[dumbluck]

2400.3.8

Administrator Gelstin listened to the report on the new star system discovered. At first, he had found all this a bit too hard to believe, and had assumed that it was just a series of coincidental sensor malfunctions. His Sciences Administrator was assuring him that it wasn't.

"There can be no doubt, Felega," Artillin Veriug said. He hated being referred to by his familiar name in official contexts. But Artillin and himself had been friends since before Primary; for him, he made an exception.

The Science Administrator continued. "We have triple checked the readings. While Scout's sensors are suffering from some distortions now, she has more than enough resolution to determine whether the astronomical bodies present fit the familiar Xtreme system. She has transited Phenomenon #1 four times now; the first time was her accidental transit late last month. In the past seven days, she has returned to the Xtreme side, then re-transited to this new system, and has now re-transited back again. She's currently in our system, in close orbit of Phenomenon #1, taking further readings. Her sensors were functioning perfectly, and even more amazingly, this... Phenomenon, this Warp Point, appears to be stable. Upon re-transiting out of Xtreme, Scout was returned to the same star system as before."

"Have the crew been monitoring for hazardous radiation levels," the Health Administrator asked. "Your report mentioned that an energy surge overloaded the sensors on the first transit. What if that surge also has harmful effects on our crew?"

"Scout's crew was not monitoring for such things on the first transit, as they were not expecting it. However, they did monitor for any radiation variations on the second three. All three transits showed no harmful radiation either in the crew compartments or outside the hull. We have no reason to believe that the surge that blinds our sensors has any harmful effects on biologicals whatsoever. However, the sensitive sensor arrays are another matter. Scout reports that while she is able to recalibrate her sensors fairly quickly after these energy surges, their sensitivity has been negatively affected by these surges, and that the problem will only be exasperated if they continue. She will be returning to Belanara to have her sensor array repaired. Hopefully by the time she arrives, we'll have devised a means of protecting the sensors from these energy surges." With that, he looked meaningfully at the interim Design Administrator, Hirim Lomoron.

Hirim was new to the Council of Administrators. Only 3 months ago, she was assigned as the Assistant Deputy Design Administrator under Velua Morroi. It was a political decision. She showed no special desire to be an administrator, but her prowess as an engineer... left something to be desired. She was the daughter of an powerful provincial administrator, however. His political wrangling had gotten her demotion lessened to a transfer to the Administrator's pool, as opposed to simply being turned out on the street. The untimely murder of Administrator Morroi and his deputy Meletha Holigs in his penthouse bedroom just three weeks ago had catapulted Hirim into a chair she was not yet fully trained to fill, and it showed. She was no match for the minds gathered around this table, and everyone at the table knew it, including Hirim herself. Gelstin could almost see her physically recoil from being called upon now. He was surprised that she hadn't yet resigned.

"We, ah, have an improvement for the sensors that looks, uh, promising," she managed to stammer out. "We think it might be reinforce the sensor array enough to withstand the energy surges from the, uh, Phenomena. If we decide to explore them more, that is."

"You think it might?" came the angry reply from the Alemni Xeratom. Since the Military Administrator's post had been eliminated after The War, the Construction Administrator's office had taken over control of the few military forces that had been retained, and Xeratom was vehemently protective of this new power base that had fallen into his lap. Most of the military assets that remained in service were large ice skimmers retrofit to large scale civilian construction or mining operations. The fledgling space fleet thus fell under his jurisdiction. "You are willing to gamble with the lives of my crews with sensors that you think MIGHT hold up to the stresses of traversing the Phenomena?"

This time, he was sure he saw Hirim shrink back into her chair. Before Xeratom could continue further, Gelstin stepped in. "Now, Alemni," he chided, "Watch your temper. After all, 'He who is not of rational mind cannot rational decisions make.' Let's maintain our focus here." Xeratom remained silent, despite the blueish tint of anger still in his cheeks. Gelstin knew that Xeratom would not, could not challenge him directly. Not yet, anyway. There were rumors that Xeratom had set his sights higher than the Council of Administrators, that he wanted to get back into a research lab. His influence then would be great indeed. But for now, Xeratom held his tongue.

"So, we know that these Phenomena... lead to new star systems. And judging from this report, there are MANY opportunities for growth here. Belanara should be relieved with all the planets we can make new homes for ourselves on. But what of the other Phenomenon? Should we continue to explore these Phenomena, and see what other wonders await us in the stars? Or should we instead..."

At this, a door opened, and a Bela entered. He hurried over to Artillin, handed him a report display, and whispered a few words with him. Gelstin was annoyed at this interruption; it was bad form to disrupt a Council of Administrators meeting. But then, the vaunted Scientists had more important things to do than wait for a scheduled break. He should have been one of them. He knew he'd passed the tests, despite what the grading computers had said.

His reverie was broken when he noticed the color draining from his Science Administrator's face. The interrupting assistant had taken his leave, and Artillin's hand faintly shook as he held the report display. "Artillin? What is it?"

Artillin's voice shook slightly as he spoke. Gelstin couldn't remember seeing his friend so shaken since his son had joined the military, all those years ago. "The sensor logs from Scout, we... we're still analyzing them, of coarse, what you've seen so far is just the preliminary analysis. We, uh, we..."

"Just spit it out," Xerotom commented gruffly. "You're starting to sound like the kid over there," he continued with a not-so-polite gesture towards the Design Administrator.

"Ah, there is evidence that, uh," he referred to the report display just handed to him, "that the ninth planet AND the moon of the fourth planet in the new star system have previously been inhabited by intelligent beings."

A hushed silence fell over those at the table, and then the cacophony of shouted questions was nearly deafening. It took over a minute for Gelstin to quiet everyone down. Then he asked, as calmly as he could, the question that everyone had been shouting just a few moments before. "Are you saying that we aren't alone? That there are... some form of aliens just beyond Phenomenon #1?"

Artillin shook his head, still in shock himself over the revelation. "No. Note that I said there were signs of PREVIOUS habitation. There is no sentient life there now. But... There are structures clearly present on the lifeless moon, and there are indications of them also on the nineth planet. You can reference the Radar logs at datapoint 2685493 through 2970584 to see for yourselves. But this opens up an interesting, yet potentially hazardous line of thinking. If there was once alien life out there... is there still?"