driftfleet | February System Mingle

Entry tags:

February System Mingle

Who: EVERYONE!!!
Broadcast: Possibly
Action: The Shinda BR-10 System
When: The fleet will be in this system from 1/26 to 2/23

Welcome to the Shinda system! There are three explorable planets here - Duotera, Ebrion, and Philias - each with its own current temperature state. Get out there and see the sights - but do please prepare for the extreme weather as necessary!

→ More system info is here!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Only somewhat. [It's sweet of her to humor him by hanging out on a cold planet and being willing to listen to his nonsense.]

Okay, okay--first, I should admit that I'm excited about this system because it confuses me. [He pushes a piece of paper towards her, narrowly avoiding knocking over his hot chocolate in the process. The paper is full of diagrams depicting various arrangements of the stars and planets in the current system, each accompanied by scrawled equations that are entirely meaningless to people who are not twenty-third century physics geniuses.] See, nothing about the sustained orbits of the planets in this system makes sense. To follow a figure-eight path, there is a very narrow range of orbital energies that any planet could have when passing the Lagrange point between Turi and Tari, and any minor perturbation would result in it being ejected from the system entirely--and this is one planet! The orbit is too wildly unstable for even one planet to maintain it and this system has ten of them. Ten! Where did they even come from? An accretion disk would never form here!

And look-- [he taps an equation emphatically] --if we say that it makes sense for even a single planet to be here, I can give it a theoretical chance of maintaining an orbit in the habitable zone around both stars for as long as ten thousand years before being ejected, and that is a maximum and makes a number of unlikely assumptions. Ten thousand! And that is still only one planet under improbably favorable conditions!

[He is really excited. Don't worry, he's keeping it quiet enough that they probably won't be kicked out.]

What do you think? Is this system a near-impossibility, or is there a chance that it is artificial?

Mmmm...hot chocolate. [The waiter brought it by while he was talking and she took a few sips while listening. And don't worry, teasing comment aside, she was listening. A smirk plays on her lips.]

So, I basically think everything we encounter is artificial because I think there' a good chance we never left the shared virtual reality. We just got plugged in with different people in a different scenario.

But that aside, assuming it is real, could there be anything about this place that challenges the physics themselves? It's a big universe. We probably haven't learned everything. Otherwise, what's the point, right?

One good thing about cold climates, surely you agree.

[The virtual reality possibility knocks his enthusiasm down a number of notches.]

That is the simplest explanation for all of these universes. The likeliest too... but I want to believe that something in this is real.

[Anyway.]

There almost needs to be some local phenomenon altering the rules of physics for this system to be possible. Determining if that's so and what the phenomenon is would be exciting. Probably not possible in the time we will be here.

There is one good thing about cold climates. Sure.

[She feels bad when his enthusiasm takes a hit because of her cynicism. She reaches across the table and gives his hand a squeeze.] I want you to believe in something real too. [Don't be like her.]

What do you think you'd need to search for a phenomenon like that?

[He returns the squeeze and does not comment further because all of the replies he can think of are sort of depressing.]

Either a small fleet of ships equipped with sophisticated sensor arrays or the incredible luck of stumbling blindly across an anomaly. Perhaps a local astrophysicist who is interested in this system's uniqueness and has already spent decades studying it.

We do have a small fleet of ships. Why not try to get them working together for once? Worst that could happen is...you fail miserably. Which in this case isn't too bad of a downside.

I would not ask anyone to spend our time in this system flying around in a shuttle and scanning for unspecified abnormalities. Who knows when we'll be in another system with planets that don't want to kill us? We should enjoy it.

[It's a real struggle, this choice between space science and hanging out on nice planets.]

It doesn't want to kill us...yet. [But she's hoping it will keep up the trend. Her first long stretch here was a relatively pleasant one and she's pretty sure it's not just the loss of Winn that's messed the fleet up in the last year.]

Maybe other people would find it fun too.

This planet is wonderful and it would never hurt me. Philias, however, should be watched carefully. [Ebrion is the best planet they've visited since Pavel has been in the Fleet, it can't turn on him, he would be so sad.]

Do you think so? The captain would, I know. Possibly Felix.

I could help too. Some. There's a beach calling my name and I have to watch that planet anyway apparently.

What, you would rather spend our time here on a beach on a too-hot planet instead of wandering aimlessly through the system?

Fair enough.

Some of my time. I can do both!

Will you tell me when--if--you would like to do the aimless wandering? Not the beach, please do that without me. I would probably die if I was exposed to that much heat and sunlight.

As if I would wander aimlessly without giving you a heads up. You're always my first call for that kind of thing.

What have I done to be worthy of such a distinction?

You're my best friend. And I can't possibly list everything that got you that title. We'd be here all week and there isn't enough hot chocolate in all the world for that!

[He smiles brightly.] For that, I would spare a couple of hours and buy at least all of the hot chocolate in this cafe.

At least all of it? But possibly you'd buy all the hot chocolate in all the surrounding areas too? [Amused.]

Of course I would, assuming it was reasonably priced. There are limits to the lengths to which I will go to hear you say nice things about me.

You are soooo needy. [Smiling fondly at him for it. She's no better.] But if it keeps me in melted chocolate goodness I'm good with this plan.

This is true. [He's not entirely joking, he knows he requires external sources of validation.] Does that mean you'll only compliment me if I bribe you?

[He's not the only one.] I've complicated you before without bribes.

...I have, right? [Suddenly unsure. She tends to be more physically demonstrative of feelings than verbally.]

Of course you have. [He's confident that a Kitty has at some point. Sincerely:] Don't worry, I do know that you care.

(lol, complimented, not complicated. But wow...freudian slip.)

Good. I do care. And I think highly of you in many ways.

[My brain autocorrected what would have otherwise been a Way Too Real statement, it's cool!]

I suppose now is a good time to admit that I think highly of you too. It was a well-kept secret, I know.

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