MSNPC Verrla - Ship of Theseus
Noemi Lim
((Market – Deck 358, Voth Generation Ship Igirni))
There was a softness to her tone as she thought about her own long grown children and currently growing grandchildren.
Verrla: There are over two hundred thousand children on board as of our last census, with an even distribution among the age groups.
Avariswal: Two hundred thousand… oh my. I take it you have nurseries to help with their caretaking while their parents keep the ship running?
Verrla nodded but before she could answer there was an unfamiliar, high pitched sound and the strange shimmering lights that heralded her guests’ appearance appeared near them. Two figures were revealed when the shimmer dissipated; two older(?) females, one with bright green skin and one with coloring closer to the others. Both were wearing the same uniform color as Lieutenant Letek.
Jashkaa: Commander Drex, may I introduce our new counsellor, Ensign Mensah, who is reporting to you as requested. ::She gestured to Mensah, then gave the new ensign a subtle wink:: Good luck, Ensign.
Mensah: It’s a pleasure to meet all of you.
Letek: Elor Letek, Assistant CMO. Nice to meet you, Counsellor.
Avariswal: Avariswal, diplomatic corps.
The green skinned woman disappeared again in the same shimmer.
Drex: Ensign Mensha. ::Was that how it was pronounced?:: Welcome, and thank you for joining us so quickly. I'm Lieutenant Commander Drex, but a proper introduction will have to wait until we return to the Eagle. For now, let me introduce you to the leader of this society, Verrla.
Verrla was feeling like she had been caught flatfooted. It was one thing to have another person join their group, but to have them be an unknown to the rest of their people on top of it? How strange.
She then realized she was staying silent too long and gave a smile.
Verrla: Welcome to our ship.
Mensah: This ship is incredible beyond what mere words can convey. I’ve seen but the tiniest bit of it, but I can already see how much effort and thought went into the design.
Letek: We're lucky enough to be getting a quick tour right now, though I'm afraid we'll only get to see a tiny fraction of it.
Avariswal: ::hoping to please Verrla:: Still, a lot more than most people will see. I bet our top engineers could spend weeks, or even months, here, figuring out how well this ship is doing.
Drex: I was thinking the same. We've only seen a small part of it, but it already feels less like a starship and more like a world of its own.
Verrla: Mmm. That was the idea our ancestors had when designing the Igirni.
It needed to be its own world. They were traveling far from where their people had lived on for untold generations. They didn’t know where they were going or how long it would take; the ship had to be designed to take that into account, to both keep their people alive and their sanity intact.
Mensah: I apologise if you’ve already answered this question, but I’d love to know what it’s like to live here.
Drex: That's one of the reasons we're here, Ensign. To learn more about the Igirni and the people who call it home. ::He turned slightly toward Verrla.:: And I suspect Leader Verrla can explain it far better than we can while she shows us around. ::He then fell silent, leaving the answer to their host.::
Verrla: Of course. Is there anything you would like to know?
Letek: Since you were kind enough to give us an overview of the economic system on your ship, could you also tell us a little about your political system?
Verrla: While I am technically our ship’s leader I am one of the members of a council of elders. While I have charge over the day to day runnings and management of the various administrative departments the council acts as our legislative body. Tradition states that this is the same form of governance we had back on our homeworld, and very little has changed since then.
Avariswal: There is great strength in tradition. That is something many cultures will agree with you on. It takes courage, often during difficult times, to break with them or alter them.
Mensah: Traditions survive because they serve a purpose. The difficult part is recognising when they're still helping and when they're simply familiar. I imagine that balance becomes even harder on a vessel like this. Every generation inherits the decisions of the one before it.
Verrla: I would say it is also a source of stability. To know how things work without the chaos that comes from changing how a social structure works.
Letek / Avariswal: Response
Mensah: Do your people generally see change as something to be embraced or something to be approached cautiously?
There was a pause as she tried her best to figure out the right way to answer this. She had her own feelings towards change of course, but she was not the only Voth and the new arrival had asked for the general view of her people rather than just her own.
Verrla: I would say that in general our people believe that change is an inevitability. Feelings about and reactions to particular changes can vary greatly depending on what the change is. There are some that will embrace any change, while others will fight tooth and claw against any change even if it is obviously a forgone conclusion they will lose.
She wondered about those people sometimes. There were changes she still disliked and proposed changes that she disagreed with but she liked to believe she knew when to call it and admit defeat on the matter gracefully. Perhaps she had just not run into a change that she disagreed with down to her very bones.
Letek / Avariswal: Response
Mensah: Every society has moments that test its assumptions. Who do your people look to for guidance in difficult times? And do your people see the current situation as one of those moments?
Drex: How many of your people are actually aware of the situation your ship is currently in?
Now wasn’t that a question she could not put any definitive answer to.
Verrla: I am unsure. The council and all senior staff of the various ship’s departments have been informed and there was no gag order that would prevent them from telling anyone. I am fairly confident that everyone in the engineering, navigation and exterior departments know, but there has been no shipwide announcement yet to prevent a panic.
A status quo she was of two minds about. She didn’t like hiding what was going on from the general public, but managing a panicking populace on top of everything else that is going wrong would make fixing things far more difficult.
Letek / Avariswal: Response
Drex: Thank you. That helps us understand how delicate this situation is.
Verrla:
Letek / Avariswal / Mensah: Response
Drex: Do you have any evacuation plan in place? And if so... how is it meant to work?
Verrla: Our plan in the case of ship failure is to have the population escape with the emergency shuttles to the nearest planet or station. It did not take into account a black hole.
Letek / Avariswal / Mensah: Response
Drex: Your ship has travelled so far to reach this point. Your ancestors must have known the journey would involve dangers and difficult conditions, including the possibility of a major systems failure. And I find it hard to believe they did not plan a way to save their people.
She swallowed. It was certainly true, but also certainly complicated.
Verrla: The original plan was to allow for the ship to separate into multiple parts. Damaged sections that were a danger to the rest of the ship could be jettisoned to save the rest of the ship. This ship was designed to be modular and parts replaceable. That is no longer the case with the ship as it is currently.
Letek / Avariswal / Mensah / Drex : Response
Verrla: This ship is not the same ship that left our home planet all those years ago. Things have broken or worn out or could not be replaced with a perfect match and so must instead be replaced with good enough. We have not yet come across replacement parts or materials for the system that allowed the ship to function as many. We have done our best with what we have had available to us.
She was not acting as a dignified leader of her people now. She was desperate for them to understand and not condemn her people to a fate possibly worse than death if the scientists were right about how a black hole functioned. To understand they did not have access to the supply networks that other Voth and Starfleet would have access to in their home territories.
Letek / Avariswal / Mensah / Drex : Response
tag/tbc
Verrla
Voth Generation Ship Igirni
O239306IK0