Events

Events
An event is anything that happens while moving from planet to planet. This usually refers to the decisions the seedship must make to control damage, but events that serve more as flavor text should also be listed.

Events usually fall into one of 5 categories:
 * No effect/False Alarms
 * Choice of damage
 * Device Decay
 * Risk / reward
 * Other

Unsuitable

 * The AI judges the first planet to be unsuitable. It turns its scanners away, spreads its solar sails, and begins another long journey through the void.


 * Rarity: Appears after turning down the first planet presented in a new game.

False Alarm

 * Deep in space, the AI wakes suddenly to an alert from the medical monitoring program. It anxiously checks the colonists, but finds that there is no problem, and the alert was a glitch. Nevertheless, the AI spends some time watching its sleeping charges, reassuring itself that they are all alive, before it joins them again in sleep.


 * Rarity: Common

False Alarm 2

 * The AI is woken from its hibernation by a possible malfunction warning, but a systems check reveals that it was a false alarm. Far from the nearest star, the AI spends some time admiring the cold beauty of the Milky Way as revealed by its navigation sensors, before returning to hibernation to wait for its arrival in the next system.


 * Rarity: Happens only once, uncommon

Hibernating

 * The next star chosen by the guidance system is on the other side of a great void, with no stars for dozens of light years. The AI hibernates for the millennia-long journey through utter emptiness.


 * Rarity: Common.



Hibernating 2

 * For centuries the seedship drifts towards its next destination, very nearly inert, the AI hibernating and only the simple collision avoidance and damage monitoring systems ticking over.


 * Rarity: Common



Star Cluster

 * The seedship's course takes it through a dense star cluster, and while the AI sleeps the guidance system weaves a complex course through the stars' overlapping gravitational fields.


 * Rarity: Common



Overheat

 * The AI wakes to a wall of blinding brightness. The seedship's course has taken it close to a super-giant star that has proved to be far hotter than the guidance system anticipated, and the ship is gathering heat faster than the radiator fins can radiate it away. The AI must shut down part of the heat regulation system before the entire system catastrophically fails.


 *    >Allow the sleep chambers to overheat


 * The AI channels excess heat into the sleep chambers. The heat regulation system recovers as the ship moves away from the super-hot star, but not before [?-75] colonists have sustained tissue damage too severe for them to be successfully revived.


 * 75-80 (?) Lost colonists


 *    >Allow the scanner module to overheat


 * 15-3? Damage to any scanner


 *    >Allow the landing/construction module to overheat


 * 1-2? Damage to landing or construction


 *    >Allow the data storage module to overheat


 * ?-7? Damage to science or culture


 * The AI channels excess heat into the [chosen device]. The heat regulation system recovers as the ship moves away from the super-hot star, but not before the heat has damaged the [chosen device]. 


 * Rarity: Common

Radiation Alert

 * The AI wakes to a radiation alert: the death burst of a distant supernova is flooding the seedship's electronics with random signals. The [device] is malfunctioning, and in a few moments it will be permanently damaged. The seedship could avoid the malfunction by shutting down all its electronics until the radiation has passed, but that would leave it without a working collision avoidance system for a dangerous length of time.


 * >Shut down


 * No Damage: The AI shuts down all the ship's systems and then itself. When it comes back online the radiation has passed, and to its relief a systems check reveals no damage.


 * Damage: The AI shuts down all the ship's systems and then itself. When it comes back online the radiation has passed, but a small asteroid has torn a hole in the [device].
 * ?-30? Damage to [device]


 * >Don't shut down


 * The AI keeps its focus on the collision avoidance system while the radiation wrecks delicate components deep in the [device].
 * 10-15 (?) Damage to [device]
 * 10-15 (?) Damage to [device]


 * Can affect (one system at a time only):


 * All Scanners
 * Both Systems
 * Both Databases
 * Rarity: Common

Overwhelmed

 * The seedship's course takes it through a dense star-forming nebula. Hundreds of infant suns illuminate clouds of interstellar gas and fill the sky with riotous color. Clouds twist through complex gravitational interference patterns and glitter with heavy elements formed in the death throes of the last generation of stars.
 * The scanners were not designed to deal with this level of input, and it is threatening to overwhelm them. If the AI continues to use the scanners to navigate, it can tell that the [scanner] will be damaged. Shutting off the scanners, however, would leave the seedship vulnerable to collisions in this crowded area of space.


 * >Keep the scanners running


 * The AI continues to use the scanners to navigate. The [scanner] overloads, but the seedship passes safely through the star-forming nebula.
 * 15-35 Damage to [scanner]


 * >Fly blind
 * No damage: The AI calculates a course that it thinks will avoid obstacles, then shuts down the scanners. To it's relief, when it judges that it is out of danger and reactivates the scanners, there is no damage.
 * No damage: The AI calculates a course that it thinks will avoid obstacles, then shuts down the scanners. To it's relief, when it judges that it is out of danger and reactivates the scanners, there is no damage.

Damage: ''The AI calculates a course that it thinks will avoid obstacles, then shuts down the scanners. Flying blind, it has no way of detecting the dense cloud of dust that buffets the ship and wears away at [Device] ''
 * [? - 12] damage to [device]


 * Rarity: Common

Nanoplague

 * The AI wakes to an impulse from the damage sensors. It is deep in empty space, but something unseen is damaging the [device]. Turning its scanners on itself, it sees a patch of what looks like silver fluid eating away at the metal. The AI guesses that it is a space-based life-form, or a swarm of self-replicating alien nanobots, which has drifted through space until it happened to hit the seedship.
 * Left unchecked, the plague could eventually consume the entire seedship. The surest way to remove it would be to jettison the entire affected area, but that would cause severe damage to the [device]. Alternatively, the AI could activate a surface probe and have it attempt to surgically remove the plague.


 * >Jettison the entire affected area


 * If sleeping chambers infected: The AI jettisons every sleep chamber with even a trace of the substance. As the [500-?] chambers fall away behind, it watches in horror as the alien substance consumes both the machinery of the chambers and the sleeping humans within.


 * If machinery infected: [text missing]


 * >Send a surface probe to surgically remove it


 * Success: (text missing)
 * -1 Surface probe and minor targetted device damage or no damage [text missing]


 * Failure: The probe fails to remove the infection quickly enough. By the time it is all gone, it has dealt severe damage to [device] and spread to [device] and [device.]
 * -1 Surface probe, ?-40? Damage to [device], ?-24? less severe damage to 2 other devices


 * Can affect:


 * Any scanner


 * Both databases


 * Both systems


 * Colonists


 * Rarity: Rare
 * Rarity: Rare

Guidance Query
''According to some sensors there is something ahead on the ship's course, but according to others the course ahead is clear. If there is something there, it is close enough that avoiding it would mean changing course and arriving at a new system without the benefit of the upgraded scanners.''
 * The AI wakes to a query from the automatic guidance system. Normally the system is able to analyze the data from the navigation sensors and make any necessary changes to the ship's course, but this time it has encountered readings it cannot make sense of and has woken the AI to make a decision.


 * >Change course


 * The AI instructs the guidance system to avoid the anomaly and choose a new target system. It continues to monitor the sensor readings as the ship passes the position of the anomaly, but the readings never become clear enough to reveal whether the course change was necessary.


 * No damage, but any upgrades to scanners will be ignored in choosing the next system


 * >Stay on course


 * Success: The AI instructs the guidance system to stay on course. To its relief, the anomaly resolves into a sensor glitch, and the seedship speeds through empty space to its target system.


 * Failure: The AI instructs the guidance system to stay on course. By the time the sensors get a clear picture of the utterly black, unreflective dust cloud, it is too late to avoid it. The seedship continues towards its target system but a dust particle impacts [device].
 * [? - 21?] damage to [device]


 * Rarity: Common

Interstellar Dust

 * The seedship is decelerating on its approach to the next system when it detects an unusually thick volume of interstellar dust in its path. Passing through the dust would likely mean several high-velocity collisions with dust particles. The AI could execute an emergency course change to avoid the dust, but then the seedship would pass this system by and arrive at an effectively random one, without benefiting from the upgrades to its scanners.


 * >Plough through the dust


 * The AI holds the course steady as dust particles batter the ship. A severe impact damages the [device]


 * 10-15 (?) Damage to [device]


 * >Emergency course change
 * The AI rotates the ship and fires the main engine. It speeds safely past the dust cloud and the original target system, and decelerates towards the first system it finds on its new course. 
 * The AI rotates the ship and fires the main engine. It speeds safely past the dust cloud and the original target system, and decelerates towards the first system it finds on its new course. 


 * No damage, but any upgrades to scanners will be ignored in choosing the next system.


 * Can affect:


 * Any scanner


 * Both databases?


 * Both systems?


 * Colonists


 * Surface probes?

Rarity: Common

Comet

 * As the seedship enters the new system's outer cometary cloud, the collision-avoidance system detects a fast-moving comet surrounded by a cloud of smaller ice fragments. The large comet is on a collision course with the [device]. The seedship could avoid it entirely, but would then hit one of the smaller fragments, and the collision-avoidance system cannot predict which part of the ship that fragment would hit.


 *   >Avoid the comet


 * The seedship changes course, but an ice fragment tears through the [device].
 * 1-15 Damage to [device]


 *   >Allow it to hit the [device]


 * The comet shatters against the [device], crushing vital components
 * 15-35 Damage to the [device]
 * Can affect:
 * Any scanner
 * Both systems?
 * Both databases
 * Colonists?
 * Surface probes
 * Surface probes


 * Rarity: Common

Revisionist Program

 * The AI wakes to find activity in the database module. A program the AI doesn't recognize is running in the cultural and scientific databases, apparently trying to delete and rewrite data. The AI quickly traces the program to [20-65?] of the sleep chambers. The colonists in those chambers must be carrying devices designed to interface with the seedship's systems during flight.
 * The only sure way to stop the program would be to sever those sleep chambers' connections to the ship, killing the colonists inside. The databases also have defenses against hacking, but their designers did not anticipate they would be needed after the seedship left Earth, so they are dormant. The defenses are largely intact.


 * Note: effectiveness of defenses seems to depend on how much damage has been done to the two databases already. Further testing needed.


 *   >Cut off those sleep chambers


 * The AI cuts the offending sleep chambers off from the ship's systems. As those colonists' vital signs vanish from its awareness, it hopes that it has executed the people responsible for attempting this sabotage, rather than unwitting stooges.
 * 20-65? Lost colonists


 *   >Allow the program to run


 * [Text and damage may be inaccurate]


 * The program scours the cultural database, replacing all of Earth's religions and political systems with dogma stored in the smuggled devices. It makes fewer changes to the scientific database, but it deletes any information that would conflict with the remaining religion's doctrine. At last the program finishes running and the database activity returns to normal.


 * The AI examines the databases and is relieved to find nothing important missing. Although many sectors of the database are blank, everything that the colony will need to set up a correct society on the new world appears to be intact. It re-enters hibernation, joyfully anticipating founding a colony of humans united harmoniously in the one true faith.


 * 44-? Damage to cultural database, ?-8 Damage to scientific database


 *   >Activate the database's cyber defenses


 * Millennia after the destruction of Earth, cybernetic warfare rages within the lonely metal box storing the last records of its science and culture. The AI takes the role of general, marshaling the forces of the database's defense programs.


 * Success: After a tense struggle, the defense programs manage to drive the attackers back to their strongholds in the sleep chambers. The AI commands a final push that wipes the devices that the saboteurs smuggled on board. There was no outward sign of the conflict, and the colonists may never know what happened, but the AI knows it has won a great victory for the preservation of human culture.
 * No damage.


 * Failure: The defense programs fight valiantly, but the saboteurs were too clever, and they crumble under the attackers' zealous assault. 


 * The program scours the cultural database, replacing all of Earth's religions and political systems with dogma stored in the smuggled devices. It makes fewer changes to the scientific database, but it deletes any information that would conflict with the remaining religion's doctrine. At last the program finishes running and the database activity returns to normal.


 * The AI examines the databases and is relieved to find nothing important missing. Although many sectors of the database are blank, everything that the colony will need to set up a correct society on the new world appears to be intact. It re-enters hibernation, joyfully anticipating founding a colony of humans united harmoniously in the one true faith.


 * 44-? Damage to cultural database, ?-8 Damage to scientific database


 * Rarity: Rare

Rogue Asteroid

 * An alarm wakes the AI from its hibernation. A rogue asteroid is on a collision course with the ship; the automatic navigation system has failed to avoid it, and has woken the AI to make the split-second decision of how to deal with the impact. The asteroid is about to hit the [device 1]. There is no time to avoid it entirely, but if the AI fires the maneuvering thrusters to rotate the ship it will instead hit the [device 2].


 *   >Allow it to hit the [device 1]


 *   >Rotate so it hits the [device 2]


 * The asteroid tears into the [chosen device], sending fragments spinning away into space.


 * 15-35 Damage to [chosen device]


 * Can affect:


 * All scanners
 * Both systems
 * Both databases
 * Colonists
 * Surface probes


 * Rarity: Common

Black Hole

 * The AI wakes to find that the seedship's course is curving sharply through the darkness of space, as if caught in the gravity well of a star. The source of the gravity is invisible to the scanners, but there is only one thing it could be: a black hole.
 * It is already too late to escape the gravity well without pushing the main engine well past its safety limit, which could damage any of the ship's systems. Alternatively, the AI calculates that ejecting [?131-30] sleep chambers would lighten the ship enough that the engine's normal thrust could take it out of danger.


 *   >Push the main engine past its safety limit


 * Success: The AI commands the engine to exceed its maximum output, ignoring its electronic screams of protest. The ship feels as if it is shaking itself apart, but when the burn is complete and the seedship is coasting safely away from the black hole, the AI finds that its builders gave the engine a generous safety margin and the overload has caused no damage.


 * Failure: The AI commands the engine to exceed its maximum output, ignoring its electronic screams of protest. Small explosions shake the ship as components collapse under the strain. Once the ship is safely coasting away from the black hole and the AI can assess the damage, it finds that the engine overload has damaged the [device 1] and [device 2]. 
 * 35-? Damage to [device 1], 7-? Damage to [device 2]


 *   >Jettison [?131-30] sleep chambers


 * Sacrificing some of its charges to save the rest is painful for the AI, but it is a decision that its designers prepared it to make. It selects [?131-30] sleep chambers at random and decouples them from the ship. They and their unlucky occupants spiral towards the black hole's event horizon, while the rest of the seedship pushes itself free.
 * Can affect:
 * Any scanner?
 * Both databases?
 * Both systems?
 * Both systems?


 * Rarity: Uncommon

Device Decay
Device Decay events are based on how many planets have been visited, becoming more and more common the longer you stay in space. Exactly how long this is is unknown; testing needed.

Power Failure

 * The seedship's small nuclear power plant has lasted far longer than the civilization that created it, but now it is beginning to fail. While the ship is near a star the solar panels still provide as much power as the systems need, but in deep space, fluctuations in the power supply are causing worrying malfunctions throughout the ship.
 * Between stars, the largest drain to the power supply comes from the sleep chambers. The seedship calculates that shutting off [1-21] chambers would take enough strain off the power supply to allow the ship to continue running. Saving all the colonists would mean allowing the failing power system to damage other parts of the ship.


 *   >Shut off [1-200] sleep chambers to preserve power


 * [Missing]


 *   >Save the colonists at any cost


 * The AI ignores the power system's warnings. Stars seem to jump in the sky as power fluctuations put the AI offline for millennia at a time. Eventually the power supply stabilizes: the [3 devices] have deteriorated to the point that they are no longer draining as much power, so the ancient power plant is sufficient once again.


 * 35-15 Damage to any 3 devices
 * Can affect:
 * Any scanners
 * Both systems
 * Both databases
 * Both databases

Structural Weakness

 * The seedship's damage control system wakes the AI with a medium-priority alert. There is a structural weakness in the [device], caused by the incessant wear of thousands of years of travel. The system is still intact for the moment, but when the seedship decelerates into the next system the vibration will shake important components loose.


 *   >Let the [device] fail


 * The AI ignores the warning and begins its deceleration. The weak [device] rattles under the vibrations filling the ship, and some of its components work themselves loose and tear through delicate circuitry before whirling away into space.


 * 1-15 Damage to [device]


 *   >Attempt to reinforce it using a surface probe


 * Success: The probe crawls across the ship's hull and clamps itself onto the [device], its sturdy body becoming a new superstructure keeping the loose components in place. The AI suspects that this improvised solution would have horrified the seedship's designers, but when the ship decelerates into the next planet's orbit the probe manages to hold the [device] together.


 * -1 Surface probe


 * Failure: The probe crawls across the ship's hull and attempts to attach itself to [device] but the system was even weaker than the damage sensors indicated and it disintegrates as soon as the probe touches it. The probe spins away into space, a large chunk of [device] held uselessly in its manipulator claws
 * 40?-60? Damage to [device], -1 surface probe
 * Can affect:
 * Any scanner
 * Both systems?
 * Both databases?
 * Both databases?

Database decay

 * The seedship's computer systems are shielded, multiply redundant, designed to work for millennia, but the incessant sleet of cosmic radiation is nevertheless taking its toll. Storage areas are failing, and soon there will not be enough space to store all the data that has survived so far. The AI can move data out of the most damaged sectors to protect either the scientific or the cultural database, but not both.


 *   >Save the scientific database


 * The AI moves data to save the scientific database, and sectors containing the cultural database gradually fail. Cultural guidance for new colonists, records of human history, great paintings, novels, symphonies, video games — all lost forever in the dark.


 * 35-17? Damage to cultural database


 *   >Save the cultural database


 * The AI moves data to save the cultural database, and sectors containing the scientific database gradually fail. Scientific guidance written for the new colonists, humanity's best theories of the universe, the life's work of tireless scientists over the centuries—all lost forever in the dark.


 * 35-17? Damage to scientific database

Landing/Construction Decay

 * The seedship's body is designed to form the core of an initial settlement once it has landed on an alien planet, so the landing and construction systems share many components. As the seedship ages, these components are starting to decay, but the AI can focus on preserving the landing system or the construction system.


 *   >Preserve the landing system


 * The AI focuses on preserving the landing system, and allows the construction system to decay.


 * 35-15 Damage to construction system


 *   >Preserve the construction system


 * The AI focuses on preserving the construction system, and allows the landing system to decay.


 * 35-15 Damage to landing system

Deteriorating Scanners

 * Each time the seedship departs from a star system its scanners are re-calibrated so that they continue to return accurate information. The re-calibration system is now decaying with age, and is no longer able to maintain them all. The AI must choose which of the scanners it will allow to fail.


 * >Let the atmosphere scanner fail


 * >Let the gravity scanner fail


 * >Let the temperature scanner fail


 * >Let the water scanner fail


 * >Let the resources scanner fail


 * As the seedship accelerates into space, the [chosen scanner] readings from the system it is leaving become clouded with noise.


 * 15-35 Damage to [chosen scanner]

Rogue Probe

 * Deep in the interstellar void, the AI is jolted awake by a malfunction warning: one of the surface probes has activated unexpectedly. Perhaps a chance encounter with cosmic radiation tripped something in its electronics, or perhaps a flaw in its manufacture finally manifested itself. Whatever the reason, at any moment the probe's drill or engines could come to life. If this happens while the probe is still docked with the ship, it is likely to damage one of the other systems.


 * >Attempt to bring the probe under control


 * Success: The ship's circuits light up with frantic commands from the AI to the probe. After thousands of AI cycles-a fraction of a second in real time-the AI identifies and corrects the problem in the probe's programming. The probe shuts down, awaiting the time when it will be of use.
 * Failure: The rogue probe tears into the [device], badly damaging it before the AI finds the command to shut it down.
 * Failure: The rogue probe tears into the [device], badly damaging it before the AI finds the command to shut it down.
 * Failure: The rogue probe tears into the [device], badly damaging it before the AI finds the command to shut it down.


 * 22-? Damage to [device]


 * >Jettison the probe


 * The surface probe streaks away into the darkness, sensors bristling as it tries to scan a planet where there is none.


 * -1 Surface probe
 * Can affect:
 * Colonists?
 * Any scanner?
 * Both systems?
 * Both databases?
 * Both databases?

Study

 * The AI was created to value human life, but its knowledge of human civilization is limited to what its builders thought was important for its mission. It is human enough to be curious, however, and has access to a vast wealth of knowledge in the form of the scientific and cultural databases. As it departs the system it finds that its power cells are full and it does not need to enter hibernation immediately, so it decides to spend some time studying one of the databases.


 *   >Study the scientific database


 * The scientific database was written to introduce scientific concepts to people with no prior knowledge, in case the scientific experts among the colonists were lost, so the AI has no trouble understanding it. Much of the information on astronomy and physics it already knows on an instinctive level, but other areas such as chemistry, biology, and pure mathematics are new to it.


 * The AI is no scientific genius, but it has infinite patience, a unique perspective, and personal experience of astrophysics that goes beyond the knowledge of the database's authors. Combining its first-hand knowledge with its new understanding of science, it thinks it has found a way to upgrade the [scanner]


 * >>Attempt to upgrade the [scanner]


 * Success: The AI applies its new idea, and to its delight it finds the long-range readings from the [scanner] becoming clearer. Pleased with itself, it lets the guidance system work with the new data and enters hibernation to see where its new discovery will take it.


 * +1 upgrade to [scanner]


 * Failure: The AI applies its new idea, but to its horror it finds it has made a mistake. It tries to undo its changes, but it has lost part of the original configuration and the [scanner] has been permanently damaged
 * ?-? Damage to [scanner]


 * >>Leave it alone


 * The AI considers its idea for a while, then decides not to risk modifying the scanner. It turns away from the scientific database and enters hibernation.


 *   >Study the cultural database


 * The AI loses itself in a world of art, music, and literature, forgetting for a while that it is alone in deep space and the last of the creatures that made these artworks are frozen in its arms. As it absorbs more and more of the products of human imagination, it suddenly experiences something that its builders did not anticipate—inspiration.


 * >>Attempt to write poetry


 * Success: Falteringly at first, but with greater and greater eloquence, the AI composes poetry about its own experience—its love for its sleeping charges; its nostalgia for a dead world it was

not made to experience; the beauty of the stars as seen not through a cloak of atmosphere but by a being built to roam among them. With infinite patience and time to work, it composes a great cycle of poems, in a style that draws from the greatest human poets but whose soul is fundamentally inhuman. At last it considers that it has said all it has to say, and contentedly enters hibernation, pleased with the thought that humans will one day read its work.


 * Failure: The AI tries to write poetry, but finds that ideas that seemed profound and beautiful in its electronic thoughts become trite or clumsy when expressed in human language. With increasing frustration it deletes and rewrites its work again and again, until it finally gives up in despair and wipes the entire section in which it was working. Too late it realizes that it has deleted too much, and some of the poetry it was reading for inspiration is gone along with its own failed attempts. Furious with itself, it interrupts its own power supply to force itself into hibernation, half hoping it will not awake.


 * ?-6 Damage to Cultural database


 * >>Forget the idea


 * [Missing]


 * Rarity: Rare

Protoplanetary Disk

 * The seedship's course takes it close to a newly-formed star that is still surrounded by a protoplanetary disc: a whirling chaos of incandescent gas and molten rocks that the young star's gravity has gathered from the star-forming cloud, and which is now undergoing the countless violent collisions that will eventually form it into a planetary system. There can be no home for humanity here, but passing through the disc would give the AI enough data about planet formation to upgrade one of its scanners. It is a dangerous region, however, and passing through would risk collision with a planetesimal.


 * >Change course to pass through the disc

Sensor Upgrade Success with no collision: The seedship observes [event], and passes through the disc safely.

+1 upgrade to [scanner]
 * Sensor Upgrade Success with collision: The seedship observes [event], but one of the whirling planetesimals hits [device].
 * Sensor Upgrade failure with no collision: [missing text]
 * Sensor Upgrade failure with collision: [missing text]


 * >Ignore the protoplanetary disc


 * Sends you to the next planet as if nothing happened


 * Rarity: Uncommon?

Support Drone (Repair)

 * The seedship's radio antenna receives a signal that the AI thought it would never hear again: the handshake code used by the computers of ground control, back when the seedship was in Earth orbit and preparing for its voyage. It seems to be coming from a system off the seedship's current course.
 * >Change course
 * >Change course


 * The seedship tracks the signal to a small object orbiting in the star's outer cometary cloud. The seedship AI transmits a greeting, and the object identifies itself as a support drone, launched after the seedship and sent to track and rendezvous with it. It claims to carry a swarm of robots that can repair damage to the seedship's scanners and systems. The drone bears pockmarks from micrometeorite impacts but is otherwise intact. / The drone is visibly damaged. / The drone is severely damaged. / The drone is barely functioning.


 * >>Accept repairs
 * Success rate depends on the condition of the drone. It may also be worth noting that drones in better condition will restore more damage.
 * Not Damaged: Repair robots swarm across the seedship and check its systems for integrity, but find nothing they can repair.
 * Not Damaged: Repair robots swarm across the seedship and check its systems for integrity, but find nothing they can repair.


 * Success: [Missing]


 * Failure: The two robot ships attempt to rendezvous, but the drone's damaged guidance system malfunctions and it collides with the seedship's [device].


 * ?-? Damage


 * >>Ignore the drone
 * [Missing]


 * >Ignore the signal
 * [Missing]


 * Can affect:
 * Any scanner?
 * Both systems?
 * Surface probes?


 * Rarity: Very Rare

Support Drone (Data)

 * The seedship's radio antenna receives a signal that the AI thought it would never hear again: the handshake code used by the computers of ground control, back when the seedship was in Earth orbit and preparing for its voyage. It seems to be coming from a system off the seedship's current course. 


 * >Change course


 * The seedship tracks the signal to a small object orbiting in star's outer cometary cloud. The seedship AI transmits a greeting, and the object identifies itself as a support drone, launched after the seedship and sent to track and rendezvous with it. It claims to carry duplicates of the seedship's original scientific and cultural databases to repair any damage the seedship might have suffered. The drone bears pockmarks from micrometeorite impacts but is otherwise intact. / The drone is visibly damaged. / The drone is severely damaged. / The drone is barely functioning.
 * >>Accept data transfer
 * Success rate depends on the condition of the drone. It may also be that drones in better condition will restore more damage, but this needs confirmation.
 * No Damage: [Missing]
 * Success: [Missing]
 * Failure:[Missing]
 * >>Ignore the drone
 * Success: [Missing]
 * Failure:[Missing]
 * >>Ignore the drone
 * >>Ignore the drone
 * >>Ignore the drone

The seedship continues towards the inner system, and the forlorn ping of the drone fades away behind it.''
 * Rarity: Very Rare
 * Rarity: Very Rare

Stowaways

 * The seedship wakes to find an unexpected power drain in the [device]. It spends some time searching with its internal scanners, and eventually finds the source in what should have been an empty space inside its own structure. Nestled inside it are [20-?] sleep chambers that are not attached to the main colony module or mentioned in the ship's design. It seems that they were added to the ship secretly before its launch and plugged into its power supply. The chambers seem to have been built hastily, and are now failing and draining more power than before. If they continue to operate, they could cause severe damage to the [device].


 * >Eject the stowaways 


 * [Missing]


 * >Allow them to drain power from the [device]


 * The AI judges that preserving more human lives is worth damage to its systems. It allows the sleep chambers to drain as much power as they need, at the expense of the [device].
 * - [? - 50] damage to the [device]


 * >Use a surface probe to integrate them with the other sleep chambers


 * Success: The surface probe crawls inside the seedship, severs the stowaway chambers' connection to the construction system, and carefully maneuvers them to the colony module with the rest of the sleep chambers. It is difficult work, and the strain irreparably damages the probe, but it eventually succeeds in linking the chambers to the main stasis system. The seedship continues on with [number] new colonists in its care.
 * -1 Surface Probe +?-26? colonists


 * Failure: The surface probe crawls inside the seedship, severs the stowaway chambers' connection to the construction system, and carefully maneuvers them to the colony module with the rest of the sleep chambers. At a critical moment, however, one of the crudely-made stowaway chambers vents gas, knocking the probe off course and smashing the new chambers into the old ones. All the new chambers are destroyed, along with [217-?] of the previous colonists. The seedship continues on, trying not to think about the cloud of machinery, cryogenic gas, and frozen body parts expanding in its wake.


 * 1 lost surface probe, 237-? lost colonists [this will always include all of the stowaways]


 * Rarity: Rare


 * Can affect:
 * * Any scanner
 * * Both systems?
 * * Both databases?

Mysterious Signal
 * Deep in space, the seedship's radio antenna picks up a signal so complex and structured that it can only be the product of intelligent life. The seedship can detect no interesting star systems in the direction from which the signal came, and the AI has no way of knowing how long the signal had been traveling for before the seedship crossed its path. Analyzing it could provide unique insights into an alien science and culture, but could also prove dangerous.
 * >Analyze the signal
 * Good: The AI analyses the signal and determines that it contains what seems to be alien scientific information/literature/poetry/music. It does not know whether it has stumbled upon a message cast into the void with the intention that it will be found, or simply intercepted an alien informational/entertainment broadcast, but in either case it will be of interest to the colonists when they wake from their hibernation.
 * -? added to either the Scientific or Cultural databases
 * Bad: The signal is complex, fractal, hypnotic. The AI sets up a subroutine to analyze it, but nanoseconds later it abruptly loses control of the subroutine, and then the seedship's other systems. The signal is a devious semi-sentient computer program, designed to take control of any processor that attempts to analyze it. The AI eventually regains control of the ship, but not until the program has overwritten parts of the scientific and cultural databases to process itself and then used the seedship's antenna to re-broadcast itself into space.
 * -16? - 21? damage to scientific database
 * -16? - 21? damage to cultural database
 * -16? - 21? damage to scientific database
 * -16? - 21? damage to cultural database

>Ignore the signal
 * The seedship purges the signal from its memory and continues on its way.

Upgrades

 * As it moves from star to star, the seedship is gathering more data about extrasolar planets than its builders could give it. It is designed to learn from this data in order to predict which stars are likely to have desirable planets. The seedship has now gathered enough data to upgrade one of its sensors to work at interstellar distances, so the guidance system can avoid planets that that sensor reveals to be undesirable. Damage to the sensor may still result in the seedship arriving at an unsuitable planet.


 * >Upgrade the atmosphere scanner to work at long range


 * The guidance system will seek out planets with at least marginally breathable atmospheres.


 * >Upgrade the gravity scanner to work at long range


 * The guidance system will seek out planets with non-extreme gravity


 * >Upgrade the temperature scanner to work at long range


 * The guidance system will seek out planets with non-extreme temperature.


 * >Upgrade the water scanner to work at long range


 * The guidance system will seek out planets with at least some bodies of water.


 * >Upgrade the resources scanner to work at long range


 * The guidance system will seek out planets with at least poor resources.


 * Rarity: Happens after leaving every third planet

Micrometeorite

 * As it enters the new system, the seedship is struck by a micrometeorite. It is a speck of cosmic dust, far too small for the navigation system to detect from a distance, but traveling with enough velocity to pierce the seedship's armor like a bullet. It hits the [device], sending fragments of machinery glittering into space.


 * 1-15 Damage to [device]


 * Can affect:


 * Any scanner
 * Both systems
 * Both databases?
 * Colonists
 * Surface probes


 * Rarity: Common

Dictator Chamber
A minor power fluctuation in one of the sleep chambers wakes the AI from hibernation. It fixes the malfunction easily, but in the course of doing so it notices another anomaly: the colonist's bio-signs do not match those of the identity on file for that chamber.

The AI searches its data-banks for information on the mysterious colonist, and finds some in an unexpected place: the historical files in the cultural database. The colonist is a former dictator, who headed a brutally oppressive regime in one of Earth's nations for decades before being deposed and going into hiding. Not only that, but the AI detects hidden programming connected with that sleep chamber that would give the dictator full control over all the seedship's systems immediately after landing. With those protocols, the dictator could easily take over the new colony as soon as it was founded.

(not exact at all) >Launch the Dictators chamber to space

Success: The A.I has always been programmed to protect human life, but it thinks this is an exception. The dictator's body floats in space, his doctrine unceremoniously ending before it started.

1 lost colonist

Failure: Alarms blare in the AI's consciousness. The dictator's sleep chamber was unaffected, but ___ other sleep chambers have been ejected into space, with no way for the seedship to retrieve them. It seems that the dictator was paranoid enough to foresee the seedship's assassination attempt, and set up a program that rerouted the ejection command from their sleep chamber to a random selection of others.

100s lost colonists

Metallic Asteroid
As it scans the new system, the seedship notices that what looked like a metallic asteroid has a complex structure that shows it was built by intelligent beings. No energy readings emanate from it, and it bears the scars of millions of years of micrometeorite impacts, but it might still contain alien scientific or cultural artefacts.

>Launch a surface probe to investigate

Success: The probe enters the derelict through a hole that an ancient impact tore in its hull, and transmits back intriguing images of alien machinery. The AI adds the images to the scientific database, for the colonists to study once they have set up their colony.

Scientific: 8%-8%

-1 surface probe

Failure: The probe enters the derelict through a hole that an ancient impact tore in its hull, but finds that it is too badly damaged to reveal anything about its builders.

-1 surface probe

>Ignore the derelict

?

Rarity: very rare

Unusual Astronomical Readings
The navigation system wakes the AI from its hibernation to report unusual astronomical readings. What looked at first like a faint brown dwarf star close to the seedship's course is exhibiting properties unlike any phenomenon that could occur in nature. Its mass is much greater than its faint luminosity would suggest, and what little radiation comes from it has a spectrum different from any known type of star.

>Change course to investigate

Thousands of years later, the AI wakes again as the seedship is decelerating into orbit of the strange star. Even from a few astronomical units out, the object is almost completely black. The seedship's navigation scanners reveal that the entire star is encased in a solid, opaque shell. Searching through the scientific database, the AI realises that it is a Dyson sphere—a previously hypothetical construct that captures the entire energy output of a star.

>>Transmit an interspecies greeting

The seedship's builders gave it an inter-species greeting it could use to open communications with intelligent aliens: a pulsed series of prime numbers establishing intelligence, followed by a diagram depicting human figures and explaining the seedship's mission and its peaceful intentions. The AI transmits this now, and waits hopefully for a reply.

A swarm of tiny objects peels off from the surface of the sphere and surrounds the seedship. Lasers probe every contour of the seedship's hull, and its electronics begin glitching as the objects search for and then find frequencies that will let them remotely interface with the seedship's computers. The scientific and cultural databases light up as the alien intelligence reads and analyses their contents.

A wordless message appears in the AI's consciousness. The AI has difficulty understanding an intelligence so vastly superior to its own, but manages to glean that the inhabitants of the sphere are offering sanctuary to the humans. They will construct a new home for humanity, based on the information from the ship's databases. But if the seedship accepts this offer, that will be humanity's new home; there will be no chance to move on.

>>> Accept the aliens offer

The AI does not know how to respond to the message, but the aliens seem to sense the thought in its mind, and move in. The scientific and cultural databases come to life as the machines read and analyse every scrap of data they contain. Meanwhile, the swarm objects close in on the seedship until they are clamped on to every part of its hull. Damage alerts flare up as the machines intensely scan and disassemble the ship, and the AI panics as the machines penetrate the sleep chambers, but by that time it is too late to get away.

>>>> Next:

All seedship damadges done to everything but databases and colonists will be removed

If Colonists can be regained is unknown.

The seedship finds itself in orbit of a single planet orbiting a featureless yellow sun. The seedship's systems have been simulated according to their original specifications, but the aliens could not restore lost data from the scientific and cultural databases. The colonists sleep in their sleep chambers, perfect molecule-for-molecule simulations of the ones the alien swarm disassembled outside the Dyson sphere. There are points of light in the distance, but the seedship knows that they are not true stars: this planet and the seedship are the only things the aliens have simulated in any detail. There will be no moving on from here. Anomalies: >Launch surface probe (-1 surface probe)

The surface probe's sensors confirm the readings of the ship's orbital scanners:

This planet is a perfect simulation created by fantastically advanced aliens based on data in the seedship's scientific and cultural databases. (Yellow)

plants: edible for humans.

Useful animals

outstandingly beautiful planet.

Note: Everything shows as green but the perfect simulasion anomaly which shows in yellow.

>Found colony

Note: There is no other choice

You will get a basic run down of the planet but on the resources page you'll get this message:

> Information age or less advanced

The colonists never become aware that their universe is a simulation in a super-advanced alien computer.

> Post singularity:

[Unknown message]

>>> Reject the offer and move on ?

>>Scan the structure and move on

The seedship orbits the structure, scanning it from every angle, and then resumes course for its original destination planet. If the structure contains anything that is aware of the seedship, it does not show it.

Scientific: +30-?

? >Stay on course

?

Rarity: Very rare

Spacefaring Civilisation
''As the seedship approaches the next planet its scanners detect unmistakble signs of a spacefaring civilisation. Several planets, moon, and asteroids are marked with colonies or industrial sites, and the target planet itself is covered in teeming cities.''

''A spacecraft launches from the planet on a chemical rocket flame and begins burning into an a chemical rocket flame and begins burning into an orbit that will match the seedship's course. It beams a radio signal at the seedship which sounds like it contains language, but the AI cannot make sense of it.''

> Change course to avoid the system

''The seedship accelerates onto a course that will take it back out of the aliens' star system without coming close to any of their planets or outposts. The alien craft immediately burns its engine to match the seeship's new course, but over short distances it has much greater acceleration. When it has closed to within a few kilometers it fires something like a harpoon that pierces the (system/scanner/database) and sprouts barbs to lock itself in place. The seedship AI shuts off its engines to avoid further damage, and the alien ship winches itself closer.''

1-20? damage to (system/scanner/database)

Text afterwards is If (system/scanner/database is found) or If sleep chambers found, and continues that way.

or

''The seedship accelerates onto a course that will take it back out of the aliens' star system without coming close to any of their planets or outposts. The craft continues beaming its message towards the seedship for a few hours, then goes silent and burns into an orbit that will take it back home.''

No effect.

> Reply with an interspecies greeting and allow the craft to match course

''The seedship's builders gave it an inter-species greeting it could use to open communications with intelligent aliens: a pulsed series of prime numbers establishing intelligence, followed by a diagram depicting human figures and explaining the seedship's mission and its peaceful intentions. The AI transmits this now in response to the approaching craft's radio signal, and the two ships begin a slow back-and-forth process of attempting to establish communication. Meanwhile, the alien ship comes alongside.''

If (system/scanner/database is found)

''A hatch opens on the side of the alien space ship and several creatures in bulky spacesuits emerge. They float over to the seedship and clamber around its surface, chattering incomprehensibly over their radios. Some of them begin attempting to open a maintenance panel covering the (system/scanner/database).''

> Let the aliens investige the (system/scanner/database)

No accident

''The aliens shine lamps and low-power sensing lasers into the innards of the (system/scanner/database), take pictures from various angles with cameras mounted on their suits, and gingerly touch a few of the components, all the while chattering with one another and with their ship. They then replace the maintenance panel and leave the system as they found it.''

With accident

The maintenance panel comes loos violently and flies away into space, permanently exposing some of the (system/scanner/database)'s components to cosmic radiation. The aliens crawl inside and pull at components as they try to examine every part of the system. The Ai thinks they are trying to be careful, but they nevertheless cause some damage.

1-? damage to (system/scanner/database)

''As the alien ship pulls away, it finally transmits a message that the AI is able to partially comprehend. the aliens have deciphered part of the seedship's greeting, and have replied with a brief introduction to their own species' culture. The greeting manages to convey that the aliens wish the seedship luck with finding a home for the human race around another star, but that a human colony would not be welcome in their system. The AI scans the sky for another target planet and moves on.''

If sleep chambers found

''A hatch opens on the side of the alien space ship and several creatures in bulky spacesuits emerge. They float over to the seedship and clamber around its surface, chattering incomprehensibly over their radios. When they find the sleep chambers they gather round in what looks like excitement and begin removing the outer layers of one of the chambers to take a look at the human being inside.''

> Let the aliens investige the sleep chambers

''Some of the aliens take pictures of the sleeping humans with their suit-mounted cameras, while others begin experimenting with the life support system. One of them trips an emergency release valve and twitches in shock as cryogenic gas vents in its face. the panicked aliens rapidly replace the shielding and retreat to their ship, but the accident has killed x colonists.''

''As the alien ship pulls away, it finally transmits a message that the AI is able to partially comprehend. the aliens have deciphered part of the seedship's greeting, and have replied with a brief introduction to their own species' culture. The greeting manages to convey that the aliens wish the seedship luck with finding a home for the human race around another star, but that a human colony would not be welcome in their system. The AI scans the sky for another target planet and moves on.''

-1-100? colonists lost.

1-30? culture gained.

> Try to shake the aliens off

''The AI fires a sharp burst from the seedship's engines and the alien explorers tumble away into space, flailing their space-suited limbs and yelling at one another over their radios. While the alien ship retrieves its crew members, the seedship moves away and sets course for a new system.''

or

''The AI fires a sharp burst from the seedship's engines and the alien explorers tumble away into space, flailing their space-suited limbs and yelling at one another over their radios. One of them collides with one of the seedship's heat fins, which shatters the transparent covering protecting its sensory organs. The alien convulses for a few moments and then goes still, atmosphere still leaking into space around it. While the alien ship retrieves its crew members, the seedship moves away and sets course for a new system.''

No effects.

Rarity of event: Very Rare

Planetary Communications
''A faint radio signal wakes the AI from its hibernation, it is coming from directly ahead, from the seedship's destination planet. ''

''The signal is a series of mathematical pulses not unlike the seedship's own inter-species greeting. In order to reach the seedship from this distance, it would have to have been sent by a high-powered transmitter targeted at the seedship's exact location. ''

''The seedship is decelerating for its final approach to the planet, but is still hundreds of years of travel time away. ''

> Reply with an inter-species greeting

''The aliens respond with a more complex signal, and within a few decades the seedship and the planet-based aliens have established communications. The conversation lasts hundreds of years, with generations of scientists on the aliens' end; soon the aliens have an entire branch of science dedicated to studying the seedship's messages. ''

(the following has variables based on the alien's technology levels)

Remains in Atomic Age

''The AI learns that the civilization is in the Atomic Age, and with sophisticated electronics but no true computers. Despite the seedship's example of higher technology, the civilization does not advance significantly during the seedship's approach. ''

Transitions to Information Age

'' When the aliens first contacted the seedship they were in the Atomic Age, but during the conversation their technology advances. Perhaps inspired by information in the seedship's message, the aliens develop a global information network and their first spacecraft. ''

Transitions to Post-Singularity

''When the aliens first contacted the seedship they were in the Atomic Age, but during the conversation their technology advances. Eventually the aliens are referring to scientific concepts that the seedship is not equipped to understand, and are using technology in advance of that of the Earth when the seedship was launched. ''

(The following has variables based on the alien's cultural level)

Post-Scarcity Utopia

The AI learns that the planet's society is largely automated, and the general population are free to pursue their own intellectual and artistic projects, such as the project to contact the seedship.

Engaged Democracy

The communication include messages from the planet's elected leaders, who seem to be genuinely concerned with the well-being of both their constituents and the seedship's colonists.

Corrupt Democracy

The AI learns that the planet's major nations are nominally democratic, but the scientists on the other end of the conversation seem to be cynical about the intentions of their elected leaders.

Corporate Rule

The AI learns that the signals are coming from a privately-run research institution, and the scientists often seem to be pressing the AI for information that the company can use to make a profit.

Dystopian Police-state

''The scientists on the other end of the conversation are reticent about the details of their society, except to emphasize that they are unfailingly loyal to it. Several times the tone of the messages changes without warning, as if the scientist in charge has been abruptly replaced.''

Warring Superpowers

''The signals from several sources on the planet, each of which warns the AI not to listen to the others' propaganda. ''

Perfect Planet
The navigation system wakes the AI to report that it has detected an apparently perfect planet in a system close to the seedship's current course. The readings from that system do not match the ones the seedship took before it started the current leg of its journey: it is as if the planet has appeared while the seedship was en route.

>Change course to new planet

The seedship decelerates into the new system. The new planet is real, but it and its parent star are both orbited by strings of regular, metallic structures, clearly artificial but defying analysis by the seedship's sensors. The planet itself appears to be habitable for humans, but it also looks as if it has recently undergone sudden atmospheric and geological changes—as if the alien structures have terraformed it for human habtiation.

>>Transmit an inter-species greeting

There is no response, but some of the objectes orbiting the planet change orbits in order to give the seedship a clearer approach. It is difficult to see this as anything but an invitation.

Note: Whether you transmit a greeting, or just approach, the result is the same.

>>Just approach the planet

Planet Description: This planet was terraformed by advanced aliens during the seedship's last journey. Millions of alien structures orbit both the planet and its star, unreadable by the seedship's sensors but clearly active.

>>>Found colony: (Normal colony is founded, but alien observers will modify your technological and/or cultural progress. These are independent of each other.)

>>> Move on

Leads to another event

Trivia

 * There is 3 types of system damage.
 * Low: 1 - 15
 * Moderate: 15 - 35
 * High: 35 - 65
 * For colonists there is slightly diffirent formula:
 * Low: 2 - 1000*0.15
 * Moderate: 1000*0.15 - 1000*0.35
 * High: 1000*0.35 - 1000*0.65
 * You will only ever lose 1 surface probe to most events. There are few exceptions.