STF

Away Team Two

Posted April 4, 2019, 5:04 a.m. by Ensign Reia Shandy (CIO) (Catt Bennett)

Posted by Gamemaster GM (Gamemaster) in Away Team Two

Posted by Lieutenant Dagen Thor (CE) in Away Team Two

Posted by Gamemaster GM (Gamemaster) in Away Team Two
Posted by… suppressed (6) by the Post Ghost! 👻
<snip>
“Had thought?” Dagen inquired. He was tempted to offer information that they might have on the local star system that they picked up in passing. Even in not actively visiting the world, they were a science vessel and they would have scanned it in passing. In that pass they would have picked up any possible life signs, planets and in general what the system was good for on a superficial level. But then he thought again. There were some mysteries that they might like to find out on their own. “How have you employed your faster than light drives?” He was curious. Earth had zipped out as far as they could as fast as they could. Trill had undertaken cautious exploration. Cautious meaning single trips to the nearest stars, gathering information and then planning the next trip. Everyone was different as a species or as a person. The Pallosians seemed to be very careful. It too was curious that the first ships they saw that had these drives were warships. What or who were they expecting?
- Dagen

Yeeker seemed enthusiastic in answering, “After we had stabilised the engines that could travel at the speed of light without the time distortion effects, we were able to survey our star system. We had wanted to see if there was life in our neighbouring planets. We were able to reach our nearest planet in minutes. Then we tried to move further and further to explore. The furthest planet in the system was about two and a half days away. We found no intelligent life in the other planets in our system. However, we found sources of minerals and food. We planned to colonise the other planets. We eventually did colonise one other planet and set up posts in the others. We also realised that the technology that we had developed were also being used for robbery. Many of our cargo ships were raided by pirates. We had to think of our security. Thus we began to build our fighter ships to enable us to protect the cargo convoys. We set up our planetary post four decades ago. We had been able to move up to 1.1 times the speed of light at that time. As we tried to move faster than that, we found the time distortion effects more and more difficult to handle. It was only about five years ago that we were able to poke through the 1.2 mark. When we met you, we were trying to reach the 1.5 mark. We had discovered a way to handle the time distortion effects but to churn out enough energy to move at 1.5 times the speed of light, the amount of uranium needed to power the engines were enormous …” She trailed off, her enthusiasm seeming to wane.

GM

Dagen pondered that. To have done what they did on uranium was amazing. He tried to calculate around this and got lost in the equations. Pirates. He glanced at Thomas. That would be a good inclusion in their next update check. There were ‘others’ out there that were not friendly.

Reia had been paying close attention and was pleased at Dagen’s restraint. She had a feeling the scientist wanted to share more. Perhaps Reia would too if she were in his shoes. The thought of using uranium in a FTL drive was surprising to Reia even though she had no formal engineering training.

  • Reia, CIO

“Have you considered using other elements for your reactor?” Thomas asked. This was potentially skirting into issues that they shouldn’t disclose, but Thomas was fairly certain the Pallasians had determined, or at least guessed, that the Genesis didn’t use a simple nuclear reactor to power its warp drive.

COS

“We had discovered other radioactive elements in the uranium ores. However, the amount was not large and it was cost prohibitive. In the process of analysing these elements, we discovered that we could synthesise other radioactive elements but the amount of energy to produce these elements was economically feasible,” said Yeeker.

The Chief Scientist, Dang, said, “We did have Plutonium but we were not able to control the reactions well to prevent them from becoming dangerous, and so it was not used.”

GM

“What about fusion reactors?” He asked. That was something that had been danced around by most races in conjunction with and as a next step for fission. He remembered that they had scanned the system and had found some dilithum deposits. He smiled, and tried to look encouraging. “Everything builds on the last step as you are doing. When one technology comes to its limit there are others that step in.”
- Dagen

“You are able to use nuclear fusion technology?!!” Dang asked excitedly. He spoke quickly, “we have theorised it but have not been able to do it on a large scale. The high cost involved in the research has actually been a factor in its development here.”

GM

Dagen inwardly bit his lip. Earth had tinkered with that even as they were developing fission, and it was a natural outflow of research. Fusion was what powered the ships’ impulse engines and had for the past two centuries. They had been refined of course. Engineers did like to change things after all but still. He knew he had to tread carefully here. They were hardly giving out state secrets, and he wouldn’t be referencing the deuterium fuel they currently utilize, though fusion science would be a good diplomatic beginning. It was the next step in energy tech for the vast majority of planets and they were not leaping ahead to current warp or transporter technologies. From past precedents Dagen felt he could throw them that bone so to speak. “We are,” Dagen replied. “The Federation would be happy to, on membership, assist in converting your nuclear technologies.” That was a given. Environmental stability was a key component to Federation thought and to move a world to a clean based energy that was more efficient and safer was just something they did. “That would be something to begin with with your diplomats and ours. I’m just an engineer but know that this is possible.”

It would also give them incentive to work at meeting what entry requirements there were. They needed to see that the Federation was willing to help them and to see it would mean having a tangible something to hope to gain. Dagen felt he was on safe ground there at least. There were four cultures that he could name that were so aided in the ‘next steps’ in technology after first contact. Earth was one of them - aided by the Vulcans, albeit never as fast as the humans would have liked, but it was a prime example.
- Thor, CE

Reia gave Dagen a look. Her white eyes were probably unreadable to him but she hoped he would continue to tread carefully.

  • Reia, CIO

Dagen caught the look. He didn’t need to really have it to know he was skiing on thin snow. He gave her a brief nod and hoped he was progressing without giving away the Crown Jewels.

From their faces, it was clear that the scientists and the diplomats were excited by the offer.

“Until that is settled on a higher level, would it be too bold to ask if there are any adjustments that we could do to make our power plants more efficient and safe?” asked Yeeker.

GM

“You can certainly ask,” Thomas said with a smile. “We may not, of course, be able to answer. Your technology is very similar to what we used to use, but there may be some differences that preclude our ability to help without a deeper understanding of your situation.”

COS

Dagen saw the way out per se. They were very excited and yet they knew that things take time to build and test and get up and running. Enhancing what they had now was not out of the question, and Thomas gave some of the ‘what’ away in the technology difference. “By that my companion is saying that your engineers and our engineers would need to get together to study the designs. No two power plants are exactly the same even if the principle is. Your fuel efficiency is more than most worlds had developed with nuclear power. You should be proud. But we both know that things could be made better. I’ll have to take this up with our Captain on how we may proceed.”

He looked to Thomas about making the next ‘update’ with the inclusion of their current ask.
- Dagen

Thomas took the hint, making his excuses to duck out of the room.

=/\=McGregor to Genesis. I’ve got a couple of things to update you on from our talks, and a request.=/\=

COS

=^=This is Genesis, Go, McGregor.=^= Came the clipped reply of the Captain.

Marius

=/\=Captain, we’ve learned that the Pallasians have encountered ‘pirates’ in the region. They’ve been sending probes out to nearby systems, but they keep getting drawn in by a planetary body with large gravity. And they want to know if we can help advance their domestic power generation, specifically how we’ve mastered fusion technology.=/\=

While this was happening, Dagen asked them, “Lt McGregor is making a call to the ship for a little more guidance. In the meantime, tell us about yourselves. We’re engineers and innovators and ministers and everything like that. What do you like to do at the end of the day when you’ve hung up your engineer and ministerial hat?” He paused and looked down at the floor then up again. “I’ll start. I grew up on a world called Trill. Very different. The skies and oceans - we have a lot of oceans on Trill - have a purple tint to them. Earth is blue. It was quite a change for me when I went off world.” He chuckled. “I like to ski. That is a winter sport where one straps one or two curved wooden planks to their feet and propel oneself smoothly through the snow. It can be either down a hill - which can get rather swift, or as a recreation along a level trail. One uses poles in each hand to guide and propel you along.”
- Dagen

Reia enjoyed hearing about what people did in their personal lives. It helped her to understand them but she decided not to join the conversation just yet.

  • Reia, CIO

COS

“Perhaps,” said Yeeker, “we might make a change to our itinerary. Let us skip our next two venues and move to the central health facility. Our recreational activities are found in many of our residential areas but it is in our health facilities that we had developed the tools we use to ensure a wholesome and healthy regime for our people.”

GM

Dagen was open to wherever they wanted to show them. Seeing their ‘tech’ was interesting to know where they were at. Seeing how they lived was another thing, another window into their lives. He waited for them to work this out amongst themselves. It was not like they were able to just change venues on a dime. This was a scheduled and planned tour. Changes would require some administrative adjustments. He did, however, reply, “Anything you wish to show us we are pleased to see.” he was curious as to what tools they meant relating to a healthy regime. That sounded very … organized to use a nice word.
- Thor

It took a little time to get the new itinerary sorted out. The away team was escorted by their companions to an underground area about 400 metres from where they had their conference before. They were shown what looked like the high speed rail system that 21st century Japan uses. It used magnetic force to raise the cars off the track and move it in very fast speeds. They could not see much whilst they were underground but they emerged from underground to an area where there were forests on both sides. The forests showed signs of being polluted but the river that they had a chance to see running parallel to the tracks showed evidence of attempts to clean it.

At some places, the group could see that the forest was cleared for agriculture. Minister Nongfu, who had said very little at the conference, pointed out to the group the various kinds of crops that were planted. Apparently, about 40% of their crops were organic. In an effort to balance the need for natural forests and agricultural land, advanced technological farming techniques were developed, similar to the hydroponics and aquaculture advances made in 21st century Earth. This made up about 60% of the food that is consumed by the population.Just before they entered an urban area, they could see large hangar type buildings. Nongfu said that the hangar type buildings were where the food plants were situated.

They entered an urban area. Yeeker informed them that they had entered one of the satellite towns of the capital city. They had gone about 5 minutes into the town when the train slowed and came to a stop.

“Here we are, we are now at this satellite’s health facility,” said Yeeker. Standing at the platform were a woman and a man.

“I am Yee,” said the woman and she turned to the man, “this is my associate, Shou.”

“Dr. Yee is the director of the health facility,” Yeeker explained. “Mr. Shou is the man responsible for the recreational facility here.”

GM

Reia had been trying to wrap her head around what, exactly, health facility meant in this particular circumstance.

  • Reia, CIO

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