Commonscape
By: Griffin
Copyright notice: All characters belong to their respective owners, all
original characters and plot elements belong to me.
Note: Most of the Andromeda crew are current as far as about 2 weeks ago. Farscape crew is a bit older.
Summary: The crews of Moya and the Andromeda have their first face-to-face meeting, and neither group will be the same after it.
First Contact
Moya and Talyn lead the way through the mine-laden nebula to the small star system of Z-21302 and the wealthy commerce planet of Alleghany.
The Andromeda followed close behind, her sensors and drones blinded by the clouds of star gas. The crew of the much larger starship had spent most of the eight hour journey analyzing the weapons of their earlier enemy and some of the technical specs they had been able to gather along the way.
After almost an hour of travel, the nebular clouds began to thin and soon the three ships were inside a clearing. The lone M-class red star sat at the center of the clearing, its radiation the only thing keeping the gases from closing in.
Dylan remotely wondered if this had once been a much larger and more populated system when the star was brighter and wondered if the planets that must have orbited this star were still part of the nebula.
At the very edge of what would be the system's gravity well a rather good- sized fleet was anchored.
Thirteen capitol ships, twenty-two cruisers, twenty-six destroyers and a flotilla of various corvettes and frigates sat at anchor or at various points around the star.
A flurry of merchant traffic moved from the planet to several orbitals and to the edge of the system where they disappeared into the clouds.
As soon as they entered the system, the three ships were hailed by the system defenders and a pair of destroyers and five corvettes moved closer to escort them into the system.
The transport, which had been name 'Moya', transmitted some sort of password to the defenders and the destroyers slowed, leaving the corvettes to escort.
"Dylan, the transport has informed us that we are to approach the third orbital and dock. They say that it is the largest of the orbitals and will probably be the only one that can accommodate our size."
"Acknowledged, follow their instructions. Tyr, deploy a sensor net around us, I don't want anyone sneaking up on us," Dylan ordered as the ships sliced in-system. * * * * * *
John, Aeryn and Rygel went aboard Orbital Kenos and waited in the commons while Crais disembarked from Talyn. When the five were ready they approached the docking hatch for the Andromeda Ascendant.
As they approached they noted the party sent to greet them. A female sebatian, dressed in a rather tight fighting uniform with only a small sidearm. A male sebatian stood behind her wearing a long, sleeveless leather coat and carrying a rather large pulse rifle. And a golden skinned girl that looked only slightly sebatian who wore a very tight fitting cat suit who seemed unarmed.
"I'm John Crichton," John said as he approached the trio. "This is Officer Aeryn Sun, Dominar Rygel and Captain Bialar Crais."
"I am Rommie, the ship's avatar. This is Tyr Anasazi and Trance Gemini," the woman announced. "My captain has asked that you announce all armaments before you enter our ship. He understands that you may wish to retain your weapons but you must announce them for the sake of our automated defense systems."
"All we have is what you see. One pulse pistol for me, a pulse rifle for her, nothing for Sparky and a pulse pistol for old boy Crais here," John announced as he moved his coat aside to reveal 'Winona.'
"Very well," Rommie said as she nodded slightly. "Shall we proceed?"
"Sounds good," John said as he moved toward the hatch. * * * * * *
Dylan was waiting on the Obs Deck when the four guests were brought aboard. Harper had been ordered to remain out of sight as soon as Dylan had seen that there was a woman with the group.
He found the guests quite interesting with their almost uniform leather clothing. Except for the small one in the floating chair, they all seemed to be human at first glance. But when Andromeda's sensors had gotten a good scan of them Dylan had been informed that only 'Crichton' was in fact human and that the other two were merely 'close' to human, which was indeed curious.
"Commander Crichton," Dylan said as he extended his hand. "Welcome aboard the Andromeda Ascendant. I am Captain Dylan Hunt, Commonwealth High Guard."
"Hi," John said as he shook Dylan's hand. "This is Officer Aeryn Sun, formerly of the Peacekeepers; Dominar Rygel, currently in exile; and Captain Bialar Crais, also formerly of the Peacekeepers. Welcome to our neck of the woods."
"And an interesting place it is indeed. We don't have files on any of the ships in this system nor do we recognize any other the propulsion methods or scanner systems."
"Just as we don't recognize your ship, your weapons or your technology," Crais said with a hint of skepticism.
"I assumed not," Dylan said with a friendly smile. "When you told us that you had no knowledge of slip-drives we immediately thought you to be rather primitive. It seems we were incorrect. The ships in this system would rival any High Guard fleet, which is quite something to say."
"This 'High Guard' you speak of, is it powerful?" Rygel asked in his typical, self-serving fashion.
"It once was, until nearly three-hundred years ago it was betrayed by one of our allies. I was caught in a black hole's gravitational field for that time and was only recently pulled from it. But I have begun the rebuilding of both the Systems Commonwealth and the High Guard that will defend it. I have secured alliances with several Nietzschean prides and several stars that will be of great assistance once we begin our building projects."
"What exactly is a Nietzschean?" Aeryn asked with curiosity.
"A genetically engineered offshoot of the Human race, one that strives to better ourselves and our people while protecting our Prides and straining out the weak genes," the dark-skinned man said.
"Enough about militaries and races," Trance said with a perky smile. "Dinner is ready in the Main Banquet Hall." * * * * * *
The two groups were served by the Andromeda's crew, only recently acquired from the various member worlds and trained at Mobius.
They talked about the various political situations in the Uncharted Territories and how the Peacekeepers and Scarrens were likely to be at war soon.
The dinner went well and as they concluded Dylan offered an invitation to John and Crais to talk with himself and Tyr about the possibilities of alliances in this sector.
Dylan also invited Harper to join them on the Obs Deck. * * * * * *
"John, this is my resident technological genius and the ship's chief engineer, Seamus Harper," Dylan said as Harper entered.
"Hey nice to meet ya!" Harper said as he basically bounced onto the Obs Deck. "What I wouldn't give to have a look at some of the tech around here. Rommie's sensors have been picking up all sorts of interesting stuff."
"Really?" Dylan asked curiously. "Such as?"
"Such as," Harper said with a grin. "Four very primitive slip-drives are in this system. All of them are onboard what these guys call 'Leviathans.' If I could get onboard one of them and take a look inside, maybe get uplinked to one of them I'd been able to verify that."
"I'm not sure our pilot would want you coming aboard and taking a look around, at least not yet," John said with a shrug. "Though I'm sure we could arrange some sort of trades, there are a couple of things here that I wouldn't mind taking a look at myself."
"Indeed," Crais said gruffly. "But I would much rather prefer to get any sort of military arrangement settled first. We've already seen what each other's ships can do. Perhaps we should arrange some sort of mutual defense treaty."
"Hey, hey, hey, that's an idea. But I think that we should wait until D'Argo gets back and see if he was able to secure that Luxon battlegroup. If he did I'm sure Captain Hunt here would be more than willing to take us on as one of his allies," John said with a grin.
"Perhaps," Dylan said with a smile. "But if what Harper says is true about slip-drives, I would like to confirm it."
"Very well, your engineer and a team of three techs can come aboard my leviathan as long as they are accompanied by at least one of our people."
"Very well," Dylan said as he extended his hand. "Deal."
Note: Most of the Andromeda crew are current as far as about 2 weeks ago. Farscape crew is a bit older.
Summary: The crews of Moya and the Andromeda have their first face-to-face meeting, and neither group will be the same after it.
First Contact
Moya and Talyn lead the way through the mine-laden nebula to the small star system of Z-21302 and the wealthy commerce planet of Alleghany.
The Andromeda followed close behind, her sensors and drones blinded by the clouds of star gas. The crew of the much larger starship had spent most of the eight hour journey analyzing the weapons of their earlier enemy and some of the technical specs they had been able to gather along the way.
After almost an hour of travel, the nebular clouds began to thin and soon the three ships were inside a clearing. The lone M-class red star sat at the center of the clearing, its radiation the only thing keeping the gases from closing in.
Dylan remotely wondered if this had once been a much larger and more populated system when the star was brighter and wondered if the planets that must have orbited this star were still part of the nebula.
At the very edge of what would be the system's gravity well a rather good- sized fleet was anchored.
Thirteen capitol ships, twenty-two cruisers, twenty-six destroyers and a flotilla of various corvettes and frigates sat at anchor or at various points around the star.
A flurry of merchant traffic moved from the planet to several orbitals and to the edge of the system where they disappeared into the clouds.
As soon as they entered the system, the three ships were hailed by the system defenders and a pair of destroyers and five corvettes moved closer to escort them into the system.
The transport, which had been name 'Moya', transmitted some sort of password to the defenders and the destroyers slowed, leaving the corvettes to escort.
"Dylan, the transport has informed us that we are to approach the third orbital and dock. They say that it is the largest of the orbitals and will probably be the only one that can accommodate our size."
"Acknowledged, follow their instructions. Tyr, deploy a sensor net around us, I don't want anyone sneaking up on us," Dylan ordered as the ships sliced in-system. * * * * * *
John, Aeryn and Rygel went aboard Orbital Kenos and waited in the commons while Crais disembarked from Talyn. When the five were ready they approached the docking hatch for the Andromeda Ascendant.
As they approached they noted the party sent to greet them. A female sebatian, dressed in a rather tight fighting uniform with only a small sidearm. A male sebatian stood behind her wearing a long, sleeveless leather coat and carrying a rather large pulse rifle. And a golden skinned girl that looked only slightly sebatian who wore a very tight fitting cat suit who seemed unarmed.
"I'm John Crichton," John said as he approached the trio. "This is Officer Aeryn Sun, Dominar Rygel and Captain Bialar Crais."
"I am Rommie, the ship's avatar. This is Tyr Anasazi and Trance Gemini," the woman announced. "My captain has asked that you announce all armaments before you enter our ship. He understands that you may wish to retain your weapons but you must announce them for the sake of our automated defense systems."
"All we have is what you see. One pulse pistol for me, a pulse rifle for her, nothing for Sparky and a pulse pistol for old boy Crais here," John announced as he moved his coat aside to reveal 'Winona.'
"Very well," Rommie said as she nodded slightly. "Shall we proceed?"
"Sounds good," John said as he moved toward the hatch. * * * * * *
Dylan was waiting on the Obs Deck when the four guests were brought aboard. Harper had been ordered to remain out of sight as soon as Dylan had seen that there was a woman with the group.
He found the guests quite interesting with their almost uniform leather clothing. Except for the small one in the floating chair, they all seemed to be human at first glance. But when Andromeda's sensors had gotten a good scan of them Dylan had been informed that only 'Crichton' was in fact human and that the other two were merely 'close' to human, which was indeed curious.
"Commander Crichton," Dylan said as he extended his hand. "Welcome aboard the Andromeda Ascendant. I am Captain Dylan Hunt, Commonwealth High Guard."
"Hi," John said as he shook Dylan's hand. "This is Officer Aeryn Sun, formerly of the Peacekeepers; Dominar Rygel, currently in exile; and Captain Bialar Crais, also formerly of the Peacekeepers. Welcome to our neck of the woods."
"And an interesting place it is indeed. We don't have files on any of the ships in this system nor do we recognize any other the propulsion methods or scanner systems."
"Just as we don't recognize your ship, your weapons or your technology," Crais said with a hint of skepticism.
"I assumed not," Dylan said with a friendly smile. "When you told us that you had no knowledge of slip-drives we immediately thought you to be rather primitive. It seems we were incorrect. The ships in this system would rival any High Guard fleet, which is quite something to say."
"This 'High Guard' you speak of, is it powerful?" Rygel asked in his typical, self-serving fashion.
"It once was, until nearly three-hundred years ago it was betrayed by one of our allies. I was caught in a black hole's gravitational field for that time and was only recently pulled from it. But I have begun the rebuilding of both the Systems Commonwealth and the High Guard that will defend it. I have secured alliances with several Nietzschean prides and several stars that will be of great assistance once we begin our building projects."
"What exactly is a Nietzschean?" Aeryn asked with curiosity.
"A genetically engineered offshoot of the Human race, one that strives to better ourselves and our people while protecting our Prides and straining out the weak genes," the dark-skinned man said.
"Enough about militaries and races," Trance said with a perky smile. "Dinner is ready in the Main Banquet Hall." * * * * * *
The two groups were served by the Andromeda's crew, only recently acquired from the various member worlds and trained at Mobius.
They talked about the various political situations in the Uncharted Territories and how the Peacekeepers and Scarrens were likely to be at war soon.
The dinner went well and as they concluded Dylan offered an invitation to John and Crais to talk with himself and Tyr about the possibilities of alliances in this sector.
Dylan also invited Harper to join them on the Obs Deck. * * * * * *
"John, this is my resident technological genius and the ship's chief engineer, Seamus Harper," Dylan said as Harper entered.
"Hey nice to meet ya!" Harper said as he basically bounced onto the Obs Deck. "What I wouldn't give to have a look at some of the tech around here. Rommie's sensors have been picking up all sorts of interesting stuff."
"Really?" Dylan asked curiously. "Such as?"
"Such as," Harper said with a grin. "Four very primitive slip-drives are in this system. All of them are onboard what these guys call 'Leviathans.' If I could get onboard one of them and take a look inside, maybe get uplinked to one of them I'd been able to verify that."
"I'm not sure our pilot would want you coming aboard and taking a look around, at least not yet," John said with a shrug. "Though I'm sure we could arrange some sort of trades, there are a couple of things here that I wouldn't mind taking a look at myself."
"Indeed," Crais said gruffly. "But I would much rather prefer to get any sort of military arrangement settled first. We've already seen what each other's ships can do. Perhaps we should arrange some sort of mutual defense treaty."
"Hey, hey, hey, that's an idea. But I think that we should wait until D'Argo gets back and see if he was able to secure that Luxon battlegroup. If he did I'm sure Captain Hunt here would be more than willing to take us on as one of his allies," John said with a grin.
"Perhaps," Dylan said with a smile. "But if what Harper says is true about slip-drives, I would like to confirm it."
"Very well, your engineer and a team of three techs can come aboard my leviathan as long as they are accompanied by at least one of our people."
"Very well," Dylan said as he extended his hand. "Deal."
