(June 3rd, 2020, 18:06)SpaceOWL Wrote: Hi guys, would you accept a regular lurker to make its début in this SG with you? :-)
Absolutely! Welcome aboard!
Also, in the interest of keeping this moving along:
Got it!
Roster:
- Arnuz - just played - RefSteel - Playing Now! (Expect a report probably tomorrow night)
- Bionic Commando - potentially on deck
- Cyneheard - potentially on deck
- shallow_thought - potentially on deck
- SpaceOWL - potentially on deck
...depending on who's first able to play after my report.
If other players want to participate too, it's still early enough that we can split into a couple of smaller teams both playing the same map - so please don't hesitate to join in!
This must be the loneliest job in the galaxy. Looking out across the night at the endless, empty stars shining bright and cold in the vastness of space, dreaming of Peace and the fifty million drones and workers, soldiers and hive mothers - give or take a few transport-loads that have not yet arrived, still hurtling together in their millions across hyperspace - I am myself surrounded by perhaps a third again as many, swarming over our homeworld in perfect solidarity, and even surrrounded am alone, entirely. All my people, driven by our unity of action and of purpose to accomplish ever-greater things, work together in aid of a common plan, trusting in their hive mothers to guide them true, clicking cheerfully and lovingly and proudly to each other, working together in harmony, signaling with scent and sound and vision, acting as one, while their hive mothers too assign their tasks according to the greater plan of the World Mother - now the Worlds Mother - me. I trust in them all to carry out my plans, to be loyal in act and in thought and in deed ... but with whom shall I klick and share scentings and dance to coordinate my actions in service to a plan, when the one task before me is to shape the plan that all others must follow? To share it with them, yes, but not as equals, never dancing a measure together with another of my people, I who cannot dance and cannot even play but can only call the tune. One hundred and nineteen million Klackons live for me, would die for me, at my merest fickle whim - and so I can have no whims, cannot be fickle, cannot even be loyal, for to whom can I be? I can only cast my thoughts across the emptiness of space, unto the deep and distant stars and hope that the word received from Stalaz and from Pollus should prove true: That other peoples dwell out there somewhere who may share the stars and click and scent and dance with me.
It was not always thus with me; until this year, I was but one of the many Kholdan hive mothers, click-singing to the others across the span of our home soil, birthing and caring for my many eggs and hatchling larvae through to pupation, and watching over them until they emerged as true imago Klackons and guiding them then in their labors all across the jagged mountains in which my home had always been. I followed the plan and the words of our Omnipresent Species Guide, the wise and caring leader of all Klackonkind designated by the number of mathematical perfection: 36, product of the squares of the first two primes. I followed the plan with all my people, guiding them as I was guided, sharing in it with the other Hive Mothers trustingly, willingly, gladly, while the voice of our perfect 36, of our OSG, unerringly guided me. Nor was it so for but a single OSG-36, for I remember the time when she who was called Numapmaikinalkorithm led our people wisely in the building of our early factories, a pair of tiny scout craft ready to cross the stars, and our first great colony ship, bearing two millions of our Klackons into a glorious future far from home. And when her time as OSG was done, she returned among her people to be hive mother again while another Klackon rose by her will or the will of our people - for how when one is not OSG-36 can one distinguish the will of that one from the will of all Klackon beings - and a Klackon called Arnuz today and called so before ascending to this lonely role became for a span of two decades the glorious voice that led many millions of us to Peace and revealed the secrets of the stars surrounding our home. Yet I did not dream when Arnuz guided us with firm pincer into the future that I would take the role myself, still less so soon! It is so, so lonely at the top - may I find companions soon!
Report, Part 1
2320
I find that many of my people are hard at work in the shipyards of Kholdan, assembling another colony ship to carry millions more of our people across the stars, with nowhere they can land with the fuel we can manufacture now. I understand the reason - it is a gamble in the hope that by the time the ship arrives at distant Stalaz, we will have learned to refine hydrogen fuel for its power cells - yet it is not a gamble I seek. When I was only one hive mother among many, my task and my people's was to preserve the bounty of Kholdan's rich soil, sweet water, and cool, fresh air by cleaning them of the poisonous byproducts of our many new factories, and as it was I and no other who was elevated to the role of OSG-36 to follow Arnuz, it seems clear to me that the path forward is my path: The path of caring for our people and our glorious worlds.
It is not enough, I deem, for Peace to do all our research, nor for all to be bent on the discovery of hydrogen containment. Instead, nearly all our people will spend the year building new labs, some indeed for hydrogen studies such as those where the bulk of Klackons who are not themselves involved in lab-building projects are conducting experiments, but the rest are devoting themselves now to labs for a whole new field of research: The study of our planets themselves, and how we may hope to better live upon them and shape them to our needs, our love, our wishes, and all our activities. A time will come to build more ships and claim new worlds across the galaxy, but for now - for a little while - that time must wait.
2321
My hope - my secret dream, for all my dreams are secret while I must play this vital role of OSG-36, with no one in whom I can confide - has not been achieved. I longed to find some means of aiding all Klackons in the work I and my children once performed so loyally, but such a means, for now at least, is not in reach.
Instead, I am faced with a choice that in truth is no choice at all: Of all the star systems yet known whose worlds are all so barren of life that we can as yet live nowhere among them, not one harbors a world so nearly hospitable that we could land upon it with any now-contemplated technology. Yet instead of pursuing the difficult task of taming worlds of a class we have never yet encountered, we might swiftly and easily find ways to transform such worlds as those on which we live already, converting sheer mountains like those in which I long have made my home to gentler slopes on which we can grow a few hardy crops and feed more of our people - and make them stronger. Surely this - this technique of terraforming - is the future we must pursue!
2322
Scientific research will be the strength and hope of the Klackon people - research to lead us forward, and research perhaps to share, someday, with the other peoples of the galaxy - beginning with the reticent Bulrathi, though they would not so much as speak with our scouts, nor even long remain, when our scout met theirs in the time of Arnuz, in the skies of what then was only the planet Stalaz 2. But we have more than a scout there now: Two million Klackons with their hive mothers have built a relay station and a brand-new colony, and in the hope that it will soon be seen by friendly Bulrathi, our new home among the lush jungles of that world is given a fitting name.
Come and share in knowledge with us, oh great Bulrathi people! Send your traders and your scientists to see the Peace with which we first entered the stars and now the Love with which we would greet you! Come in friendship soon, and speak - why won't you speak with me?
It seems they still are shy, these enigmatic Bulrathi - or perhaps they are still too distant for our merchants or theirs - or indeed for any craft at all except our tiny scoutcraft - to cross the space between our worlds. I see no way forward then but to continue our research efforts as quickly as may be: Better fuel with which to cross the stars, terraforming technology with which to make our planets more our own, and soon now, better construction techniques, by which to make ever-more-efficient spacecraft and factories. These are the things our worker Klackons do best, even as they themselves are strengthened by our work in planetology, and so I am eager to learn how best we can progress!
2323
At last, a hope arises for the future to which I was called! I had thought to quickly study ways of speeding construction of our still-too-few factories, but though this proved impossible at first, instead I find another, more ambitious possibility: Instead of improving our methods of cleaning the pollution that belches daily into our world from our factories, as I had hoped to do some years ago, we can address the problem at its very source, reducing the pollutants generated by the factories themselves! It is a longer, slower project than the one I had supposed we would begin, but it will surely be worth the effort, and I will commit to it whole-heartedly. After all, even now, our laboratories calculate a 7% chance of a breakthrough in planetology by next year, with hydrogen fuel tantalizingly close as well, so that if fortune should shine upon us, we might soon be able to commit all our research efforts to this dream of new construction technology!
2325
My heart rejoices within me; I can feel my antennae quiver with joy, see the deep hive in which I dwell shine blue with the light of pleasure glowing in my eyes! Beyond all hope, a sign has come to us across the stars of another species, tantalizingly close: The first ship ever to come within range of our scanners larger than a tiny scout!
They even communicated - just a little, and not to me, but broadcasting, perhaps to others of their people, but in ways our scanners could pick up and hear: They are called, it seems, a "Frigate," built by Human people who must surely come from near the center of the galaxy! Surely this is cause for celebration, and in no way for worry! They are surely a friendly people who would never in a million years, from their position near the galactic center, dream of wooing every other race into declaring them the rulers of the entire galaxy, so it is definitely with joy and in no way trepidation that my antennae are quivering! They cannot of course be sending an armed destroyer - that is to say, Frigate - to one of our colonies, for we would have seen their merchants and diplomats before if their fuel allowed such range, so they presumably mean to visit Aurora, the tiny, burning world at the star nearest to Kholdan and Peace. These humans are welcome to explore it if they wish - and if by chance they are not chitinous arthropods like us, but a new type of life-form whose carapace is made of pure asbestos.
Our science meanwhile has been progressing steadily, with ever-growing odds of breakthroughs in both our mature fields of research: We calculate better than one chance in three that our terraforming techniques will be functional by next year, and almost half that chance of achieving safe storage measures for pure hydrogen fuel. With the latter looming, I finally am ready to order the completion of another colony ship, to relocate immediately to Peace, whence I hope it will depart for Love, where perhaps by then it can be refitted with hydrogen cells to power it across space, and continue to the golden star of Vulcan, far away, out on the very rim of the galaxy - and nearer, I hope and believe, to our shy one-day friends, the Bulrathi!
2326
Tremendous news has come to me - some delightful, and some terrifying! The Human Frigate has indeed entered orbit at Aurora, and our science labs have worked out the last details needed to terraform our worlds to our needs! It will besides be one day possible, with still-more-advanced technology, for us to live on such dead and deadly worlds as the one orbiting Antares, the neutron star directly rimward of here! Though I might have preferred instead to find a simpler means of improving the terraforming techniques we just learned to implent today, the sooner to develop still-more-advanced technology, we could find no way to do so, and there is no question that we will benefit from a new colony! No, the terror lies in the other possibility I discovered: Another application of terraforming technology. It seems that the benign world-shaping fungi that will help us terraform our worlds could in theory be modified - though thankfully not without years of intensive effort - to be used as orbital weapons, generating deadly spores that would ruin any world they might touch for all lifeforms who might dwell there. I never intend to pursue such horrifying research - I can only hope that the same is true for the rest of the galaxy.
2327
One of our forward scouts has located the home of the beautiful, shy ... enormous ... hairy ... battle-hardened ... Bulrathi! Like ours, their homeworld's factory infrastructure is still far from complete, but they have filled their world with all the people it can hold, where our people have been leaving our homeworld steadily, every year, for Peace, whence some have gone on to Love, to strengthen the whole of our people. Strengthen in the Klackon sense, that is: The Bulrathi appear to believe that strength lies in keeping a pair of colony cruisers in orbit and building ten missile bases on the surface to keep strangers away. "Shy" seems to be something of an understatement with them, but I will not give up on this friendship! One day, perhaps, we may yet meet them joyously!
And our newly-stabilized hydrogen fuel cells will certainly help with that! Since nuclear engines are the only new projects with which our propulsion labs can experiment, I will gladly see work begin on those, though most of our research efforts will continue to focus on construction and planetology. But there is still more good news:
Arriving in orbit above the jungles of Uxmai 3, one of our scouts discovered an entire Human colony! And as I had hoped, the human people were not nearly so shy as the Bulrathi: They had no fleet in orbit, and no missile bases - just a little over fifty million funny-looking monkey people, and they responded to our greetings in an easy, relaxed sort of way, asking our scout to leave the system but expressing eagerness to trade with us whenever one of us should develop the fuel technology or interstellar bases necessary for the regular exchange of goods. It is true that they did not make any kind of formal commitment, nor reveal any specific information, but it seems to me that it was a promising beginning to what will surely be a long and cooperative friendship between our peoples. How I long for the time when we may speak together fully and openly!
There is definitely no danger here. Of course such cute, silly monkeys will not be taking over the galaxy!
The years have passed quietly, peacefully, upon Kholdan, while our transports, scouts and colony ships - I keep thinking the one bound for the oceans of Gion just departed, but it's already been a year - continue on their way across the deeps of space, and I follow them with my thoughts, still ever lonely. But today there is thrilling news again, for our Scouts have not only encountered another Human colony, less than half the size of the one at Uxmai, on a terran world with barely half its mineral density - but also met with the Scouts of yet another alien species!
The presence of a Mrrshan scout above the Human Talas colony is cause for some concern: The humans of that world will not say how long the Mrrshan ship was there before it saw our Scout and jumped to hyperspace without a word, like the Bulrathi, and if it refused their request to leave them in peace, as seems likely since it would be a strange coincidence for its arrival to have coincided with ours, then what other reasonable requests might they not refuse? Is it possible they could even be planning an invasion? I must hope it is not so, for I like these funny-looking Human creatures already, and I should not like to see them at the mercy of a rude and warlike species. At least so far we have seen only scout ships from these Mrrshans - even at Galos, the red star just beyond the nebula: Another jungle, and one that I should very much like to claim for our people. True, it is a long way off - at the very edge of our scouting range, but with new construction technology, that might yet come within reach - and laboratory calculations already suggest almost a ten percent chance of a breakthrough within a year!
2334
With chances growing so quickly, last estimated at almost 40%, it is no surprise that my dream of cleaner factories has finally been achieved.
Research in the same field will have to continue with close study of the high-resilience structural material known as duralloy, since it seems we still can find no means of improving our factory construction efficiency, but I am content with this: Duralloy will have many uses when the project completes, and in the meantime, there is other and greater news from among the stars!
At the golden star once named Vulcan, far out at the edge of the galaxy, nearer to Ursa and its Bulrathi bear-beings than any other we can reach, we at last have a chance to form a colony! For fourteen long years, I have been alone at the top of the Klackon hierarchy, and now at last, at long, long last, I have my best chance yet to reach, and speak with people - shy though they may be - who are not a part of our chain of command, who instead of merely serving might truly be friends with me! Perhaps they are still too far away to reach - as yet I cannot tell - but Vulcan 4 hereafter shall be known for what it brings to me today as we build our landing and communications beacons there: My dearest Hope!
And suddenly over the image of the landing on my screen, a holographic visage appears, with symbols and words from beyond Klackon space! I gasp with hope and pleasure, though I must admit surprise: The hologram is not of a Bulrathi! Perhaps this is a protocol they use to overcome their shyness, a kind of communications system that will enable me...
...but no. The words of the holoimage are stranger still, even astonishing!
At the same moment that we settled our third extra-Kholdan colony - our fourth star system, all told - another race I had never encountered spread to their sixth! The newsdroid that brought the news fades and is gone, leaving no sign of how to communicate with it or get it to return - and how can it be, with our four worlds and their six, that these Sakkra have never sent a ship in our direction, even near enough to see? Am I then doomed to be forever lonely?
The shy Bulrathi people's homeworld lies five parsecs from our new colony, just barely too far off for our merchants and diplomats to reach. The Humans still are out of contact too, and the Mrrshans, far away, to say nothing of the mythic-seeming Sakkra. To whom then shall I speak? Tens of millions of Klackons are setting out together, in joy and solidarity, from Love to Hope, as planned - almost half of them arrived at Love from Peace just this year in preparation - to strengthen our newest colony, and they all have each other, but who is there for me?
2335
The year has come, the day, the hour: Though not perhaps on Hope itself, there is yet hope for me! I am departing Kholdan ere the day is out for the beautiful ocean world no longer called Gion 3 - no longer, because from now on, it bears another name. I am done with being lonely, with the quiet of the stars that alone stand above me. The time has come to welcome another OSG, another voice that all must heed, and I once more will gladly follow, one hive mother among many, with friends and companions among our people, solidarity in the serving of the great will that follows me: Perhaps someone wise in the ways of space; perhaps even someone who can fill the role with less longing and less loneliness than me! Some might be reluctant to release the reins of power, but for me, it is a kindness ... and perhaps that is where I shall go next, if the new OSG-36 agrees!
For, after all, Kindness henceforth shall be our new world's name! I have left orders for all our worlds and our researchers in place as I would have done for this year if I were to remain as OSG, but as I am departing, many of these can be overruled, including the transports - such as mine - I have called up from three different worlds to help Kindness to grow. But I do not leave the office to which I was called for my own reasons only.
Ever since I first was assigned to clean factory waste here on Kholdan, I never failed to keep abreast of the need until this year - but I forgot how much greater is our Klackon strength than any computer can predict. When millions of ecological restoration engineers set out on transports bound from Love to Hope, the impact of their loss was more than the computer models recognized, and so I did not assign enough replacements. It is very fortunate that we can work so quickly to restore what has been lost, because the waste that built up on Love in the past year is painful to see. I do not feel qualified to lead our people any longer - and I am glad that I can follow the one who will replace me!
The five worlds we have claimed thus far may not match the Sakkra, but I have sudden hope, now that I at last am leaving the lofty spires of power behind, for our people in the galaxy! Hope indeed - and Love, and Peace, and Kindness - and Kholdan!
The save is a bit messier than I normally like to leave it, with transports and scouts en route and more transports (which you can still veto or change if you like) about to be launched from three different worlds (Kholdan, Peace, and Love) - plus one world (Love) with a little waste that needs cleaning up, but I did leave the save in the condition in which I would probably have ended turn if I were playing on. I think we're in a strong position and just need to develop it (I should probably have built more factories...) - I believe when Controlled Dead comes in, it will not only open up Artemis, but allow us to fit fuel tanks and a standard colony base on a large ship, which might let us take the Galos jungle beyond the nebula. In any case, good luck!
Roster:
- Arnuz
- RefSteel - just played - SpaceOWL - UP! (by request!)
- Bionic Commando - potentially on deck
- Cyneheard - potentially on deck
- shallow_thought - potentially on deck
...depending on who's first able to play after SpaceOWL.
(And again, if other players want to participate too, it's still early enough that we can split into a couple of smaller teams both playing the same map - so please don't hesitate to join in!)
