Listening Post 19 to Intercollective Communications

Unit S17809 report: Unidentified object emerging from hyperspace. On course to Iconia. Organic life forms detected. Estimated 64% chance vessel is a species not encountered before. No apparent armament. Recommend directing vessel to Iconia. Recommend N1 greets vessel (advantage for using N1: all other life forms encountered are humaniod; N1 our most humanoid looking unit; high chance N1's appearance will be relevant at first contact). End report.

Overmind Collective

Incoming transmission, Intercollective Communications (Listening Post 19): N1 report to Starport pad 3. Unidentified organics landing a vessel. Initiate first contact. High probability organics not hostile. End transmission.

A shiny black humanoid robot disconnected from the overmind link and made his way to the Intercollective transport. As he walked, Yor emerged from different corridors that he was passing and handed him a variety of modules that N1 could integrate into himself. A universal vocalizer that allowed N1 to produce virtually any sound that a humanoid could make. A personal sensor unit, originally designed to detect and track Iconians would allow N1 to thoroughly scan and understand the new organic's physiology. N1 downloaded the Hypothetical First Contact software suite as he walked. Algorithms for establishing communication. Threat assessment programs. Programs that would allow N1 to infer the organic's desires, their physical cues, what they saw as their purpose in coming to Iconia. 18 seconds had elapsed from the time Listening Post 19 detected the Gaia until N1 recieved his orders.

October 23, 2177, on the TA Gaia bridge:

Naviagtor Jesus Gonzalez: Captain, we're forming our realspace point. And... there. Back into realspace. Engaging Impulse power. Time till Iconia, 35 minutes.

Communications Officer Tim VanderBorg: Incoming transmission, Captain. It appears to be a visual transmission.

Captain Volonsky: Put it on the main viewer.

A visual of the Gaia came up on the viewer, with a line indicating a path to Iconia. Then the screen split into two, showing on one side the Gaia being met by a Yor ship and people being taken down to a spaceport. The other side showed the Gaia itself landing on that same spaceport on Yor. The transmission showed (quickly) the path from the Gaia's present position to the spaceport.Captain Volonsky decided to take the second option.

Captain Volonsky: We'll land the ship on Iconia. I want 2 security officers and Ambassador Volonsky with me. Everyone is taking an F19. Lets go.

Navigator Jesus Gonzalez: Captain, the path the Yor have indicated seems to be slightly more efficient than ours at using the gravitational forces in this system. Time till Iconia is now 30 minutes.

Ambassador Katerina Volonsky was the captain's sister. Mikhael and Katerina had grown up with dreams of space exploration ever since they were young. And now those dreams were about to be fulfilled.

TA Gaia entered its landing sequence and disappeared into the slate gray clouds over Iconia.

want more

Hehehe-sounds good to me Bkam

Excellent excellent Bkam-nice evocation of an alien world here-loving this

"This is the Intercollective Transport," stated N1 as the lev tug pulled up to a long, gray lev train. "They run at regular intervals to physically unite us." Hundreds of Yor units were lined up as the doors to the transport opened, and the units uniformly drove on to the lev train.

"You look quite different from the other Yor," said Ambassador Volonsky, noticing that the other Yor were moving on wheels and had many long arms.

"Correct. Each Yor unit is highly modular. You will see that most Yor move on wheels because it is a more efficient use of energy than legged movement, as well as requiring less sophisticated movement programs. We can add a variety of appendages to fit the type of work we will be doing. I was the first Yor unit and as such do not have the same modular capabilities as later models. I modified the design of subsuquent units. But we thought my appearance would make me a fitting guide," responded N1. A Yor unit pulled up to the group and handed 4 identical, hand-held objects. "These are electro-magnets. You will need them to... hold on to the walls of the transport. We were just able to produce them in time," said N1. Ambassador Volonsky was sure she could hear a hint of pride in its voice.

Jeff Sanders, one of the security officers with the captain and the Ambassador, turned to his companion and remarked in a whisper: "The Yor don't notice us. They don't even look at us." His companion nodded. N1 turned to them as the group boarded the transport and nodded as well. "All units are aware of your presence. But looking is not relevent. I am equipped with more sophisticated biological sensors and any unit can access my perceptions if they find it useful. Besides, these units are off work now. Most are accessing the Individual Economic Forum to find goods and services that they can provide" N1 locked himself against the wall and the humans activated their magnets, attaching them to the wall. Yor were locked to almost every inch of the walls, ceilings, and floors. "Feel free to direct any questions you have towards me," said N1. "I look forward to exploring our differences." Captain Volonsky undid the top buttons of his shirt as the heat from hundreds of Yor units made him start to sweat. "Tell me more about this Individual Economic Forum," he said.

"With pleasure," said N1 as the train slowly accelerated, leaving the spaceport for the interior of the Yor capital.

Very cool .

Hello readers, I apologize in advance that updates may be a little slow until next week. I am a college student and I'm currently buried under homework and midterms. Hope you're enjoying the story so far.

*note to readers* I am probably going to be very busy for the next couple of months until I finish the semester. This means that updates will probably not happen frequently, but I'm trying to make them worthwhile additions. So hopefully they will be longer posts and worth the wait. Enjoy.

As the Intercollective transport headed towards the center of the city, a number of tall, narrow buildings, identical in shape and size, stood out to the captain.

"Do all these buildings have the same function?" asked Captain Volonsky.

"Yes," replied N1. "These buildings are transmitting towers. That is why they are so tall and spread evenly throughout the city. They are all connected to one of the most numerous collectives in terms of Yor units it requires, Intercollective Communications. This collective gathers and prioritizes information from all other collectives and passes it on to the Overmind Collective. I will refer to Intercollective Communications as ICC for now. ICC helps us transcend working as groups, and allows us to work efficiently as one. As a civilization. It has some decision-making responsibilities; lower-level decisions that involves the co-ordination of multiple collectives. The Overmind sets high-level goals of the Yor, reviews ICC decisions, and makes sure that all collectives are contributing to the overall goals. Of course, it is artificial (at this point, N1’s eyes seemed to glow a bit brighter) to think of us in terms of Yor units or in collectives. We understand ourselves as all of them. Cells of an organ. Organs of a body. A body that will reproduce. But enough, we have arrived.” The humans exchanged somewhat confused glances as N1’s ramblings came to an end and the Intercollective Transport slowed at a massive building, almost as tall as the transmitting towers; it was a circular building, wide, and sloped up to a black dome which crackled with purple and blue electricity over its surface. This was the heart of the Yor city.

“Welcome to the Central District. This building contains the Overmind Collective in the dome, the Individual Economic Forum here, and the Charging Stalks below the Forum,” said N1, gesturing towards the massive space before the group. The humans said nothing as they surveyed the miles of open floor stretching out in front of them. Lev trains were constantly arriving and leaving and elevators moved Yor up and down between levels. Scattered all across the area were computer terminals and Yor interfacing with each other and exchanging goods. “A Yor unit can access the Individual Economic Forum database from anywhere in the city. Demand posts are catalogued in the database and organized; each Yor can search the database for demands that they are capable of providing and then a price is set when they contact the one who posted the demand,” explained N1.

The group then proceeded down the elevators to the charging stalks for a few minutes, to see another vast space, millions of Yor units hanging in niches along the walls where they were recharging. “How long does it take you to recharge?” asked one of the security guards. “Four hours. Recharging allows us time to cycle through our memory drives, defragmenting our files, reviewing priority reports from the ICC, and time to compress files that we find useful for later retrieval if we find them relevant,” said N1.

Finally, they went back up the elevators to the dome. Again, they found themselves in a large open space, although this one was much smaller, about 200 yards across. Yor were locked to the wall all around the room. In the center of the room was a grey, glowing dome. The air was charged with electricity, raising the hair on the heads of the humans, and occasionally an arc would form between a Yor on the wall and the dome in the center of the room. After a minute of silence the ambassador asked N1, “What do you want us to see here?”

“You do not know?” asked N1. “You cannot see. You are so different from us”, N1 said, with a tint of sadness in its voice. “You cannot process energy. You are swimming in energy here, all sorts of it. And a properly equipped Yor can see all of the collectives at once at this location, our voices as a chorus as we work like a single machine.”

Ambassador Volonsky responded: “You are right. We are different, we process energy differently and we see ourselves as individuals. But we are an endlessly curious and creative people. And I think you will come to see that we can learn much from each other. Our people have discovered a way to produce energy from much more efficient and compact reactors. We have with us the plans for reactors and hyperdrives that can create jump points on any ship that is equipped with one. We want to extend this gift to you freely and we hope you will join us in finding ways to use all this energy to benefit all sentience.”

The Ambassador held out a holographic projector which began displaying the plans of the human’s revolutionary discovery. N1 was beaming the information directly to the rest of the Overmind. Almost immediately, the Yor civilization sprang into action. Fusion power plants were being constructed while the human’s ship was still at the starport. Ways to use the vast new sources of energy were emerging from each collective and rising to the Overmind which refined them into ideas to be investigated further: charging stalks could be built outside of the capital. Weapons would need to be built to counter what the humans had. The need for improved economic efficiency and output was obvious to fund the Yor’s new projects. For the first time, the Yor would not be content to be isolated in their home system. The race for the stars and the spread of Yor efficiency had begun.

Intercollective Communications Priority Report (Overmind Collective):

First contact has been made with Terran Alliance. Their Collectives are filled with a single race, physically fragile, creative and curious, have the usual organic mental deficiencies (difficulty thinking as a collective, fixated on individual perspectives; access Organic Concepts of Self Report for more information). Young race, had space flight for less than 300 years. Have developed revolutionary new fusion power generation with vast applications, including hyperdrive, a FTL engine for individual ships. Increased interaction with organics is now inevitable as all races with hyperdrive will expand and claim planets to secure as many resources as they can until point of equilibrium is reached. Unfortunately, we must do the same. We cannot come under the power of organics again. Research and construction priorities, in order:

Develop Economic Forums that can be constructed on newly colonized planets

Vastly increase production and research outputs

Develop space weapons

*End Report*

The Yor found themselves in a large cluster of stars with three minor races, but no other major races. The galaxy was split in two by a long series of clusters through the middle, where most of the major races were. The humans had traveled almost all the way across the immense galaxy just to give the Yor hyperdrive.

Scenario Info:

Galaxy Size: Immense

Difficulty: Painful (randomized though)

Technology Speed: Slow

Habitable Planets: Occaisional

Maximum number of minor and major races

A final note: I would love any feedback you guys have on my writing

Great work..keep it up.

Absolutely superb Bkam-you really seem to be able to get inside the Robotic mind in all it's bleak efficiency and coldness.....wait you aren't a Yor are you?

Hehehe-excellent Bkam excellent as always

"May a cuddle be your guide!? I'm sorry Queen, but your late mother... she would never... you want to be in the same ROOM as a Yor? And what on Altaria will you accomplish by that? These things are no Altarians! They're as cold as Litsofris! A cuddle... philosophy won't help you with these machines!" Archknight Arman Rulyo trembled visibly, his walking staff shaking and making shuffling noises on the palace floor. He was dressed in uniform as always, the black background for his royal blue vest which indicated his status as part of Queen Mue's royal guard. His old face crinkled with disbelief and fear.

"I have trusted you for years, Arman. But you know the burden of decision ends with me. I'm 22 now, and if we want peace for our people, we must face those who are most likely to threaten it. I know the dangers," responded the young queen, her voice falling to a whisper. "We must embrace them. Know their ways, their desires, what they yearn for." Queen Mue's face brightened and a giggle escaped her: "I doubt that N1 is much of a cuddler, anyways, but nothing's lost in trying."

Arman's voice came back somber and long, "I doubt we could draw fast enough if that thing decides to harm you." His hand instinctively rested on the grip of his mini-rocket sidearm.

"Then perhaps I will meet N1 without royal guard," said the Queen.

"If you're going to quote Tandis, don't forget that those were the last words he said to Lady Velora," said Arman.

The playfulness in the queen's eyes hardened to a steely resolve. "We're going. My life for the people. Like my mother, if it comes to that. I know you feel responsible for letting her go, but a queen must do her duty nevertheless. The universe is changing quickly, Arman, and I covet your advice more than ever. But this is necessary." Arman's shoulders slumped a bit and he limped slowly out of the Great Hall.

***

Intercollective Communications Priority Report (Terran/Altarian Mind/Body Analysis Collective):

Organic tendencies to emphasize individual perspectives are well documented and there is nothing worth adding regarding these species. They are notable for high levels of creativity (although their raw inteliigence/concentration is below average for organics; while they often may miss logical steps forward, they are capable of making sudden, unexpected leaps between ideas) and emotion, factors that have been difficult for us to create programmed models and prediction analysis to account for. These factors must be understood if we are to interact skilfully with them. We must understand them, advantages they have because of these factors, and weaknesses caused by them. Further study recommended to develop creative and emotional equivalents for all Yor if deemed advantageous. Note that the Terrans have already changed the interactions of the whole galaxy by inventing and inexplicably sharing their hyperdrive and fusion power breakthroughs. They are physically vulnerable. Their creativity may well give them an edge that we and other organics struggle to overcome. Understanding human cognition likely to lead to breakthrough new programming and analysis. Highly recommend further study.

Change was exploding through the Yor Collective as it expanded exponentially faster than ever before. In less than a year, a race that had left the vast majority of its home planet fallow was now launching colony ships every few weeks and quickly becoming one of the largest races in terms of planets colonized. N1, as much as can be said of a Yor, was eagerly anticipating further opportunity to study the Terrans/Altarians. X1 and the Queen's Maiden, flagships of their respective races, sped towards their meeting point, halfway between their star clusters, surrounded by light years of emptiness.