Posted by Lieutenant Tom Jarvis (Internal Security) in Main Sim Tour of the Science Instillation

Posted by Gamemaster GM Kate (GMT) in Main Sim Tour of the Science Instillation

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Dagen Thor (CE) in Main Sim Tour of the Science Instillation
Posted by… suppressed (11) by the Post Ghost! 👻
As the Genesis officers sat in the shuttle en route to the science station installation several things might catch their attention. The first was the design of the ship taking them there. It was not like the boxy-shaped shuttles of the Federation. The lines were sleek and smooth resembling a ripple of water on a pond with the nose and tail tapering to points around the bulbous-shaped crew area. There were no outward markings, indications, or indentations on the craft minus the slim lines where the entry hatch resided and the area around the viewport. This ship resembled more of a stealthy fighter craft than a transport. It did not take too much imagination to guess the ship was designed to evade detection. The question was from whom. The obvious answer was the Gorn but sometimes the obvious wasn’t the right answer.

Dagen liked window seats and split his time with looking out and looking ahead. The design of the ship was slick. It was more like a souped up civilian model than the mass produced functional fleet shuttles. On the surface it seemed to the Trill that the ostentatious nature of the king was rubbing off. And that it could have other uses too beyond looks. Sure it could evade detection if it had the countermeasures in it but with their cloak they really didn’t need it to look good. “Nice design. Sporty,” he said to Reia; she too was a sleek unit but had a lot that was not shown. Dagen had the sense that the shuttle could be called Reia with all the hidden bits.

Inside the ship, the control panel displayed the familiar readings one would expect on a shuttle with time, distance, and vector. All of this was easily visible to anyone on the shuttle. Two other displays might pique one’s interest if noticed. The first was that there appeared to be only three points of civilization on the topographical display. One was the massive capital city they had just left. The second was a city close to the same size as the capital in the northern area of the continent. The last was a city, again the same size as the other two, but sprawled along the coast. Since the ship was pointed north, it would be safe to assume they were heading to the city not on the coast. Those headed to the science facility would also note the lack of life on the surface. The planet appeared to be essentially void of plants or animals to the naked eye. Looking out the main view screen it was miles and miles of nothing but dust and rock. From a scientific point of view, the planet surface resembled a colony world being terraformed city by city instead of a civilization that had thrived for thousands of years.

The world was bizarre to him. What did they do to it? If they had all those defense platforms in orbit then had they strip mined their world leaving limited areas to live? Were they all as .. sparkly .. as the city they left? He nudged Reia and gestured to the map displays and made a ‘three’ gesture with his fingers and mouthed ‘only three cities?’ Perhaps they only had what navigationally mattered on display and there were other smaller cities about, though, as he looked outside he wondered if that was just being optimistic. He wanted to know the general history of their world now to try to synch up what he was seeing with what they knew. “Did you get any historical information of these folks?” If that was it he had to wonder what ‘culture’ the chief scientist was saying they were trying to steal.

Reia had been watching the dusty Rock stream landscape whiz by beneath them. The shuttle had been not as she expected, but she was used to federation standard. This new sleek model was something she could definitely get used to.

“No, I haven’t had the opportunity yet. I decided to take this journey instead of the one with his majesty.”

Dagen had been meaning prior to coming to the planet but the answer was the same either way. “Wonder if one of these babies are for sale,” he said, rapping the side of it with his knuckles and gave Reia a wink.

The second display was far more curious. It displayed Beltran’s moon along with what appeared to be a countdown. The clock below it, showed that whatever they were monitoring on the moon would occur in the next twelve hours.

GM Kate

He scratched at his chin as he noted the countdown. Glancing out the window he tried to find the moon. Failing in that he looked back at the display. What was that and why was that even a factor on a shuttle? He then had this wild thought of them doing their cloaking test by making their moon disappear. THAT would be a feat!
- Dagen

Reia had been watching the displays also and could kind of follow what Dagen’s mind was going. She took out a pad and began writing in Trill. It turned out she could write it much better than she could speak it. Question, do you think their cities moved underground at one time? Question, do you think that the moon might be falling into the ocean and that’s what the countdown is about?

• Reia, CIO/Comms

Dagen looked at the writing then looked out the window. If the guard captain was right and they had all those now cloaked defensive platforms in orbit that would have been an industrial complex much more than just three cities worth. An entire world with what less than 20 million people each depending on their population would not have the economic whallop to build those platforms.

‘Good thinking about underground,’ he said after a bit of musing. He frowned at the other supposition. An interesting thought but one that would have with it a lot more panic. ‘I would have hoped we’d have seen that on arrival. Given their ‘flair’ I wonder if they are planning to cloak the moon as another show.’ But the underground cities. Industrial complex underground. Unless it was located on the moon then that would explain the lack of cities. Once more the relative lack of history was irritating. ‘We could ask about terraforming offers to them.’
- DAgen
- Dagen

Tom might have looked like he was taking a nap in the back of the transport but he was listening to everything being said.

-Tom Jarvis, IntSec

Glancing back again Dagen saw that Tom had tagged along and was napping or doing a good job looking like that. Oh to be one of those who could just sleep anywhere.

Reia wrinkled her nose up and shook her head.

“I have this funny feeling they wouldn’t take our advice or assistance with terraforming if we offered it to them on one of the Kings golden platters. Oh well, it would be a shame not to offer it if we think they need it. So, do you think this would make an interesting retirement vessel?”

• Reia, CIO/Comms

“They might accept it,” Dagen said optimistically, then sighed. “With the pace they go here and apparent red tape it could take longer to get it in than for it to do its job.”

Her question DID add fuel for thought though. It was a sleek baby and Dagen was sure he could ‘soup’ it up. Reia’s grandparents used that term when talking about the ‘Beast’; an interesting term for ramping up the power of it. He still had no clue what ‘soup’ had to do with it in any form. But that was something that they ran into so much issue with - local terminology. Universal translators were amazing things and helped out in many ways - such as here with these people. But they often missed the local slang, or worse yet, OLD slang that was forgotten or overwritten to streamline the programs. That being said, having one of their little cloaks on it would be sweet. “I like the look of it.” He looked around the cabin. “Could convert it into something that works. Back in the old days of Earth - and this comes from Surrel, Thor’s first host - there was a time when they had a thing called ‘vans’ that people would decorate with art on the outside and make a kind of ‘lovemobile’ out of it with this thing called ‘wall to wall shag carpeting’ whatever that is. The point I’m making is that that was smaller than this. Doable.”

“Hey,” Dagen called up to the pilot. “Are these shuttles on the market? Love the look of them.”
- Dagen

Della looked at Dagen as if he were the misbehaving pupil in the back of the classroom. Della Dharma had a slightly arrogant nature about her. She lacked some of the humor replacing it with more of a logical state. Her coolness in conversation would probably be best understood as sticking to the facts much like Vulcans could do at times. “Our shuttles work perfectly well in their current state,” she replied. “They are designed not to be seen from above or below. The hull is plated with our shielding making us invisible. Attacking forces from the ground or the sky can not find us which is beneficial in times of war or during Ang pag-aani.”

These people were so full of questions, Dharma knew what they would be asking next based on a logical hypothesis. “Ang pag-aani is a Beltran word which translated means the harvesting. In the past, our planet was attacked by enemy forces when the moon was in this celestial position. It’s one of our more revered time for celebrating our survival and mourning those that have been lost.”

Now that Della was talking science, she was infinitely more chatty. Touching a button on her console, the viewport switched to a new screen. The screen showed that the barren space, on the previous screen, was not devoid of life but filled with cities. The cities were separated by considerable distances as if they were intended to be isolated. Our cities are protected using our shielding based on a triangulation between these three points.” Using her finger she created a triangle showing how the military base, science facility, and capital created a pyramid with 90% of the cities encased in the space. “Our shields create an illusion that there is nothing between the three areas but I assure you we have more than three areas of civilization on Beltran. We just don’t choose to advertise it. It is helpful living this close to the Gorn for everyone not to be in one place.”

GM Kate

Reia listened and watched with rapt attention. Everything that Della said made too much sense, was there another meeting behind it all? That was probably being curable inquisitive nature of Reia.

“That’s quite ingenious. I can see where it would be very useful living this close to the gorn or any other hostile race for that matter. How long have you had this technology?”

Reia, for her part, didn’t think this particular question was out of line.

• Reia, CIO/Comms

“For centuries,” Della stated.

“So the countdown time on the console is to mark when the Gorn come for their next harvest?” Tom asked now sitting forward obviously paying attention now, “This might be something the rest of the Genesis might want to know about.”

Tom was wondering if the Genesis’ arrival at this time was merely coincidence or if they were meant to be some sort of sacrifice.

• Tom, IntSec
  

“Oh no. The Gorn do not come when expected. If they did it would have been far easier to repel them when they had attacked. Centuries ago it was part of the planetary initiative to protect our citizens but we tend to no longer be of interest to the Gorn. They do pass by now and then but all they see is a desolate world devoid of life. They tend to pay us little mind but there is no reason not to be prepared for the unknown.”

Dagen didn’t quite get the leap of intuition from the enemy to the Gorn countdown. That seemed to be a past period, not present. He watched Reia get up, his mind a jumble from the information and with many questions to ask. Triangulation with the cloak, and that cloak enabling one to see what they wanted seen - he suspected both visible and from sensors. It wasn’t just a bending of light around something like a Romulan cloak but generating the illusion that something simply wasn’t there and putting an image in its place. Which meant ‘on’ all the time. Which meant considerable power use. A fail in one place would .. take it all down?

“What is the importance of this celestial positioning?” Dagen said evenly. She had said in the past. Yet she did talk about present difficulties. Logically he was not so comfortable with the primary place of cloaked generation being exposed. What was the point of cloaking all these cities - ancestors! And all their emissions and energy readings and travels! - when their defense was in plain sight as a target. Well, they’d need to get past the orbital platforms too, but still. “It sounds like you have or had more than the Gorn as enemies?”
- Dagen, CE

“Yes, I agree that everybody on the ground and on the Genesis should know about this immediately…”

“That really is not necessary,” Dharma looked at the crew as if they were unruly children in a class she was trying to get under control. “The celestial positioning is remarkable because it creates a perfect solar eclipse with our sun. In the past we were attacked by enemies as you have suggested. The Gorn came in under the darkness as our citizens gazed up. There have been others in the past which have also used this as a method of attack but we are smarter now. We have defenses.”

Reia paused again, not remembering his name. Shaking it off she simply didn’t have time for the frustration.

“I’ll take care of that myself. Please, continue observing.”

Reia swiftly set about getting a secure channel setup to relay the information about the moon, the countdown, and what they thought it stood for having to do with the Gorn harvesting. Her intent was to broadcast it to every member of the Genesis crew on the planet and on the Genesis itself.

• Reia, CIO/Comms

“There is no need for that. King Artemis is aware and would not put you or your crew into danger. It is why we are only spending a few hours at the science facility before returning back to the safety of the castle. Besides we are three minutes from landing at the science facility. You are not some scared little children like the other crews that have arrived before you are you?” Della Dharma let out a small derisive huff and rolled her eyes. “If you are all so scared that we need to return home so that you may huddle around your Captain then so be it. I will send a message to our King indicating you all are too terrified to separate but it may result in your ship being sent away and a new diplomatic team requested. That is unless the King chooses to entertain offers from other parties such as the Romulans.”

Releasing a deep and frustrated breath, Della looked at the people in the shuttle. “This celestial event is a deeply revered event for our people. I would much rather be celebrating in the palace rather than heading into work but I am for all of you. The celestial event is why there were so many celebrations occurring in the capital. It was not just for your arrival.” The tone of her voice indicated she found some amusement in thinking the crew of this ship might have believed that all the festivities were for them.

As the crew talked, the shuttle pilot announced that he was ready to begin the landing approach and needed to know if he was landing the shuttle or turning it around.

GM Kate

Tom looked the scientist in the eye and took on the same accent and condescending tone she used though his eyes showed a warmth his words did not share.

“It is not fear but caution. To be incautious and arrogant to the point of conceit is to be as carefree children playing at civilization in the forest before being eaten by a predator. We do not wish to be those children and be prepared for as many eventualities as possible even when those around us feel no need for such cautions. We will alert our companions to the past incursions. Better to be prepared than be caught unawares. Your inviso-shielding shows that your civilization is also of this line of thought.” Tom said.

Tom leaned back and made himself comfortable taking on an indifferent air, his voice returning to normal but friendly tones, “So please, continue the tour. We are interested in hammering out a deal of mutual benefit if possible.”

-Tom, IntSec

Dagen gave Tom a nod that was very much akin to a thumbs up. That was an impressive answer and one which his own line of ‘reactive’ thinking did not go to , unfortunately. He chided himself on what may have been a more hasty and less diplomatic response. Tom’s allowed for Reia to continue while smoothing out the poke that Della had sent their way. His own motivations were curiosity for the technology but having increasing concerns over the glib nature of it’s use. It was almost like replicator technology. Once a luxury this seemed to be almost a routine thing with the people. Dagen worried about the power utilization curve for that. “How is all of this powered?” he asked to bring the topic back on hand.

Yes they had the explanation for the countdown, that being the eclipse. They didn’t appear particularly worried about it at all. How long had it been since the Gorn had raided them last? Passing by and seeing little to attack doesn’t mean they had nothing to attack. A century ago they had less reason to attack the colony and they wiped it out and nearly took out the Enterprise. On the one side they seemed utterly complacent about a possible attack. On the other they seemed utterly paranoid about a possible attack. But which did they lean toward for preparedness? Whether three target cities or thirty .. why would the Gorn bother distinguishing that? Three made an easier target to all observers.
- Dagen