STM Headquarters - Digital Space
153.6.6.7 - 1.12.12.79
15th, Garden's Birth, 1990 EoH
The office was immaculate. The simple room was painted white, floored with a cream colored shag carpet, decorated with a few holo-sconces projecting images of nature, and filled with simple dark wood furnishings in a nice modern style. This made the lack of dust, dirt, or any sort of filth rather impressive. Or at least it would be impressive if any of the room was real.
Everything in the office felt real. The computer terminal worked, the pens marked the paper, the metal handles of the cabinets felt cool to the touch, and the air freshener filled the room with a very nice pine sent. The simulation was prefect, or at least as prefect as humans could make it. There were always some flaws in a simulation, it was the mark of a skilled creator to mask them in any simulated universe they created.
The office was the creation of Admiral Alexander Dmitri, who was very glad he could simply will this version of his office clean as could be. The last version had always been irritatingly grungy. The Admiral was a principled man, it could be seen in the cleanness of his office, and the exemplary state he kept his uniform in. This sleek looking jumpsuit, jacket, and kneeboot uniform was pressed, starched, tailored to fit perfectly, and had every single medal and patch aligned precisely to their proper positions.
His personal appearance was equally well kept. Blond hair professionally cut, combed, and washed, olive skin clean, hard eyes locked into an authoritative gaze. His posture was exactly appropriate for a military man. Everything about him was exactly what anyone in the Fleet would expect it to be. Which was exactly how he chose to craft his simulated appearance.
Just like the office, the Admiral's appearance was also a simulation. An incredibly complected simulation, one which captured every single last detail of a human body and reproduced it within the bounds of a sim, but still a construct of data. Not to say the Admiral himself was merely a computer program, or rather artificial intelligence. The man driving the sim was in fact a man, just one who like the rest of mankind had long ago abandoned the physical world.
Long ago mankind had reached for the stars. The stars had reached back. After many long trials and tribulations the human race had lost everything. No more worlds, no cities, no space stations. Only the scattered remains of the Scientific Core Fleet and a few military vessels, scorched and scarred from war. Hoping to outlive their enemies mankind abandoned their physical forms, uploaded their consciousnesses into the mainframes of their starships, and become data based life.
They kept an eye on the physical world. After all the countless simulated universes which formed the Scientific Technocracy of Mankind did depend on computers housed in starships in real space. Someone had to make sure they didn't fall into a black hole, drive into a planet, or drift into deep space and loose power. Additionally, there was still plenty to explore, things to discover, places to send probes, worlds to pray didn't discover where humans had gone to.
Overseeing humanities scientific endeavors in real space was what Admiral Dmitri did for fun. He was very good at it, good enough where if humanity had a currency he would be payed top dollar for his work.
The calm of the office was suddenly shattered as a woman materialized in a swirl of blue light near the door. The Admiral didn't even blink at her appearance. He had felt her data stream connect to his sim milliseconds ago. “Captain.” He greeted calmly.
The Captain saluted, red hair clipping through her hand as she moved. Simple physics glitches were a sign of excitement or stress for most people. “Sir! I just received a report from a probe we dispatched last millennium, one of the ones sent as part of the Exodus Initiative.”
Admiral Dmitri's mouth curled into a small frown, “I recall that mission as a total failure.”
“As do I sir, but it looks like they missed one. Or rather, only grazed it. The telemetry was a bit scrambled but we were able to eventually get a full data transfer and verify it was accurate. I... Well this may be the first Alpha Class anomaly on record sir.”
The captain had moments ago had her Admiral's attention, now she had his interest. The theoretical Alpha Class of anomalies was reserved for the most improbable of all cosmic phenomenons. “Really? Is it a Dyson Sphere? Perhaps another data based species?”
She shook her head, a school girl's grin lighting up her face as she answered, “No sir, it's a geocentric star system.”
There was a full thirty seconds of science as the Admiral downloaded the field report from the Captain's data stream. A small smile parted his lips as he replied, “So it is. Well now isn't that interesting. I suppose it had to happen somewhere in the universe eventually. Have you dispatched an exploration team?”
She nodded, “Yes sir. I have six of my best people enrout in a Tungsten Class explorer. Hey should arrive in the system within three hours. It's rather close to 96 Ceti A, only four point three two parsecs away.”
“I suppose the star's low mass is all that hid it from us for this long.” The Admiral mused, “What do you think Captain, are we looking at a natural oddity, or the mechanization of some other Type Four civilization?”
She shrugged, “I don't know. We will know soon enough. But ether way... a star orbiting a Class M planet. That will have the entire network marveling for a few decades.”
STM Caballio – Real Space – Unnamed Geocentric System
153.6.6.7 - 1.12.15.22
15th, Garden's Birth, 1990 EoH
The Caballio was a fine ship, it's simple spherical design had enough room for all the scientific equipment the crew might need, and it's computer was robust enough to simulate anything needed for the mission. Her crew had dropped out of superluminal speed at the very edge of the system and burned slowly towards the single planet using the Caballio's q-thrusters. There was no need to advertise their presence in the system. Especially since the probe couldn't confirm the system as having or lacking any intelligent life.
The Caballio's physical space was empty, the corridors silent, the labs peaceful, the bridge covered in dust. But her servers hummed, the ship's crew busily manning her from within virtual space. Unfortunately the ship's servers were not robust enough to simulate an environment and run the millions of data gathering and analysis operations Command had ordered at the same time. As such the Caballio's crew were directly interfacing with the ship's various systems and fortunately had enough spare processor power to speak audibly to one another.
“How's our orbit Major?” the Commander asked. His voice was deep, gravely, and just a little harsh.
“Pretty good. I've put us in a geostationary orbit between the star and the planet within the star's corona. There should be no way to detect us. Well, you know, if this star works like other stars.” Major Tamsin Marsh replied. Her voice was cheerful, playful, and a touch snarky.
“It docent.” a third voice said. The voice belonged to the Chief Science officer. It was cold, calm, and irritatingly analytical. “Its mass is equal to that of a small gas giant, but it is behaving as if it were a normal G-Type mane-sequence star... Much like Terra's would have been in fact. Regardless we can not assume the corona will mask us completely.”
“Good point Lieutenant,” the Commander noted, “Keep scanning the star. See if you can figure out how it's orbiting the planet. If it's mass is in the gas giant range we should still be seeing a stellar eccentric system. Ensign Ross, is the star interfering with planetary scans?”
“Nope, the passive scans are coming back clearly.” Ensign Ross answered. Her voice sounded gleeful, so much so that it's high pitched tone was painful even to a simulated ear. “Let's see... It seems like a fairly standard Class M. Permission to read the report sir?”
“We are all eager to hear what she's like Ensign, but Admiral Dmitri requested we connect him so he can hear our findings live.” The Commander informed as he opened a comm channel and directed it to the Admiral's private frequency. “Admiral, this is the Caballio. Are you reading us?”
“I hear you.” The Admiral's voice echoed through the server, special lines of code ensuring anything he said was heard by everything on the ship. “What are we looking at over there?”
The Commander turned his attention back to Ross, “Ensign, give us the report.”
“Yes sir! Um...” she paused for a few moments to compose herself, “The planet appears to be a standard iron/silicate terrestrial world, it's magnetosphere is 1.38 Terra, the surface gravity is 11.18 meters per second per second. It's atmosphere is slightly thick and composed of a 6 part nitrogen, 4 part oxygen, and 3 part xenon blend with other trace gasses making up approximately .012 percent of the atmosphere... Commander, I believe the presence of Xenon in this quantity as an atmospheric gas classifies this as a Class L planet, not a Class M.”
“Can you Elaborate Ensign?” the Commander asked.
The Lieutenant answered for her, “Xenon gas isn't toxic, but it is substantially heavier than other gases. At lower elevations it would build up in the lungs and suffocate an organic which was not evolved to fit into such an environment or modified to operate with in one.”
“Thank you Lieutenant Anderson. Ensign, please continue your report.” The Admiral requested.
“Yes sir. There is an abundance of liquid water on the surface... The hydrosphere occupies roughly 48 percent of the planet's surface, of that portion 76 percent is salt water, 16 percent is freshwater, and 8 percent is ice... Huh that's odd, a full percent of the ice is located within a temperate zone, like a third polar icecap. Er, sorry! Didn't mean to...”
“It's fine Ensign, that is a noteworthy discovery. Are you reading a biosphere?” the Commander asked calmly.
“... Yes sir. There is a backlog of data, the planet appears to support any different life forms. We have microbes... plant life... animals...” Ensign Ross yelped as sensor data reached her. In a split instant the ship's scanning systems powered down.
“Ensign, report!” the Commander bellowed.
“Sorry sir! But I picked up no less than three separate Type One civilizations on the surface. First Contact protocols state-”
“I am aware of regulations. Admiral, request permission to resume scanning.” The commander asked quickly.
“Denied. You know full well ho unstable multi-sentient home worlds can be. If they can detect our scans who knows how much damage we could cause. I am sure you recall the incident on Jarvic Beta. Do you want to cause a jihad?” The Admiral asked.
“No sir.” came the dejected reply.
“Good. Now Commander, this situation is fairly sensitive. We have a geocentric world home to several civilizations. They may not have conceived of extraplanetary life, we don't want to poke that beehive without knowing what we are getting into. Are those just honeybees, or is that a nest of wasps?”
Major Tamsin laughed, “So ether way we are gonna poke the hive? Because that's how you made it sound.”
“That is what I plan to have you do Major.” The Admiral replied coolly, “We can not let these civilizations go un-contacted. Their homeworld is too unique for us to allow it to go unexplored, and they likely have several scientific discoveries we do not due to their system. But we will not go in without knowing if we should approach them with open arms, or with one hand on a weapon. Ensign Ross, what did your scans reveal about these civilizations?”
“Going over the data now sir.” she replied quickly. Within a few moments she answered in a confused voice, “I picked up three separate civilizations. The largest of which seems to be populated by a quadrupedal, mammal of some sort... I am having a hard time getting a read on their exact biology, and the scan is only partial. They seem to have... eclectic technology. I am detecting the burning of organic fuels, coal, wood, and crude oil for the most part. We don't have a consistent reading on probable tech levels, I am seeing what appears to be a floating city, and nearby is a village with what appears to be thatched roofs. We have data on the other two civilizations, but far less. One is made up of a mostly avian species and seems to be a fairly militaristic society I have evidence of black powder driven weapons. The others seem o be arthropods, their cities are within mountains, our scans didn't reach them, but I am seeing what appears to be an observatory of sorts at the peek of one of their cities.”
The Admiral took a few minutes to process everything, “Well done Ensign. So these mammals, they have a floating city. That is something which bears investigation. What, in your professional opinion, is their approximate technological level in terms of human development?”
“Based on what appears to be an electric transmission line next to a railway, as well as that observatory I would say they seem to be roughly equivalent to 20th century Terra sir.” she answered.
“Then we are in business. Commander, I am reprising your mission. I want you to make contact with one of those civilizations. They may not have spacecraft, but early human vessels shouldn't be too far beyond their capabilities to produce. Explore as much of that world as you can, you are limited to technologies available to humans of the 20th century for now. If you feel their technological levels are greater than that you can increase your technological parameter's accordingly.”
“Yes sir!” The Commander answered eagerly. “Sir, since we are ignoring phases one through three of the First Contact protocol for this case, are we free to resume scanning?”
“No. In fact whichever civilization you choose, you are to remain invisible to the other three. If the locals decide to talk about you give them nothing to back up their claims. You can of course use modern technology in emergencies, but remember, we do not want to pollute their culture with our own.” The Admiral spent a moment in thought before adding, “That should cover the exceptions to regulation for this mission. I expect progress reports every two weeks. The mission is yours Commander McCormick.”
The crew felt the Admiral disconnect from the ship. A welcome sigh of relief escaped the Commander's lips. “Right. Good to be the ultimate authority aboard again. So... Who here can whip up a... a whatever the hell sort of spacecraft we had a few hundred thousand years ago?”
“That would be liquid fueled chemical rockets.” Major Tamsin answered, “You are in luck sir, I spent a few centuries with some friends messing about with simulated versions of ancient starships. I can fly one of those old rust buckets.”
“Liquid fueled chemical rockets?” the Lieutenant gasped, “Are you insane? You have no problems with flying a barely controlled bomb down from orbit using... By Tyson, it would be using copper based electronic controls! It would be safer to jump with a parachute.”
“Yeah well I can't exactly jump back to the ship now can I? They didn't have Q-tunneling back then you know.” Tamsin snapped.
“Break it up you two. Major, you have the most experience, I want you to design, print, and fly a suitable craft to try to make first contact with... let's visit whomever owns that floating city.” The Commander decided.
“That would be the quadrupedal mammals sir.” Ensign Ross informed.
“Can do sir. Am I limited in what body I can print for myself?” Tamsin asked.
“Yes.” came the reply, “Your taste in cosmetics is far to inappropriate for this. You will construct a normal human body. You may implant whatever mission related technology you deem fit.”
There was a short pause before the Commander added, “I know what you are thinking of Major... Screw it, you can take a medical system, a translator system, and data gathering devices only.”
“Spoil sport.” Tamsin sighed.
STM Brick From Space – Real Space – High Orbit over Unnamed Planet
153.6.6.7 – 1.12.17.06
16th, Garden's Birth, 1990 EoH
High above the planet Major Tamsin sat in a small freshly printed ship. It felt weird for her to be sitting in something to control it, using physical controls as opposed to a direct interface was an almost completely alien feeling. She loved it. It was all the little things which made it fun. The way the leather seat cupped her, the flashing lights and indicators reflected in her visor, the feeling of microgravity pulling at her organs as her 'landing can' drifted around the planet.
“I still say this is a waste of resources. That 'ship' will explode long before she touches down.” Lieutenant Anderson's voice crackled through her earpiece.
“Nah. She'll hold.” Tamsin said as she patted the console in front of her. Her ship was little more than a pressurized cylinder with three small rockets welded to the sides, and some stabilizing fins held together with crude welds and rivets. But it was her ship dammit, and her tone indicated she wouldn't let such insults go unchallenged.
“She'll hold? 'She' can't even descend through the atmosphere in a strait line. You are literally coming down in a ballistic arc!” he continued.
“Your objections have already been officially logged Anderson.” The Commander sighed.
“Yeah, fuck off Anderson.” Tamsin added, “I know exactly what I am doing.”
“You attended the Commander's anniversary celebration in a form specifically designed to embarrass everyone in the server by it's sheer arousal factor. You do not know what you are doing.” Anderson continued.
“Ok, first, that was because I lost a bet. Second, I outrank you and order you to shut your noise hole while I calculate my descent burn.” Tamsin ordered irritably.
“Commander-” Anderson objected.
“I would countermand that order, but you are annoying me too Lieutenant.” the Commander chided, “Major, are you certain you can bring your ship down on target?”
Tamsin nodded, quickly blushing with embarrassment as she realized the gesture couldn't be felt. “Yes. Ok now if I screw this up you got my data line ready to upload me back in right?”
“Yes. Let us know if we need to pull you out of meatspace.”
“Roger. Now there is zero room for error with these things. Request permission to use formal radio language only until I touch down.” Tamsin asked.
“Granted Major. Mission Control standing by with lifelink. We are reading your position as T minus one minute and thirty seconds to your maneuver. Over.” The Commander informed.
Tamsin nodded to herself, quickly tightening the straps which held her tot he seat. The plating of her hard-suit creaked under the belt's pressure. 'No need to get uploaded with fresh pain my my system.' she shuttered remembering the time her body burned up in a plasma stream. It had taken months to get the singed feeling out of her code.
Ensign Ross's voice suddenly crackled in her ear, “Mission Control to Major Tamsin. Commencing countdown... Engines on... Check ignition and may von Braun be with you.”
The HUD in Tamsin's helmet flashed green, showing the position she had to maneuver her lander into. As she manipulated the ship into position. “Ignition is good.... All systems are go. No need to abort.” She answered quickly. “How about you send me a drink?”
“Are you experiencing dehydration Major?” the Commander asked.
“Humor sir, have you heard of it?”
“Major you requested formal radio speech. You also have to abide by that request.” came the reply.
Tamsin sighed and gripped the throttle in her left hand. “Roger. Starting data link. Are you receiving anything?”
“Confined. We can see what you see Major.”
“Right.” Tamsin gulped, her fingers tightened around the yolk, her HUD ticked down slowly. “T minus four... three... two... one... burn!” She announced, pulling the lever and sending the ship's rockets blazing into life.
Instantly Tamsin felt herself be pushed into the straps of her seat. Her capsule began to slow, it's orbit shrinking with each second until before long it was a path to the ground. Tamsin Cut the rockets, rotated her capsule, and fired the rockets in a quick pulse. Repeating the same process until her HUD indicated she would be coming down on target. “Major Tamsin to Mission Control. I have achieved an optimal descent path. Five minutes till landfall.”
“Copy Major Tamsin. We are reading the same.”
Tamsin grinned. 'It's not every day you get to fly a tincan out of orbit... Let's auger this baby on in.' She flipped a switch on the control console. “Stabilizers up, I'm leaving orbit. You should be getting a read on the atmosphere now.”
As she waited until she needed to make her deceleration burn Tamsin looked out the window at the planet below. She could see rolling green hills, vast stretches of forest, soaring mountains capped with snow, and amazing cloud formations. Stupendously amazing cloud formations. It was almost as if someone sculpted them to look like little towns.
She squinted at one of the larger clouds as she passed over it, her ocular implants filtering out the orange blazing glow of reentry and allowing her to view a still image of the cloud. It really did look exactly like a town, like someone made an entire village by arranging “Holy hell that's not a cloud!” Tamsin shouted as she noticed what appeared to be a working fountain, in the middle of a town square. Which was filled with, “The fuck? Um... Mission Control is this body's vitals normal? I am seeing a little cloud town populated by a bunch of pegasus... pegasi... flying horses.”
“Um... yeah... we see it too.” Came the stunned reply.
Tamsin marveled at the site. There was a heard of little Technicolor pegasus people going about doing people things. If her speed wasn't distorting her visual scale they were also adorably small, only a meter or so tall at the withers. Deep down she felt a girlishly giddy feeling bubbling up in her chest. 'You can Squee later Tamsin. You know, when you are not literally a burning cinder shooting across the sky.' she chastised.
Her helmet beeped suddenly. She was coming up on the deceleration burn, and she could see the large floating city on the horizon. “Mission Control, I am starting the next burn. I have a visual on the landing zone... It appears to be constructed from clouds. Do we assume I can land on it or-”
A loud screeching alarm cut her off as it blared in her ears. Quickly turning her head to the lander's crude monitor Tamsin frantically pushed buttons, “Shit! That's a collision alert. What the hell is headed my way?”
“It... it's um... Well the best way to describe it would be an EMP made of rainbows accompanied by an overpressure wave as if something broke the sound barrier.” Ensign Ross informed.
“A what?” Tamsin had time to ask before her lander was swatted aside by what she could only describe as a rainbow shockwave. Beams of light of every color filled the lander, blinding Tamsin completely as she screamed, “Ahhhhh! Rainbows!” intelligence vanishing as her panic and confusion each hit critical mass.
“Major Tamsin! Whatever that was it has disrupted your lifelink. You need to land this or you will die. Go to rockets full now!” Commander McCormick ordered.
Tamsin yanked on the throttle. Nothing happened. “Not responding!”
“Turn the thrusters on!”
Tamsin blinked until she could see clearly then crushed, “Shit! The only electronics working in this thing are in my suit. Whatever the fuck that was it fired this girl.”
“Commander, the shockwave has radically altered her course, if she can get the lander to burn at this precise point for thirty seconds she might be able to crash into this mountain at less than deadly speeds.” the Lieutenant informed.
“No dice.” Tamsin sighed, flipping the lander's power switch repeatedly. “That was more than an EMP, there is no power left in the batteries.” Her eyes began to tear up, “Hey guys, if that life link docent reconnect before I hit, It's been a real blast.”
The other end of the line was dead silent for a few long moments as the crew realized what was going on.
“Damn it! I am not letting the first human death in a thousand years be one of my crew! Get her link back and operational now!” the Commander shouted.
“I'm trying! Tamsin is right, that rainbow explosion appears to have been made of... mostly Hawking Radiation... um... ok... It's scrambled the sensor link. We have to wait for it to clear or for her to leave the effected area... Which she wont.” Ross moaned.
The Lieutenant cleared his thought, “Major, I am sorry for giving you difficulties.”
“It's cool. At least I get to die knowing pegasus exist out here somewhere... Hope I don't squish one when I hit.” Tamsin muttered doing her best to sound tough and falling, a terrified squeak slipping from her lips.
The mountain Ross had mentioned seemed to fly towards her as she blazed nearer and nearer to it. 'I wonder if there really is an afterlife.' Tamsin mused, 'Well... let's boldly go where everyone else has gone before.' She joked darkly.
Tamsin felt a sharp jolt as the landercan slammed into a large green field of energy, which stretched and warped as if it were a trampoline, bleeding away her speed. Wihin a few seconds she had come to an almost complete stop. 'Green?' Tamsin wondered seeing her entire window filled with a dark, green bubbling aura of energy. 'That looks almost like a force field.'
Suddenly the lander dropped strait down. The bulkhead crumpled inwards on impact, smashing into her head and twisting it sideways. Tamsin saw stars, she felt her right arm snap as the straps of her seat refused to let her body move at all. Then she was rolling. Tamsin could hear the steel ship scraping and crashing against stone before stopping with a sharp jolt.
Tamsin moaned, she could feel herself slipping unconscious. Her visor's interior was splattered with her own blood, Tamsin wasn't sure if she sneezed it out or if something had cut her head somewhere. Her world was going gray to quickly for her to care much.
A scrabbling sound above her drew her attention. It took all of her strength to turn her head and look up to see the ship's hatch get pulled off by that same green energy from earlier. Through her darkening vision and blood smeared visor Tamsin could just barely make out the creature in the hatchway.
It was some sort of insect, not gross looking, just big, about a meter tall, with shiny blackish chitin, gossimer wings, glowing green-blue eyes, and a single horn like protrusion on its forehead. Overall it looked almost like a pony, even managing to be quite cute despite the insect features, and some odd matted hair-like bits which covered it's thin legs giving the illusion of holes going clean through them.
“Heh... look at the bug-pony.” Tamsin gigged, then slumped in her seat consciousness fading away.