to hear this theory," Bronach practically sneered.
"Consider this — Let us assume for a moment that my race is technologically superior to all other races in the Alliance." At this statement Bronack huffed out a short burst of air which Falnath ignored.
"In fact, let's assume that we are so far advanced that we are capable of doing what most other races would consider as the impossible. Despite our advanced level of technology we are non-aggressive and we try to live in harmony with the other races of the Alliance but we do not share our technology. How would Humans and the other members of the Alliance react in this case?"
Scarboro considered the question for a moment and was the first to reply. "There would be many that would want to have your technology for themselves in order to give them a technological edge against their enemies. If you were unwilling to share it, your ships and people would be harassed or worse, attacked, in order to get the technology."
"A most accurate conclusion," Falnath replied.
She shifted her considerable bulk out of the corner of the room to a position closer to the conference table causing several people to scramble to make a path for her. "The end result would be that our race would have no choice but to either flee the area or eliminate all other inferior life-forms in order for us to live in peace. Being as advanced as we are, the second alternative would be rejected.”
"The first alternative is equally difficult because no matter where we tried to go the other races would pursue us. A better alternative would be to either hide our existence or flee in secret using the ships and technology of the inferior species around us. I believe that this is what happened to the builders of the stasis device.”
"My belief is that the device was being transported to another location and something happened to damage the ship. If a distress signal had been sent, there would have been a good chance that a member of another race might respond and find the stasis device. It would make more sense for the crew to enter the stasis chamber and wait. When the ship did not arrive at its destination, another would be sent to investigate and thus a member of their own race would eventually arrive to rescue them. This, for reasons we can not determine, did not happen and the crew are still in stasis."
"Why would such a race need to transport a stasis machine anyway? What purpose would it serve?" Skip asked.
"I cannot answer your question," Falnath replied. "A stasis device would allow an individual who has been injured to be transported to a more advanced facility to receive care, or to store a sample of some short lived material while it is being moved to a research lab. There are many potential uses for such a device. This device, however, is capable of maintaining the stasis for thousands of years. If I were to make a guess I would say the device was meant to be used to place something or someone in stasis for many centuries. To what purpose I will not attempt to guess."
"Sounds like a plausible explanation to me," Scarboro said. "How do we go about verifying it? Do we know how to turn the thing off?"
"That is still being looked into. Simply interrupting the power to the device could do it. There are other scenarios, however, which predict that interrupting the power could result in a catastrophic shutdown resulting in an explosion of quite titanic proportions. We are dealing with a technology which we do not even dimly understand yet. Eventually we will have to try something because as long as the device is operating we cannot move it to a better research facility."
"Huh?" Stricklen said. Then remembering he corrected himself. "Oh — I understand. The gravity field is preventing us from forming a stardrive field. That means we are stuck here until we figure out how to turn it off. That could be a problem because we might have some uninvited company soon."
"What do you mean?" Falnath asked,
"Consider this — Let us assume for a moment that my race is technologically superior to all other races in the Alliance." At this statement Bronack huffed out a short burst of air which Falnath ignored.
"In fact, let's assume that we are so far advanced that we are capable of doing what most other races would consider as the impossible. Despite our advanced level of technology we are non-aggressive and we try to live in harmony with the other races of the Alliance but we do not share our technology. How would Humans and the other members of the Alliance react in this case?"
Scarboro considered the question for a moment and was the first to reply. "There would be many that would want to have your technology for themselves in order to give them a technological edge against their enemies. If you were unwilling to share it, your ships and people would be harassed or worse, attacked, in order to get the technology."
"A most accurate conclusion," Falnath replied.
She shifted her considerable bulk out of the corner of the room to a position closer to the conference table causing several people to scramble to make a path for her. "The end result would be that our race would have no choice but to either flee the area or eliminate all other inferior life-forms in order for us to live in peace. Being as advanced as we are, the second alternative would be rejected.”
"The first alternative is equally difficult because no matter where we tried to go the other races would pursue us. A better alternative would be to either hide our existence or flee in secret using the ships and technology of the inferior species around us. I believe that this is what happened to the builders of the stasis device.”
"My belief is that the device was being transported to another location and something happened to damage the ship. If a distress signal had been sent, there would have been a good chance that a member of another race might respond and find the stasis device. It would make more sense for the crew to enter the stasis chamber and wait. When the ship did not arrive at its destination, another would be sent to investigate and thus a member of their own race would eventually arrive to rescue them. This, for reasons we can not determine, did not happen and the crew are still in stasis."
"Why would such a race need to transport a stasis machine anyway? What purpose would it serve?" Skip asked.
"I cannot answer your question," Falnath replied. "A stasis device would allow an individual who has been injured to be transported to a more advanced facility to receive care, or to store a sample of some short lived material while it is being moved to a research lab. There are many potential uses for such a device. This device, however, is capable of maintaining the stasis for thousands of years. If I were to make a guess I would say the device was meant to be used to place something or someone in stasis for many centuries. To what purpose I will not attempt to guess."
"Sounds like a plausible explanation to me," Scarboro said. "How do we go about verifying it? Do we know how to turn the thing off?"
"That is still being looked into. Simply interrupting the power to the device could do it. There are other scenarios, however, which predict that interrupting the power could result in a catastrophic shutdown resulting in an explosion of quite titanic proportions. We are dealing with a technology which we do not even dimly understand yet. Eventually we will have to try something because as long as the device is operating we cannot move it to a better research facility."
"Huh?" Stricklen said. Then remembering he corrected himself. "Oh — I understand. The gravity field is preventing us from forming a stardrive field. That means we are stuck here until we figure out how to turn it off. That could be a problem because we might have some uninvited company soon."
"What do you mean?" Falnath asked,
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