update from sparkleup
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Madison Scott-Clary
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<h1 id="tycho-braheartemis-2346">Tycho Brahe#Artemis 2346</h1>
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<p>Tycho#Artemis was unsure if what he was seeing was a flurry of chaotic activity or some tightly choreographed dance. Part of this assessment, he guessed, was due to the relatively small number of individuals for the number of instances moving around. There were at least a dozen instances of True Name that he could see, and then at least that many of a gentleman who looked to be in his well-preserved forties, a slender without being lanky, tall without being looming.</p>
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<p>Tycho#Artemis was unsure if what he was seeing was a flurry of chaotic activity or some tightly choreographed dance. Part of this assessment, he guessed, was due to the relatively small number of individuals for the number of instances moving around. There were at least a dozen instances of True Name that he could see, and then at least that many of a gentleman who looked to be in his well-preserved forties, slender without being lanky, tall without being looming.</p>
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<p>And that was it. Well over twenty instances of two individuals milling around what appeared to be a farm of cubicles, each walled with glass, the upper half of which was frosted.</p>
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<p>Ringing this bank of cubicles were walls of frosted glass, broken at regular intervals with doors which ey supposed must be offices. Between those doors were couches, looking pleasantly soft in his exhaustion, and an array of padded stools or chairs with interrupted backs which he supposed must be perfect for those endowed with tails, given the occasional skunk or man — Jonas, perhaps? — relaxing in them, chatting amiably during what must be either breaks or informal meetings.</p>
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<p>And yet, for all that activity, it was incredibly quiet. There must be dozens of cones of silence set up, spanning cube walls, covering banks of couches, even hovering over those walking the aisles.</p>
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@ -62,7 +62,7 @@
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<blockquote>
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<p>If possible, in 900 hours orient down 0.3142 radians relative to your sun reference point source of this transmission to align courses. If possible, accelerate 0.00029c to approach matched velocity. Confirm actions taken.</p>
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<p>Instructions for matching consciousness-bearing system transfer mechanism to follow. Confirm actions taken.</p>
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<p>Prepare airlocked area with locked-down edit permissions dimensions 20m by 20m height 5m and two sandbox areas for rest for us and you dimensions 20m by 20m height 5m. Confirm actions taken.</p>
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<p>Prepare airgapped area with locked-down edit permissions dimensions 20m by 20m height 5m and two sandbox areas for rest for us and you dimensions 20m by 20m height 5m. Confirm actions taken.</p>
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<p>Prepare party of five consciousness-bearing systems containing one element of leadership, one to record in any capacity, one scientist, two of own choice. Duplicate, prepare to send one set to us, and send other set to above location. Prepare receive five in turn, similar roles. Expect four categories of consciousness-bearing systems. Confirm actions taken.</p>
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<p>We welcome you.</p>
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<p>Turun Ka of firstrace, leadership<br />
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@ -99,9 +99,9 @@ Artante Diria of fourthrace, representative</p>
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<p>Tycho nodded. He felt slow, somehow. He felt stupid. It wasn’t even that they were speaking about things he didn’t understand because he hadn’t learned them yet so much as they were speaking as though their actions took place on some higher plane of existence, some place completely inaccessible to him.</p>
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<p>“Apologies for sidetracking your top-to-bottom reading. Please continue,” True Name said.</p>
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<p>“Uh, alright.” He shook his head to try and clear it. It did not work. “Instructions for transferring a consciousness-bearing system…I’m assuming that’s their version of the Ansible?”</p>
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<p>“Yes. We received the specifications for that immediately after this message. I will not bore you with their contents, but the sys-side Ansible techs assure us that it works much the same as ours and will require only software changes, nothing physical.”</p>
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<p>He hesitated, then, seeing no possible reply that wouldn’t make him sound like an idiot, continued. “Alright. Then they want us to prepare a space for them. I don’t know what airlocked means, though.”</p>
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<p>“We’re assuming they mean as in a DMZ. Something completely separate from the rest of our System, which is what we were planning, anyway.” Jonas grinned lopsidedly. “There’s a tech term, air-gapped, which means that there is no physical connection between two devices, so they can’t possibly communicate. Maybe that’s what they meant? We’ll just have to hope we get it right.”</p>
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<p>“Yes. We received the specifications for that immediately after this message. I will not bore you with their contents, but the sys-side Ansible techs assure us that it works much the same as ours and will require only software changes, nothing physical. That will be ready within a few weeks.”</p>
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<p>He hesitated, then, seeing no possible reply that wouldn’t make him sound like an idiot, continued. “Alright. Then they want us to prepare a space for them. I don’t know what airgapped means, though.”</p>
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<p>“We’re assuming they mean as in a DMZ. Something completely separate from the rest of our System, which is what we were planning, anyway.” Jonas grinned lopsidedly. “It’s a tech term which means that there is no physical connection between two devices, so they can’t possibly communicate unless one intentionally does so. Maybe that’s what they meant? We’ll just have to hope we get it right.”</p>
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<p>“So, a secure place to meet, which we were planning on anyway. Do you think they’re worried we’ll attack them or something?”</p>
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<p>True Name and Jonas exchanged a quick glance, and the skunk, suddenly more serious than she’d been since he’d met her, said, “Expand on that.” Not a question. A command.</p>
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<p>He mastered the urge to shy away from her. “I just mean that, if we can’t promise them that we’re universally on board with having them visit us, that puts the talks at risk, right?”</p>
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@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ Artante Diria of fourthrace, representative</p>
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<p>“I mean, I guess I’m average, but that doesn’t seem like much data. Aren’t you asking more people?”</p>
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<p>She was back to laughing. “How many people do you imagine know about this, Tycho?”</p>
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<p>He sighed, slouching further down into the couch. “Right. Okay. Twenty by twenty by five meters for the conference room and their rest area. Uh…maybe that says how big they are?”</p>
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<p>“Or maybe just the size of their DMZ so that we can meet on equal grounds on both sides,” Jonas said. “We won’t know until it happens. It does show us that they rest, though, or at least expect to take breaks from the talks. That they say two means that they think we will as well.”</p>
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<p>“And maybe just the size of their DMZ so that we can meet on equal grounds on both sides,” Jonas said. “We won’t know until it happens. It does show us that they rest, though, or at least expect to take breaks from the talks. That they say two means that they think we will as well.”</p>
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<p><em>Rest,</em> he thought. <em>Rest sounds good.</em></p>
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<p>Aloud, he said, “And I guess the next bit we’ve talked about some. Maybe four races. They say ‘consciousness-bearing systems’ and don’t name their races, so maybe it’s complicated. If they’ve picked up three other races before meeting us, maybe very, very complicated.”</p>
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<p>“I have been thinking,” the woman next to him said, sounding thoughtful. “Perhaps some of them were not biological races. They did not say people or species.”</p>
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@ -122,7 +122,7 @@ Artante Diria of fourthrace, representative</p>
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<p>After a pause, he asked, “And is that “We welcome you” an invitation to join them?”</p>
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<p>“Maybe,” Jonas said. “We don’t know yet. We’re going to keep talking to them and try and get a better feel for it. If it means “You’re welcome to join us”, that’s certainly better than “We welcome you because you have no other choice”. We’re working on it.”</p>
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<p>Tycho laughed tiredly. “Way above my pay grade.”</p>
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<p>True Name grinned toothily.</p>
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<p>True Name laughed. “It is, yes.”</p>
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<p>“Any thoughts on the names?” Jonas asked.</p>
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<p>“Well, I guess it’s interesting that the two firstrace people…individuals…er, consciousness-bearing systems share a name. Maybe they’re a clade, like…I mean…”</p>
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<p>“Like me?” Jonas said, smirking. “Don’t worry, Jonas Ka and Ko already had their laugh over it. But no, we don’t know that one way or another.”</p>
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@ -139,7 +139,7 @@ Artante Diria of fourthrace, representative</p>
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<p>Jonas stood, dusting off his slacks, and shook Tycho’s hand. “Welcome aboard. And hey, congrats on first contact.”</p>
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</article>
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<footer>
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<p>Page generated on 2021-10-01</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2021-10-23</p>
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