Awesome, thanks. I already have the more powerful laser, but I never got anything past that. How much do you have to buy before they offer the lander defense upgrades?

EDIT: The deed is done! I got the Melnorme to tell me about the Children, and from there, everything has worked out fine. Thanks for your help!

Sounds like I have to talk to the Melnorme about it, then. I don't have any credits on me now, but I've already asked them about alien life forms at least nine times already, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. I'll just have to find another one of the Rainbow Worlds. So far I've only seen one, but I gather that there are at least ten of them.

And yes, I do keep multiple save states. I like to experiment, and I don't want to have to restart the entire game if I run out of time.

By the way, do the Melnorme ever offer any technology that increases your lander's resistance to the elements? That would be extremely helpful for exploring dangerous planets. Right now, I don't see how it's possible to mine worlds such as Venus and the Mycon's Shattered Worlds.

I can't seem to get the Syreen to go to war with the Mycon. I've got all three egg cases, and I've spoken with the Mycon over and over again, yet they've only barely mentioned the Deep Children or whatever the hell. Even when I go to their homeworld at Epsilon Scorpii,  I can't ask them about the Children. My only options are a bunch of pleas for peace and understanding (which they of course won't listen to), a threat, and asking what the Shattered Worlds are. Asking about the Worlds only gets them to say "these are the homes of the Deep Children" or something like that, and the rest get different responses each time.

When I go back and talk to the Syreen right now, my only options are an apparently pointless dialogue about their clothes, and a farewell. They talked about their homeworld plenty the first time I met them, but they won't say crap now.

The only thing I can think of that might help, besides visiting the Mycon homeworld another 10 or 15 times, is trying to get the Trade Master to talk about it; he hasn't mentioned it yet.. That would take time, resources, and fuel, however, all of which I am very short on. It's January, 2159, and I have no money to replenish enough crew to explore dangerous worlds for valuable minerals. Therefore, I must figure out how to get to the Sun Device soon, or I'll have to restart the game and redo unknown hours of work. Considering I've already had to do that once before, I really want to avoid having  to do it again.

Sorry for the long post, but I seem to be sooooo close to finishing the game and I'm getting really tired of hearing about "JUFFO-WUF" and its "PULSING HEAT" or whatever the hell.