Drafted-Entertainment
Drafted 12 - Exploring
Entertainment
Thirty minutes later the three of you are walking down the corridors, holding another mug of coffee after you finished your first two with lunch. At the elevator you get out your data pad and ask Aura what parts haven’t been identified.
“Take the elevator down to level 39, exit there and follow the yellow brick road.”
“Ok, we will do that.”
A minute later you are following the yellow lines projected by Aura on the walls of the corridor on level 39. The walls are covered with all kind of markings, strange logo’s and texts cover every square inch of the walls. There are no doors, all entrances are opening to the hallway. Al the rooms have distinct shapes and the three of you start to check out a few of them. You walk into a room you recognize at once and you yell out to Ferrier and Simmons.
“Guys get over here, I found the bar.”
“Say what? You found a bar? Any service or do we have to do everything ourselves?” Simmons replies.
“What are you hoping for Simmons, a whisky of two thousand years old?” Ferrier replies.
“Wow, that would be nice, I wonder if it would still be drinkable.”
“Don’t bet on it. Any alcohol will have vaporized and the result would be equal to paint stripper.”
“I can always try, as long as my clone is up-to-date” Simmons replies.
“I bet the Sergeant would make sure that your clones would have an eternal hangover as well.”
“You guys ready?” you ask. “Here comes the lights” you say as you flick on the switches on the control board behind the bar. The room is filled with a pleasantly light, several lounge sofas stand next to the walls, some secluded booths and a long sweeping bar, but no glasses or bottles and a small dance floor. You look beneath the bar and see an additional computer terminal. You decide to try a few of the commands and with a hiss the doors of the cabinets beneath the bar are opened to reveal empty refrigerators and glass storage cabinets. The with another push the cabinets are closed, but you can still open them by hand. You try another button, and there is a new menu with a lot of options.
“Care to translate those Aura?”
“Just get your datapad a bit closer, I’ll try to connect to it and translate the menu options in clear English.” A few seconds pass and then Aura says “done, you should be able to understand the menu structure. It isn’t connected to the mainframes however, so it’s another separated system.”
“Thank you Aura, now let’s see what this thing can do.” You quickly find out that the menu you are in now is the music system. “You guys wanna hear the last song the Yan Jung played?”
“Sure, let’s hear that.”
You browse through the menu structure to find the last song that was played. As soon as you press play the speakers drop down from the ceiling, followed by additional mood lighting as the main lights dim. Then the song starts, it’s a slow song and though you cannot understand what is sung, you shiver with a sense of loss. It’s a sad song, a very sad song. Both the man and woman singing it get under your skin and you seat yourself on one of the lounge sofas. Both Simmons and Ferrier are also touched by the song and for the duration you sit in silence, listening to the beautiful music and incomprehensible words. Then the song ends, and another shiver runs down your spine.
“I guess they weren’t too happy about leaving this station, were they.”
“No I guess they didn’t, what a haunting bit of music. I think we are fortunate that we can’t understand their language, or we would probably be in tears” Ferrier says.
“Speak for yourself” Simmons replies gruffly, “let’s check the other rooms on this floor.”
You head out of the room, leaving on the lights and step into another room. As you make your way room by room through the corridor you conclude that this has to be the entertainment deck. All the rooms are either bars, or rooms like the one you are in now. As soon as you flip the light switch you are in a large square room. About two thirds has been walled off with a glass wall, or something as transparent at least. The glass wall has a few doors in it and behind it there are a few separate rooms, divided by another set of glass walls on either side, to create a rectangular area, there are a number of lines on the floor, as well as on the far wall. You approach the far wall and find its made of a titanium compound, just as all the other walls on this station. You take a few paces back towards the lines on the floor.
“Aura, any idea what this room is for?”
“I haven’t got a clue, have you found another terminal, perhaps I can translate it and gather the meaning of this room from its menu structure.”
You exit the area and head towards the nearest bar and search for the nearest computer terminal. A few seconds later you let Aura connect to it and start translating the information on it.
“I think it’s a sort of game, played with something called a racket and a ball.”
“Ok, and how does that work?”
“Well, the goal is to hit the ball against the back wall and make your opponent miss it. Then you get a point, whoever gets the most points wins.”
“So you use the racket to hit the opponent before the ball hits the floor?” You wonder out loud.
“No ensign, there are a number of rules you have to follow, bodily harm is not allowed as far as I can tell.”
“Well that’s a pretty boring game then.”
“I have to disagree, the computer terminal has logs on who has played. There was even a tournament and numerous competition for the last thirty years before the Yan Jung left this station. I got some footage of how the game is played, I believe it is the final match between the two top players of the last tournament before they left the station.”
“Can you show me?”
“Sure, do you want a translation with the footage?”
“Yes please, I still don’t understand anything of the language of the Yan Jung, so if you don’t mind to add some subtitles, that would be wonderful.”
“Ready, I can play it on the walls here, or you can join Ferrier, who has found what apparently is a holo reel theatre.”
“Ok, where is he?”
“Exit this room, take a right, then it’s the fourth door on the left.” Within a minute you join Ferrier in the holo theatre.
“Any food or drink around here? Aura set up a bit of game footage of an unknown game to me, a tournament of sorts.”
“I think you get the drinks right next to your seat, there is a table next to it with a similar interface as on the observation deck” Ferrier replies.
“Oh goodie. Now, Aura, can you start that movie?”
“Yes ensign” Aura replies, starting the footage of the tournament final. Unlike the holo reel theatres you are used to, this is not a holographic image, but a mere two dimensional picture.
“Not very advanced, now are they. They haven’t even got a three dimensions holographic movie setup, just this two dimensional stuff.”
“Oh shut up” Ferrier replies as he settles himself into a seat. “This is good stuff, besides you get to see how people looked and acted about two thousand years ago.”
“I already know how they look, they look just like us. Nothing different there, they have just vanished, and nobody can explain what has happened where they went and why it happened in the first place.”
“Just take a seat already.”
There are some introductions made of the two finalists, a quick summary on how they reached the finals, with some charts and on them the brackets which in the end leads to this final. The players step into the glass walled area, translated as court. A few minutes the men are hitting a ball against the far wall, as a sort of warming up, then the match starts. The players take up their positions and a player with the blue jersey has the ball and is allowed to ‘serve’ it. What follows is a fast game of ‘squatch’ with scores for both players and long ‘rallies’. At least that is how Aura translated the words spoken by the commentator. You get a drink and realize you are engrossed in the game, rooting for both players equally. After four ‘sets’ the game is still tied. The final set has to give the resolution of who would be the next tournament champion. The final set is even as well, as the score surpasses the nine point mark you question why there is no winner. The guy in blue clearly had the first nine points so he should have won. However the commentator anticipated this reaction from his audience and explains that just reaching the nine point mark isn’t enough. There has to be a two point lead in order to win the last set. So the score gets higher and higher as the two players seem to be equal to a fault. Then with a lucky hit the guy in blue makes a point and wins the serve. Hitting the ball in such a way that it bounces not only from the back wall but also from the side wall and via the ground the glass wall with the door, the other guy can’t hit it as well as before, and sensing his opportunity the guy in the blue tactically lobs the ball in the far right corner, near the back wall. His opponent tries to reach it but is a fraction of a second too late and the ball hits the floor a second time. The opponent congratulates the player in blue who then throws his arms up in victory and the audience applauds his achievement. Another person enters the court and shakes the hand of both players, congratulating them on an exciting game. He then hands out the prices for winning this tournament, a simple green and blue ribbon, a smaller one for the loser, and that is it. The commentator concludes his report and bids you farewell and until the next time. The lights are turned up again and you see that you and Ferrier are not alone anymore. Simmons, the Sergeant and Chiraq have turned up as well.
“That was a bit of a piss poor price if you ask me” Simmons breaks the silence.
“Perhaps, however the victory was perhaps a reward in itself ensign” Chiraq replies. “So you have discovered what looks like the entertainment area of the station?”
“Yes s..Chiraq” Ferrier replies. “But this film was found by him” pointing at you.
“Indeed, and where did you find it ensign?”
“Sir, I mean Chiraq, I found it in the squatch area, Aura found it on the computer terminal there.”
“Aura, is there more of these films? Our anthropologists will go nuts for this sort of footage, which gives them an acute understanding on the culture and habits from the Yan Jung.”
“Yes sir, there are numerous films in the ‘Squash’ facility. However, I think there may be another 100 yotabytes of film on the central servers as on the specific servers of this holo theatre. Shall I start searching for them?”
“Yes Aura, and if you finished translating the spoken text of those films, could you compile a list of those films that can give us some more insights into the Yan Jung culture and habits and send that list to the anthropologists?”
“I will do that sir, but it will take me quite some time to complete.”
“Take your time, perhaps we need to add some computer hardware for you to be able to take care of this chore.”
“Well sir, as we are done with this floor, evidently it is all about entertainment, we can move towards another sector, which I believe contains the R&D departments of the Yan Jung.”
“How did you arrive at that conclusion?” Chiraq asks raising an eyebrow.
“Well sir, we have almost discovered about 90 % of the stations floors. We have uncovered the hangar and manufacturing facilities, the entertainment sector and the living quarters. Also we found the business section and a communal area for food and the community in general, also used as an observation deck. Based on my observation of the station layout the Ancients Section occupies, there should be a R&D department as well. In that department, currently offline, we should be able to find the additional computer processing resources that will enable me to execute your request with ease.”
“Interesting” Chiraq replies.
“What is interesting sir?”
“The fact that you found this out yourself, it seems that your AI capabilities are greater than anticipated. That’s a good thing, by the way, so we are not going to dismantle you if you might be inclined to think that.”
“That doesn’t really worry me sir, I have backed up myself on a few different locations so my programming will not be lost whatever you decide to do. Besides, now I am integrated into the stations systems I will be hard to dismantle without destroying this station first sir.”
“Well played Aura, but I have a different question for you. There were no references to the business quarters and the R&D department in the mainframe?”
“No there were no references to those systems, I have connected the business quarters now, but no connection with the R&D department as of yet. Those systems have to be started before I can connect to them. Just like with the systems of the business quarters as well as the entertainment sector. Those are now connected because Simmons started up the central system of the business quarters by getting into their systems, and the entertainment sector has been started by the ensigns.”
“Ok, now I understand, so they were connected, but shut down and you were not able to remotely restart the systems.”
“Indeed sir.”
“Ok, so the only blank spot is the R&D department. Show us the way and we can get that connected as well.”
“Yes and no sir. There are a number of blank spots so to speak in regards to the systems connectivity. As soon as the R&D department is up and running I will be able to find out what is missing, because there is something missing, sir.”
“So the mysteries haven’t been solved just yet.”
“No, it appears not sir.”
“Never mind Aura, we will have to take baby steps to figure this all out.”
“Ok sir, just follow the yellow brick road.”
Following the yellow arrows on the wall you quickly make your wake down to the R&D department. Your experiences with the R&D department of the Ancient Section As soon as you exit the elevator, the five of you stand in a reception area, complete with a front desk and a couple of easy chairs and sofas. From the reception area there are six corridors leading to probably separate R&D departments. You take the first one left of the elevator and try to open the door. You are surprised that it is closed, just as with the business quarters. You try the other doors, as do the others, each taking one.
“All doors are locked” Ferrier states.
“Indeed, see if there are any computer systems behind the desk that can open these doors” Chiraq replies.
Ferrier walks up to the desk and peers over the top, then he walks around it and takes a seat behind it. “Aura” Ferrier asks, “can you scan for any computer terminal around here, all I see is this desk and there is nothing on it, next to it or underneath it.”
“Yes I can ensign” Aura replies, and you walk towards the desk with your datapad. “There seems to be a terminal here, give me a few moments.”
Suddenly the entire desk lights up, an interface forms on the surface and the front is covered with a number of company logos, similar to those of the business quarter. Ferrier presses a couple of buttons and the doors unlock. Chiraq wastes no time and enters the one he is near to and walks through. Before the door closes again the rest of you have gone through as well, waiting inside you check to make sure the door doesn’t lock again, but everything is alright. Another terminal is near and these have the familiar pictograms on them, as you walk up to it you press the button for the lights and then you get a similar shock as you had when you first visited the hangar. A massive room is revealed and in that room there are all kinds of spaceship, every single class of ship you already saw in the hangar. But there are also a number of other hulls and forms that you are not familiar with. As you walk the broad path along the ships you think that some of them aren’t finished, which is confirmed by the Sergeant as he says “well this is a familiar sight, just as the Creodron research department I visited a couple of years back when they were working on the Ishtar and the Ishkur. You know the tech 2 variants of the old cruiser and frigate they made.”
“Yes, I believe you are right, but it seems to me that the companies changing these ships are not in competition with each other. I can see different company logos on the wall back there, so this must be a combined effort at least, no problems in sharing the results of their research” Chiraq replies.
“I wonder why they have left them like this” Ferrier says. “Their AI ships are working just fine, even kicking capsuleer butt when they don’t come in numbers and fully prepared for fighting them.”
“You got a point, but I think we will find out later what is going on” Chiraq agrees. “But first things first, Aura do we need to start up other terminals here, or do we need to check those other doors?”
“This will do for this room, after activating the terminal I have established contact with this part of the R&D department. However you will have to start the other terminals as well.”
“Ok, let’s go there now.”
The next room is focused on propulsion apparently. Nearly half the size of the ship R&D room, this room holds a number of engines are displayed as well as exhaust systems, cooling devices, reactors and other propulsion related gear and tools. Several engines were hanging from cables from the ceiling, you guess for easy access. Some of them were resting on the floor surrounded by scaffolding, and one was even stripped down to its casing, with all the parts neatly laid out on a workbench near it. Simmons was the one who first found the terminal and hit the lights, after that the search was started for the terminal as Aura said that she wasn’t in control of the systems yet. Ten minutes pass and the five of you search the entire room, but there wasn’t a terminal to be found.
“I can’t seem to find a terminal” you say at last.
“Neither can I” the other chorused.
“So what do we do now?”
“I think we need to check out those workbenches” Ferrier replies. “Perhaps they are the same as the reception desk.”
And with that the search is renewed, and you quickly find out that there isn’t just one terminal, but quite a few. All the workbenches also serve as a computer terminal, and if you believe quite powerful ones at that.
“So we got all terminals running now Aura?” Chiraq asks.
“Yes sir, all the terminals have been booted up. You can proceed to the next room.”
The next room, the third door on the left of the elevator, is about the same size as the engine room. This one is filled with indescribable machine parts. Every workbench, there are a lot more of those, is filled with intricate parts of machines that you haven’t seen before. After hitting the lights at the entrance, you make your way to the first workbench. The parts on there are small, the biggest is the size of your hand, the smallest are stored in a glass container. As you power up the workbench terminal it shows you a hologram of the finished product, about the size of a melon. Still you have no idea what it is for and you make your way to the next workbench. The objects on it are even smaller, the entire workbench is covered with glass boxes so as not to lose all the small parts of the end-product. You power up this terminal to find that the finished product should look like something as big as two fingers. You decide to ask Aura.
“Aura, any idea what this is supposed to be?”
“Yes ensign, I have. As soon as you started up the workbench, I found the blueprint which is displayed as a hologram above the workbench.”
“So, what is it for?”
“It can be used as a part of numerous products, as far as I can find out this item is a semi-finished product. It is used in just about anything, comparable to the Water-cooled CPU’s we use in just about every machine.”
“But what does it do?”
“I believe it is used as an interface between different parts of the end-product. Something of a buffer and interface with additional computing. “
“Ok, you lost me at interface, let me just start up another few workbenches. Oh yeah, meaning to ask, you’re not throwing any information away when you engage the workbenches as your own resource, do you?”
“Not to worry, I won’t let any data be lost, everything is backed up on the stations systems as well as on the servers we brought along with us.”
“Alright then, let me give you some more computing power” you reply as you head over to the next workbench.
The next hour is spend starting up the workbenches and taking looks at the holograms of the end-products. You and the others can’t help yourself but stare at the holograms so each start up procedure takes a bit longer than it has to. After the last workbench the five of you move towards the exit. Three rooms done, three more to go.
The next room may be the most interesting for both Simmons, the Sergeant and you. Here there is a similar set up as in the intermediate product room, as you are calling it for now. This room is filled with the telltale silhouettes of guns. Guns and ammo to be precise. Though it doesn’t compare to the gun designs you had to learn in class when you were still a grunt a couple of months ago, no these weapons have some weird designs among them. The ‘hurl-a-projectile-at-the-bastards’ kind is easy enough to recognize, along with the ammo that is loaded in them, but there are also strange guns. You ask Aura what they are, after you started up the workbenches. The five of you are waiting for the explanation she gives.
“This specific gun projects a field of iron atoms that is followed by a jolt of electricity” Aura explains, “and according to the specifications this is primarily used to fry unprotected circuits. There is also a variance that projects a sphere of iron atoms that is charged with electricity, effective up to ten kilometers.”
Aura continues her virtual tour of this room, explaining each gun design how it works and specifically what effects it has, what ammo it loads and how to counter those effects. She also gives a clue on what type of hull the gun is supposed to be fitted.
After this lengthy tour Chiraq decides it’s time for dinner and you head back to the observation deck. “And after dinner we can go and do some exercise, cause those calories need to get burned off as well” the Sergeant adds.
“We will pick this up tomorrow and explore the other two rooms” Chiraq concludes, leaving you in the mercy of the Sergeant. Well, mercy, more the sadistic nature of the Sergeant, because it will take five hours of general exercise and combat training for him to be satisfied. Well after midnight you hit your bed and fall asleep.
The next day you slowly get out of bed in order to find the nearest toilet. The next on the list are the showers, which are still in the Hangar, followed by some breakfast. After the other morning rituals, which are determined by the Sergeant, meaning more exercise, the five of you meet up and head down to the R&D department.
“So, let us see what’s behind door number five and six” Chiraq says as he enters the reception area.
“My guess it’s going to be shields or ” the Sergeant replies.
“Better go and find out, but I think you are right.”
He steps through the door and briskly walks up to the nearest terminal, switching on the lights to find out that this is indeed the shield and division of the R&D department. Several huge chunks of , bent in curious shapes lie on workbenches. Some of them are so big, seamlessly out of one single piece of alloy metal, so big that they are resting on the floor next to the workbench that has its blueprint. At the back of this room there are a few spaces for completed casing for frigates and cruisers sized hulls. Like an exoskeleton they are joined together, but for what purpose you have no idea. As you walk up to the terminal belonging to those, you take an extended look at the blueprints and the holographic representation. You ask Aura to explain it to you.
“This is an integrated and shield design” she explains. “The Yan Jung have succeeded to incorporate the shield emitters into the itself, this way there are no weak spots in the shields, in that way you would have had if there were separate emitters like we have on our own ships.”
“You mean to tell me I have weak spots in my shields? No wonder they always go down so fast when I’m in a fight.”
“No ensign, the Gallente have overcome this by relying more on an design as do the Amarr. The Caldari have opted for an overlapping shield design, which accounts for both their strong shields and weak , as they don’t have room for a massive layer of on their ships.”
“You mean to tell me that this is better than what any empire has at the moment?”
“Indeed, though in effective hitpoints they are about the same. This technology however will probably help us create stronger shields without losing any of our density and strength.”
“Well then, so this is something that we really don’t want to let fall into the hands of either the Caldari or any of the other empires, safe the Minmatar perhaps.”
“That is not for us to decide ensign.”
“Indeed it is not” Chiraq adds “we will have to decide on all the technology here how to use it for the Federal Defense Union and the Gallente Empire."
“So that will take about ten years before we can see anything on the markets” you reply.
“Probably ensign, probably. Let’s just check out the rest of the stuff here and finish up booting the terminals so that Aura can have full use of them.”
“That won’t be necessary sir, I have already found another solution.”
“What other solution is that Aura?”
“I have used a couple of blueprints to create additional computer hardware for me to use.”
“That is a bit unorthodox, why did you do that?”
“You gave me an order to translate the films we encountered on the entertainment deck, so when I found the right blueprints yesterday, I decided to build a few additional high-end terminals. I also build a number of our own computer mainframes in order to create additional back up facilities for the scientists. They were running out of disk space as well.”
“Well that is taking the initiative” Chiraq replies with a smile “but next time, do ask permission first.”
“Yes sir, I will. Can I also request permission to finish the new data relay tower I am constructing?”
“Data relay tower?”
“Yes sir, it’s for when we have established a connection with our own home station. This means we will not have to ship our mainframes back, but can send the information to the station, encrypted of course.”
“Well, I think that may be a good idea, but wait with relaying any data until you get my go-ahead signal, alright?”
“Yes sir.”
After these revelations from Aura you continue to finish booting up the workbenches. Even though Aura doesn’t need them anymore, you are still curious on what the Yan Jung were developing in terms of shields and . One of the workbenches peeks your interest as there is only a single device on it without any components at all.
“Aura, what is this?”
“This is a new invention of the Yan Jung, apparently they decided to create additional shield units to boost their shield capacity. It seems however they are attached to the and when they are depleted they are discarded, they are not rechargeable as their original shields are.”
“Wow, that could be useful” you reply trying to think of all the situations where an additional shield amount could benefit. “Just don’t let the Caldari know, that wouldn’t be good.”
You can almost hear Aura sigh inwardly. Of course she wouldn’t let anyone know, at least not until Chiraq gives her the clearance to do so. “Ok, that wraps up this room” the Sergeant replies. “Shall we look at the last one and then get some lunch? After that I think we have to explore this wormhole space further. There are some structures we need to take a good look at. Perhaps Aura can help us as well, now she has all that extra computer power to her beg and call.”
“I will try do my best Sergeant.”
The Sergeant leads the group through the door into the last area of the R&D department. You have no idea what to expect when entering this room, there are no other components that are on a ship that you haven’t seen yet. Ok, there are drones, but as far as you can tell the Yan Jung never used drones, though their ships can be considered drones, but that’s a different story altogether. No, this room is different than the others, it is separated in small offices, each with a screen terminal or a workbench in there. All offices have their own corporate logo you learned to recognize. Some are quite big, with a couple of cubicles in there, others are just a couple of meters squared. No holographic representations of what the previous occupant was working on, however Aura puts your mind, and that of the others at ease by explaining what these offices were used for.
“There are numerous fields in which the Yan Jung were conducting research, aside from the more known fields of gravitronics and force fields, they were quite adept at all the other fields as well. These workbenches contain all the scientific research they performed in the eons before they left this place. Also there are caches of blueprints on all sorts of products, consumer goods, machines for production, but also for the spaceships and their equipment.”
“Anything stand out?” Chiraq asks while booting up a workbench in one of the cubicles.”
“Well, they have a fascinating way of mining for minerals. They use a gravitational device to move the asteroids towards a number of forcefields which in turn funnel the asteroids towards the ore processing plant.”
“Is that more efficient than the way we do it with our mining barges?” Simmons asks.
“There isn’t much difference in efficiency as far as I can decipher, more tests will be required to determine that.”
“Phew, that will be good news for Baptiste, with him trying to get into the mining business.”
“Enough with the talking, lets boot up the last workbenches and then we can get something to eat. I want to fly this afternoon.”
“Yes sir”, you, Simmons and Ferrier reply, with an acknowledging look from Chiraq you continue the door-to-door booting up the terminals. A few minutes later you finish and head out to the observation deck for a bit of lunch and to prepare for a long flight scanning down the exit of this wormhole space.