A Science Fiction Text Adventure

> Find somewhere to park that won't attract attention, and rest until morning. Take turns sleeping if you need it, maybe discuss who to rescue next.

> Log your adventure so far.

"Rarity, are you okay? We gotta get you and your friends outta here soon!"

>Update your blog, being careful to give everyone involved fake names.

Now everyone pat me on the back and tell me how clever I am!

> Guard the area

artsy geek | any pronouns | "well, if you're hearing this, then chances are you've made a very poor career choice."

Post 103

> Find somewhere to park that won't attract attention, and rest until morning. Take turns sleeping if you need it, maybe discuss who to rescue next.

> Guard the area

You park somewhere out of the way, keeping an eye out for any animals or people who might be about this time of night. Something large and bat-like is flying in the sky. You see flashes of light from a police vehicle or two along the road.

You take turns telling ghost stories, and ask Kif to re-tell his story about the giant crab-like creature you used to distract the police as you left the station. Then you begin to discuss what's next on your agenda. Chu, who did help you personally and was targeted because of your own negligence, or maybe one of the F.f.E.C. members, who were just trying to do something they thought would make their world better? On the other hand, maybe trying to change the world one jailbreak at a time might not be the best use of your, well, time. Is there anything more productive you could be doing?

> Log your adventure so far

>Update your blog, being careful to give everyone involved fake names

You update your log and your blog, carefully redacting the real names of anyone you've met. You have to do this by narrating it into your earpiece, as your datapad also appears to have had issues with EMP.

Finally, the sky begins to lighten and you head to Feer's place. They hear your story about what happened. They understand that things happen, are glad the kids are safe, and are glad to have the vehicle back and in working order. They do have enough covert agents in good positions to keep it from being traced back to the F.f.E.C… probably. On the other hand, they're not so sure they want you conducting any more covert field missions with F.f.E.C. resources.

Is there anything you want to say to change Feer's mind? Or maybe you agree with Feer? What else do you propose you should spend your time on, then?

>Highly reccomend they rescue Chu.

Now everyone pat me on the back and tell me how clever I am!

> Ask if there's anything they need done that would be more suited to a group of outsiders than stealth rescue.

Post 104

>Highly recommend they rescue Chu.

> Ask if there's anything they need done that would be more suited to a group of outsiders than stealth rescue.

You get into a bit of a heated argument. There's some yelling and an (unintentional?) shove or two. You (Ruby) really want to rescue Chu. You feel responsible for them, since it was your rescue operation and exposure on your Tunnel Net blog that got them into trouble. Captain Waverton argues that while it's regrettable, you did just risk yourselves and the F.f.E.C.'s assets for four children, and only just escaped disaster. Doing so again for one person, who isn't critical to your mission, is inadvisable. He doesn't want to emphasize that he's still the captain here, but, well…

"Stop!," Aaron yells. "Ruby, we want to rescue Chu, we really do. But they're right, we only just pulled this off. We should know more before we try something like that again. That's what we came here for in the first place, anyway. Lucie and I have been talking with Feer, and we think we know something we can do. We could work with their tech and intelligence people to learn what they can do and what we can help with, which is the sort of thing we were sent here for anyway. Just working with a different group. Maybe we can pick up some things about how their operatives are trained."

What do you think about this? Do you have objections or better ideas? What do you need to do next?

> Discuss possibly manufacturing more invisibility nanites for the F.f.E.C. to use, or inventing more combinations of human and Bintanni technology.

>See "Invent more cool stuff." Raise you "Get Intelligence training."

Edited by dvorak on Oct 26th 2020 at 10:09:33 AM

Now everyone pat me on the back and tell me how clever I am!

Post 105

Sorry for the delay!

> Discuss possibly manufacturing more invisibility nanites for the F.f.E.C. to use, or inventing more combinations of human and Bintanni technology.

Feer is enthusiastic about this. Giddy, even, if you are understanding Bintanni body language correctly. "If we can make invisibility nanites so quickly, who knows what we can come up with if we have more time and even more minds together? I'll talk to my tech people immediately."

>See "Invent more cool stuff." Raise you "Get Intelligence training."

Feer nods about this as well. "It would help. But it would take time away from collaborating on combining and understanding each others' technology."

Captain Waverton has his hand on his chin in a classic thinker's pose. "I'm not one of our scientists here, I'd be relatively useless collaborating on technology. But I could learn how you operate."

Do our heroes have any thoughts or comments to share further on this? Do they think it's a good idea, or is there a better one? What do you want to do while Feer talks to their people?

Edited by PointMaid on Oct 28th 2020 at 10:15:33 AM

>See about getting a new datapad since ours is wrecked.

Now everyone pat me on the back and tell me how clever I am!

> It's a good idea, in the mean time, check how people are reacting to your update on Tunnel Net.

Post 106

>See about getting a new datapad since ours is wrecked.

Feer will ask about that when they discuss your collaboration with their tech people. Unfortunately, the model will have to be local and won't come with English localization. Maybe your AI can help.

> It's a good idea, in the mean time, check how people are reacting to your update on Tunnel Net.

You check Tunnel Net. It's a mixed bag. Some people are criticizing you as reckless, some as brave and resourceful. Some are glad you took responsibility for getting the kids into trouble in the first place. Others are worried that, as fugitives, they'll have it harder than if you hadn't sprung them at all. And then there are the nasty ones about crazy humans messing with the Bintanni justice system, breaking laws, and how you should be captured yourselves. There are also a number of people telling off the folks in the last category.

---

After your debrief, Kif's goes to see their mate Niu and kid Ver. There is a lot of evident relief and nuzzles.

Feer comes back and says they've arranged a tech lab orientation for Aaron, Lucie, and Ruby, and an intelligence orientation for Captain Waverton. Both will start tomorrow.

What do you want to do while you're waiting for your orientations to start? Anything you need to take care of or prepare?

Extending this until tomorrow

>When's the last time we ate?

Now everyone pat me on the back and tell me how clever I am!

> Chat with the others, perhaps? To break the ice and all that?

artsy geek | any pronouns | "well, if you're hearing this, then chances are you've made a very poor career choice."

Post 107

>When's the last time we ate?

Too long.

Feer sets out some Bintanni fruit and nuts (which should be safe), and you help make some of the sweet, thick, hot drink that you had the last time you were here.

> Chat with the others, perhaps? To break the ice and all that?

You ask Ver, Kif's kid, how they're doing and whether they've done any more art while they've been here. They pull out a sketch of you, Aaron, Lucie, and the Captain! It's quite good, too. They've been learning a bit about human art, and how a lot of it is a two dimensional representation of three dimensional space.

In fact, you and Aaron spend some of the rest of the day drawing and talking with Ver and Niu. Aaron even explains some Faster Than Light engine physics with a moebius strip. —- The next day, you head with Feer to their workplace. They've booked a couple meeting rooms for you to talk with the F.f.E.C. operatives, saying you're all private contractors that they might hire for a special job. You, Aaron and Lucie are to head to one room to meet with a few of the F.f.E.C's tech people, and Captain Waverton to another to meet with a couple of their intelligence people.

Tech

The tech people are as enthusiastic as Feer about your collaboration, if not more! You can call them Ro, G'al, and Blu. They've been sent the specs for the cloaking nanites and agree with trying to re-create them. In fact, they're nanotech specialists.

Intelligence

Captain Waverton is met by two solidly-built Bintanni by the names of G'etch and Phenn. Waverton re-states his Navy pilot and NASA credentials, while G'etch and Phenn say they were both a part of the Bintanni Defense Force before the current government took over and they were forced out. Now, they work security for private companies when they aren't working for the F.f.E.C. G'etch is a specialist in cryptography, while Phenn specializes in physical defense.

Is there anything you particularly want to discuss with Ro, G'al, Blu, G'etch, and Phenn? Or do you want them to set the agenda?

> They should set the agenda, they'll know best what needs to be done.

>Teacher sets the curriculum.

Now everyone pat me on the back and tell me how clever I am!

Post 108

> They should set the agenda, they'll know best what needs to be done.

>Teacher sets the curriculum.

Tech

You start by describing to each other what Earth and Bintanni technology is capable of doing. Bintanni do rely on miniaturization and nanotech for a lot of their high technology, and it underlies their surveillance abilities. Their manufacturing methods are also very quick. It's a strong fusion of chemistry and physics. However, their space travel is largely confined to their solar system.

You begin brainstorming ways of combining technology. Maybe you can combine faster-than-light physics and nanotech communication technology. Or adapt their mental knockout nanotech as a sort of more accurate mini polygraph. You'd certainly like to use it to make improvements in Earth medicine, and that could be useful to help heal people's wounds much faster and allow them to resist poisons.

Ro, G'al and Blu are aware that you need a new datapad, and give you a Bintanni version. You'll probably want to replace the OS with your own. Maybe add in some native translation software. When you do, they offer a chip which has a number of Bintanni science reference texts and explain how to search their journals for the latest results. In return, you send them a download of the Earth science material you all had compiled to discuss at the meeting that never happened.

Intelligence

Waverton and G'etch go over some basic ways the F.f.E.C. knows that the Bintanni government gathers and secures its data, and a few ways they've been able to break the encryption. The Government has to use large, integrated systems that can be used and unlocked by many authorized people; its system is geared to that, and it seems to be a weakness. On the other hand, the F.f.E.C. prefers to use codes known to only a few people or even just two, and not have its information collected together and available for cross-reference. It can be a weakness, but it ensure that even if some of them are taken down, it won't bring down the whole organization. G'etch teaches Waverton a few contact and distress codes to post in a certain comment section on Tunnel Net. If he's supposed to make contact with another operative, they'll have a specific contact code known only to them.

Then, Phenn teaches Waverton a bit about the most vulnerable parts of Bintanni anatomy: the feet, eyes, and throat are seen as particularly vulnerable. Their upper body is strong in comparison to humans, but the bones of their hands are more delicate, and most will risk hand bones breaking if using a punch a full force.

---

Do our crew have any questions they'd like to ask their teachers? Do they have ideas on which technology collaboration they'd like to work on?

> Try to make faster-than-light communication technology, with the goal of using it to send messages back to Earth as soon as possible, the first of which would be how to replicate the tech so they can reply.

Pushing my update to tomorrow.

>Re-image our datapad.

Now everyone pat me on the back and tell me how clever I am!

Post 109

>Re-image our datapad.

You re-image the datapad with software from your AI-assisted ship. You're back in business with an operating system you recognize and writing in English!

> Try to make faster-than-light communication technology, with the goal of using it to send messages back to Earth as soon as possible, the first of which would be how to replicate the tech so they can reply.

This is going to take a while to design, test, build and execute. The Bintanni fabrication tech may help in building it quickly, but you still need to figure out how to combine your knowledge, and test that it's going to work. But if you can do it, it could really pay off.

First, you essentially need to miniaturize your FTL engine. Aaron agrees that the reason it hasn't been done before is that it has so many parts and is so sensitive, it's hard to replicate smaller to that degree of precision. Ro, G'al, and Blu should be able to help with that.

Then, you need to include on-board navigation. No pilots for this, and no satellite navigation in the middle of space, and you need it to get exactly where it should be. You'll need a specialized and pared-down AI. Perhaps a star-chart combined with satellite navigation near inhabited spacefaring planets.

You also need to make sure it won't bump into anything. You're not even sure how many air molecules it could bump into without causing a disaster, and that's probably unavoidable.

And, you need to design an appropriate shell. Something that can take what you're putting it through. Replicating your spaceship probably isn't the best idea, but understanding what the skin of your spaceship does, well, would be. It's thin in the context of a spaceship, but still much thicker than a single layer of atoms, or even a thousand atoms thick. It's a doped carbon fiber structure designed not to expand or contract noticeably from temperature differentials, and to channel any rogue electricity to a location where it's not a problem and where it can even be used. It's coated on the inside with insulation, not just temperature insulation (apart from a few critical areas where excess heat can radiate into space) but electrical insulation. This is critical. Maybe the Bintanni have some materials science that can help replicate this on a small scale.

You have reference material and Ro, G'al and Blu. But soon you'll have to split up again for now. This is not going to be completed in a day. Hardly. They do give you a way to contact each of them through Tunnel Net, though. Which part do you (Ruby, Aaron and Lucie) want to tackle first, and which should the Bintanni begin to plan out? Anything else?