Romulan History: Flight To A New Home World
Created | Updated Dec 25, 2004
First Ships to Leave Vulcan
The first ship to leave Vulcan was S’task vessel, Rea’s Helm. The rest of the travelers followed in the ships Warbird, Starcatcher, T’Hie, Pennon, Bloodwing, Corona, Lance, Gorget, Sunheart, Forge, Lost Road, Black Light, Firestorm, Vengeance Memory, and Shield. Rea’s Helm Departed on 12 Ahhahr 140005 and spent 3 months accelerating out of Vulcan’s solar system. The other ships followed in small groups of two or three.
Malfunctions
As the voyage wore on many numerous minor malfunctions began to present themselves on the ships, but this was to be expected as they were the first century ships ever built. For the first ten years very few people were killed, and when someone was it was due to things such as falls in high gravity during the ships acceleration, or an accident while doing maintenance in vacuum. There were a few crop failures, but mostly of nonessential foods such as flatroot. It is interesting to note that even now those Rihannsu who were from the ships Vengeance and Gorget will refuse to eat flatroot. Many put this down to a religious tradition. However it is much more likely that it is because it was all the inhabitants of those two ships were able to eat for approx. two years. These two wrere ships that had had crop failures. The other ships supplied excess food, mostly flatroot, to the ships that encountered crop failures.
88 Eri
88 Eri is a K type star with 15 planets, all too hot even for Vulcans. It took the Rihannsu about three years ship time to decelerate, assess planet viability, and accelerate again. Approx. thirty years had passed on Vulcan because the ships were using relative acceleration.
Surak, S’task, and the sword
During this time Surak was killed on Vulcan by the Yhri faction who he was trying to deal peace to on behalf of already united Vulcans. S’task mourned the death of Surak greatly, and would not come out of his quarters. During this time a council meeting was scheduled to happen. Although S’task did not attend the meeting when the other councilors got to the council chambers on Rea’s Helm they found a sword laying across S’tasks empty chair. The sword was none other than one of the S’harrians that Surak had brought to S’task before they left. About a month later S’task returned to the council chambers. He did not comment on the sword, he simply chose another seat. The sword stayed untouched until planet fall on ch’Rihan, and ch’Havran. When the new council chambers were set up on ch’Rihan the chair was placed in a place of honor, behind the senators and praetors and an Emperor or two. This chair with the sword was left to symbolize the missing element: that silent force that had been the cause of the sundering, the cause that still moved on the planet of their birth. To speak of the “Empty Chair” is dangerous. To touch the sword means nothing less than death. Oaths are sworn on it and must be kept or the swearer of the oath dies, either by his own doing or that of another.
198 Eri
This was the second starfall, and it was an absolute disaster for the Rihannsu. At this point in the journey the ships were traveling spaced out, a method which may have saved many of their lives. The ships were ‘leap froging’ a method which saved much time. ‘Leap froging’ works like this: the ships in the lead slows down to investigate the planets for viability. Bbecause the inhabitants of the ships were psi linked the ones at the front could warn of danger, or tell the others to continue on because there wasn’t anything worth stopping for. Then the ships that been at the front, investigating, joined the back. That way all the ships rotated, and they didn’t have to constantly stop. Seven of the eighteen ships were lost here at 198 Eri. They fell into a black hole as they came out of acceleration. Pennon, Starcatcher, Bloodwing, Forge, Lost Road, Lance, and Black Light all of these ships fell victim to this natural trap. In the black hole time dilated and contracted, and physical relativity came undone. It is uncertain whether the inhabitants of those seven ships died from the antithetical nature of ‘Dentured’ space, or if the ships first blew up due to gravitational stress. Those in the ships that escaped and who were unfortunate enough to be mind linked with someone on one of the doomed ships either died slowly being insane and raving to the end, or they died quickly succumbing to psychoses. The remaining Rihannsu stayed in orbit for the next three and a half years arguing as to whether they should turn back or go on, and storing what solar power they could. In the end S’task decided that his ship, Rea’s Helm, would continue with or without them. The others quickly decided that they could not let Rea’s Helm go alone. When they left they used the conventional ramscoop drive, and then later using the bootstrap technique, which required no fuel.
4408A/B Trianguli
4408A and 4408B Trianguli are a set of binary stars. 4408B is orbited by a few planets one of which is Iruh. The Rihannsu travelers did not study the Etoshan data that they had had put into their computers, if they had it may have saved many lives. At one time the Inshai had cordoned off the whole system with warning bouys. However during the Inshai – Etoshan war the Etoshans destroyed all the warning bouys during their fatal attempt to subdue the planet. When the travelers found 4408B it was orbited by worlds of liquid methane and molten rock. 4408B was orbited by six planets, only one of them registered as habitable. Iruh showed up on their scanners as being a 90% climatic match for Vulcan and geologically it was even better than Vulcan. Iruh was rich in metals. The two ships Corona and T’Hie took up parking orbits around the planet. Shuttles from each ship were sent down to verify the sensors readings, and also to assess the planets biochemistry. None of the shuttles ever came back, and long before the occupants of the two orbiting ships were warned, it was too late for them too. The Iruhe were doing exactly to the Rihannsu as they had done to many other travelers before them. The Iruhe were later rated one of the most mentally powerful beings in the galaxy. They had senced the minds of the Rihannsu form very far away. When they sensed the minds of the travelers they insinuated, from a great distance, an image of what the travelers would have seen as a beautifully perfect world. There was no need for the Iruhe to tamper with the controls of the two fated ships, nor is it likely that they could have. And why should they bother when all they needed they already had done. The Iruhe were inserting images into the minds of the Rihannsu making them believe that the world was ideal in every way. Why should their instruments lie when their minds were already lying to them. Using false images from the shuttles the Iruhe lured the two orbiting ships into perfect range, a close synchronous orbit. From there the Iruhe sucked the crew dry of lives and then proceeded to crash the two ships into Iruh’s methane seas. The ships still contained twelve thousand men, women, and children still breathing, although now mindless. When the Sunheart came in, later, behind the two ships the navigators noticed that the ion trails from Corona and T’Hie both stopped around Iruh and did not continue on. Upon this discovery the command crew panicked and ran. It sent a warning to all the other ships behind it. It was the best thing they could have done, and it probably saved their lives.
The Next 85 Standard Years of Relative Time
In their hurry to get away from Iruh the group of travelers lost contact with the ships Firestorm and Vengeance. The other ships spent many years wandering from barren planet to barren planet. For the next 85 standard years of relative time, or approx. four hundred and fifty years nonrelativistic time they searched desperately for a suitable planet to call home. Their search started to become frantic; they had only been expecting to spend fifty years looking for a new planet. With this in mind the ships had only been built to last one hundred years. Ships systems were beginning to break down, and most of the replacement parts had already been used, and food was beginning to be scarce. The ship Warbird had a massive drive system malfunction, and they had no adept left who knew how to use the bootstrap technique. Warbird was lost in the sun 114 Trianguli, the sun that it had been trying to slingshot around in order to pick up more speed. The ship Memory was lost in the same way, trying to slingshot around a black dwarf.
Diseases Onboard the Ships
There were now only 5 ships left: Rea’s Helm, Gorget, Sunheart, Vengeance, and Firestorm. Strange diseases began to be caught in all of the remaining ships. These diseases were not really all that new. They were very similar, but much worse, than already identified Vulcan diseases, that they should have been already immune to. However, probably because of the radiation, they were much worse. The medics on each ship were able to do very little for those with “Space Fever”. Before the epidemics began to come to an end somewhere between 50-70% of each ships crew had died. S’tasks wife and children all died within days of each other, and S’task himself nearly died. He layed for months not speaking, and hardly eating anything.
ch’Rihan and ch’Havran
Not long after the epidemic was mostly over the travelers spotted a little cluster of K type stars on their sensors. The star that they had their eye on was 128 Trianguli. The only problem was that the time needed to reach their destination was well outside of the ships hundred year viability envelope. It would take the 5 ships ten years of acceleration to get there, and an additional ten years to decelerate. S’task was warned that by the time they got to their proposed destination they may all be dead. But S’task said “But we will have gotten there.” And it seemed that the council agreed with him, for when the question was brought before them they all decided to at least try. Nine years into their deceleration the ships came within sensor range of 128 Trianguli, and arround it was six planets. One of these was a double planet. A double planet it rather like our earth and the moon, one planet orbiting another. These two planets were within broad parameters for being habitable to a Vulcan. That does not mean that they were not different. These new planets were somewhat cooler, and had much water. Oceans were something that Vulcan had never had. Many of the travelers were encouraged by the prospect of so much water, thinking that perhaps there would be less fighting and wars if one of their main reasons for it were taken away. But S’task was right when he said “Those who want war will find causes, no matter how many of them you take away.”
Description of the Planets
The year immediately after starfall was spent analyzing the two worlds and deciding how they could best be used. The largest of the two planets had the biggest oceans and three continents two of which had extensive mountain ranges. The third land mass was mostly desert, 90%, but its coast lines were fertile. The smaller planet, the one that orbited the larger one, had five continents all of which were forested and had mountains. Unlike Vulcan both planets had many different kinds of plant and animal species.
The Lottery
Next came the question of where each person should live. No logical method could be decided upon. One day, after may of arguing, S’task grew frustrated and suggested a lottery. Some of the travelers perfered to go into the lottery as an entire ships compliment and others preferred to enter as a family. So either an entire ships crew of an entire family would live together in a certain area on one of the two planets. They names the two planets ch’Rihan and ch’Havran: ch’Rihan meaning “of the declared” and ch’Havran meaning “of the travelers”. By some odd twist of fate the more reactionary of the clans of the Rihannsu ended up on ch’Havran and the more foreward looking Rihannsu ended up on ch’Rihan. S’task lived in the Nn’verian nation on the north continent of ch’Rihan.
The Fate of the Ships
After the lottery the eighteen thousand travelers who had survived the voyage slowly left the ships over a period of three years. Cautiously establishing support bases for themselves on the planets. Some of the Rihannsu shoes to stay and live on the ships. Those who chose this were mostly thoses who had been born on the ships, or those who had become agoraphobic during their long journey. Some people returned to the ships for holidays either out of curiosity, or out of nostalgia. These trips slowly stopped as the people who had been born on Vulcan, or on ship died out. The ship clans maintained the remaining ships that were part of their historic past. However the ships did not stay in the sky forever. After several hundred years, one at a time, the ships fell from the sky and burned up in the atmosphere. This was caused by neglect, economic troubles, government squabbles, and war. The two planets that orbited 128 Tri, of Eisn meaning ‘Home Sun’ as they preferd to call it, were effectively cut off from the rest of the universe for a very long time to come. And the amount of technology that was lost to the Rihannsu when the ships crashed was very unfortunate for them, to say the least.
