#syncon

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A syncon conglomerate ship like I described in https://tendencytowardcats.tumblr.com/post/172705522503/more-space-stuff

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Space Stuff #5

Around 80 gstm ago, an entanglement physicist and a primate neurologist collaborated to produce a product which has since revolutionized almost every aspect of primate life: The Prehensile Remote Manipulation Implant (PRMI or permie, for short).

Tractor beams have been fairly well-understood for a while now. You split a high-nuclear-affinity photon in two, and fire half of it at the target. It becomes involved with said target, and can be used as a quantum-entangled “handle” to move the object around with. It was the control system that was the problem. An x-y-z axis control was too clunky for most people to use.

The obvious solution was for the ship’s resident syncon to control the tractor beam, but it was more complex than that. In any sort of maneuvering that goes on in a spaceship, there is a great deal of acceleration. Distances are large in space, which means that to get anywhere in a timely manner, one must move very quickly--and, in many cases, change directions quickly. All of this leads to the problem of being thrown around in the ship any time navigation requires a change of direction. This is compensated for with gravitics, but the subtlety and near-prescience required for such a task renders it impossible for computer programs. Only a syncon can do it right, and it takes up to 50% processing capacity in many individuals. The other half of the syncon’s mind is busy with propulsion, weaponry, permitting, and several dozen other processes. And, of course, having two syncons living in the same mainframe is absolute folly.

Thus, the Permie Corps was established. It’s a guild/union of PRMI operators who work aboard starships to control all tractor-beam based tasks. Anyone with an open nerve-port and some money to throw in a hole can get a PRMI installed, but the entrance exam to the corps is one of the most mentally demanding and exhausting tests of its kind in the galaxy. The corps maintains the highest standards of conduct and quality--at least, officially. As with many organizations of its kind, it is rife with mid-level corruption. Some factions have even split off and formed telekinetic crime rings, but on the main, the corps is trustworthy and well-disciplined.

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Space Stuff #4:

When the first Chrysalis opened, it was a syncon who caught it. It was looking at the sky of the Small Magellanic Cloud when it noticed a much brighter light than had ever been recorded. The light grew, flared, and then condensed and dimmed into a fast-moving object. The syncon, Remsat, moved itself to get a more recent view. The object was hurtling with great speed, at least 234c, toward the galactic center.

Remsat searched the infosphere for chatter about the object, and found several admirals in the CSU’s fleet making observations about the object, and moving resources to intercept it if they could. The problem, of course, with stopping an object moving toward a heavily populated area of the galaxy at a rate more than 234 times the speed of light is that if you hit it with another object, it tends to explode rather vehemently.

Remsat determined that such an action was not the best course. The next choice was to throw a field of some kind around it that could slow it down or redirect it out of the galaxy again. Each attempt was met with dismal failure. There was a war council, but it was far too late for any real action to be taken. The area near the object’s projected impact point was evacuated, entire planets and habitats moved by the massive resources of the Syncon Federation, who had taken the lead in the efforts to avert disaster.

Then the object stopped short, less than a parsec out from Zoi Prime. It halted, 234cs dissipating into nothing. And it waited. Remsat sent a small starship out to the object, not knowing what to expect.

The object spoke to it.