'DING'
Another message. Looking down, he saw that it was from Berkay this time; he raised his eyebrow at this. Usually when he messaged, it was something important, so Ridge quickly had a look.
'The data has finally been compiled and returned to the ship's database from the large scanners. Come to the bridge when you're able, and I'll show you the entire system.
Berkay out.'
As one would expect, this news was actually quite important. Ridge dropped whatever he was doing and quickly made his way over to the bridge once more. He hadn't been here in a little while, but nothing seemed to have changed. There was still the same small crew of pilots and Berkay himself working tirelessly on data and ship diagnostics.
"Berkay," He said, walking up to the holographic table.
Hearing his name called, Berkay lifted his head and saw Ridge enter. He quickly saluted, and the others also stopped what they were doing and did the same.
"At ease, tell me what's up?" Ridge asked, smiling.
Nodding, Berkay dropped his hand and motioned towards the table. As usual, it was already lit up; this time, after he inputted some changes into the display, Ridge saw the data he had been looking for. A full star system, or rather, in this case, a full binary star system.
"There are a total of five planets and four asteroid fields within this system. The largest planet is Stira-1; according to the scans, it's also the only one that is perfect for humans to live on within the natural habitable zone. The other four are not only much smaller in size but also much deadlier.
If you look at this planet," he pointed out, "The distance between it and one of the binary stars is too close for comfort, meaning its proximity completely heats up and scorches the atmosphere, making it similar to a magma planet. Our ships can resist this heat, so it's not a problem to travel there, but any ground operations are pretty much a no-go," He continued.
Ridge nodded while seeing this; the Coro Federation didn't actually have much experience with planets like this, so he would have to drop any plans he could think up for now with this specific planet. Perhaps some more research could lead to a solution; he really wasn't too worried about it.
"The third and fourth planets are a little bit further out; I would estimate it to be in the middle of the entire system, and both have no safe atmosphere and are pretty much arid desert worlds, more cold than hot. Still, we will need to observe some more to figure out its weather patterns and determine if it's safe to settle. That's a long way out for now, though. Finally, the last and fifth planet is even further out, bordering on the edges of the system itself.
It seems to have just barely been caught by the gravity of the binary stars, so it's hard to tell if at some point in time in the future it will be cast off. Nonetheless, besides Stira-1, this planet is probably the next best planet. It seems to be mostly an ocean world, but from the scans we got, there are a couple of continents we can settle on.
The only problem will just be the non-breathable air and the environment. We also weren't able to scan for any signs of life, from either the fungi or native species," Berkay finished.
He didn't bother going into detail with the asteroid fields, simply because they weren't interesting enough. At least compared to the massive asteroid they currently inhabited, they were uninteresting and not something they needed to acquire at this stage.
"Got it, so in your opinion the best planet to go to next will probably end up being this fifth one?" Ridge asked, pointing out.
Enlarging the image of the holographic, Berkay nodded, "Mm, something like that. With our current capabilities, we can still settle on this asteroid for now and keep building it up, but in the future, yes, I do believe the fifth planet will be quite important."
"Okay, keep tabs on it then and try to find out any new information. Primarily though, I want your job to be to redirect the scanner towards Stira-1. If you see any sort of major movements from the fungi, then let me know immediately," Ridge ordered.
Saluting, Berkay confirmed his orders and continued with what he was doing. Ridge likewise did the same thing. With the system now surveyed, he had some ideas on what their next objectives were going to be, but before he got too ahead of himself, he once again brought himself back to the expansion of the crew's population and food supply.
Everything has pretty much been set up now, and it was all a matter of timing once more. Once the twenty-one vats are done growing the Caribs and they have placed them in the artificial dome, Ridge planned to begin their artificial human project; with twenty-two Caribs it should be enough to start their growth naturally rather than depending on artificial means. Of course, they could always redirect the focus once more. This was the convenience of Vats. It also made Ridge wonder what the federation was thinking when they rebelled solely to ban them.
Shaking his head, he began thinking once more about the population of the base; as of this very moment, they had thirty-four people including himself, which was enough to create the foundation they currently had, but not enough to take this foundation and turn it into something substantial, so he was glad they could finally get started on the artificial humans, to put it lightly.
Unlike time on Stira-1, which seemed to pass by slower, here on the asteroid the days continued to blur together. Another week passed; this time everything that needed to be set up was set up, and the artificial dome, which had previously been empty, now had plants sprouting from the dark brown colored dirt flooring. The plants on the water, already growing even greater in number, also helped to feed the new additions to the enclosure.
It takes around a week for each vat to artificially grow the caribs; this is not only because they aren't as complicated to grow as, say, humans, but also because the liquid solution has been further refined to help accelerate growth without completely killing them during their growth stage.
The only other change that appeared within this time was the power grid getting an upgrade. With newer materials being refined daily, the advanced solar panels could once again be manufactured and put into use. This made the new mining and refining machines self-sufficient and also added another hundred kilowatts of power to the base. This meant they had enough excess for a while till they built something else that was power hungry.
Before thinking up a new idea all by himself, though, he decided to hold the first leadership meeting since their retreat.
Sitting within one of the conference rooms at the HQ building, Ridge scrolled his contacts and sent out a message to Yayha and Caroline.
'To Caroline,
Meeting in the first conference room within the HQ now.'
Yayha's message read the same. It was currently 11:20 in the morning, so they shouldn't be too busy. At this point with no projects the only thing they could do was work on personal ideas anyways or just maintenance.
'DING'
A message popped up; it was Caroline.
'Copy that,
On the way over, I was just inspecting the tunnel in case of mistakes made during the construction.'
A second ding sounded out while he was reading Caroline's message. This one was obviously from Yayha. Having read the first message, Ridge closed it and opened the most recent.
'Affirmative,
Heading over now.'
Clear and concise, much like Yayha's usual style. It only took a good fifteen minutes for the first of the two of them to make their way over; most of that time Ridge spent simply idling away and looking through some information on his panel.
The door whooshed open, and Yayha entered. It was designed quite similarly to most rooms, as one would expect. It had a simple rectangular metal table in the middle of the room and chairs similarly made of metal surrounding it, leaving the two ends of the table empty. The walls themselves sported no decorations and exemplified the very minimalist style the base as a whole followed when building and decorating.
Ridge, sitting on the opposite end of the table, waved him in. "Welcome. Caroline will be here in a few; take any seat."
Nodding, Yayha simply sat down directly across from Ridge, who was at the far right of the room if one were to stand in the entrance and look around. They didn't bother making much conversation; Ridge himself wasn't good at small talk, and Yayha simply felt it was a waste of time.
Luckily, the silence wasn't awkward; after all, they knew each other for years at this point. Eventually, ten minutes later, Caroline finally entered and greeted both of them.
"Sorry I'm late! Spotted a slight flaw in one of the tunnel supports, had to fix it before it became something catastrophic," she said, taking a seat next to Ridge.
"All good. The reason I called both of you here wasn't really for progress reports or anything like that; instead, I wanted to discuss the direction in which the base will move forward from now on and also your help in what to call ourselves and the fungi species." He paused. "That last part is more for the sake of convenience and clarity, so the names don't need to be the most creative."
"Let's begin," he said, opening the floor up to discussion with the other two.
The primary reason he wanted to do this was just to help organize his mind and also ensure he didn't fully commit to a project that had no benefits to the base as a whole.