From once we start..
It was often said, that curiosity killed the cat; in the case of space travel and exploration it was a roll of the proverbial dice, the universe was both shrouded in mystery and in some cases mystique. The Terran Alliance and her Allies often took on the challenge of exploring systems for good or ill, if not then why travel the stars at all? Today was no different, on board the GRV Prometheus DDG-182, a lone Terran Destroyer, Captain Rafael Franklin, his executive officer Commander Leroian-Kah and their crew weren't particularly thrilled by the mission they had been assigned. Those orders where to Escort the GSV Irden, named with the dracoian word for quest. And indeed they were undertaking a quest of sorts, as they were headed directly toward the periphery of the galaxy, and everyone of these men, women and AI's were used to it, being that both researchers and star command officers often shared at least that one thing in common; being flung in to the unknown to attempt to quantify more of the vast expanse that was the universe.
Rafael shifted in his chair lightly, his hands clasping the armrests of his seat, and eyes wandering about the CIC of the destroyer, it wasn't too small nor too big, but it was graced with holographic consoles and stations, indeed its walls on either side as well as astern were host to various stations all manned by aliens and Terrans. The rhythm of blips and beeps from the consoles filling the atmosphere of the CIC was seamlessly broken as Prometheus, the ships avatar and the representative of the vast and seemingly infinitely complex superluminal mind of the ship gave a status report, her tone was casual yet unremarkable.
“I just thought I should let you all know we'll be jumping in to the Nurian system shortly, the Irden's AI has informed me that they should arrive a few minutes after we do.”
Prometheus smiled, she appeared in a lithe , well curved form with long strands of red hair , her smooth and supple dark skin seemed without flaw. Adding on to her statement , and as Rafael glanced up at her, she said.
“Its typical, just because we're a war ship we have to hold their hands, and put our nose in a place to check what long range sensors couldn't, and possibly find something no one wants.. But I guess its life eh?”
Prometheus just chuckled, Rafael blinked he straightened himself up within his seat and replied eyes glancing out toward the sensor globe again.
“It is the way of things, until the universe is explored, or indeed safe. People like us will never be out of work, hell .. Who would want to live in such a predictable verse eh? Besides, I like my job, and the pay; the pension after I retire will be nice too.”
Rafael let his attention wander to Leroian, who was a well built Ixcumanian (dragonish people!) with dark blue scales , folded wings and that tail curled up behind him. Leroian looked back, with those golden eyes ebony horns on his head glinting from the light of the destroyer.
“What do you think commander Kah? Would you prefer it if we knew everything?”
Leroian shook his head, he replied that voice of his heavy with an iconic accent and a low with an unmistakeably deep bass.
“We-.. We may be proud, but even we prefer that some things remain a mystery. Some secrets are only for the gods.”
The reptilian nodded once more, Rafael smiled again he looked up to Prometheus quipping back.
“Well I think we have your answer, still nothing of note ahead?”
Prometheus shrugged , she turned around to face toward the view screen, then said in a casual manner resting her hands on a console in-front of her.
“Not a thing, if anything is waiting we'll get a better view of it once we drop out of hyper-space. But I'm inclined to believe that those expensive set of eyes as advanced as they are, aren't deceiving me.”
Rafael turned his attention to the screen ahead, the torrents of blue and white primordial energy, signifying the infinite fabric where all of existence and its multiple dimensions came from spun around and around forming a wormhole like tunnel. He and his crew, and indeed the ship was just but a microbe by any measure here.
The sleek neutronic hull of the ship with its its subtle and gray plating, was alight in a shower of colors as tendrils of energy struck the D-feild and subsequently scattered in to a colorful aura , that engulfed leading edges that the field had formed; like a river it cascaded over Prometheus, coming to its crescendo before trailing off in to hyperspace, becoming lost in its ever present tidings. The hyper-spatial tube came to an end violently, as the ship tunneled once more in to normal space. From hyper-space it looked as if a vast chasm, opened up from the chaotic tidings of the fabric of creation to the calm, eerie blackness of normal space. Outwardly a burst of energy from the other side it would but for an instant be brighter than the star of the system itself and set a light for that split second of existence the skies of the worlds that called the Nurian system home. That maelstrom, that vortex of energy tendrils arcing out like hands of a divine being trying to grasp in to the seeming nothingness of the space around it disappeared the moment the Prometheus had be spat out, ending the window in to the infinite reaches where once she came.
Of course, all this was lost on anyone inside the ship, it was routine and they didn't exactly have such a view. Rafael sunk in to his chair, the star was a bright blue super giant, class O, the radiant and life giving rays of energy reached out to touch several worlds including a Terra class planet, twice the size of Terra or Neo-Terra herself. This planet Nurian IV, had two companion moons, and seemed like a perfect place to harbor life, or past life.
“Huh, I'm detecting something around the star, its faint but I can tell its not a natural variation in radiation or amplitude.”
Prometheus had spoken up, she furrowed an eyebrow and ran her nimble digits across her strands of blonde hair pushing it out of her way. Rafael blinked, looking to the sensor readouts he knew immediately what Prometheus was talking about. The screen changed to a visual view using data compiled from every sensor they had, down to the exact field properties. It was a massive array of segmented spheres, suspend on the top and bottom of a vast band that while not fully encircling the star, had terminated at its half way point. To Rafael’s continued amazement, this ring chrome in color seemed to be attached by pylons to a vast network of monoliths or devices floating on the surface of the blindingly bright star itself.
“That, that- That's something, what is it .. And why didn't our long range scanners detect this before?”
Was the only thing Rafael could even ask, his mind was now swimming with questions, his amazement was focused but oh so aroused. He'd never seen some thing like this before, nor had Loriean, he folded his hands on to his lap Prometheus replied just as he began walking back and forth as if she was pacing, her voice now filled with a deductive tone.
“I don't know, but perhaps this facility is advanced enough to block any sensor scans from long ranges, or it could be and this is more likely that the stars interference blurred if you will enough feed back that I didn't catch it?”
Rafael let out a sigh, before he could ask anything else; the ships sensor warning reviver started to sound, the sensor globe zoomed out and displayed another ship that had jumped in to normal space via hyper space. It was of course the Irden, the moment of surprise wavered from Rafael's mind, they had been expected all along. Quickly he turned his gaze over to the holo-emitter, expecting fully someone researcher named Eumiron-K-, by the way his name was spelled it had to be a mantoid, they're last “names “ were absurdly long and thus shortened to initials.
The emitter flashed to life, and in an instant, a rather large, and imposing mantoid (nick named land shrimp) with two pairs of arms, one sporting rather powerful and intimidating claws that would if used in aggression remove the need of fire arms if it weren't for their lack of range from these people. The others were more “normal” appendages, with thin clasping fingers that could maneuver rather well.
Eumrion, with his black segmented and plated body clicked his mandibles a few time and said with a slightly accented bu casual tone.
“Ah, Its good to see you captain Franklin, I'm doctor Eumrion -K-.. Thank you for scouting this system in a rough sense before we arrived. It would be ashamed if it were inaccessible, I should say we didn't come here out of desire... yes.. desire to linger.. about in a star system.”
Rafael's lips curled up in to a grin, he drummed his digits against the armrests of his chair before clasping it and replying as he shifted.
“I know that now, the report said possible archeological sites, nothing more other than bio-me curiosities, but upon arriving we fo-
Emurion interjected, he let out a soft hiss that equated to a sigh in human body/acoustic language. He waved a claw and fingered arm in a mantoids usual animated style.
“Yes, we knew- Well we knew there was something here, I must assure you star command with the urging of the scientific community officials responsible for what you know as project Tempest. Kept you and your crew in the dark...sss.. It.. was imperative after all that is set and done, that these sorts of sites are kept as discrete as possible.
Before you ask, why are they important? I'll tell you ssss. A-lot of our Technological progress has been assisted, by certain things we've found on our own worlds, I cant say much more than that, but I can say this is part of the same concept. Until we investigate we cant be for certain if they were left by the same people who settled oh so far away on our homeworlds..”
Rafael was astounded, he didn't know much about Tempest, nor beyond what he learned in school about fore-runner ruins, but it came together a bit and now he indeed knew why this was important. The vast amounts of Terran technology, its very nature endowing it with abilities beyond wonder, D cores, De-syc shields, Superlume processors ,AI , and consumer products.. Hyper space indeed, while they may have been fashioned by Terrans were inspired or outright discovered in ruins like these. This complicated things.
Science never rests!
After Emurion had his conversation with Rafael , he turned on the smaller CIC of the research ship, his eyes, with their wide arc of movement focused toward the hologlobe sensor readouts. The Irden was a rather large ship but with automation it had no more than one hundred crew-members from both private universities, institutes, companies and state sanctioned groups. Emurion walked forth, his feet tapping against the metal utilitarian floor.
“Well, well, we have two places to choose from, that star I think its too good to pass up. We'll need to send a team to explore the planet too sss. I think it should be sssssimple..”
Irden appearing, as one would guess a dragon, its form simulated by the careful manipulation of hardlight and nanofog. The AI replied smoke billowing out of its muzzle and voice rumbling with bass.
“Not a problem , my sensors cant penetrate too much of the stars surface or those monoliths as they normally would, and the planet is a bit foggy as well. I'll get some shuttles loaded.”
The dragon, with inherently real smoke turned around, he was quadrupedal, his black scales seemingly perfect segmented like an armor mail around his body, his wings curled up behind him and long tail rested on the floor. Of course this was just the form the AI had chosen to appear, and it had a preference to Ixcumanian culture.
“Ah well, go-ahead, I think we'll need to spend time on this, patience is a virtue!”
Emurion said, he let out a few clicks and crackles then a chuckle his mandibles snapping. The ship was not just staffed by Terran;s but other GESO members as well as other interested parties had a hand in this , it was surely going to be an interesting ride.
