"Oh, you want to get into teleportational displacement physics? Well, okay then, but I can't promise that your brain won't melt from a completely non-telepathic cause!" This time Zhouth's grin was definitely mischievous.

  Several minutes later, when Varca's eyes were in danger of becoming permanently crossed beneath his visor, Zhouth brought his brief, impromptu lecture on the subject to a close.

  Yes, relational corporeity was a legitimate concern and that most of the time gaseous environments allowed for sufficient absorption or displacement (and neither were a concern in a vacuum, assuming that one had the means to survive in it), or failing that, reciprocal, ambient, or indeterminate transposition of the offending medium.

  Likewise, razor wire was only a hazard if the clairvoyant tasked with vatic reconnaissance failed to notice it, and even then probably only at the point of arrival, since teleporting marines tended to wear some form of battle dress.

  That was a simple summary of his explanation, anyway!

 
  Zhouth conducts a condensed psionicological lecture...
  22:01, Today: Secret Roll: Zhouth rolled 10 using 2d6+4.

  ...with +2 Effect: reasonably perspicuous to the unelucidated.
 

In reply to Zhouth (msg # 40):

     "So...then...the entertainment vids did get it right!"

"At least that's a little bit of a relief" Ingrid replies to Zhouth saying telepaths can't always be scanning.

"Oh, you are not hanging razor wire around the ship. It'll snag my skirt" Ingrid complains.

She listens to Zhouth; listening to a technical lecture takes her back to her college days. "Well, let's just avoid any teleporting marines, and the problem won't have to come up."

  Zhouth folded his hands on his lap. "Simple answer? You need a clear image of the place to teleport to it, and that's hard to do with the inside of something solid, right?"

  He looked sidelong at Varca. "Slightly more complicated answer? You don't just look at the place like a vid image and say 'I want to be there.'. You experience yourself into that spot, and that means all of you, not just your eyes, so even if you could somehow 'see' inside the solid thing, or the thing itself is transparent, it still doesn't work because you can't be there to know what it's like being there."

  "Although if you aren't solid yourself, no problem, since you can be there to be there. Could have a lot of fun playing at being a ghost that way: teleport into the wall, then drift out and moan about being the shade of Life Days past." He held up both hands, palm out, and widened his eyes as he exclaimed. "Everyone would be running in terror!"

  He folded his hands in his lap again. "I'll skip the complicated answer, and all the little corner cases where things might be different. So the vids have it right, but only sort of, and for the wrong reasons. It's like most of the other science stuff they explain in those shows. Sounds plausible and close enough to how people think it works, even if someone who knows the field is cringing. But it's good enough for dramatic effect, right? Just like spaceships going *whoosh* past the camera in hard vacuum, and all those other silly things they do!"


  To Ingrid's closing suggestion he added, "Good idea there. And if they do show up, we'll just tell them that they've popped into the wrong set!"
This message was last edited by the player at 02:32, Wed 25 Sept 2019.

"Air pressure and heat must make up some part of zhe equation, non?"

"Zhe most sophisticated equipment zhey brought on zhe raid were zhe environment monitors and zhe coolant systems in zheir armor."

"All vacc-suits have a heater but zhese had refrigerators as well."

  "Oh, yes! Potential energy differences are a big limit on how far and how quickly someone can teleport themselves, assuming that they don't just run out of spooky mind power from trying too often. Jump too far or too fast and you end up cooked or frozen; even if it's not that extreme, you don't have to skew your body too many degrees before bad things start happening to it!"

  Zhouth raised one hand and mimed fiddling with dials and switches. "So there are all kinds of little systems to help with that, and all kinds of different suits they're put in." Then he shrugged. "Doesn't have to be battle armor, either. As long as it covers enough of someone's body to do the job, it works. Could make fancy business attire with that sort of thing built into it if you had the money and the need."

  He swirled his raised hand back and forth, snapping his fingers at each end of the arc. "Gets harder and harder with more stuff, though, so they either have to be really good to carry the heavy gear, or it has to have psionic attunement so it isn't doing the lead anchor thing."

  He looked directly at Cyrus. "Could be visible or not depending on how the armor is designed, so I can't really be sure unless you've got those pieces lying around somewhere, but my guess is that if they were Zhodani operatives, or used to be, then it was probably attuned stuff. They have a lot more of that kind of tech to lose than most places do!"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:13, Wed 25 Sept 2019.

In reply to Zhouth (msg # 45):

     Varca makes an open-palmed gesture towards Zhouth and Cyrus,

     "Your talk about spacesuits and customization reminds me--after our...meeting...I'm going to meet with a supplier I know, the people who helped me design and build my custom Hazard Suit..." Varca gestures at the suit he's wearing.

     "Zariid Excursionista Outfitters.  They sell some of the best gear on the Palace--even the Hawk Warriors wear their stuff.  I'm going to see about filling the Harrier's need for Vacc Suits, Emergency Suits, Rescue Balls, all that stuff.  I'm also going to get myself a Vacc Suit--this Hazard Suit is only Space Rated for ten minutes."

     Varca looks around the group, "So, if any of you do not have your own Vacc Suit, plan on coming with me to get a suit custom fitted."

  "I'll have to get one. Or maybe more than one if they're going to get holes poked in them during all of this." Zhouth didn't appear too happy about the latter prospect. "We should get emergency suits that can fit vargr and aslan too, not just human ones. Never know when we might need to pick someone up!"

"I need a suit too. Maybe self sealing so I don't have to worry."

The various debates have served to pass the time quite well, and system shuttle is soon landing on the Floating Palace's Royal Docks.

As the crew disembarks from the shuttle, they are met by Lord Wrax of the Star Guard and Chieftain Galx, the Vespexer representative from the surface. She's wearing her full-body hazard suit just like Varca.

"Welcome back, Varca!" the commander addresses Varca. "What brings you to the Floating Palace these days?"

Teddy shakes hands with the representatives if offered, knowing he was nobody here, he had been gone for more thane 20 years, and, being a black sheep of a lesser noble family, he was unknown. Teddy was surprised at how well Varca was being received! He did make an impression though!

He left Drinax to serve in the navy, the Drinaxian navy was so small there were few opportunities, that was why he went with the Imperial Navy.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:25, Wed 25 Sept 2019.

     Varca slowly turns his face towards Theodore, then stares--unblinking--at him for several seconds before speaking,

     "You spent all those years in the Imperial Navy...and you never got your own spacesuit?  What the frell, Imperial?  You were the one person I figgered would have their own--no, actually, I thought you'd have your own Battlesuit!"

     "Imperials!  Sheesh!" Varca snorts.

"It was old and worn, I served 24 years. It was also not the highest tech level, looking to get one here for the tech level and gadgets included."

[ABOARD THE SHUTTLE, PRE-LANDING]



     "Yeah, well you've forgotten a lot of things in those twenty four years, too.  Prepare to lower your expectations." Varca responds, "You've forgotten that while the Floating Palace still has access to Tech Fifteen knowledge, the manufacturing infrastructure on the palace isn't quite that high--you did see most of the repairs made on the Harrier, didn't you?"

     Varca taps his chest, indicating his Hazard Suit,

     "This suit is cutting edge, custom tech--I paid top credit to have it made." Varca says, "And not a bit of it is better than Tech Thirteen.  A lot of locally produced tech runs about that--though there is some Tech Fourteen being produced in small lots.  I'm going to be buying in bulk, so I'll be buying regular production--I'll wrangle the custom fittings just because I know these guys.  If I'm really lucky, I might even be able to get my guys to upgrade us to Boarding Suits."

     "I'm not saying that you won't find a Tech Fourteen or Fifteen Vacc Suit, somewhere, on the Floating Palace--if you look real hard.  But it'll either be imported or over two centuries old.  And very expensive, either way."


[ARRIVING ABOARD THE FLOATING PALACE]



     Varca, out of old habit, comes to attention before speaking to Lord Wrax,

     "Greetings, Lord Wrax..." Varca turns his helmeted head towards Chieftain Galx and nods in her direction, "Chieftain Galx.  It is good to be home again.  Or...to at least be in the air of Drinax."

     Like every other Drinaxi present, Varca is ignoring Princess Rao until, and unless, she makes her presence known (she may be here, aboard the shuttle, incognito).  But he does cast a quick glance to the side, in her direction, before continuing to address the Star Guards High Commander,

     "I'm returned to apply for a minor government job, My Lord.  Something about...resource relocation."

Teddy waits to answer Varca until after his greetings with his old comrades. "I have a few credits. And if I can't get one here, there is always Tech World."

Ingrid curtsies formally to Wrax, although she's not sure how to read the rank of these two, and maintains a demure silence.

  Zhouth could have continued on about psionic theory all trip long, at levels both approachable and incomprehensible... but fortunately for the sanity of everyone present, he had no particular reason to do so!

  He strolled around to the side of the group when they disembarked, thereby keeping some distance to allow the locals to handle the opening ceremonies while still having a good view of the proceedings - and a good view of the surrounding, once-royal starport.

  As to the matter of what sort of suits to get, he was willing to leave that to the experts, but in his mind more protection was definitely better than less if they were going to deliberately put themselves in front of assorted sharp and shooty things as part of the job.

Cyrus stayed immediately near the princess and watched the interactions.

In reply to Cyrus Alexandre (msg # 57):
[ABOARD THE SHUTTLE, PRE-LANDING]



     "Truth be told, I would rather wait and buy suits at Tech-World, as well." Varca says, "But the ship doesn't even have any emergency suits--I wouldn't dare take the chance of making at least two jumps with some of us not having protective suits.  We have to get the best we can get, here."




[ARRIVING ABOARD THE FLOATING PALACE]

     "I'm honored, of course, that two, such Honored Citizens, as yourselves, would meet me, as I disembark a shuttle," Varca added, again bowing his helmeted head to both Lord Wrax and Chieftain Galx, "But surely the two of you are not here simply to welcome a miscreant like myself back aboard the Floating Palace...?"

"We have two or three days before we have to get back so I suggest we assign tasks to accomplish some stuff, like tools and parts. We need vacc suits, SMGs for the ship's locker and programs. Maybe we can afford a bot on Tech World."

[ABOARD THE SHUTTLE, PRE-LANDING]



     Varca gives Theo a hard stare,

     "A Bot!  Haven't figgered out how, yet, but I'm planning on getting an entire Platoon of Robots, my Imperial Friend!  We need combat troops, and I'm not about to recruit and trust real Pirates."

     "Oh.  Meaning no offense to you, Cyrus."

Unless any of the group has some sort of secret identity, then you all show up on the routine passenger manifest for the shuttle, which is part of the standard transponder interchange between the shuttle and the Air/Space Traffic Control system on the Floating Palace.

In general, if anyone shows up of significance, the proper people are notified.

The Princess did not exit the shuttle with the rest of you.

Wrax, as the highest authority present, will escort you to guest quarters once you explain that you will be here for a day or two.


Once settled in to your rooms, you are free to go about your business. You are given the usual invitations to dine with Wrax and Galx.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 61):


     "Thank you, Lord Wrax." Varca says after being shown to a room, "I'm honored that you took time from your busy day for an old Vet, like me.  Thank you very much."

"Thank you for your kindness and hospitality, Lord Wrax" Ingrid says politely. "It's most generous" she adds, smiling.

Teddy nods his thanks as well.