NanoTec: Flight to a Distant Star

(2)04: 2113: Five Year Plan

Now as apparent as it is, NanoTec is no longer alone on the alien world, now officially named 'Sirrea'. A detachment of them, survivors of the TeraNova disaster, has emerged as the New Terran World and has officially set the foundations for a bitter war. Nobody likes wars, but nobody likes losing either. The first shots have been exchanged. That will be followed with even more to come.

Saegen was the first to hear of the attack on the GEV vessels. Sir-Caller had contacted him in the middle of the night when he was trying to sleep.

"Let me get this clear..." Saegen moaned, "You guys were assaulted and you sank the attacker?"

"Yes sir." Sir-Caller's voice came through, monotonous as usual.

"Huh, it is either our... whats his name... Elleno is really good or the enemy was as incompetent as him."

Sir-Caller snickered under his breath.

"Any thing else?"

"Yes sir, just one more thing."

"I'm listening."

"Whose bright idea was it to line the graphene boilers with silicon?"

Saegen remained silent. He looked up and thought for a second before being interrupted by Sir-Caller.

"It was yours wasn't it sir? Or was it Claev's? Either way, it melted and clogged the coal ducts with translucent white sticky stuff so suggestively that one of my crew collapsed in a fluster induced nose bleed."

"Thanks... I really didn't need to know that..."

"Sir, it is a good thing sir was on board you know. He had to remove the molten silicon with a stick and the graphene fibers of the boiler nearly frayed, which he patched with copper scraps from the previous one."

"Sorry... I... well, the scientists are working on replacing the silicon with something else. Because without it, the graphene will just clump up and be useless."

"Maybe you could try diamonds or something sir. Good night."

"Yeah... Good night."

Saegen cut the long range communications uplink via communications network and lay back on his bed.

"Diamonds huh? That seems like a great idea." Saegen thought to himself.

The next day began earlier than usual for Saegen. He was up at roughly 5am, Sirrea time. He pressed the button on his personal portable graphene coffee machine and was out of his habitat in 10 minutes with a cup of espresso in his hands.

Saegen stepped into the empty material engineering lab. Nothing stirred and it was dead quiet. Papers and reports were strewn on the floor, some of the material samples lay in a mess on the table but thankfully, the equipment were all kept in their respective places. Perhaps it was overwork? Saegen thought to himself as he walked over to the 'Aestus' experimenting area and put on a pair of Sirrea made rubber gloves. He could thank those working in the Biology/Society/Xenotech for the quick research into the Sirrean native flora. 

The plants on Sirrea have been more or less, classified into tree, I mean three main categories. Arbor, Bush and Shrubbery. 'Arbor' or tree in Latin, refers to the wood bearing tall plants one would call a tree. It's wood is very flaky due to the excess carbon in the soil and its leaves are rather large and the coastal ones secret salt. The bark of many of these trees contain unknown medicinal properties, yet to be further studied after Sir-Caller, against advice of his superiors went and chewed on the bark of a coastal tree and commented it tasted like cured meat, or bacon. The Bushes, or 'Nine-Eleven' as referred to affectionately by many NanoTec staff, are soft wood, low growing plants that typically bear very sweet fruit, a few of which are poisonous. Some also exhibit 'medicinal' properties, especially those related to physiological illnesses. Lastly, the Shrubberies of Sirrea. They are the smaller variant of the bushes but many also come as inflorescent flowers, much like roses. Some NanoTec members like to refer to them as 'Ni Plants' for unknown reason. They seem to find it funny, much to Saegen's and many others' confusion.