Mastodon post 2025-12-25
‷This must be the place, Captain; it’s the only planet within range of the chronometric polarizer drive in the kind of lifeboat that was missing from the wreck.‴
❝Any sign of the survivors?❞
‷The planet is borderline habitable, if they dug in under the ice caps they could possibly have evaded the worst of the heat.‴
❝Amplify spectral flux and check for distress signals.❞
‷Yes Ma’am—Got it! I’m picking up weak collimated neutrino transmissions. ‴
❝Where?❞
‷Everywhere! It’s the natives, they appear to have crude antennas erected in many of their dwellings.‴
❝Ridiculous, thats far beyond their technology. Unless…❞
‷Unless what? Uh, Unless what, Captain?‴
❝Scan for chronometric drive exhaust. I calculate that if you collected solar plasma at the pole you could power the lifeboat for about one suborbital flight every planetary year.❞