Towards the Prospector (60%)
Twilight Sparkle watched the display in front of her with modest disappointment. Somehow, she expected a thrilling chase through an alien star system to be a little more like the movies she’d enjoyed as a child. Where were the clever angles of ships zooming past each other, of entire battles resolved in the course of minutes?
Instead, she watched the Prospector’s tractor tick slowly away closer, so slowly that she almost couldn’t register it.
“You should know, captain, we’re burnin’ fuel like it’s goin’ outa style. Not just burnin’, neither. We’re accelerating to catch up with ‘em. That’s kinda like walkin’ backwards from where we’re goin’. I’ve counted things out—we should have enough to stop somewhere when it’s over. But… that’s where we’ll stop. Between this chase and the leaks, that’s our tank.
Twilight stared at the display a moment longer, watching the three digits of the Prospector get another tick closer. “How long until we catch them?” Of course, those weren’t the only marks on the tactical scanner. There was a third ship, traveling directly towards them. It had adjusted course the instant they had, so fast Twilight wasn’t sure if there had even been enough time for the light to travel that far.
“Sixteen days,” Applejack answered. “Full burn all the way. Wouldn’t take half as long, except they’ve seen us, and they’re running. They can track us too. We weren’t ever supposed to be running away.”
“And when we catch them…”
“We’ll be moving about twelve percent faster than they are,” Applejack said. “That ain’t a small amount, Twi. If we had anypony who wasn’t you on board, I wouldn’t even try it.”
“What difference do I make?” Twilight asked. “If I was any good as a captain, we wouldn’t be here in the first place.”
Applejack stomped one hoof on the deck-plating between them. “Says the pony who stopped takin’ her drugs so she could give them to the daughter of some nutty prospector who worked way harder than she should’ve.” Applejack removed a clipboard of erasable paper from her saddlebags, settling it on top of the computer.
It was a force calculation, with masses and speeds scrawled in Applejack’s dense printing. It was a spell. “You want me to cast… this?” Twilight skimmed the rest of it. Applejack wasn’t joking—there were maybe three unicorns in the whole world who could manage this spell. “The Starswirl construct might be able to cast this. But he’s still teaching in the academy—”
“You can do it, captain,” Applejack said. “I know it looks scary, but there’s less variables there than it looks. I’m gonna cut the Prospector’s engines. It won’t be able to tug free. And while you’re grabbin’, I’ll be out there with a few boarding hooks to make sure she stays where she belongs.”
Twilight slumped into the captain’s chair, eyes rolling back into her head at the difficulty of the spell. The energy requirements came down to the difference in their speeds—a hundred thousand newtons of energy minimum that she had to find a way to dissipate.
“Applejack,” Twilight spoke slowly, trying not to sound patronizing. “If I buck this spell up by a single percentage point… I’ll shear the Equinox in half.”
“You won’t,” Applejack insisted. “We can do it, Twi. You can do it. We owe it to Equestria, don’t we?”
The screen under her tablet flashed bright red for a second, and a mechanical voice sounded. Starlight Glimmer’s voice, since she’d been the one to write the Equinox’s operating system. “Ship ERROR has entered visual range. Transmission detected.”
Applejack fell silent, retreating to the weapons console across the room. There was nothing there anymore, beyond the flack cannons meant for shooting down incoming obstructions.
That was what the Signaler (not the best name, but since they hadn’t identified themselves yet) ship read on their tactical scanner, about three hundred kilometers and still closing.
“I’m focusing the eye…” Twilight muttered. The window in front of them contorted, shifting until the patch of space it showed was no longer empty. It wasn’t a screen, not like the ones their computers used. Getting a look at a few flashing red characters wouldn’t give them any tactical information worth knowing.
According to the tiny scale at the bottom of the image, the ship was about the size of the Prospector, though much thinner, like an elongated torpedo. There were no enclosed sections—she could see straight through it in a few places, where spindly protrusions like antennas emerged.
“Give me a weapons scan,” Twilight called.
“Already did. Not reading any hotspots, or the signatures from any weapons we’ve got. But Twilight, you know—”
“I know,” Twilight muttered. “It’s an alien ship. It might be a warship and we’d have no way of knowing.”
“Yeah, but not that. I’m not getting any thermals out of this thing… but it’s decelerating right now. Where’s the heat from its thrusters?”
“We’re getting another signal,” Twilight cut in, darting across the room towards coms. She could listen to it anywhere, but the oscilloscopes and other readouts were nowhere else. She flipped it onto the Equinox’s speakers.
It sounded like a series of clicks, with varying distances between them. But not the Signal she was used to. This meant something else. And her linguist—the only pony with a prayer of understand them—was still asleep.
“Looks like that’s it… no, wait. It’s repeating. Same message, but it’s a full megawatt more intense. Buck, it’s whiting out the receiver.”
They’d missed the chance of running from this ship, or… probe, whatever it was. Now she had to do something.
1. Send back the original signal. We’ve got a perfect recording, might as well give them something they understand. Let them know we’re the ponies they called.
2. Send their exact transmission. Nothing’s a quicker shortcut to prove we’re intelligent. We can figure out what it means later.
3. Try to translate the transmission anyway and respond. (high chance of failure) I know this isn’t my area, but there’s got to be some way…
4. Applejack suggests waiting for the probe to get close, then a full spray from the anti-collision systems. The cannons should shred it before it blinks.
(Certainty 150 required)
ohhhh, well, guess I was wrong about this being Starlight as the stowaway, was a long shot anyway.
Hmmm, going with 1, just repeating the same thing back might not register as anything, but sending back something new might, and better then risking the failure of translating it wrong.
Option One. It will show the Signalers that their original message was indeed received, and they are responding to it. "crosses hooves nervously"
Hmm...definitely not option 4. I really don't see how that'll help. Honestly...between options 1 and 2, it's tough. Sending the new transmission or sending back the original signal are rather similar. But yeah, I'm gonna agree with the other comments and see and say option 1. Anyone could just send back the new transmission, but let's see what happens when the Signal's sent back.
To be honest, trying to translate it so one can respond would not be mutually exclusive with sending the original Signal to them at the same time. Or doing a repeat of the message of which they send just now.
It would more or less just appear as someone covering their bases and trying to be reductively certain. I would say option 3 since you should be able to slap all the rest of the other options on the side with it VERY easily.
Edit:
While theoretically you could also choose the option 4 with this but that would be very counter-intuitive. So just the first 3 ones.
vote original signal
Option one. Also, Applejack what are you smoking?
Oh. Well. Clearly I was wrong about the fuel supply.
But yeah, definitely don't shoot at the ship that's talking to you and has no discernible propulsion system. They're not likely to believe that that's how you say hello.
Let's not attack them. Let's also not repeat what they're saying, just in case what they're saying is some variant of "Surrender or be destroyed."
What? They’re running away? Goddammit, that complicates things. I thought the Prospector was drifting away at a few meters a second parallel to the Equinox. Their chances of success in intercepting it would have been better if they’d tried catching up to it with an RCS adjustment right after it was blasted free from the booby-trapped umbilical, but that wasn’t an option. Given that a few weeks have passed, that’s enough time for the stowaway’s cryopod - which undoubtedly was wired to resuscitate them if someone tripped their little “door alarm” - to have popped open and disgorged the miscreant, and now they’re at the controls of the damn lander. If this turned into a wild goose chase where the Equinox would be bingo fuel by the time they caught up, if I were Twilight, I would have given up the chase immediately. Unless it has enough fuel to tour the system on its own, what use is the lander to them if they can’t maneuver once they’ve got it? No delta-v + no course that intercepts a planet = congratulations, you are now a satellite with dwindling consumables = game over. They’re so screwed.
I’m gonna go with 1. Send the original signal. It’s the romantic choice. Repeating a signal back does not demonstrate intelligence or intent, but repeating the original signal does. Also, they don’t have a translator. Also, shooting at aliens who possess reactionless drives is catastrophically stupid, because the next probes will be a swarm of kinetic interceptors.
9252835
Captain, we've discovered life! Should I open fire?
No Mister Worf I mean, Applejack.
I can't see anything good likely happening if they shred it. They have no idea what the current message says. But if they send back the original message, that SHOULD get the point across that they received it in the first place and are trying to reach it. Hopefully. And trying to translate it herself just seems unlikely to help... UNLESS they got just enough of the translation right to get SOME sign of their purpose across. But nah, I'm voting for sending back the original message. Seems safest, but we'll see!
This is a REALLY fun project! And you're doing a fantastic job of rolling (haha perhaps literally!) with the different votes! Keep up the great work and thanks for including us in this little adventure!
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While I don’t agree with Applejack, I understand her. You don’t lug a couple of flak cannons halfway across the galaxy to not blow something up.
Chance -> Chase.
Anyway, I'm wondering why we don't have a pre-packaged first-contact message to send. It seems like an obvious thing to have, and while out translator might be out of commission, it seems entirely plausible that they have a translator available (our approach would've been very obvious, stealth in space is basically impossible). And only one side needs a translator.
Still, of the options provided, sending the original message seems like an obvious choice.
think it should be "chase"
9253249
9253213
Yes, you're both right. Thanks.
Time for some first contact!
Original signal, though just repeating the current signal might work just as well.
AJ's idea is dumb.
I know we can only choose one option, but it seems like 3 could be attempted with 1,2, or 4 as backup plans.
Hmm i might have to break my "leave a comment" every chapter rule at some point. At chapters like these there isnt a whole lot to say other then that choice 1 is probably safest.
I dont see a lot of stories or cannon stuff of just twi, aj and spike without the rest of the cast. Its been an interesting combination so far and i think i wouldnt mind if it was just the three of them for the longest time.
Good thing the lander we made wasn't the wraith. We would never find it
Missed the last poll because I didn't know what to pick and my decision-making dice were not available.
Voting to send original signal. Hopefully its not a declaration of war or something from an alien faction that this ship's pilot is the sworn enemy of.
AJ! What the buck! You're unfathomably far from home in an all-but-derelict exploration vessel, and your first instinct is to attack the first sign of intelligence that you find--on its home turf. In what universe does that make sense?
Upon a second reading, in the subtext surrounding AJ's and Twi's backstories, there seems to be a whole subplot. Seems like this universe's AJ has some serious trust issues and a strong(er than usual AJ) independent streak...
(Or maybe that's just a weird side effect of the cryo-stasis.)
Er, no, mimicking a noise just made is literally something several species of non-sapient animal can do. Sending the original signal would not only show that you're responding to it, but that you're capable of linking the two together. That's a way surer bet for conveying intelligence.
Send the original signal. Oh, and tell AJ to get the hell off whatever it is shes smoking
Option one.
Sending back the original signal that brought the Equestrians there is a good way to tell the xenos why they have arrived in system.
Crud and curds. I have been out of this for the last week.
Hopefully it works out.
Whelp, I didn't want to be in this situation yet, but here we are.
Shooting it is out of the question. It appears that they don't have weapons, and no thermals may mean its just a probe; possibly sent because of our presence. You make allies by communicating, not shooting on first contact. My biggest vote goes to sending back the original message that spurned this endeavor. Showing them that we received their communication from forty years ago should garner more of a inquisitive response.
¿12% relative to what? Absolute relative speed, such as m kilometers per second, makes more sense.