Star Probe: The Doldrums
Star Probe: The Doldrums
Season 1, Episode 2
Angus McKie - cover for Halcyon Drift by Brian Stableford
Star Probe The Game of Adventure, Conflict and Exploration in Space
The TCS T'tet's velocity reached 1% c without malfunction her great atomic engines worked flawlessly, warning alarms sounded throughout the titan and a calming female voice counted down toward the jump. Crew had already stowed loose items and now finished securing themselves. The on duty astrogator activated the hyper-space drives at mark zero. To the naked eye the ship simply vanished as if it had never been. The crew of the T'tet suddenly for but a biological instant became weightless, seconds passed in real space and time. Waves of color seemed to wash through the ship, sound distorted, and the rooms blurred or even spun for some crew. Time seemed to slow as every movement by a crew member on the bridge left a trail of color. A distorted female voice counted down a jump exit number and at mark zero reality snapped back to normal on the ship. As quickly as it had exited space the T'tet returned, a magic trick of the eye if anyone was peering into the dark empty places of space. Bridge crew quickly began scanning all the ships sensors for immediate threats and hazards, the navigation officer began executing the deceleration of the ship and gradually gravity returned. Astrogation began scanning space for known points of reference. A calming voice of a bridge technician announced steady 1G was now in effect ship wide.
The Captain released herself from her harness testing her legs, jumps where an odd experience and definitely would take some getting used. The testing of all the various castes of society to determine with individuals would make the best Pilots or Astrogation Technicians now made logical sense. The decision to test across the hive caste system had been controversial but now the logic of the Science Technicians and Queens was obvious. Individuals needed to be found that possessed qualities that allowed them to not become disorientated during time in the Void and transitioning back into normal space. The Captain made a mental note to review the medical and science reports on the genetic studies findings across the caste and hive lines on Void resistance and susceptibility to it. She mused no doubt the older Queens were devising a way to breed better technicians for space travel. She began calmly pacing the bridge looking at the various stations. Technicians and workers eagerly reported their findings. For the present it seemed there were no space hazards. The Astrogation Department head Vth'k voice demanded the Captain's attention over the intercom. Annoyed at Vth'k's tone Ztchqxa clicked her mandibles loudly and responded "Go ahead". "Captain we are preparing the Navigation Beacon and new coordinates for the next jump." The Captain noted the lack of courtesy in his tone, a growing problem amongst some of the Technician castes in society of late. In a sharp tone she responded "Estimated time till deployment and jump." Vth'k responded "One Month, my Queen". Ztchqxa antennae twitched that was too subservient a response as she was not a hive queen.
20 days latter Ztchqxa found herself yet again reviewing the daily reports of various department heads, a now mind numbing daily activity. So far an illegal still had been found by a warrior unit doing a security sweep which they reported they had promptly destroyed, she half heartedly hoped they relocated it so she could send a worker to retrieve some alcohol for herself. Someone had than thrown a dumby grenade into a warrior units berth resulting in panic until it exploded colored paper everywhere. The warrior unit blamed first another warrior unit, that unit blamed technicians and the technicians were blaming workers, the workers said they were innocent and of course everyone was from different hives. Various petty complaints where being lodged by department heads toward other department units or heads, but mostly it was just monotonous daily operations. Though it was obvious to her that some problems were caused by the nature of her crew demographics. In the past hives built their own ships and were crewed with members of that hive. Even after a common threat was perceived for all hives and space exploration had shifted to cooperative efforts of all the hives working together crews had still been chosen from one hive for most efficient operations. The Collective however had broken with tradition when they had decided the T'tet would be crewed with individuals from different hives, not a single member of the King Caste was from her hive of origin, though some workers, technicians and warriors were. The department heads had naturally tried to order all their units into groups from the same hives, but this was not always possible. As Ztchqxa reviewed the groupings and efficiency reports concerning in fighting between units or other issues it was obviously hive affiliation was causing problems and the result was less efficiency. She clicked her mandibles and a galley worker appeared with warmed spiced zath outside her door, "More zath Captain?". "Yes" she answered looking carefully at the workers exoskeleton and markings, her antennae perked in interest as hot zath poured into her cup. "Your exoskeleton colours indicate a Equator Islands hive but your markings indicate your home hive is Y'th, is that not located in the South Pole?" The antennae of the worker straightened slightly "Yes captain I am form Y'th in the South." An answer but also an avoidance she noted. She stared at the uncomfortably stiff galley worker assigned to her, her antennae seemed to target the unfortunate worker. "Is there anything else you need my captain?" asked the worker nervously. "Your name worker?" The worker's antennae began to tremble slightly "F'fthen". "That is a number. Not a name." Ztchqxa looked back down at her endless reports of complaints. The worker stood frozen. "F'fthen I have met other Y'th they all had names why are you a number?" "All of the workers who look like me from Y'th are named after numbers, captain." Ztchqxa pulled up the galley roster, the paradox of a worker form another hive belonging to Y'th, that happened in times of war but the hives no longer warred amongst each other. A mystery and why a number for a name if not a war captured eggling, what had Y'th done? "I see you are replacing worker Git today""Yes, ma'am" "Git and several other workers from Kktil were in a fight with warriors from Zan?" "Yes, ma'am" "Luckily no one was killed amongst the workers, Zan warriors are large and usually well trained""Yes, ma'am" "Do you know why workers would fight with warriors?" "I do not know, I was off duty on my rest period" "Well as a worker F'fthen what would make workers and warriors fight if you had to guess?" "If there is no one to defend us and we are attacked than we will try and fight, but we can not win against a warrior, so we try and avoid such conflicts captain." Ztchqxa looked over at her old book and opened it while still eyeing the nervous worker. "Is today's galley unit all from Y'th?" "No captain, there is not enough Y'th galley workers so we are a unit made of several hives." "How is that working out?" "I am not qualified to answer efficiency questions." Ztchqxa made clicking noises "Workers know if their job is being made harder or easier, it is alright to answer me." "Well captain, we are all the left over workers the Galley Chief did not have enough of to make one hive unit of, so at first we had problems but I think now we have less problems." "How so F'fthen?" "Well um we are bothered less by the one hive only units we don't know why, and we have learned about each others hives way of doing things" "I see your efficiency rating is higher now than the other units. Why do you think that is so?" "We have more ideas on doing our job, and I think maybe because we are several hives the one hive units do not want to challenge us as much maybe because of complex hive issues it would create?" "Interesting. You can bring me my breakfast now." F'fthen with a sigh of relief quickly disappeared. Ztchqxa leaned back and flipped to a page in the musty long forgotten queen's book in which she described many different beings working together as one collective powerful hive and how these beings were not always organized into units of the same beings. Ztchqxa decided for this ship to work it must become one hive not many hives reliving old grudges, fears, status or territorial issues. She calmly sent out an order to the department heads all units were to be reorganized into units of 3 or more hives. F'fthen reappeared with breakfast and fresh zath. The department heads would have something new to complain about she mused. She also sent out a special order to several departments to create a unit of several castes with the goal of maximizing first contact abilities, science abilities and combat abilities... the First In Unit... if the first order didn't cause nashing of mandibles the second one would.
On day 33 had anyone been following the great ship with the single curious eye of a telescope they would have seen it drop a new experimental navigational buoy and simply vanish as it jumped away.
20 days latter Ztchqxa found herself yet again reviewing the daily reports of various department heads, a now mind numbing daily activity. So far an illegal still had been found by a warrior unit doing a security sweep which they reported they had promptly destroyed, she half heartedly hoped they relocated it so she could send a worker to retrieve some alcohol for herself. Someone had than thrown a dumby grenade into a warrior units berth resulting in panic until it exploded colored paper everywhere. The warrior unit blamed first another warrior unit, that unit blamed technicians and the technicians were blaming workers, the workers said they were innocent and of course everyone was from different hives. Various petty complaints where being lodged by department heads toward other department units or heads, but mostly it was just monotonous daily operations. Though it was obvious to her that some problems were caused by the nature of her crew demographics. In the past hives built their own ships and were crewed with members of that hive. Even after a common threat was perceived for all hives and space exploration had shifted to cooperative efforts of all the hives working together crews had still been chosen from one hive for most efficient operations. The Collective however had broken with tradition when they had decided the T'tet would be crewed with individuals from different hives, not a single member of the King Caste was from her hive of origin, though some workers, technicians and warriors were. The department heads had naturally tried to order all their units into groups from the same hives, but this was not always possible. As Ztchqxa reviewed the groupings and efficiency reports concerning in fighting between units or other issues it was obviously hive affiliation was causing problems and the result was less efficiency. She clicked her mandibles and a galley worker appeared with warmed spiced zath outside her door, "More zath Captain?". "Yes" she answered looking carefully at the workers exoskeleton and markings, her antennae perked in interest as hot zath poured into her cup. "Your exoskeleton colours indicate a Equator Islands hive but your markings indicate your home hive is Y'th, is that not located in the South Pole?" The antennae of the worker straightened slightly "Yes captain I am form Y'th in the South." An answer but also an avoidance she noted. She stared at the uncomfortably stiff galley worker assigned to her, her antennae seemed to target the unfortunate worker. "Is there anything else you need my captain?" asked the worker nervously. "Your name worker?" The worker's antennae began to tremble slightly "F'fthen". "That is a number. Not a name." Ztchqxa looked back down at her endless reports of complaints. The worker stood frozen. "F'fthen I have met other Y'th they all had names why are you a number?" "All of the workers who look like me from Y'th are named after numbers, captain." Ztchqxa pulled up the galley roster, the paradox of a worker form another hive belonging to Y'th, that happened in times of war but the hives no longer warred amongst each other. A mystery and why a number for a name if not a war captured eggling, what had Y'th done? "I see you are replacing worker Git today""Yes, ma'am" "Git and several other workers from Kktil were in a fight with warriors from Zan?" "Yes, ma'am" "Luckily no one was killed amongst the workers, Zan warriors are large and usually well trained""Yes, ma'am" "Do you know why workers would fight with warriors?" "I do not know, I was off duty on my rest period" "Well as a worker F'fthen what would make workers and warriors fight if you had to guess?" "If there is no one to defend us and we are attacked than we will try and fight, but we can not win against a warrior, so we try and avoid such conflicts captain." Ztchqxa looked over at her old book and opened it while still eyeing the nervous worker. "Is today's galley unit all from Y'th?" "No captain, there is not enough Y'th galley workers so we are a unit made of several hives." "How is that working out?" "I am not qualified to answer efficiency questions." Ztchqxa made clicking noises "Workers know if their job is being made harder or easier, it is alright to answer me." "Well captain, we are all the left over workers the Galley Chief did not have enough of to make one hive unit of, so at first we had problems but I think now we have less problems." "How so F'fthen?" "Well um we are bothered less by the one hive only units we don't know why, and we have learned about each others hives way of doing things" "I see your efficiency rating is higher now than the other units. Why do you think that is so?" "We have more ideas on doing our job, and I think maybe because we are several hives the one hive units do not want to challenge us as much maybe because of complex hive issues it would create?" "Interesting. You can bring me my breakfast now." F'fthen with a sigh of relief quickly disappeared. Ztchqxa leaned back and flipped to a page in the musty long forgotten queen's book in which she described many different beings working together as one collective powerful hive and how these beings were not always organized into units of the same beings. Ztchqxa decided for this ship to work it must become one hive not many hives reliving old grudges, fears, status or territorial issues. She calmly sent out an order to the department heads all units were to be reorganized into units of 3 or more hives. F'fthen reappeared with breakfast and fresh zath. The department heads would have something new to complain about she mused. She also sent out a special order to several departments to create a unit of several castes with the goal of maximizing first contact abilities, science abilities and combat abilities... the First In Unit... if the first order didn't cause nashing of mandibles the second one would.
On day 33 had anyone been following the great ship with the single curious eye of a telescope they would have seen it drop a new experimental navigational buoy and simply vanish as it jumped away.
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