“Here you can see, Commander Smith, the photonics engines that the Syl’dior use to traverse their planetary systems. They can achieve near light speed velocity within a star system.”
Commander Smith looked at the obviously organic ship and pondered what humans could learn from it. He then followed the guide to the next terminal.
“Due to their home system containing a binary star cluster, the Cratequins developed advanced light sails. They discovered earlier on how an endless supply of solar radiation could be utilized for, well, almost everything. And being a photosynthetic life form was also a way for them to feed during space travel.”
The human admired the wide sails the were currently tucked around the huge, cylindrical ship on the screen. After noting a few technical aspects in his pad, the Commander then turned to the next display.
The guide continued its lesson on propulsion. “I don’t have an Earth translation for these next beings, as they communicate via pheromones. Their travel methods are also unique to other spacefarers in that they use a reactionary force propulsion system…”
The guide stopped after seeing the human’s expression change.
The Commander, in the silence, stated, “Thts how human ships function. We basically use the reactionary force of the ignition of combustibles to attain flight to leave our gravity well. We then ignite larger boosters to then attain near relativistic speeds.”
The guide stared in shock. “Um, Commander Smith, these species uses psychic energy stimulated by positive thoughts. The reactionary thoughts of the crew and passengers generates a psionic push. They then use arbitrary, negative thoughts to then slow their shops down.”
The Commander looked sheepish after hearing the explanation.
The guide continued to stare and then asked, “So those large containers on your ship are carrying a liquid fuel that you ignite? What happens if there’s a leak?”
The Commander shrugged. “If there’s a leak, then a ship would be stranded until a ship can refuel us with requisite materials.”
“And if you are in unexplored territory?” The guide asked.
“Um, well, then the ship is more than likely lost.”
The guide looked equal parts shaken, sickened, and angry. “You just leave your people to die?!”
The Commander looked slightly offended. “Not if we can help it. But it could cost an exorbitant amount of fuel to launch a rescue mission. Fuel is scarce in space.”
The guide waved one of its tentacles around. “There’s solar energy everywhere! Black holes can be scavenged for loose Meson particles to use in cyclical fusion impactors! You could scoop up asteroids for rare metals and gasses and transmute them using nanotechnology! We know you have telekinetic beings. Has your species not fully studied the nearly limitless energy from the slyphsink wells the power organic mental skills?!”
The Commander threw his arms up in the air. “We are looking into it! It was a lot for us to find out about when we got out of the Sol system. We would have to totally redo our rocket building infrastructure, retrain millions of workers. Do you know how much that would cost?”
The guide replied, “Well, the cost of personhours would be high, but won’t your planet eventually run out of the basic resources for the fuel?”
The human thought about how to respond. “Okay. That was a fear in the beginning. But then we found other planets and just started taking it from them. We can live off a planet for decades of Earthtime. But it’s not the labor that costs a lot. It’s the initial money investments. Who’s going to pay for that?”
The ensuing conversation with the guide concerning how humans still used currency, used planet based materials for fuel, and that humans basically ride in traveling bombs resulted in no human ships allowed to dock in any galactic outpost. And an intergalactic investigation into how not all humans are treated equally.
Tophertanium t1_jdonikv wrote
Reply to [WP] When humans make contact with the wider galactic community, it is discovered we were the only species to use rockets for space travel. Most other species use much safer antigravity tech. So they are appalled to learn that we basically propel ourselves into space with explosions. by UndyingCorn
“Here you can see, Commander Smith, the photonics engines that the Syl’dior use to traverse their planetary systems. They can achieve near light speed velocity within a star system.”
Commander Smith looked at the obviously organic ship and pondered what humans could learn from it. He then followed the guide to the next terminal.
“Due to their home system containing a binary star cluster, the Cratequins developed advanced light sails. They discovered earlier on how an endless supply of solar radiation could be utilized for, well, almost everything. And being a photosynthetic life form was also a way for them to feed during space travel.”
The human admired the wide sails the were currently tucked around the huge, cylindrical ship on the screen. After noting a few technical aspects in his pad, the Commander then turned to the next display.
The guide continued its lesson on propulsion. “I don’t have an Earth translation for these next beings, as they communicate via pheromones. Their travel methods are also unique to other spacefarers in that they use a reactionary force propulsion system…”
The guide stopped after seeing the human’s expression change.
The Commander, in the silence, stated, “Thts how human ships function. We basically use the reactionary force of the ignition of combustibles to attain flight to leave our gravity well. We then ignite larger boosters to then attain near relativistic speeds.”
The guide stared in shock. “Um, Commander Smith, these species uses psychic energy stimulated by positive thoughts. The reactionary thoughts of the crew and passengers generates a psionic push. They then use arbitrary, negative thoughts to then slow their shops down.”
The Commander looked sheepish after hearing the explanation.
The guide continued to stare and then asked, “So those large containers on your ship are carrying a liquid fuel that you ignite? What happens if there’s a leak?”
The Commander shrugged. “If there’s a leak, then a ship would be stranded until a ship can refuel us with requisite materials.”
“And if you are in unexplored territory?” The guide asked.
“Um, well, then the ship is more than likely lost.”
The guide looked equal parts shaken, sickened, and angry. “You just leave your people to die?!”
The Commander looked slightly offended. “Not if we can help it. But it could cost an exorbitant amount of fuel to launch a rescue mission. Fuel is scarce in space.”
The guide waved one of its tentacles around. “There’s solar energy everywhere! Black holes can be scavenged for loose Meson particles to use in cyclical fusion impactors! You could scoop up asteroids for rare metals and gasses and transmute them using nanotechnology! We know you have telekinetic beings. Has your species not fully studied the nearly limitless energy from the slyphsink wells the power organic mental skills?!”
The Commander threw his arms up in the air. “We are looking into it! It was a lot for us to find out about when we got out of the Sol system. We would have to totally redo our rocket building infrastructure, retrain millions of workers. Do you know how much that would cost?”
The guide replied, “Well, the cost of personhours would be high, but won’t your planet eventually run out of the basic resources for the fuel?”
The human thought about how to respond. “Okay. That was a fear in the beginning. But then we found other planets and just started taking it from them. We can live off a planet for decades of Earthtime. But it’s not the labor that costs a lot. It’s the initial money investments. Who’s going to pay for that?”
The ensuing conversation with the guide concerning how humans still used currency, used planet based materials for fuel, and that humans basically ride in traveling bombs resulted in no human ships allowed to dock in any galactic outpost. And an intergalactic investigation into how not all humans are treated equally.