The Secrets' Crusade
- Thread starter Snowfire
- Start date
- Original Sci-Fi
Suns and Scars
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
You felt the chill that ran through the bridge crew as they finished absorbing the message. When the Shiplords had talked of the Zlathbu, or any other race that Insight had been able to find records for, they never referred to them as an enemy. Yet here, they did, and the dead systems scattered between here and the galactic core were terrifying in their silent testimony as to what that word must mean.
You could feel the eyes of every crew member on you. Captain, in this moment, but also much more. If this was how the Shiplords faced a race they considered a true foe, what did that mean for humanity? Nothing good, no doubt, but that wasn't something you could say. Despite everything, you were still remembered more for those moments where you'd stood as a champion for your species than for what you'd done as President so that you wouldn't have to. Right now the people here needed the former, the symbol that you'd never been comfortable being.
It was good that you could give it to them. It would not protect them against the Shiplords, but it would always be welcome.
"This is why we're here," you told them. "To find out the truth, no matter how hard it might be. To understand why the Shiplords believe all they do is right, and to find a way past it, so that no species ever has to become another of their memorials."
The chill subsided. No one could forget the last message of the Shiplord Regular Fleet before they retreated from Sol, but you repeated it anyway. "They asked us to try and find another way. That's what we came to do. They said they'd tried everything; let's see if they were right." You nodded at the star before you. "Captain Cyneburg, plot a course in-system towards the star. Let's start with what's furthest from their centres of activity. A star this small shouldn't look so young."
It wasn't exactly the whole truth, of course. But a firm goal on your journey in-system would give everyone aboard something to focus on. Given the message you'd just read, and that would be known shipwide within minutes, that was going to matter. And it was strange. A main-sequence star of its composition shouldn't be so small at this stage of its lifecycle, not if it had formed naturally. So what had been done here? Data collected from the grave of the Zlathbu had given you the term Stellar Collector, which had obvious implications. But Mary had been adamant that pulling down that sort of infrastructure would be nearly impossible to hide.
So how could this be?
You were suddenly aware of the presence of Mary next to you, shaking her head as she looked over your shoulder. "I don't get it either," she muttered. "A star like this shouldn't be here at all. Everything we've modelled on starlifting points to that conclusion. It shouldn't be possible to dismantle a mining frame after the scale of operations required for the spectral analysis here to make sense. There aren't enough heavy elements in the core."
"And yet, here we are," you replied as you scanned the next image. "With evidence to the contrary right front of us." You scratched your chin, considering, putting on a good show almost despite yourself. "It's a mystery."
"Says the one who won't be demystifying it," Mary snarked, but you didn't miss the flash of interest in her eyes. "I'll be in the labs. I need my full setup for this."
---
The journey in-system was tense. In the last one, you'd been able to secure control of the stellar infonet and the AI running wide-area security to ensure that any flickers in the Adamant's stealth wouldn't be noticed. Here, with two Shiplord dreadnoughts present, that was just too dangerous. Which meant everything had to be perfect - and you had no idea how you were going to safely land shuttles. There was a protocol for this situation, buried in the Trailblazer logs, but it had never been tested.
Of course, neither had the Masques and they'd worked fine when you visited the Shiplord memorial. But you weren't willing to feel very confident. That was a dangerous place to be, especially after you crossed the Stellar Exclusion Zone. Both planets lay within it, but you were going even further in and that would make escape challenging if you were detected. Still, it had been your choice, and it provided your survey section an abundance of time to properly chart the system.
That exercise provided a wealth of knowledge as to the system itself, and its two very habitable worlds. There were civilian craft scattered all across the system, concentrated into a large flotilla around the ancient dreadnought in fixed orbit above the Shiplord enclave. The other military craft was more lonely, but not entirely so. A handful of civilian ships held the same orbit, alongside another vessel almost as old as the dreadnought. Most strangely, its profile was not one any of you recognised. Shiplord work, yes, but not anything you'd seen before.
Yet all that paled before the mystery that you found yourself staring into as you approached the star, sensor fidelity growing with every passing hour. The star was too small; you'd seen signs of that even before leaving Sol. But as the Adamant had forged deeper into the Stellar Exclusion Zone, her sensor crews had confirmed its scale. No sun of this composition should exist at this size, and yet here it was. But that wasn't the most telling thing.
Stellar Echoes: 100 + 52 = 152. Nat 100 reroll! 52.
QM Note: Whyyyyyyy? I'm not even bothering with modifiers.
"I'm still not sure if I'm right," Mary said, pacing back and forth in front of a virtual display as it ran through a simulation again. She'd been working nonstop on this for almost three days now, and you'd known better than to push the issue. That she was willing to discuss the matter without being certain spoke to how deeply it must have rattled her.
"What else could those trails be?" Jane asked. "Minister Sharpe ensured that we got the best sensor system available. If it says that these echoes are present, what other explanation exists?"
"As far as I know, none," Mary sighed. Her green eyes were more haunted than you'd seen them since you'd admitted to having been contacted by one of the Uninvolved. "But the implications if we're right are more than I can easily describe. We've known that the Shiplords allow the Uninvolved to come into existence, and that the Uninvolved will not oppose them for fear of destruction. But what could have made them act here to help the Shiplords?"
"It's too coincidental for it not to be connected," Jane agreed, flicking her hand towards the simulation as it began another repetition. "We know that Practice and the work of the Uninvolved can leave echoes. There's no other cause that we know of."
"The Shiplords have insisted that they have a reason for what they're doing," she continued. "They've told us that one day we'd call them friend, and all but begged us to find another solution beyond destruction to whatever problem they believe vindicates them."
"That's true," you said, staring as the image of a star compressed and stabilised before you, reality shifting to accommodate a new state of affairs. "But–"
"But even if that were the case," Mary interjected, "this is bigger than anything we've ever seen. It implies things about the relationship between Shiplord and Uninvolved that everything we know tells us can't be true. The Shiplords have spent at least half a million years enforcing oppression and fear on pain of genocide. But this star, and these worlds, are older than that." Two million years was the best guess. "Whatever exactly happened here between the Hijvin and the Shiplords, I think Jane's right. There are only two options we know of that could explain these readings. Either the Uninvolved had a hand in its ending, or some race capable of wielding Practice did."
The latter had to be impossible. It had to be. But if it was, then how had the Shiplords recognised Practice?
"We can't afford to dismiss the possibility, can we?" You sighed, and Mary shook her head.
"No, we can't."
"But if there were, what happened to them?" You asked, gesturing sharply at the simulation. "That isn't just power, Mary, it would've required skill in manipulating Practice beyond anything we've ever seen." You'd run the numbers once, and you were relatively confident in your ability to keep a star from going nova, if you were there at the right time. But this was something different. Not bigger, but unimaginably more thorough.
"I don't know," Mary replied, but her eyes flickered to the side. She knew, just as you did. If there'd been such a race, they'd died. But if that had been the case, and for all their power they'd still lost? You shook your head swiftly, whipping it back and forth fast enough that the room swam for a moment. Insight had shown the possibility of victory, and Tahkel had told you that it was there, too. Which, you hoped, made the more logical conclusion the former.
"Then why would the Uninvolved work with the Shiplords?" Jane spoke, cutting to the end of your realisation with her question.
"Why do enemies ever bury their differences?" Iris said through the room's speakers. Of course she'd been listening.
"Because something threatened them both." Mary replied, her face paling. "But what could do that? And if the Hijvin Sphere did that, then why – wait." A gesture pulled up a haze of screens around her, and her fingers flared out, parting them as she sought one in particular. "There it is."
Her hand flicked out, and the display expanded out to displace the current simulation. "This is data we've gathered at long range from the two habitable worlds, where we can still find the remains of ancient cities," Mary explained. "I knew I was missing something!"
She gestured and the data spooled out, joined a moment later by similar information from the star. "Jane, what have your tactical specialists had to say about those areas?"
"There's no weapon we know of that could do something like that, not so cleanly," the FSN officer replied smoothly. "It's like something reached down from above and wiped those cities away. Two million years is a long time to heal, but those places are still very evidently what they were. One of my officers compared them to burn scars."
You nodded. "They heal, but they're never really gone."
"Exactly," Jane confirmed. "But what does – oh."
"Oh?" You asked, your own mind spinning, trying to follow the logic.
"Look at these," Mary said, shifting the patterns to raw imagery. "These places used to hold life, and they do now too. But life changes things, and there's been two million years for these places to shift and heal Amanda. These haven't. Just like the star. And that makes the conclusion very clear."
Kalilah could wipe a city from reality, of that you had little doubt. But Mary was right. She couldn't make that destruction stick, and if she could, not for this long. This place had not been merely touched by the Uninvolved, it had been wiped clean. The Shiplords had allowed such action, and the Uninvolved had taken it. It made no sense. If the Shiplord could compel actions, then humanity's access to Practice would have been discovered decades prior to the Tribute Fleet's return.
"But that doesn't answer the question of why," you said, yet it was almost an afterthought in the moment.
"No," Jane agreed, her eyes hardening. "It doesn't. But I don't think we're going to get an answer here, with scans or hypotheses. Maybe it was something that threatened them, but this was two million years ago. What if things were different then?"
"We could try to visit one of those scars," you pointed out, though something in you shied away from the very thought. Still, you forced yourself through it, the feeling of hesitant fear all too unwelcome. "Vega or I might be able to glean at least something from it, and the less observed world could still hold some information."
"Riskier," Jane pointed out respectfully. "The planet without an enclave still has a Shiplord dreadnought, and it'll be harder to hide shuttle activity when there's none there to begin with. And we have the example of the Zlathbu for what the Shiplords build in these systems. It might be different here, but I'm not sure there's a better option.""
"Trying to examine one of those scars could be worth it, though," Mary said quickly, yet you heard the worry in her voice. "The world with the Enclave will have controls on where we can go. If we can get down onto the other one, we'll be a lot freer to move within our landing area. And these scars did leave some remnants behind. I doubt the Uninvolved would leave anything they considered a danger behind, but that might not include everything."
Both of them were right. The question was who you agreed with more? It had always been your plan to explore both those worlds. You'd intended on visiting the one without a Shiplord enclave first, but this new information was quite telling. Did you still wish to proceed that way? You didn't know what the Uninvolved might have considered so dangerous as to wipe a system of intelligent life. A threat to the Shiplords was one thing. A threat to the Uninvolved, excepting the Shiplords, was another.
Maybe things had changed in the time since this war and now. Maybe they had not. Yet the decision of how to proceed from here was yours. Continue as planned, or choose a different focus?
Do you proceed as planned to the next planned objective or pick a new one?
[] Yes – Continue to the untamed world, lacking a Shiplord enclave. Perhaps closer scans will reveal what the odd ship in orbit is there for.
[] No – Change your plans, and seek a new goal within this system.
-[] The Inhabited - The second planet, this one is home to a true Shiplord enclave. You've visited one safely thus far, why not another?
-[] Regulars - Two Shiplord Regular craft, their profiles beyond ancient, orbit the life bearing worlds of this system. Why are they here? Approach, and attempt to discover the truth.
-[] Write-in?
You could feel the eyes of every crew member on you. Captain, in this moment, but also much more. If this was how the Shiplords faced a race they considered a true foe, what did that mean for humanity? Nothing good, no doubt, but that wasn't something you could say. Despite everything, you were still remembered more for those moments where you'd stood as a champion for your species than for what you'd done as President so that you wouldn't have to. Right now the people here needed the former, the symbol that you'd never been comfortable being.
It was good that you could give it to them. It would not protect them against the Shiplords, but it would always be welcome.
"This is why we're here," you told them. "To find out the truth, no matter how hard it might be. To understand why the Shiplords believe all they do is right, and to find a way past it, so that no species ever has to become another of their memorials."
The chill subsided. No one could forget the last message of the Shiplord Regular Fleet before they retreated from Sol, but you repeated it anyway. "They asked us to try and find another way. That's what we came to do. They said they'd tried everything; let's see if they were right." You nodded at the star before you. "Captain Cyneburg, plot a course in-system towards the star. Let's start with what's furthest from their centres of activity. A star this small shouldn't look so young."
It wasn't exactly the whole truth, of course. But a firm goal on your journey in-system would give everyone aboard something to focus on. Given the message you'd just read, and that would be known shipwide within minutes, that was going to matter. And it was strange. A main-sequence star of its composition shouldn't be so small at this stage of its lifecycle, not if it had formed naturally. So what had been done here? Data collected from the grave of the Zlathbu had given you the term Stellar Collector, which had obvious implications. But Mary had been adamant that pulling down that sort of infrastructure would be nearly impossible to hide.
So how could this be?
You were suddenly aware of the presence of Mary next to you, shaking her head as she looked over your shoulder. "I don't get it either," she muttered. "A star like this shouldn't be here at all. Everything we've modelled on starlifting points to that conclusion. It shouldn't be possible to dismantle a mining frame after the scale of operations required for the spectral analysis here to make sense. There aren't enough heavy elements in the core."
"And yet, here we are," you replied as you scanned the next image. "With evidence to the contrary right front of us." You scratched your chin, considering, putting on a good show almost despite yourself. "It's a mystery."
"Says the one who won't be demystifying it," Mary snarked, but you didn't miss the flash of interest in her eyes. "I'll be in the labs. I need my full setup for this."
---
The journey in-system was tense. In the last one, you'd been able to secure control of the stellar infonet and the AI running wide-area security to ensure that any flickers in the Adamant's stealth wouldn't be noticed. Here, with two Shiplord dreadnoughts present, that was just too dangerous. Which meant everything had to be perfect - and you had no idea how you were going to safely land shuttles. There was a protocol for this situation, buried in the Trailblazer logs, but it had never been tested.
Of course, neither had the Masques and they'd worked fine when you visited the Shiplord memorial. But you weren't willing to feel very confident. That was a dangerous place to be, especially after you crossed the Stellar Exclusion Zone. Both planets lay within it, but you were going even further in and that would make escape challenging if you were detected. Still, it had been your choice, and it provided your survey section an abundance of time to properly chart the system.
That exercise provided a wealth of knowledge as to the system itself, and its two very habitable worlds. There were civilian craft scattered all across the system, concentrated into a large flotilla around the ancient dreadnought in fixed orbit above the Shiplord enclave. The other military craft was more lonely, but not entirely so. A handful of civilian ships held the same orbit, alongside another vessel almost as old as the dreadnought. Most strangely, its profile was not one any of you recognised. Shiplord work, yes, but not anything you'd seen before.
Yet all that paled before the mystery that you found yourself staring into as you approached the star, sensor fidelity growing with every passing hour. The star was too small; you'd seen signs of that even before leaving Sol. But as the Adamant had forged deeper into the Stellar Exclusion Zone, her sensor crews had confirmed its scale. No sun of this composition should exist at this size, and yet here it was. But that wasn't the most telling thing.
Stellar Echoes: 100 + 52 = 152. Nat 100 reroll! 52.
QM Note: Whyyyyyyy? I'm not even bothering with modifiers.
"I'm still not sure if I'm right," Mary said, pacing back and forth in front of a virtual display as it ran through a simulation again. She'd been working nonstop on this for almost three days now, and you'd known better than to push the issue. That she was willing to discuss the matter without being certain spoke to how deeply it must have rattled her.
"What else could those trails be?" Jane asked. "Minister Sharpe ensured that we got the best sensor system available. If it says that these echoes are present, what other explanation exists?"
"As far as I know, none," Mary sighed. Her green eyes were more haunted than you'd seen them since you'd admitted to having been contacted by one of the Uninvolved. "But the implications if we're right are more than I can easily describe. We've known that the Shiplords allow the Uninvolved to come into existence, and that the Uninvolved will not oppose them for fear of destruction. But what could have made them act here to help the Shiplords?"
"It's too coincidental for it not to be connected," Jane agreed, flicking her hand towards the simulation as it began another repetition. "We know that Practice and the work of the Uninvolved can leave echoes. There's no other cause that we know of."
"The Shiplords have insisted that they have a reason for what they're doing," she continued. "They've told us that one day we'd call them friend, and all but begged us to find another solution beyond destruction to whatever problem they believe vindicates them."
"That's true," you said, staring as the image of a star compressed and stabilised before you, reality shifting to accommodate a new state of affairs. "But–"
"But even if that were the case," Mary interjected, "this is bigger than anything we've ever seen. It implies things about the relationship between Shiplord and Uninvolved that everything we know tells us can't be true. The Shiplords have spent at least half a million years enforcing oppression and fear on pain of genocide. But this star, and these worlds, are older than that." Two million years was the best guess. "Whatever exactly happened here between the Hijvin and the Shiplords, I think Jane's right. There are only two options we know of that could explain these readings. Either the Uninvolved had a hand in its ending, or some race capable of wielding Practice did."
The latter had to be impossible. It had to be. But if it was, then how had the Shiplords recognised Practice?
"We can't afford to dismiss the possibility, can we?" You sighed, and Mary shook her head.
"No, we can't."
"But if there were, what happened to them?" You asked, gesturing sharply at the simulation. "That isn't just power, Mary, it would've required skill in manipulating Practice beyond anything we've ever seen." You'd run the numbers once, and you were relatively confident in your ability to keep a star from going nova, if you were there at the right time. But this was something different. Not bigger, but unimaginably more thorough.
"I don't know," Mary replied, but her eyes flickered to the side. She knew, just as you did. If there'd been such a race, they'd died. But if that had been the case, and for all their power they'd still lost? You shook your head swiftly, whipping it back and forth fast enough that the room swam for a moment. Insight had shown the possibility of victory, and Tahkel had told you that it was there, too. Which, you hoped, made the more logical conclusion the former.
"Then why would the Uninvolved work with the Shiplords?" Jane spoke, cutting to the end of your realisation with her question.
"Why do enemies ever bury their differences?" Iris said through the room's speakers. Of course she'd been listening.
"Because something threatened them both." Mary replied, her face paling. "But what could do that? And if the Hijvin Sphere did that, then why – wait." A gesture pulled up a haze of screens around her, and her fingers flared out, parting them as she sought one in particular. "There it is."
Her hand flicked out, and the display expanded out to displace the current simulation. "This is data we've gathered at long range from the two habitable worlds, where we can still find the remains of ancient cities," Mary explained. "I knew I was missing something!"
She gestured and the data spooled out, joined a moment later by similar information from the star. "Jane, what have your tactical specialists had to say about those areas?"
"There's no weapon we know of that could do something like that, not so cleanly," the FSN officer replied smoothly. "It's like something reached down from above and wiped those cities away. Two million years is a long time to heal, but those places are still very evidently what they were. One of my officers compared them to burn scars."
You nodded. "They heal, but they're never really gone."
"Exactly," Jane confirmed. "But what does – oh."
"Oh?" You asked, your own mind spinning, trying to follow the logic.
"Look at these," Mary said, shifting the patterns to raw imagery. "These places used to hold life, and they do now too. But life changes things, and there's been two million years for these places to shift and heal Amanda. These haven't. Just like the star. And that makes the conclusion very clear."
Kalilah could wipe a city from reality, of that you had little doubt. But Mary was right. She couldn't make that destruction stick, and if she could, not for this long. This place had not been merely touched by the Uninvolved, it had been wiped clean. The Shiplords had allowed such action, and the Uninvolved had taken it. It made no sense. If the Shiplord could compel actions, then humanity's access to Practice would have been discovered decades prior to the Tribute Fleet's return.
"But that doesn't answer the question of why," you said, yet it was almost an afterthought in the moment.
"No," Jane agreed, her eyes hardening. "It doesn't. But I don't think we're going to get an answer here, with scans or hypotheses. Maybe it was something that threatened them, but this was two million years ago. What if things were different then?"
"We could try to visit one of those scars," you pointed out, though something in you shied away from the very thought. Still, you forced yourself through it, the feeling of hesitant fear all too unwelcome. "Vega or I might be able to glean at least something from it, and the less observed world could still hold some information."
"Riskier," Jane pointed out respectfully. "The planet without an enclave still has a Shiplord dreadnought, and it'll be harder to hide shuttle activity when there's none there to begin with. And we have the example of the Zlathbu for what the Shiplords build in these systems. It might be different here, but I'm not sure there's a better option.""
"Trying to examine one of those scars could be worth it, though," Mary said quickly, yet you heard the worry in her voice. "The world with the Enclave will have controls on where we can go. If we can get down onto the other one, we'll be a lot freer to move within our landing area. And these scars did leave some remnants behind. I doubt the Uninvolved would leave anything they considered a danger behind, but that might not include everything."
Both of them were right. The question was who you agreed with more? It had always been your plan to explore both those worlds. You'd intended on visiting the one without a Shiplord enclave first, but this new information was quite telling. Did you still wish to proceed that way? You didn't know what the Uninvolved might have considered so dangerous as to wipe a system of intelligent life. A threat to the Shiplords was one thing. A threat to the Uninvolved, excepting the Shiplords, was another.
Maybe things had changed in the time since this war and now. Maybe they had not. Yet the decision of how to proceed from here was yours. Continue as planned, or choose a different focus?
Do you proceed as planned to the next planned objective or pick a new one?
[] Yes – Continue to the untamed world, lacking a Shiplord enclave. Perhaps closer scans will reveal what the odd ship in orbit is there for.
[] No – Change your plans, and seek a new goal within this system.
-[] The Inhabited - The second planet, this one is home to a true Shiplord enclave. You've visited one safely thus far, why not another?
-[] Regulars - Two Shiplord Regular craft, their profiles beyond ancient, orbit the life bearing worlds of this system. Why are they here? Approach, and attempt to discover the truth.
-[] Write-in?
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Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Many thanks to @Baughn and @Coda for betaing this for me, it helped a lot. This is later than I'd like, but I had to do a major rewrite of the middle section. Still, it's here, and I'm told that that's what really matters. This adds some interest to the system, I hope, but it's not a major interest point beyond filling in some background. Most of which you wouldn't have gotten in most cases, but Mary is just OP. As is most of your cast, apparently, but today it's just Mary. Any questions to the usual address. Happy voting, and I hope you're all being safe this winter.
Starman4308
(Unverified Human Being)
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
[X] Yes – Continue to the untamed world, lacking a Shiplord enclave. Perhaps closer scans will reveal what the odd ship in orbit is there for.
In theory, my opinion is still "populated world first", but I will abide by the prior majority decision. There's not enough information to really argue for a change in plans.
EDIT: I'll also point out that nothing we know of guarantees the Uninvolved are a monolithic block. There could be Uninvolved races which predate the Tribute system, Uninvolved races which agree with the Shiplords, etc.
In theory, my opinion is still "populated world first", but I will abide by the prior majority decision. There's not enough information to really argue for a change in plans.
EDIT: I'll also point out that nothing we know of guarantees the Uninvolved are a monolithic block. There could be Uninvolved races which predate the Tribute system, Uninvolved races which agree with the Shiplords, etc.
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infinityDivided
Prince Of Doom
- Location
- USA
Boy, we've been pretty lucky the last few updates. When's the other shoe going to drop?
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
If luck from The Practice War holds? Probably never
Edit: It's not funny you monsters ;-;
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- Location
- Somewhere other than where I am.
I wonder if what happened to the stars was their counter to Shiplord star-buster weapons, and maybe whatever they did got the Uninvolved to side with the Shiplords? That is the counter-theory that comes to mind. Edit: Maybe it involved killing Uninvolved? But you'd think the current generation of Uninvolved would have heard about it from the surviviors...
[X] Yes – Continue to the untamed world, lacking a Shiplord enclave. Perhaps closer scans will reveal what the odd ship in orbit is there for.
[X] Yes – Continue to the untamed world, lacking a Shiplord enclave. Perhaps closer scans will reveal what the odd ship in orbit is there for.
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Baughn
Healing-type writer
- Location
- Dublin
It's not luck, Snowie. We've been over this. You're just chronicling events as they happen.If luck from The Practice War holds? Probably never
- Location
- Minnesota
[X] Yes – Continue to the untamed world, lacking a Shiplord enclave. Perhaps closer scans will reveal what the odd ship in orbit is there for.
[X] Yes – Continue to the untamed world, lacking a Shiplord enclave. Perhaps closer scans will reveal what the odd ship in orbit is there for.
- Location
- USA
[X] Yes – Continue to the untamed world, lacking a Shiplord enclave. Perhaps closer scans will reveal what the odd ship in orbit is there for.
[X] Yes – Continue to the untamed world, lacking a Shiplord enclave. Perhaps closer scans will reveal what the odd ship in orbit is there for.
acegunner
Planeswalker - Nicol Bolas
- Location
- Dominaria
That assumes there were survivors.
Grounding Questions
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Seeing where Jane had been looking on the scans, you nodded slowly. "If we're going to do a search at all, I agree that it looks the best place to start. The safe bet is the world the Enclave is on, but it's exactly that: The safe bet. And I'm not convinced it's where we should be looking. We have no idea what we might find down on that empty world, and there has to be a reason for the dreadnoughts to be split."
"It could be simply symbolism," Iris pointed out, still talking through the room's speakers. "Two worlds, two ships. There's a symmetry there, and it's not as if travel time is an issue."
You shook your head, struggling with a sudden spike of tension in your shoulder. Something in that assumption worried you. But how could you explain it in a way that would make sense?
"That's true, Iris," you said delicately, "but there's that other ship in orbit. We have no idea what it is, just that it's as old as the dreadnoughts."
:Possibly older.: Sidra sent, broadcasting to everyone in the room in a rare moment of direct involvement. :And Amanda has a point. Visiting the enclave isn't up for debate. But we should take every available opportunity to understand this place first. We made it through the Zlathbu's memorial thanks to Iris, Practice and luck. We only have two of those this time. We shouldn't push it.:
:Thanks, Sidra.: You squeezed your eyes shut, before opening them again. "I understand the security issues. I know that it'll be harder to hide a shuttle trip down to that world, especially when we don't know what that other ship in orbit is. But I also know that Trailblazer was designed for this."
You took a long breath, focusing on the feeling, letting it calm you. "We could send a probe down first. If there's nothing worth seeing there, we can always leave an observation post on the ground. There's enough life and ruins down on the planet to hide a small one."
"But you don't think there's going to be nothing," Jane said, and something in her tone told you she already knew the answer.
"No." You shook your head firmly. "I think there's something."
"So a shuttle, then," Jane said, her lips thinning into a brittle smile. "I know that tone, Amanda."
You started to reply, to try to say something, but she shook her head. "With what we're dealing with, no probe will be able to properly deal with anything it might find down there. That'll need you or Vega. And at that point, you're both going to go."
"Well, not alone." You said, in what you were certain should have been a reasonable tone. "We'll have Kalilah too."
"She'd be going either way." Jane replied. Her lips pressed together hard, levelling her smile into a firm line. This was your second in command speaking, not the woman you'd come to call a friend. "I trust your judgement, but you're not going anywhere in this system without her."
"And you should take a relay down," Mary added, her interruption a welcome break to the concern that had taken charge of the conversation. "I know it's not safe for me to leave the Adamant, even for a world we think is uninhabited. But if I can't see this with my own eyes, you're going to give me the best sensor coverage you can." It was a reasonable assumption on her part, but it raised a question. Mary was slower than any of the Unisonbound or Iris, even with mental accelerators, and that had made the idea of taking her into a Shiplord enclave far too dangerous. Here, however?
"I'm not sure the safety concerns would be wholly justified in this case, Mary." You considered. "If the planet only has animal life, it opens up the option of taking you down with us."
"The risk," Jane pointed out, and Mary frowned. You saw the exact moment as she brought up her own list of reasons why this was a bad idea, but you pressed on.
"Isn't insurmountable." You said stubbornly. "And this isn't just about letting my friend go down to an alien world for the first time. You're the best expert humanity has on Practice, Mary. This is close enough, and we both know there's a value to personal presence."
Your friend's face paled, yet that only made the sudden flare of excitement in her eyes all the more obvious. "I'm not saying we make the decision right now," you continued, holding those eyes with your own. "But it's something that should be on the table if we can land a shuttle. Vega and I, we look for things through our own lenses. Yours is much wider."
"And I might see things that you'll miss," Mary bowed her head, but she didn't let the motion break your gaze. This discussion was much older than this mission, and you both knew when it was time to put it on hold. "When we reach the planet, then."
Jane looked between you, and her lips twitched. Something about the way she did so was oddly familiar, and it took you a few seconds to realise why. Amelie had done that sometimes. Before you could comment, though, she spoke.
"I'll redirect us to the untouched world." Her lips twitched again. "And inform the intelligence teams that our focus is shifting in line with planned priorities. They'll be happy about that."
"Go." You told her, unable to restrain a smile.
"Yes ma'am," Jane saluted, and exited the lab. Mary gave you an odd look, and you felt the question on her lips. The desire to be certain of your reasons. It was an odd thing, to know someone so well and still not be certain of their motives. But you couldn't fault the concern, not with the stakes this high.
"I meant what I said," you told her gently, stepping closer to catch one of her hands, the motion as natural as breathing.
"I know." She squeezed your hand. "You'd have thought I'd have learnt better by now."
"No," you shook your head, brushing a hand across your friend's pale cheek, the virtual screens around her refracting around your fingers. "That would be asking you to be less than you are. And I'm never going to do that." You took a step closer and turned, bringing you into the orbit of virtual panes.
"Where should we start?" You asked. Mary looked over at you, biting her lip, and Iris' laugh bounced from the speakers.
"Did you think she'd just leave you to it, mom?" Your daughter asked.
"Perhaps I did," Mary smiled. Then she flicked at the air and more than a dozen virtual panes faded into standby mode. Another gesture and every piece of data the Adamant had been able to gather on the untouched world spread itself out around you. "But if you're so determined to be helpful, and you're sure you have the time?" You tapped the air in front of you and your day calendar unfurled.
Mary studied it for a moment, then leant against you. "Well then." One of the panels expanded to fill the space in front of you. "Let's start on the ruins. We'll leave the ship to the intelligence team."
You were nearing orbital insertion by the time you were done. There'd been an abundance of data on the world, just as there was on the other, but even with the best computers and minds available it took time to decipher. That process wasn't even close to being finished, but you were close enough to an answer that leaving the lab environment for more than required duties was something you could accept.
Which led you back to the wardroom, and the meeting of senior staff that had become as routine as your old cabinet meetings. This time, though, your Intelligence officer didn't seem that happy. You hoped you'd not stepped on any toes with your demands for more in-depth scans on the planetary environment.
:Jane would never let you.: Sidra pointed out, their certain calm quashing the fleeting worry before it could spread into something more. :They must have had trouble with their assignment.:
:Or they found something that will make this excursion more difficult,: you sent back with a grimace. It wasn't that your data was all good, there just wasn't anything in it that had really changed your mind. Just the context of your opinions. In fact, well – you shook your head. Open the meeting first, you told yourself.
"Thank you all for coming," you said, doing just that. You'd been the last to arrive this time, and everyone took their seats on cue. You wished they wouldn't, but cabinet meetings had taught you the futility of arguing the point. You wanted to jump immediately to what you'd helped Mary find over the last few days, but it was better to work from out in when you wanted to actually land on the planet. Getting past the ships in orbit was step one.
"Lieutenant Gilsan," you said. "Your team has been looking at ships around the planet, I believe."
"Yes ma'am." The man stood, the display of the star system hovering above the table shifting to focus on the area around the planet. A small glowing dot indicated your position, just short of its edge. "Charting the orbitals of the planet was simple enough, there's not much here. We have the dreadnought, the small civilian cluster." Gold light flowed into the holo to highlight the ships, leaving one conspicuously unmarked.
"And then there's this one." The intelligence specialist smiled restlessly, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Long range analysis has confirmed that it's even older than the dreadnoughts here. Some of my team think we might actually be looking at pre-militarisation Shiplord design philosophies. Unfortunately, that's where the good news ends."
"What do you mean?" You asked.
Orbital Analysis: 13
"Because that's the few things about it that I can give you with any certainty." Gilsan shook his head, the skin around his eyes tightening. "Sunburst are good, ma'am, but they're not Project Insight, and we have almost nothing to work with here. The only other point of note is that the craft is far more electronically active than any other ship in the system. Our first guess was a science craft, but the few other details we've found since have made us reconsider. Our best guess right now, and I must emphasize that it is only that, is that it's an exploration vessel. Like the Cartographer series humanity sent out before the Week of Sorrows were too."
"Rather large for an exploration craft, isn't it?" Vega asked, and the lieutenant shook his head again, more firmly this time.
"The Cartographers weren't small, Miss Cant," he replied. "But even the last ones launched by humanity were largely prototypes. Given the needs of interstellar exploration, especially with the limitations of First Secret drive technology, a vessel this size would make sense as a long-range explorer."
"But you're not certain," you said.
"No." Gilsan sighed. "Its sensors don't appear to be focused beyond comfortably encompassing the planet, and none of the signals we've detected have been going down to the planet. But it's acting as a communications hub for something. And if our best guess is right, I'd expect those sensors to be excellent."
"Do you believe it could jeopardise a landing attempt?" The question from Jane was immediate, and expected. Her subordinate shrugged helplessly.
"Higher danger due to unknown factors, certainly," he replied crisply. "But if that would be enough to endanger a landing party? I'm sorry ma'am, I can't say. We don't have enough data."
"We might be able to add a little to that," you said.
"What did you find?" Gilsan asked, looking between you and Mary. You nodded to your friend. This was hers; you'd only helped.
Planetary Analysis: 99
"An answer," Mary said, swiping the dataset from her tablet up onto the holo. The planet shimmered, then its atmospheric layer started to glow with the light of a thousand motes of diamond. "The Shiplords have seeded the atmosphere with microsatellite clusters."
She made a lazy motion with one hand, and the image changed again. "This is our best guess on their specs, but we weren't able to confirm their existence until a few hours ago." It was something of a dodge, but given your involvement, it was a fair one. Sidra and Iris had full access to intelligence modelling, and were entirely capable of supplying it as they'd done here.
Your intelligence officer made a contemplative sound as he studied the outputs. "They're too precise to be civilian grade, but there's none of the hardening we'd expect in military models." He looked from the display to Mary. "Do you have any idea what they're looking at?"
"We think so." Mary nodded, her expression suitable grave. Yet you could see the excitement behind it, an echo of the moment where you'd realised what you were seeing. "Our initial scans pointed towards it, but we had to do a lot of in-depth work to be certain. Whoever the Hjivin Sphere were, they're not the only form of intelligent life native to this solar system anymore."
"What?" Jane's question was barely a whisper.
"We're as certain as it's possible to be," you added, answering the immediate question. "And it would explain the presence of an additional ship assigned here."
"I'm not sure-" your intelligence officer began, before you interrupted him with a raised hand.
"A moment." You glanced at the rest of your command staff, then returned your gaze to him. "Mary?"
Your friend nodded. "Everything our scans have detected point to the same conclusion. Whatever was done to wipe out the Hjivin only destroyed them. It left the remaining natural ecosystem intact - and I make that point because there's no visible Second Secret manipulation here." She gave a brief smile. "I'm not an intelligence specialist, but I know biology."
"The Hjivin were wiped out at least a million years ago, but life persisted. There wasn't a full-scale ecological collapse, but it must have taken considerable damage for this to have taken so long." She indicated the display, green eyes bright.
"The new life down there is barely past the point of sapience if it is at all – there are some rough approximations to human stone-age culture, such as it was." Mary chuckled to herself a moment. "That said, I've little experience in palaeontology, and the details aren't exactly relevant right now."
"What is relevant," you said, taking up from the pause as Mary rubbed at her eyes, "is how it could complicate our mission here. If the Shiplords are observing the development of a primitive species, there could be more than those satellites."
Gilsan nodded slowly, his expression turning steadily more concerned. "They could have autonomous observation platforms down there to complement the microsat clusters. Getting samples would be important to work out what they could do safely." You blinked, and shot the man a questioning look. That was an answer you hadn't expected.
"I read up on our first contact protocols before this mission, ma'am," he explained ruefully. "And we actually do have one for this sort of situation, though most of this one is older than the Sorrows. We have no idea what Shiplord observation protocol involves, but I can't imagine it's just watching from a distance."
"So we have new security concerns," Jane said, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. "And you still want to take Miss D'reve down there?"
[][Mary] "I do," you replied. "If we can get down there at all, we're not going to be able to transmit live. And I think we'll need the best scientific mind we have for what's down there."
[][Mary] "It's difficult to say so now," you admitted, the words heavy. "Even if we can get down there, without the Masques providing safety in their disguise mechanism it's probably not safe to risk her.
[][Mary] Write-in?
"That's less important than actually getting down there to begin with," Mary added, unperturbed by a reply you'd both already discussed. "We have to bow to the expertise of Lieutenant Gilsan and his team."
"Well that's something." Jane's reply could have been cutting, but it brought a small smile to your lips instead. She sighed, nodding to her subordinate. "Lieutenant, what do you make of this?"
Gilsan's eyes flickered back and forth across the readouts, and you recognised the signs of cognitive acceleration. He was trying to take it all in as fast as possible, so that you could get at least a basic answer. Twenty seconds passed before he looked up, enough time for a subjective eternity with the latest accelerators. That was impressive as hell, really. Little more than a decade ago, this sort of thing would have been impossible.
"The only reason that I'm not calling this a total mission scrub is due to those satellites very clearly not being military grade," he said calmly, eyes flicking to you. "And with respect, ma'am, you should've notified me the moment you found these."
Even though you hadn't been sure, he was still right. Given perceptual acceleration, even a few real-time minutes with the right data could be unimaginably important. "You have my apologies," you told him. You meant every word. "It was a late discovery, and we were distracted by what was the larger issue to us."
"Of course." His expression said everything his reply did not, a similar exasperation to the one you remembered from your security detail during your time as President. This you would remember. "I'll need time to properly simulate our own capabilities against these systems, and anything else we can think of that might be down there. Assuming all those checks pass?"
"Then I believe a planetside investigation would still be possible." It took an almost physical act of will to pull those words from the officer. "It could be worth a great deal, in fact. To see how the Shiplords actually observe developing species."
"How long?" Jane asked. Iris winked at you across the table.
"Done." She smiled impishly. She blinked deliberately, and more data flowed into the image before you all. "It'll be riskier due to the number of sensor clusters, but we can reprogram the Masques to work as active camouflage instead of disguises. They were designed to bypass Shiplord milspec. These aren't."
"There's still higher risk." Mary leaned forward, drawing her fingers in an opening motion to expand a section of the data. "And if we get caught, getting uncaught will be a lot harder. And that doesn't even touch on the possible problems of influencing the native civilisation."
"We've got our own civilisation to consider, Miss D'reve," Jane said, very quietly. Five years ago, maybe even less, that statement would have prompted a fiery reply from your closest friend. She barely noticed it today.
"We do, yes. But that's no reason to ignore the one down there. If we influence their culture in any meaningful way, and Shiplord surveillance is tight enough, it could get noticed." You felt a surge of warmth as she readjusted the framing of her concern to cover the current issue. "We can't risk that."
"In the end, it's my call," you said, catching Jane before she could reply. "I understand the possible risks and rewards. But if it's the opinion of local analysis that a trip is possible," Iris nodded very slightly. "Then I think we should…"
[][World] "continue as planned. The variables have changed, but our mission hasn't. We need to know what's down there."
[][World] "modify our mission profile. I want to…"
-[][World] "understand more about how the Shiplords are observing this developing civilisation."
-[][World] "make absolutely certain that we don't leave any tracks. Find us a place to land far where there's a burn scar but no local civilisation."
[][World] "try to find a way to visit one of these scars at the Enclave. It's built over one, maybe that would be enough?"
[][World] Write-in?
"Then we need to look at your ground team." Jane said calmly, a sweep of her hands bring up the familiar profiles. "We'll want to be prepared for any changes before we enter orbit."
You nodded gratefully. "Agreed. And thank you, Commander."
Please pick one of the following team loadouts. I'm trying to make this a bit simpler than last time, by pre-organising setups and then giving you the opportunity to make your own. Details on your ground team members is here. This vote will not affect the one about Mary's presence on the ground team for this mission.
[][Team] Quiet Insight (Elil, Iris, Kalilah) - This team focuses on maintaining a minimal profile for detection with the highest possible processing power.
[][Team] Heartcircle (Mir, Lea, Vega, Elil, Kalilah) - This team focuses on the unified ability of your Heartcircle, providing a combination of awesome versatility and combat power.
[][Team] Peace in Harmony - (Mir, Vega, Kalilah) - According to the Shiplords, a great war ended here. This team focuses above all on conceptual inspection of how that came to pass.
[][Team] Write in? Any team must include Kalilah and can contain no more than five members.
"It could be simply symbolism," Iris pointed out, still talking through the room's speakers. "Two worlds, two ships. There's a symmetry there, and it's not as if travel time is an issue."
You shook your head, struggling with a sudden spike of tension in your shoulder. Something in that assumption worried you. But how could you explain it in a way that would make sense?
"That's true, Iris," you said delicately, "but there's that other ship in orbit. We have no idea what it is, just that it's as old as the dreadnoughts."
:Possibly older.: Sidra sent, broadcasting to everyone in the room in a rare moment of direct involvement. :And Amanda has a point. Visiting the enclave isn't up for debate. But we should take every available opportunity to understand this place first. We made it through the Zlathbu's memorial thanks to Iris, Practice and luck. We only have two of those this time. We shouldn't push it.:
:Thanks, Sidra.: You squeezed your eyes shut, before opening them again. "I understand the security issues. I know that it'll be harder to hide a shuttle trip down to that world, especially when we don't know what that other ship in orbit is. But I also know that Trailblazer was designed for this."
You took a long breath, focusing on the feeling, letting it calm you. "We could send a probe down first. If there's nothing worth seeing there, we can always leave an observation post on the ground. There's enough life and ruins down on the planet to hide a small one."
"But you don't think there's going to be nothing," Jane said, and something in her tone told you she already knew the answer.
"No." You shook your head firmly. "I think there's something."
"So a shuttle, then," Jane said, her lips thinning into a brittle smile. "I know that tone, Amanda."
You started to reply, to try to say something, but she shook her head. "With what we're dealing with, no probe will be able to properly deal with anything it might find down there. That'll need you or Vega. And at that point, you're both going to go."
"Well, not alone." You said, in what you were certain should have been a reasonable tone. "We'll have Kalilah too."
"She'd be going either way." Jane replied. Her lips pressed together hard, levelling her smile into a firm line. This was your second in command speaking, not the woman you'd come to call a friend. "I trust your judgement, but you're not going anywhere in this system without her."
"And you should take a relay down," Mary added, her interruption a welcome break to the concern that had taken charge of the conversation. "I know it's not safe for me to leave the Adamant, even for a world we think is uninhabited. But if I can't see this with my own eyes, you're going to give me the best sensor coverage you can." It was a reasonable assumption on her part, but it raised a question. Mary was slower than any of the Unisonbound or Iris, even with mental accelerators, and that had made the idea of taking her into a Shiplord enclave far too dangerous. Here, however?
"I'm not sure the safety concerns would be wholly justified in this case, Mary." You considered. "If the planet only has animal life, it opens up the option of taking you down with us."
"The risk," Jane pointed out, and Mary frowned. You saw the exact moment as she brought up her own list of reasons why this was a bad idea, but you pressed on.
"Isn't insurmountable." You said stubbornly. "And this isn't just about letting my friend go down to an alien world for the first time. You're the best expert humanity has on Practice, Mary. This is close enough, and we both know there's a value to personal presence."
Your friend's face paled, yet that only made the sudden flare of excitement in her eyes all the more obvious. "I'm not saying we make the decision right now," you continued, holding those eyes with your own. "But it's something that should be on the table if we can land a shuttle. Vega and I, we look for things through our own lenses. Yours is much wider."
"And I might see things that you'll miss," Mary bowed her head, but she didn't let the motion break your gaze. This discussion was much older than this mission, and you both knew when it was time to put it on hold. "When we reach the planet, then."
Jane looked between you, and her lips twitched. Something about the way she did so was oddly familiar, and it took you a few seconds to realise why. Amelie had done that sometimes. Before you could comment, though, she spoke.
"I'll redirect us to the untouched world." Her lips twitched again. "And inform the intelligence teams that our focus is shifting in line with planned priorities. They'll be happy about that."
"Go." You told her, unable to restrain a smile.
"Yes ma'am," Jane saluted, and exited the lab. Mary gave you an odd look, and you felt the question on her lips. The desire to be certain of your reasons. It was an odd thing, to know someone so well and still not be certain of their motives. But you couldn't fault the concern, not with the stakes this high.
"I meant what I said," you told her gently, stepping closer to catch one of her hands, the motion as natural as breathing.
"I know." She squeezed your hand. "You'd have thought I'd have learnt better by now."
"No," you shook your head, brushing a hand across your friend's pale cheek, the virtual screens around her refracting around your fingers. "That would be asking you to be less than you are. And I'm never going to do that." You took a step closer and turned, bringing you into the orbit of virtual panes.
"Where should we start?" You asked. Mary looked over at you, biting her lip, and Iris' laugh bounced from the speakers.
"Did you think she'd just leave you to it, mom?" Your daughter asked.
"Perhaps I did," Mary smiled. Then she flicked at the air and more than a dozen virtual panes faded into standby mode. Another gesture and every piece of data the Adamant had been able to gather on the untouched world spread itself out around you. "But if you're so determined to be helpful, and you're sure you have the time?" You tapped the air in front of you and your day calendar unfurled.
Mary studied it for a moment, then leant against you. "Well then." One of the panels expanded to fill the space in front of you. "Let's start on the ruins. We'll leave the ship to the intelligence team."
You were nearing orbital insertion by the time you were done. There'd been an abundance of data on the world, just as there was on the other, but even with the best computers and minds available it took time to decipher. That process wasn't even close to being finished, but you were close enough to an answer that leaving the lab environment for more than required duties was something you could accept.
Which led you back to the wardroom, and the meeting of senior staff that had become as routine as your old cabinet meetings. This time, though, your Intelligence officer didn't seem that happy. You hoped you'd not stepped on any toes with your demands for more in-depth scans on the planetary environment.
:Jane would never let you.: Sidra pointed out, their certain calm quashing the fleeting worry before it could spread into something more. :They must have had trouble with their assignment.:
:Or they found something that will make this excursion more difficult,: you sent back with a grimace. It wasn't that your data was all good, there just wasn't anything in it that had really changed your mind. Just the context of your opinions. In fact, well – you shook your head. Open the meeting first, you told yourself.
"Thank you all for coming," you said, doing just that. You'd been the last to arrive this time, and everyone took their seats on cue. You wished they wouldn't, but cabinet meetings had taught you the futility of arguing the point. You wanted to jump immediately to what you'd helped Mary find over the last few days, but it was better to work from out in when you wanted to actually land on the planet. Getting past the ships in orbit was step one.
"Lieutenant Gilsan," you said. "Your team has been looking at ships around the planet, I believe."
"Yes ma'am." The man stood, the display of the star system hovering above the table shifting to focus on the area around the planet. A small glowing dot indicated your position, just short of its edge. "Charting the orbitals of the planet was simple enough, there's not much here. We have the dreadnought, the small civilian cluster." Gold light flowed into the holo to highlight the ships, leaving one conspicuously unmarked.
"And then there's this one." The intelligence specialist smiled restlessly, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Long range analysis has confirmed that it's even older than the dreadnoughts here. Some of my team think we might actually be looking at pre-militarisation Shiplord design philosophies. Unfortunately, that's where the good news ends."
"What do you mean?" You asked.
Orbital Analysis: 13
"Because that's the few things about it that I can give you with any certainty." Gilsan shook his head, the skin around his eyes tightening. "Sunburst are good, ma'am, but they're not Project Insight, and we have almost nothing to work with here. The only other point of note is that the craft is far more electronically active than any other ship in the system. Our first guess was a science craft, but the few other details we've found since have made us reconsider. Our best guess right now, and I must emphasize that it is only that, is that it's an exploration vessel. Like the Cartographer series humanity sent out before the Week of Sorrows were too."
"Rather large for an exploration craft, isn't it?" Vega asked, and the lieutenant shook his head again, more firmly this time.
"The Cartographers weren't small, Miss Cant," he replied. "But even the last ones launched by humanity were largely prototypes. Given the needs of interstellar exploration, especially with the limitations of First Secret drive technology, a vessel this size would make sense as a long-range explorer."
"But you're not certain," you said.
"No." Gilsan sighed. "Its sensors don't appear to be focused beyond comfortably encompassing the planet, and none of the signals we've detected have been going down to the planet. But it's acting as a communications hub for something. And if our best guess is right, I'd expect those sensors to be excellent."
"Do you believe it could jeopardise a landing attempt?" The question from Jane was immediate, and expected. Her subordinate shrugged helplessly.
"Higher danger due to unknown factors, certainly," he replied crisply. "But if that would be enough to endanger a landing party? I'm sorry ma'am, I can't say. We don't have enough data."
"We might be able to add a little to that," you said.
"What did you find?" Gilsan asked, looking between you and Mary. You nodded to your friend. This was hers; you'd only helped.
Planetary Analysis: 99
"An answer," Mary said, swiping the dataset from her tablet up onto the holo. The planet shimmered, then its atmospheric layer started to glow with the light of a thousand motes of diamond. "The Shiplords have seeded the atmosphere with microsatellite clusters."
She made a lazy motion with one hand, and the image changed again. "This is our best guess on their specs, but we weren't able to confirm their existence until a few hours ago." It was something of a dodge, but given your involvement, it was a fair one. Sidra and Iris had full access to intelligence modelling, and were entirely capable of supplying it as they'd done here.
Your intelligence officer made a contemplative sound as he studied the outputs. "They're too precise to be civilian grade, but there's none of the hardening we'd expect in military models." He looked from the display to Mary. "Do you have any idea what they're looking at?"
"We think so." Mary nodded, her expression suitable grave. Yet you could see the excitement behind it, an echo of the moment where you'd realised what you were seeing. "Our initial scans pointed towards it, but we had to do a lot of in-depth work to be certain. Whoever the Hjivin Sphere were, they're not the only form of intelligent life native to this solar system anymore."
"What?" Jane's question was barely a whisper.
"We're as certain as it's possible to be," you added, answering the immediate question. "And it would explain the presence of an additional ship assigned here."
"I'm not sure-" your intelligence officer began, before you interrupted him with a raised hand.
"A moment." You glanced at the rest of your command staff, then returned your gaze to him. "Mary?"
Your friend nodded. "Everything our scans have detected point to the same conclusion. Whatever was done to wipe out the Hjivin only destroyed them. It left the remaining natural ecosystem intact - and I make that point because there's no visible Second Secret manipulation here." She gave a brief smile. "I'm not an intelligence specialist, but I know biology."
"The Hjivin were wiped out at least a million years ago, but life persisted. There wasn't a full-scale ecological collapse, but it must have taken considerable damage for this to have taken so long." She indicated the display, green eyes bright.
"The new life down there is barely past the point of sapience if it is at all – there are some rough approximations to human stone-age culture, such as it was." Mary chuckled to herself a moment. "That said, I've little experience in palaeontology, and the details aren't exactly relevant right now."
"What is relevant," you said, taking up from the pause as Mary rubbed at her eyes, "is how it could complicate our mission here. If the Shiplords are observing the development of a primitive species, there could be more than those satellites."
Gilsan nodded slowly, his expression turning steadily more concerned. "They could have autonomous observation platforms down there to complement the microsat clusters. Getting samples would be important to work out what they could do safely." You blinked, and shot the man a questioning look. That was an answer you hadn't expected.
"I read up on our first contact protocols before this mission, ma'am," he explained ruefully. "And we actually do have one for this sort of situation, though most of this one is older than the Sorrows. We have no idea what Shiplord observation protocol involves, but I can't imagine it's just watching from a distance."
"So we have new security concerns," Jane said, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. "And you still want to take Miss D'reve down there?"
[][Mary] "I do," you replied. "If we can get down there at all, we're not going to be able to transmit live. And I think we'll need the best scientific mind we have for what's down there."
[][Mary] "It's difficult to say so now," you admitted, the words heavy. "Even if we can get down there, without the Masques providing safety in their disguise mechanism it's probably not safe to risk her.
[][Mary] Write-in?
"That's less important than actually getting down there to begin with," Mary added, unperturbed by a reply you'd both already discussed. "We have to bow to the expertise of Lieutenant Gilsan and his team."
"Well that's something." Jane's reply could have been cutting, but it brought a small smile to your lips instead. She sighed, nodding to her subordinate. "Lieutenant, what do you make of this?"
Gilsan's eyes flickered back and forth across the readouts, and you recognised the signs of cognitive acceleration. He was trying to take it all in as fast as possible, so that you could get at least a basic answer. Twenty seconds passed before he looked up, enough time for a subjective eternity with the latest accelerators. That was impressive as hell, really. Little more than a decade ago, this sort of thing would have been impossible.
"The only reason that I'm not calling this a total mission scrub is due to those satellites very clearly not being military grade," he said calmly, eyes flicking to you. "And with respect, ma'am, you should've notified me the moment you found these."
Even though you hadn't been sure, he was still right. Given perceptual acceleration, even a few real-time minutes with the right data could be unimaginably important. "You have my apologies," you told him. You meant every word. "It was a late discovery, and we were distracted by what was the larger issue to us."
"Of course." His expression said everything his reply did not, a similar exasperation to the one you remembered from your security detail during your time as President. This you would remember. "I'll need time to properly simulate our own capabilities against these systems, and anything else we can think of that might be down there. Assuming all those checks pass?"
"Then I believe a planetside investigation would still be possible." It took an almost physical act of will to pull those words from the officer. "It could be worth a great deal, in fact. To see how the Shiplords actually observe developing species."
"How long?" Jane asked. Iris winked at you across the table.
"Done." She smiled impishly. She blinked deliberately, and more data flowed into the image before you all. "It'll be riskier due to the number of sensor clusters, but we can reprogram the Masques to work as active camouflage instead of disguises. They were designed to bypass Shiplord milspec. These aren't."
"There's still higher risk." Mary leaned forward, drawing her fingers in an opening motion to expand a section of the data. "And if we get caught, getting uncaught will be a lot harder. And that doesn't even touch on the possible problems of influencing the native civilisation."
"We've got our own civilisation to consider, Miss D'reve," Jane said, very quietly. Five years ago, maybe even less, that statement would have prompted a fiery reply from your closest friend. She barely noticed it today.
"We do, yes. But that's no reason to ignore the one down there. If we influence their culture in any meaningful way, and Shiplord surveillance is tight enough, it could get noticed." You felt a surge of warmth as she readjusted the framing of her concern to cover the current issue. "We can't risk that."
"In the end, it's my call," you said, catching Jane before she could reply. "I understand the possible risks and rewards. But if it's the opinion of local analysis that a trip is possible," Iris nodded very slightly. "Then I think we should…"
[][World] "continue as planned. The variables have changed, but our mission hasn't. We need to know what's down there."
[][World] "modify our mission profile. I want to…"
-[][World] "understand more about how the Shiplords are observing this developing civilisation."
-[][World] "make absolutely certain that we don't leave any tracks. Find us a place to land far where there's a burn scar but no local civilisation."
[][World] "try to find a way to visit one of these scars at the Enclave. It's built over one, maybe that would be enough?"
[][World] Write-in?
"Then we need to look at your ground team." Jane said calmly, a sweep of her hands bring up the familiar profiles. "We'll want to be prepared for any changes before we enter orbit."
You nodded gratefully. "Agreed. And thank you, Commander."
Please pick one of the following team loadouts. I'm trying to make this a bit simpler than last time, by pre-organising setups and then giving you the opportunity to make your own. Details on your ground team members is here. This vote will not affect the one about Mary's presence on the ground team for this mission.
[][Team] Quiet Insight (Elil, Iris, Kalilah) - This team focuses on maintaining a minimal profile for detection with the highest possible processing power.
[][Team] Heartcircle (Mir, Lea, Vega, Elil, Kalilah) - This team focuses on the unified ability of your Heartcircle, providing a combination of awesome versatility and combat power.
[][Team] Peace in Harmony - (Mir, Vega, Kalilah) - According to the Shiplords, a great war ended here. This team focuses above all on conceptual inspection of how that came to pass.
[][Team] Write in? Any team must include Kalilah and can contain no more than five members.
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Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Happy Winter Festivals to you all, and we hope you're all staying safe in the new year. This took a bit longer than was planned, and we're sorry about that. Next one we get down the planet, promise. This analysis was just...something I couldn't let happen without giving you a vote on it. To clarify, you're looking at a very, very early stone age civilisation down on the planet, if that. Orbital scans aren't enough to tell if the species has made the jump to sapience, but they're incredibly close if they haven't.
Many thanks to @Baughn for checking this over and poking me on a certain problem in my writing that has been becoming more common in my writing. I think it got handled here. All the best to you all, and happy voting.
Many thanks to @Baughn for checking this over and poking me on a certain problem in my writing that has been becoming more common in my writing. I think it got handled here. All the best to you all, and happy voting.
was simple enough
So that was a lucky roll