[snip]

Qith by this time had come over as well with Tia, “..I am afraid Captain Glen, that your question about our fusion reactions make up did not translate to our tongue properly. The words you used to imply I think what powers them came through as an unknown word..” she said to which Dol nodded confirming this. Evidently neither the UT Dol’s people had nor the UT’s Glen and Tia had fully were capable of translating words for the fusion reaction yet. Of course Tia/Glen could always request to see it on a monitor or in person. Someone like Tia probably could tell what was what in no time!

“Ah! Yes, well Tia is the engineer, I’m only a pilot… From what I understand from my history studies, it was that on Earth, for a long time, our scientists found it difficult to get Cold Fusion reactions to work properly, however much they tried, and also they had problems with containment of more extreme fusion reactions. Nevertheless, they did get better results when they used forms of Hydrogen with one or two neutrons in the nucleus. While it does power our Impulse Drive for low speeds, it still never worked quite as well as you appear to have achieved here, and so is only in limited use as a power source within the Federation. Also, while Hydrogen is the most common element, those two other forms are much rarer to find.”

“I thought you might ask what we use instead of fusion. We use matter-antimatter reactions to power starships. Such reactions are only stable when controlled by crystals of 2(5)6 dilithium 2(:)l diallosilicate 1:9:1 heptoferranide. These dilithium crystals are very rare and cannot be produced artificially, but they are the secret of Warp drives. Any planet that finds deposits in their own system can find long-term financial security from the revenue generated from the trade in dilithium,” Glen told them.

There was another pause as if the UTs were struggling to process what Glen was saying to a format that Quith and Dol could understand, it seems some scientific terms did not translate easily from Federation Common, to Dol people’s language. After a moment Qith spoke, “..I believe I have understood enough to grasp what you are saying and inquiring Captain Glen. Though some words are still not translating quite properly to us it seems. To answer as best as I am able, our fusion reactors are fed by Unknown Word which then creates an explosive process to harvest energy by a series of supplemental chain reactions of Unknown Word we then use a series of energy output upscalers and generators to step up the overall reactions from secondary reactors to our primary reactor at the heart of the habitat. In effect, while the primary reactor is able to output Unknown Word/Measurement, which on its own is enough to power the habitat’s needs in general, with upscaling the output of secondary generators to each sector we achieve a far more efficient fuel and power output then we could using them separately or by tying them in by a say electrical-plasma charged system. There are some down sides of course, for example this same technology is used by our handful of system mining and cargo transports. While suitable for a stationary habitat like this, their ability to produce motive power is far less efficient, even more so when under load after mining and the like..” Quith explained.

From what Tia was hearing here and Glen, it seemed that Dol’s people due to how they setup shop here in the system had found a similar means of power generation along the lines of multiple impulse reaction chambers. But where as the Federation and others had made such for sublight propulsion needing movement and the like, Dol’s people had made a design that could be more fuel efficient and generate far higher power output then a motive design would. But this meant that when these units were put on sublight craft their ability to move at speed and the fuel required to do so was also much less efficient.

”..Now as for your other form of power reaction on your starships. Again I am afraid much of what you said did not translate too well. But I got enough to understand that some kind of crystal is important to you for trade, and helps manage the power interactions in some kind of power chamber for your use to travel faster then the speed of light..” She said.

Dol nodded, “..That was my take away too, though I understood on a technical level far less then Qith did..” he said with a chuckle. “..In either case, I do not believe we have any known such crystal minerals from mining this system?” he said to Qith and then another person on the command center. Both shook their heads no.

”..Not that we’re aware of Dol..” Qith said.

Glen could recall on their initial entry to the system, that the one moon closest to the 2nd planet in the system, while small and airless did show some possible signs on passing scans for possible dilthium deposits. Though there were also no signs of Dol’s people doing much mining on the moon since otherwise it was mostly made up of low grade iron and copper and the like.

“Yes, that’s basically what I said,” replied Glen. “Our scans showed that one moon close to the second planet in your system may be suitable for the mining of the crystals. Further investigation would be required, but if it was found there, and you wished to trade in the crystals then you could have financial independence and attract merchants to you system from far away. Of course, it’s a two edged sword. Such a deposit was attract pirates and those who would take from you by force, and you would need to develop stronger defensive pacts to protect yourselves, such as joining the Federation. This is something else that diplomats and economic and military advisors would discuss with you on a second contact meeting, should you wish to journey down such a road.”

• Glen, CO

”..Hmm..” Dol said nodding, “..I see, financially there is not too much we need that the system or our habitat does not already provide. Obviously we wish to continue to grow though and expand our lively hood here, and having such minerals if you say to trade to interested parties would allow that. But as you also say it could attract unsavory elements, and though we have means to defend ourselves in general, it really would just result in this habitat’s destruction and a sizable chunk of the various moons or such in places on them..” Dol then seemed to drift into thought as if realizing how such a discovery and impact would vastly change how his culture and people would have to change and adapt compared to how they had lived for generations since coming here hundreds of years ago. His thought made him peer out a small window port nearby where the view was of the local solar star just peeking over the edge of the nearby planet the habitat orbited.

GM CockRoach