Notes on the Ptanj

Introduction

The Ptanj are a species that have been starfaring for over 18,000 Terran years and spacefaring for almost 20,000 years.

During that time this was a prosperous civilization with many ebbs and flows.

The largest and most destructive event was the Dark Realmer War. This war against a hostile A.I. civilization almost caused the extinction of the Ptanj. Only the intervention of the Worldborne Oley and desperate measures by the Ptanj avoided this extreme.

Now after centuries of collapse and decay, the Ptanj have rebuilt up to 3 new stellar civilizations: The Starworlders, Ptanj Union, and Ptanj Association.

 

[Ptanj Renaissance, Ptanj Wandering, The Ptanj Association]

This would be the start of a major awakening of the Dark Realmers across a broad stretch of the galaxy rimward of Ptanj space. That would be aChapter One–History

The Ptanj ventured into space with no outside alien contact. They built their first space faring civilization in their home system over 2000 years. During that time, interstellar probes were sent out, and technology was advanced.

After all that time they developed their first superluminal system. They developed a primitive hyperspace drive system. They used that technology to send out early explorations proves and expeditions to all of the stars in their local stellar environment.

They found many systems which they were able to planet engineer and establish colonies over thousands of years. Throughout that era the Ptanj advanced their technology and made their first contact with a  wide ranging exploration team from the Malanthekar. This lead to long range merchant trade expeditions. This set up a trade route that lasted centuries and was cultivated by both sides.

During this era the Ptanj pushed outward on all fronts, constantly exploring. During those explorations they stumbled upona barren world that showed indications of ancient works and habitation. The expedition moved in eagerly. But they discovered that the ancient works were the result of an AI mining operation. The Ptanj attempted to examine the technology, but awoke the intelligence that ran the base world. This ‘Dark Realmer’ began with a horrid capture and examination of the Ptanj explorers. The AI of the mining colony would send out signals to awaken other Dark Realmer AI’s scattered all along a vast region of the galaxy located toward the galaxy’s rim from Ptanj space. This would set off a chain of events which would devastate the Ptanj Civilization.

Chapter Two-Dark Realmer War

Raiding forces of the Dark REalmers fleet lashed deep into Ptanj space at Ptanj worlds in a drive toward the Ptanj core worlds.

Each world hit was exterminated with violent intensity. The Dark Realmers sought to destroy all capacity of the Ptanj. Their strategy was simply one of total destruction.

The war’s first period saw numerous attempts by the Ptanj to stop the Realmer fleets. The Realmers had superior superluminal travel, which allowed them to gather forces and strike at Ptanj worlds. These led to numerous battles, which the Ptanj lost.

Eventually the war entered a second phase where the Ptanj could put sufficient forces in remaining systems to defect Realmer raids.

The Realmer technology was more advanced, but the Ptanj had adequate capacities to attack and hold against the Realmers.

Chapter Three: Star Worlders

After several years the Ptanj were worn down and more systems began to fall and be destroyed. This caused great concern on the Ptanj core worlds. The ptanj felt they needed a new strategy to assure the survival of the species.

The ideas developed led to the Starworlders. The concept was to build large self contained generation ships which had self-sustaining capacity, a quiet FTL, and a large capacity of the Ptanj culture.

As each starworld was constructed it was launched deep into the galaxy away from the warzone. The idea was to use a transit FTL jump to displace the starworld outward to a random point in space-time of the galaxy.

Each starworld was built to one of three patterns. Each of the patterns was design to have an initial start of 30,000 Ptanj. All of the patterns had the concept of existing for centuries.

Pattern One: This pattern was designed to support up to 250,000 populations, with the concept of lasting thousands of years. And could travel much further distances.

Pattern Two: This pattern was designed to be more modular than the other two the idea was to allow the star world to grow as large as necessary to support a growing, open ended population.

Pattern Three: Designed to build a rapidly growing colony once a distant, ut suitable world had been found.

 

Each pattern represented a different population preservation strategy.

The first pattern was to run as far and as fast as possible. The second pattern was to sustain a growing population indefinitely. The third pattern was to establish a remote and hidden colony.

 

The starworlds put a challenge upon the Ptanj construction, since the starworlds construction was displacing warship building.

The Ptanj launched roughly 10 starworlds per year from the core worlds. The Ptanj records from the war were flaw in preservation, but over 2,000 were known to be launched over 2 centuries.

 

The starworlders made no attempt to remain in contact with their parent civilization or each other.

Chapter Four–End of War

The end of the Dark Realmer War came in a quiet dwindling of activity. But by the time it ended, the Ptanj civilization was collapsing with over 2/3rds of their former habitated systems devastated and depopulated.

There was a chance encounter between a new Ptanj starworld and a wandering Spacebourne Oley ship. The exchange led to a first contact between the Ptanj and a Deiwos child race in the Oley. One result was recognition by the Oley that the Realmers are a leftover force from the Deiwas Civil War.

From this the Ptanj learned of codes and command features that allow the machines and AI’s to be directed.

It took several ‘months’ to get that information back to the Ptanj core worlds. The Ptanj defense forces used the information to win some major battles against the Dark Realmers. The Realmers withdraw from the war.

Chapter 5: Core Worlds after the War (Ptanj Union)

There were 15 heavily populated core worlds of the Ptanj civilization. Only 11 survived the war, the other four were depopulated by Realmer attacks.

Those eleven worlds that survived lost starfaring, but they began to rebuild for centuries after the war. Many of the core worlds reestablished connect through radio communication.

Several of the core worlds developed sublight starfaring and reestablished a stellar, multi-world polity. These worlds could not easily aid each other in rebuilding beyond moral support and information exchanges.

Eventually a successful breakthrough at the old Ptanj colony discovered new FTL technology. The older hyperspace access technology who still know, there were even preserved hyperspace ships, but the technology was not trusted. The dark Realmers had proven capable of tracking and engage ships traveling in such methods.

The Ptanj built upon knowledge gained from the Malanthekar allowed Ptanj scientist to develop the singularity tunnel and gravity wave rocketry. Once developed this technology quickly allowed the 11 old core worlds to develop the Ptanj Union.

Chapter 6–Ptanj Association

Most of the Ptanj worlds were destroyed during the Dark Realmer War. On the far side of of Ptanj space from the Realmer strategic attack vector over 200 Ptanj systems survived the war.

These systems had developed along the trade route toward the Malanthekar Expanses. When the Dark Realmers sweep be the core worlds they annihilated dozens of systems on the far side of Ptanj space but were unable to be through before they retreated and ended the war.

Those 200 plus systems were able to keep their population and their starfaring capacity. Over the centuries of silence these worlds and systems built the Ptanj Association.

Unlike the older Ptanj civilization, the Association is a much more open politically system. Each system stands equal to the others in the Association. A whole new civilization was built.

 

Chapter 7 Tensions between Ptanj Polity

After all of the Ptanj redeveloped and reestablished contact with each other there were increasing tensions.

The Ptanj homeworlds still felt that their old right to rule the Ptanj species still stood. Over 2,000 terran years had passed. To the Starworlders the old space was half legend, and had little bearing on the Starworlds future. Each world was a community, with their own take in history.

To the Association worlds, the old Ptanj ruling polity which had developed from the homeworld were considered to blame for the Realmer War. Such matters of ancient history were considered established academic fact among the general culture and society of the Association.

The old core worlds had looked at restoring Ptanj unity as an almost religious tenet. But also no Ptanj had every waged war upon another after the Ptanj first became starfaring, so military action was considered anathema for the Union. But warfare of limited types had occurred between worlds in the early days of the Association. And the starworlders still occasionally battled.

So all the proclamations of racial unity by the Union was meet with skepticism. The Union proved frustrated at the attitudes of the other Ptanj, but had to face several strategic realities.

 

1 The 11, old core worlds of the Ptanj Union had to rebuild everything from start. Their total population was only 5 billion across 11 star systems.

2 The star worlders had settled diverse new worlds or stayed space based for the last 2,000 years. They were scattered across over a quarter of the galaxy.

3 The new technologies developed by the Union may allow rapid travel at galactic ranges, there were limits to how many ships and weapons the Union could produce and upkeep.

4 There were almost a trillion ptanj in the Association and their ships were still capable of striking at the old core worlds.

Chapter 8–Ptanj Timeline

–Ptanj civilization is at its height, with strong dealings with the Malanthekar

–Ptanj exploration ship stumbles upon a Realmer base world and is destroyed

–Realmer War starts with heavy attacks falling upon the Ptanj outer colonies.

–ptanj halted the initial attacks by the Realmers to great cost

–The war raged for centuries with decade of stalemates. Across the Ptanj space, worlds were devastated, and Realmer bases were destroyed in return when found.

–Fearing the extinction of their species, the Ptanj developed the star worlder project. They designed 3 patterns.

–Initial encounters with the Oley eventually lead to aid in the form of Spaceborne Oley ships aiding Ptanj fleets. Also Oley transit and tensor field technologies were incorporated into the Starworld designs.

–Also with coding information gained from the Oley, the Ptanj were eventually able to push the Realmers back but not before their core worlds were devastated or destroyed.

–The Realmer war ends in silence as the Realmers withdraw from all space near Ptanj

–The Ptanj civilization was exhausted. The Ptanj lost 7/10 of their initial population.

–the 11 surviving core worlds collapsed into barbarism and low technology existence

–a third of the surviving Ptanj had scattered aboard the Star worlds and began to build new societies between the far flung worlds

–Over 200 of the surviving outer colonies in Ptanj space on the side away from the Realmer invasion survive and preserve starfaring, these go on to form the Association.

–the Association chose to avoid the old Ptanj core worlds since most had been sterilized, those at barbarism level are left untouched by choice and law

–each of the 3 populations went their own way for 2,000 terran years

–the surviving 11 cor worlds, eventually recover. Four of them enough to establish radio communication with each other. The first colony was the first to return to space. The 11 core worlds built a starfaring sublight society over 2 centuries.

–the Ptanj Association formed a slow expanding polity, technology, and new worlds are only added to a society that is based upon conservation, collectivism, and efficiency

–the Ptanj Association slowly expanded into new territory. Eventually this brought them up to the remnant worlds of the imperial melanthekar’s territory

–This brought both into conflict. The imperial Melanthekar at first held the strategic advantages, but the Ptanj eventually stabilized the situation and drove the Melanthekar back across their borders. This resulted in a cold war that went hot several times over the centuries.

–Starworlders interconnected and begin pushing their range further and further out from the old Ptanj space.

–the Ptanj core worlds began to slowly pull themselves out of their new stone age induced by the last Realmer campaign

–the First 1,000 years each civilization went their own way.

–The association build up to a 1,000 major systems. Sharing borders with the Imperial Melanthekar. Their technology and economy slowly grew. The Association adopted a conservative culture and approach to all things.

–The core worlds are aware of their past but had to rebuild an infrastructure, knowledge base, and educating their populace. Four worlds established radio contact, and 3 learn sublight starfaring.

–the starworlders had developed new star worlds and a tenuous far flung culture. They keep contact with the Oley and encounter others.

–by modern times, the first contacts between the 3 Ptanj cultures were renewed

–the attempts by the Union to claim leadership were rebuffed

–The Association keep its focus upon the Malanthekar and the Trade Area, but cautiously keep contact with the Union.

–The starworlders varied in their reaction to the Union. Some wanted to be left alone, others welcomed new, deep ties to the old homeworlds.

–each of the starworld patterns had led to different approaches to survival over the 2,000 years

–Many of the first patterns ranged far away and developed very solitary cultures. Three did renew their ties to the old home systems in alliance.

–Many of the second pattern keep expanding in population and size. These starworlds form the core of the Ptanj Starworld Concordant.

–the third patterns went out to form independent, remote colonies. Many failed, but others succeeded. Some stayed independent, but most joined the Concordant. Two allied with the Union.

Chapter 9–Structure of the Association

The 2,000 years gave the Association time to expand from 200 star systems to over 2,000 star systems. Not all of them were majorly settled but were each tied to a complex stellar economy.

Unlike the Ptanj prewar patterns, the Association Ptanj tried to tie in all star systems in a region into a functional system instead of only using the most optimal systems.

Instead each system was used to some capacity. To capitalize on this strategy, the Association built a large number of diverse ships to fit all the needed niches.

The goal was to use the whole resources available to the Association in a wise manner. But the idea is to plan for the future. The concept is to save for prosperity while refining it all. This has become a problem due to the Tranc Stealth Ops service pirating things from economic hub systems. The Association has a culture of planning long term and methodical execution. This leads to stockpiles and strategic reserves. With the close proximity of the Association to the Tranc’s home area made them an early target.

The Ptanj were aware that some alien force was pirating their frontier systems, but believed it was various independant alien sub-factions from the Expanse or a group of Malanthekar.

The Ptanj of the Association had developed a class system over 2,000 years. There was considerable vertical and horizontal mobility, but it was formal with official testing, rewards, and recognition.

This led to considerable stability with an outlet for innovation and creativity, while allowing considerable stability.

Sovereignty was at the star system level with an over-government that was responsible for multi-system tax at common defense, frontier development, crisis response, and long term development loans.

The armed/military services were divided into five services.

1 Frontier Navy- This was the most populous and largest service in facilities and numbers.

The service was responsible for patrolling and monitoring the edges and borders of Association space. Along uninhabited frontiers they were responsible for survey and exploration as well as patrol.

On border areas, the frontier force is responsible for patrolling, recon, and rapid defense response for systems that come under attack along the frontier regions.

2 Home Fleets- the most costly service is the defensive fleets stationed at the regional hub systems and the original colonies. These forces were originally built in response to the long running issues with the Malanthekar, especially during their Extinction Wars. The activity of the Tranc piracy has just made the fear external forces that more focused.

The sabre rattling of the Ptanj Union has forced the fleet to consider the need for an expeditionary mission. Such a force would be designed for operations beyond the Association’s space. This would be strikes on the Ptanj Union worlds with sufficient forces to devastate those worlds and overcome the superior technology of the Union Forces.

The defense/home fleets are built most and stationed at each region’s/sector’s assigned economic hubs and the main systems. The main systems were the closest toward the original Ptanj space; the original 200 colonies to survive the Realmer War.

The old deal worlds ‘behind’ the Association were left abandoned or only touched as for security or memorial purposes. There was ample survivors’ guilt for centuries. Out of respect for the first century they left the dead worlds alone. After that the economic and security needs forced occupation of those systems.

The security reasons were for fear of the Realmers return. The Realmers technology had never fully been understood especially their superluminal travel methods.

For economical reasons several of the planetary engineered worlds were resettled. The original Ptanj Civilization had ‘terra firma’ multiple worlds to fit the home world environment of the Ptanj.

3 System militias–each star system tries to afford the best military it can both in surface tactical, spatial troops, and system combat ships. Each system is expected to spend 25 annual to upkeep these forces.

4 Association Army-Most of these forces are stationed on the hub war systems and major worlds.

The Army is trained to deal with most surface combats including airless and toxic environments. Most of the units have some form of light contained combat armor. Heavy units do exist but most are tracked vehicles. Weapons for the units are modular, for various environments.

Most common types by Terran term heavy tank, light tank, battle transport, engineering vehicle.

Weapons modules are put on the vehicle to fit mission needs and operating environments.

5 Crisis response service-this service represents the central government across a wide range of missions that are not military: space patrol, law enforcement, space rescue, medical emergency, and major crisis/disaster response.

The Association has a mostly local manufacturing economy. Food and necessities are created in the local star system as much as possible, they rest will be shipped from the nearest economic hub systems. At this scale the economy is a planned matter with things being managed regional.

The economy has an individual as well. This is an open economy for the local free mortal availability and small individual production.

This approach ensures adequate supplies, personal freedom, and efficiency at the macroscopic scale. The key is the necessity of transparency and integrity at all levels. Several layers of oversight attempt to assure such matters. A respect of an equilibrium between the individual and society became general ethic for the Ptanj of the Association.

This leads to a methodic and stable, yet only moderately innovative society.

Chapter 10–Structure of the Union

The Union was built upon 11 surviving old worlds and the homeworld of the Ptanj. The Union feels tied to the long history of the old Ptanj civilization.  Much of which survived, even during the long night. But the society also dealt with thousands of years of enforced stone age existence.

This produce an odd dichotomy with the society. It had deep roots, which furnished a strong sense of identity and interconnection. Yet the urge to get back to the stars drove much of their development to give the Union a very dynamic core, and a sense of purpose.

The idea for their government is a federation. Each world keep considerable autonomy. While there was the historical ties, the rebuilding had proceeded at different paces at each world and unique cultures had developed. So in social matter and management of their own star system.

Technologies and Development

After rebuilding enough of an infrastructure for spacefaring, the next step was to send probes to all the old core worlds. The last campaign push by the Realmers had left the whole main region of Ptanj space devastated and then sweep past to push further into Ptanj space, all in one strategic push.

The forces that attempted to defend the Ptanj worlds fell or were driven back. The last force defeated the Realmers push but were forced to proceed to the colonies that would form the Association. These were the only worlds surviving know to the force.

[These factors would play up resentment in the Union years later. The force had been the one farthest from the war front, but was also devastated in the final campaign. It took decades before the Association could even visit the nearest worlds. They spent that time just trying to secure connects between each surviving world. None had been major colony worlds and the original Ptanj economy had been very interconnected. It was almost a century before they could even visit the nearer dead worlds]

Eventually the Ptanj Union was able to connect the 11 surviving worlds were connected by constant radio communication and regular transportation by sublight ships.

The first major step was to get probes to all the nearby systems, to find who had served and to what level.

The second major step was to build radio communication and try to set up a steady exchange between star systems that were able to communication.

The third major step was to get some sub-light capability to visit the nearby worlds that were in radio traffic.

The fourth major step was to get sublight ships to visit the star systems that were known to have surviving populations, but were primitive still in their surviving technical capacity.

The fifth major step was to set up regular routes of fast sublight ships between the technological systems. And also to send large slow boat ships with large amounts of equipment and population of experts to help the surviving primitive societies to rebuild.

The sixth major step was to set up, or as many worlds as possible a network of directed radio signal stations that beam constant updates from each world back to the primary world, and all the closer systems.

[The primary system was the first one to recover sufficiently to return to starfaring. It was the first ancient stellar settled from the homeworld. It would eventually become the capital of the Ptanj Union. The homeworld had been devastated but the homestar system had survived with numerous spatial habitats which had never been attacked. The home system was the first to establish the radio communication, using old radio telescopes from before the war.]

The seventh major step was to get a regular space faring packet circuit running between each star system.

The eighth was to funnel around the two most valuable assets on rebuilding civilization: skilled experts and knowledge. The first had to be sent by ship while the second could be transmitted by radio.

The ninth major step was to restore the capacity of superluminal travel. This created a complication. The rebuilders had both the theory and materials to redesign and develop hyperspace drives, much as the old Ptanj had used, but there was considerable concern about using this technology. The Dark Realmers had proven able to detect when a ship entered and exited hyperspace from great range, at least over a light month.

The fear that any attempt to reuse hyper space technology would draw the Realmers back to attack the surviving worlds. Even without that technology the Ptanj Union was attempting to practice silence as much as possible. Even their interstellar radio communication was very linear, minimum power and directional. Once the proper alignment was known and established lasers and maser communication was used instead.

Their need for a restoration of superluminal travel, but unable to use any of the known technology forced new consideration and research and development. Both the old home system and the primary/capital had the rebuilt technological basis and people to invest in the necessary research and experimentation.

Eventually research led to the ability to create tunneling singularities. The concept was to create a momentary wormhole. This was similar to the effort of the Malanthekar wormhole network, but did not create a permanent singularity.

Many methods had been examined. The technology data of the Realmer inversion technology was studied, but the negative effect on organic systems was discovered.

Several features of hyperspace technology was also discovered that had not been known by the Old Ptanj. The end result was a decision to develop the singularity tunneling effect.

The concept was lifted from old observed data from the Malanthekar civilization long ago bought by the Old Ptanj from Gaolyslu traders. This gave them a potential new field of technology and a new superluminal drive system.

[the homeworld Malanthekar would come to the same technological concepts.]

Early Aracana Spacefaring.

The Aracana took to outer space as a religious drive. The ancient legends about the battle in the heavens had driven the Aracana to look outward from their planet much earlier in their civilizational development than other sapients did.

The Aracana had witnessed a titanic battle around their planet’s satellite that had lasted over three orbits of their satellite. These events focused the Aracana’s attention on their moon for centuries.

Once the Aracana achieved space travel, they risked much to land on their moon. Several lives were lost on the expedition. There, in a deep, dark crater, the Aracana found a massive alien wreck. It was an ancient Imperial Malanthekar star battleship, the loser of that long ago space battle around their moon. A steady flow of craft to the crash site and their satellite continued after that find.

In time, the third planet in the Aracana system was found to be warmer than they prefered but Aracana are adaptable to life, so a colony was set up. Great orbital habitats were also constructed and the resources of the system harvested to build an interplanetary civilization. During this entire period the Aracana were unraveling the secrets of the huge alien crash site.

This era also saw intense extensions in Aracana astronomy, including looking remotely for signs of alien civilizations. These sky surveys for indication of a repeating, low energy signal from a nearby star system. Attempts to communicate via radio wavs with the system produced no response, just a slow, steady repeat of the same signal year after year for decades.

All of this observation also found evidence of a potentially habitable planet in another nearby star system.

Both of these facts began the Aracana discussing the idea of habited instellar expeditions. Each targeted star system would have three planned missions.

Two robotic missions to send back pictures and information on what they found from direct observations. The other two were a small crewed ship who were to arrive on site and begin the process of building up a local habitat and begin planning the long term investigation of the star systems if possible. The last two missions were small, slow boats designed to arrive at their target star systems over decades after launching. There were subtle differences in each mission based upon the expected target mission profiles.

1) Robotic flyby interstellar probe of the alien signal

2) Robotic prove collection to investigate the potential habitable system

3) Relativistic manned mission to the alien signal

4) Fast, crew suspended animation to second home

5) Slow boat large crew for the alien signal 3000

6) Generation ship with 15,000 to second home (growth to 60,000)

 

  1. The plan was to get a close look at that repetitive alien signal and get there as fast as technologically possible. So the Aracana’s first interstellar mission was to be a rapid flyby and through the target system. There was no plan to attempt to slow down much. The probe would dive through the heart of the system dispatching secondary probes and real time beaming the signal back to the home system. Many of the technologies used for the mission were just developed. The propulsion technology was an inertial fusion rocket motor in a two stage drive system. (Dadelum system inspiration)

The whole mission was at 12% the speed of light. The distance to the star system was 11.5 terran light years.

The mission was a success, it found a large damaged spherical alien space ship in orbit around the inner star system of the target star. The main prove was only able to image it remotely but was able to send two staggered subprobes to writhin dozens of kilometers of the orbiting wreck. The probe drifted on out of the star system. It was found centuries later and brought back to the star system it first passed through, which by that time had become the location of the Aracana’s Grand Library

The launch stage was recovered and used for other missions.

  1. Unlike the mission to the mysterious alien signal, the mission to the star system with the potentially habitable worlds would be methodical, without the focus on haste. When the first mission was launched the ship for the second mission was still being built.

The goal was to send a very capable robot mothership with a diversity of secondary crafts to arrive and operate long term in the star system. With that in mind a more extensive infrastructure was developed in the home system. A sail propulsion system was developed. This was used for the probe with the sail later used as a drag anchor later to swing the probe around the target system till it could enter orbit around the star.

The robotic ship had probes to send to all the observed major orbital bodies to including orbitors, landers, and impactors. The whole mission would still have operational units when the manned mission arrived decades later.

  1. The first inhabited interstellar voyage by the Aracana was a ship launched to the second alien wreck with a crew of 1,200 individuals. The ship was launched with the crew most in hibernation. The rocket was launched with three booster stages and a braking stage and one braking sail. The first stage was a massive frame not designed to go much further than the home system edge, but it did get the whole structure to 5%C. It was manned with a small crew to return it to the home system for later usage. The second stage was meant to be reusable but was purely automated. This second stage got the ship up to 105C. The third stage was purely disposable and was the first use of antimatter for major space propulsion. It slammed the spacecraft up to 50% C where it coasted for the eleven light years distance to the target system. During this voyage a constant crew of 4 was constantly awake to monitor the ship and slumbering crew.

The ship carried a deceleration stage and a large space sail to slow the ship by braking against the interstellar medium.

Once the ship was slowed down and within the target system the mission plans began with the first objective of establishing a main base and the other to begin close observation of the alien wreck. The crew of this mission had come as a vanguard and no intention of ever returning to the home system.

  1. Using the technology they developed to the last to mission, the Aracana launched an inhabited mission to the system they had come to name Second Home. this ship was a sister ship to the third mission. This expedition also included 200 crew. Their goal once they arrived at Second Home was to study the whole star system but with their greatest focus on the habitable planets which could be planetary engineered with effort.
  2. The fifth interstellar mission was targeted at the future library system. The ship design was an upscaled version of the habited ship from the 3rd and 4th voyages. The ship was built to carry up to 3,000 instead of 200. The velocity was aimed for 30% C instead of 50%. Once in the target system the 3,000 set about building a major habitat and the long duration study of the alien wreck.
  3. The last of those first planned six interstellar missions was the generation ship sent to Second Home. the ship was launched as a generation ship with 15,000 and a planned transit time lasting almost 2 terran centuries. By the time it was scheduled to arrive the ship population was up to 60,000 individuals. During the ship’s journey 3 other supply missions had arrived just like the first one. With the arrival of this ship the real terraforming beyond in earnest. The idea and decision was to terroform both worlds of the orbital twins, and the third world which was a large ocean world. This ambitious project of terraforming three planets was undertaken by less than 100,000 Aracana. The plan was expected to take almost 1,000 terran years.

After the launching of the first six interstellar expeditions, the Aracana established a regular schedule for follow on missions using the same technology. While these mission cycles were moving forward, the state of affairs at each star system began to slow change.

In the second home system, their terraforming efforts focused upon the fourth world. This planet was cold and marginal for the Aracana.

Padrech in the study

Padrech took up another piece of parchment. Upon it was a correspondence from one of his many ancient allies. The old desk in his study was covered in such reports and correspondences. 

There was much work yet to be done within the piles of parchment. The Graywalker’s gaze drifted out to the venue beyond the gallery window across the study from his desk. Beyond the window a dark, slow river meandered across a rocky plain, dotted by small groves of trees, all under a leaden sky.

Padrech  became lost in thought for a myriad of moments. The water clock to the left of the gallery window counted off the moments by slow, steady drips. Padrech broke the silence, “Cos, send an expeditionary force from the reserves at Plianta on Chin’ka to the war front on Teign. Our allies there have requested aid in their campaign against one of the wytch lords. “

A disembodied voice responded to Padrech from somewhere near the fireplace at the North end of the study. “Shekineser, should that include any of the magicians of Plianta among the forces?”

Padrech drummed his fingers on his desk top in thought before responding, “That is an excellent strategic suggestion. It is time those thaumaturgist earned their rewards.”

After the brief conversing, Padrech could sense he was now truly in solitude. He stood from his chair and reach for his hat from atop the shelves beside the desk. As he walked toward the door of the study, a raised hand pointed toward the far corner of the room. In a flash of motion, the heavy, wrought iron staff that had stood in the corner flew across the room to smack into Padrech’s extended open hand. His thoughts were already ahead of him as Padrech made his way down the front stairs and toward the main door. The front door of the manor was just opened when Padrech was hit in his midriff by a small, rushing feminine form.

A steady stream of noise in the form of shrieks and laughter flowed from the onrushing girl. “Daddy, daddy! You have to come see the fire scultputre the ifreets and I made down by the river!”

Padrech grounded his staff with his left hand to regain his balance and keep Arylin from completely bowling both of them over into a pile. Any thought of chastising his ward fled his mind. Maybe a war could wait long enough for him to keep the smiles upon his ward’s face.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court was published in 1889. At the time Twain wrote the novel, half of Europe was still dominated by monarchies and empires, who often greatly restricted teh freedoms of their subjects.

This novel has several aspects. Twain made a roaring good adventure tale, yet it the book is also a bit of social commentary on 19th century American and 19th century Europe. The main character expresses his opinion of the organized religion of the Middle Ages. There is also several scenes where Twain is using the story to express perspectives on social class systems, where one class is greatly oppressed such as Medieval peasants. 

Many of the traditional tropes of an Arthurian medieval romance are there, but with a bit of historical accuracy of the medieval society included. The main character brings in many of the positive aspects of the American national character of the late 19th century.

In the context of the Arthurian Cycle, the book does not add that much. It is a story that uses the appeal of King Arthur for a ready audience more than trying to explore Arthurian Lore. This is not a bad thing; if anything it allows a reader to enjoy the story and have a ready set of tropes to build expectations. 

The most enjoyable part of the the story is the contrasting of Twain’s interpretation of a modern world view as opposed to a medieval world view.

 

 

Stars Arising: A World United

World War Three had an abrupt surprise for the world. Hostilities had reached a point that nuclear weapons were fired, but none of them landed. After peace negotiations were begun, all the war leaders realized that some external agency must have prevented such extreme destruction. The next step was to begin a covert and unified effort to find out who had intervened.

The war had lasted for a years with over a billion people killed. The hostilities came to involve the whole world and lasted three years. In the end the nations turned to a nuclear exchange. This would have devastated the planet and killed over half of Humanity. Yet the miraculous intervention stopped that outcome.

The public explanation was a last minute accord, while privately leaders around the globe dispatched covert expeditions to Antarctica.  After comparing many forms of intelligence strange wave of energy was found to have originated from the heart of the Antarctica continent at the time of the nuclear exchange. All the governments agreed to collectively investigate, setting aside recent hostilities. Each major alliance and power dispatched an expedition, mixing military and scientific elements.

China dispatched a battalion of airborne troops with a strong science element. Their rapid supersonic transports reach the rendezvous site first, setting up the base camp that would be used by all the various parties.

The Southern Coalition sent elements of both the Brazilian Republic and African Union militaries. Their later entry into the world war left less hostility toward the other parties, and less a need for a strong military component.  They would send half the scientist present during the investigation would come from the Southern Coalition, including the most advance biologist and chemist.

The Russians sent the smallest contingent, but their long experience dealing in polar conditions made their contribution of vehicles and technical survival expertise vital. Their science commission was the smallest of all the expedition members, but their special operations troops brought heavy squad level firepower.

The European Union brought a multinational force with mostly German, French, and Poles. They traveled light, but attempted to strongly represent their governments in any findings of the expedition.

The Grand Alliance was the only expedition member to dispatch mostly by sea, when everyone else had traveled by long range air transport. Most of the forces were dispatched from India and the USA, but Australia, England, and Japan had several contributions, including mechanical robotic components.