Not yet are we going to see the beginning of a Torgalian Trade Federation. But instead we are going to see the Torgal become even better at their diplomacy by thinking about governments other then monarchy. Thinker reported to Than'Al that he should know how to make a governent work within the month.
This is the state of the galaxy as of the first day of the ninth month.
In only six more weeks Urlg will produce another Colonizer class ship. And will send it to one of the two uninhabited planets that are known of.
But for now we wait...
The same week that Thinker discovered the secrets to interstellar government beyond monarchy, the Watcher made another report.
"Watcher, Base, report. New planet near blue star; one of three. Others are poison."
Thinker replied to him swiftly, "go on to the next system that you can find. Quickly now...end transmission."
Than'Al asked Thinker about how things were going in on the two worlds. "All is well, they are happy."
"Could they be more happy?" Than'Al asked.
"Of course..."
"Make them more happy then Thinker, I know you can."
And that was that, Thinker went off to think of how to make the people happier.
Two weeks later, the Colonizer was created and sent off to the planet that Watcher just discovered.
"Colonizer 1 to base. It will take 14 weeks to reach destination. End tranmission."
Nine weeks later, they are scheduled to have another Colonizer ship ready for launch.
To help speed the ships along on their journeys, Thinker decided to mull over the idea of a faster engine.
That very week, the Torgal met the Torren. They seem to be a beligerent race, much like the Kroza and the Drengin.
We met with them, they don't really seem all that bad. They even agreed to give us some of their hive-mind in exchange for some of ours. As well as bartering away some of our engine technology for their secret of Xeno Medicine.
"Contact the Drengin officials, we need to sell some technology to them if they will pay well for it." Than'Al told Thinker. "Do the same with the Krozan officials. We need all of the money that we can get from them right now."
The Drengin had even less money then the Torgal. So we just traded some sensor technology for an agreement that they would give some of their research power to us.
The Torgal did the same with the Kroza. And returned with the same result.
Thinker was unable to create a faster engine, but was quickly able to create a more efficient engine. Not detered by the lack of newness to the engine, he pressed onward trying to figure out how to get more power from an engine.
Only a few weeks before the end of the first year of expansion, the Torgalian economy began deficit spending, in large amounts.
The next week, another Colonizer ship was created. It was ordered to colonize the habitable planet nearest the Drengin planet.
"Colonizer 2 to base. It will take 16 weeks to reach desination. End transmission."
Thinker created the Impulse Drive, but did not manage to increase the speed of the archaic engines that their Colonizer ships possess.
Thinker was concerned about how they could increase the hive-mind's capabilities, and thought about how better computers would be able to help them with this.
A few weeks later Thinker made better computers possible. And decided that they should build a capital building to celebrate this achievment.
Now he turned his sights onto trade. With a heavy deficit in their economy, they needed to begin trade negotiations with other civilizations.
Thinker also thought that when they begin to trade, they should do so as much as possible. He tried next to figure out how to increase the number of routes they could have.
"Watcher, Base, report. Another Drengin planet. Other planets in system are wells or desert. End transmission."
"Base, Watcher, continue. Go to next system. End transmission."
Fueled by the desire to search more of the sector more quickly, Than'Al authorized the building of a second See'er II class vessal. It will be done by the end of the week.
The ship was sent out and called the Watchful. Its heading is toward where the Drengin flagship appeared. It is estimated that it will take only six weeks for it to arrive there.
At the end of that time, the planet Urlg will have commissioned its first trade vessal, and will have a destination picked out for it then. Than'Al wished to increase diplomatic relations with the Drengin, and so desired to send the trade vessal to the Drengin homeworld.
The Drengin homeworld was found, and not a moment too soon as the Trader class ship has just been finished.
It was sent to the Drengin homeworld without a moments hesitation.
A second Trader class vessal will be completed soon, and it will be sent to the Krozan homeworld. It has already been decided that the trade routes will alternate in destination with each successive ship. Between the Kroza and the Drengin capitals.
On the first week of August, in the second year of expansion. A report sang across the subspace transistors. The Drengin and Torren are at war!
Than'Al was concerned about this, very very very concerned. If the Drengin and Torren could be at war, they could just as easily declare war on the Torgal. This would not do at all. He ordered Thinker to learn how to make weapons.
Thinker decided it would not do to actually put forth this effort, and so contacted the Krozan. The only other civilization not at war. For some reason, the Krozan accepted the secrets of how to trade for their secrets of Celestial warfare, militarization, and the creation of weapons.
Analyzing data gathered from the Watchful and Watcher See'er II class ships, Thinker learned that the Drengin have both Laser weapons as well as guided weapons, what are called missiles. The Krozan only have Laser weapons.
Contacting the Torren, Thinker obtained all the unknown technologies that they possessed for the modest price of all of their Trading technologies.
Contacting the Drengin, Thinker saw that they actually were prepared for war. They had advanced Missile technologies. Not wanting to give them the secrets of trade, Thinker left and returned to Urlg content that he was able to learn something about the Drengin.
Not wanting to immediately learn how to attack, Than'Al elected to go along a more defensive path. The Drengin are more prepared for war, and they have missile technology, and so that is the type of attack that they should learn to defend against.
At the end of the week, Thinker returned to Than'Al with basic knowledge of missile defenses. Than'Al told Thinker to keep learning better ways to defend them against this imminent threat.
Several weeks later, Thinker learned how to put modules onto ships to make them better defended against missiles, and claimed to be close to learning how to decrease the size of these modules.
A few weeks later, on Urlg, a building of diplomats was created. And they made our Torgalian diplomacy even more effective in the Celest.
Time went by, and Thinker progressed in his knowledge of missile weapons, and finally a very small defensive module was created that could be applied to a ship with the basic particle laser weapon. The resulting craft was the Defendant craft, which will likely be sold off to the Torren to lengthen their conflict, weakening both overall.
Sadly, the Torren do not yet have any extra money to spare.
"Thinker, start learning some basic weaponry. It won't do us any good to die before we take one of theirs with us. Start learning about those small fast-moving pellet things." Than'Al told him.
