Finding and hiring five people has taken the better part of a week, and I’m still not convinced that our crew is actually competent. An engineer focusing in Life Support was hard to find, but we snagged one eventually, and convinced her to stay. Part of me thinks that the more general engineer should be in charge. I suppose I should leave that up to the two of them – they can figure that out on their own.
I almost gave up hope on finding a doctor, but one appeared at the last minute, and was quite happy to sign up. He seems like a nice enough fellow, though I didn’t really have a way to assess his skills, and he didn’t have any references. But he brought along his doctor tools (note: find out actual name), and even if he isn’t an actual doctor, that’s better than nothing.
There are two big questions ahead. First is whether I tell the crew that the ship is sentient. I feel I have to, but I fear their reaction. The second is revealing our FTL capability, and springing the actual plan on them. I’m pretty sure the pilot will be fine, but I’m unsure about the others, particularly the First Mate.
Speaking of the plan, we are setting off for the nearest known inhabited planet. It’s about one hundred light-years away, and our telescopes have been watching the colonization process since we detected the exotic radiation of their deceleration. We have full records of everything observed about the planet, which we hope to sell for some amount of profit – a history from the outside, if you will. Also files for various technological improvements, including, of course, the Gateway design.
As of the latest data, they appear to be in the process of terraforming their planet. Of course, light speed being what it is, that information is nearly 100 years out of date. We’ve been aware of them for nearly 50 years, and we attempted to signal them almost immediately after we noticed them. Of course, our signal hasn’t arrived, and we won’t see any reaction from them for… another 150 years? Until after I am long dead? It’s quite possible that they will find the Gateway technology on their own before we hear back from them.
And yet we will make contact. Hopefully they will buy the information we have for them, and provide us with information we can sell back to the Linked Systems. Zephyr seems to think that this will be immensely profitable, and that will allow her to be rebuilt and expanded into a much larger, better ship. On my end, I’d rather help trade the information for free, for the betterment of everyone. Maybe charge a commission based on the expenses. We have a monopoly right now, and it seems unfair to wield that power to try to profit from trading information far in excess of any expenses incurred. But, well, I suppose that us profiting is money going to a good cause.
Hopefully the crew won’t mutiny when they find we aren’t travelling to Tian Terra Epsilon.
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