thisavrou | // video

[ Have Flynn, absent his usual smile. He's all-business, and in one of the labs, though the shadowed backdrop of hexagon tiles probably doesn't look terribly familiar. For a moment he's not even looking at the camera, but at something past it, until he drags his attention back. ]

Evening, folks. Gotta skip the pleasantries tonight, I'm afraid- there's something you all need to see.

[ He taps at his ACE, and a beautiful little holo model of their end of the station shimmers into view like a heat mirage. There's the observation deck, the barter block, living quarters, the whole shebang, with tiny points of gold light scattered hither and thither- roughly marking the inhabitants. It turns slowly, a wireframe of cyan light, while he continues, ]

For the past five months, we've been inhabiting this portion of the former Ingress Station, making journeys out into the wider universe via the portal. Much of the structure outside our immediate area isn't in the best shape, so we've been pretty limited when it comes to moving around.

Now, check this out.

[ With an easy gesture, the drag of two fingers, the wireframe pulls back. More of the old station appears, bands of light branching out to form the structure- a massive one at that. Anyone forget how freakin huge this place is? Will get a reminder here. ]

For the past couple of months, I've been working with Erik and Wanda to get a new scanning device up and running- ah, here we go-

[ At a fair distance from their home, the wireframe quits assembling in the air. After that long expanse of nothing in the preceding build, gold pinpoints of light suddenly begin to bloom, lighting up like a Christmas tree. Flynn looks back to the camera, calm still, but for the glint of excitement in his eye. ]

I'll spare you all the technobabble of the how for the moment, but we're not alone on Avagi. We estimate there's maybe a couple hundred people a good two, three days' trek away. We know- or can make a pretty good educated guess -that they're humanoid, like us.

Right now, that's pretty much all we know. I've made a copy of our findings for anyone who wants a closer look.

[ Heyyy, a file pop-up, in the interests of transparency! For a second, though, he looks like he might have more to say, but changes his mind. He adds, ]

So. Who's feeling neighborly?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Fascinating..! I wouldn't mind a bit of technobabble, but this is definitely an interesting find. It certainly puts in perspective the sheer size of this station if it's to take that long to navigate our way there- or is that being generous in consideration of possible road blocks? It probably won't be so straight forward a journey if we have encounter more sealed off sectors than what already makes up the borders of our end of the station.

I would like a copy to study, however. And if anyone might be volunteering for such an outing, I may consider accompanying.

If we could assemble a team, I think that would be a very good method of contact. There are many people here with experience in diplomacy.

I, as some know, am not one of those people and will not be joining such a mission.

[Alfor chuckles.]

Well, there's plenty of other things to be done that diplomacy will not solve. And sometimes diplomacy itself is not enough. Hopefully we won't run into any trouble when we make ourselves known to these people.

We should be prepared for the possibility that they may be hostile. But we can be prepared for that without appearing hostile ourselves. We could send a team of our less-destructible friends. They'd need fewer weapons.

That's always a possibility. [He nods.] Given all the unknowns, best we treat this as a reconnaissance mission and observe what we can before we engage, if we can manage that.

But you're right. We don't want to set them off either. If we're sharing the space of this station, better to find friends than enemies.

It's possible they have resources that we don't, and vice versa. This could be mutually beneficial.

[ He doesn't at all believe this. But he's making a decent attempt at projecting optimism. ]

It could indeed. Either way, we will not know if we do not at least try.

[Alfor while optimistic is also nevertheless aware that things can fall either way, but nothing comes without risk.]

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