The History of Penet Relationships - or - A Trip to the Doctor's Office

Larzamonte Charoux crossed through the center of the Quarter Deck to the ventral ladder tube, then went up a flight to the Medical Deck. Dr. Lyireh Ros-Galyin Barek was at her computer with her feet up on the desk and her headphones on, trying to stave off the tedium of what passed for work these days with some music. Making an effort to alleviate her ennui, Charoux said, “How’s my favorite angel of mercy doing? Getting a bit bored of the slow days at the office?”. Her reply was curt and telling. “Yes; yes I am. You all keep doing a perfectly fine job of not getting injured. And these pacifist missions executed just perfectly are leaving me with nothing to do. Frankly, I’ve even run out of paperwork; want to see the form I filled out when someone asked for a bandaid? Because I’m sick of trying to find clever ways to elaborate about the matter.” Charoux tried hard to contain his inner laughter when he saw the full page of text, but when he saw the white space on the form made a deliberate and near-perfect tracing of a band-aid image, he couldn’t help but crack up. “Oh my, that’s… that’s quite something. So you need something else to do, do you?”, he offered. “By the heavens, yes!”, she exclaimed; “Do you have any more data for me to look at? I’d love to analyze the progress of…”, she continued, before he cut her off. “No, this isn’t about that;”, he replied; “but I do have something new you could help me with.”, he said, sitting down, and preparing to spin a yarn. “I’ve got some bet going with one of the new Crew. The drunken jerk was going on about just how long exactly this whole penet thing has been going on. Naturally, in order to have a bet, I had a contrary opinion.”. As Charoux paused for a breath, Lyireh interjected; “And what was your opinion?”, she asked. Charoux responded, “Well, now, telling might lead to source bias in getting a properly researched response. We can’t have that!”. Lyireh scowled at Charoux’s wry smile, and said, “You cheat! Making me wait for an answer until you get one first!”. Charoux continued, “So anyway, I figured, as a skilled surgeon with training in Xenobiology, you must have had a Social Sciences professor back at your school on Darrian to help inform your bedside manner.”. Lyireh crossed her arms and looked aside in annoyance; “So you’re not really here for me at all; you’re here for my contacts. You cad.”. Charoux confessed, “Afraid so. But I’ll give you a cut of the bet if I win, and you can help me drink my loss away if I lose. And, for today, you’ll have a great excuse to write a nostalgic letter to one of your old professors, asking for a nice little study course by mail. Which may prove helpful if one of those zealots out there concoct some sort of obscure culturally inspired injury for one of our guests. And that sort of research is a heck of a lot more productive and a much better way to pass the time than trying to find clever ways to make typographic doodles.”. Lyireh tilted her head and looked up into the corner of her eyes, and said, “Well, you’re right, of course. Fine, I’ll do it. What exactly do you need for this bet?”. Charoux rattled off a few file names, and then said that anything older on the same subject should be included in the research package. “That should be informative enough to get us a definitive answer, you think?”, he said, finally. “Yes, I concur, with perhaps a few additions here or there. Well, you’ve given me something to do, at least for a while. Do let me know when you get any more data, though; at least that’s a proper challenge.”, she replied. As he turned to take the ladder tube up to the bridge, he affirmed, “Will do.”. Larzamonte Charoux wants to confirm technical details about the history of penet relationships, and is enlisting the ship's doctor citing multiple incentives and mutual benefit. Information from the Julian sector itself may have significant cultural or political bias, so he's looking to the Darrian Confederation instead, thinking they may provide a more neutral opinion on the matter as potentially more objective outsiders with no particular vested interest in the matter. Other objective sources would also be worth looking into. In the meantime, he has to analyze the data package for authenticity, and also be able to confirm whether or not other apparent copies of this document are more or less legitimate versions, or whether they are merely exact duplicates of this one, and when, if possible, that duplication took place.

Weeks (about 3 games must time out first) go by before a solid, verifiable set of answers return on this topic. <a href="http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/The_Panet_Relationshi" rel="nofollow">http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/The_Panet_Relationshi</a>... <a href="http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Asimikigir_Confederat" rel="nofollow">http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Asimikigir_Confederat</a>... <a href="http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Julian_Protectorate" rel="nofollow">http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Julian_Protectorate</a> Pay special attention to the Relations with Gashikan section of this article. &nbsp;See that not all member states and Gashikan are so racially hunky-dory. While this level of interracial compatibility has not taken hold in the Spinward Marches, Gvurrdon or the Foreven Sectors, those who have studied the Solomani Hypothesis... <a href="http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Solomani_Hypothesis" rel="nofollow">http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Solomani_Hypothesis</a> ...can justifiably support the eventual and slow-change cultural evolution in this direction. &nbsp;However, such changes will not be visible in our characters' lifetimes as it is in the Julian Protectorate with the help of the Menderes Corporation doing its business in this fashion. <a href="http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Menderes_Corporation" rel="nofollow">http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Menderes_Corporation</a> (Now, in Pakkrat's hybridization of Official Traveller Universe and the above documents which are labeled Non-Canon, Pakkrat's Traveller Universe will not deviate much from anything found on the Wiki, save for some immediate story that will have no lasting or widespread effect on gameplay, timeline and the macrocosm of Traveller. &nbsp;Thus, with the proper rolls of Computer, Investigate, Social Sciences(Sophontology) and Space Sciences (Xenology), the above articles can be verified as true. More rolls in Computer will find the same documents found in a number of mid-TL(7) to hi-TL (A) successful and identical entries in systems across the following Sectors and in order parallel to the concert tour: &nbsp;Antares, Lishun, Meshan, Vland, Windhorn, Corridor, Deneb, Spinward Marches. The band's route for the rest of the tour is to turn 180 degrees and Coreward to visit Gvurrdon, Tugliki and Provence Sectors on their return voyage back to the Julian Protectorate. &nbsp;There has been some argumentation between the band, their manager, Sylk's corporate lawyer about the route. &nbsp;These arguments and requests of route have been met with topics of Hi-Population, Hi-Law, Hi-Government, polity and world densities as well as inter-empire relations (the Fifth Frontier War being a prime example). The only impossibility in this info-mining inquest is that the previous duplicates timestamps cannot by any roll be dug up. &nbsp;The previous hackers played by the rules of the document and did their part. &nbsp;Thus there is zero chance of digging up who and when of the previous successes of the document's insertion in to various systems across the aforementioned sectors. Unless an official knows specifically and all of the document to erase, (thus causing a delete timestamp and identity of who deleted it), the document sits ready like any other library book or e-document for access. &nbsp;It does no other task and has no other sub-routines. The document takes on the language of the host planet and loses less than 1% of its technical presentation in language barriers. &nbsp;Even so, those errors can be chalked up as errors on the author, not the document. &nbsp;It's that well-written. While the Darrian Confederation has, on its own time, considered such cultural compatibility, it has had little time to experiment or apply such concepts. &nbsp;This is due to political upheaval and wars, (First through Fifth Frontier Wars for example.) &nbsp;Their models have remained the realm of speculation.

I'm getting lots of great background information there, but it's not giving me what I'm looking for. I'm trying to find out, yes or no, whether or not there is any substantial research independent of references to this potentially doctored document that substantiate this document's claim about how old the relationship is. The Wiki material is out-of-character knowledge; the player knowing it's true is much different than the character knowing it's true. :) I need to come across some in-character line of research independent of the one I was just given that verifies or refutes what it says. So I need some Dr. So-and-so to give our Chief Surgeon some independent research papers Charoux can make up his mind with.

Pakkrat said: The only impossibility in this info-mining inquest is that the previous duplicates timestamps cannot by any roll be dug up. &nbsp;The previous hackers played by the rules of the document and did their part. &nbsp;Thus there is zero chance of digging up who and when of the previous successes of the document's insertion in to various systems across the aforementioned sectors. Unless an official knows specifically and all of the document to erase, (thus causing a delete timestamp and identity of who deleted it), the document sits ready like any other library book or e-document for access. &nbsp;It does no other task and has no other sub-routines. The document takes on the language of the host planet and loses less than 1% of its technical presentation in language barriers. &nbsp;Even so, those errors can be chalked up as errors on the author, not the document. &nbsp;It's that well-written. Authenticity of translations of this document can be partly ascertained by whether there is a significant statistical match to how the autotranslator being used translates it; if it were translated by a sophont, there would be significant statistical differences. So a version translated by a sophont with a timestamp well before the bogus copies are stamped is probably an authentic document that verifies the bogus ones.

The auto translations were done by aid of a supercomputer over the input of all the languages the document manifests to the world library it is injected. The Darrians have zero applicable research on any version that can positively verify The Panet Relationship. Due to their proximity to the Vargr race, the only other race that may have some unbiased and verifying research is the Zhodani; however their version is skewed to tactical social gain of advantage. &nbsp;Due to psionic useage of the Zhodani, there are losses of frame of reference to a non-psionic reader of such research. So no, in the end there is no further verifiable, independent and unbiased research to compare with the documents unless the word of the Julian is taken where this document originated. There just is too much space between the Spinward Marches and the Julian Protectorate, too many information gaps or blocks due to political information borders to gain such a request. In the end, it's a leap of faith.

Charoux is just going to have to turn down the request as it was posed, then. Spies act when the risks are known, and these risks aren't; properly executed information warfare is tricky business. He might find some other way to contribute, though. Maybe along the lines of carefully sabotaging false propaganda, or exposing the blatant hypocracy of its proponents?