<snip>

Dagen tapped at the display. It was more of an absent tapping to look through the data that they could see. His finger stopped at one place and he looked at Chan. “What about broadcast satellites. We don’t have to tap into them as much as just have a look at what they are beaming down to the planet. The same thing with their communications. Have a look and see what satellites they have going on and what we might need to do to have a look see.”
- Dagen, CE

“Well there can’t be any harm in watching what they are broadcasting, especially if they can’t figure out what we are doing.” Now that was an idea he liked. “Get your binge on.”

Marius

Dagen let out a sigh of relief and leaned into the console with one arm while he watched more or less over Chan’s shoulder to see what she was seeing and finding to tap into.

Chan nodded “Finally something we can do” she said more to herself then anyone else. Chan began looking to see what satellites they had in orbit. She wanted to tune right in and have a look see. After all if you want to know about another race or another person. Listening to communication they thought where secure was the best way.

Lleut Chan (Sub-DH Robotics)

The satellites were using technology similar to 21st century Earth for their thrusters but were still using electromagnetic wave energies for transmission. The disadvantage was that they could only travel at the speed of light. It would take seconds for the communications to reach them. However, the UFP technologies were more sensitive to these waves and so they were also able to get clearer resolutions from the Pallas satellites that the Pallasians themselves.

GM

“Is there anything that they have that is encrypted, or has more encryption?” He asked. “Might run either into a private network or maybe something interesting.” His thoughts ran from anything from government or military transmissions to more dedicated company traffic.

“Should we make popcorn?” Thomas asked, while also hoping there would be no sappy telenovela-style dramas included in their pirated feed. “Oh, and if you can find an all-news broadcast, I’ll volunteer to take that one.”

OOC: Real Life bias showing!

COS

Dagen winced. All news. The kind of transmissions that took one big event and replayed it and replayed it because it was new and they were looking for ratings and viewership.

The strange thing is that there was no mention of contact with the Federation on any of the official news media channels. However, the messages between the planetary government and the Merry were nothing but the contact with an alien ship.

“We haven’t made the news. Nobody has told them yet,” Dagen mused aloud. “Until someone out there …” he pointed to the Merry then the world … “Leaks the information.” Nothing stayed secret long. Someone might even be trying to crack into the government broadcasts now.

“The shortest lived secrets are military secrets. It will be out soon enough… until then.” Marius continued listening.

“It’s smart. First contacts are always a delicate process. They may want to avoid the locals getting jumpy or scared of the new Arrivals. Also they probably don’t want to report what we are yet until they know. We’re not entirely sure what their like some might be more violent then other. Could you imagine what would have happen if the Vulcans had run into a group of hostile warmongering humans when they made first contact. They’ll cover all their bases before the make any form of announcement.” Chan said guessing.

The main broadcasts were mostly entertainment channels, with music and soap opera type dramas occupying almost 85% of the broadcasts.

From the news broadcasts, the top story was that the unemployment rate was at about 15%, the highest in years. The planetary government was studying the situation and would take steps to improve on the situation.

GM

He rubbed at his jaw that was starting to show some stubble. There was such as thing as a ‘beard inhibitor’ but Dagen liked it. “I wonder what has caused that unemployment?” He asked. Looking over to Thomas he asked, “Is there a kind of internet or something that we can tap into to do a search on the causes of this unemployment?” It would also give them an idea of the industry there on the world and where they were going as a species in social and cultural issues.
- Dagen, CE

“Probably the same as always. self-absorbed, selfish, over spending idiots called politicians. They probably poured to much money into the space program, or some other government funded work and not enough into civilian causes.” Chan said, she did not like many politicians only a small handful.

“Well they are going to be surprised when they find out their, space program found an alien Federation in the first few decades, and that we are friendly.”

“I’d be amazed if a warp-capable species didn’t have some sort of global datanet,” Thomas replied. “Some of the traffic is probably being routed through those satellites, we can check that.”

COS

Chan nodded “I think so. Now we’re tied into their airways, i should be able to piggyback us off the civilian networks and locate the military and government channels. once I’ve located them i can jump onto them and get access. Then it’s just a simply matter of our computer decripting it, which should be easy.” she said as she began to work, her hands danced over the consoles as she worked. Many forgot that Chan specialty aside form robotics and cybernetics was computers.

Lieut Chan (Sub-DH Robotics)

“Stick to their transmissions, no breaking into secure systems.”

Marius

Chan looked at the XO “Forgive me Sir. But all of there governmental and military networks are probably secure. If we stick to just the civilian stuff all we’ll find out is useless tid-bits that won’t help. There is no news on us so we can’t gauge their reaction to us. All there news seems to be about unemployment and not much else in the way of useful information. There Entertainment channels all just have silly soaps on them and other things that are of no help to us.” she said respectfully. But she was getting tired of having to side step everything useful.

The data net was very varied with many opinions expressed in many ways. It was very difficult to detect which opinion was the right one. What seems clear was that the space program began after unemployment began to rise. It would seem that the government tried to create work by opening factories to build ships but the expertise was lacking. They had only a small pool of people qualified. The schools and universities had begun offering courses for those disciplines but the percentage of people that graduated each year with the qualifications remained very small.

“Very interesting,” Thomas said quietly. “Can we find a page on the history of their space program?”

GM

“All we’ve found out is that their universities are offering courses on space engineering and other things to do with space. Which makes sense as they have space ships.” Chan said her antenna beginning to flick back and forth in frustration ” I could try looking into their universities see if they have any adverts about the courses they offer. However i think some of it might be secure because of data protection” she added. Chan knew her frustration was starting to get the better of her. She felt like the XO was being far to cautious and as a result it was coasting them valuable information that could help them. She felt that if she didn’t find anything useful soon, all the effort would be for nothing and all they would achieve was wasting their time.

Lieut Chan (Sub-DH Robotics)

OOC: To be fair, we are really just wasting our time, waiting for the Away Team to get their diplomacy on. Only instead of just playing solitaire, we’re trying to learn stuff on our new maybe-friends our own way :)

IC: “The universities’ public sites should have something on those programs. After all, they’re trying to recruit students to them, how are you going to lure them in if they haven’t got a clue what your school and program has to offer?” Thomas suggested.

COS