Posted by Captain John Tiberius Glen (Captain) in Main Sim - Habitat - Away Team Q/A
[snip]

With the introductions out of the way the groups would finally return to the table. Once everyone was seated where they would like as it did not seem there was any formal or more traditional ‘head of the table’ privilege like they might expect, Dol clasped his hands and straightened out his silver pointed hat and garb. “..Well once more I am quite happy to have gotten to meet you all from the Merrimack. I am sure we all have many questions to exchange with each other in some form or another. So I propose we do just that,” he said looking to Glen with a friendly smile, “..Captain Glen as our guest would you or any of your people like to begin with asking my advisors or myself any further questions you may have? Conversely we could simply break up this meeting to let you all tour where you wish on our habitat?” he said.

“Well,” replied Glen, “I’ll go first! This is not really a question, but I guess I’m most interested in the reasons why you don’t live on planet surfaces or wish to travel through space. I think you mentioned that it was due to it being a symbol of the slavery of your ancestors, who came from another system after the overthrow of their masters to settle on this planet. You said that they choose not to live on any planets because they fear that to do so would lead them down a path of enslaving others. I must say that this sets you apart from every other species that I’ve met, though maybe Cara has knowledge of others, but on every planet I’ve visited, there is a strong desire to launch ships into space, and to colonise other worlds. It is frequently seen as a sign of the progress of a society to do so. Space exploration is frequently a constant source of philosophical, moral, and intellectual debate. Planets often spend resources they can ill afford exploring other planets, when they can’t even take care of their own people. Our United Federation of Planets itself uses the rather blunt measure of Faster-than-Lightspeed travel as a gauge of how technologically advanced a race is. However, you have eschewed all of that, and I must say, it makes you quite unusual and incredibly interesting to us.”

Dol chuckled slightly taking a sip of his water glass, “..I am unsure if those are words of compliment or insult, Captain Glen..” Dol said.

Setting the glass of water down Dol clasped his hands in front of him after adjusting a slip of his pointed tin-foil like hat, “..To answer you about why we have forgone exploring space in a more traditional sense? It is just who we are and choose to be. Our means of exploration do occur as you saw with our Seed Pod program that brought you here. We also do some basic mining here and there within this system when we need to do construction on our habitat with say major repairs, or expansions. There is nothing stopping anyone among our habitat that if they chose to explore as you outlined or investigate such research they could not do so, our people just again have not chosen to do that since we built this habitat and grew with it over many years and generations. Equally there is nothing stopping any of our members who wish to leave the habitat and join a visiting ship to seek their own lives of adventure,” he said turning to one of his advisors, “..Correct me if I am wrong Col but there have been records of this in the past right? Just rare?” Dol inquired.

The advisor named Col seemed to scroll through a primitive padd like device on the table, “..Indeed Dol, the last such record of this in the archives happened 120 local years ago, they never did return, they had left with a passing freighter belonging to one of the regional races known as the Zok-Dorn Merchant Cooperative..” he said.

Dol nodded his appreciation then turned back to Glen and company, “..I hope that explains some of your line of thought, Captain Glen?” he asked.

“Yes, I think so,” replied Glen, “You are saying that it is for cultural reasons rather than technological.” Glen glanced at Cara as that was her domain of expertise. This did confirm what they had believed and when they eventually got around to sharing technology, Glen could be better assured that he was not breaking rules in doing so.

There was something that Ferris was itching to know. “I also have a question.”

“Even living here on this habitat, why not explore more in the traditional sense. As Captain Glen mentioned, usually a civilization has a desire to know about space around them, or at least if there’s anyone else out there,” he stopped to take a bite. “And if so, who, exactly, those people are. While I see the merits in your current system, wouldn’t there be other benefits to exploring yourselves?”

”..As I mentioned, we probably could be capable of building ships to do just that, primitive by your standards but we could do so, we just have chosen not too, it has been this way for so long that to be honest I think even our archivists for our long historical records would be hard pressed to give a full concrete answer if it was posed to them. But equally as I said nothing is stopping people on the habitat to do so, or leave if they wish to adventure, most just do not wish to do so..” he stated

William stood behind the group, hands clasped behind his back, as he observed the aliens and crew interact. He’d have his time to ask questions but for now he was focusing on understanding how these people treated questions of varying degrees.

Cross came back with another glass of water, pulled a chair not knowing who sat on either side. She settled down listening and stayed silent.

Glen always spoke far too much and for too long, so for a change he let others ask questions.

When a pause occurred in the conversation, Tia raised her hand slightly to ask a question. “You said you’ve been out here for generations. I’d love the chance to see your engineering set up, if I may? I’m curious how you sustained yourselves for so long without major issues. And if you had them, how you overcame them.”

She was probably being too forward, but she was antsy. Maybe stepping away from the table to stretch her legs would help.

William leaned forward, with his lanky build he looked like a palm tree that had almost been blown over “I’m also curious about historical and social developments, any experts I could speak to or even just a librarian” He seemed unusually excited by the prospect.

Cara indicated her interest in the library visit too.
Glen was doubtful that everyone would want to visit a library, but wasn’t keen to split up the group either.

Cross kept silent for she did not want to ask to see how and where they treated their sick but if anyone suggested Cross would certainly not decline the offer.

Yet the female doctor was concerned ,this set -up would mean that the group would separate, she shifted in her chair and gave a quick glance at Wolf, her non verbal indicated that what the others where asking would mean that the team would end splitting up. Such a strategy would obviously not have a desirable outcome should anything happen.

“If we’re going on a tour of different areas, then I’d like to go see the communications area. You guys came through very clearly, and I’m interested to see how.” Ferris said, considering if there might be anything to learn in terms of relay alignment or similar aspect.

Glen remained silent for now, although he really wanted to ask about their “seed-pod” Stasis technology. As far as he could see, that was the only technology that these people had that was comparable or beyond that of the Federation. Habitat recycling and sustainability might be too, but ship engineering, weapons, communications, medicine; they all looked to be at a mid-21st Century Earth level. The cultural and historical information exchange was important to the visit too.

• Glen, CO

Joe listened and watched. And then did some more. Not an ordinary thing for him. Then finally he suppressed a burp from whatever that had been that he had eaten and found that not to his amazement it didn’t taste better the second time around. Walking over to the captain he leaned close and said, “Sir could we perhaps just arrange a tour as a group? Even if these people are friendly, I would just as soon not have one or two of our people wandering off and getting lost . I think the people here would sooner have us in a manageable group as well . “

Lt. Cmdr. Joe Milligan XO