According to the rumour mill, they’re going to name the ship, ‘Terran’. This is supposed to be done during an official ceremony, but no one seems to know when exactly. There has been a lot of talk about the name, for me it works. I mean what else were we going to call it, ‘Enterprise’? Please!
Gamin Race
I have already found out some neat stuff about the Gamin race, and thought it should go here, even though it’s not about their technology. They are, on average two meters tall and have well-proportioned bodies with two powerful arms and two strong legs. Their legs enable them to make leaps of up to five meters, though they usually walk with a strut-like gait. The mottled green colouration to their rough, almost leathery, skin seems to vary from individual to individual. The underside of their forearms boast a series of sharp boney protrusions. The back of their knees has a sharp bone spur on the inner side, which, if it were not for the wide stance of their hips, could interfere with movement. When crouching, the bone spur rests on, or near, the inside of their legs. These bony protrusions all seem to differ in size and shape from individual to individual. Perhaps age is a factor? The Gamin have short crocodilian snouts, filled with an assortment of sharp teeth. The snout’s size seems to vary amongst the species as well. There are little horizontal slits where a nose would be, and tiny little ear flaps that droop down on each side of their heads. Their eyes are a striking bright yellow, with a dark vertical iris. Their hands end in three claw-like fingers. The outer two fingers are multi jointed and allow either, or both, to act as thumbs for gripping. Their feet have two large toes and a wide heel area. Though looking reptilian in many ways, they are actually warm blooded.
We found a hatchery on the damaged and abandoned spacecraft today. The Gamin evidently hatch from eggs. Based on a video log we found, they also live for an extremely long time, thousands of years in fact. We don’t know much about them, but hopefully we can glean more from the data we have.
Update: The Gamin fleet that landed on Earth belonged to one clan. We now have evidence that there are numerous clans.
Language
The Gamin’s written language seems to be based on symbols and hieroglyphs. For example, the symbols for talk and person, when placed together, indicate one person talking to another. Add the symbol for radio, and now we have a radio based communication. Switch or add in the symbol for the main drive and we have the symbol for long range communication. Thus, on the command chair, I would tap the ‘talk’ symbol with the ‘ship’ symbol to address the crew. Switch that with the sub-light engine symbol, for local communications.
Terran
I went for a wander about the ship today. It’s huge, and to think those that landed in Manhattan and Saint Petersburg, were even larger. It’s said that George visited the Regent’s flagship, one of monstrous dimensions. I can’t imagine how ships of that size are constructed, and what do they do with all the space inside?
Noticing a lot of diggers around lately, guess the top brass is expecting trouble. Don’t reckon anyone is getting to them though, let alone past them. Aussies, Brits, and Americans are all patrolling the desert, setting up defense bunkers, and doing whatever else it is soldiers do. Not sure why the fuss though, you can see for miles, in places all the way to the walls the aliens left behind. Almost forgot about Hayato’s team of Japanese specialists, but then they spend most of their time on the ship, along with Radclyf’s team of Brits. These two, four man teams are supposed to be the best of the best, time will tell if that’s true or not.
The construction cradle the ship rests in is very strange looking indeed. The ship’s landing struts rest upon a raised platform that extends under much of it. The edges of this platform have dozens of massive claw-like appendages that reach up and curl around the ship. At some point, these look as though they cradled the ship, but I am not a hundred percent sure. The platform terminates before the ship’s open ramp that leads inside. Why would they have the ramp resting on the desert sand?
This ramp is itself huge, as wide as a two-lane highway, with plenty of headroom. Handy too! Construction workers have been able to install large water tanks, a bunch of nuclear reactors, and tons of pipe work. The Japanese computer teams have also been busy installing a supercomputer and laying cables all over the ship. Everyone seems busy except for me. I can’t do much until the consoles on the ship’s bridge are powered up.
After chatting with a few techs, I was able to get the ship’s approximate dimensions. It’s almost one kilometer wide, and is close to three kilometers long. The ship’s nose narrows a little at the front, coming in from both sides, above, and below. I am told it’s around three hundred meters tall, not sure if that’s with or without the landing struts deployed. I am going to say with.
The layout of the ship feels wrong though. The main drive is long and sits attached to the rear of the ship, right behind the massive storage area. Structurally, this makes no sense. The highest thrust is not pushing down the ship’s main frame. Now the sub-light engines, they’re arrayed around the outer rim on the rear of the ship, and are part of the ship’s main superstructure. This does make sense. Thruster ports seem to emanate from all over the ship. I don’t think anyone has even counted them all. Johnny, George’s son, is very excited about the ship and describes the pair of main drive engines as binoculars that are pressed against the ship’s boxy rear. A pretty fair description actually.
The hangar or storage area is extraordinary. Twenty decks are visible when standing at the top of the ramp. I reckon the Sydney Opera House could fit in the open area, with room to spare. The ship’s remaining five decks seem plunked on top, they almost look like an afterthought, or at the very least, an addition.
Internally, armour belts protect just about every single level, with massive bulkheads being able to seal off almost any section. Reminds me of a submarine, the way the ship can be compartmentalized. Just not as obvious when walking along though, there are no visible door seals, no elevators, but damn, lots of stairways. The buggers that built this ship must love walking.
Seems the Terran is missing a lot of things; I can’t put my finger on it, but when taking a gander, it’s just full of open voids, empty rooms, and so forth.
Crazy stuff happened today. Here we are in space, going from planet to planet, when the soldiers found a group of hostile stowaways. I am so thankful that I spent many days wandering the ship, scary, now that I think about it actually. Anyway, this was so handy when working out which sections to close off. I can’t believe none of us ever saw them. Just how did the terrorists get here, and then stay hidden for so long? Did the Chinese or French help them get on board before they quit working on the ship? Thankfully the two teams of soldiers were able to take care of the threat.
It has been a while since I updated this section. We made a new and exciting discovery today. A badly damaged Gamin spaceship was found on a desolate world. Based on this partially destroyed sister ship, we can see that our ship is indeed missing a lot more than I even thought. We knew we were lacking main power, and then we learned of the main shields, and now elevators. These are just the obvious bits and pieces, because later on George will be installing a new bridge console. I have not even read about this console in the Gamin database, but then I have barely scratched the surface of that. As for the damaged ship’s weapons systems, they seem to be intact. Even the lunar base had almost nothing in the database on the Gamin ship’s weapon systems.
So frustrating! We can’t land on the planet, nor can we transport up anything larger than will fit in our shuttle. We have to leave the treasure trove behind as we continue or journey homeward.
On a brighter note, George was quite comical today. He was flat out like a lizard drinking installing the newly discovered console. He is so excited about the find, and keeps trying to get it working. We have figured out that the new console allows communications to operate via the main drive, for some reason the command chair does not have this feature activated by default. Is this an
oversight, an unfinished feature, or simply standard practice on their ships? We turned it on and were all shocked when Regent Voknor appeared on our main window. He pretty much told us to go home and to not come back.
I have been helping Hayato’s and Radclyf’s teams lately, who would have thought that the British and Japanese teams of elite soldiers could work so well together. I never would have, and yet they do, thank goodness or we would surely all be dead by now. Their dedication is all that stands between us, and the dangers out here.
Command room/Bridge
When I first walked onto the ship’s bridge I was astounded by its simplistic layout. I quickly focused on the task at hand and had little time to examine the details of the room. Now that I have some spare time, I can really look around. The bridge is a mere twelve meter square, and yet, from that one small room, the Terran is controlled. The walls are lined with terminals and consoles, some with seats, and some without. I am still trying to fathom why the controls are different at some locations.
The magnificent command chair is the first thing noticed, can’t miss it. It rests not only centered in the room, but also on a raised dais. The location and height provide a clear view of the windows ahead. The chair itself is truly amazing, and appears to be carved from a single polished Australian opal, which I know isn’t possible. The largest opal ever found was a fraction of the chair’s size. The seat, backrest, and armrests, are covered in what looks and feels like, kangaroo skin. In addition, both armrests have small consoles imbedded into the polished stone. From what I can tell, all ship’s functions can be controlled from this one chair, if I have it figured out right. The Gamin are not only taller, but larger in every aspect. Thus, when I sat in the command chair, its curved edges actually obscured my view to either side. An odd design, but then the chair does become an effective barrier, should a hostile force ever come through the single doorway.
Before this impressive chair, are four smaller chairs, though they are no less comfy, they are more utilitarian looking. In front of these chairs are four consoles which, though touching each other, are independent. When seated in one of these chairs, I have to lean forward to touch the furthest symbols, but the closer ones are within reach, even when sitting back.
Gamin Consoles/Terminals and the Interface Units
The four, side by side, consoles are easily viewed by all. The panels are one meter wide and angled upward at around thirty degrees. This allows both an unobstructed view of the windows, and relatively easy access. The layout of the symbols is as alien to me as the three fingered Gamin, but it’s undoubtedly efficient for them. For me, the symbols just seem too far apart, with the very far edge of the console being almost too far away.
The interface units are sweet, except that every time I want to find out what any particular console does, I need George to make a new one. Seems I can’t just take one with me and plug it in, each is made specifically for the terminal or console in question. George told me today that ‘all they do is reduce the speed of the information flow and convert the data.’ That’s all! He wouldn’t, or couldn’t, tell me how they work, but they do. I am finding out the hard way that when our computers are connected, they heat up, and sometimes overload. George can’t solve this problem, so I had better get a stock of laptops before we take off. I have fried a couple already, glad they don’t come out of my paycheck that’s for sure.
I learned something new today. I’ve been playing with the consoles a lot this last few months, it appears that the four main bridge consoles are interchangeable. Each of them can perform the exact same tasks. Though this seems redundant, it does allow four people to work on individual tasks, or one person to run everything from their own station. This is not like anything we make, they’re not task specific. Would love to know where the ship’s central computer is, that runs it all.
Oh my, there is no central computer! Each and every terminal and console is a part of the whole. They’re all networked through the ship’s power grid, which also seems to act as an information storage network. Powered networking and data storage all in one, now that’s a concept I am trying to get my head around.
Finally figured out the terminals. They’re purpose built for a single function, unless a suit wearer interfaces, in which case they become multifunctional consoles. Have no idea why this limitation has been built in, perhaps to restrict access?
The consoles adapt to each user, and even better, if I press both hands to any console, it reconfigures to show the functions I use.
GUS
The Japanese built this monstrosity which they call the Gamin Umbilical Supercomputer. It’s basically a fancy interface unit. It sucks so much juice, we had to shut it down during the launch, or we wouldn’t have made it. That was a close call! It still gives me the jitters thinking about it.
The techs tell me GUS is the fastest computer on the planet. You should have seen the look on the fellow’s face when I said, ‘we’re not on the planet’. Those computer guys just don’t have a sense of humour.
I feel bad today, there has been yet another death. There have been too many on this trek, will it ever end? Jim, one of Radclyf’s men, was killed, then GUS was blown to bits by a terrorist. Not sure who will read this, right now we’re hurtling toward the galactic core and can’t stop. Without accurate star charts, we have no idea if we will plow into something, or not. My best estimate is that we are moving at better than sixteen million times the speed of light. There go a ton of space flight theories out the window, some advanced technology at work here that’s for sure. Hope we survive this and can get home. I would love to figure out what’s going on.
The techs have fixed GUS, well some of GUS, it’s still a mess down there. At least I am not in the dark with the Gamin consoles anymore. Starting to figure out some of the symbols though, an interesting language. Been chatting with Hayato when we’re not busy, as the symbols seem Japanese-like, yet clearly different.
Life Support
As soon as the ramp shut, this foul smelling thick air started coming out from the various ducts in the ship. At first we thought the air was poisonous. I think George actually found our expressions funny. When he said, ‘Well what did you think they breathed?’ I could tell that Cindy wasn’t amused.
How does George figure all this stuff out so fast? He fixed the air quality on the ship, the shuttle, the mining craft, and well, I guess his suit too. He and Olaf never talk about the suit’s air, I wonder why? I never knew that air smelled so differently in various parts of the world either, learn something new every day they say.
WOW! George’s and Olaf’s bodysuits were preset with Earth’s air already! No wonder George was shutting his visor a lot, actually he still does, and I am not sure why, especially now that the air’s fixed.
George’s knowledge of the ship’s systems has saved us yet again. At the eleventh hour, he found a way to use the life support system to eradicate some nasty spores. They must have been dormant and brought on board along with all the other samples that Emma’s team insisted we needed to study. We lost even more crew members to these nasty spores. Makes me feel as though we’re cursed. What else can possibly go wrong?
Gamin Bodysuit
George uses Olaf’s suit better than Olaf! There seems to be nothing he can’t do with it. He does not know how the absorption and crafting tools work, he said they just do. # refer below.
Found a bounty on the moon, an alien shuttle, three more bodysuits, and a database full of information. One of the bodysuits is George’s old one, the one he wore when the aliens were in Manhattan. What are the odds? George seems excited by the find.
The crew has been doing ‘try outs’ for the extra suit. Seems folks are either compatible with the neural interface, or not. Those who are not can become rather disorientated, or even nauseous. I am not trying out, that’s for sure. Patrick, one of the contractor roughnecks, is compatible, so much for the theory that intelligence is a factor.
George was telling us abou
t the suits and their modules, as if we all knew the difference already. How would we know? The Gamin use three suits, at least. They have an initial training suit which seems to simply be equipped with a neural interface, and not much else. The construction suits can have up to two modules attached. These can be power modules, or specialized schematic modules which allow the construction of pretty much anything imaginable. I noticed today that the suits found on the moon all have five connectors for these modules. Now the exciting part is that combat suits have seven connectors, thus construction and combat modules are not interchangeable.
# Patrick was joking in the mess hall about when he and George were working on the Oglan construction dock. He had asked George how the absorption tool worked. George said, ‘I don’t know, wait I do,’ it was as though he was surprised at knowing. Patrick was telling everyone around that he said something like, ‘The tip has a molecular accelerator that ‘excites’ the atoms until they are disassembled. When this creates energy, the suit stores it.’ When did George figure this out? We’ve been working together a lot, and even with all my research I had not been able to find an answer.
The suit’s visor doubles as a display panel. What an amazing piece of hardware! I can only imagine what a military version could do. That’s why he still shuts his visor!
I have noticed something strange about George and the Gamin bodysuits. When using Olaf’s suit, he was able to accomplish any task he set his mind to. Yet, with getting the suit he used to wear when he was in Manhattan back, he is able to do even more. He uses this seemingly identical suit with greater ease, and efficiency. Not only that, he is able to perform tasks beyond Olaf’s abilities. When I asked about this, he told me that Sharz, one of the aliens, showed him some tricks. ‘Tricks’ indeed! There has to be more to it than this.
Initiation Series: Series One Compilation (Terran Chronicles) Page 65