|Viraliv|[20-14]Sliue-Ececs|Ora’s Eye|Tebi|Tebi-3|
11,163,955,738cy
Terraformer Station ‘Favala’, Low Tebi-3 Orbit
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#Close to Five Months Later, Now 11,163,955,738cy
Captain Idris is staring out the large windows of the bridge, like he usually does. Seeing all of the busy traffic above the barren world of Tepi-3, though not as nearly congested as the more important Tarmon worlds. Nothing too eventful has happened since the transport ship left five months ago, it should take it another thirteen months to get back to TFS space. Another few months to get more supplies, and then another year and a half to get back; plenty of time to get some progress done.
Tepi-4, a very small planet not too close to Tepi-3, was fully explored, at least the surface that is. Further exploration can be done later by the colonists, for now most expeditions forces are focused on Tepi-3. Luckily the Tepi system is rich in resources and the crew aboard the Favala won't have to rely on transports to start terraforming. Furthermore, expedition teams sent to the poles found frozen water in the many pock-marked craters dotting the northern pole. Hidden from the sun, it never melted away. However the Captain can melt this ice to release a large amount of CO2, though this amount isn’t measured yet it will help when building atmospheric pressure. The current amount of ice found will produce slightly less than five millibars. Not enough to create an atmosphere but any little bit helps. It will also create some liquid water, though not enough to create any oceans. To terraform the planet into an oasis world the water coverage should be within eighteen to twenty-three percent.
Other findings have been made of course. Teams focused on finding potential colony sites have found some results. Some cave entrances that have promise, though it will take a lot of time to fully explore them. The best result would be for a large sprawling cave system with few entry ways. Pressure seals can be placed at any holes and a breathable mixture of gasses can be placed inside the sealed caves. That would allow the Tarmon colonists to breathe without masks, which would have many small benefits, not to mention most people don’t like to live their lives wearing masks every second of it. Most cave systems have been explored fully, those ones being quite small, some others require heavier equipment to fully explore. A few are promising though, being simply too large to fully explore in a short time. One of those will become the first colony on this planet, something that will cement a change in the crew aboard the station. No longer would they be able to say they are from wherever in the TFS, instead they will say they are from this planet, a planet called Tepi-3, for now.
Other various asteroids and moons have been fully surveyed as well, mainly due to the numerous bot swarms Favala can deploy to those locations. Nothing out of the ordinary really, just rocks, base materials, some more advanced materials, and water. Finding water is great but a lot of the sources for the water are deep into the planet's surface, it would take a lot of time and resources to gain access to. Plus there is a huge amount of risk in such operations. Another option is taking a small asteroid filled with water and crashing it into Tepi-3. That is the current plan, along with the easier though slower method of mining and transporting water. That is something that they are already doing to keep our stock of water up, basic maintenance for both the ships and the crews aboard them. Once they have fully understood how many terraforming resources they can access in the system they can have a better idea at how long it will take to terraform Tepi-3. Not to mention the possibility of being able to terraform Tepi-3 into a different planet type altogether.
That would be ideal, although Tarmon are suited for more arid worlds, they still require water to function. An oasis world is slightly on the drier side even for Tarmon. Not to mention the other races in the Federation, though they are often used to colonize non arid worlds, a few are frozen on the Favala. These other species can act as specialists in the environments they are from. They can also access resources or build infrastructure in places that would otherwise require more resources for the Tarmon, for example under the water. In this way they reinforce each other's weaknesses and operate better than monospecies empires. Though this causes lots of problems on the societal level due to the differences in biology and culture and if it’s not properly managed and dealt with it can result in a weaker union. Thus multispecies empires are seen as generally less stable, though having greater potential. Monospecies empires are seen as being more stable though usually set in their ways and stubborn, meaning they have a hard time adapting as quickly. Some species are simply suited towards adapting however, in which case it might be more beneficial to be monospieces.
Namely the other species on board are the Theslk, and the Egol. The Theslk are large reptilians with armor-like scales covering most of their frame. A toothy jaw, and darker shades of colors spattering their bodies allowing them to blend into their natural environment. Although they are predators by nature they would rather resolve things peacefully first, though they will fiercely protect their friends. One shouldn’t make the mistake of confusing their gentle personalities with cowardness. They are excellent swimmers and spend most of their time relaxing in shallow pools of water. Able to change their sex if there is too much imbalance, and in the nature of reproducing through eggs, these advantages allow them to quickly colonize worlds. Given that they have enough food that is. Being quite tall and large, they require a lot of food to maintain homeostasis.
The Egol are humanoid in nature, similar to the Tarmon. Egol have bluish skin that isn’t very resistant to damage. Tall and skinny, they are not known for their brawn but instead for their brains. They primarily serve as engineers, scientists, administrators, and in educational roles and they serve these roles extremely well. They have absolutely no body hair, and hail from an extremely calm and idyllic world. Not facing the harshness of nature allowed them to quickly progress their civilization, achieving entry into space in only 4,673 years. Though as a result of their peaceful world they developed very few ways to defend themselves, including technologically. Through an unlucky draw of fate, pirates on the run had discovered their world and invaded it, easily succeeding. Creating an epoch of tyranny for centuries before the TFS discovered the planet. The Egol, enslaved and slowly losing their identity, were quick to beg the TFS for protection. TFS saw no reason not to accept, after all they were going to eliminate the pirates anyway. Though this diplomatic process lasted months until the Egol could translate the Tarmon language, the Tarmon freed the planet in little under three days. Though the Egol are still repairing from the wounds caused by that event it did benefit them in the long run, and there are certainly worse things that could happen in this galaxy.
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There are more species in the TFS though none are aboard the Favala. And even in the case of the Theslk and Egol they are only in small amounts. Afterall Tepi-3 is a dry world, not many species are adapted to those. A bais certainly exists within the TFS where most worlds are terriformed into dry ones, leading to an overwhelming amount of the federations population to be Tarmon. While this currently is not an issue, the federation is a relatively young one and only time will tell what happens. It would be rude to say the bias is only on the federations government, in most cases a dry terraform is quicker, cheaper, and more easier to do. Not to mention after a dry terraform is conducted infrastructure can more easily be built on the planet and terraform it to something else, something wetter.
Not much is going on, everyone aboard the Favala is simply waiting for the expedition teams to get finished with their work, something that will likely take a very long amount of time. Possibly even an entire year. Although the Favala is equipped with many recreational facilities everybody awake is beginning to feel a bit stir crazy, or whatever their equivalent of it is. Many want to plant their feet on a planet, though no planet is ready to handle such an influx. Managing the rising tension and stress is the bridge crew's responsibility, and even more heavily on the Captain himself. So, who manages the Captain’s stress? No one really, though many have tried to get close enough to him to try. Idris is certainly an older one, perhaps he has a sad and despairing past that makes him closed off to others, or perhaps he just doesn’t like dealing with other people? Maybe a tale to be told at another time.
Idris spends most of his time working, but when he isn’t working he spends it reading, relaxing, contemplating, and recording his thoughts down. Under a different name he is a philosopher, not a great well known one granted, not that he cares. These records are something that he will pass down to the next captain of the station, hoping that they can be of aid to the likely inexperienced that will take command next. These help to relieve his stress, but mostly it’s just about who he is. Stress doesn’t affect him as much, or another way to say it is that situations that would cause stress in others doesn’t in Idris. Not to say that he is cold-blooded, he is more robotic, one-mindedly pushing towards whatever goal he sets himself to. This puts him at some odds with the head officers, those he’s in contact with the most, but not enough to overcome the respect they have for this seasoned, skilled leader. Plus, some distance between the highest power for the next few lightyears and the common worker is good.
#One Year Later
One year has passed, the transport convoy should be getting close to TFS space bringing with it the decision to carry out the terraforming mission. Some things have changed in Tepi, but the status hasn’t changed much. The exception being that mines and gun platforms were placed at strategic places. Places include the gravitronic points in space, the points that allow for the quickest FTL travel. Though pirates often have their own hidden, though less safe and quick, points it’s better than nothing. It also allows them to guard against anyone that could’ve been tracking the transport, though it’s unlikely to happen. Other places include resource gathering locations, and heavy traffic areas. The Favala has built the first artificial satellite for Tepi-3, excluding the Favala itself of course, eventually these satellites will be as numerous as the stars themselves. This particular satellite is situated in low orbit and its primary role is to provide a closer supply point to the expedition teams on Tepi-3, extra radiation protection was put onto this small station. This will increase the turn-over rate for the teams because they don’t have to go all the way to the Favala to resupply. This results in a slightly quicker exploration process, an investment that will pay back more each year the exploration goes on.
The surface exploration continues on much the same, new deposits found, no ruins or signs of ancient civilizations. The polar caps were explored extremely thoroughly and if the ice is melted it would create ninety-seven millibars, and in total is 264 tons of water in frozen form. Not much in the grand scheme of terraforming but any amount is welcome. More importantly are the cavern expeditions, focused on exploring the larger caverns they have found some things. Out of the seven candidates, three of them were a dud, two were too resource poor, and the other two are still being explored. The two are named Alpha and Beta sites, temporary names until a better name is decided on which one will be settled in. These caverns are truly massive, and expansive and the head officers have decided that it would be best to colonize one of them and create small pressurized areas. Moving the pressure seals further into caverns once they have been explored, inch worming more and more habitable territory until they’ve fully explored the caverns. These caverns are extremely unique in their size, perhaps even the largest caves to exist in the entire stargroup; a small escort ship could almost fit in the larger tunnels. Not to mention the teams have no idea how far into the planet that these tunnels go, it could actually take dozens of years to fully explore just one cave system. Luckily these cave systems don’t intertwine with others, at least not yet which makes them somewhat compartmentalized.
While very little of the caves are explored, at least compared to how big they seem to be, a colony could be established on Tepi-3. It wouldn’t be able to handle all of the colonists at this moment but doing it in waves tied to the expansion of the pressure seals would be the best way to both colonize without overburdening the colony. Most of everyone would be on board with doing this, even the common workers. The more cautious of the officers what to explore more of the caves before deciding, but the colony has to be in the caves regardless. Choosing the best cave to settle in, Alpha or Beta, is the more important question. Alpha seems to be the best choice, the caverns and tunnels are larger meaning that it’s more likely to have a larger cave system. Beta is more plentiful in resources though, not by much but it’s still a viable contender. The head officers, including Captain Idris, decide to go with Alpha site due to its larger size. Resources aren’t a concern due to how rich the planet is to begin with, not to mention the immense wealth of resources on the Favala itself.
Of course, the question of it being the right time still exists. This is a huge development and even though nobody can think up an exact reason not to do it, the anxiety is in the air. Except for the captain, like a hot knife his voice cuts through the atmosphere and delivers the news like it’s fact. Which, supposing he’s the captain, is true. Idris stands up, looks straight ahead and commands, “The colony will be founded, at the Alpha site location. It will be colonized in waves of 500. 150 specialists will go with them, most being engineers. We will start the first wave once we have completed a prefab base. Until then we need construction teams down there laying all of the needed infrastructure.”
All of the officers say “Yes sir!” before standing up and going to their stations. Coming up with the exact details of the plan is their job, Idris will just overlook it. The Favala is also in on the planning, even if they lack real creativity the ai are still extremely smart, though that isn’t the exact word one would use when talking about these ai. Anyway, the dice have been rolled, a colony to be created, I wonder how it will fare.