Crux Fleet NPCs (
crux_npcs) wrote in
crux_fleet2014-03-01 03:32 pm
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0004: NEW ARRIVAL BRIEFING
Who: New Arrivals, Graham Baker
Where: Briefing Room
When: Late afternoon, Februaro 30th
Warnings: None
When awakening, you'll find the area you're in to be very busy. The people in the medical ward are polite and understanding, but firmly refuse to answer questions until the briefing. The same goes for the robots in the hangars. Either given hospital outfits resembling very comfortable pajamas, drone bodies, or their own bodies, they are escorted by polite, unyielding people in red and black uniforms to the briefing room.
The Briefing room is large. Not enough to accommodate a Cybertronian, but spacious enough for several dozen people. The chairs are high-backed and well-cushioned, more like comforting eggs floating a foot or so off the ground than anything else. A half completed, but still functional, holographic display is settled into the floor, showing a slowly rotating pyramid.
A few Security personnel, dressed in their red and black uniforms, stand at ease in the rooms in strategic areas. They seem fairly relaxed. One man stands at the head. Graham Baker, a middle-aged man, showing the first signs of balding and wearing a rumpled business suit perhaps a size too large, nervously clasps his hands together and smiles.
[Questions to the NPCs will go in the briefing thread. The rest of the post is there for people to mill about and do whatever with. The mods will not be doing hangar/medical awakenings unless it's specifically asked for.]
Where: Briefing Room
When: Late afternoon, Februaro 30th
Warnings: None
When awakening, you'll find the area you're in to be very busy. The people in the medical ward are polite and understanding, but firmly refuse to answer questions until the briefing. The same goes for the robots in the hangars. Either given hospital outfits resembling very comfortable pajamas, drone bodies, or their own bodies, they are escorted by polite, unyielding people in red and black uniforms to the briefing room.
The Briefing room is large. Not enough to accommodate a Cybertronian, but spacious enough for several dozen people. The chairs are high-backed and well-cushioned, more like comforting eggs floating a foot or so off the ground than anything else. A half completed, but still functional, holographic display is settled into the floor, showing a slowly rotating pyramid.
A few Security personnel, dressed in their red and black uniforms, stand at ease in the rooms in strategic areas. They seem fairly relaxed. One man stands at the head. Graham Baker, a middle-aged man, showing the first signs of balding and wearing a rumpled business suit perhaps a size too large, nervously clasps his hands together and smiles.
[Questions to the NPCs will go in the briefing thread. The rest of the post is there for people to mill about and do whatever with. The mods will not be doing hangar/medical awakenings unless it's specifically asked for.]
THE BRIEFING
"We, being myself and our Security personnel, represent the Confederacy of Inhabited Systems. We are the 43rd Scutum-Crux Fleet, consisting of a science vessel, two agricultural ships, and seven battleships. Our mission is to explore and found a new colony. This vessel is the Teuberg, a colony-ready city-ship that is home to some five hundred thousand beings. And, though freakishly bad luck, you and many others." He holds up a hand. "Let me finish, please. Over one hundred years ago, we ran afoul of a sixth-dimensional being who felt it would be amusing if it helped us 'explore' on the opposite side of the galaxy, dropping us into the territory claimed by the Wadjit Empire. The Wadjit thought of us as thieves trying to steal their territory and declared war soon after. We've yet to make peace." He clasps his hands behind his back, mainly so that no one could see his hands trembling.
"Over a month ago, we attempted a radical new method for faster than light travel by means of folding space through manipulation of subspace and hyperspace. The experiment failed rather horribly. Five hundred people died and you were dragged here from beyond space, time, and dimensional barriers. For which, we cannot apologize enough. Some of our greatest minds are working on a way to restore you to your rightful homes."
He paces a bit. "However, we don't have enough resources to support everyone if they aren't working. Fleet Admiral Bulsara has, therefore, ordered that all 'New Arrivals' have two months, which is sixty days, to adjust and find either employment, training, or registration for school. In return, you will be granted citizenship into the Confederacy until you can go home." Here, he pauses and wrings his hands nervously. "I-if you don't do so, he has ordered anyone who has not started work by the deadline to be, ah. Marooned on the nearest neutral space station or habitable planet. But I hope it won't come to that."
He coughs nervously and adjusts his tie. "We will supply you with temporary housing, fabricators to make food and clothing, a comm device, some money to get you started, while any training you need to perform in your chosen field will be provided for free. Again, you can find work in the civilian sector, join our civilian-run militia, enlist in the military, or go to school. Any of these works. If you were military in your own world, we will accept you as a 'transfer', allowing you to keep your rank. However, you'll still need some training to familiarize yourselves with our tactics and weapons."
"Whatever your choice, you'll be able to register at the Renaissance Center. When you choose your communications device, it will have a map of the city, as well as instructions on how to get anywhere you want to go, and some information on public transportation. For paperwork's sake, the legal age for adulthood is the racial equivalent of sixteen years old. Until then, education is mandatory, whether it's in school or part of an apprenticeship somewhere. You'll have the option to test out of basic courses if you like, but you'll still need some kind of classes."
He smooths his jacket and coughs nervously. "When you leave this room, your personal possessions can be signed for at the left. Any weapons will require a registration and signing for a permit. You can find comm devices of several makes and models a little further down. These devices contact anyone on the Fleet, providing you have their communications code, supply you with maps and information, access our infonet and other information networks broadcast, and other functions that will be explained in a brief tutorial when you first activate and register your devices. They have a range of several hundred miles and can be in nearly any design you like." He pulls out an orb with several glowing lights. "I prefer the spherical models, but it's your choice."
He pockets the device and folds his hands behind his back again. "In addition, we've already had several people wake up. We've included them on your commlinks, so you can skim through that to see if any of your friends were brought over with you. Mind you, some of them are currently on the Eye of Sharef, a trading hub, so they aren't in range of our communicators at the moment."
He clasps the lapels of his jacket and beams, pleased with himself for not stumbling too much this time around. "Now! Any questions? I'll be glad to give what answers I can."
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"Sorry, I just-- you're in the middle of a war, yeah?" Her hand's raised, index finger crooked just slightly as if calling dibs on talking time during class. "So what you really mean is your greatest minds are busy working on getting your travel problem working as intended while our trips home get the knockoff teams."
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Graham spreads his hands apologetically. "Unfortunately, I'm not a science man, so I can't exactly give you an explanation as to how that might work."
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Much.
"What sort of man are you, then?"
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In all seriousness, I'm the official liaison for you New Arrivals. I used to be a diplomat but, well..." He coughs nervously. "I lost my interest in meeting new and interesting new species after a, ah. Bad first encounter with the Flesh Mongers."
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Spared sympathy for anxiety and all that.
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He gives her another shaky smile and, when it seemed like she wasn't going to ask anything else, nods thankfully and moves on.
Re: THE BRIEFING
"I gather from your explanation, sir, that we are not in Tokyo any longer. But I do not comprehend how we can be on a "ship", as you say. And what is a "galaxy"?"
Was thing being who had brought them here actually the White? Was this yet another world they wanted him to see?
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Tokyo? Oh. Oh, this was one of those cases. Graham licks his lips and wrings his hands a bit. "Right. Well, ah. If you're from a pre-stellar society, it only makes sense. What do you know about the stars?"
This would, at least, give Graham an idea of where to start explaining.
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Maybe it's MaybellineJonathan wasn't quite sure where this was going, but he answered gamely enough. "If it is the stars you seek, they are plain for all to see on a cloudless night. Though it has been a while since I gazed on them myself."
Ah, memories of fonder times. Had it really been such a short time since he'd looked out on his own country from the castle walls?
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"The stars are indeed beautiful. But, if you were to get closer to them, you'd see that they're not just twinkling white dots, but..." He swiped to a picture of a blue supergiant, a recording they'd taken several weeks ago. "They are gigantic, greater than the size of a planet. Millions of miles separate them, but our vessels can travel between them in a matter of weeks. Days, sometimes."
He circled his thumb in an opposite direction and the picture zoomed out, the star vanishing into a pinprick, joined by hundreds, thousands of other pinpricks, until the rotating Milky Way was all that was displayed. "All of the stars that you could see from Earth are probably from the galaxy that we live in. A galaxy, as you asked, is a massive collection of stars, planets, and other celestial bodies. It is many, many millions of miles across. Are you following me?"
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"Then according to you, we are some insurmountable distance from 'Earth'? Do no Terminals exist here?"
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Graham nodded firmly. "I'm sorry, but yes. And while we have terminals, I doubt that they're the kind you mean. I'm so sorry."
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"But you did nothing wrong. You were merely trying to protect your home. It is unfortunate that things did not go as planned, of course. But if there is any way I might assist you in speeding along the process of our return, please let me know."
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...Wait, was he using that word right? Too late now.
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Then, rather than raise her hand, or otherwise try to get his attention, Yumemi simply stood up and raised her voice so as to be heard.
"How many of your greatest minds perished during that experiment?" There was no mocking therein, but it's still a morbid question. She crosses her arms, feeling not entire comfortable in the given clothes. The white robe just makes her long, blazing red hair and matching eyes stand out all the more.
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"Ah... The Intrepid had a skeleton crew at the time of the accident. Volunteers, mostly from Science and Engineering." He adjusted his tie and let out a long sigh. "Five hundred people."
Luckily, the one who had dreamt up the system wasn't among them. But, then, he hadn't been allowed to be on board, just in case.
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While she asked, she took a look around the room to see if there were any familiar faces. It's both convenient that she found none, and extremely disappointing. Where is Chiyuri when things needed fetching?
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Graham tugged his comm device out of his pocket, pointed is at the hologram, and swept his thumb over its surface in a complex pattern. "I'm not a science man, so bear with me. I'm simply repeating what I've been told. But, as we understand it, there are three ways to go faster than light. One is by simply building extraordinarily powerful thrusters. Another is to travel through either subspace or hyperspace. Picture our universe as... As a pizza. We are the sauce. The cheese is hyperspace, which is a dimension that exists 'above' our own. The crust is sub-space, which is a dimension 'underneath' ours."
As he finishes the pattern, a very complex map with math covering the dimensional variables appears in the holographic display. "Hyperspace is fairly easy to travel in. It has a much lower speed of light, allowing vessels capable of entering it to travel far faster than it ever could in real space. However, gravimetric forces are an even greater danger there. A stray exoplanet or an uncharted star would rip your ship to pieces almost before you could react. Now, what we use for FTL is subspace. It's actually a bit slower than real space, but by surrounding our vessels in a subspace bubble, we're capable of pushing aside realspace to move through it much more swiftly."
He turned to his desk and picked up a bottle. A nice, refreshing sip of water later and he's ready to get back to business. "Now, Science Captain McEngineer theorized that if we could enter subspace completely, surrounding our vessels in a realspace bubble, then warped it by creating an artificial black hole and forcing a hyperspace tunnel open... Well." He tapped the orb twice and the image shifted into another detailed image. "He figured that we could travel through the tunnel, reach the other side, dissipate the black hole, and sub-space would 'unsink' and fill in behind us, pushing us to our destination within seconds rather than centuries. Unfortunately..."
He tapped the orb a few more times and a massive hulk of a ship appeared in the display. Something rippled around it and it vanished for a moment. Then it reappeared. However, debris surrounded it, including smaller ships, parts of the vessel were rusted through, while other parts were polished and seemingly brand-new. And still more of it was exactly as it had seemed earlier.
"...We're not sure what went wrong. Or, rather, I think some of the Science officers know, but they haven't explained it very well to me. The best I've gathered is that they think that the realspace 'bubble' the ship was in collapsed under the strain."
He paused and looked at her, coughing nervously. "Did you follow that, Miss?"
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—and then she plants the palm of her hand firmly against her forehead, her next words starting as a mumble up until the point she actually faces him properly once more. "This is a mess what year is it?"
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"It's 458 AC." He pauses, then closes his eyes. "I'm sorry. It's 458 After Confederation. We started a new calendar after forming the Confederation, and we'd changed a few times since then. By the old Earth reckonings, we would be in the 27th Century. I'm sorry, but I couldn't tell you the exact year." Again, too many calendar changes.
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But in this place, with this level of scientific development, and with supposedly no way out...
Wait.
"Since no one sought me out specifically when I regained consciousness, I'm guessing none of you have taken a look inside my ship just yet. Normally I'd like say this was a good thing, but since it would be answer to your dilemma I'm actually disappointed."
Of course, Yumemi has no idea that she arrived with nothing more than what was on her person.
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He pauses and swallows, looking far too much like an eager puppy than a man with rapidly thinning hair really should. "...You can send us home?"
Unfortunately for the both of them, Graham doesn't have a list of who came in with what.
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