Monsters and Angels
Monsters and Angels
New Palermo
The fledgling colony, founded just a few years back, had always been plagued by strange storms. Appearing out of nowhere, with no logical cause, left the meteorologists baffled. And the people of the colony were forced to be ready all the time. Having a sunny day at the beach? Be ready to find shelter in a few minutes of notice. Taking a walk under the totally blue sky? Take an umbrella with you, just in case. And so on.
There seemed to be some logic on the storms though. Hard to grasp at first, but they all seemed to have a common point of origin. Finally, a team was sent there.
About an hour later, Empress Adelin was rudely woken by Space Queen Maud of New Palermo.
“Sister, we have a portal!” Maud bursted out as her panicked face appeared on the Empress’s screen.
“Eh?” Adelin was still partially asleep.
“New Palermo has a portal! A functioning one!” Maud continued
“Portal? What portal? Portal to where?”
“We don’t know! We only know that this is the cause of the weather disturbances in the planet”
“Is it an active threat?” the Empress asked.
“What? No, well, yes, no, the storms at least?”
“No invading armies coming through the portal?”
“Thank the heavens, no!” Maud replied, then her eyes widened as she imagined the possibility.
“Ok, sister. I shall call you back in an hour. Try to get some more info in the meantime,” the Empress ended the call. “And grab a drink or two to calm your nerves,” she added to the blank screen.
An hour later, there was a bit more clarity. Apparently, the atmosphere leaked in and out of the portal that was indeed a functioning one. To somewhere. Be it a different spot in the galaxy or something else entirely was unknown. The total lack of invading armies or any other action around the portal showed that while the portal was active, it was as empty on the other side as it was on New Palermo.
After a long meeting, there was a decision- bar the portal, build a base around it to research it, also use the base for better meteorological predictions and keep a small armed force nearby, just in case. Any attempts to penetrate the portal will have to wait until the Empire actually has resources to allocate to it. Until then, it generated quite good physics research.
New Palermo. Now, with portals
Weirdness of Space
All was going well for Maud de Hauteville. She had discovered the gaia world in Haldar III and continued with the surveying of the system. All was fine and dandy and ordinary routine assignment. Scan a planet, then spend countless hours of boredom while travelling to the new one. Rinse and repeat. Until you jump to the new system and rinse and repeat it there.
Until one day in July 2211, the ship, currently on route from Hadar Ia to scan the sun, was rocked. Something just pushed the ship up-down-left-right. Everyone standing was pushed to the ground and not so gently pushed against the walls and on one very unfortunate occasion, even to the wall. Everyone sleeping was pushed out of their bunks. Everything not nailed safely to surfaces was happily flying around, finding humans to hit.
“The hell”, said Maud, who was hit just outside the bridge. She gathered her senses and stormed to the bridge, finding her crew, alive, though very much more bruised then they were just a few seconds ago.
“The hell was that,” she said. Then, she gazed outside the window. “The hell is that?”
There was a dark mist outside. Engulfing the ship. Maud swore she could see a lightning strike in the distance. Though the ship was in deep space, where lightning strikes are quite rare. At least to Norman knowledge of the space thus far.
One of the less bruised crewmembers replied to her. “My best guess is that this,” she made a general gesture encompassing the mess of inside the bridge “was a result of rapid appearance of this,” gesturing the mist outside.
“Rapid mistification,” said another one. Most did not find it funny.
“Ok,” Maud sat down on the captain's chair. Fastened the seatbelt. It was kinda rusty from the lack of use. I mean, why do you need seatbelts in space? Turns out that in case of stange mist rocking the ship...
“Now, what is that mist?”
“VLUUR seeks. VLUUR finds.” came as an answer to the ship’s communication system. Shipboard AI had chosen to make the voice gloomy and crackling, making everyone jump on their seats.
“The hell was that?” someone welped.
“My best guess is VLUUR,” replied Maud, more calmly. “I somehow imagine that that VLUUR and the mist are connected”
“The energy readings of that thing...” someone whispered. “I have found the VLUUR,” he then bursted out, projecting the information to the screen. A ball of energy, it seemed. Surrounded by mist that engulfs the system.
“Please, oh please tell me it’s not hostile,” someone else said, voice filled with a mix of fear and amazement. “This thing could eat our fleet for breakfast and still be hungry for more. Much more”
“Doesn’t appear to be,” someone said. “More like does not even notice us...”
The bright bulb is VLUUR. The dark planet is Hadur III, the gaia world, covered in shadows
“Hail the VLUUR. Try to ask what it is seeking and ask that perhaps we can help?” ordered Maud.
The only speaking voice was of the communications officer. Rest of the bridge watched in silence. For seconds. Then, for minutes. Finally, the communication officer raised his head. “The VLUUR is getting the signal. And apparently, ignoring it. No reply, no change in behavior, nothing.”
“Would you try to talk to ants at your feet,” murmured Maud.
“Not friendly. Not hostile. Indifferent,” she added. “And the mist- any adverse effects?”
“Only makes the navigation much harder,” replied one of the pilots. “Otherwise, looks... harmless”
“Of course it had to be Hadar,” mumbled Maud.
Further study was needed and further study was done, as Maud and company kept their eyes of VLUUR as they surveyed the system. It appeared that the VLUUR did not care. And apart from sudden appearance of mist and the difficulties in navigation, it seemed to cause no harm.
VLUUUR!
Meaning that the future colonists in Hadar will have some nice space-storms to watch.
Exploration on Track
The next system from Vinjim, called Hojjam, had a nice tropical world to it. Quite large, though not much rich in minerals. Something for future colonization, sure. If the Normans manage to win the race to Vinjim, that is.
New promising worlds
In April 2211, Maud de Hauteville found that perhaps VLUUR is a bit more dangerous then predicted. She found an derelict ship in Hadar. Ship hit by a geomagnetic storm, suspiciously similar to what the VLUUR caused. Apparently, that ship was not as well-prepared as Norman ones, losing life-support and making the crew die in a horrible way. In addition, the ship appeared to belong to Pliff-Plaffs. Normans were nice enough to return the cargo. Pliff-Plaffs were happy.
Sometimes, good deeds pay
December 2211 saw yet another shocking discovery- once, this region of space had been home to an ancient machine civilization called the “Cybrex”. Little had remained from them, but apparently, they were really into wiping all the organics from the galaxy and were somewhat successful. Nothing remained of them though... Nothing but fragments at least. Normans hoped to find out a bit more at least. At least, it was in Hadar again. Perhaps this was what the VLUUR is searching for?
Let the hunt for ancient robot aliens begin!
Science Gets Done!
In February 2011, Normans discovered new, efficient methods in building corvettes, cutting the time by a quarter and also, cutting the costs a bit. Followed by more efficient farming technologies in March 2212. Meaning, even less people needed to make enough food to sustain the interstellar civilization.
More science is always good
Not Angels
On 16th August of 2212, Normans won the race to Vijim. A ship from Angels, suspiciously like a science ship of Normans, was present in the system as the Norman outpost was completed. The route to the North was completed. And the Normans started the construction of their second star castle, securing the system against all hostiles.
An Angels ships, watching the completion of construction of Norman Vijim outpost
A month later, communications were established with the Angels. It turned out that as far as the names go, the Angles turned out to be a bad choice. For Qopinjaxi were anything but. Unless angels happened to be hideous bugs. Four arms and two legs, chitinous shell and oh god, the face. They were quite talented hideous bugs though, and quick learners.
It is unclear of how they got thus far, but apparently, they were a megacorporation, ruled by a chairman with as iron fist as Empress Adelin. For Qopinjaxi Free Traders were anything but free. Tight corporate structure, your influence was based on a number of stocks you had in the Free Traders corporation and if you had none, you had no vote.
Despite the different power structure, the Qopinjaxi Free Traders were surprisingly similar to humans. Deeply militaristic and autocratic Corporation as opposed to deeply militaristic and autocratic Empire.
Hey, despite being so not Angels, perhaps we could be friends?
“You know, they’re not half bad,” said Adelin to her husband, Tancred, while preparing for the Christmas Feast of 2212 in Constantinople.
“What?” replied the confused husband, not able to jump into that train of thought.
“Qopinjaxi,” the Empress replied. And added, thoughtfully. “We need some friends. And the Pliff-Plaff don’t look very friendly to me...”
“So, you’re thinking of what? An alliance?”
“Now, let’s not get carried away. Yet. But we could come to a mutual agreement of sorts, perhaps?” the Empress mused, half to herself. “They’re traders, right? Perhaps a trade agreement of sorts? Perhaps, if we let the Free Traders establish some offices on Earth, it will be beneficial to both of us...”
“Trade is worthwhile,” agreed Tancred
“And some joint efforts, in say research...” Adelin continued.”Or some other venues we could cooperate, perhaps? Or securing our flanks, signing a non-aggression pact?”
“That might be useful...” Tancred agreed once again.
“Even some sort of defensive alliance would not be out of the question,” Adelin continued. “Well, once we know more about their neighbours. Don’t want to be dragged into some long wars with superior opposition, of course...”
“This does not sound half as bad as well,” Tancred was feeling kind of yes-mannish already, but hey, nothing to disagree about here.
“I mean, they are hideous, true. But beauty is skin deep after all... Perhaps this is a start of something beautiful...”
The musings of the Empress were disturbed by her tablet, chiming, announcing a new message. The Empress picked it up. Read the message. Cursed to herself.
Tancred, curious, raised an eyebrow.
“Or, perhaps not,” said the Empress with a sigh. “We need other friends.”
Oh....
- 3
