Here's another thing, Dr. Pryor. As it stands now, humanity is at a disadvantage. Our technological base is in its infancy relative to the rest of the galaxy, and worse, it's fragmented. SAGE has a piece, ACE has a piece, Braeburn has a piece, and the IDA have their own R&D.

The only way we're going to survive what's coming with our autonomy is if some group takes the lead and synthesizes the best of what humanity can develop, along with whatever alien tech we can recover.

Right now, the only organization I'd even think about trusting to undertake such a mandate is SAGE. But you can't do it without our help. That plasma drive wouldn't even be partially stable without the additional work that I've put into it. Intellectual property that - speaking as the Chief Technology Officer of Starblazers Inc. - belongs to our company.

You need us, and we need you. But let's start this relationship by calling it what it is - a joint R&D partnership.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:21, Tue 30 Oct 2018.

In reply to Xander (msg # 45):

Dr. Pryor considers this for a few minutes, taking the time to cut into a steaming hot potato and dribble additional butter on it.

"What about a lease-to-own program?" he says at last. "If you are successful in finding and bringing back promising alien technology, the drive would be yours to keep. If not -- or if you decide not to pursue this quest at all for whatever reason -- we'd have the right to request it back for further study and refinement. I'm confident I can sell an agreement like that to the organization without much trouble."

He turns to Xander.

"We are, of course, appreciative for your help. And perhaps a R&D partnership IS the most congenial way to think about our relationship. But the trouble remains that humanity has not, strictly speaking, proven itself to be a reliable steward for cutting-edge developments. There is a reason we don't contribute our work to the Archive."

His eyes narrow.

"The work is always corrupted. Braeburn adapted our WASP design into a prototype that eventually led to their private army of mechs. Our whimsically named Enforce-o-Matic droids were turned into the Alliance of Sol's J-9 series of robots."

"Henchbots," Gestalt interjects over a mouthful of food. Pryor glares at him, and Gestalt hastily swallows. "We, uh. We call them henchbots. Carry on."

"Case in point. And I dare not make our designs for gravity weapons, stealth technology, or shielding public for fear they, too, will be misused. So what kind of collaboration can we hope to have to bring humanity up to code with these alien races, realistically? I'm not committed to remaining opposed, but the question is asked in earnest."

The epiphany that we are not alone in this universe may shake human society more dramatically than you're giving it credit, Doctor, Sophia replies from her avatar's position occupying one of the chairs at the table. Apparently she managed to tweak the room holoprojectors to accomodate a more natural stance than standing on the center of the table.

We may find that our disparate factions are more inclined to cooperate in the light of possible loss of autonomy to an alien power.

Her hologram heaves a very human sigh. The fact of the matter is that there will always be bad actors who use technological progress to selfish ends, and must be dealt with accordingly. And no, technology shouldn't arbitrarily be released to the general public just because it's available. But decisions regarding what to withhold must be made with utmost care, lest we fall pray to our hubris in assuming we know what is objectively best.

Braeburn may have created a private army of mechs, but they've also dramatically improved on the capabilities of the Wasps, resulting in a mobile heavy weapons platform that would be invaluable should humanity ever need to repel an invading force. The J-9's are a cautionary tale in ethical robotics, but also serve as a foundation upon which can be built autonomous units capable of securing strategic objectives in hostile environments that would put organic life forms at risk.

Which is why I firmly believe that a joint partnership is in everybody's best interests. We will work together to recover, research, and - if deemed prudent - release recovered technology.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:52, Wed 31 Oct 2018.

Billy sighs and pushes his plate away, "It has been my experience that the best way to get people to work together is to not give them an alternative. Or at least no good one," he drums the fingers of his new hand on the table and stares at them, "If you can offer someone a chance they can't turn down, it doesn't matter how many conditions the deal comes with."

He looks up to look Dr. Pryor in the eyes, "I'm negotiating with the UN to establish Starblazers as the first and currently only government sanctioned organization to make alien contact.  The deal will go through, not least of all because their opinions of Braeburn, ACE and frankly SAGE as well are not spotless.  They don't want gatekeepers like you, they don't want the corruption or secrecy of Braeburn and ACE, they don't want a monopoly on things the likes of which we've never seen.  I'm offering you a chance at an R&D partnership because you know more about these aliens than ACE, and you're more reasonable than Braeburn.  Once we have workable technology I'd be more than happy to make that exchange for your engines, but once that exchange is over ACE is going to be very interested in interstellar shipping.  They're either going to have to contract us to do it, or buy the shipping routes from us once the UN clears them to take the trip.  I'd like to keep SAGE close, give you a first look at alien tech, brief you on new biology, but once we have a product and I don't owe you for your tech, you can bet I'd be willing to sell it to Braeburn. Let them build a gen 2 and market it, it'll be better than anything we could come up with.  If we can't get everyone in a room shaking hands I know how to collaborate through twisting arms, and it's not as ugly as it sounds."

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 48):

Rebecca crosses her legs on the chair and leans forward furiously tapping on her datapad.  She remains mostly silent for her part knowing business not to be her forte.  Her barely concealed smile under her rainbow pulsing hair indicates that she is very much enjoying being on this side of the table.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 49):

"Interstellar shipping doesn't concern me as much as long-range, planet-destroying weaponry and impregnable shields and such," Dr. Pryor says with a sigh. "But your points are well founded. Very well. What specifically do you need from SAGE to get started, and what specifically are we getting in exchange? This 'first look' at all alien technology you encounter? A steady stream of it, or a lump-sum delivery when you or a representative returns?"

"We'll have to establish an infrastructure to keep connected back home, I'd like to maintain a regular stream as we acquire it, but there'll likely be lump deliveries as we get started.  We'd provide you a first look at any alien technologies in the interest of a collaborative R&D effort to adapt them for human utility and expand them to incorporate other discovered or native technologies.  I'd also be willing to provide sage with details of alien biology as acquired for scientific research.  You get the rights to any biology of interest, you get to put your hands all over the technology, but we keep rights to the technology once developed, nice and clean." Billy spreads his arms with a slight shrug in an inviting gesture.

"As far as getting started, we have a base of operations and a small crew willing and capable of the job, we're missing transportation.  Even if the Persephone was in pristine condition she'd be too slow and too small for a flagship.  We need your plasma drive, it's the best method of propulsion in the system." Billy interlaces his fingers and leans on the table, his voice sinking somewhere between businessman and conspirator, "If you'd like to go all into this partnership we could use support in putting together a real flagship.  If you have no further interest in the Mastodon as property, I'm all for recycling.  We'd still need to retrofit it and get it back to operating condition, if you could provide equipment and supplies to that end, I'd be willing to pay back on a loan, or extend the lease-to-own terms on the engine to include the whole ship.  If we come up dry you get a fully functional capital ship, and if we don't you get the pick of the litter with alien tech until we're in the black." He pauses, and looks around the table before continuing with a slightly more goading tone,  "I also had an idea Whitney expressed some interest in that would require materials I'm not sure I'm willing to pay back at the moment, but how interested are you in upscaling your plasma drive?"

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 51):

"Upscaling how?" Dr. Pryor asks. "You want to strap it to a capital ship, you mean? I'm afraid that may prove a daunting challenge. It would take a great deal of stabilizing material. But that doesn't mean we can't draw up the schematics with you."

He frowns.

"Did Whitney give any specifics on what she had in mind?"

“A capital ship might be nice but I had more in mind uh...propelling an orbital station,” Billy gives Pryor the lopsided grin of a man who fully realizes how ridiculous he sounds.  “Whitney didn’t give many specifics, I don’t think she wanted to agree to anything without teacher’s permission,” he gestures to Pryor hopefully.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 53):

Basilisk, still standing off to one side, twists at the hips to face Nightmare.

Is he... an engineer or... because this sounds like a terrible idea...

It's clear that the comment was meant as a whisper, but the rusty voicebox of the EVA suit doesn't allow for much subtlety.

"No, it is a great idea," Billy states forcefully as he points over his shoulder toward Basil without averting his gaze from Pryor, "And I need an engineer to make it work," he nods at Pryor, still hopeful and waiting for acquiescence.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 55):

"You can't possibly mean what I think you mean," Gestalt says, grinning despite himself. "What a terrible, awful...marvelously intriguing idea!"

In reply to Gestalt (msg # 56):

"No, no, you were on the right track with the terribles and the awfuls," Pryor replies, looking from Gestalt to Billy and arching an eyebrow. "I...well, it's certainly a compelling idea but the principle of the thing...that is to say...where to begin..."

He falls silent, obviously lost in thought.

"Tell me," he says at last. "What is the primary difference between, say, a freighter and a capital ship? Anyone?"

"Where to begin?" Kayla replies without looking up from the steak she's been devouring. "Armament, power supply, weight, computing power, size-"

"Mass. Exactly," Dr. Pryor nods. "And what is the primary difference between an orbital station like this one and a ship like the Dichotomy?"

Kayla looks up from her plate and cocks her head to one side.

"Everything I said before...except mass?"

"Correct. An orbital station is not constructed with the rigors of space travel in mind. It is not intended to change direction at great speeds, or to accelerate and decelerate often, or to encounter gravity beyond that which was expected to exist at the station's point of orbit."

He gestures around himself.

"This station, were you to somehow land it upon Venus's surface, would crumple into a tight wad of crushed metal very quickly. The Dichotomy, however, would survive much longer. Even the Persephone managed to land without losing its structural integrity to Venus's overwhelming pressure, albeit from the high altitude of a mountaintop."

"My point is that the engineering challenges present in converting an orbital space station into what is essentially a capital or supercapital ship are rather daunting. Converting the plasma drive to work in such a situation would be the least of your problems, unless you do not intend to ever bring the station closer to a planet or moon than orbit. And if you did reinforce the station to survive such things, it would be the most ridiculously overbuilt orbital station imaginable. It would have become a capital ship in its own right."

"Setting aside the massive difficulties of engineering and science this challenge provides us with for a moment, let us assume we solve everything and manage to build a plasma drive that does what you want it to do. If I only had one, and I could install it on either this station here or the Dichotomy, I would choose the Dichotomy without hesitation as the more practical of the two. So my question is this: with the Mastodon potentially on the table, why would you prefer an orbital station?"
This message was last edited by the player at 17:42, Sat 03 Nov 2018.

Billy looks at Prior for a second and then tilts his head with a playful grin, "Because flying our home base into an alien system to say hi is way cooler than just having a big ship." He looks around the table for some confirmation of this assertion like it's obvious and either accepts or choses to ignore the various reactions he actually receives.

"Look, the Mastodon would be an effective flagship, but the space station is going to be a port of call.  However, if it's stuck here it's not going to be much of one and if we have to build a new one out there whenever we need it that's even more expensive than over engineering one mobile home base.  I have a space station I got on the cheap, let's turn it into a monster! You don't even know if this will work or you'd already have plans to plug into the Dichotomy, how does it cost you anything to use my mad idea as a proof of concept for giant fuckall engines you can put on something more practical?"
This message was last edited by the player at 19:51, Sat 03 Nov 2018.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 58):

Basilisk hears a chime in his head when he turns to face Nightmare she is looking at Billy with a combination of several emotions, though exasperated affection seems to be leading the pack.

quote:

Basil, He is in no way shape or form an engineer.  You're right this is an insane idea... but he's not wrong.  Is it more difficult to build a new space station or to just drag one that we already own to serve as an operations hub.  This is par for the course... we are just one microscopic cog in his catastrophic plan.

Xander listens to the engineering back and forth silently, considering the problem.

No, making a space station conventionally mobile is a non-starter. It would almost certainly end up being cheaper to simply design a supercarrier, or something similar. Unless.

The engineer furrows his brow. This is speaking entirely hypothetically of course, but if we were able to harness the power of warp gates, or learn how to bend spacetime in a controlled way, we could implement a drive system of sorts where the station isn't moving, exactly, but...teleporting... from one location to the other.

It wouldn't be actual teleportation, really, but that's the layman's term. Again, this is *purely* theoretical, and the R&D costs alone would be staggering.

In reply to Xander (msg # 60):

She broadly smiles as Xander chimes in.  Basilisk continues to look at him and she beams the smile at him and transmits to his head.



Her voice sounds proud.  She cocks her head to the side at Xander's mention of harnessing the gates.

Well I know Muse would not be happy with that line of thought, but I'm intrigued.  Also we have seen Viceroy create temporary gates on more than one occasion so it is theoretically possible.  Perhaps the Roshak or Amgine Lith have a similar tech.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:52, Wed 07 Nov 2018.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 61):

Basilisk's helmet shakes slightly, and he bangs against it a couple times with the EVA's gauntlet.

I see...

"Non-starter?  Oh come on, we have a space station.  You show me the amount of structural reenforcement and engine integration that out-prices an entire super carrier.  Not to mention whatever kind of permits that would cost," Billy finally averts his gaze from Pryor as he turns and pleads at Xander, the faintest hint of betrayal on his face.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 63):

"Time is a cost," Dr. Pryor replies with a shrug. "But I'm as interested in the applications opened up by up-sizing the plasma drive as anyone. The main problem remains the limited availability of the only stabilizing element we know of. So unless you've found great quantities of some alien alloy that performs just as well, any schematics we design that massively increase the engine's size would be exercises in futility."

He swirls the contents of his glass for moment, then sets it down without drinking from it.

"I'll speak with Whitney about it. If she's had some brainstorm or otherwise expresses interest in the project, I'll let her design a prototype schematic for you. But I don't want you to get your hopes up. Anything we create at that scale is almost certain to shake itself and its host vessel apart without a significant amount of stabilizing material."

"You ask her about it.  Ask her if increasing the size gives any room for more traditional dampening or if the structural reenforcement of a space station would accommodate a more distributed stabilization system to get around the reliance on magical science metals to solve our problems for us. And even if she says no, you tell me how long she has to think about that, because I bet she'd take the challenge," Billy points smugly at Pryor, narrowing his eyes and giving a self-satisfied nod.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 65):

Dr. Pryor agrees to arrange a follow-up discussion to cover more of the engineering details, and the conversation moves on to other matters.

"It will take some time for the Ship of Convenience to be thoroughly analyzed," he says toward the end of the meal. "Seeing as you want to discuss the finer points of upscaling the engine with my team and perhaps do a diagnostic of you own with what's left of Dynamis, it may be best for you to stay with us for a few days."

He shrugs slightly.

"I won't insist, of course, but even if you have other places to be, it would be faster in the long run to wait for the plasma drive to be serviced than to leave immediately with a borrowed standard engine."

***

After the meal concludes, Pryor shows you to your quarters -- workable, but nothing fancy. You're given to understand it will take about 5 days for the plasma drive to be taken apart and put back together again, giving you a bit of downtime that could be used to chat with the other SAGE scientists, refine  your plans to retrofit EROS station or the Mastodon, chat with Dynamis, look into other projects SAGE is working on, or take most other actions.

Once the meal is over, before being escorted to their rooms, Billy insists on seeing Dynamis, with Kayla and Xander's company (at least).

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 67):

Upon request, Dr. Pryor escorts Billy, Kayla, and Xander (along with anyone else who shows interest) to the small room in which Dynamis has been stored. His keycard opens the door to reveal an area not much larger than a walk-in closet which containing nothing but a single terminal and a chair.

"We turned off his audio, because he was driving the operators crazy," Pryor explains. "But you can talk to him and read his messages right there on the terminal screen. You can even re-activate the audio, but...I'd advise against it."

He glances down at his watch and blinks.

"I'm running late for an appointment, but I trust you'll manage just fine without me. If you need anything, just ping the comm channel for assistance. And remember, there's no Archive access in here for a reason. Do not bring the terminal or its occupant out of this room until we've taken appropriate precautions."

Dr. Pryor waits around just long enough to make sure you can log in and answer any lingering questions, then hurries off to his appointment.

"Yeah yeah, sure," billy waves dismissively at Pryor as he approaches the terminal.  As the doctor leaves Billy leans back to watch him leave and says loud enough to still be in ear shot, "Okay guys, how do we get this terminal out of here?"  If this earns any reaction from Pryor he simply laughs at his own taunt and leans over the screen to see if Dynamis is saying anything before flicking the audio on despite the warning, "Dynamis, they said you didn't miss me, I'm hurt."