Posted March 13, 2023, 10:05 a.m. by Commander Garinder'Jen th'Jir (Executive Officer) (Gene Gibbs)
Posted by Captain Kelly Bordeaux (Commanding Officer) in MAIN SIM - away team to the planet (XO, Tigress, Nash, and anyone else that wants to join)
Posted by Captain Kelly Bordeaux (Commanding Officer) in MAIN SIM - away team to the planet (XO, Tigress, Nash, and anyone else that wants to join)
Posted by Commander Garinder’Jen th’Jir (Executive Officer) in MAIN SIM - away team to the planet (XO, Tigress, Nash, and anyone else that wants to join)
SnipEstimation was an 6 to 10 armed creature that was approximately 5 feet in height with an arm reach over 3 feet giving a wing span of nearly 7 feet or more. Along with the lights each ‘station’ had a two button system in the upper left hand corner of 270 degree loop. It was much like the on/off light button found earlier.
Standing at a console in the dim light Jen tried to imagine the beings who operated this and what ‘this’ was for. There was one commonality that he saw related to the light ‘switch’. At least they were somewhat predictable, perhaps, whatever ‘they’ looked like. Figuring that a destruct switch would not be as simple as something like the two buttons calling to him, Jen reached out and touched the one that, like the lights, indicated the on. Couldn’t hurt, he hoped.
Well it certainly could hurt. However, the system were designed similarly and it turned on the power to the console. The system lit up and a line of icons that probably were letters or words of some sort that probably… probably were a boot up log.
After a quick second the screen just paused and blinked calmly.
That was promising, Jen thought to himself, his antennae shifting about like the tail of a cat while all the rest of it, and him, remained calm.
“So I think we are all at the same conclusion that we are dealing with a cephalopod in some shape or form and hopefully the tricorder and give us some dimensions on the beings we are dealing with. It’s finda fascinating to me that we have not met another race yet that resembles octopi in the Federation. Pound for pound, the octopods on Earth have a intelligence rate equal to humans. The IQ rate of humans spans the bell curve from 85 to 115 to be within a normal range with 100 being the median. Crazy enough Octopi fall about 100 in this IQ scale. It is common knowledge in biologist circles that if octopi had a life span equal to humans, we could have been a two-species race on Earth. If this Darkness is cephalopod in genetic origin, they could he just as smart as us and might be the reason no one has been able to contact them. Without vocal folds, which would not be needed for a fully aquatic species, they would not have a traditional form of verbal communication. Next time we meet up with them maybe we should contact Gina the speech therapist instead of comms,” Lexi let out a laugh.
Lexi Robins
GM
The control panels did have a long string of text. It probably was mostly mathematical or computer language. But that was still language of some sort.
It almost appeared like old-style programming that was based more on yes/no formulations. Certainly it could and did get far more complex as one was able to make such language do more and more up to and including their own AI predictive programming that was voice activated. To have a computer ‘know’ what you want to know - or at least to a high degree - and that taking into account all the differences in speech patterns, figures of speech, racial innuendo, and simply people communicating what one wanted. Not everyone was as precise in their ‘asks’ to the computers but all the same they were able to glean much of what they intended. That was both very convenient and concerning to know that the computers were that intuitive.
“I have seen them,” Jen said. “They are very dextrous in their environment. It would be a very different make up though if it was living outside of water.” Inwardly he winced about communicating with the Darkness. “I’m all for communicating with the Darkness - at a significant distance.” He considered the thought. “How would they move, our mystery aliens?”
- Jen, XO“Probably on the pads of their tentacles no different than any other octopus with a motion like a snake. If I was a betting girl I would say that they lost all the suckers on their limbs and have them retained only on the tips which would work as fingers. Snakes moved through muscle contractions along their abdomen and can start erect of sorts like a cobra so given that evolution allowed them to leave the water permanently I could see them moving around like a snake or spider,” Lexi waggled her head. “Spiders move rather fast and efficiently on the same number of appendages.” Looking up at the ceiling out of reflex Lexi scanned the space. She doubted anything was lurking on the ceiling or in a corner but spiders could literally be on the ceiling and no one noticed because people never looked up unless prompted to. They tended to look down because things on the ground tripped them.
Lexi Robins
“Are you a betting girl?” Jen asked with a trace of a smile.
“Only when the odds are in my favor,” Lexi let out a laugh.
“That makes it an investment, not a bet,” Jen said, humor flashing across his features.
“How do you see a skeletal structure evolve with these? Or what was like one? The octopus were very fluid in water, but I’d guess they’d be a limp lump outside of it.” He looked at his arm and imagined evolved suckers mimicking fingers then how they might work on the console. Nature was highly adaptive; second guessing how something might evolve was a slippery target and oft missed.
Jen, XOGiven the set up an aquatic creature wouldn’t have the skeletal strength to carry its mass out of water upright. Unless this room was designed to be submerged. However that, wouldn’t explain how it would get to the ship. So then the argument would be that they were amphibious or had another ability to offset its mass.
GM
“Oh they would probably be all floppy,” she agreed with a smile. “So everyone knows Chris is from Australia and they have this one species of octopus that is able to walk on land. So freaking creepy. Like a globe of snot rolling around the ground.” She let out a shudder. “I think I just got the idea stuck in my head from looking at the design of the Darkness because it looked like an octopus. You make assumptions and we all know what happens when you assume something.”
Lexi looked at the scrolling of text and numbers on the console. “So anyone know mathese,” she let out a sigh.
Lexi Robins
Jen slipped out his tricorder and scanned the ‘mathematical’ script, then tapped his comm badge. =^= Jen to Atlantis. I’m sending you some computer code to analyze. Their computers powered up. I’m hoping this might give us some translation matrix for their language - or at least to begin to navigate about their system. =^= He hit the transmit button as he said that.
- Jen, XO“Too bad it is not like the ship where we can just ask Is this outpost Federation,” Lexi posed the question to the console as if it were one of the consoles on the Altantis that could answer a simple question.”
Lexi Robins science
Jen was dubious. The tech didn’t appear to be that high. However it was worth a shot. “Perhaps it will reply to something - even if it was ‘does not compute’.”
=/\= Ian here,=/\= The diplomatic officer replied. =/\= I am sending it to linguistics but without a matrix it might take some time. Do you want me to send a team down to you while we analyze it?=/\=
Ian Bordeaux CDO
He looked around at the room as the comms call came in. =^= Send a small team of three to work with science. =^= He gave a nod to Lexi. =^= What is the status of the ship and system? Any activity? =^=
- Jen, XO
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