Forums » Sci-Fi Roleplay » Travellers (Semi-Open RP between Tara and Catrin)

Catrin chuckled. “Why, in the terrible taste, of course. You can watch the victim of alcohol try and choose between drinking something revolting and continuing to deal with the hangover,” she said before going back to the database.

The rest of the journey through Aether-space was largely uneventful aboard the small yacht, until, a week later, they had crossed the vast gulf between stars and the ship prepared to return to Realspace. Tara was sat in the cockpit one more, standing next to her was Thyr's now-customary hologram, wearing a few subtle pieces of jewelry, including the bracket that Catrin had made for him, "Drive is charged, sensors indicate we will cross the system boundary in approximately five minutes."

Tara nodded, eyes flickering over the control panel, "That's it then, preparation for re-entry complete."

"Redirecting drive core emissions into the Aether." Thyr informed her, "Rift formation in thirty seconds."

Catrin knocked on the door and entered the cockpit, smiling at Tara and Thyr. “Hi! Do I need to sit down for this?” During the journey, she stayed in her Terelain form to make it automatic and even managed to stay like that all through her last sleep, so she was in it even now.

Tara smiled and nodded, gesturing to a seat near her, "Well, you don't have to, but you can if you want."

"You're just in time Catrin, we're about to re-enter Realspace." Thyr informed her, "Tara, shall I bring up an external view?"

She nodded, "Sure, Catrin'll want to see this." Almost the instant she'd stopped speaking a holographic projection of the outside appeared in front of them where the cockpit's front wall had been an moment earlier. The chaotic maelstrom of ever-shifting colours of Aether Space appeared, the nebulous, almost gaseous-looking region swirled and flowed before them in a seething, chaotic mass, half-glimpsed patterns appeared and vanished almost as quickly as if they had never been; the brain's vain attempts to processes stimuli it had never evolved to cope with.

In the same clipped militaristic tones as he used when they'd first entered the Aether, Thyr gave them a rundown of the ship's status; a remnant of his old military days no doubt, "Jump core operating at one hundred percent efficiency, power fluctuations well within accepted standards. All nonessential subsystems have been shutdown, entry-point scanned and registers free of objects or hostile ship signatures, over all ship status is normal, ready to initiate jump protocols on your command."

Tara smiled at Thyr and with a slight amused shake of her head she said, "Initiate jump sequence."

"Jump sequence initiated. Mana energy redirecting into the Aether, rift formation underway." Thyr informed them.

The area in front of them changed subtly; the rippling distortions seemed to bulge, bending around something, and the view directly in front of them was even more oddly distorted than normal, as if viewed using a lens. The distorted area gained a bluish tinge, the blueness grew stringer, brighter, until there was a circle of blue right in front of them, surrounded by distortions, at the very centre of the circle the blue intensified until it was a blue-white point that was almost painful to look upon, the point grew larger, widened, and within it fresh distortions appeared, but these were odd; reflected in them was not the rainbow of Aether, but the deep velvet black of Realspace. The distortions grew larger until they filled the view, and then the entire view flashed white and went dead.

"Realspace entry complete." Thyr reported, "All systems normal, drive core is discharging, power levels nominal. Re-calibrating sensors." The holo-screen flickered back to life, showing the star-speckled blackness of Realspace, one yellow star was brighter than the others, but it was still quite small, barely two inches in size, "Comparing starcharts to known pulsar-type stars... complete. Location confirmed; Saekai-Vas System; Human-claimed Tau Draconis System, Near Frontier Region."

"Excellent work, Thyr, as always." Tara said with a smile.

The hologram inclined his head, "Thank you, Tara."

Catrin went ahead to sit down next to Tara, smiled a little when Tara instructed Thyr to bring up the external view and then she watched the chaotic mass with interest, comparing it to the Courts of Chaos where the sky looked a little similar, but not that nauseating.

She watched the whole jump with interest, trying to match it with her previous experiences to figure out where they had been in the first place. Clearly one of the more chaotic worlds, she concluded.

It was visually interesting, too, like watching an ever changing work of art. Maybe it was just that, and on an impressive scale.

When the start appeared around them, she beamed. “That was a wonderful spectacle. And now, if you'll excuse me, I've been looking forward to downloading cultural instructions for this body for a week. I'm off to my room to meditate a bit. You're, of course, welcome to watch if you're interested in the mechanism, but I doubt it'll be very interesting unless you happen to have sensors that will be able to pick something up,” she told Thyr with a slight smirk before getting up.

He glanced at Tara, "I'll keep a few extra sensors on her during her meditations, I can review the results after and tell you if there's anything interesting in them."

Tara smiled slightly, "Thank you, Thyr."

"I shall start calibrating the-" Thyr began, but he was cut off by a male voice speaking in the Goshaggi Trade Language, an artificial language created by a race called the Ash'i to act as a universal language amongst the disparate species of Known Space, this particular variant was designed for species who breathed an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere and used air vibration-based communication, such as Terelains or Humans.

"Unidentified craft, this is the Gateway actual, you have entered a system claimed by the Earth Empire, state your name, affiliation and purpose or you will be treated as hostile."

Thyr blinked, "Oops. Forgot to call ahead and tell them we were coming."

"i'll handle it, open a channel." Thyr nodded to her and she spoke, "Sir, this is Tara Ilendi, Professor of Xenoanthropology of the Faculty of Xenosociological Studies of the Royal Institute of Knowledge of Aerin, citizen of the Terelain Star Kingdom aboard the civilian stellar yacht Truth Seeker. This ship is unarmed, repeat unarmed."

There was a slight pause, and then the human male spoke again, "Transponder signal verified as matching a ship of that name. What is your business in this system?"

"Merely passing through, good sir." Tara said, "I have been living amongst the indigenous population of a recently discovered world beyond the fringe as part of my research work, I entered this system with the intention of using the Jumpgate to speed my journey home."

"Your ship was last registered as exiting this system via conventional FTL seven years ago, Professor." His tone was one of suspicion, "That's a long time."

"It was a long-term, in-depth study of the culture." She told him, "I'm a Terelain, sir, I am over a thousand standard years old. Seven years isn't all that long, really."

There was another long pause, "Ah...uh... yes, of course... a thousand years old, you say?" The human's voice was slightly strained.

"Well, a thousand and ninety seven if you must know, but it is impolite to ask after a lady's age." Tara replied.

"W-welcome to Tau Draconis, Professor Ilendi." He said, the slight tremor in his voice betraying how hard it seemed for him to get his head around her age, "Uh... you sound pretty good for being a thousand years old."

"Thank you, I exercise regularly." Tara told him, flicking the comms off. She kept a straight face for another second and then burst out laughing.

Catrin listened the interaction with a slight smile, having stopped in the doorway when the first contact came. She chuckled very quietly when the human started asking about Tara's age, and burst out laughing along with Tara when she closed the comms.

She grinned at Tara afterwards and left, hardly able to contain her growing excitement at finally being able to feel at home in this body.

After she arrived in her room, which she hadn't altered during the journey, so it was still the blue and grey colour she assigned to it at first, and the only piece of furniture in it was the oval bed, she lied on her back, adjusted the pillows and relaxed, then relaxed some more over about ten minutes.

The activity in the areas of her brain associated with willful actions kept decreasing; in the areas responsible for sub-conscious processes, very abnormal frequencies started appearing until they settled on a constant level – one that normal brains wouldn't be known to be able to attain.

She stayed there for a few seconds and then started coming back, her brain activity levels returning to normal within the next ten minutes. She got up and stretched, smiling, but this time, it was a naturally inoffensive smile in which she didn't reveal any teeth, and the way she moved seemed slightly different even from this small movement sample.

For a few minutes, she tried expressing sadness, anger, joy, embarrassment and other basic emotions as if acting and her body flawlessly moved all the muscles in the correct ways, the body language taking care of itself. She beamed. This felt much better. “There! Is Tara still in the cockpit?” she asked, knowing that Thyr will hear her.

"She is indeed, Catrin." Said Thyr's disembodied voice, "She's negotiating with the Gateway Station staff about when she can leave he system." He sounded amused, "Even though this backwater colony isn't exactly a nexus of trade or traffic, they still insist that they haven't got a jump window free for several hours, Tara is trying t get them to let her use the Jumpgate as soon as she reaches it. We are at present falling inward using the star's gravity to aid our acceleration, we should reach the Jumpgate in under two hours... three if I have to make any course changes."

Catrin performed the appropriate Terelain equivalent of raising her eyebrows. “Pretending to be important, are they?” She somehow seemed much more content after her meditation. “Do you think it's safe for me to come in and observe the whole thing? I don't want to be noticed by anyone yet.”

Thyr snorted and rolled his eyes, "They're humans. They're always trying to pretend to be important. As for you, I don't see why not; the human's aren't likely to ask questions that Tara can't deflect, and it's not like anyway would pay attention to what some backwater human colony has to say about anything."

Catrin chuckled. "How reassuring." She nodded in thanks and with amusement in her eyes and headed to the cockpit without making any noise and stopped by the entrance in order not to intrude. She was quite curious about Tara's negotiating skills.

"Look, Professor Ilendi, Tau Draconis may only be a small, recently established colony but we see a lot of traffic. This the the main staging area for exploration deeper into the Near Frontier, as you know, and our colony still receives a great deal of its equipment from the outside; we have recently begun construction of second orbital refinery, and we are getting a lot of transports coming in with the necessary equipment and materials." Said the voice of a human, apparently the same tall, dark-skinned human whose upper body was displayed on the forward holo-screen.

Tara was smiling pleasantly to the man, "I understand your position, sir, but the fact is that my ship's sensors have indicated that at present the traffic through your Jumpgate is very slight; we've only detected three jump-out signatures since we arrived."

"Indeed, however we are expecting a large influx of transports within the next three hours." The human explained, "There are simply no definite jump-windows for your ship."

Tara apparently decided to change tact, "Do you know who I am, Human?"

The man looked confused, "A.. a Terelain anthropologist."

"I'm not just any anthropologist." She informed him, "I am the foremost luminary in my field. I have studied more civilisations than you can count, your own included, the human pan-system meta-civilisation out of which grew the Earth Empire. My report was part of the evaluation of your species, and it played a pivotal role in fast-tracking the Senate's decision to implement the First Contact protocols involved in establishing contact with your species. I am partly responsible for your upliftment to interstellar civilisational status, and your subsequent inclusion into the Senate. I could have written a much less kind report. Younger Gods know your history and culture is riven by war and division, but I chose to put forward your ingenuity, resourcefulness and cultural achievements. I played a choice selection of Beethoven, Bach and Mozart to my colleagues on the team, I showed them a few instances of Earth's greatest art treasures, I showed them how your civilisation gained a moderately stable planetary government, I convinced them to give your race a chance."

The human's eyes were wide, staring, "Oh."

"I was also the one who ensured the Senate sent a Xin'Ta'Faxi delegation to initiate diplomatic dialogue with your civilisation, and not the Saiv." She said.

"Oh." He said again, "Um... thanks?"

"You're welcome." She said, "Now, consider this a favour to me for all the good work I did in giving your race a chance to grow into an independent, autonomous nation-state rater than some principality or client-civilisation of one of the Big Three."

The Human stared at her a little longer, looked down at something and then said, "Looks like we have...uh.. a slot free in two hours?"

"Acceptable." She told him, "My ship should reach the Jumpgate in time. Good bye, Gateway Control, may the Light of the Three Sisters shine upon you."

"May the... light of the...um... sisters shine on you too." He said and the screen switched off.

Tara giggled to herself, shaking her head, "Humans."

Catrin snorted when the screen switched off. “Ouch. Do you always pull that card when dealing with... um, difficult situations?”

"Only with species I've helped save from getting annexed by the Saiv Empire." Tara told her brightly, "I've kind of made a habit of making 'recommendations' to committees and councils in this sort of thing. I think the Younger Races should be able to grow and expand as they see fit; having your civilisation absorbed as a client of one of the Big Three isn't my idea of free determination." She smirked, "Then again, I've never particularly liked aggressive-expansionist military hegemonies, and the Saiv have that kind of civilisation pretty much perfected. I mean, they've went to war sixteen times with the Xin'Ta'Faxi Imperium alone. I like to help out the little guys." She grinned, "People tend to be grateful when they realise you're part of the reason they're not enslaved or subjugated by one of the largest and most advanced civilisations in Senate Space."

“So I noticed,” said Catrin, smirking. “Enslaved? Is it still legal anywhere?” she asked curiously, sitting down near Tara now that she didn't need to stay hidden from the operator Tara had been speaking with.

"Well, they're not technically enslaved; the Saiv are members of the Senate and the Senate oulawed slavery pretty quickly after its inception. The Xin'Ta'Faxi and Shinobi, the two primary founding races, are pretty against the practice." Tara 'shrugged', "Still being a 'second-class citizen' of the Saiv Empire isn't exactly a position of wealth or power. The Saiv are death-cultists, they worship death and their min God, Sav Sabiel, is pretty much the incarnation of entropy itself, their homeworld, Ravion, is a carbon planet and the Saiv breathe carbon monoxide rather than oxygen, so the planets they inhabit aren't the most pleasant places in the universe."

"The Saiv are also incredibly warlike, verging on xenophobia." Thyr said, his hologram appearing from out of nowhere, "There is a great deal of enmity between the Saiv and the Xin'Ta'Faxi, however this hatred is generally held in check by the other two major space-faring civilisations; the Shinobi and Santant'ai Empires. These four comprise the largest and most powerful nation-states of the modern era, and it was to mediate disputes between them that the Interstellar Senate was established on the homeworld of the Halodine species, Lekosru, called Cosmopolis by Humans."

"Of course, the Saiv are wary of committing themselves to a full-scale war with the Xin'Ta'Faxi Imperium yet again, because of their Titan-class warships, the infamous and much-feared Purgatio Luminarium class Titans. These are designed specifically for planetary assault. A single Purgatio Luminarium Titan can lay waste to an entire world and render it completely uninhabitable." Tara said, "There have been calls for the Senate to outlaw the use of these Titans as crimes against sapient life, but so far the Xin'Ta'Faxi have blocked these attempts."

Catrin's posture indicated mild scepticism as she was thinking about this. At the end of the explanation, she shrugged. “No wonder including Humans wasn't a huge problem. Even with their war and division, they actually fit perfectly in all this. What you said makes me wonder about why you even have any barriers for lifting someone to interstellar civilization status when some of the most powerful civilizations are among the most uncivilized.”

Tara shook her head, "Oh, they'll grow out of it. I mean, the Big Four civs are only... what, ten thousand years old? They're still in their civilisational adolescence. Not to mention that since the founding of the Senate two thousand years ago there've been fewer wars, and most of them have been minor. Heck, the biggest conflict ongoing at present is the Shinobi-Vurshan War, if you can call it that. The Shinobi Empire and the Kandaarl Rish are fighting over a small group of eleven systems, control shifts weekly. Of course it's life or death for the Kandaarl Rish, since that's pretty much the whole extent of its territory, but compared to the wider community it's not much. If the Shinobi were actually trying to obliterate the Kandarrl Rish and subjugate it, they'd have done it decades ago."

"Of course the Shinobi have recently undergone a major internal power-change. The military have taken over the government and they've spent most of their time in power subjugating the most powerful clans, the Tens." Thyr said, "As for the regulations about upliftment... well, partly it is because they don't want to destroy any new civilisations or species that pop up, but mostly it is to prevent another major shift in the power balance by allowing a fifth civilisation to grow to the same level as the Big Four."

"The fact is, the galactic community is more peaceful and stable than it has ever been, except during the periods of peace before and after the Fool's Revolt and after the Second Great War." Tara said, "The other races will settle down as they mature, although if my people have their way we may very well see resurgence of the Terelain Star Kingdom, and hopefully that event will allow for a stabilisation of the situation."

Catrin made a conceding gesture. “Yes, of course, everything evolves. And devolves. And of course it's about maintaining power balance,” she said with a smirk. “Isn't almost everything? That makes me wonder what would happen if you accidentally came across a very evolved civilization which would appear to be ready to enter interstellar travel and the like, but if they did, it would be probable that they would join the Big Four.” She smirked. “Sorry, I just tend to think like that, and I often do it aloud.”

She stood up. “I'd probably better go and study some more, unless something interesting is supposed to be happening within the next couple of hours?”

"Well, the Senate would never condone genocide, so the most likely course would be that the civilisation would be... mentored by one of the Big Four, its development guided. They'd probably ensure the species didn't upset the balance. This is unlikely, however, since a species that had already gained that level of technological an social sophistication would have already invented Jumpgate travel, and they'd likely already be match for the Big Four. There'e probably dozens of such species out there, somewhere, in the Deep Frontier. Maybe even civilisations more advanced than anything in Senate Space."

"I would, however, suggest that you return to your studies until we reach the Jumpgate. The journey is likely to be uneventful." Thyr said, "If you want to observe us utilizing the Jumpgate I shall inform you beforehand so that you have time to see us enter."