[OT] - Xenology - Story driven PBW.

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I suppose its easier with a society like the Foundation cause they always have various Groups battling (economically that is) with each other, and scandals and lots for the news services to keep up with.

Plus, if you think about the types that went off to colonize new continents in our world, that is the model I've made for the Groups that colonize new worlds. I don't just have regular foundation folks getting up and going off to a new world, I have all these different idealists who want to do things their way.

The Foundation is a lot like the Fazrah without weapons, and as robots.

[dogscoff]

“So, sister, we meet at Last. ” The younger princess slithered up to the elder with a smug twitch in her tail. “I was hoping we’d bump into one-another. It would be so rude of me to be issuing orders to a sister I’d never even met.”
She looked around quickly, hoping someone would have overheard, but was disappointed. The audience chamber they occupied was one of the oldest surviving excavations on the planet, having hosted at least three hundred generations of KanesS royalty, but it had been designed with an exquisite understanding of acoustics. It allowed a small group of people to speak in effective privacy, even if the place was packed wall to wall with squirming nobles as it was tonight. A perfect design consideration considering the amount of scheming that went on there: For almost as long as society had existed among the KanesS, this chamber had played to host to every conceivable plot of deceit, revenge, treason, assassination and betrayal.

“Ah, yes, Srikeesh isn’t it?” Kleesh deflected the artless little putdown with casual ease. “I’m so glad my Royal Parents found a role for you in my space project. As you know I’m a great believer in new ideas and I think it’s wonderful to trust even a minor task like yours to someone so young and inexperienced. Still, with enough effort I’m sure we can convince them that you’re not completely useless.”

Srikeesh shrank back slightly, baring her teeth. Kleesh consolidated her victory with a dismissive flick of the head as she turned to her other companions. Despite her nonchalant attitude, Kleesh felt genuinely threatened by this upstart sibling. The newly-appointed minister for alien interaction may not yet be skilled in the sniping and barbed conversation central to the royal court’s operations, but few in the nobility actually understood the critical nature of the new diplomatic role assigned to her- which is the only reason it had fallen on her. No KanesS had ever even considered the possibility of alien intelligence, so although everyone had been shocked and appetised by the discovery Last tenth, few had grasped the implications. Not only in regards to interstellar relations and the procurement of vital resources by trade, but also the possibility of competition and conflict.

There was plenty enough competition and conflict at home, of course. Kleesh didn’t doubt for one minute that her Royal Parents had paired her up with this devious and ambitious younger sibling to provoke just that. Kleesh’s fame and power had been grown suddenly when the space project had captured the public’s imagination, and for a while she had been one of the top three contenders for heir. Even if she was a laughing stock now, they were wise to keep an eye on her. It was a standard tactic for the monarchs to set these little tests for their offspring, firstly to see who was most fit for the throne and also, of course, to distract them from any plans to take it before their time.

The fact that she was now being pitted against such a minor princess showed how far she had fallen in her parents’ esteem. The space project had been hugely popular at first, and a prestigious new title had been invented for her: Minister of Galactic Domains. However, with the agonisingly slow progress of the colonisers toward their targets the nobles had lost interest and with it their respect for Kleesh. She should have listened to Shkimsk, who had foreseen this very situation and advised against targeting distant food-rich planets exclusively. By the time they encountered the Cue Cappan ship, she was practically in disgrace and so this Srikeesh else had been given responsibility for communicating with them.

Now Kleesh had to try to work with this insufferable brat. Although no form of hierarchy or command structure had been established between them (the King and Queen would doubtless take great pleasure in watching them fight it out), Srikeesh would undoubtedly find diplomatic reasons to wrest control of the starships away from her. In the meantime, who knew what the Cue Cappans were thinking? They might already be planning an attack, and Srikeesh would be too busy scoring points against her sister to even consider the possibility.

[Raging Deadstar]

Very good Dogscoff, it's always nice to have some infighting amongst the royals. I admit i wasn't a fan of Othaglot and Cane but this is one of my favourites. Very nice style of writing and interesting as well. Keep up the good work

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Zelleck was on a brief vacation before being reassigned to an new starliner still being built.

The President of the Starliner group asked if he wanted to come to the Space Club, a new club opening in the capital city club district, replacing the old Control Alliance hangout.

Zelleck performed admirably according to the captain of Freedom and so he was promoted to second in command of a new starliner. The President wanted to get to know a bit about him and the club as well.

The sign in front of the club read:

THE SPACE CLUB
PARTY CENTER FOR THE FUTURE AND THE FAZRAHN PAST

The Doorperson chatted with the president quickly before admitting them both. Seats were crowded in a circle around the announcing stage where a Citizen was preparing for the start of the festivities, and around the exotic oils bar, which sported everything from basic black to the famous Creators' Blend, all at atrociously high prices.

Various spacey atmospheric items were everywhere, especially things left over from the ship launches.

The Announcer spoke, "Well, first lets see who we have here today from the space companies. We've got the President of the starliner group, a second in command for a yet to be named starliner, a public relations officer for FFCC, and a representative for the control alliance escort Discipline." At the Last announced group, quite a few citizens were surprised. No one knew about Discipline, except a few people in ship resupply centers and at FFCC.

"Don't be surprised, Discipline has mapped out the majority of the in range solar systems. They have an ultra efficient crew, and efficient engines, and they have been looking for the Fazrah as well as selling rights to new planets everywhere. Things didn't turn out so well for most of our neighboring systems. Look at this map," the announcer paused to project a map which showed dangerous places Discipline had navigated through and only a couple inhabitable places.

"Discipline has performed admirably in my opinion and I'd like to give them a round of applause. Alright, lets hurry about through these other facts so we can get to the slightly less spacey surprise ahead. Starliner group has transported a total of over 22 million passengers to three planets. The third group for space is FFCC who has constructed and coordinated launch of ten spaceships so far, including 4 colonial ships, 2 judicial ships, 3 starliners, and a scout ship..."

Later, the announcer revealed a Fazrahn musical composition that the creator owned and like. The club acquired it at a price of 231 mineral dollars, which was higher than the price of building the club itself. It was a big hit, as an auditory reminder of the mysterious Fazrah who surrounded their Creator before his travel to this world. The question was whether or not the Fazrahns were still around, and Discipline had the best chance of finding out.

[Unknown_Enemy]

Eden.

The planet was such a volcanic hell that it systematically destroyed all complex life forms by denying them the time needed for evolution. Only a few plant species achieved long term survival, by spreading massive amount of spores before volcanic annihilation.
Nineteen million years ago, some small trees developed a natural infrared sensor. These vegetable creatures used it to release their spores should one of the frequent volcanic fire threaten them. This species achieved survival. And began to prosper. Some of the offspring changed, mutated, and adapted as life always does. One of the mutation involved the emission of a small wave of ultrasound, which was a signal for all nearby trees to release its spores. Then, some other vegetable species started to rely on the ultrasound trees, with rudimentary eyes catching the spore ejection, which in turn started their own.
It took 9 million years for these plants and some others to evolve into an ant like society. During this time, the planet was getting more stable, volcanic activity was diminishing and animal life started to appear everywhere. The vegetable society had to learn to defend itself from herbivore predators. Thorns, poisonous fruits and even carnivorous plants started to appear. Several vegetable species depended upon one another to prosper. But the limited range of ultrasound signals was causing havoc. Frequently, instructions from different parts of a large nest were conflicting. A vegetable nest could be competing for vital space with another nest, or even with itself.
Around 7 million years ago, an Orchid specie evolved a limited form of telepathic transmission, which was not restrained by the ultrasound range limitation. The consequences were tremendous. While the flower spread on the planet, all nests quickly disappeared and merged into each other. As a matter of fact, the node was composed of two levels, the first one was the most basic, the multitude of vegetable consciousness that was busy keeping themselves alive on a day to day basis, with as much awareness as most earthlike vegetables. But, as the old terran saying, a team could be much more than just the sum of the teammates' capacity.

"Indeed."

The network of linked vegetable was much more than a larger node, as in effect, it created a consciousness. It took only a few thousand years for the Master Node to evolve from an instinctive intelligence to a sentient one.

"We are one."

Reportedly, this was the first thought of the newly formed collective mind. From then, began a long period of physical stagnation. But on the mental point of view, the Mind was a fury of thought. Subjects on scientific, mathematics or philosophical grounds were explored. But always on a theoretical point of view. As the Mind lacked any way to interact with its surrounding, any practical study was out of his reach, but that did not bother it, as it had little use for experiments.

"Then came the Hammer."

The Hammer took the form of a wandering asteroid which fell on Eden 6 million years ago. The northern continent was badly hit, but the nuclear winter that followed almost wiped out the Collective Mind. Several of its constituent species could not survive the century of reduced luminosity, nor the overall lower temperature. Luckily, the Mind discovered that some seeds could survive the cold for this long. When the cataclysm's effect slowly faded, the Mind was fully aware it had come very close to disappearing. The notion of death, which was only a distant possibility a century ago suddenly became a threat.

"What was that ? Where did it came from ? Will it come back ?"

These questions needed answers. As soon as its survival was assured, the Collective started to devise his course of action. To work out that problem, the Mind would need to interact with its surrounding. Some particular trees were bred, associated. The Mind could not modify the DNA sequences of its components, it was just breeding some species and trying to obtain the desired results. But it had time for itself. Three thousands years ago, after countless failed experiment, the Mind achieved a result : the fruit of a certain tree, once fallen would follow a predetermined path with rudimentary legs, and perform a simple action before burying itself in the earth. That simple tool enabled the Mind to create dams and irrigation systems. But more than that, it added a whole dimension to the Collective's actions. These first tools were used to create more efficient tools, which were in turn used to.......

"Today."

After the first fruit-tool, the slow pace with which the Mind viewed time had to change. When born, the Mind was perceiving time by the passing of seasons. After the Hammer, it switched to the passing of days. After the first fruit tool, it subdivided days in 9 time units, each time units being divided in 9 sub-units. Most of animal species had been disposed of, and the remaining were absorbed by the Mind as tools. The planet was completely acclimated, a garden in which no predators lurked. The mind had established full control on the ecosystem, and most of his duties were to respond to the problems of supply and demand. When a component of him needed something, the Mind checked what or who could fulfill it, and arranged the transportation of the goods where they were in need. The main subtlety was to establish priorities between demands should a bottleneck of production or transportation arise. The sky is regularly filled by Zeppelin like plants which transports goods and sub-species from place to place on the behalf of their Master Mind. Due to his level of understanding and exploration of the solar system, the Mind does not fear the Hammer anymore, it has the power to prevent it. But an irresistible force is pushing it out of his birthplace, even out of his own solar system. Something that was absorbed with some animal tools long ago.

Curiosity.

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Interesting start with the Floral race, I'm having a bit of trouble with the Robotians.

I like my idea but I'm slipping too much into a terran type race. It may not be the star trek terrans, but the only differences you can see from my story are recharges, the Justice as head of everything and the extreme lack of any authoritarian tendencies.

I wanted to play an extremely brutal capitalistic race for the Foundation, but it seems like its becoming too terrany. Since we have capitalism in many parts of our world, it lacks newness.

The thing is, the Robotians are supposed to compete brutally and yet have a huge amount of freedom, represented by the fact that two of the colonized planets are independent republics allowed by the Justice.

Anyone have any ideas or comments on whether the Robotians are too terrany, and if so, some ideas on what I should do.

I have the idea of many citizens looking up to the previously secret ship Discipline and its crew. They achieved more than the colonists have so far, and they have a much more repressive political view. It may spread quickly among youngsters since the Robotian mind is extremely affected by the environment.

[Unknown_Enemy]

Thread cleaning.

[ August 26, 2003, 12:40: Message edited by: Unknown_Enemy ]