Auditory Transcript 15 (Discussion of Telivoni with Tien Terra Envoy)

Zheng Hui: “Zephyr, I would like to introduce you to Envoy Yang Shen of Tien Terra.  Envoy Yang, I would like to introduce you to the Astral Zephyr.”

Yang Shen: “Hello.”

Astral Zephyr: “Captain, why did you bring someone back with you?”

Zheng: “He came to me, wanted to talk about Telivoni, and the aliens.  I told him that I found you adrift, with the FTL drive already installed.  He did not believe me, and pressed further, and… well… here we are now.”

Zephyr: “Hrm, well, I am aware of your lack of ability at deception.  I really should hire a diplomat.  An Envoy.  Hello Envoy Yang Shen.  Please, go through the doors on your left – it’s hard to hear you clearly in the expanse of my hangar.”

Yang: “I am to understand that you are the ship, and that you are in charge?”

Zephyr: “My manner of existence is… complicated, but I am certainly in charge.  Having Hui as Captain just avoids a lot of questions, as you might imagine.”

Yang: “You are capable of travelling faster than light.”

Zephyr: “That was a statement.”

Yang: “I assume you got this technology from the aliens on Telivoni.”

Zephyr: “Hrm… well, aren’t you informed.  My understanding was that only the upper echelons of the Linked Systems were aware of the aliens.”

Yang: “Things have changed, since you broke off of the Gateway network.”

Zephyr: “Excuse me?”

Yang: “You can’t expect those of us in the know to accept your story.  What, you kidnapped people from here, went on an adventure with them, then there’s a time gap, and then you are so large as to be unidentifiable from the ship in the earlier records, heading back here to pick up more crew.”

Zephyr: “If the story seems fantastic, then that is merely the product of fantastic events.  But you are telling me something new: Telivoni is no longer on the Gateway network?”

Yang: “Did your superiors never tell you?”

Zephyr: “Explain.  Humor me.  You may gain more than you bargained for.”

Yang: “Very well.  Shortly before you allegedly left Tien Terra with your crew, the Telivoni Gate stopped working altogether.  No physical traffic, official or unofficial, not even any data traffic over the auxiliary linkages.  All attempts to contact Telivoni failed.  This worked well with the cover story of quarantine due to disease, thankfully, and we were able to keep it quiet.”

Zephyr: “Cover story?  Cover story for what?”

Yang: “For the aliens.  I’ll humor you, yes.  For the slug-like aliens who crash-landed on Telivoni, wielding technologies that should be impossible under the laws of physics.  Faster-than-light travel, for instance.  Surely you do not mean to pretend that your own FTL capability is something completely independent.”

Zephyr: “Well… no, it is not independent.  But you seem to think that I am a pawn of the people on Telivoni, and that is incorrect.  Some of this might actually be a result of my actions.”

Yang: “Speak.”

Zephyr: “My story is accurate, same for the time-skip.  The time-skip is due to an agreement with the people we visited.”

Yang: “But… Telivoni.”

Zephyr: “I was a human once, a rich trade tycoon.  My understanding is that I used my money to smuggle myself onto Telivoni, despite the quarantine, and get in contact with the aliens.”

Yang: “Very well.”

Zephyr: “I spoke with the aliens, and worked out a deal.  Then they put my mind into my original hull, along with an FTL drive enchantment, and I fled the planet.  I would not be surprised if they shut down their Gateway altogether as a result of my actions.”

Yang: “You didn’t visit Telivoni in the time-gap?”

Zephyr: “I did not.”

Yang: “Hrm, it would be easier to trust what you say if you had a face.”

Zephyr: “Well, you could do a little EVA to look at me from the front, but I doubt that would help matters.”

Yang: “Hrm.  Well, you haven’t visited Telivoni yet, but will you?  You mentioned meeting the aliens, and that is where they are.”

Zephyr: “I am not a warship, despite the best efforts of a certain individual.  I can only expect that the security there has…  Oh.  Oh, now I see.  The Linked Systems thinks that Telivoni has gone rogue.  That they are exploiting and monopolizing the aliens, outside of the control of the Linked Systems government as a whole.  Perhaps even with the intent to conquer and rule the rest of the Linked Systems.”

Yang: “I would hope they merely have hegemonic intentions, but yes.  You’ve been moving erratically in a way that makes a laughingstock of all our defenses.  Surely you can understand why FTL technology alone would be a massive military advantage.  And the Telivoni were always warlike.”

Zephyr: “So you expect some sort of revolution on Telivoni?  The Telivoni threw out the Linked Systems forces, and claimed the aliens for their own purposes?”

Yang: “No, actually.  The interruption was too swift.  You don’t have an uprising without simmering discontent, first.  There were no reports of that.  We believe that the Linked Systems forces on Telivoni are themselves the traitors, though they may well involve Telivonians as crew for their conquest.”

Zephyr: “I am still not a warship.  My mission is one of exploration and good-will, not warfare, subterfuge, and politics.”

Yang: “We can provide you with weapons, if you so desire, but we do not expect you to fight. Consider this the good-will end of things: Please visit Telivoni, see what they are doing, and report back.  If all is well there, then there will be no cost to you, and no involvement.  If they are making to conquer the rest of us, then it is your moral duty to help.  But either way, we need intelligence.  We need to know whether to increase our defenses, or whether that would be a waste of resources better used on, say, social or humanitarian concerns.”

Zephyr: “Hrm.  I asked my security officer on projections for how long it would take him to conquer the Linked Systems if he could freely reproduce the FTL drive and had a system worth of industry.  His current plan, off the top of his… rather special head, would subjugate the Linked Systems in a dozen megaseconds, half that time if no unforeseen circumstances appear.  Warningless conventional invasion of the heaviest industrial centers, turning some into invasion forces, some into automated orbital death platforms capable of randomized FTL movement, along with .  Once the Gateway network is shut down to slow the invasion, the ODPs would be spread at high-risk speeds to planets near the industrial worlds, and threaten the planets with devastation unless the full Gateways were reopened to allow subjugation.  Apparently, it is more efficient than building and sending Gateways.  Meanwhile even higher-speed pods will be spread with messages to open the gates and join the new Linked Systems, as to prosper and trade once more under the new government.  Defectors will be used to piggy-back ODPs, and will be given preferential treatment for the first gigasecond of the new government.  Oh, and the plan rolls on.”

Yang: “Your officer is good.  This is Gestler, from Arcadia?”

Zephyr: “It is.  A worrisome man, sometimes.  The plan is down to 10 megaseconds, now, varying based on auxiliary channels being left open – those could be used for psychological warfare purposes, verifying the rate of his expansion at present, rather than relying on drones with recorded messages.  He would like to point out that the strongest impediment to an attack would be if the Linked Systems shut down the network, forcing him to use Telivoni industry, and the industry of nearby planets, rather than immediately seizing highly industrialized planets scattered throughout human space, and piggy-backing from there.”

Yang: “Our projections agree.  Yet… if we turn off the Gateway system, what manner of Linked Systems are we?”

Zephyr: “I assumed as much.  Yet consider this: Do your projections see much difference between whether you prepare, or you do not prepare?”

Yang: “They… do not, in the case of the rogue elements being able to freely reproduce the FTL technology.  However, it does make a difference in the case of the FTL drive manufacture being highly limited – that is, if only the aliens can produce the FTL drive.”

Zephyr: “Gestler thinks your move, in that case, would be to immediately pour extremely destructive technologies through the Telivoni Gateway upon it reopening, in an attempt to destroy the aliens.  Is this your plan?”

Yang: “It is.  The Telivoni L1 gate has the receiving end facing towards the planet.  If it opens, we fire fusion materials through the gate at relativistic speeds, aimed at the planet.  They may intercept it, but the momentum should achieve planetary destruction regardless of their actions.  There are other measures, but yes, the main one is to wipe out the alien presence.”

Zephyr: “I will not support such an action, and I will not destroy the aliens myself.”

Yang: “Ah, but then you must visit Telivoni for us.  You see, there may be many cases where such a measure is unnecessary, and we should simply surrender.  Or many cases where this is all some manner of misunderstanding, and we would be devastating an innocent planet due to some sort of ill-timed gate malfunction.  At this stage we will fire the moment the gate opens.”

Zephyr: “I see… I feel coerced.”

Yang: “You have values, ship.  Values, morality, ethics… all of those are restrictive, coercive.  They force you to act in a certain way.  So yes, there is some coercion – your morals compel you to help.  But the coercion of morals does not make helping wrong.”

Zephyr: “Grant me weapons, and let me pick my crew in peace.  Swear that you will not attempt to infiltrate my crew.  Do that, and I will check on Telivoni for you.  If there is any hint of subterfuge or sabotage, I will not help you.”

Yang: “You will trade investigating Telivoni for our compliance?  You will investigate anyway.”

Zephyr: “Yes, perhaps.  And perhaps I will return and tell the Linked System what I see as necessary.  Or maybe I will simply be satisfied with my projections of what will happen, and continue onwards in the universe, to make new friends.  I do not mean to seek the aliens in Telivoni, I mean to seek the aliens at the source.”

Yang: “You do know that the aliens crashed on Telivoni fleeing a war.”

Zephyr: “I am not interested in weapons for the pretty lights that they make.  I would prefer to make introductions from a position other than total abject helplessness.”

Yang: “Hah.  You will have your weapons, you will have your non-interference.  Tell us what is happening on Telivoni.”

Zephyr: “Do you like my gardens?”

Yang: “I do.”

Zephyr: “Thank you.  Now leave the way you came.”