10694/Starport: Planning a Future in the Stars

Starport: Planning a Future in the Stars
Date of Scene:	07 April 2022
Location:	STARPORT!
Synopsis:	Donna takes Nadia and Kate to visit the construction site of the Spaceport, induct them into secrets, and commission GIRL to make teleporters!
Cast of Characters:	Donna Troy, Kate Bishop, Nadia Pym-van Dyne

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Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna is flying the T-Jet. This may be a disappointment to her passengers, Nadia and Kate, who both love their opportunities to take the controls, but Donna has insisted, and Donna has refused to tell them where they are going. It's a secret. Donna has sworn the pair to secrecy, for now. Donna is grinning.

    It's not a particularly long flight. From the tower out onto Delaware bay and then the ocean. Along the coast in the general direction of New York for a few minutes, but then veering away from land and out into international waters. "Take a look," Donna says. "Left hand side of the plane."

    Honestly it can't be /that/ much of a secret. People will have seen this on satellite imagery. Several hundred miles from shore, out in international waters, an artificial island is being constructed. It's big, and already from here the Titans can see buildings taking shape on the giant platform. Several unfamiliar looking vehicles can be seen, some docked alongside in the water, some parked on what looks like a large airport field. Nadia at least might recognize the style of some of those air vehicles as being the kind of thing Shuri might fly.

    Donna flicks a control on the console and speaks into the radio "Starport control, this is Troia in the T-Jet on approach. Over."

    <<Acknowledged, welcome Troia,>> a voice replies over the radio. <<Out.>>

    The T-Jet turns in a lazy arc over the platform, tilting to give a better view of it through the windows. Hundreds of people can be seen below, tiny figures working away busily on construction. There's a peculiar mixture of architectural styles on display, some things looking familiar from Nadia and Kate's visits to Themyscira, but other things looking quite different -- there are visibly three different styles of construction taking place. There's obviously a lot of building work to do, but it seems to be moving fast. Donna turns to the others, grinning even wider than she had been at the start of this flight. "Any questions?" she asks.

Kate Bishop has posed:
    The refusal to tell them where they are going and also to not let them fly the jet had Kate a little salty. Though she does do a very good job of hiding it and only giving Donna just a smidge of side eye when she is grinning about it all.

    At the prompt to look out the left side of the plane she levers herself up to her feet and walks over there to peer through one of the viewports. She blinks. "Oh woah.... okay that is definitely more impressive than the satellites give it justice." yeah she stays current with the news.

    "I mean.. tons... like there isn't a lot of deets on any of this Donna. So what should we know I guess?" she is still mostly just staring down at it as they approach to view it all. "Starport... like for the Amazons or ...?"

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
    Nadia is mostly content to enjoy the ride. If Donna is going to insist on flying there must be a reason, and after spending a harrowing week inside of NOWHERE's Colony Zero she's not too adverse to sitting back and letting Donna handle things.

    Her curiosity is however piqued when she notices just where it is they seem to be going. GIRL is not without satellite resources, both legitimate and 'borrowed', and the new artificial island had not escaped notice. But between Wonderland and NOWHERE and the fact that it didn't seem to be doing obviously threatening, also possibly Shuri distracting Nadia and the others with shiny things, the legion of teen girl super geniuses were content to leave well enough alone.

    "Hey, I know those aircraft, wait Starport? Earth has one of those? I mean other than SWORD?" Wakanda would certainly have the technology for it. Somewhere in the back of Nadia's brain pieces are beginning to fit together.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "A starport for planet Earth," Donna replies to Kate with a wide smile and a hint of pride. "It was Diana's idea, but this is not just a Themysciran thing. We are building this in cooperation with the Atlanteans and Wakandans. And this is all top secret for now, so shhh!"

    "It has become pretty obvious over the last decade that Earth is now very much part of a larger Galactic community. Unlike most planets, Earth does not have a single central government. There's no unified response to visitors from other worlds. There is nowhere visitors can land without to some extend picking sides. And it's just a matter of time before some country tries to gain an advantage over others through its dealings with other worlds. This is an attempt to stop any of that happening."

    "We're going to provide secondary bases here for every super-team that wants one. And a United Nations HQ. This will be a free port under the joint protection of Atlantis, Themyscira and Wakanda. Kate, I suspect that the involvement of Wakanda is a surprise to you, less to you Nadia. That's sensitive information, and the details do not go further without clearance from King T'Challa, okay? But that quiet little African country has some pretty seriously advanced technology. So do the Atlanteans. Unfortunately us Themyscirans a little less, except in one or two special areas. Our materials science goes in places others do not. Largely though what we bring to the table is a workforce and when things are operational a defensive force that is second to none."

Kate Bishop has posed:
    "Well... that definitely explains why no one in the news has managed to figure out what is going on based on the satellite photos." she muses and squints through the viewport. Then walks over to one of the screens and trains some exterior cameras on it so she can get a much better detailed view as they sweep.

    "Good idea of Diana's I think. Though it does put the Themyscirans, Wakndans, and Atlanteans at an advantage I guess. Unless it is turned over to the UN or some international peace keeping or nuetral party..." she is just musing through the politics of it all.

    "Not... entirely surprised..." she has fought crime with Shuri in the past and knows a smidge. She just doesn't talk about it or file after action reports for everything she does.

    "So... do the other world leaders or UN know this is going down.. or uh.. SWORD like Nadia brought up?"

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
    "Atlantis, like where Garth is from? They have advanced technology? I thought they were all magic-y like Garth." Because magic is apparently an adjective now. Wakanda having technology is no surprise to Nadia, Shuri is one of her best friends and super science partners in crime who had an extensive hand in the development of GIRL's own spaceship. The mention of Themysciran material sciences gets a thoughtful expression from Nadia, no doubt the members of GIRL would still very much like to examine that in great detail given the chance.

"It's true," She agrees as she listens to Donna, "Even Ranagar had a starport, even if they can't really use it anymore. But we use it!" For once she doesn't let herself get sidetracked though. "Kate is right, without SWORD's cooperation any visitors are liable to get shot down before they even make it planetside. We built a cloaking device for the Tereshkova but I still let Carol know what we're doing because better safe than sorry." She makes a little pantomime with her hands of what is probably Captain Marvel zooming after a ship and then the ship spiraling downward and exploding complete with a sound effect at the end.

    "How many spacecraft are currently in residence? Or is this being set up primarily for receiving visitors?"

Donna Troy has posed:
    "We are keeping things pretty quiet for now, though as you can imagine there have been a lot of questions," Donna response with a laugh. "Some world leaders know about it. Others don't. SWORD and SHEILD will be invited to have bases here and take part in operations -- and certainly we intend to co-operate with them closely. But for the sake of neutrality, it's important they are not too heavily involved. There are many nations that consider them to be basically arms of the American government. On the other hand... Themyscira, Wakanda and Atlantis are all members of the United Nations who are not part of any power blocs or military alliances. We feel there's a better chance of us being trusted than anyone too closely associated with NATO."

    "As for who gets shot down or who doesn't..." Donna makes a bit of a face. "Honestly, aside from Carol herself, SWORD hasn't got the best record when it comes to dealing with invading aliens. Frankly the Titans have done more than SWORD has recently. And people have not forgotten that the Warzoon soldiers in Metropolis were defeated by the Themysciran army." The grin returns. "You wouldn't believe how much of our time at the embassy has involved saying 'No' to requests for military alliances since that happened."

    "Currently there are no ships actually in residence," Donna tells Nadia. "Because it's not open for business yet. But we hope to offer the facilities for Earth-based ships as well as for visitors. Speaking of which, part of the reason I am bringing you here is because I'd like to offer you the opportunity to relocate G.I.R.L headquarters here. We'll construct the facilities you need, and you'll have the advantage of some pretty fearsome security.

Kate Bishop has posed:
    "That makes sense. I was more saying SWORD should definitely get a heads up... cause as Nadia says..." she pantomines a Captain Marvel shooting down a ship mimicking her team mate. What it was adorable.

    "Good point about NATO and the States... " she adjusts the image she is viewing. "Very cool though. I do like going into space. I assume the Titans get a small aux base here too since you said teams were being offered it?"

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"I mean, Carol is pretty much all they need. I'm just saying she has a tendency to explode spaceships sometimes." Nadia gives a little can't be helped shrug. "I mean you're right though." Nadia remembers well both fighting the Warzoon and tearing the array off of Brainiac's spaceship. Let it never be said her first months outside of the bunker were not eventful ones.

Nadia looks thoughtful again when Donna mentions relocating GIRL's headquarters, holding her chin in thought as she leans against the wall of the T-Jet. "We wouldn't necessarily have to relocate so much as use parallel facilities. This would actually be a good real world test for the Zeta Beam technology we brought back from Rann. So far we've got a facility set up in one of the secure levels under GIRL HQ that definitely do not exist that we can use to go to Sardath's facility on Rann. If we set one up at the Starport, with the ability to instantly travel between locations it would functionally be one headquarters existing in two places. And fearsome security is good, the nexus of Super Tech that our members have access to pretty much requires it. Which is why the core of security at the PymTech facility is overseen by Black Widow and the rescued ex-Widow cadets she's mentoring. Please don't repeat that last part." She trusts her teammates but the last thing she needs is more Red Room remnants showing up trying to reconstitute their numbers. "Anyway, I welcome any and all fearsome security and think this is something GIRL should definitely be part of with our mission to change the world for the better." She grins.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "I'm sure Diana will have everything smoothed out with SWORD," Donna reassures the others. "She's pretty close with Carol. Besides, Carol owes me for cleaning out the chimney at her old family home. There was a lot of soot." This must be how diplomacy between supers works at the highest levels.

    "Correct. Auxiliary bases for all. To be honest part of the idea behind that is to create an environment where the various groups will be in close proximity and have a chance to meet each other in a less dramatic situation that such meetings usually occur. Hopefully it will help to foster closer ties. The Titans will certainly be taking up the offer of an auxiliary base here. That's something I want you to do some thinking about, Kate. See... it has occurred to me that the Titans have grown a lot. The Tower actually starts to feel crowded lately. I was thinking it might be time we opened a secondary HQ in New York as well, so we might have three bases soon. That will create extra demands on leadership, and I think it would be a good idea to have one member of the leadership council appointed to head up each mission. Not exactly a leader, you know my opinions on that. But kind of a base commander. I was thinking of nominating you for here or the New York branch, if you feel up to it, Kate."

    Donna nods at Nadia smiling wide and approvingly. "Exactly so, Nadia. You wouldn't be required to get rid of your current base. Though I suspect that when things are running full steam here, a G.I.R.L base actually at the starport would fairly quickly become the de facto main base of operations. Especially for that more sensitive technology. A hundred Amazon guards is something nobody would want to mess with."

    "But that brings me on to the second thing. Nadia, if you're willing -- Themyscira would like to commission G.I.R.L to develop Zeta Beam facilities for the starbase. Ideally we would want about a dozen paired stations, so that we can allow for each of the super teams to have instant transport between their main and auxiliary bases. Eventually I'd like to be able to offer transit facilities between the starbase and several major population centers -- probably New York, London and Beijing. That's for future planning though, we need to consider security and so on."

Kate Bishop has posed:
    Kate looks up and over at Donna and then at the monitor. "Well." she muses sounding very thoughtful. So many complications there.

    "Probably New York." she sounds salty about it too. "I still have my secret identity as Kate Bishop to think about. Living in the Tower ... my dad just thinks I am fleeing the city to Metropolis and I have been scoping Metro U out... but I could do a New York school instead." she sighs a bit.

    "Unless we get me reliable rabbit holes or some shit ... I am not sure I could pull of manning this base instead of either the Tower or a New York base." she grins though. "I could just do the tower and we could ship batmite to New York.. or Vic?"

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia nods slowly, that thoughtful look coming across her face again as many different gears turn within her head. "While we have only executed them in pairs so far, theoretically any emitting station could connect with any receiving station. But we can try to lock them down as best we can. But there's another problem that needs to be dealt with before I'd want others relying on this tech to this degree. The third day of our first big SCIENCE! expo when we unveiled Zeta Beam tech and the Tereshkova to the world showing what GIRL could do, we were attacked by AIM. Like a small army with War Zeppelins and Science Tanks!" This is known, a large scale attack on the PymTech campus during a major Expo made all the news channels. Two of those Zeppelins wound up in the Hudson as flaming wreckage thanks for Mockingbird. "While we defeated most of them and largely repelled the attack, thanks in no small part to the Mom Squad, one of those War Zeppelins got away and they got away with one of our prototype Zeta Beam emitters that we haven't managed to recover yet. Until we do, while we are continuing work on the technology, there is a danger of well people with bad intentions commandeering it."

"But!" She brightens. "Hopefully we'll get it back soon. We were working on tracking them down when I got ambushed by NOWHERE and given a free vacation in the Arctic, I'll have to check in and see if Nat and the others uncovered anything while I was gone."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "There's no rush to make an decisions Kate," Donna says. "And if we get the Zeta beam teleporters working, it eliminates a lot of the problems -- basically permanent rabbit holes.. As Nadia said, parallel facilities can functionally be one headquarters in two places. That's something that could help with secret identities too, if you think about it. Kate Bishop could be seen in New York at around the same time Hawkeye is seen in Metropolis, or the space port."

    Donna has been smiling the whole time -- she's obviously both proud of her sister's planning and excited by the prospect of what the space port offers. Her smile softens a little bit though. "I mean I wouldn't want things to pan out so I saw less of you guys. Secondary basis make sense for a large super team, but less sense for a family."

    Donna nods her head at Nadia. "Yes, if it can be managed, the ideal would be having stations that are linked one-to-one so a station can simply be switched off to disable the other end. Even more ideal would be if there were key parts of the technology only in one station, the one at the starport. So the stations at the other end rely on the starport bases to operate at all. That keeps the key technology in one location which will be insanely secure. I can't see AIM or anyone else being dumb enough to attempt to assault the starport, especially if we can get reinforcements from Themyscira and half a dozen super teams almost instantaneously. "

    "If this is all good with you Nadia, just let me know what you need and it will be provided. All your costs, of course. But we can also provide some advanced ceramics technology, wire windings that are far more thermally stable than the metallurgy of Man's World can offer. And if you need a battalion of Amazons to lay waste to an AIM base, I think I could provide that too."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia grins a bit at the offer of a battalion of Amazons, "So you would want a facility for Themyscira, too?" She seems a bit surprised by this given what she has been lead to believe about Hippolyta's aversion to technology. "Or do you mean magic portals for the Themysciran reinforcements?" Being able to teleport to magic lady paradise island definitely seems like a good use for Zeta Beams in Nadia's mind.

"I don't think a battalion will be necessary, but you never know. I'm more worried they might find their way to Rann and what harm they could do there. Leaving that emitter out there is too much of an unknown. BUT! We'll get that dealt with and I know more than a few GIRLs," Herself included. "Who would like nothing better than to spend hours examining all the Themysciran technologies you have to offer. Honestly, I think this is going to be a lot of. Just need to finish tying up that loose end." Should be easy right? What could possibly go wrong?

Donna Troy has posed:
    "I'd love to encourage as much technology sharing as I can persuade my mother to allow," Donna says with a laugh. "As for a facility for Themyscira -- yes. It wasn't the easiest sell, but I was able to persuade the queen that all she'd have to do is depower the base station and it couldn't be used, so she'd have control over access to it." Her lips quirk up into a smirk. "Well that and dangling the possibility that it would allow her to call on her daughters whenever she wanted. That's the kind of carrot no mother can resist."

    Donna banks the T-Jet around the other way, circle the artificial island close to where a group of Atlantean submersible constructions vehicles continue to expand the platform. The oddly baroque vehicles don't look much like anything Nadia has seen revealed by Shuri, and that must be an answer to her question about Atlantean technology. Another ancient civilization which has married science and magic and come up with things quite alien to the technology of the rest of the world for Nadia to explore -- though from the looks of it, the Atlanteans are a bit more conventional in their technology than Themyscira is. Still, it makes sense that a society living under water would have its own direction of technological advancement.

    "Rann has had quite enough trouble it seems," Donna says. "So if a battalion of Amazons would help, just let me know. But equally you have the Titans to call on. If a few of us sneaking into an AIM base and destroying what they stole works best, just say so and I'm there."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia laughs and grins, "Yeah, Moms seem to be like that." Nadia's experience with mothers have been complicated to say the least but knowing Janet would literally murder an entire facility full of people to keep her safe, while horrifying on some levels, is also heartwarming in its own way. Visions of easy access to magic vacations, more discussions with the Science Amazon in her now broken but coming along Themysciran Greek, and visiting the BEES and Megalodons dance through the back of Nadia's mind.

Nadia stares out the window at the Atlantean machines far below. "Garth was definitely holding out on me!" She makes a mental note to ask him about all of this the next time she sees him. At length, she nods. "I think this is a great project. Very similar to what I've been doing with GIRL and SCIENCE! but on a way larger scale, like Earth scale, leave it to Diana to think on Earth scale. I'll be happy to be a part of it and I'm sure the rest of GIRL will be just as excited!"