to sleep perchance to dream

[warpfairy]

Isabella drifts into a new system. This is farther than she usually ventures, but she can make it back to a new human colony after a complete survey here, with a margin of error, and refuel there to get back into central Federation space. Still, she's a little apprehensive as she drops out of warp. If the system proves to be unusually complicated she'll have to do it in two stages.

Comments

[evesystem]

"Hence why I suggested you not tell me instantly about how to make my own warp drive like yours. It would be problematic."

[warpfairy]

"Well, where's the civilized area?"

[evesystem]

"Through the wormhole I came from, then maybe one or two jumps after that."

[warpfairy]

"I don't think I had better go hopping through strange unstable wormholes. Could you point it out on a map?"

[evesystem]

"Wormhole space is unmapped. I have no idea where I am right now, save that it's 'through a wormhole.'"

[warpfairy]

"...Okay, but I know where I am. Do you know where civilized space in your society is?"

[evesystem]

"Not relative to where I am right now, or to any landmark in our current sky. Otherwise wormhole space would be mapped by now."

[warpfairy]

"And you don't remember where Earth is, so not relative to Earth... maybe you could show me the star layout in the mapped area and I could find it by that?"

[evesystem]

"Sending you a map."

There's a marked lack of any overlap with the maps Isabella has right now.

[warpfairy]

"I don't think this is in the Milky Way galaxy."

[evesystem]

"Possible. We don't know how far the original wormhole bridged."

[warpfairy]

"But right now we're in the Milky Way. Which means that you guys can bounce around distances we can't bridge without finding natural wormholes."

[evesystem]

"So you do actually have a maximum range. Did I tell you that there's a theory that the wormholes are actually being generated by an unknown Sleeper technology?"

[warpfairy]

"Do tell."

[evesystem]

"Investigations into wormhole space have shown that one, a vast majority of it is filled with Sleeper installations, and two, some of the wormholes are actually fairly static over time - they come and go in cycles, but always travel between the same two points. This has led some to theorize that they're actually the remnants of an ancient Sleeper gate network."

[warpfairy]

"What are Sleepers, anyway, you keep mentioning them?"

[evesystem]

"It's the colloquial name for the people who lived in the wormhole arcologies: they're called the Sleepers because they built a large number of automated defense systems, which are still in working order and 'wake' whenever they detect ships in the area. Nobody's ever seen a living Sleeper, to my knowledge."

[warpfairy]

"Weird. And what's a Capsuleer?"

[evesystem]

"A Capsuleer is someone like me. This ship is hooked directly into my nervous system via my capsule, which means I'm the only person aboard. I'm also reasonably immortal so long as I keep up on my insurance."

[warpfairy]

"You may need to back up a bit."

[evesystem]

"I'll start by explaining the immortality. We have effective brain scanning that allows us to duplicate consciousnesses: however, this destroys the original brain in the process. My capsule is programmed to immediately do this process to me if it's breached, then transmit my brain state via ansible to the facility where my medical clone line is kept. Rather than dying, as would be inevitable if my capsule was breached in a combat situation, I wake up disoriented in a new body."

[warpfairy]

"The Federation doesn't have brain scans that good or 'ansibles'."

[evesystem]

"You have FTL ships but not FTL comms? We had a period like that as well. Anyway, this is why you're getting a still picture and a text channel, rather than video: I can't talk or gesture at you very well, immersed as I am in Pod-fluid."

[warpfairy]

"That sounds uncomfortable."

[evesystem]

"I don't notice it: right now I'm busy 'being the ship', as it were. The podding and unpodding process is the most uncomfortable part of it all, honestly."