Shen Kuo

> ***"Best thing about the galaxy: There is always another wonder waiting to be discovered..."***
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> - Shen Kuo, during his hundredth birthday party on Zanaam's famous Jujal Hotel -
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## Shen Kuo

Successor to Chancellor Shu Lin, **Shen Kuo was** the third Chancellor of the Innovation party and the Commonwealth. **Shen Kuo** was the last of 'The Old Guard' after replacing Lin as Chancellor in the 2305.11.20 elections

Captain of the CSV Tesla and the most recognized explorer of the whole Commonwealth, **Shen Kuo** was the first human captain to explore the stars and systems around Ortus. His many travels, experiences and adventures were later dramatized in a popular TV show named "Star Tracker" or "The Tesla's Chronicles".

Aside from his many contributions to the field of space travel and the analysis of many new worlds which would later become the homes of billions of Commonwealth citizens, **Shen Kuo** is famous for being one of the first humans to have contact with a member of an alien species. Being the first man to meet a member of the Alir Commune.

After the events of the Last Light and the following election **Shen Kuo** took up the mantle of Chancellor alongside newly appointed Aramathi Prime Minister Codrales cur'Hussel.

## **Early Years**

We first come to hear of Kuo, when he was at university, a place in wich he was known to be quite the rebel, being involved in instances of petty thievery, taking part in the use of recreational drugs, participating in acts of vandalism and in one instance, hacked the Ortus Institute of Technology mainframe and inserted copious amounts of pornography for all to see. Despite this, Kuo always managed to score fantastic grades and maintain cordial relationships with his teachers. This combined with his natural adaptability, technical know how and likability as a whole, meant that he would soon find himself under the radar of the science council, which would be something that changed his life in ways he could've never predicted.

During the very early days of the exploration phase, Commonwealth needed a captain for the newly constructed science Vessel CSV Tesla, wich would be used to scan the entire Aasha system and beyond. A fierce competition for the position began and Kuo took part in it. He performed phenomenally as expected, getting perfect results in the Zero-G tests and this combined with his own personal characteristics granted him the position of what would become the most famous Science Vessel in the history of the entire Commonwealth.

## **CSV Tesla (Footnote on the legendary ship)**

The **CSV Tesla**was the first Science Ship ever deployed by the Commonwealth and also the first of humanity's vehicles to travel outside the Ortus system. The ship has been taken across many systems and new worlds. The travels of it's captains and crews have become the stuff of legends, with many a captain and explorer choosing his/her career inspired by the many adventures of the Tesla.

## The jump

### **The journey across Aasha system**

In the year 2201, Shen Kuo became the captain of CSV Tesla and immediately sailed with his crew to investigate the Aasha system starting with the Moon near Ortus "**Schimmels World**". This moon as the very first investigation project proved to be a nerve racking experience, not only because it was the very first mission of investigating a galactic body that was not Ortus, but also because in Schimmels they found a completely inhospitable rock filled with a toxic atmosphere but also found terrifying titanic monsters that would've made Godzilla seem like a small reptile; needless to say that those images would hunt the entire team for the following weeks.

CSV Tesla would continue uncovering the mysteries the system had to offer for the remaining of that year and while none of the new discoveries they made during that period were as terrifying as those in Schimmel, the new ones were surely fascinating, mainly because they proved that, in the other barren worlds that existed in Aasha, there were signs of civilization; very ancient civilization, but interesting nonetheless. In the aforementioned planets, once could see (with the assistance of probes of course) buildings still preserved, even in the planetary conditions they were in. These discoveries caused quite the uproar in the scientific community but also great concerns for, if there was life in the system before...what exactly had brought it's end? The crew would finalize it's reconnaissance mission in mid 2202.

Shortly after their arrival back to Ortus, there was a breakthrough in interstellar travel technologies which came in the form of the invention of Wormholes. This technology was put into practice almost immediately and at the very beginning of the year 2203, the crew of CSV Tesla made the historic jump into another system...the Rammas system; one that would leave it's mark printed with fire in the minds of all members of the ship.

> *"If we fail, then at the very least there's a good chance we won't even notice"*
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> - Shen Kuo: Speaking on the fact that wormhole jumping had never been done before -
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### **Chartering the Stars**

To the surprise of quite literally all members of the crew, one of the very first signals the ship picked up when just arriving to the Rammas System, was one that was very similar to that of home; this basically meant that there was another planet just like Ortus waiting to be investigated, wich caused great cheer inside Tesla. Commander Kuo gave the order and the ship rushed to the marked location to start investigating the planet as soon as possible. This proved to be a decision that would weight heavily on his shoulders for the rest of his live, because thanks to the excitement, protocol procedures were somewhat overlooked and the unit got out of the ship only to be received by ravenous bull sized arachnids that jumped into the unsuspecting party members with such ferocity that the attack claimed the lives of four researchers. Only the quick actions of chief of security Drakovich, ensured that no more lives were lost in that dreaded planet. The crew mourned the dead for several days and payed a great homage to them as a good by gesture and then continued on with the mission, although the rest of Rammas would end up being rather unremarkable.

Next came the Scorom system, a nearby one which was also centered about a L-Class Star much like Aasha and that also possessed a planet that shared nearly identical characteristics with Ortus. The system itself was rather pleasant and had quite the few interesting things going for it, varying from ancient working alien structures that were repurposed for research, to ceramic pots that ended floating near the system's star. All of this however paled in comparison to what the team found in the planet of Scorom III (later known as Curaçao); a big amount of human sized fungoids named Kithri that were later found to have cognitive abilities, which in itself would be used to mark a momentous occasion in the history of the Commonwealth and of Science aswell.

A few more missions in the home system and some stops for supplies and the crew was sent to the Ciue System to investigate what researchers thought to be a new source of light besides that of the existent star. Once there, the sensors went completely haywire, picking up an energy signal from an entity that looked almost as if it was alive. Overjoyed by this discovery, Shen Kuo plotted course to get near that creature, but was forcefully stopped by Chief of Security Drakovich who argued that, getting near that thing without taking any precautions, or knowing what it was or what it could do, would end up in a repeat of Rammas. The situation was about to escalate, but Drakovich acted swiftly, locking Kuo in his chamber and doing the same for himself and having his team bring back the ship to Ortus, in which a report would be given. Quite surprisingly, Tesar and Ishii put quite the show, had an entire public hearing and scolded both men for jeopardizing the space exploration program. In the end, Drakovich was relocated as chief of the Marshall's teams sent to Scorom III (Curaçao) for colonization and Kuo was sent back to Tesla and ordered to continue exploring more systems.

In the year 2208, CSV Tesla with Kuo at its command, found itself investigating a black hole near the Aasha System. The investigation took several days, and while the possibility of returning home years later due to the time distortions was on everyone's minds, they continued their job diligently, testing some equipment that could end up being used in any conditions. The party would return without hiccups back home. During theses six years, commander Kuo recorded every single event as part of a contract with Ortus Astronaut Academy, and these recordings are still in use as part of the training process; the contract expired in 2208 but he would continue recording his many travels. One thing of note is that around this time, Takumi Ishii contacted Kuo with the intention of reviewing the nature of the travels. Kuo, being a scientist first, would always put the findings into research focused programs but this came at the expense of Commonwealth's economy wich was something Ishii addressed; from that conversation forward, CSV Tesla's mission would need to be expanded into economy-industrial focused as well as research focused, in order to save not only the Commonwealth from bankruptcy but also the space program as a whole. This however, as would be see in the future would not get in the way of Tesla's findings and legacy within the scientific community.

### **Politician in absentia**

In the year 2211, Kuo decided to make a jump into politics in a move that surprised nearly everyone (much like in Lin's case), mainly because he would need to act as a representative of his party "Individual Choice Foundation" in absentia. Although given that he would have to be the face of said party from afar, this coincided quite well with having individuality as the forefront of it's core values. The founding of this party coincided with the discovery of a mountain range in the duwix system that would later be found to be a gigantic skeleton of a creature that existed eons ago and that still poses a challenge to the scientific community.

## The encounter

If there is one thing however that marked a historical moment both for the Commonwealth and Shen Kuo, that was the encounter of an alien vessel that was in a pretty bad shape, in the Duwix system. The encounter occurred in the year 2212 after operatives in CSV Tesla picked up a distress signal coming from a wandering ship that looked like it had gone through some really big difficulties; a lot a debate went in trying to get a consensus if the crew should aid those that were left alive on the ship or if the danger of doing so would be too great. In the end all debate came to an end after someone on the alien ship send a signal that could be read as HELP, albeit with some unique characters. The order was given and commander Kuo went to the other ship to greet and try to help the alien crew in whatever they needed, but he was greeted (alongside the security staff) by a collapsing alien creature with a hole in its head.

Kuo reacted inmediately mobilizing the medical team, and for the duration of the week, the remaining alien were stabilized and from there, good relationships started almost intermediately. The Alir as they were called greatly appreciated the help and told the story of how their ship had ended marooned in space and they with brain worms inside their heads. After that, the diplomatic corps of each nation (Commonwealth and Alir Commune) took over the rest although, Shen and the rest of the crew of CSV Tesla took part in the meeting of the diplomats since they shared a bit of a bond with the saved Alir.

### L**ater explorations and head of research in Zanaam**

In the year 2253, Kuo and the rest of the crew of CSV Tesla went on a new mission with the objective of finding the origin of a signal sent from the Valin Prime system, one that belonged to an insectoid species that had not developed interstellar travel called The Valin. The investigation lasted months and it was revealed that the Valin had genocided themselves in a nuclear war; although not everything was lost for the species, because thanks to a clever strategy from some members of their scientific community, billions of memories had been saved and were now placed in the hands of Commonwealth's brightest minds who decided to bring back the species as robots which, while they would not be fully sentient, at very least would be quite literally back from the dead and also, maybe in the future could be able to regain their sentience.

After this, Kuo retired from his position as an explorer and was placed as the head researcher of Zanaam, overseeing the investigations that were taking place in order to unravel the mysteries of the obelisk south of the planet. From here, he would also be working closely with his political partners in the Individual Choice Foundation making sure to keep a keen eye in the politics of the nation, helping in matters of research and general knowledge gathered in his many travels.

Shen would pick up his position of explorer for a final time to research the destroyed crystal creatures in the system of Kazoo in which he and the rest of Tesla's crew found out that the creature had quite impressive regenerative capabilities, a trait that would surely have some interesting uses for the military, a branch in which Kuo had been taking an interest for quite some time.

### **The last light**

In the year 2305, Commonwealth felt victim to the biggest psionic terrorist attack since it's inception at the hands of the Zracon Union, an attack directed to cripple the nation eliminating all people of importance: politicians, military staff and important member of the science community, including Kuo. The attack was successful in many instances but Kuo managed to survived it, being a veteran of many intense adventures in his life.

After surviving the attack, he once again ran for the position of chancellor of the Commonwealth, but did so with very few expectations to win, since it was expected that Shu Lin would emerge victorious once again, considering that it was likely that citizens needed a known face to keep things stable after the attack. To surprise of mostly everyone in high positions, including Kuo himself, he emerged victorious, becoming the third chancellor in the history of the Commonwealth, marking with it, a new age in the nation.

## Trivia

Being the captain of CSV Tesla for so many decades meant that Kuo took part on a great amount of adventures; events that he himself has recorded, some for the Ortus Astronaut Academy and other for his personal enjoyment. There are also many rumors about his love interests, one of them being with an Alir maid, that he himself allegedly engaged with in a romantic relationship for a time; this would've taken place during the first years of Commonwealth-Alir engagements.

Another rumored romantic interest of Kuo was a Shalani boarding officer, one that apparently intercepted Tesla to question the crew about some trespassing issues, but in reality, it's believed that she actually had heard the stories about the famed explorer and just wanted to meet with him when he was in the neighborhood. Both of these stories are rumors however and nothing is really certain...yet.

Aside from this Kuo is also quite a famous writer and he has a grand total of 10 books in which he narrates some of his craziest stories and that of team's. Some of those are also works of fiction about an alternative reality. All books are great hits in all worlds of the Commonwealth and there is always an insatiable hunger for more of them.