So, do we draw straws for the other two "ambassadors" to get their heads wrapped in a jellyfish? I think Hugh is obviously still one, and there's three jellies. Max, maybe? Who else? And what do we do if Earth calls during this thing?
They'll be plenty surprised is my guess. But you're right, Hugh and Max would probably be good - does a PC want to volunteer or shall we stick an NPC brain in there?
While Max may be a logical choice for his translator skills, I'm not sure giving the Jellyfish access to all his knowledge about the Gate and such would be the best idea right now.
Since he knows very little, perhaps Semo would be a good choice. (Not much for the grunts to do right now anyway.) Of course, that would potentially give them control over his weapon...
Hand your Mk.48 off to someone else or simply sling it. It'll give everyone plenty of warning if you have to unsling that machinegun and lock and load before you can start wasting party members.
I did mention a while back after the Jaws incident that Command sent you two tranquilizer rifles. Someone can tag Semo like a rampaging hippo if he gets out of line.
Quick question, Gordon: When Semo was answering the questions, was he thinking the responses like Hugh did in the village, or was he speaking aloud?
It affects your ability to translate if you have a point of reference or not. With thinking, only you and Hugh have any chance of figuring out anything in their language because only you know what you're communicating. Speaking aloud, as someone mentioned earlier, could give them the same advantage it would give you - a point of reference for anyone to attempt to decipher the language(s). But it would mean Max would start to get rolls, since otherwise he's not doing the Steve-O jellyfish hat routine.
EDIT: And yes, please realize I am taking HEAVY liberties with how difficult translating anything like this would actually be. Playability over plausibility.
ADS, it kind of depends on if the jellyfish said anything to him when it mounted up. If it said to just think replies and that it would be less painful that way, then Semo would probably do so. If not, and Semo didn't really know what he was doing or was supposed to be doing, Semo would probably speak aloud because that's what he's used to doing and has no concept of telepathy.
Gatac, Semo can't follow any orders that weren't given... :wink:
I'd really like to have a translation soon, it'd be nice. The orbital Gates make sense, since they seem to have ships that would need to get places, and otherwise the Gates would make them unneccesary. Theoretically, on industrialized worlds you could use rail lines run through the Gates for high volume, but a little Podunk planet like this one probably doesn't have that. Are we going to let them talk to comand, or do we ask them to lay their cards out for us before we lay ours? Also, diplomatically, who do they talk to? The UN? The Army brass? The Presiedent? Some mix of the three? We've been worried about a diplomatic incident with the aliens, what about with the Russians or Europeans when they find out if we haven't told them yet?
I realize that Dieter mentioned earlier that he'd be going away for the weekend.
I'm going to assume that generally the idea is to open the gate and go home - to that end, I'll make some rolls for him and we can maybe keep it going here and there till he gets back.
My time's going to be spotty anyhow - my wife's computer shat all over itself and I'm spending most of my weekend trying to get it unfucked.
Good luck with that computer, then. I know I stressed out I get when I have to nurse a fucked-up system back to health.
Hugh's going to spend the time working on his report. On the next gate activation from Earth, we should radio in a short overview and tell them that we're packing in for now. They should prepare quarantine measures on the other side so we don't lug any slow-acting alien pathogens through the gate.
Dieter
Gatac
fanchergw
Admiral Duck Sauce
