Original Fiction Tintagel

[bintananth]

I'm not sure what the best direction for the next part is so I thought I'd open it up to the audience. Here goes:

Viole has been talked out of attacking Earth but there's still the issue of the heavily armed LRS Hailee within weapons range of Earth's planetary defenses. That will get ugly if anyone opens fire on her. Some options:

[] The Constel returns to Earth with Lindewe after she's refueled. This will take a couple hours.
[] The Arethusa returns to Earth with Lindewe and her stealth shuttle.
[] The Hailee heads to Fomalhaut. It'll take a few minutes to reach minimum safe jump distance and she, like the Constel, will be followed.
[] Kirika boards one of the ships recalled to Earth due to the Hailee's presence for a face-to-face meeting.
[] Kirika sends a shuttle to pick up a human captain for a face-to-face meeting because no human shuttle is small enough to fit in the Hailee's hanger.*

Face-to-face is needed because of light-speed lag** but there are so many ways things can go wrong if someone sets off a Llyrian shuttle's automated security system.

There's also the issue of gravity: Llyrians aren't that adept at moving around in microgravity while humans who've spent a long time in it aren't very mobile right after they return to Earth. The 0.8g the Hailee has would be almost as problematic for them. Especially if they're in an environment suit because they don't trust the breathability of the air.

* Resupply is done using shuttles about the size of a box truck and those barely fit.

** At close range Llyrian FTL video calls overload human FTL comm receivers and routing one through a relay on Mars then back to Earth or the Moon takes all the FTL bandwidth Mars has.

 

[bintananth]

Senior Lieutenant Kirika looked at the holographic display with dismay.

A human warship had parked itself so close to the Hailee that there were only a few inches between the wingtip of her starboard radiator and its rotating gravity section.

The Hailee's passive shield bubble was cutting right through the core of four of the human warship's eight reactors.

"Helm, get us to a safe distance. Comm, override their security and open a broadcast channel."

Kirika took a deep breath while waiting for the Communications Officer to say "Channel Open."

When she exhaled she said, "Senior Lieutenant Kirika to Terran Warship. You're too close. Our passive shields are damaging your reactors. You need to do an emergency shutdown. We are moving to a safe distance, and will go to full shields."

I am also requesting permission to come aboard so we can talk face-to-face."

****

Captain Johnson had placed the TSS Pheobe as close to the LRS Hailee as he could. He was satisfied that both Earth, Luna, and everthing orbiting them had 44,000,000 tons blocking anything the alien ship might try to do.

His crew was attempting to figure out how to board it but was having problems because the alien ship had no external hatches aside from what appeared to be a hanger door too small to admit a shuttle.

And, suddenly, he - and everyone else on the TSS Pheobe - had his ears flooded by what sounded like an upset pre-teen.

He flinched when he heard, "I am also requesting permission to come aboard so we can talk face-to-face."

He queried "Comm, is whatever they just did 2-way?"

"Yes. Hold on ..." was the reply. A few moments later. "They're using our codes, the Mars-Luna FTL relay, and our PA system."

"What?!? Engineering?"

"Reactors two and six are showing signs of imminent prompt criticality but are still stable. The others don't look good."

Everyone in CIC looked at Captain Johnson for an answer. He sighed and said "SCRAM the reactors, tell them permission to board is granted."

****

When the Llyrian shuttle was safely ensconced in one of the Pheobe's hangers Captain Johnson did not know what to expect.

He and the Marines there for security were not expecting what appeared to be middle-school age girl with mishapen ears and purple eyes to get out of a lightly built shuttle smaller than the Pheobe's escape pods.

"Captain Erik Johnson, Senior Lieutenant Kirika. It is a pleasure to see you again." with an outstretched hand was the last thing he was expecting.

His look of absolute confusion was met with "You don't remember me? We played together when we were children. I was 'that weird girl' your older sisters didn't like when my parents took a vacation on Earth. I was born in the galaxy your astronomers call Andromeda".

 

[ATP]

That is how should WH40 look like in reality.Almost all old cyvilizations killed themselves,but survivors had science above all humans could do.
IoM survived only becouse it faced biological weapons and idiots who decided to not made science anymore,just like Mechanicum.

Pity,that you could not add Lyrians there.

 

[bintananth]

That is how should WH40 look like in reality.Almost all old cyvilizations killed themselves,but survivors had science above all humans could do.
IoM survived only becouse it faced biological weapons and idiots who decided to not made science anymore,just like Mechanicum.

Pity,that you could not add Lyrians there.

If the Llyrians were dropped into WH40K they'd take one look at the clusterfuck, say this galaxy needs to disappear, and go digging through their archives for the specs of the FTL "oopsie" which accidentally destroyed the galaxy they think they came from.

 

[ATP]

If the Llyrians were dropped into WH40K they'd take one look at the clusterfuck, say this galaxy needs to disappear, and go digging through their archives for the specs of the FTL "oopsie" which accidentally destroyed the galaxy they think they came from.

True.But - WH40 started as tabletop game with cool figurines fighting in melee.Entire lore was made to explain how you could win in melee in world where lasers exist.

We could not blame authors who wrote that,their goal was impossible.

 

[bintananth]

A/N: Explaining Llyrian apparent age and ranks

Humans and Llyrians look quite similar but Llyrians have vastly longer lifespans. At some point the rate at which they physically age must slow down.

I wasn't going to take the DnD approach which slows both physical and mental ageing which results in century-old elves being about as mentally mature as a teenager. I wasn't going take the Honorverse approach which results in young adults who still look like elementary school age children.

Both species mature at the same pace until puberty. That's when Llyrian physical aging slows to a near complete standstill.

Lindiwe was centuries old when she visited Earth 40yrs ago and this story is set several centuries in the future. She's been promoted once during the intervening years. See her walking down the street and you'd think she's in her mid 40s.

Kirika is the same age as Captain Johnson but looks like she's about thirteen. Viole is 17 and also looks like she's about thirteen.

Llyrian officer ranks are roughly equal to the ones we use but the amount of responsibility associated with that rank is much higher.

Senior Lieutenant Kirika - in StarTrek - would be between Archer/Kirk/Picard/Sisko/Janeway and T'Pol/Spock/Riker/Kira/Chakotay in terms of role.

The Commanders who get frigates and destroyers are often the highest ranking Llyrian officer in a Galaxy because the Virgo Supercluster contains more Galaxies than Llyrian warships.

Junior Captain Lindiwe is the second highest ranking Llyrian officer within several million light-years.

 

[bintananth]

I just came across this:



In terms of length the LRS Hailee - a small light cruiser - would be about as long as The Heart of Gold from The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy and much more lightly built. A B5 White Star is larger than the largest Llyrian capital ships.

Terran capital ships are about the same length as a Star Wars Star Destroyer but 440 times more massive (44 million tons vs. 100 million kilograms).

Note: A Star Destroyer is about 19-20 times as massve as the LRS Hailee would be when she's out of fuel and her bunkers are dry.

 

[bintananth]

Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri, 1980

A crowd had appeared around what appeared to be a Bell X-1 when Senior Commander Lindewe got back to her shuttle.

The stealth system had malfunctioned and people were taking pictures. Lindewe knew what to do and what to say.

"That's not an X-1", which was the complete truth. "That's an art project.", which was a complete lie.

"Let me show you."

The crowd followed her and watched as she opened the hatch. She let them peer inside and all they saw were blank panels instead of the maze of gauges, dials, instruments, and controls they were expecting.

All but one left.

After she closed the hatch she turned and saw a man just standing there. He said "You and I both know that's not an art project."

Lindewe thought for a moment before replying, "If I told you the truth you would not believe me."

"Try me." he dared.

Lindewe sighed. "Very well. That is a spacecraft which was built in another galaxy on a planet your astronomers have not yet detected and I am not human."

"You'll have to do better than that."

Lindewe thought for a moment and made a decision. "Do you have a hankerchief?"

"Yes, why ?"

"Give it to me for a moment. I will return it."

When he did she pulled a pin from her hair, pricked one of her fingers, let a drop of blood soil it, and handed it back.

"Examine the cells. Much is the same but the number of chromosomes is not. I have 17 pairs. You have 23 pairs. I am not human."

The man considered the handkerchief and the seemingly insane woman before him. "I'll see here you tomorrow?" he said as he turned to leave.

"You will not. All will be gone by morning."

The next morning the man returned. Three imprints in the ground were the only traces of the shuttle which remained.

The drop of Lindewe's blood was never analyzed.