005 The Core Class
“As the captain of the Sunhawk I will decide on which classification to follow, but I want to hear each of your ideas about that before I do. And I want to promote the values of the Galactic Council even if we are cut off from them.
In my own opinion, the Castle Core is right out. We would be forced to take sides in wars we know nothing about, and given the medieval type of weaponry and magic available here instead of the technology that we are comfortable with, we would have problems making our opinions heard.
And City Core might be tricky to pull off if everyone expects us to be subservient while we try to guide to our ideas of governments.”
Dr. Davis speaks next “The Council is very against giving advanced technology to primitive cultures. Due to this a Dungeon Core who is expected to defend itself with everything might not be as bad as it first sounds. We could go all-out to defend our technology without anyone wondering why.
But I would vote against a Country Core as nothing we have is Nature-Based and even the System says that the Country Cores are often more primitive in their areas.”
“But a Dungeon Core is also expected to give up its treasures if the hunters are successful.” M’raan opposes the idea. “And even a hint of what is available to us will result in a stampede of people trying to get that.
To me either Tower or Astral Core sound more interesting. The Tower is also expected to be defended, but it does not give out treasures. And an Astral core sounds as if it is the best way to remain hidden.”
“I would rather think to go the City Core route. Being in control of a city and its services, especially using modern knowledge, would be a good base to promote our values.”
“Theoretically yes, but it would require us to get a multi-race population and the surrounding countries must not be strong enough to simply conquer us. That are two big IFs against a City Core.”
“As a marine I have no problems with fighting and death, but I would like to decide what to fight for. A mercenary position is not acceptable to me, and that Castle Core can easily turn mercenary” mentions Stephen Holman “Dungeon or Tower would be OK, especially the Tower Core as we don’t have to produce treasure.”
“Perhaps we should discuss it in terms of ‘where can we do the most’?” Cheyenne adds.
“Galine would have been the only one of us who could handle different biospheres and nature, and she isn’t among us anymore. That disqualifies the Country Core.
Stephen already nixed the Castle Core, and while a lot of us are military he is the only full soldier among us.
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And I agree with the captain that a City Core would be a high risk, high gain move. If we can pull it off it would be ideal in a lot of ways, but I highly doubt that we will manage that.
What we do have is a working knowledge of fold drive and fold mathematics, even with Dr. Larrin missing. That should help with the Astral Core options as those seem to follow the same principles.
As for Dungeon and Tower Cores, they seem very similar to me and would both put us in direct conflict with the natives. We can probably handle that, but I don’t know if that would be the best way to proceed.”
The discussion goes on for about an hour with different arguments for and against each options before Captain Shelton summons everything up again.
“Depending on what exactly we want to do there seems to be only three classifications that could be used.
If we want to bring civilization to this medieval world, then the City Core seems to be the best option. But all agree that it is a risky option as much depends on whether we can build up the city without problems until we are strong enough or not.
We will discuss what Dr. Davis has seen with the sensors later, but it looks like we are isolated here – which means we have time but could also mean that we won’t get the diversity we prefer in a city.
If we want to isolate ourselves and keep the galactic technology out of everyones hands, then a Tower Core might be the best option. This will require a successful defense against every invader even in early times, but it should be doable if no one learns about us too early.
If we want to go into hiding the Astral Core is probably right. This also has the advantage that it is one of the few cores that do not require death to grow, and that we might get it to grow better due to our knowledge of fold mathematics. However it would be much more risky if we are discovered because it has limits in its defense.
In all of this there is one aspect no one has discussed yet: Why would people seek out the cores?
Cities are searched out if they are on a nice location to colonize or if they have something interesting in themselves. Most likely we would have to reveal that we are a special core in order to get more people, and that can easily attract the wrong people.
Towers are searched by hunters who want to gain Power for themselves, and the saying Knowledge is Power has more than a few true aspects. If they learn about our knowledge they most likely will want to use it to improve their own power and then use it for whatever their original target was.
Astral Cores are known to hold knowledge, but those that seek unspecified knowledge for themselves are rarely interested in spreading it out. There is a good chance that they will decide to stay to learn more without care for the rest of the world.
So if no one has something to say against that, I would chose the Astral Core as a classification.”
“Geeks are geeks are geeks wherever they are” answers Dr. George Davis. “If we add that point to everything else I have to agree, and that also counts for the other classifications. Dungeon, Tower and Castle are right out as soon as we consider who would seek them out and why. Considering the other disadvantages of City and Country that leaves the Astral Core as the only solution.”
“Takes one to know one” could quietly be heard from M’raan at that, causing some grins around the table.
The captain continues after that. “The classification structure is a ten-part structure that requires the core to be level 5, but a lot of the other structures have a classification prerequisite before they can be upgraded to level 5 or above. Due to this the classification is usually one of the first things to be set on reaching core level 5. Please keep that in mind when planning, Cheyenne.
And now we should get more details than only ‘remote’ and ‘nothing around’ as to what you’ve seen with the sensors, George. Please report.”
George shuffles a few notes and sits straight. “OK, as ordered I quickly checked on the then still sleeping Omnuun before proceeding to the sensor structure. He was back in his original form as a Psychon instead of his humanoid self, so he must really have been exhausted – but he was sleeping and didn’t show any signs of wounds. So I continued to search for the structure that seemed to be made from one of the Sunhawk’s sensor suites.”