To afford such vilipend material

[Gir Quee]

Fairview, Hast

"And?"

Gir stood next to Salmakk, watching Azira and Wern tinker and delicately cut away at a slab of gray white material on the workbench. Many years before, that very slab had been living and breathing flesh. It seemed a morbid affair to Gir to see someone do a dissection in his private workshop. I just have to remember that it was at one point the hull of a starship. And starship technology was the main driving factor for me to even have this place...Yet despite whatever thoughts he came up with about the hull piece from the Zonoma Sekot built ship, he couldn't deny that they were doing what he had asked them to.

"Our best guess is they built the ship from a type of lamina that is indigneous to Zonoma," said the mon calamari, "the world leaving is probably what killed the starship way back when."

"So it's a dead end?"

"Yes and no. Wern has been able to get some ideas about the internal structure that we could use to make a new material...but exactly copying it seems out of the question."

"And I'm guessing that you have already scoped out alternatives then?"

The mon calamari sagely nodded.

"We have. We've looked at Starjumpers...but their unusual bond with the Ergesh who make them seem even less likely to duplicate. Supposedly the gungans can grow parts of a starship that they make, but I do not think that we will be easily able to get anywhere with them. It's something that they've closely guarded for thousands of years. I'm thinking that the key might be emergency vacuum seals."

"We're overlooking the most dominant organic builders then?"

Salmakk paused, "The Vong?"

He silently nodded.

"There are some other options I'd like to consider first before we consider Yorik coral."

"Such as?"

"You are familiar with the Ithullian ore hauler?"

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir blinked, "The ship people made by putting starship components in the hull of a dead, giant wasp?"

Salmakk nodded.

"I can't see that being something very marketable," said Gir, leaning against the work table, "not unless someone has a particularly strong liking towards insects or Nessie culture."

"I wasn't thinking quite so literally," mused the mon calamari, "but rather the material from the wasp. You can grow an insect, which you can probably adapt to live almost anywhere, then harvest the chitin or whatever else you can get out of the creature. I know that you understand the strategic implications of being able to grow something in such diverse places, but have you considered the economics behind it?"

Gir paused for a second, "Since location isn't as important, we would be free to grow the material almost anywhere. Which provides us with some economical freedom."

Salmakk's head abruptly jerked back. Apparently that's not what he expected me to say...so where did he expect my conclusion to go? His adopted brother briefly cocked his head to the side in acknowledgement of the validity of the man's thoughts.

"Well, that's true," admitted Salmakk, "you were thinking on a management strategic level...and I was thinking from engineering cost saving perspective. This is resource that we would not have to go out and find only in certain locations that will eventually run out. It wouldn't require expensive mining equipment or infrastructure to obtain either. In other words, it'd cost less to produce."

"If it was that easy, someone would have done that already."

Salmakk sagely nodded, "It may not be easy, but I think it is doable. But I think that this is a puzzle within a puzzle, and the chitin is only one aspect of that puzzle."

Gir blinked.

"You're talking about creating a compound material."

"Yes. Azira believes that Wern might be able to make something all-inclusive...but I think that's being too optimistic."

"So what is the first step towards solving it?"

"If you ask me, getting a live wasp for analysis."

So that's why I'm here...or rather, why Salmakk persuaded them to come here. To highlight the difficulty in this stage of the Vanguard project. His hands dropped down to fish in his pockets for a cylindrical object. Well, it's something I can do to further it...He looked up at the mon calamari.

"I can probably go off and get one," said the blonde man, "but I do not think it will be a full-grown adult..."

 

[Gir Quee]

Some days later...

Bridge, Deliverance-class Heavy Carrier Chevalier de Troy, Ithull System

The Chevalier de Troy floated around the edges of the gas giant's gravity well. Supposedly Ithull was not inhabitated by anyone, but Gir did not want to run risk of finding that it was not and be trapped in gravity well. The Chevalier de Troy was the only large carrier in the Lab's corporate fleet, which made him especially careful when risking it. He stood next to the window, watching Ithul's pastel blue and amber clouds mix and wash into a multitude of colors. He heard footsteps behind him, which caused the blonde man to slowly turn around to face the ship's captain, a husky man named Set Kurn. Gir couldn't help but look at the Republic man's eye patch for a brief second, recalling the story behind it. Kurn had once been the captain of a Republic frigate whose bridge took a direct hit, spraying superheated shrapnel across his body. Bacta had healed most of it, but bacta could not bring everything back.

"What is the word?"

"Sensor scans have picked up several phenomena that could be the wasps," said Kurn, "including one group which appears to have a juvenile."

"How far away?"

"About one third rotation away from our current position."

"Anything else I should know about the group?"

"Estimated to have half a dozen individuals, all of whom are approaching a natural satellite of Ithull. Could be the home of their hive."

Gir slowly nodded.

"Let's scramble the squadrons and investigate...hopefully we can nab the juvenile before it manages to crawl into somewhere where it'll be hard to retrieve him..."

 

[Gir Quee]

Typhoon-class Modular Starfighter Stormwrack Nine, nearing Ithull

Lieutenant Rals felt a slight tremor as the catapult pressor tossed his craft out of the hangar into space. His ale brown eyes immediately scanned the horizon, looking for friends and foes alike. No Colossus Wasps or other hostiles presented themselves, leaving him to watch the other starfighters as they launched out of the carrier's hold. He gently tilted his yoke to the left and brought his acceleration down to almost its lowest setting. His craft began to run parallel with the Chevalier de Troy. His wingman, a tall twi'lekk named Mazer, pulled in alongside him. Soon they were joined by the rest of his wing. He looked around his bubble canopy to see the hulls of nearly three dozen other Typhoons flying in precise formation. It was something of a comforting feeling to see so many craft around his own. Rals felt a brief bit of pride swell up within him as the group accelerated away from their home ship and towards their prey. Stormwrack leader's voice began to drone through his headset.

"Stormwracks," started the woman, "this is a bit different than what we're used to. Caution and patience is the order of the day, we're not likely to be in much danger if we play it smart. Try and stay at least a klick away from them at all times. They don't have lasers or any fancy weapons, but shielding isn't going to do much good against their mandibles..."

A few minutes later, Rals could see a brownish dot that was slowly growing larger and larger. We're almost there. He glanced down at his sensor screen, noticing a half-dozen, irregular signatures on his Full Spectrum transciever. Several of them were large, almost star destroyer size. Two of them were probably the size of a larger bulk freighter or a frigate, but one appeared to be no larger than a corvette. And it's smack dab in the middle of the group...He whistled. This will be a challenge enough.

"Break by pairs," said Stormwrack Lead, "and keep the adults busy. Tidewater squadron has been tasked with subduing the juvenille, we just have to keep the others busy..."

 

[Gir Quee]

Bridge, Deliverance-class Heavy Carrier Chevalier de Troy, Ithull System

Gir and Captain Kurn stood next to a holo-tank, watching the wing of fighters approach their target. Stormwrack and Hurricane squadrons appeared to disintegrate into an expanding cloud as they neared the wasps, while Tidewater squadron trailed far behind them in a centralized group, waiting for the right moment to strike. The wasps appeared to regard the starfighters with indifference at first, though that quickly changed after a fighter of Hurricane squadron buzzed past one of the elder's heads. The creature's head jerked up in a vain attempt to catch it between its mandibles. Gir blinked. More aggressive than I thought they would be...Several of the starfighters began to open fire with their laser cannons, strafing at random sections of the wasps's gigantic bodies. Gir doubted that they did real little damage against their thick carapaces, but he did not doubt that they probably felt some sensation from the weapon's strike. The wasps began to circle around in a loose and almost randomly orbiting fashion as they chased after their harassers. Gir noted with the smallest wasp appeared to be last in joining this effort. Perhaps it is learning...or it's predatory instincts aren't fully developed yet...The captain's voice interrupted him.

"New signatures," said Kurn, pointing a series of dots displayed on the edges of the holo-tank.

Gir frowned, "Odd."

"You didn't expect more wasps?"

"Well, I knew that would be a possibility," said the blonde man, "but I don't think those are wasps."

"You're right...the sensor signatures are different, and they're flying in a pretty nicely organized wedge formation...no transponder signals though..."

Gir turned his attention back to the fighters, just in time to see Tidewater squadron suddenly rush the youngest Colossus Wasp en mass. The creature seemed dazed, overwhelmed by the stimuli of so many ships suddenly surging towards it. Volleys of Calmant missiles streaked out of the formation to impact on the creature's body. The starfighters of Tidewater began to break away and circle their prey from a safe distance. Now will that enough? He shook his head and tapped a button on the projector. We have other things to worry about now...

 

[Gir Quee]

Typhoon-class Modular Starfighter Stormwrack Nine, near Ithull

Rals pulled down hard on his yoke, sending his craft in a steep climb in order to circle up and away from the sudden flurry of Calmant missiles. Though he didn't think it likely that one of the warheads would target or somehow hit his ship, he had seen enough safety briefings to know that even the smallest of collisions could have deadly consequences. The outcome of such an event was just too high for him to risk, even if its probability was low. He shifted his yoke hard to the left, rotating his craft around its x-axis in order to look down at the swarm. He watched the circling fighters began to widen their orbits, causing the wasps to disperse away from their crippled youngling. Okay...looking good...if we can keep them chasing us like this, the Chevalier should be able to swoop in, grab the wasp, and we can get out of here...

An icon on his HUD overlay suddenly lit up, informing him that he was actively scanned by another craft. All right, who did that? His eyes wandered around the battlefield, noticing that several of the other starfighters had suddenly broke their orbits to engage in more traditional evasive maneuvers. Stormwrack Leader's voice began to flow through the cockpit.

"Wracks, new sensor signatures headed our way, two frigate sized vessels...though they're not yet in visual range."

He toggled his comlink, "Lead, who are they?"

"Unknown."

Wonderful.

"...Chevalier de Troy is scrambling to intercept. Let's forget the wasps and will move towards them."

Well, that's unusual....Most carriers weren't intended to enter the thick of battle, including the Chevalier. So far, the Labs had treated their sole carrier with an exceptional amount of caution, making this action appear to be particularly out of character from what he'd seen so far. The fact that the Chevalier is inbound probably means that we're either getting into a lopsided fight, or we're about to make a very hot extraction...He oriented his starfighter towards a pin prick of distant starlight and activated his SLAM, causing Stormwrack Nine to rush forwards.

 

[Gir Quee]

Bridge, Deliverance-class Heavy Carrier Chevalier de Troy, Ithull System

The carrier surged into realspace and rapidly decelerated, putting itself between pair of saucer-shaped starships leading a wave of smaller craft and the hunting party. Gir felt the deck on his feet shift ever so slightly as the warship began to rapidly rotate around its y-axis to meet the oncoming ships head on. But he ignored the feeling his the models on the holo-tank began to become detailed as they were updated by closer sensor readings. Looks like a Corona-class...they've got to be shadowport copies though...I can't imagine anyone risking an original out here for anything...

"Never thought I'd see a surronian ship out here," muttered Kurn.

"Or a copy of one," mused Gir, "then again, we aren't too far away from the Surron Sector. Could be a modern version of it. Comms, see if you can get a hold of one of their ships."

"On it."

"I have other wing ready on standby..."

Gir nodded. Hopefully it won't come down to force. Half of our fighters aren't really fitted out for engagement right now if worse gets to worse...but perhaps just as importantly, fighting isn't something that's really advantageous for corporate growth...especially if these ships happen to belong to a large or legitimate group...He eyed the approaching craft carefully.

"They're slowing down," observed the blonde man, "let us take that as a good sign."

 

[Gir Quee]

Typhoon-class Modular Starfighter Stormwrack Nine, near Ithull

Ral's and Mazer's starfighters swooped in to glide over the Chevalier de Troy's hull. Other wing pairs began to fly alongside them, coalescing into another mass formation in front of the carrier. Ral personally disliked it. While it made to sense to him to use formations for accountability before a mission, he did not relish losing the freedom of maneuverability while entering combat. I suppose it'll make us look impressive at least...until we all go down in coordinated waves...He toggled his HUD, pulling up one of his distant counterparts that flew alongside the saucer-shaped craft. While he had never seen it before, his target appeared to be a conventional looking snubfighter with an elongated fuselage and a pair of aft stabilizers. A brief notification flashed, announcing that the computer had identified it as a Drexl-class starfighter. Information about that model began to scrawl across part of his HUD. It mostly appeared to be an unremarkable starfighter, though he took note of its high missile capacity. Captain Kurn's voice began to flood through his headset speaker.

"Storm Wing, cut back on your throttles and prepare to receive new orders by squadron."

Stormwrack Five's baritone voice began to seep through the comm waves, "Looks like the bogeys are retreating."

"Good," said Stormwrack Lead, "let's hope they don't come back with friends..."

"Stormwrack Squadron," started Kurn, "return to base and prepare to rearm with conventional warheads. You will be on standby until we leave the system."

"Acknowledged, Chevalier de Troy," replied the woman, "Stormwrack Squadron returning to base..."

 

[Gir Quee]

Bridge, Deliverance-class Heavy Carrier Chevalier de Troy, Ithull System

Kurn briefly excused himself to talk to one of the sensor operators, leaving Gir alone at the holo-tank. The blonde man continued to watch the saucer-like craft and its cohorts zip through space. He had have-expected it to be a feint or a lure, but as time went on, he decided that most likely was a full retreat. If they had any nearby reinforcements, they would have come in by now. But yet they were oddly confident on approaching our starfighters in force...The ship's captain cleared his throat, alerting Gir that he had returned.

"Their exit vector suggests that they're heading towards the Aweris system," informed Captain Kurn.

He nodded in acknowledgement, just as the craft began to retreat into hyperspace. The Aweris system...home of Taboon...and several Hutt crime lords. We could be looking at Hutt mercenaries or allies then. Perhaps they saw this as an incursion on their turf? Not usually powerful in small groups...but they could be a problem in numbers...He turned his attention back to the limp form of the juvenile colossus wasp.

"How long will it take us to secure it?"

"Half hour," said the other man, "we've cleared out the gunship hangar area to hold the creature."

"And where on the gunships now?"

"Attached to the external airlocks. Not the best solution, I know. But the simplest and the quickest."

"It'll work," said Gir, "we won't likely need to any maintenance on them anytime soon."

 

[Gir Quee]

The two men briefly chatted about combat preparations before each went to their own stations. As they did so, the carrier cruised through space towards the sedated colossus wasp. It appeared that the other wasps had continued onward to their nest after their encounter with the Lucerne Labs starfighters. But that didn't give Gir any cause for relief as he slumped into his seat and powered up his console.

He would have preferred knowing where they were instead of being on edge if they decided to show up again. While the wasps had small chance of making contact with the starfighters, the Chevalier de Troy was a much larger and slower target for them. Not only would it be nearly impossible for the warship to dodge their attacks, but it also seemed likely that such an attack would do a lot of damage. And if it latches onto us, there is next to no chance of jumping away from it with that much mass...though perhaps the environment in hyperspace would be too hostile for it? Gir wasn't aware of the exact biology of spacegoing species, especially when it came to the exact effects of radiation, but he somehow doubted that it would be killed by normally existing radiation. I'll have to more research on that thought if we have to come back here again. An icon on his console flashed, notifying him that the gunnery team was tractoring the sedated creature into the lowest hangar deck.

"The target is onboard," reported the gunnery chief.

"Nav, let's get working on plotting a course out of here then," said Gir, "Chief Tobias, if you will let me know when the target is secured, I would appreciate that."

"You got it sir."

Gir flipped through several screens on his console to pull up the holo-camera footage from the lowest hangar. The massive creature barely fit into the room because of its massive height. Given the angle of its wings, Gir wondered if they had damaged the creature either in the fight or when they had dragged it onboard. But it doesn't look like a serious wound...hopefully it's something that we can fix without serious treatment...

 

[Gir Quee]

Several hours later...

Gir had taken up residence in a set of cramped quarters normally designated for use by lower-level marines on government operated vessels. But the Labs operated the Chevalier de Troy with a fraction of a normal security complement, with left several dozen rooms open for use. Some were used as guests cabins while some saw use a storerooms for various items. He opened a simple metal locker to pull out his portable, which he promptly plugged into a data socket and a peripheral holo-projector. The whole assemblage began to hum as Gir began to loosen his duty clothes. A prompt appeared on his computer, which caused the man to tap in a variety of codes long since committed to his memory from simple, repetitive use. Light began to coalesce above the holo-projector, revealing Salmakk tinkering with some object at his work station on Hast.

"Is now a good time?"

Salmakk abruptly spun about to face Gir as he set the object done.

"I forgot that I left this channel on," admitted the mon calamari, scooching forward to get closer to the holo-camera, "I didn't know when you were going to be on. How goes the hunt?"

"We're coming back with a live specimen," said Gir, "we have a 2-1B administering sedatives and monitoring it. Some of the techs have projected a stasis field around it, which should further help preserve it, though I'm not sure if we should place any hope in that technology. But hopefully it will still be in good shape when we return to Hast. How are your things on Hast?"

"Well, mostly. I managed to convince the rest of the team that a composite material is what we should be aiming for."

Gir raised an eyebrow, "That easily? I talked to Azira on my way here. She seemed to have some opinions on the matter..."

His adopted brother rolled his shoulders backwards, which suggested to Gir that he felt some pride about that matter. But Azira is not one easily outmaneuvered in the social arena...I wonder what really happened...

"I incorporated one of her key ideas into it, and Wern managed to pry her some more with his enthusiasm about culturing coral for it."

"Yorik coral?"

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir watched as Salmakk hesitated. Azira got more out of him than he's wanting to admit...or perhaps I should say more than he knows. The mon calamari twirled a datapad stylus in his webbed hand for a second.

"Not pure Yorik coral," said the Salmakk, setting the stylus down, "technically, it's Ivrooy coral that Wern spliced with some genes from a Yorik sample."

"Ivrooy..." repeated Gir, "I don't think that I've heard of it."

"It's perhaps the most common commercially grown coral," said Salmakk, "the genetic code is really well understood...or that's at least what Wern and Azira were saying. Wern and his lurrian friends altered something about its metabolism and the architecture in the structures that they build."

"So we'll get something a little nicer looking than a coral skipper?" joshed the man.

Salmakk grumbled. His adopted brother was perhaps one of the open-minded mon calamari engineers when it came to his people's long-held tradition of holding starships as works of art. Salmakk could not only see his people's starships as works of pure aesthetic beauty, but also see a beauty of simplicity and adaptability in a Corellian freighter. He could even see beauty of applied principles in their enemy's warships. But despite this all, Salmakk seemed to hold Vong biotechnology, including its starships, with a disgust beyond that of even most die-hard anti-Vong fanatics.

"Don't them any ideas," warned Salmakk, "I'm not sure if I could handle such a concept. What we have is a fine working concept, and one that I think will be far more marketable than that...sort of thing."

 

[Gir Quee]

"How is that?"

"Many peoples get turned off by the concept of living and working inside another being. Most people think of starships, and they immediately think of gleaming metal hulls, whether its the latest Nabooian yacht or a monolithic star destroyer. But metal isn't the only option available for starship use," said the mon calamari, "and most people think nothing of using metal ceramic hybrids on starships, like ferroceramic."

"So there is going to be a metal involved in this?"

Salmakk nodded, "But that's really a secondary concern compared to developing the ceramic-like material. The benefit of using organic materials is cost and ease of acquisition. Things can be made to grow in any number of places. Metals don't just grow anywhere. And if you do find metal, you have to invest it getting it out of wherever it happens to be."

Gir frowned, "But living things have their own requirements for growth. So if something is to be bio-engineered to be a potentially widespread source of materials, it must be hardy enough to live in a spectrum of broadly similar environments."

"Precisely," said Salmakk, "and such environments would ideally be either underutilized or cheap to acquire. Preferably, we would want both...but that's starting to get into Wern and Azira's area."

"So what are contenting yourself to do for now?"

 

[Gir Quee]

"Narrowing down the list of metals to use in the matrix that will hold the organic-derived material," said Salmakk, "something a little bit more normal. Materials Science is a branch that only know the basics of, but with the computer programs and the help of Tejk, I am certain that we can come up with a solid, basic choice that will appeal to most of us."

Gir nodded, "Nothing super exotic then?"

Salmakk shook his head, "Looking for something pretty common and simple to produce. If we end up with a pricey or rare metal, that would detract from most of the mass growth elements and cost-effectiveness that we can capitalize on with the biologically derived materials."

"Things like durasteel then?"

Salmakk hesitated, "Durasteel is actually a surprisingly complex alloy because of its use of trace ores. I am certain we could use it if need be, and probably we would be able to replicate it in the molecular furnaces, but that's an added extra chokepoint that I would rather have us not deal with. Right now, ferrocarbon, aluminum, and laminasteel are on the short list...but more research, modelling, and practical research needs to be done."

A buzzing sound emanated off to the side of Salmakk's holo-cam. The mon calamari leaned forward towards Gir to reach out and grab something. As Salmakk leaned backwards again, Gir saw that he now had a datapad in hand. Must be an alarm or message then. Salmakk's bulbous eyes briefly glossed over the tablet's contents.

"You will have to excuse me brother, but I apparently am needed to help smooth over some questions about the coral growth sites with city management."

"Good luck."

 

[Gir Quee]

Salmakk's holo quickly faded away, casting his borrowed quarters in an ethereal, cyan glow. He glanced at his wrist chrono. Still too early to hit the rack if I'm going to be staying on Hast time. But what really is there to do? Boredom had been a familiar companion to him when he was a younger officer, but it had been years since he had felt it after rising up the ranks. He leaned back in his sturdiplast chair. And I don't have the options available now that I had back then... Or do I? The blonde man tapped a button on his comlink.

"Captain Kurn?"

"Yes?"

"Sorry to bother you at this hour," began Gir, "but does the Chevalier de Troy maintain the library section like the ones which we sold to the Republic?"

"The room is there, but it's not stocked with reading materials. We have technical manuals, basic occupational and professional texts, and a datapack that Captain Yres accidentally left behind before he transferred out of the company."

"What's in the datapack?"

"I have not looked to closely," admitted Kurn, "most of it appears to be ship logs from when the ship just launched, but there seem to be some historical texts about ship analysis."

"Thank you Captain, that will be all."

With that, Gir abandoned his quarters and headed towards the ship's library room.

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir encountered few people as he walked through the corridors of the Chevalier de Troy; a recent shift change had seen most of the crew hit the racks, leaving only elements of Red crew actually working. The sheer lack of activity reminded him of tales that he had heard of about ghost ships. After several turns and a short turbolift ride, Gir found himself approaching a simple vertical blast door. After he inserted his code cylinder into the door's control panel, it whisked open to reveal a rectangular room about twice the size of his borrowed quarters. Built-in metal shelves, mostly bereft of any actual content, lined the walls as if to surround the handful of cheap, sturdiplast chairs and reading tables that occupied the center of the room. This seems rather unappealing...but I suppose that it is at least quiet and private. He began to sift through the shelves, eventually running across a stack of datacards labelled with Captain Yres name. He began to flip through them, noting such titles as The Battle of Druckenwell, Astronavigational Exploits during the Galactic Civil War, and Principles of Leadership: Captain's Edition. He had passing familiarity or knowledge of most of these literary works, but one particularly appealed to him: Design of Hull Structure: A Practical Guide to Architecture and Materials.

"Looks promising," murmured Gir to himself, "perhaps even useful for understanding what Reshmar and Azira are planning to do with their new project..."

The man from Hast plugged the card into his portable before settling into one of the skeletal sturdiplast chairs. He briefly scrolled through the biographies of the long dead authors, noting that one of them had been a CEC engineer while another had been renowned Given mathematician. Gir quickly skipped past the foreword and went straight to the table of contents, which then redirected him further into the document. He began to read:

Selection of materials is arguably of equal importance to the architecture of the vessel, as both must not be envisioned separately. Instead, they should be viewed but part of one system which keeps the occupants and payload of the craft intact from the dangers of space travel. While it is important to focus on and perfect details of the materials used for optimization of both cost and performance, never forget this larger picture. A simple change of an alloy can result in the need for a complete redesign of a ship's entire substructure...

 

[Gir Quee]

Some days later...

The holo of Salmakk rose up on Gir's desk. By the holo's angle and manner of rotation, Gir could tell that Salmakk was being recorded by a hovering holocam. Which means that he's probably not in his office. He briefly glanced at his wrist chrono, noting that it would be exceptionally early if Salmakk was on Hast.

"Where are you at?" asked Gir.

"Gessbrilbak," said Salmakk, beginning to walk on what appeared to be sand, "Wern and Azira managed to get the permits to start the initial coral aquaculturing here started. They are in the process of bringing the first full sized growth samples to surface."

"I take it the permits on Hast are still going through the bureaucracy?"

The mon calamari nodded, "It pays to have the executive leadership interested in your projects."

"Koorht probably saw it has more jobs, and a chance to thumb his Hast neighbors in the process."

"Quite possible," said Salmakk, "but Hast will come around in time. It couldn't easily ignore its own sons. I have been reading your commentary on work with interest. What have you been reading?"

"An older text on hull design," said the man, "hopefully I haven't been too much of a bother with my writings and questions."

"No, I'm glad that you have started to getting us to think about how the material properties will translate to actual hull design considerations. It's already made me realize that aluminum alloys will not be solid choices for the metal matrix, at least not for what we are currently envision Chimera Composite to be. Has the Wasp's health improved?"

 

[Gir Quee]

"It's still sickly," replied Gir, "or so our 2-1B says. We rigged up a slow-drip feeding tube that the droid has been using to infuse some sustenance and medications, but ultimately I think it will have to come out of sedation to be viable much longer."

Salmakk cocked his head to the side, "Will it last long enough to bring it to Gessbrilbak?"

Gir shook his head, "I doubt it. I think we'll have to rig up some sort of restraining device and release it for a little bit. Maybe take a day's stop to let it recover somewhat before continuing on."

"I suppose it can't be avoided," murmured the mon calamari, "but that's not why I bothered to get you on the Net. I wanted to show you Wern's work live as we recover the first batch, just because of its importance. Their repulsor sub is surfacing just now. G6, change mode to landscape."

The holo-cam field of vision suddenly widened, shrinking down Salmakk and revealing the landscape. Gir could make out the black sand beach and the gently lapping waves of the world's seas. More importantly to him, Gir could see a cylindrical, blue object plowing through the seas towards a dock. Salmakk accelerated to break into awkward jog towards the dock, with his remote holo-cam trailing behind him. But as the mon calamari stepped onto the dock, he quickly decelerated into a fast walk as Azira stepped off the submarine.

"Where is Wern?"

"Still looking at some fish that began to form up in a school around us as we approached the dock," said Azira, suddenly turning attention upwards towards the holo-cam, "What is this?"

"Hi Azira," said Gir.

Her fur rippled, which Gir guessed was an indication of surprise.

"Hello Gir...or should I say, Mister President. I hope you won't be too disappointed..."

The man blinked, "Should I be?"

 

[Gir Quee]

"The coral growth is not what we expected."

Gir leaned back in his chair, "How is that?"

"We don't know yet, exactly...anyways," revealed Azira, "but Wern thinks it has something to do with the sediment content that gets stirred up by the local waves. In any case, structurally, they look fine, but their growth is stunted. Wern thinks it has something to do with the pores, at least how he explained it."

Salmakk offered a rare frown, "The pores just took in too much? Or took in a wrong substance?"

"Don't know."

"Why does the coral have pores?" asked Gir.

Azira's fur rippled as she considered to explain it, "All corals filter sea water of certain minerals and elements as part of their metabolic processes. They need sodium ions, calcium, and other electrolyte needs just as we do, even if they survive off photosynthesis. Some elements that we don't want could potentially have been absorbed through that process, but I think that it could be something else. Yorik coral is known to absorb materials that it is growing on and bring it up through its skeleton gradually. It's almost like recycling its surroundings to make its exoskeleton stronger. At least in the ideal world."

"Unless it dragged something into it that did the opposite," guessed Gir, "a toxic metal, or something like that?"

"Could also be organic," said Azira, "perhaps a disease or bacteria. Many Ivrooy corals have been cultured for so long in artificially controlled environments that it is possible that its immune system has devolved. It might not have any resistance to any naturally occurring pathogens."

"But these immunities could be acquired by splicing in the genetics from a native coral species, couldn't they?"

Salmakk grumbled, "If it was only that easy...truthfully the complexity of genetic engineering makes me wonder sometimes if this has been a wise course of action. That's theoretically possible, if their genetic make-up is similar enough, though possibly another option would be to acquire some traces of whatever that hostile organism is and inject it's fractured genetic code into the cultures."

"Like a vaccine."

"Yes. Oh, here comes the expert now..."

 

[Gir Quee]

Wern loosely strolled into view with a mesh satchel slung over his shoulder. While Gir had not fully learned the intricacies of lurrian body language, he knew enough to posit that Wern did not consider the setback to be as serious as Salmakk or Azira did. He unslung the bag to pull out a roughly hewn piece of the coral. Gir had expected the coral to branch out much like the limb of the tree or appear like a roundish blob, but the hybrid appeared to be a wavy, green and black sheet. The lurrian gingerly handed the object to Salmakk, who began to inspect it.

"What happened?"

"The deeper sediment is more alkaline than predicted," said the geneticist, "so as the coral grew through the shallow layers, it suddenly had to compensate for the shift in acid-base balance."

"It became sick then," guessed Gir.

"Where is Mister Quee?" said the lurrian, looking around the dock.

"He's watching and talking through the remote holo-cam," said Salmakk, gesturing at the floating orb, "I wanted him to see how we are progressing with the project."

The lurrian nodded and stared into the holo-camera, "Sick may be a layman's term for it, but it is...not an urgent sickness. The alkalinity is something that they can compensate for in the long-term, but it will slow their growth rate down, and eventually kill them quicker than if they had been living in a more ideal environment."

"So what is the solution?"

"I will adjust the pH range that is creature can live in," said the lurrian, "which will cause it to be not as efficient in growth compared to the planned environment, but it will be more hardy. You were looking for long-term harvests, were you not, Mister Quee?"

"Yes, that was the thought. A plant and forget about it approach."

"It will be done. I only need five more samples to make the adjustments necessarily," said the lurrian, "Mister Salmakk, you can use the rest of the sub's load for your testing."