SIM:JP Atorin/Zuril: SECURITY FOOTAGE (I): The Rule of Balzog

SECURITY FOOTAGE: The Rule of Balzog ((Ooyetirent Control Center, Asav, Five Years before the Gift of Zolrak)) :: In the center of the large operations center, Asavii Science Minister Atorin paced back and forth, waiting impatiently for the arrival of an important guest. Ooyetirent was in a remote mountaintop location, which was good for privacy and maintaining state security, but was horrible for arranging quick meetings. Still, the meeting had to occur here, where the genesis of an audacious plan had been formulated and hatched. The plan only had one chance of success however, and it hinged on the wildly exotic theories of one Professor Zuril. Science Minister Atorin had gained his position through political means rather than scientific ones, which meant that the Professor’s theoretical technology was beyond his ability to comprehend, but his advisors assured him that should the technology come to fruition, it would be the perfect tool for the radical plan. And, glancing at some of the display screens, streaming the news reports of protests and violence that were becoming more organized and numerous by the month, their plan could afford no delays. :: :: Professor Zuril arrived at the command center with the slow steps of his old age. He was considered one of the best scientists in Asav, and had received several prizes in these last years of his career. His mind, however, was more centered on furthering his research than on any recognition, and being called away for such futile matters disturbed him. :: Zuril: Minister. You asked for me. Atorin: I did, Professor. Thank you for agreeing to come here today. First, allow me to show you around these fine facilities. :: Looking around as they exchanged pleasantries, the professor realized two things. First, he was not here on some trivial matter for publicity. He was in a highly protected command center, in Ooyetirent, the center of the Asavii Space Program. The second was that the screens around them did not only show the space program. They showed the news, full of demonstrations, protests, and fanatics with signs of ‘Balzog Rules Asav’. :: Zuril: I guess I am not here to discuss science. Atorin: ::noticing the target of the professor’s attention:: Science, yes, but in the interests of all Asav. There is civil unrest, and it is ever more virulent. Some of it has even taken on religious overtones. :: The Science Minister spat out these last words with a derisive sniff. Religion was a relic of the past, with no place in an enlightened, technologically expanding Asav. The fact that the old gods were being mentioned by the populace was something that the current government took great pains to try and suppress, covertly where possible, overtly where necessary.:: Zuril: So I have heard. This terrible drought has brought forth the old religions, and they say it is the wrath of Balzog, old god of the land. And I though the Asavii did not believe in the gods anymore. Atorin: Yes, well… despite our efforts to appease the civilian agitators, they still howl indignation at the challenges we face dealing with the unexpected decline in planetary water levels. :: That comment made the old professor a bit angry. And in was not easy to anger a man who only lives for his research, unless you mock his projects. But this had nothing to do with it. :: Zuril: Unexpected!? Since we started using water-fueled technology a century ago we have literally destroyed half of the water in Asav. Ecologists had been protesting its use for the last seventy years. And now it comes as a surprise? Atorin: This government’s mandate is to solve the egregious problems handed down to us all by our forebears. The water-fuel technology allowed us as a civilization to experience an industrial revolution unmatched in the history of our planet! The pros and cons were weighed by our forebears, and we are making the hard decisions necessary to ensure our planet’s continued successes going forward. :: The professor calmed down, realizing the man was probably just representing his government’s official position. Still, he found the government was being hypocritical with this subject, and that made him irritable. :: Zuril: What did you want? :: The main monitor showed Asav in a planar view, with the orbits of its two natural satellites ringing it. Atorin led the aging scientist over the display, and with all the smarmy grace of a seasoned politician he started his pitch.:: Atorin: We need water. Our industry, our power grid, our very civilization is built off the need for water. Where is a readily available source of water? :: The display was interactive, as if an animated slide show. The larger of the natural satellites, occupying a slower, wider orbit, dimmed. The smaller, quicker moon with the shallow orbit lit up blinking. :: Atorin: Our second moon, of course! Zuril: That’s stupid. The idea has been proposed over and over again, and the only possible conclusion is that the mission needs way more water-fuel than it can bring back. Useless. :: Through a freak chance of cosmic fate, Asav had acquired a second moon of ice, to complement the one made of rock and metals, many many millennia ago. There were many theories about how this had happened. A massive comet captured just so by a delicate balance of planetary pull, or perhaps the gradual coalescence of a planetary ring of ice particles… conjecture and debate abounded, but however it had happened, it proved a fortuitous turn of cosmological chance for a water-starved civilization. Of course, attempts had been made using their limited rocket technology to harvest frozen water from the massive globe of ice. For over 50 years, the tantalizingly close, unlimited source of water hung in the night sky and beckoned for exploitation, but their current methods of space mining were too inefficient, with way too little return to make the effort feasible. :: Atorin: You are right. Using existing technology, we could never garner enough ice to fuel the planet’s water-fuel needs for a day. But, the government’s defence contract with Chitern Corporation has led to a wild theory, an awesome plan that will solve our problems immediately and for all time. We will use our nuclear arsenal for good instead of ill, and carve a massive chunk of ice off of the frozen moon, to be brought to Asav! :: As expected, the professor jumped with shock and incredulousness. The government’s scientific advisers had done just the same thing when Chitern first suggested this course of action. Allowing such a massive piece of ice to fall into Asav’s atmosphere would create a catastrophic event, possibly even an Extinction Level Event. Even just a sliver of the ice moon’s volume striking the planet’s surface would unleash enough kinetic energy to rival the entire Asavii nuclear arsenal hundreds of times over, sending blanketing dust and ash into the atmosphere and choking all life from the planet within a generation. But, if all went to plan, and if Professor Zuril was willing and able to assist, that would never happen. He cut off the scientist before Zuril could even start with his counter-arguments.:: Atorin: I know what you will say, and it’s been said many times over. As it stands now, such an action could only have catastrophic results as the shard fell into Asav’s atmosphere. But! This is why I have asked you here. Chitern knows of your developments with your, er… ::gesticulating airily:: space-time “bubble” thing, and believe that it could be used to safely transport the shard to the planet’s surface, where it will slowly melt as an almost limitless source of water-fuel! So, straight to the point.  ::leaning in close, speaking tersely:: Are the rumors true that your “bubble” can accomplish just sort a thing? And, more importantly… will you contribute your technology and expertise in this pursuit of a solution to the biggest problem our species has ever faced? :: Once the explanation was over, the professor was silent for a long time. The worst part was that the whole plan was stupidly naive and reasonably feasible in equal parts. :: Zuril: Its name is Warp Field Generator. And, with time, I intend to create an engine that would permit Faster Than Light travel. That would allow us to colonize other planets where we could find water. Atorin: Time, you say. That is one resource that is running out even quicker than our water. We don’t need a solution decades down the road. That is the same dismissive hubris our forebears had, that allowed us to get to the point of crisis we are in now. A drastic plan of action is essential, and we must be brave enough to grasp it. So I ask you again… can your technology do this? Zuril: It… :: He had to shut up. The minister had a point there, their people needed a faster solution, or they would soon face massive dehydration and the destruction of their civilization once their main energy source was turned off worldwide. :: Zuril: I don’t like it. But it is feasible, yes. Atorin: ::relieved, toothy smile:: Good. Good! Chitern contractors will be visiting your lab very soon then, to assist you and ramp up the completion timeframe for your technology. With their advanced research and production abilities, they should help you work out the bugs in your, er, Warp Field, was it?, technology in no time. Those people out there ::pointing to the protests on the news screens:: will be singing your praises when you save our planet, Professor! :: The professor just stood there for a few seconds, looking grimly at the screens showing the news worldwide. :: Minister Atorin Old Asavii government Minister of Science & Professor Zuril Asavii Astrophysicist as simmed by Lt. Maxwell Traenor Chief Science Officer USS Darwin-A NCC-99312-A & Lt.JG John Valdivia Science Officer USS Darwin-A NCC-99312-A