile, "This kind of mission isn't very common which is why you haven't had training in it yet, but honestly, it's not that tricky."
"Indeed," Kys agreed, "The local inhabitants seem to function with the same kind of senses as most species in the Federation and as such, is relatively easy to pass as one of them at the very least at a distance."
"Oh. Yeah, that makes sense…"
We wouldn't need to be perfect, just good enough to pass for a local when asking for directions.
What could possibly go wrong?
...Then again, that's why I was going with them, regulations did say to always have a Jovian on these kind of missions for a reason.
It was an M class world with one kind of snake like continent covering about forty percent of the surface, the rest was covered by a ocean. It also had two moons, one closer, about seventy percent or so of earths moon. The second was three times as far out and could more be described as a captured asteroid than anything else, as it was less than five hundred kilometers across.
The rest of the system was fairly typical. Couple of cold gas giants, couple of moons of which were large enough to have interesting features. One of them even had life. One of the gas giants had a L class moon. Borderline, humans would need oxygen support as it was sitting at around 8 percent and the pressure was rather low for most beings, but it did have life.
"That'll make it easier for them to kickstart their space industry," Theresa said as she brought the moon up on her monitor. We had more or less occupied one of the meeting rooms to check out what was going on. Claras labs were all busy and quite frankly one of the meeting rooms was more comfortable than my flightdeck.
"If they are able to get there," Kys pointed out, "That is a significant distance from their homeworld using chemical rockets."
"Would take them months if not years," I agreed, "But when they finally get that far it would be pretty nice to have a… okay, not livable, but at least a source of water and air. Without having to haul it all with them. It's cold, not a lot of air but it does have plenty of water."
"That is quite a bit in the future however," Kys agreed, "So far, they have only sent a few probes that far."
"Ten I can detect," Clara agreed and projected her avatar next to mine, "Three deep space ones on the verge to leaving the system, the rest seem spread out between the seven planets. They likely have more that we're missing too."
"Yeah, tiny and with barely no power," I agreed, "Easy to miss, especially if they have some that've completely lost power and stopped transmitting."
Thivan moved over to the main screen and zoomed it in on the space station in orbit. It was yellow and had large radiators. No solar panels so it must be getting its power from somewhere else, likely fission power from the radiators and radiation it was giving of from one of the pods extended far away from the rest of the station on a strut in the middle of a corona of heat radiators, "What do we make of this?"
Theresa shrugged, "Well, they clearly have fission figured out. Shielding seems decent enough, they would hardly have any raised levels at all in the living sections. Seems a bit of a waste to haul it into orbit as that's quite heavy instead of just covering the station with solar panels, but that's mostly cultural really. From what we know of the Vulcans of this kind of age, they did the same thing while humans used solar panels."
I frowned at the sensors readings, "They have a nuclear powered space station in orbit but haven't visited their moons yet?"
"They have, just not in person," Kys argued, "From what we gathered from the transmissions, they have had plenty of probes sent there during the last decades."
"So why now?" Sam asked, looking up from her PADD.
Clara shrugged, "Their largest country seem to have elections every ten years. From what we can figure out form their transmissions, the faction that won three times in a row, didn't seem to see the point in sending people further than orbit for research. But now another faction got in power some five years or so ago and they are of a different point of view."
Theresa nodded, "Well, they certainly has the tech for it."
"Are we looking for a ground level survey?" Kys asked, "Or orbit only?"
Clara smiled, "Captain want ground level survey. We'll have a look from orbit for a couple of days and gather as much as we can and then we'll have a three person team beam down, disguised to look like the locals."
"Myself, Sam and Amy," Kys agreed and I blinked at him,
"What? I'm not trained for that kind of mission!" I protested, "I don't know anything about that!"
Clara nodded, "Which is what you will be learning from me for the next couple of days," she said with a smile, "This kind of mission isn't very common which is why you haven't had training in it yet, but honestly, it's not that tricky."
"Indeed," Kys agreed, "The local inhabitants seem to function with the same kind of senses as most species in the Federation and as such, is relatively easy to pass as one of them at the very least at a distance."
"Oh. Yeah, that makes sense…"
We wouldn't need to be perfect, just good enough to pass for a local when asking for directions.
What could possibly go wrong?
...Then again, that's why I was going with them, regulations did say to always have a Jovian on these kind of missions for a reason.
Seven planets and the homeworld having a larger and a tiny moon is right, but Jool would be the only gas giant. Also, "under 500km across" is a bit of an odd size for Minmus. It has a 60km radius in game, and 10x stock in-game size is generally considered to give realistic planet sizes and density.
UbeOne
Daydreaming CPU
- Location
- Philippines
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Murphy has something to say about that
GiovanniBlasini
Transhumanist Nutcase from Niops IX
- Location
- San Diego, CA, USA, Sol III
- Pronouns
- He/Him
There's also no mention of how oddball their star is, and Kerbol's star is unmistakably weird, which came up in my own Trek/KSP crossover.
It's entirely possible that Hiver has tweaked some of the values for KSP's star system to make it more realistic, though, which would be pretty cool.
55
"...You know, this isn't bad," I said and looked at my new avatar in the mirror. I was slightly shorter than my old avatar, average height for the Himador females seemed to be around 160 cm which was shorter than my old one.
Other than the feathers instead of hair they were very similar to humans. Other than the obvious feathers, the eyes were a little larger but that was pretty much it.
I scanned myself with Claras sensors in the room, "You know, I might keep this afterwards. I like the play of the blue and red in the feathers."
Clara projected her avatar into the room and nodded with a smile, "It is rather striking," she agreed, "But if you're done checking yourself out, you really should try those clothes on."
Turning, I stuck my tongue out at her, "You're just jealous you don't have feathers," I teased her and then moved over to the clothes laid out on my bed.
"Yes, I'm sure that's it," she agreed with a grin, "Those clothes seems to be popular among females in your apparent age-group in the target area so you should be able to blend in."
"...Are you sure?" I asked and lifted one piece up, "How do you even…"
It was like a mix of a swimsuit and a corset.
"The neck hole, it's kinda stretchy."
"...That can't be comfortable," I grumbled and started to wiggle myself into the bright blue piece of clothing. It took a lot more work than I'd like to admit.
I was right. It wasn't. Especially not when I pulled the straps on the back tight.
"They wear this all the time?" I asked her.
She nodded, "Quite popular as I understand it. Especially among younger females. But that's the underwear, people don't walk around in the streets with it on."
Next came equally blue short shorts that reached up past my waist. Then stockings/shoes that just kinda hooked onto the bottom of the shorts, leaving about two inches of leg showing.
Then there was a sleeveless jacket with a fluffy collar reaching up to my ears in the back that closed with four buttons in the front.
I looked at myself and then turned back to the mirror, "...Whatever these people are going to give to the galactic community when they finally join, it's not going to be their fashion sense."
Clara moved up next to me with a grin, "Oh, I don't know. Not sure people who thought zebra stripe jumpsuits were cool should throw rocks in glass houses."
I just groaned and covered my face with my hands, "...Korra has to stop showing people those pictures. Seriously, I was seven!"
"Oh come on, it was cute!"
Grumbling, I looked at myself in the mirror again before I shrugged, "...yeah, this is still bad. Not going to keep to their clothing if I keep this avatar. Seriously, I don't think I can even bend over right in this thing!"
"Your waist look rather nice though."
"My waist already looked nice!" I protested before I sighed, "...Let's just get going, shall we?"
"Yep. All the way along the ship. Through the corridors."
I glared her, "...You know, it just occurred to me that I could have simply have gotten changed in my hull instead of here."
She just grinned at me.
"...You suck."
Clara just giggled, "Think of it as a reminder to think through things before hand. No transporters either."
Whatever. Picking up the one strap backpack from the bed, I put it on and then headed for the door and down towards my hull as Claras holo avatar flickered out of existence behind me.
I had a mission to do, a couple of minutes of wearing stupid clothing for the rest of the crew didn't matter in the long run.
Walking onboard of my hull, I dropped the bag onto the floor by the ramp in my cargo space. The plan had originally been to beam directly down, but it had been decided I were to do this without Claras backup as a training exercise. So, no stress at all then.
Plan was pretty simple. Scoot into a lower orbit under cloak and beam the team down at the outskirts of the city hosting their space program and then look around and see what information we could pick up.
The turbolift slid open again, allowing my crew out. Thivan and Theresa was dressed in their normal uniforms.
Kys and Samantha looked different. Both of them looked Himadorian! Kys feathers were a silvery, shiny grey and his skin was paler than it used to be and his ears was round. His eyes looked bigger!
Sam looked similar to myself, her feathers were just as colourful as mine. But what really stood out to me though, was their clothes.
Kys was wearing a tight pair of dark pants and what looked like a toga in white and silvery along with a silver chain going from his right shoulder to his left waist.
Sam on the other hand, was wearing what looked to be a knee length dress in red beneath a jacket that reached to half way down her ribs. The only thing that would have even stood out on her from what I could have seen as everyday fashion in the Commonwealth was the black collar loosely draped around her neck and shoulders, it would have had to contain as much fabric as the rest of her dress combined.
I activated my external speakers, "Okay, there is no way that's even remotely fair!"
Other than the feathers instead of hair they were very similar to humans. Other than the obvious feathers, the eyes were a little larger but that was pretty much it.
I scanned myself with Claras sensors in the room, "You know, I might keep this afterwards. I like the play of the blue and red in the feathers."
Clara projected her avatar into the room and nodded with a smile, "It is rather striking," she agreed, "But if you're done checking yourself out, you really should try those clothes on."
Turning, I stuck my tongue out at her, "You're just jealous you don't have feathers," I teased her and then moved over to the clothes laid out on my bed.
"Yes, I'm sure that's it," she agreed with a grin, "Those clothes seems to be popular among females in your apparent age-group in the target area so you should be able to blend in."
"...Are you sure?" I asked and lifted one piece up, "How do you even…"
It was like a mix of a swimsuit and a corset.
"The neck hole, it's kinda stretchy."
"...That can't be comfortable," I grumbled and started to wiggle myself into the bright blue piece of clothing. It took a lot more work than I'd like to admit.
I was right. It wasn't. Especially not when I pulled the straps on the back tight.
"They wear this all the time?" I asked her.
She nodded, "Quite popular as I understand it. Especially among younger females. But that's the underwear, people don't walk around in the streets with it on."
Next came equally blue short shorts that reached up past my waist. Then stockings/shoes that just kinda hooked onto the bottom of the shorts, leaving about two inches of leg showing.
Then there was a sleeveless jacket with a fluffy collar reaching up to my ears in the back that closed with four buttons in the front.
I looked at myself and then turned back to the mirror, "...Whatever these people are going to give to the galactic community when they finally join, it's not going to be their fashion sense."
Clara moved up next to me with a grin, "Oh, I don't know. Not sure people who thought zebra stripe jumpsuits were cool should throw rocks in glass houses."
I just groaned and covered my face with my hands, "...Korra has to stop showing people those pictures. Seriously, I was seven!"
"Oh come on, it was cute!"
Grumbling, I looked at myself in the mirror again before I shrugged, "...yeah, this is still bad. Not going to keep to their clothing if I keep this avatar. Seriously, I don't think I can even bend over right in this thing!"
"Your waist look rather nice though."
"My waist already looked nice!" I protested before I sighed, "...Let's just get going, shall we?"
"Yep. All the way along the ship. Through the corridors."
I glared her, "...You know, it just occurred to me that I could have simply have gotten changed in my hull instead of here."
She just grinned at me.
"...You suck."
Clara just giggled, "Think of it as a reminder to think through things before hand. No transporters either."
Whatever. Picking up the one strap backpack from the bed, I put it on and then headed for the door and down towards my hull as Claras holo avatar flickered out of existence behind me.
I had a mission to do, a couple of minutes of wearing stupid clothing for the rest of the crew didn't matter in the long run.
Walking onboard of my hull, I dropped the bag onto the floor by the ramp in my cargo space. The plan had originally been to beam directly down, but it had been decided I were to do this without Claras backup as a training exercise. So, no stress at all then.
Plan was pretty simple. Scoot into a lower orbit under cloak and beam the team down at the outskirts of the city hosting their space program and then look around and see what information we could pick up.
The turbolift slid open again, allowing my crew out. Thivan and Theresa was dressed in their normal uniforms.
Kys and Samantha looked different. Both of them looked Himadorian! Kys feathers were a silvery, shiny grey and his skin was paler than it used to be and his ears was round. His eyes looked bigger!
Sam looked similar to myself, her feathers were just as colourful as mine. But what really stood out to me though, was their clothes.
Kys was wearing a tight pair of dark pants and what looked like a toga in white and silvery along with a silver chain going from his right shoulder to his left waist.
Sam on the other hand, was wearing what looked to be a knee length dress in red beneath a jacket that reached to half way down her ribs. The only thing that would have even stood out on her from what I could have seen as everyday fashion in the Commonwealth was the black collar loosely draped around her neck and shoulders, it would have had to contain as much fabric as the rest of her dress combined.
I activated my external speakers, "Okay, there is no way that's even remotely fair!"
- Location
- Christchurch, NZ
They're going to pass her off as the rebellious teen who wears clothing she knows her parents will hate so she can get in with the cool kids, right?
Contact is weird.
Contact is weird.
- Location
- In SPAAAAAAAAACE
I have one question, and one question only: how badly is someone going to screw this up, and how severe will the resulting breach of the Prime Directive be?
- Location
- Software
The are no longer feds.
Crazael
Rehydrated Demon King
- Location
- Lost to the vagaries of time.
But they do have an equivalent policy, though rather less stringent.
56
"Ready?" I asked as I stepped onto the transporter pad next to Sam and Kys. I still felt absolutely ridiculous.
Still, it fit with our cover story if somebody asked. Sam was my older sister and Kys was her husband. It seemed simple enough.
"Ready," Kys agreed, "Energize."
Powering the transporter, I locked coordinates on a spot behind a commercial building selling… something.
As I energized the coils and activated the transport, I tried not to mentally shudder as I lost contact with my avatar for half a second. I don't like transporters.
As we materialized again, I looked around as Sam took a deep breath,
"Oh, that smell good," she commented, "Baked goods of some sort."
I nodded in agreement, scanning the area around us with a excited smile. Brand new world, brand new people. All new to discover, to see.
Oregon…
...This is what the Federation explored space for. This is why I fly.
Three people in the building, two towards the back, one towards the front. Organic compounds in lines along one wall.
Bakery?
Awesome.
"We should move," Kys said and did a quick check on his tricorder before putting it away again inside his jacket, "We need to find accomodation for the night."
"Oh yes, these…" Sam said and pulled a stack of plastic fabric strips out, "...In all honesty, I never used currency before other than once when I visited a Ferengi place. I'm not really sure how this works. Any of you have practice with it?"
I shook my head, "Only in theory."
Currency was just a kind of alien concept to me. Why was it needed and why were everyone so obsessed with gaining more of it?
"I do," Kys said, "I have training in its use and history as part of my xenosociology and history degrees. However, as my wife you would be expected to be the one to handle the currency. However, in short, you match the numbers with what they ask for and then you hand it over."
"Well, I had figured that much out…" Sam grumbled and put them away again, "Oh well, I'll watch what everyone else does and copy them."
Kys nodded, "Indeed. Usually the best way to do it."
I just smiled and looked around. This was awesome!
Sam took the lead and lead our little group around the building and out on the street as I tried my best not to rubberneck like a tourist as we made out way along the sidewalk.
People all around. My universal translator was working hard, picking up every piece of language around as I scanned the surroundings. Transmissions is one thing, but we still needed some context for some things and this was the best way to pick those up.
So I just watched and listened, scanning everything while letting the universal translator in my real hull working hard.
All in all, their languages wasn't that complicated really. Worked similarly to most humanoid languages. Grammar, words, linear time.
"So, where to?" Sam asked and looked over at me. I looked at another girl that seemed to be about my age as we passed her. She was wearing similar clothing to what I was, but purple instead of blue.
Nope, still looked absolutely ridiculous. Best case, made the legs look pretty nice, but not nearly enough to make up for the rest of it.
"Oh, like Kys said, we should find accommodation," I said, "Best chance should be close to the city center?" I suggested as I looked at Kys.
He nodded in agreement, "Indeed. But we should be careful, there is a high chance they will require identification to rent any kind of room. We require a sample to replicate some."
"I'll keep an sensor out," I agreed and scanned the closest people as we walked past, "If I spot something that look ID like, I'll transport it out and we'll see what we can do."
Shouldn't be that difficult to do. I kind of doubted they checked against a central database anyway, that was really rare among even relatively advanced civilizations like this one. Especially for something as easy as renting a room.
I think. At least that's what my historical database said.
Let's hope these people were typical.
Still, it fit with our cover story if somebody asked. Sam was my older sister and Kys was her husband. It seemed simple enough.
"Ready," Kys agreed, "Energize."
Powering the transporter, I locked coordinates on a spot behind a commercial building selling… something.
As I energized the coils and activated the transport, I tried not to mentally shudder as I lost contact with my avatar for half a second. I don't like transporters.
As we materialized again, I looked around as Sam took a deep breath,
"Oh, that smell good," she commented, "Baked goods of some sort."
I nodded in agreement, scanning the area around us with a excited smile. Brand new world, brand new people. All new to discover, to see.
Oregon…
...This is what the Federation explored space for. This is why I fly.
Three people in the building, two towards the back, one towards the front. Organic compounds in lines along one wall.
Bakery?
Awesome.
"We should move," Kys said and did a quick check on his tricorder before putting it away again inside his jacket, "We need to find accomodation for the night."
"Oh yes, these…" Sam said and pulled a stack of plastic fabric strips out, "...In all honesty, I never used currency before other than once when I visited a Ferengi place. I'm not really sure how this works. Any of you have practice with it?"
I shook my head, "Only in theory."
Currency was just a kind of alien concept to me. Why was it needed and why were everyone so obsessed with gaining more of it?
"I do," Kys said, "I have training in its use and history as part of my xenosociology and history degrees. However, as my wife you would be expected to be the one to handle the currency. However, in short, you match the numbers with what they ask for and then you hand it over."
"Well, I had figured that much out…" Sam grumbled and put them away again, "Oh well, I'll watch what everyone else does and copy them."
Kys nodded, "Indeed. Usually the best way to do it."
I just smiled and looked around. This was awesome!
Sam took the lead and lead our little group around the building and out on the street as I tried my best not to rubberneck like a tourist as we made out way along the sidewalk.
People all around. My universal translator was working hard, picking up every piece of language around as I scanned the surroundings. Transmissions is one thing, but we still needed some context for some things and this was the best way to pick those up.
So I just watched and listened, scanning everything while letting the universal translator in my real hull working hard.
All in all, their languages wasn't that complicated really. Worked similarly to most humanoid languages. Grammar, words, linear time.
"So, where to?" Sam asked and looked over at me. I looked at another girl that seemed to be about my age as we passed her. She was wearing similar clothing to what I was, but purple instead of blue.
Nope, still looked absolutely ridiculous. Best case, made the legs look pretty nice, but not nearly enough to make up for the rest of it.
"Oh, like Kys said, we should find accommodation," I said, "Best chance should be close to the city center?" I suggested as I looked at Kys.
He nodded in agreement, "Indeed. But we should be careful, there is a high chance they will require identification to rent any kind of room. We require a sample to replicate some."
"I'll keep an sensor out," I agreed and scanned the closest people as we walked past, "If I spot something that look ID like, I'll transport it out and we'll see what we can do."
Shouldn't be that difficult to do. I kind of doubted they checked against a central database anyway, that was really rare among even relatively advanced civilizations like this one. Especially for something as easy as renting a room.
I think. At least that's what my historical database said.
Let's hope these people were typical.