Move 5 (Chapter 1.5)
Aug. 6th, 2017 04:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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hexarchate_rpgTime: 361
Place: out-rift near Station Moongray
The Wasp's cockpit/command center:
Kaliyan notes that the Butterfly Lens asks for a docking maneuver with the Wasp, and approaches slowly and politely on the assumption that this is approved. In the meantime, the second vessel, which Sasha and Yehan previously identified as some kind of Naxorian Rosemallow House starship, decelerates and holds position some distance from the Wasp, lingering without initiating communication.
The Wasp's Engineering room
Anyone in or near Engineering will notice what almost feels like a quaver from the Wasp at the second starship's approach, as though the Wasp is nervous.
[Skipping ahead a bit with the logistics--feel free to add any other preparations that the team would have made before the meeting proper.]
The Wasp's airlock, welcoming party
The ship-to-ship docking maneuver goes more or less smoothly--partly due to Kaliyan's vigilance, partly due to adroit piloting on the Butterfly's end. Two individuals emerge from the other ship. The first is a tall alt with long, rippling hair, their eyes wide and anxious. The alt is not wearing Nirai colors, but instead wears shades of desaturated blue with a blue-and-silver pin that declares that they are a Contact Specialist, Second Class. Their companion appears to be the alt's assistant, a tidy older man with his hair in braids, all wrapped up in a black coat with silver buttons, as if he's used to warmer temperatures. Neither of them resembles Nirai Remi.
Ankat doesn't spot any obvious weapons--it looks like the man could be hiding something beneath his coat, but he'd probably have difficulty getting it out before Ankat could react or call a warning. Probably.
"Ah, snacks!" the alt says, looking sharply at the edible fidget spinners. "You must be from one of those timelines, where the Liozh--" They flutter their hands. "You know."
"Manners, Contact Specialist," the man in the coat says. "You mustn't insult their way of living. We have special dispensation about...alternate orthodoxies, remember?"
"Indeed," the alt says. They will address themselves to the welcoming party in general, although it's clear that they're trying to identify Andan Rii. (As a Contact Specialist, they've probably learned not to make too many hasty assumptions.) "I'm Contact Specialist Andan Bokali, Second Class, and the Nirai have given me the honor of welcoming you and the rest of Bumblebee's crew to Station Moongray. [Referencing this message from Move 4.] This gentle here is my liaison on the station, Nirai Pavn." They smile, eyeing the fidget spinners again as though they suspect some of them are rigged to blow. "It is very good of you to provide refreshments. We were going to feed you back at the station, you know, but--" Andan Bokali smiles wryly. "The cooking there is not always the most festive." Their gaze drifts to Ankat's Scadrian whiskey, and their eyes brighten.
[Feel free to introduce yourselves to the NPCs, mingle with them, discuss terrible space snacks, ask them about the other ship, etc.]
[If you need clarification from me or from another PC, please don't hesitate to ask/message!]
Place: out-rift near Station Moongray
The Wasp's cockpit/command center:
Kaliyan notes that the Butterfly Lens asks for a docking maneuver with the Wasp, and approaches slowly and politely on the assumption that this is approved. In the meantime, the second vessel, which Sasha and Yehan previously identified as some kind of Naxorian Rosemallow House starship, decelerates and holds position some distance from the Wasp, lingering without initiating communication.
The Wasp's Engineering room
Anyone in or near Engineering will notice what almost feels like a quaver from the Wasp at the second starship's approach, as though the Wasp is nervous.
[Skipping ahead a bit with the logistics--feel free to add any other preparations that the team would have made before the meeting proper.]
The Wasp's airlock, welcoming party
The ship-to-ship docking maneuver goes more or less smoothly--partly due to Kaliyan's vigilance, partly due to adroit piloting on the Butterfly's end. Two individuals emerge from the other ship. The first is a tall alt with long, rippling hair, their eyes wide and anxious. The alt is not wearing Nirai colors, but instead wears shades of desaturated blue with a blue-and-silver pin that declares that they are a Contact Specialist, Second Class. Their companion appears to be the alt's assistant, a tidy older man with his hair in braids, all wrapped up in a black coat with silver buttons, as if he's used to warmer temperatures. Neither of them resembles Nirai Remi.
Ankat doesn't spot any obvious weapons--it looks like the man could be hiding something beneath his coat, but he'd probably have difficulty getting it out before Ankat could react or call a warning. Probably.
"Ah, snacks!" the alt says, looking sharply at the edible fidget spinners. "You must be from one of those timelines, where the Liozh--" They flutter their hands. "You know."
"Manners, Contact Specialist," the man in the coat says. "You mustn't insult their way of living. We have special dispensation about...alternate orthodoxies, remember?"
"Indeed," the alt says. They will address themselves to the welcoming party in general, although it's clear that they're trying to identify Andan Rii. (As a Contact Specialist, they've probably learned not to make too many hasty assumptions.) "I'm Contact Specialist Andan Bokali, Second Class, and the Nirai have given me the honor of welcoming you and the rest of Bumblebee's crew to Station Moongray. [Referencing this message from Move 4.] This gentle here is my liaison on the station, Nirai Pavn." They smile, eyeing the fidget spinners again as though they suspect some of them are rigged to blow. "It is very good of you to provide refreshments. We were going to feed you back at the station, you know, but--" Andan Bokali smiles wryly. "The cooking there is not always the most festive." Their gaze drifts to Ankat's Scadrian whiskey, and their eyes brighten.
[Feel free to introduce yourselves to the NPCs, mingle with them, discuss terrible space snacks, ask them about the other ship, etc.]
[If you need clarification from me or from another PC, please don't hesitate to ask/message!]
Engineering
Date: 2017-08-08 09:46 pm (UTC)The noises inside have changed; subtly, yes, but there is a distinctly different pitch to the familiar rhythms. Every ship, and every engine of those ships, have their own sounds, no two alike. Even ships of the same class, produced by the same yards or churned out by the thousand in automated factories, grew swiftly unique from different stresses and maintenance patterns. Like any engineer worthy of the title, he had quickly learned to recognize those of the Wasp. So often the first sign of a problem would be a minor change in background noise long before alarms started.
Alaric checks all the readouts, flicking a switch the show the real es rather than invariant-only version he'd cooked up. Nothing seems to be amiss, despite the change between the present to past calendrical zones, but still.
"I'm a scientist, damn it," he mutters to himself, "not a veterinarian."
The moth drive is one of the most intriguing bits of technology the hexarchate has, in his opinion, even if the idea of a living ship is a bit dubious. There were ingenious weapons, yes, but ultimately dead was dead. (Usually, unless you were unlucky.) The bigger-on-the-inside wasn't unique; difficult to implement unless you got your calendar right but so useful many people tried it anyway. But harnessing whatever that was at the heart of the moth and using it as a stardrive - now there was something interesting. So much to potentially learn and write about!
Such as, for example, whether the hexarchate calendar allowed the thing to live, or merely allowed keeping it bound and not eating people. Maybe best to run another diagnostic just to make sure everything is working order...
[I wasn't sure if I should be up with polite society, so for now I'll tug on that plot thread with the engines.]
Re: Engineering
Date: 2017-08-08 10:07 pm (UTC)If Alaric pauses running the diagnostics, the moth's harmonics will shift yet again--whether it's trying to get his attention, or the diagnostics tickle, is anyone's guess.
Re: Engineering
Date: 2017-08-09 04:53 am (UTC)Re: Engineering
Date: 2017-08-09 11:51 pm (UTC)"Moth appears to be exhibiting signs of agitation or unusual behavior, starting at... approximately three thousand seconds after exit from the rift, not sure of exact calendrical time," he says. "It shows awareness of diagnostic procedures - possibly associates them with comfort stemming from maintenance? No, scratch that, not enough information for a actual hypothesis. Two possible reasons for a change in status come to mind. First, a delayed reaction to changing from relative present to past, with accompanying changes in the high calendar. Second, it can detect the ship that is approaching, either through the ship's sensors or directly using whatever sensory apparatus it has."
He really shouldn't be doing this now, when strangers might waltz in. Still, if no one warned him of a tour, he could hardly be at fault, right? And checking out discrepancies in the drive when they might need to run away was only reasonable.
Alaric glances out the door. Not spying anyone, he programs the moth interface to send a simple binary signal down the same links it uses for the diagnostics - specifically, a sequence of primes. It's a first contact classic for a reason. Then he waits to see if anything changes.
[This course of action is logical, sensible, and sane.]
Re: Engineering
Date: 2017-08-10 11:03 pm (UTC)After a very brief pause, it starts a completely different sequence: the first six digits of pi.
It repeats both the three primes and the first six digits of pi a couple times for good measure, then stops.
Re: Engineering
Date: 2017-08-11 03:18 am (UTC)"The moth clearly has at least some mathematical knowledge, and can comprehend what I'm asking by sending it numbers," Alaric notes, while trying to come up with a way to communicate notation for algebra and calculus, as well as the key metric. "Certainly it appears intelligent and sentient, but that doesn't necessarily imply sapience as opposed to simple parroting and computational ability."
As the pure math gets exhausted, he throws in some physical constants too, like good old c and G. Or at least those constants under invariant conditions, since 'constant' can be a bit more flexible a term under different calendars. Measurements could be tricky, but he can start from Plank units, a second-length beat, and the speed of light if necessary.
[Alaric would probably try to teach it basic space-ASCII or something for symbolism, and possibly use crude diagrams since you can compose those using a combination of binary and a set number to establish line length. Mostly he's trying to see if it understands the basic principles of geometry, algebra, and calculus since those are theoretically universal and can be communicated without having to understand any sort of cultural or linguistic context. If that proves difficult, he'll bug someone else for assistance with translation.]
Re: Engineering
Date: 2017-08-12 02:59 am (UTC)When he gives it a moment, it sends space ASCII art of its own: the emblems of the six hexarchate factions, somewhat pixellated, followed by "1 / 0" repeated six times--maybe its version of a question mark.
Re: Engineering - Paging Sasha (or whoever else feels like butting in)
Date: 2017-08-13 01:47 am (UTC)There were animals with a surprising degree of cognitive ability - corvids and cephalapods, to name a couple - even before untold centuries of genetic and cybernetic augmentation. Many even had complex spatial reasoning, often adapted for the purposes of spaceflight control. Turning that into mathematical theory, and then posing a question, goes well beyond raw computational intelligence and awareness of its surrounding and into complex theory of mind.
Now there's just the small problem of interpreting that question. It's asking about the six hexarchate factions, that's clear enough, but asking what?
He reaches for the intercom panel and punches in the code for the spyhole Sasha is lurking in, while coming up with a Euler diagram to explain the crew's relationship with the hexarchate and the Wasp.
"Hey, Sasha," Alaric says, trying to sound casual. "If you're not too busy, I don't suppose you know anything about the history of moths? Like, for example, do they actually like the hexarchate?"
Re: Engineering - Paging Sasha (or whoever else feels like butting in)
Date: 2017-08-13 02:23 am (UTC)"Moths are part of the heptarchate," she says. "Oh, wait, you mean the alien kind of moth, not Nirai? There was no mothdrive in my time. I think I saw some kind of documentary once about creatures that can perceive a five-brane. Why?"
Parallel play in Engineering; also haircuts
Date: 2017-08-13 05:00 pm (UTC)But who cares about fashion when there's a delightful, virus-infested enemy data stream to splash in? Sasha pulls a terminal down from the wall and starts designing viruses. She wants two: one variant on the wriggly virus to pull information about the Naxorian crew and its cargo manifest (which should list any imprisoned Kirrish), and one fake Naxorian virus to start infesting the station.
Re: Parallel play in Engineering; also haircuts
Date: 2017-08-13 06:55 pm (UTC)[Talk to me. If there were imprisoned Kirrish, where would you want that storyline to go? A rescue mission? Are Kirrish frequently press-ganged?]
Horrors of Naxarat - paging Yehan
Date: 2017-08-13 09:22 pm (UTC)Re: Horrors of Naxarat - paging Yehan
Date: 2017-08-14 12:33 am (UTC)Re: Horrors of Naxarat - paging Yehan
Date: 2017-08-14 12:49 am (UTC)Calendrical Changes
Date: 2017-08-12 05:49 am (UTC)Re: Calendrical Changes
Date: 2017-08-13 01:21 am (UTC)We will have to do science to it, if we aren't running for our lives.]
Re: Calendrical Changes
Date: 2017-08-13 02:57 am (UTC)Re: Engineering
Date: 2017-08-09 02:46 pm (UTC)