Kat will greet them in their language and ask if any of them speaks hers. She will ask what the status of their people is here and where are they.

"My laptop is compatible. Give me a moment and I'll get it hooked up."
To Meir this was an absolutely routine task he'd done countless times before. If one was to care enough to check, they'd even find his fingerprints all over these particular three drives too!

In reply to Katherine 'Kat' Steele (msg # 97):

Kat: They do speak English, and are very surprise to hear a human speaking Labrysian. They are part of a small diplomatic mission that volunteered to come here to try to restore relations, as they see the relationship with humans as extremely important for their future. There are 5 of them total living in this cave, and there is another group of them on the Island colony as well.

Meir: These particular drives were the mates backup copies, but there are distance surveys done of the following systems:

Procyon, Ya, Sarpedon, 1435, 1636, 1537, 1437, 1637, 1538 and 1339.

The surveys contain only data about large objects: nothing is known about planet habitability or lack thereof. See charting a System in message 6 in link to a message in this game
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:03, Sat 23 Sept 2017.

"Yes," he nodded.
"That's about what I expected. Enough to aid with plotting a jump, and maybe refuelling points."
Despite the trauma of the day, and the limited information on the drives, Meir still felt it had been worth the effort.

In reply to Meir Galinski (msg # 100):

Duke looks over it.

"Unfortunately there is not enough information for a direct jump, but it will speed up the process. A charted system needs a short survey to get the current location of large objects, but at least this tells us what to look for."

[Note fine print at the bottom of the section on 'Charting a System']

"That's what I meant. A few hours here has probably saved upwards of half a day per star. Certainly not enough without further work, but a good start."

Kat will ask them how things are going with a. the relations with the humans here. and b. how is the colony doing? c. what do they need? She also warns them to stay away from Meir as his family was killed by government forces and he still has issues with Labrysian's.

It was worth it on several levels, trade being the only one that is suspect ... let's see how we made out.

In reply to Cyril Zotmund (msg # 104):

You find that dehydrated food is one  of the colonies bigger exports. Apart from fish, there is a growing farming base the supplies many dehydrated meat and other foods, as well as fresh produce very cheaply. There is also a Labrysian contingent there.

Kat, a) Relation are cool, but slowly improving as humans make the ditiction between government and rebel Labrysian.
b) Colony is recovering we'll due to assistance from Aegir and the rebel colonies.
c) They have met many like that. They understand.

"Captain, we should be loaded up and ready to leave by dawn tomorrow. Perhaps it's a good idea to let the crew have some leave tonight before we leave? We probably won't see any other intelligent life for quite a while."

I don't need a bunch of drunks back in the morning... is their alcohol available for consumption? Or drugs?
No serious chance of finding portions of the population impregnated?

"Alcohol is...limited," Meir reassured the Captain.
"And I think you'll find impregnation is actually welcomed here. There's two women for every man and since the attack the limited gene pool has shrunk even more to barely five hundred, of which only perhaps three hundred are females of child bearing age."
Meir made the whole idea of avoiding pregnancy seem utterly alien and incomprehensible. Why would you not want to widen the pool?

She will talk some more with them and then go back to the men. "So luv" she says to Cyril "What a drink? We need to figure out what next" she pulls out her flash and sips it

Very well, the crew except for a minimum watch is released, but is on a two hour recall and must be here NLT 0700 tomorrow AM.  I'll be surprised if there isn't a significant population bubble in 9 months...

Yes Dear, lets retire to our cabin...

"That is the plan," he grinned, already thinking of a few women he intended to reacquaint himself with...

In reply to Meir Galinski (msg # 111):

The rest and recreation, or rather, procreation, seems to go well. Duke gets himself in trouble with the Checkov sisters and a couple of local ladies, and the next morning Cyril is presented with a disturbingly long list of persons who will have to start paying regular payments of alimony (Duke features twice), despite the small quantity of local alcohol available. It turns out, certain grasses can be burnt like incense to create a rather festive mood.

The next morning, there are a number of folk, many female, to see your crew off. Some are a little tardy, but all are present by 0730.

Kat retires with her husband. She also gives the locals some of her gin to help them out.

In the morning, she comes out looking happy.

In reply to Fate (msg # 112):

Isn't it just a wee bit too soon to start deciding who is Prego and who isn't?  It is quite normal for ⅓ of all pregnancies to terminate within 30 days or so for reasons Natures has, to do that ( Nature is actually quite good at eliminating pregnancies that are unlikely to produce viable offspring).

Meir returned to the ship just on dawn, a pretty young woman on each of his arms, all three with big smiles plastered across their sleep deprived faces.
Leaving them at the hatch he found his way to the captain.
"I have a small problem I need to talk to you about..."

In reply to Cyril Zotmund (msg # 114):

Many women will register as pregnant up to 5 day before their next missed period, or they may even make assumptions. There is absolutely no guarantee they are right, but since many WANT to be pregnant, they may assume they are and try to make preparations accordingly.

As Meir has pointed out, women outnumber men about 2:1, so sometimes distinguishing between desire and reality takes time...

In reply to Meir Galinski (msg # 115):

No problem, Want to step into my cabin?

Kat is in their cabin when the men come in. She looks at Cyril and Meir as they enter "So is this just a guys talk?" she says as she sits there.

"No, please stay. This might effect you too."
Meir took a seat and sat silent for a few moments, gathering his thoughts into something vaguely coherent.
"Well, as you know this is a colony planet and the gene pool was recently decimated by the Lab attack," he began, his disgust for the aliens plainly evident.
"We came here on the colony ship, the New Tel-Aviv and spent about a century in transit, most of us in the freezers, but with about a dozen thawed out for six months or so to take our turn as active crew."
It had been a long and boring journey for the most part. Days filled mainly with long range astrological surveys, routine maintenance tasks, and training in the planet side skills they expected to need.
"Back before launch we were all screened and carefully selected based on not just our skills, but our genetic compatibility and freedom from defects. Most of us are actually physically superior - I myself as you might have noticed, require very little food and am psychologically suited to long periods of solitude."
"All seven hundred colonists possess a similar advantage or adaptability, and fitted together like the pieces of a multidimensional puzzle. Since the attack and contact with the outside world, that puzzle has been shattered, years of calculations and planning rendered useless."
Meir didn't pretend to even begin to understand the complexity behind the selections. Many much smarter experts in genetics, biology, psychology and so on had been involved in the years leading up to the launch.
"Anyway, the society here on Acquitaine has been shattered. The last ten or twenty years of our lives rendered almost pointless in some cases leading many to question their continuing place here now Acquitaine is no longer on the frontier."
He paused again to think.
"The future of Acquitaine seems assured now with new people arriving and the beginnings of trade with other worlds, and so a few are looking for new challenges and uses for their skills. The two lovely ladies waiting just outside the ship are amongst those people."
"One is an Expeditioner like myself who is also a qualified starship deckhand, and the other hydroponics specialist with training in biology, genetic engineering, and life support systems."
He grinned.
"And besides being very easy on the eyes, they're great in the sack and seem to want to bear my children."

Oh I see...  hmmm ... we don't do much with Hydroponics... but a biologist might be useful in our explorations... another deck hand... again may be helpful. Our issue is space, as we have limited cabin space, but perhaps we can shuffle things a bit and provide the three of you a single room. I realize Marriage per se, may be immaterial to you, but there needs to be some sort of commitment so we, uh the company,  can provide normal benefits. It could be a legal agreement, or perhaps you have another suggestion.

"Probably should look at hydroponics though. It's what kept our air clean on the New Tel Aviv, and provided most of our food for nearly a century."
"I don't know how much of an impact if would have here, but it can't hurt to give it a go. Even if it only boosts the ships endurance by 10% that's still an extra five weeks per year without having to restock and dump waste."
It wasn't his area of expertise though. Would probably get even better performance with an expert designing and running the system.
"Perhaps you should talk to Ava about it?"