[Lu Bixing it is, then, because poor Ari won't manage to pronounce the unfamiliar alternative should they meet in person ('Mer-lu' being her best attempt)]
Peace and prosperity to you! I'd say you're more important than you give yourself credit for. Your work is essential.
I explored as much as I could of that area. I was trying to make a mental map, in case it'll be useful later. Honestly, I found it eerie. The age of it, how long it had gone untouched before our arrival. I'm curious, absolutely. But also, if at some point SUPERBIA asks the lot of us to bunk up together somewhere like that, I'm going to respectfully decline. It might not have ended well for the last group.
[Her specified reason will be the Tradeliner taboo against room-sharing with people other than one's partner - but it won't be the only one.]
We could make an agreement, if you liked! That if either of us finds out anything interesting from SUPERBIA, they'll share it with the other. Fair contract?
I wonder if our trajectory will mirror yours. We moved past cryogenics about a century back. The Matsukata drive enables transition into L-space, which is a higher-dimensional space. Travelling through it is essentially a shortcut; you can travel long distances in a short space of time without experiencing relativistic effects. It's dangerous, though, and it gives most people space sickness just to travel through it. Astrogators have to start young, because that way our brains can adapt to the perceptual differences. The Prosperity has a Matsukata drive, along with two ordinary engines for traversing ordinary space. It's a typical Tradeline ship - trade and defence, so big cargo holds, big laser arrays, lots of tiny cabins for a crew of about 250. It was my home for over four years. I miss it already.
It's amazing that you live so long, too. My great-grandmother is on telomerase, and she won't reveal the details but she could be pushing 140 standard years. She looks elderly, but she's healthy. She's still running the Company. It's strange to think that chronologically she'd be young among your people. If it's not rude to ask, how old are you?
Ah! The colonies used to be governed by our world of origin, but over a century ago we fought the Breakaway War, and now every colony and every Company is independent. Most of them pay Tradeline insurance, because they don't have the population or the infrastructure to support individual standing space militaries. It'd be very inefficient. So we defend all of them, keep the lines of trade open. You can ask anything you like, I don't mind. What was the world you lived on before you came here like, if it wasn't that Eden? You sound like a very good teacher to me. Did you have a second, to leave your students with while you came out here?
no subject
Peace and prosperity to you! I'd say you're more important than you give yourself credit for. Your work is essential.
I explored as much as I could of that area. I was trying to make a mental map, in case it'll be useful later. Honestly, I found it eerie. The age of it, how long it had gone untouched before our arrival.
I'm curious, absolutely. But also, if at some point SUPERBIA asks the lot of us to bunk up together somewhere like that, I'm going to respectfully decline. It might not have ended well for the last group.
[Her specified reason will be the Tradeliner taboo against room-sharing with people other than one's partner - but it won't be the only one.]
We could make an agreement, if you liked! That if either of us finds out anything interesting from SUPERBIA, they'll share it with the other. Fair contract?
I wonder if our trajectory will mirror yours. We moved past cryogenics about a century back. The Matsukata drive enables transition into L-space, which is a higher-dimensional space. Travelling through it is essentially a shortcut; you can travel long distances in a short space of time without experiencing relativistic effects. It's dangerous, though, and it gives most people space sickness just to travel through it. Astrogators have to start young, because that way our brains can adapt to the perceptual differences.
The Prosperity has a Matsukata drive, along with two ordinary engines for traversing ordinary space. It's a typical Tradeline ship - trade and defence, so big cargo holds, big laser arrays, lots of tiny cabins for a crew of about 250. It was my home for over four years. I miss it already.
It's amazing that you live so long, too. My great-grandmother is on telomerase, and she won't reveal the details but she could be pushing 140 standard years. She looks elderly, but she's healthy. She's still running the Company. It's strange to think that chronologically she'd be young among your people.
If it's not rude to ask, how old are you?
Ah! The colonies used to be governed by our world of origin, but over a century ago we fought the Breakaway War, and now every colony and every Company is independent. Most of them pay Tradeline insurance, because they don't have the population or the infrastructure to support individual standing space militaries. It'd be very inefficient. So we defend all of them, keep the lines of trade open.
You can ask anything you like, I don't mind. What was the world you lived on before you came here like, if it wasn't that Eden?
You sound like a very good teacher to me. Did you have a second, to leave your students with while you came out here?