For Fusella, it’s really not a difficult choice!
Galaxion
Life. Love. Hyperspace.
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“Yeah, let’s break some rules!”
Swimming is a bit harder when you have a xenophobic alien race trying to obliterate you, Fusella. Just ask Janeway, if you’re still on the fence.
“but it was TerSA what threw us into the river to sink or swim.”
Is that Canadian lingo? American lingo would be “but it was TerSA that threw…”
That is common – though disparaged – British usage.
I’ve actually heard it said that way before, though I get the feeling it’s an older and/or British variant.
British colloquialism. Particularly Cockney, I believe, though I wouldn’t be surprised if it were common in other lower-class and/or rural dialects. Still a bit surprising coming from Fusella’s mouth.
It’s a phrase that has entered popular culture though, it is not exclusive anymore.
That’s British slang, but it makes me wonder if I’ve been reading her voice with the wrong accent all this time. I’m presuming this is something like Star Trek, which inexplicably has wide ranges of accents, even though everyone is from the same country and natively speaks English, but perhaps I’m wrong. Any insight on this?
Boy 1: It were him what started it!
Boy 2: It weren’t me neither’
Angry Mum: Shut it or I’ll clout both your ears.
English slang, Northen dialects mostly, usually lower class.
Eli. (English, Northern, Lower Class).
And by choosing “swim” for herself and those aboard the Galaxion, has she also chosen “sink and drown” for the rest of humanity?
Stay tuned!
She is in an genuine emergency and in an unprecedented situation brought on by new technology, going to an alien species they know about and with whom they actually have someone who can speak their language. As long as she makes sure that they make better diplomatic contact than they did that one other time, they shouldn’t cause too much trouble.
Of course, that is not what’s going to happen.
That said, the good captain should be caring WHY those relations are “extremely delicate” right now. She is a Tersa employee and whether she likes it or not, she is going to be part of the problem if not start new ones. She owes it to her crew to risk this but she owes it to the rest of humanity to try and minimize any damage she might do.
Well said! If only most people understood the ethical implications of their decisions – and why they should care about them – the world (or universe, as the case may be) would be a much better place.
I also agree that that is not how things are going to go down. “Down” being the operative word.
It’s easy to analyze and outline the ethical implications of fictional people whose situation we understand clearly.
Speak for yourself, adam. I have no idea what’s going on.
Could be that it all ties together neatly with the Myradi being excellent symbionts for the Miesti, Scavina’s husband being rescued, and everyone living happily ever after.
What about the danger of their technology falling into the hands of the alien species? They are barely starting to figure it out themselves. It seems doubtful they would be able to prevent the Myradi from simply acquiring them and their ship.
They are not really in the position to resist, now are they? Between the damage to the ship and shortage of food, they are not in a position of strength.
But really, they have limited non-suicide options.
- They can’t keep the drive a secret because they have to explain why they are intruding on Myradi space. They have to tell their findings to TERSA as well, who already knows about the drive.
- They can refuse allowing Myradi technicians aboard but are not equipped to handle forceful intrusion. Not to mention that they need more hands to do the repairs as the crew is not enough*.
- If the Myradi decide to take the ship, there is little to stop them except perhaps a self-destruct device on-board. They ship will be in the heart of Myradi territory and an unauthorized intruder.
- They might have a chance against hacking intrusions though. Alien computer architechture and sealing off access can provide distance.
The thing is that they could destroy the FTL drive, as well as any blueprints aboard but there is another problem: the engineers operating the FTL drive. They have to kill them too to truly prevent access.
*Crews are not meant to be able to fully repair their own ship. That is what drydock facilities (and spaceship equivalent) are for. They have far more people with enough expertise as well as equipment that you can’t bring on a ship. Crews are there to operate the ship and if there is damage and hold it together until they can get it to safety.
Given the state of engineering, destroying the FTL drive may not be necessary. It may already be a steaming pile of melted slag.
Actually a secondary concern. The primary one are the engineers that built it. Trinary is the blueprints and other data on-board.
Nitpick: “Tertiary” in this context. (“Trinary” is a number-system, not a cardinality adjective.)
Two words: DELETE BUTTON. The engineers who built it cannot build another if they do not have the data. Besides, maybe there aliens may be able to solve the problems with it.
Oops, that should have been “ordinal,” not “cardinal.” My bad.
Of course, even if its true “they have limited non-suicide options”, there is the real question to grapple with of whether or not it would be better to go down with the ship rather than let the Myradi have this technology. (I’m not taking a position, just observing that a path is not necessarily eliminated just because it would very probably result in their death.)
As has been said, they could take severe measures to preemptively destroy access to that technology. Somehow, my guess is that the story (as a story) won’t go in that direction. I’m not expecting them to escape from the entanglements to come. There are the in-story options, and then there are also the out-story plot forces.
Actually the real question is: how will the Myradi react and think? Because they may not want the drive. They may want the drive for legitimate reasons. Giving them might actually drastically improve things. It is wise to prepare for the worse-case scenario but not to expect that to be the default scenario.
But if an earlier theory has any credence, what if they are related to the Miesti? What if they already have the drive?
The problem that they are aliens is quite apparent here: even if the crew knew more about them, they will still not react as the human crew can predict.
So true. Trying to anticipate alien reactions might be like trying to play one board game while the other participant is playing a different board game with its own set of rules.
Fusella, bae, normally I’d be with you to the hilt, but as a scholar of diplomacy – it sounds like relations with the Myradi is a very tenuous thing and avoiding a catastrophic incident has *got* to be worth a few more weeks sitting on your ass.
For what it’s worth, when youre safely back on earth, *then* you can suggest to the grand-high-wotsits who govern humankind that they might want to consider a treaty with the Myradi stipulating extraplanetary search-and-rescue conventions, and a Duty to Render Assistance.