What do we REALLY need to test this artifact?

There's a lot of talk about how we should go to Rhylanor before Wypoc, with some of the argument being based on the idea that we should stop there to pick up equipment to test the artifact with. And while I don't disagree with that idea per se, I also don't think it's nearly as simple as that. And here's why. If we were to do this job properly, we would need a fresh from the shipyard Scout built to TL15 specs to test the artifact out on. We would probably have to put down a deposit on it and lease it; and if we break it, we've bought it. We don't really want to risk the company's flagship and the lives of its personnel on something that could go horribly, horribly wrong; so we need a testbed we can rely on, that is guaranteed to work correctly on its own, leaving all operational faults with the artifact under test and its interface to the ship; and, to be as compatible as possible, it would probably have to be built to the highest available TL. The only thing that affordably fits this bill is a freshly built, carefully run in, TL15 scout. This is a big investment. Supposing for a moment that we had the cash on hand to acquire the equipment to start testing the artifact, once we started our first test run, we could be stuck for weeks figuring out how to get back to where we started, or worse . In the meantime, our big-bad is making his way back to Wypoc. Now, granted, we could certainly skip the expense of a brand-new ship and treat testing the artifact out like adventurers would; but we're Mercenaries. Our job is to mitigate and manage risk; and adventuring our way through artifact testing isn't what a mercenary company would do. Not to mention the potentially disastrous delay in getting to Wypoc. Now, there are plenty of other reasons to go to Rhylanor; the main one being the TL15 tech they have there. I'll certainly take advantage of that while I'm there. But unless I'm missing a particular detail, it's not worth delaying demolishing the base at Wypoc for. Let's get to Wypoc and cut our big-bad's knees out from under him, and then worry about how quickly we can get to Rhylanor. Also, I kind of want to see Gev do the whole "heroic test pilot" thing. XD

Are your opinions on what is needed to test the Nantu Y based on player or character knowledge. If there is a character finding I don't know about I would like to have it so I can record it. Last I heard we figured out enough to suspect is connects to a ship and may have some potential ability to interact with jump drives in some fashion. Let me know which please.

I was under the impression that Prof. Z was going to computer simulation of a ship to try it out on. I was going to suggest that we hook it up to the salvaged comp (once we'd gotten everything we could out of it). But again, maybe I missed something, too.

Okay.  Since this is in the Professor's wheel-house here's what I'm thinking for our testing. My rolls have already lead the prof to theorize that the artifact is a device which would allow a ship to change its jump destination AFTER the  jump field has formed.  While he has no skill in astrogation, he's been around enough to know that this would be an entirely new branch of the field -- a field which is only barely understood as it is. (Oh dear, I seem to have started into a lecture ... forgive an old scholar) My approach so far has been to study what the jump drive control computer on the Ares does - both in normal FTL and also during our recent misjump. Obviously this is far from exhaustive testing for a suitable sample set but I'll also be picking the engineer's and navigator's brains.   Late last session you may have heard that I'm building a Farady cage - to block radio transmissions. I believe that once activated the device may reach out and attempt to merge with our own ship's computer, and the simplest way would be through radio transmissions/ My theory then gentlebeings is to build In other words is to use one computer as a simulated jump drive and a second as a jump drive control computer.  once the simulation is working normally I'll move both into the cage and connect the test article to the simulated computer.   In theory, once connected and within simulated jump, we should be able to tell the computer to change course. It may even be able to correct a misjump. Of course this is all conjectural. Ideally the professor would spend at least a year carefully and methodically testing this theory.

Alright then I guess I would ask what budget do you need to move this forward Professor.

It's largely a conclusion based on the premise that it connects to a ship, both in and out of character. Charoux, being a Darrian who investigated tech on a regular basis, knows full well what can go wrong with tech that's been misused. So he's reluctant to just "plug it in and see what happens", barring some otherwise unavoidable catastrophe that makes risking it the better option. Regardless, to do the job properly would mean investing in a tech ship; which makes stopping at Rhylanor on those grounds rather moot when we have more immediate business to take care of. Now, if there are other relevant in-character reasons for risking that our ersatz Alfred Bester won't make it to Wypoc before we take the place out, I'm certainly willing to hear those out. And if there are more practical reasons for going to Rhylanor first, like our GM simply hasn't prepared something cool on Wypoc yet, or there's really nothing there anymore since the place was outed by Gev's sister and it would be boring if we bothered, well, those are plenty good reasons to consider options we can actually enjoy. But I'm not hearing those things, so there's no reason to consider those issues.

Another thing to consider regarding the device is that it may interact with established jump fields directly, rather than through a jump drive's mechanisms. And if that's the case, running simulations while in jump would be no different than actually trying to use it... with a key difference being that the simulation is using false data rather than real data, making for a really bad scenario. And heaven forbid that it interacts with the jump fields of other ships ... Better to wait until we get a test ship that we can take to some podunk system and have the free time to fiddle.