Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Zelleck was on a brief vacation before being reassigned to an new starliner still being built.

The President of the Starliner group asked if he wanted to come to the Space Club, a new club opening in the capital city club district, replacing the old Control Alliance hangout.

Zelleck performed admirably according to the captain of Freedom and so he was promoted to second in command of a new starliner. The President wanted to get to know a bit about him and the club as well.

The sign in front of the club read:

THE SPACE CLUB
PARTY CENTER FOR THE FUTURE AND THE FAZRAHN PAST

The Doorperson chatted with the president quickly before admitting them both. Seats were crowded in a circle around the announcing stage where a Citizen was preparing for the start of the festivities, and around the exotic oils bar, which sported everything from basic black to the famous Creators' Blend, all at atrociously high prices.

Various spacey atmospheric items were everywhere, especially things left over from the ship launches.

The Announcer spoke, "Well, first lets see who we have here today from the space companies. We've got the President of the starliner group, a second in command for a yet to be named starliner, a public relations officer for FFCC, and a representative for the control alliance escort Discipline." At the Last announced group, quite a few citizens were surprised. No one knew about Discipline, except a few people in ship resupply centers and at FFCC.

"Don't be surprised, Discipline has mapped out the majority of the in range solar systems. They have an ultra efficient crew, and efficient engines, and they have been looking for the Fazrah as well as selling rights to new planets everywhere. Things didn't turn out so well for most of our neighboring systems. Look at this map," the announcer paused to project a map which showed dangerous places Discipline had navigated through and only a couple inhabitable places.

"Discipline has performed admirably in my opinion and I'd like to give them a round of applause. Alright, lets hurry about through these other facts so we can get to the slightly less spacey surprise ahead. Starliner group has transported a total of over 22 million passengers to three planets. The third group for space is FFCC who has constructed and coordinated launch of ten spaceships so far, including 4 colonial ships, 2 judicial ships, 3 starliners, and a scout ship..."

Later, the announcer revealed a Fazrahn musical composition that the creator owned and like. The club acquired it at a price of 231 mineral dollars, which was higher than the price of building the club itself. It was a big hit, as an auditory reminder of the mysterious Fazrah who surrounded their Creator before his travel to this world. The question was whether or not the Fazrahns were still around, and Discipline had the best chance of finding out.

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Eden.

The planet was such a volcanic hell that it systematically destroyed all complex life forms by denying them the time needed for evolution. Only a few plant species achieved long term survival, by spreading massive amount of spores before volcanic annihilation.
Nineteen million years ago, some small trees developed a natural infrared sensor. These vegetable creatures used it to release their spores should one of the frequent volcanic fire threaten them. This species achieved survival. And began to prosper. Some of the offspring changed, mutated, and adapted as life always does. One of the mutation involved the emission of a small wave of ultrasound, which was a signal for all nearby trees to release its spores. Then, some other vegetable species started to rely on the ultrasound trees, with rudimentary eyes catching the spore ejection, which in turn started their own.
It took 9 million years for these plants and some others to evolve into an ant like society. During this time, the planet was getting more stable, volcanic activity was diminishing and animal life started to appear everywhere. The vegetable society had to learn to defend itself from herbivore predators. Thorns, poisonous fruits and even carnivorous plants started to appear. Several vegetable species depended upon one another to prosper. But the limited range of ultrasound signals was causing havoc. Frequently, instructions from different parts of a large nest were conflicting. A vegetable nest could be competing for vital space with another nest, or even with itself.
Around 7 million years ago, an Orchid specie evolved a limited form of telepathic transmission, which was not restrained by the ultrasound range limitation. The consequences were tremendous. While the flower spread on the planet, all nests quickly disappeared and merged into each other. As a matter of fact, the node was composed of two levels, the first one was the most basic, the multitude of vegetable consciousness that was busy keeping themselves alive on a day to day basis, with as much awareness as most earthlike vegetables. But, as the old terran saying, a team could be much more than just the sum of the teammates' capacity.

"Indeed."

The network of linked vegetable was much more than a larger node, as in effect, it created a consciousness. It took only a few thousand years for the Master Node to evolve from an instinctive intelligence to a sentient one.

"We are one."

Reportedly, this was the first thought of the newly formed collective mind. From then, began a long period of physical stagnation. But on the mental point of view, the Mind was a fury of thought. Subjects on scientific, mathematics or philosophical grounds were explored. But always on a theoretical point of view. As the Mind lacked any way to interact with its surrounding, any practical study was out of his reach, but that did not bother it, as it had little use for experiments.

"Then came the Hammer."

The Hammer took the form of a wandering asteroid which fell on Eden 6 million years ago. The northern continent was badly hit, but the nuclear winter that followed almost wiped out the Collective Mind. Several of its constituent species could not survive the century of reduced luminosity, nor the overall lower temperature. Luckily, the Mind discovered that some seeds could survive the cold for this long. When the cataclysm's effect slowly faded, the Mind was fully aware it had come very close to disappearing. The notion of death, which was only a distant possibility a century ago suddenly became a threat.

"What was that ? Where did it came from ? Will it come back ?"

These questions needed answers. As soon as its survival was assured, the Collective started to devise his course of action. To work out that problem, the Mind would need to interact with its surrounding. Some particular trees were bred, associated. The Mind could not modify the DNA sequences of its components, it was just breeding some species and trying to obtain the desired results. But it had time for itself. Three thousands years ago, after countless failed experiment, the Mind achieved a result : the fruit of a certain tree, once fallen would follow a predetermined path with rudimentary legs, and perform a simple action before burying itself in the earth. That simple tool enabled the Mind to create dams and irrigation systems. But more than that, it added a whole dimension to the Collective's actions. These first tools were used to create more efficient tools, which were in turn used to.......

"Today."

After the first fruit-tool, the slow pace with which the Mind viewed time had to change. When born, the Mind was perceiving time by the passing of seasons. After the Hammer, it switched to the passing of days. After the first fruit tool, it subdivided days in 9 time units, each time units being divided in 9 sub-units. Most of animal species had been disposed of, and the remaining were absorbed by the Mind as tools. The planet was completely acclimated, a garden in which no predators lurked. The mind had established full control on the ecosystem, and most of his duties were to respond to the problems of supply and demand. When a component of him needed something, the Mind checked what or who could fulfill it, and arranged the transportation of the goods where they were in need. The main subtlety was to establish priorities between demands should a bottleneck of production or transportation arise. The sky is regularly filled by Zeppelin like plants which transports goods and sub-species from place to place on the behalf of their Master Mind. Due to his level of understanding and exploration of the solar system, the Mind does not fear the Hammer anymore, it has the power to prevent it. But an irresistible force is pushing it out of his birthplace, even out of his own solar system. Something that was absorbed with some animal tools long ago.

Curiosity.

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Interesting start with the Floral race, I'm having a bit of trouble with the Robotians.

I like my idea but I'm slipping too much into a terran type race. It may not be the star trek terrans, but the only differences you can see from my story are recharges, the Justice as head of everything and the extreme lack of any authoritarian tendencies.

I wanted to play an extremely brutal capitalistic race for the Foundation, but it seems like its becoming too terrany. Since we have capitalism in many parts of our world, it lacks newness.

The thing is, the Robotians are supposed to compete brutally and yet have a huge amount of freedom, represented by the fact that two of the colonized planets are independent republics allowed by the Justice.

Anyone have any ideas or comments on whether the Robotians are too terrany, and if so, some ideas on what I should do.

I have the idea of many citizens looking up to the previously secret ship Discipline and its crew. They achieved more than the colonists have so far, and they have a much more repressive political view. It may spread quickly among youngsters since the Robotian mind is extremely affected by the environment.

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Thread cleaning.

[ August 26, 2003, 12:40: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Amazing additon Unknown Enemy. I'm impressed. I don't think anyone has explored the organic race idea so deeply and effectively. I look forward to more from you! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Discipline rewards the Control Alliance

"Captain, we show an interlink formed on the outer edges of this solar system. Its not formatted according to any of our standards."

"Another ship. It isn't responding to any business hails." Any ship built by the Foundation and manned by anyone, politics aside, accepted business communication frequencies. Who would forsake a beneficial trade?

"Could it be a Fazrah ship? But we wouldn't know until we got too close."

"By then nothing would be left of us."

The communications officer interrupted, "The Fazrah are biological, its unlikely they could interlink. We only can interlink because the Creator built support for it. Whomever it is, I can't join their interlink. I tried adjusting the formats, its just universally rejecting my entry."

"Can you send some sort of message by any means?"

"We can send an interlink under their format, as much as we know of it."

"Well, just tell them a bit about the ship and our purpose, and offer trade and exchange, confidentiality. If they trust us, the rest of the Foundation will know nothing about it, and we can set up a nexus of ships in this territory. Its outside of anything the Foundation would want to parcel as well. We could even disable our business comm and change to their format, and build our industrial empire in a nebulae onboard ships."

"I sent your message captain, I've ensured them no one has to know about any transactions. They may only get a garbled message, or they could be uncooperative,..."

"Or they could lead to our alliance becoming its own industrial and military power."

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

"Its a bit cryptic Captain, but we got a reply. First they thought we were part of them. Then they went to some sort of mixed imperative/conversative. I get the main idea of it through translation, that they wonder if we are a rogue subnode. They also want to know about our main().

I sent back a note for you, I gave some of our asserts as they were unsure about our trustworthiness."

"You should have waited. I know what they need to know. Send this as soon as is prudent without intefering with the Last message," the captain handed another message to the communications citizen. "Leave the ship on course for now, we will see what they say."

An agent of the FFCC happened to be on board, slipped on by them just before launch. Anything secret is worth checking out. The agent decided it was time to transmit, and managed to do so while the bridge was unoccupied. He sent a large package of everything collected, stellar information, treasonous activities of the Control Alliance, and most importantly the foreign ship and message.

Later

"Someone has sent us a large pile of information," said a clerk to the President of FFCC.

"Send it to Anarchista construction yard. Tell them the offer stands and this time we have something extra. We are willing to construct a warship for free for the Anarchists to chase down the Control Alliance. The information sent should give them authorization to do so."

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Thread cleaning.

[ August 26, 2003, 12:38: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

The Beginnings of a Trade Guild of the Galaxy?

Though most colonies of the Foundation were still in their infancy, the tycoons were spreading throughout the galaxy seeking after trading partners to further their own wealth, and to fulfill a dream shared by all tycoons. They wanted the galaxy in their grip, without having to forcibly make it that way.

Discipline maintained contact and traded with the virtual race it had contacted before, with slightly more militant ideas than others, while two explorer tycoons discovered trading partners of their own.

Three sovereign empires had contact with some part of the Foundation, but all three liason ships kept contact tightly controlled, so for the majority of Robotian society, no aliens existed.

Some citizens began noticing odd imports brought in by trading vessels, but most just shrugged it off.

The Foundation had a vast information gap, surpassing even the wealth disparity. In exclusive clubs, citizens in the know talked about the aliens and the spoils, the knowledge, while on the roads and in the factories, life went on as though nothing would ever change.

The explorer tycoons envisioned a future where they knew everyone, they knew the weapon systems, the homeworlds, everything about everyone else, while keeping the location of the Foundation homeworld in complete secrecy. They felt they could protect the Foundation by being so active no one felt compelled to find out just where they hailed from.

They wanted the Foundation to be invisible as a military and sovereign force, and yet everywhere as an economic force connecting empires together and binding them all to the tycoons of the Foundation.

Re: [OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.
 

Of Life and Death.

In orbit of Eden, a shipyard created a womb. Or an egg. Something was struggling inside, to free itself in the face of the void. Through a myriad of captors, The Overmind was watching. Here was birthing a part of him created to explore space.

The time has come.
The Overmind withdrew, leaving me as an individual thing. I miss the multiplicity, but my goal has been set. I resist joining back the Overmind, as I have a purpose. I have to hatch. And that feat is for me alone to perform.

The massive colonizers were easy to design, as they were no more than a part of Eden launched in space, then thrown in the void toward their target at a very slow speed. Explorers were designed as huge ships of more than 150000 tons. Most of the mass consisting of supply. But these ships needed thousands of living tools to stay functional. These needed food, air supply and cares to run the vessel. It became a pure mathematic madness. The farthest a ship needed to go, the more on board servicing it would need, thus the more tools were needed which added up to supply needs which in turn reduced the range of the explorers.
But worst, some of the tools had problems to adapt to the absence of gravity. Bigger and better ships were needed, and more independent ones too. The scout vessels lacked intelligence, and could not react correctly to the discovery they made.

The solution was so obvious. How could we miss it for so long ?

Since the first fruit-tool, the Overmind made awesome progress. It was not anymore breeding species, but simulating new ones, designing them then creating the DNA they would need to exist. Work began. The Multiplicity started to develop a part of him that would be born in space and live there. A part of him that would not fear the void, but live by it. First, it created the concepts. This son of Eden would need multiple organic redundancies coupled with a fusion core able to power both motors and organs. Once the concept was ready, the Overmind started to work on simulations. The nervous system in itself was a masterpiece, not only was it designed to transfer information, but it was created in such a way it also delivered electric energy to the rest of the body.
Over time, the Overmind realized he was heading for troubles, as the complexity envisioned for his creature was way beyond the quantity of information that could be stored in organic DNA. So the Overmind cheated, it worked on several different DNA assembled as a single creature. Eventually, what humans would have called Frankeinstein's creature was slowly assembled in a single body.

First was created the hull. Then mineral tools and organic seeds where carefully installed. Once that phase was achieved, the whole hull was covered by a nutritive layer that would feed the creature until all pieces could grow to an adult size. Only a few weeks before birth was the Womb thrown in orbit. At that time the creature was awakened, the Multiplicity started to work on the mind of it until the ship could be accepted as a miniature Version of itself when working independently.

The Womb has feed me of its Last drop of deuterium.
I feel it is now disconnecting.
I am ready.

In orbit of Eden, chunks of the Womb started to drop on the planet, burning in the atmosphere. The slow pulse of the ship's fusion generator accelerated, feeding the creature with life.

Ignition !

Ion engines ignited, the acceleration dislocated what remained of the womb.
Free, the ship howled in pleasure. Silently, the Overmind was watching.

Pain.
My sensors are corrupting my thought-band.

Somewhere in the alchemy of DNA sequences, an accident occurred. Instead of working as an organ in a body, after a particular signal, some sensor began to view the ship as a stranger. Immunity systems began to fight themself. In a few minutes after hatching, the ship became blind, then deaf. Paralysis followed.
All that time, the ship was transmitting, describing to the Overmind what was happening, his fight to subdue the rebellion that was killing it, his fight to keep a stable orbit despite unreliable engine commands, his loosing fight versus failing security and his growing fear.

Silent in sorrow, the Overmind listened to Eden's dying son.

On the planet, the ship's brain was a coral, grown to sentience by the Overmind and used as data storage. In space, it was the ship's command and control center, but it could not control anymore his body. The Last step was when some ion engines started to ignite randomly. What has been a coral network understood that there was a risk of throwing himself versus Eden. Most of the ship would vaporize while entering the atmosphere, but the hull would not. Weighting quickly his decision, the Coral brain shutdown the fusion reactor. The first voidtree prototype created by the Overmind committed suicide less than 30 minutes after birth.

Seven more experiments would be needed before a specimen could live up to expectations.

[ July 24, 2003, 12:50: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]