Posted by Fleet Captain Alexander Cochrane (Commanding Officer) in Main Sim - City

Posted by Gamemaster Wookius Furrius (Senior Gamemaster) in Main Sim - City

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Juliet Anders (Chief of Security) in Main Sim - City
Posted by… suppressed (5) by the Post Ghost! 👻

Snip

Just outside the temple at the courtyard they regrouped. Apart from the large contingent of security people forming a kind of perimeter about the courtyard things looked to be eerily normal with locals moving about in their sedate fashion, many looking alike with dress and they way they moved. Within the temple the Bakkalians remained behind their barrier and looked to be setting up position there.

Across from the temple courtyard were a series of buildings. One was a low domed, broad structure that was not unlike an umbrella top that served as a cover, for it was open at the plaza level to walk underneath. Within there looked to be a building of sorts but details were not easy to see with the roof dome covering so much of it. Reauna pointed to it. “That is the library. If there is information on the Builders it will be there.”

Together with Reauna, Zoon came to stand in the small group, looking austere and hard amongst the others with their softer flowing garb. “I am ready,” he said, then looked at Reauna. “It is said that the Emperor is a descendant of the Great Builder Mann’ch.” He seemed to almost shrug. “Whether true or not the Emperor has almost godlike reverence because of it. I am under oath to him in this duty.” Looking around he said, “This city is so bright. Open. Not like Bakkalia.”

“I have heard of a Builder named Man’ich,” Reauna said flatly. “There may be more about this Builder in the records.” Zoon frowned at the name pronunciation but said nothing.
Wookiee

Cochrane looked at Mal’athar. “Commander, go with them. If this machine is as old as they say, you will be the best equipped to analyze it. Keep comms open between you and the Manny. I want us to hear everything. Understood?”

Cochrane, CO

“Yes, Sir.” Shedda tapped her badge, =/\=Mal’athar to bridge. Keep open comms with me and record everything.=/\=

After getting confirmation Shedda moved toward the group, “Let us get started. The sooner we find the information the sooner we can find a way to save us all.” Shedda began walking toward the library, rather than just stand there. “Reauna, where would the records be stored in the library?” Electronic, paper, how it was cataloged, and it wouldn’t be written in standard. She gave a reassuring smile to Kaia. “With luck there will be schematics you can study.”

Mal’athar, XO

Reauna replied. “The records are all in our central computer. If by paper you mean non digital documents, I have never seen one.” She looked at Shedda. “Perhaps we might interface with your device and the central computer. That way data may be displayed in your language and form to understand it.”

Shedda pulled out a blank PaDD she had in her pocket. Long habit from working archeology digs. She always carried a blank PaDD when she left the ship to make sure she had plenty of storage space for notes and data she collected. She held it out to Reauna, “Thank you, that will make it faster for us to assist in the search.”

=^= Aye, Sir =^= Longbottom said, then. =^= Sir, engineering is reporting a power drain. Low right now and our systems are stable. They are working to acquire the cause. They say it started right about the time your friends arrived. =^=

Juliet stepped away and ordered two pairs of guards to accompany the groups. She returned to the Captain’s side as the groups broke for their locations. She wondered if any of the new ‘allies’ would be coming to the Manhattan and, equally curious if they would get a glimpse of the alien tech and ship that was surely above them at this moment as well.

Juliet
CoS
(curious as a mouse)

Underneath the canopy it was noticed that there was an opalescent sheen and glow coming from it that illuminated the underside. There was a building complex - single story that had the typical crystalline walls seemingly common to the city of Marilia. Translucent doors, cut in a kind of hexagon, slid silently open at their approach as an iris. Within there was a single, circular line of consoles surrounding what could only be described as the top of a sphere - the top of it being 30 meters across. It itself had a sky blue sheen with lightning playing through it just under the surface. The consoles surrounding it made for both a rim about this sphere but, apparently, some form of interface. There were no seats and it was utterly quiet.

Reauna looked at Zoon and appeared to be debating. “Do you still have our tongue? Our script?”
“Well enough,” Zoon said curtly. Reauna looked dubious. “Try to keep up.” It was noted that if there was a ‘device’ that he had it was not offered to link like the Starfleet offer.

They moved up to the console ring and Reauna placed her hand on it. There was a momentary glow about her hand as though for identification then, before them a shimmering wall .. perhaps holographic, perhaps an energy field, perhaps something else .. appeared before them for several meters on either side of them, even with the back of the console itself. On it data shifted and moved in an alien script trickling down from the top in lines bluish white in script upon a nearly transparent field.
- Wookiee

bump

Zakene did his best to track the script as it flowed, attempting to figure something out for grammatical sense. But naturally he lost track after a few moments. “I can’t make hide nor hare of it, as you humans used to say.” He said to Cochrane, staying near him the entire time. “They are quiet an advanced species, to be able to read at that speed, I have to slow down the text speed on my PADD, yet these guys can keep track of that.”

Sozi Zakene, Diplomatic Attache

Shedda smiled, “More likely it is like our computers and their computer is scanning through the database for the information Reauna has requested.”

At last they stopped. Somewhere in there the ‘alien’ script split screened and there was more Federation standard in there; Reauna must have made some adjustments in the midst of the search. The tracery of script stopped and there was an authorization required for accessing further data. Reauna’s hand touched the display in what looked to be a random place. The imprint of her hand was surrounded in a purple-blue glow then, almost as quickly as it came, it disappeared. A series of icons floated on the screen ..

“This is the foundational information from the Builders, or what there is. It is very old. I’ve never seen it. Where do you all suggest we start looking?” Reauna said.

“Blueprints,” Zoon said. He looked at the others, notably the Starfleet people for their input.

Reauna and Zoon

Shedda nodded in agreement with Zoon, “Blueprints are priority. Any information on how it is powered, and scientific and engineering theories they used as a foundation for the blueprint. Those theories could be significant in reversing what is happening.” Back to the building blocks so to speak.

“Blueprints would be great,” Kaia spoke up from the back of the group. “I was a bit of a late addition to the landing party, I’d appreciate a summary of our goals if that’s possible?” The diminutive officer made her way through and around people’s legs. Barely taller than a cat standing on its hind legs, she squinted up at the display with wide -eyed curiosity.

Kaia, Engineer

Reauna worked at the screen then paused as though uncertain where to go. Zoon pointed to a series of what looked like nested folders. She chose them and then went further following that trail. She answered Kaia, “Our world was endangered by the sun long ago. The Builders created the Machine which sent six of our sister cities far back into time in this world in the hope to survive. What we didn’t know is that, while linked with the machine, six other realities were created.”

Zoon added, “The Machine is not perfect. After all this time all realities are threatened. My city has tried to leap ahead to become an anchor city believing that this city was long deserted.”

“And threatened us all by doing so and sending temporal ripples throughout this reality.”

“Ah Kaia, I am glad you are here. We had a comm from Manhattan. When the portal activated and our new aquantances arrived, it started a power drain on the ship. I need you to corrdinate with the engineering teams on the ship and figure out if there is a connection and if so how to stop it from affecting the Manhattan. If you need to go back to the ship and then return, do what you need to do. Any information you can find here will no doubt also be useful.”

Mal’athar, XO

As the group worked in the library, Cochrane stayed near the Speaker. He looked at the figure for a long moment, assessing, and then said “Speaker, tell me about your people. Your home. We won’t be able to help one another unless we can try to understand one another.”

Cochrane, CO

“Bakkalia is my city. The Eternal Emperor is enthroned on it and has built a great Hegemony governing space for a hundred light years around. What the Emperor says is law. Bakkalia thrives as the throne city. But it was not always so. We were beset by another species. Parasites they were adapting our own very DNA into their own making a mockery of who we were, a mirror image but twisted. It changed us. When we first translated to the past we were not much different from Reauna and her people. We were a planned city. Scientists. Builders. A society stable. Until they came. They had no name but took our own. It was a bitter and long struggle. Out of those ashes rose the Eternal Emperor. Out it rose a resolve that to survive we must not be off our guard, nor inferior but must lead. Preservation through Might.” The last statement seemed more a slogan or mantra of their people. “How do you preserve yourself, Cochrane Captain?”

“I and my ship and crew belong to a society made up of hundreds of species and thousands of worlds. Every society elects or appoints a representative, and those representatives are responsible for the well-being of the whole. Some of our members operate with the same perspective as you do: Might Makes Right. But as a whole, we believe that all sentient beings have an inherent right to self-determination. The right to choose for themselves. The only limits on that right is when those choices impact others negatively. It is not a perfect system by any means… but it ensures the greater good. Or at least-” and he shrugged slightly, “- that is the overall goal. Just like our goal here. We want to help Reauna and her people… and we want to help you. I believe that we can find a common ground that will enable all of us to help one another.”

Zakene jumped in as well, seeing an opportunity to help, “There are even worlds like my own, that operate semi-independently with the greater organization called the Federation. We still work toward similar goals, but due to a long conflict with an enemy, we have yet to resume our prior might. Thanks to aid from our allies we are able to rebuild our cities. As odd as it may be, their aid has allowed us to maintain our culture, while aiding in the rebuilding efforts.”

Juliet assigned one of the last of the lingering security to the young engineer. “When you get to the ship, make sure we are secure. I don’t like the idea of a passive power drain, and I won’t understand it, but make sure she’s safe till she’s back on the ship. And set up a second team to stand by. If we need them on the ship or the ground, I want them ready.” The Ensign nodded and stood off to the side ready to head wherever Kaia was going.

Juliet turned back to the Captain. It was just her and one other security officer left behind. She knew the Captain’s competence through the rumors when she boarded and did her own personal recon of him. But she still wasn’t going to shirk her job of protection. It wasn’t in her to turn her back on her Commanding Officer.

Juliet
CoS

The ‘blueprints’ came up. The Machine was by any comparison a simple unit but the underlying power structure to support it was massive. By all indication what the Machine did was create a temporal link with the other cities in series, that link generating complex subspace folds almost like a chain but that ‘chain’ was linked to the power generator of not just this world but all seven of the cities in the line. For Bakkalia to have tried to leapfrog over would have taken tremendous power and would have generated a great deal of disruption in trying to bend and stretch and pull - almost like unsticking oneself from the mud.
Wookiee

Cochrane, CO

Sozi Zakene, Diplomatic Attache