003: On the Road to Aki

[joertexas]

Jaelah watches the proceedings for a few minutes while she considers the problem at hand.

"I think we need to hide this ship as our secret base and emergency rescue service, and build a more basic ship for us to use publicly. That way, if we lose that ship somehow, we still don't lose all of this," she waves her hands to indicate their surroundings. "Bilis and Roscoe, you two have, or need to have, backup physical presences so you can act as ship's crew on that vessel. If we decide to relocate somewhere else, we move this ship to our new base of operations, build another ship there, and continue on."

She stops while she considers something. "Bilis, what's our life expectancy, now?"

[Tiglath]

She stops while she considers something. "Bilis, what's our life expectancy, now?"

Garvin chuckles "Classy. With all this gear we can hide in "time" as well as "space" now. If we send ourselves on a sublight cruise and sleep in the ancient tech coldberth modules we could emerge somewhere else decades or centuries from now. Not sure whether we need to do it now but we'd never be found in deep space in this ship".

[Thumper]

Walt-
Hey Roscoe, while I’m thinking about it: if your engineering bots have not retrieved Ancient laser cutters or laser scalpels yet, could you query them to see if those tools are retrievable and/or send them out to find some in the facility? If found, bring one of each in?

I’m working on some thoughts for an item that I want to see if Bilis could manufacture. For later though. I’ll work on that after we finish exploring.

[terrymixon]

Jaelah watches the proceedings for a few minutes while she considers the problem at hand.

"I think we need to hide this ship as our secret base and emergency rescue service, and build a more basic ship for us to use publicly. That way, if we lose that ship somehow, we still don't lose all of this," she waves her hands to indicate their surroundings. "Bilis and Roscoe, you two have, or need to have, backup physical presences so you can act as ship's crew on that vessel. If we decide to relocate somewhere else, we move this ship to our new base of operations, build another ship there, and continue on."

"I believe that may be a premature worry," Roscoe said. "We have this secret moon base, and potentially wherever the teleportal links to. I would be loath to give up this vessel when we can make it unusable to anyone else. Besides, if we do things right, even if we lost this ship, we could come right back through the teleportal and retake it once our bodies were refabricated. Minutes at most. If we designed--or found--some Ancients battle droids, we could be sure to regain control, or even keep it from being taken in the first place. Keeping it secret is a good idea, though. Hiding it so we can't use it isn't, in my opinion."

She stops while she considers something. "Bilis, what's our life expectancy, now?"

"As you have an anagathic augment, you are effectively immortal. With your memories being constantly backed up and the ability to fabricate new bodies should the one you have now be killed, you are even more immortal. This is what the Ancients did and why they were so hard to kill in what the being called the final war. You have a basic Archive in me. It would be better if the Archive were elsewhere, such as a pocket universe. If a certain amount of time passed with no updates, a new you would be created. There are ways to have even the backups done remotely, so you would not need to fear multiple versions of yourselves running around. Safeguards against that can and will be taken.

"The being told me that my former master created twenty clones of himself, and then those clones created 20 clones of themselves. Those 421 beings are who the Ancients were. They called him Grandfather after that. After thousands of years of that where everyone was working on whatever the felt best, he apparently ordered them to assist him in some project of great importance and many of them refused. He then decided that he'd made a mistake in creating progeny and started exterminating them. They fought back. It is conceivable that some still survive even today, and the final war is being fought in the shadows since all the overt bases were obliterated 300,000 years ago. We need to be wary of them discovering your existence as well. At best they might decide to use you. At worst, kill you, and they know how Archives work."

[terrymixon]

She stops while she considers something. "Bilis, what's our life expectancy, now?"

Garvin chuckles "Classy. With all this gear we can hide in "time" as well as "space" now. If we send ourselves on a sublight cruise and sleep in the ancient tech coldberth modules we could emerge somewhere else decades or centuries from now. Not sure whether we need to do it now but we'd never be found in deep space in this ship".

"Or in a pocket universe," Bilis said. "Those are even more difficult to find and enter, or so I was informed."

[terrymixon]

Walt-
Hey Roscoe, while I’m thinking about it: if your engineering bots have not retrieved Ancient laser cutters or laser scalpels yet, could you query them to see if those tools are retrievable and/or send them out to find some in the facility? If found, bring one of each in?

I’m working on some thoughts for an item that I want to see if Bilis could manufacture. For later though. I’ll work on that after we finish exploring.

"They are Roscoe's bots, and I have no control over them," she said. "I do have an example of a very weak, handheld disintegrator that closely resembles a scalpel that was likely used for the statues you found. Would that work?"

[Thumper]

FYI, that's why I was asking Roscoe if his bots brought them back, or if he could send his bots out to find the listed items.

"I do have an example of a very weak, handheld disintegrator that closely resembles a scalpel that was likely used for the statues you found. Would that work?"

Walt-
"Perhaps, Bilis. Let me first explain what I have in mind, then we can look at your Disintegrator option.

Fusion plasma, or at least, primitive fusion plasma is contained by electromagnetic field. I was wondering if a handheld device could both produce a shaped containment field and project a plasma or laser energy within that to form a sword of laser of plasma. I thought a laser cutter or laser scalpel could provide an initial concept. I have in mind a sort of "light sword, or light saber"... Just a concept.

Could a short range disintegrator beam be projected out to say, a meter from a handle containing a power source. Could said beam be held as long as I'd require it, within power constraints of course? Could the handle contain an activation switch or mechanism that must be held Telekinetically so others could not activate it, and it would failsafe to the off position? Could it be disguised as a mundane torch/flashlight?"

[Thumper]

Walt-
During his investigations, muses. "We're Ancients now, and are in an Ancients' base. The IN is actively patrolling the area to keep their nearby site secure. The base has inherent defenses.

I'm seriously considering whether we even need to turn over this location or anything found here to Treegarden. I don't see any benefit from that. If the ship can transform as required to maintain previous appearance, we don't need IN maintenance, etc. why are we so worried? Let's keep the "new" Lost & Found and keep the base to ourselves.

I'm sure we can make up a story about Metz' creating repair droids and fabricating parts to conduct "annual maintenance" ourselves. That's really my only concern with keeping all our and the ship's changes covert."

[terrymixon]

Walt lets out a “oh my gosh” whistle. He activates the intercom and plays “Smuggler’s Blues” by the Eagles.Yes, 80s rock is eternal and of universal appeal. I’m still convinced that when humans travel the stars, they will listen to Classic Rock and watch Classic Comedy.

He steps in to join Roscoe and walks first to the door while examining the smugglers hold from the inside. Looking around to see if there’s any objection. If none, then he opens it.

The huge bay is utterly empty. The circular form isn't the best for storage, but it seems the Ancients loved ovoids, curves, and circles.

The door opens into a wide corridor and leads into what looks like a huge shipping bay where cargo or manufactured goods were prepared to be sent elsewhere. It is shut down, but it looks orderly, so it likely could be turned back on.

It will take a while to look it all over, but this seems to be a massive--and I do mean massive--manufacturing plant. What it is designed to make is unknown. You will find an observation area that looks out over it and find yourselves looking at the largest space station you have ever seen. It dwarfs Banfi starport at Glisten, and that was the biggest artificial structure any of you have ever seen, heard about, or imagined. There are probably bigger structures than Banfi at Capital, but you suspect this station dwarfs them, too.

The biggest oddity is that space isn't black. It's a diffuse white in every direction. That is spooky as hell, though you can see the gas giant and even the star that it orbits. That's the only star you see, though. Bilis will wager this is a pocket universe. One big enough to contain your own private star system if there is no one else here, which you don't know.

From what you saw in the interior, it was made to turn asteroids and agricultural material into finished products or more advanced raw materials. The station orbits a massive gas giant and likely harvests fuel from there. An inexhaustible supply indeed. There are arms coming from the station that are filled with what look like prospecting and mining ships, sublight of course. The attached smelter and manufactories turn them into whatever they want.

There is no sign that this station was home to people. Everything is automated. You find vast reserves of raw materials ready to be put to use, all seemingly shut down cleanly to await your arrival. A generous gift, indeed. And not a worry point about someone coming into the ship uninvited.

[terrymixon]

FYI, that's why I was asking Roscoe if his bots brought them back, or if he could send his bots out to find the listed items.

"I do have an example of a very weak, handheld disintegrator that closely resembles a scalpel that was likely used for the statues you found. Would that work?"

Walt-
"Perhaps, Bilis. Let me first explain what I have in mind, then we can look at your Disintegrator option.

Fusion plasma, or at least, primitive fusion plasma is contained by electromagnetic field. I was wondering if a handheld device could both produce a shaped containment field and project a plasma or laser energy within that to form a sword of laser of plasma. I thought a laser cutter or laser scalpel could provide an initial concept. I have in mind a sort of "light sword, or light saber"... Just a concept.

Could a short range disintegrator beam be projected out to say, a meter from a handle containing a power source. Could said beam be held as long as I'd require it, within power constraints of course? Could the handle contain an activation switch or mechanism that must be held Telekinetically so others could not activate it, and it would failsafe to the off position? Could it be disguised as a mundane torch/flashlight?"

"The handheld disintegrator wand would not work the way you describe. While I believe such a thing might be possible, it would take time and experimentation to verify that. It would potentially be dangerous for the wielder as well if the containment field ruptured. My advice would be to not pursue that kind of weapon."

[terrymixon]

Walt-
During his investigations, muses. "We're Ancients now, and are in an Ancients' base. The IN is actively patrolling the area to keep their nearby site secure. The base has inherent defenses.

I'm seriously considering whether we even need to turn over this location or anything found here to Treegarden. I don't see any benefit from that. If the ship can transform as required to maintain previous appearance, we don't need IN maintenance, etc. why are we so worried? Let's keep the "new" Lost & Found and keep the base to ourselves.

I'm sure we can make up a story about Metz' creating repair droids and fabricating parts to conduct "annual maintenance" ourselves. That's really my only concern with keeping all our and the ship's changes covert."

"We are contractually obligated to have the annual maintenance done at the Naval shipyard at Glisten," Roscoe said. "We will run into issues if we suddenly tell them we don't need it. If we wish to remain unmolested, we have to convince Madam Treegarden to modify the contract we are bound by, and that will take something worthwhile to her, and likely some kind of explanation as to why we don't need the service anymore. That bribe, as it were, will have to be paid."

[Thumper]

Walt-
"Roscoe, good point. So, back to this base being the bribe. But, we have the room "onboard" now, so we could take with us what we want from the base. We now have an awful lot to explore, both inside and outside the ship. Let's take our time figuring out how and when to turn this over to Treegarden. Mad-Dog's' murderers are potentially time-limited. I'm going to table the search inside this pocket dimension, or distant Ancient spaceport, and suggest we run to ground anything we quickly might want from the moon site in which we physically sit, then go after the killers.

Bilis, what did you have in mind with the Disintegrator Wand? How far could that reach? How might I use it besides carving stuff into non-existence? I think I'd like one. I just need to know more about it.

[ateno]

Walt-
During his investigations, muses. "We're Ancients now, and are in an Ancients' base. The IN is actively patrolling the area to keep their nearby site secure. The base has inherent defenses.

I'm seriously considering whether we even need to turn over this location or anything found here to Treegarden. I don't see any benefit from that. If the ship can transform as required to maintain previous appearance, we don't need IN maintenance, etc. why are we so worried? Let's keep the "new" Lost & Found and keep the base to ourselves.

I'm sure we can make up a story about Metz' creating repair droids and fabricating parts to conduct "annual maintenance" ourselves. That's really my only concern with keeping all our and the ship's changes covert."

"Here Here! That's what I was saying, can we fabricate a version of the 'old' ship with wear and tear and bring it in for maintenance? At least for the first time. And I say we don't turn this over to Treegarden."


Arkar

[terrymixon]

Walt-
During his investigations, muses. "We're Ancients now, and are in an Ancients' base. The IN is actively patrolling the area to keep their nearby site secure. The base has inherent defenses.

I'm seriously considering whether we even need to turn over this location or anything found here to Treegarden. I don't see any benefit from that. If the ship can transform as required to maintain previous appearance, we don't need IN maintenance, etc. why are we so worried? Let's keep the "new" Lost & Found and keep the base to ourselves.

I'm sure we can make up a story about Metz' creating repair droids and fabricating parts to conduct "annual maintenance" ourselves. That's really my only concern with keeping all our and the ship's changes covert."

"Here Here! That's what I was saying, can we fabricate a version of the 'old' ship with wear and tear and bring it in for maintenance? At least for the first time. And I say we don't turn this over to Treegarden."


Arkar

"Or we find something else she would accept as payment," Roscoe said. "Say a working teleportal that goes a thousand parsecs beyond the Solomani Rim? Would that be worth her turning us loose? Maybe not. Also, while we can probably create a new ship eventually that we could bring in for maintenance, we no longer have the original to copy. What if we miss something the Navy yard would notice? Far better a bribe of enough value to have Treegarden willing to grant us freedom while not being enough that we get in more trouble. Balance will have to be the key."

[terrymixon]

Walt-
"Roscoe, good point. So, back to this base being the bribe. But, we have the room "onboard" now, so we could take with us what we want from the base. We now have an awful lot to explore, both inside and outside the ship. Let's take our time figuring out how and when to turn this over to Treegarden. Mad-Dog's' murderers are potentially time-limited. I'm going to table the search inside this pocket dimension, or distant Ancient spaceport, and suggest we run to ground anything we quickly might want from the moon site in which we physically sit, then go after the killers.

Bilis, what did you have in mind with the Disintegrator Wand? How far could that reach? How might I use it besides carving stuff into non-existence? I think I'd like one. I just need to know more about it.

"I had nothing in mind for it. It was merely the closest item I had to what you initially described. It is very short ranged and weak. It would make a poor weapon."

[Thumper]

”Can you think of any way we could design and craft an energy sword? An amplified laser scalpel or a miniaturized cutter with a defined beam length? Walt says hint of a deflated tone.

[terrymixon]

"Or we find something else she would accept as payment," Roscoe said. "Say a working teleportal that goes a thousand parsecs beyond the Solomani Rim? Would that be worth her turning us loose? Maybe not. Also, while we can probably create a new ship eventually that we could bring in for maintenance, we no longer have the original to copy. What if we miss something the Navy yard would notice? Far better a bribe of enough value to have Treegarden willing to grant us freedom while not being enough that we get in more trouble. Balance will have to be the key."

"You do realize that we now know that the teleportals can be removed from the walls in the base, correct?" Bilis asked. "We could take it to her intact."

"That still leaves the other end far out of our reach."

"It does not. When I said we could outrun anyone chasing us from the Third Imperium, I wasn't joking. This vessel does not have a jump drive. It has something called a leap drive that is several orders of magnitude more powerful. Jump drive technology can get a ship from 1-9 parsecs, though the Imperium has not explored that technology completely. The next order of drive is called the hop drive and can reach from 1-90 parsecs. Beyond that are skip drives that can reach 1-900 parsecs.

"This ship is equipped with a leap 1 drive. It can take us from 1-1,000 parsecs in a week. If you had a leap 9 drive, that would rise to 1-9,000 parsecs, but it would have taken up significantly more space, so the determination was made to stick with the leap 1 drive. The Ancients had other, more powerful drives and could roam the galaxy or even potentially go to other galaxies. It is likely at least some of them fled the final war in exactly that fashion. Based on the location you noted, it might take two leaps to get there, but it can be reached."

"That's madness," Metz whispered in an awed voice. "All of Charted Space takes up less than that. It's no more than roughly 600 parsecs across at its widest. We could visit Capital in a week and see the heart of Zhodoni space the next. Dinner in Paris on Terra on the third week. The universe is literally our oyster."

"It is impressive and even more of a risk to us," Roscoe agreed. "The existence of even a hop drive would change a lot in the Third Imperium. Bilis, you said earlier that you had the technological patterns for everything aboard this ship. Could you build another leap drive? Even a bigger one? Or any of the other kinds of drives that you mentioned?"

"I could fabricate and assemble any grade of leap drive. I indicated earlier that I also had some of the bridging technologies, and that means that I could fabricate hop and skip drives as well."

Roscoe turned to the rest of you. "What if we had Bilis create a hop 1 drive for Madam Treegarden? I'm loathe to give up any teleportals as they are so powerful, but the hop drive would not be a quantum jump. We could provide technical specifications, and the programs needed to use it, if they can be adapted to Imperial computers. If the hint is dropped that hop 2 doubles the range like jump 2 does, that would be a powerful incentive, but they would still need to work for a very long time to make it work. With the plans, they could make smaller ships have longer distances. Warships could be built with greater range but more room for weapons. That would be a good deterrent for the Zhodoni and Aslan to keep in mind."

[terrymixon]

”Can you think of any way we could design and craft an energy sword? An amplified laser scalpel or a miniaturized cutter with a defined beam length? Walt says hint of a deflated tone.

"I cannot at this time. Perhaps after I get more data on what the Ancients could build, that will change. I am sorry."

Sorry, Obi Wan.

[terrymixon]

Don't forget there are two other teleportals in the circular storage bay. You'll likely want to be sure they don't lead to something dangerous.

[joertexas]

Don't forget there are two other teleportals in the circular storage bay. You'll likely want to be sure they don't lead to something dangerous.

Jaelah walks to the closest portal and takes a look while she contemplates her terrifying future.