Two days in J-Space, and all is quiet.  Nothing much for anybody other than Saskia and Shui to do, and even their duties are much reduced.

Shui's days become a pleasant routine.  She gets up in the morning, does her own exercises privately, then does a slightly different set when Corlan arrives for his.  When finished, she offers the man tea, each and every day, choosing to spend that time talking with him regarding his travels, getting to know him as much as possible.

When that pleasant diversion is completed, she goes for breakfast, taking more time to converse with anyone who happens to be in the galley.  From there, it's off to the Low Berths, checking on their passangers.  For a while after, she has free time - it is mostly spent in her 'office', going through Corlan's journals.  She finds them fascinating.  Shui does, however, take the time to get out every half an hour or so, to walk the ship and check to make certain everyone has what they need.

Then it's time for lunch, and more discussion with anyone on hand.  More time spent walking the ship, offering refreshments to the crew on duty and any passangers she comes across.  More free time follows, which she spends on anything that seems appropriate - speaking with people, getting to know the the crew, answering any questions from the passangers.

After a light dinner, after another walkaround, she sequesters herself in her quarters for an hour and a half, then comes out to check the Low Berths again. 

At some point, though, she pages Jago.  "Captain Lanza?  If you have a moment, I would like to speak to you.  The children are expressing interest in the bridge of the ship.  I wondered if it might be possible for them to have a tour...carefully supervised, of course."

Yasmine's day become a routine.  She gets up too early in the morning as usual, as it would not do to break the habit, does her exercises alone or with Tylen if he is up to it, showers and goes about checking for hidden bugs as well as doing the routine checks on various systems.

One by one the others wake up and gets in her way or simply sits around being lazy, to lesser or greater lengths, but she keeps up her jokes and the discipline such as it is, even if the latter is not very serious at all.  Not even Jago can complain about it, as it is more in jest than anything.

Tylen, apart from the optional workouts, get a tour of the ship - in the sense of where the weak and strong points are.  She also shares her opinions about the weapons and any quirks in the system that comes up from time to time.

The rest of the day looks a lot like the morning, until the evening comes.  That is when she spends time tinkering with her motorcycle out in the hold.  While she hardly claims to love the bike or anything, it is something to do, something that takes her mind off other things.


OOC:  Yeah, I ripped it of from someone.  ;)  Call it a homage, or get shot.  8)

Saskia's days become a pleasant routine.  She spends most of her time napping in Engineering, or eating large quantities of chocolate - no!  Wait!  That's somebody else's days.

Saskia's real days involve her stripping out components from the thruster systems and replacing them with ones that she knows won't embarrass her by dying within the next ten minutes.  Then, often, she removes and replaces the replacements, because she suspects them of lying to her.  Plasma containment field chambers are particularly prone to that, to the extent that Saskia knows that if she were to look up the word "liar" in a dictionary, the definition would include a schematic of a plasma containment field chamber.

She makes occasional forays to the coffee machine, padding across the lounge on bare feet, after first checking that Shui is not about.  It occurs to her that she should remove the dirty dressing and speak to the medic about her injured hand, see if it needs a fresh covering on it.  Unfortunately, the thought of what manner of gruesomeness might be lurking under the current dressing, waiting to leap out and give her nightmares, prevents her doing what she knows she should.

OOC: If Yasmine can rip off other peoples' posts, then I can.  I'm a less good riter and need the help.  :o)

Time in ‘J’ space passes all to quickly for Jago, a game of chess with Corlan, a guided tour of the flight deck for the kids a bit of paper work and the routine pilot checks, two days passes like so many hours.

At his desk, with the door open of course, Jago takes a break, with a hot black coffee in one hand, an unlit cigar in the other and the soft sounds of classical music in his ears, Jago slouches in his chair and stars long and hard at the two pristine white objects in the metal tray on the desk and smiles.

Conrad finds most Jumps boring.  Nothing to see, nothing for a navigator to do, because after the insertion, there should be nowhere for the ship to go, except to the preplotted emergence point, where it should pop out seven days later, with whatever momentum it had when it went in.

But "boring" is better than the only real alternative in a Jump, which is "terrifying".  Once, just once, he'd been aboard a ship that misJumped.  Nineteen days in Jump, and the food ran out after fifteen.  The Quetzl had come out, in the end.  Thirty parsecs off target, and there'd been a frantic half hour checking charts and searching for nav beacons.  They'd been lucky, the system was inhabited, and had a basic port, because Quetzl had eaten her own Jump engine.  They could have been stuck in interstellar space, with no stardrive.

The really scary part came when they realized, later, that they'd been dumped back into normal space because they ran into a gravity well.  Given the scales involved, the chances of that moonlet being in just the right spot were ridiculously ininitesmal.  A tiny, freak coincidence had saved them from becoming another ghost ship story.

Three of his four crewmates had never boarded a ship again.  One of them wouldn't even go inside an interplanetary shuttle.  He claimed that angels had spoken to him during that Jump, told him he would survive, but that he was never to go offworld again.  He hadn't even gone home, but stayed on the world where they'd landed.

Conrad, on the bridge, plotting the next Jump on Jago's flight plan, stretches.  "Yessiree, borin' is just fine by me, given the alternative."

Superstitiously, he leans across and prods the warning lights in turn, just to make sure they're all awake and paying attention.  Never mind that, by the time they started flashing, it'd already be way too late.

As if on cue, a red telltale flickers to life on the bridge.  Luckily for Conrad's nerves, it's not on his panel.  Something on the environmental systems display, which is, perhaps, even more worrying than anything to do with the drives.

Quickly, he calls Jago and Shui to the bridge to take a look.

Jago sighs when he gets the call, ’tea break over, back on your heads’ he mumbles the punch line to a joke that’s as old as humanity itself as he gets heavily to his feet and ambles through eh lounge to the bridge, if there are passengers on this side of the ship, they really don’t want to see the captain running, it aint a pretty sight at the best of times but ‘J’ spaces adds a whole new dimension to the event.

Shui looks up at the page, and puts down her reader.  The latest of Corlan's diary entries will have to wait, it seems.  A pity - the odd, cross-cultural growth of the asteroid-bound colony fascinated her.  Quickly picking up her light jacket, she modestly checks herself in the mirror before leaving the room, brushing her hair out from beneath the collar.

With passangers aboard, one must look in uniform at all times...even when one is not.

Moving quickly but not hurrying, she makes her way to the bridge, begging off any attempts at conversation along the way.  Something has been nagging her for the last couple of days, and finally, upon entering the bridge, she makes the connection.  One corner of her mouth rises, ever so slightly, as does the thin eyebrow on the same side.

"Mr. Dietz...I assume this is not regarding you finally setting a date for your physical?"

"No Ma'am.  Though I swear I wuz jus' fixin' ta come on down an' see y'all.  After all, he looks past Shui, to the bridge entryway, as if checking for something, or someone, "I sure can't think o' nuthin' better I could be doin' than spendin' a little time in such delightful company."

Then he points to the disturbing red light, "Then that there warnin' light jus' kinda upped an' caught my eye, so I thought I oughta call you an' Jago through ta take a look at it."


"Says it's some sorta warnin' for an overload in the air system.  Well, I ain't no expert, but that sure don't sound too good."

Shui offers Conrad a quick smile at his compliment - it's truly appreciated.  It's probably a pleasantry, but still...very welcome.  The thought crosses her mind that he might simply be saying that to deflect the attention from his absence.  Which is, she admits, </I>more palatable than a simple excuse.</i>  A compliment is a close second to a valid reason.

But the smile drops off her fine features as she stares at the baleful, burning light on the board.  It's an ugly thing, and an ugly colour, the moreso due to the label underneath it.  Panic is the first thing that comes to mind, and immediately quashed.  "Thank you, Mr. Dietz.  And while there are no 'good' problems, there are many more I would rather be having."  Her eyes flick toward Jago for a moment, before Shui moves to stand beside his chair.  One hand goes out to rest, gently, on Conrad's shoulder - in this sort of circumstance, reaching out is preferable to isolation.  "Mr. Dietz," she asks softly, "might you access the environmental status?  I need to look at our current atmospheric composition, and the projected estimates until jump's end."

Jago will, most certainly, be calling up Saskia himself.

Shui studies the readouts as Conrad calls them up to the main displays.  Atmospheric composition seems normal, but there is an unexplained particulate build up in the filtration system.  The filters seem to be getting all of it (at lest the secondary filter module isn't showing any, so it's all being stopped by the first set.

The problem seems to be that the dust is unidentified, and is accumulating rapidly.  Source unknown.

Two days into the Jump, so five days left.  But the filters will need to be changed long before that.

”Hmmm! Wonder what that is.”
“Shui, would you have a discreet word with the passengers and see if anyone has a pastime that might be producing particles like these.”
“Conrad, would you check the cargo for leaks or evaporation.”
“I’m going to have a word with Saskia, when you see Yasmin and Tylen, bring them up to speed and have them keep their eyes peeled.”

As Jago walks into Engineering, something about fist sized, composed of plastic and metal, slams against the bulkhead next to him.  It shatters, scattering fragments and small components, mostly ceramic pseudoconductors and interface connectors, onto the deck.

Saskia is laying on her back, with everything from the sternum up hidden inside an access panel.  As she pulls her hand back from the throw, she can be heard muttering, from somewhere inside the panel, "Frelling heap of scholtz.  What the frell are navy teaching their techs these day?"

Her now empty hand gropes about next to her, appearing to be searching for another of the same component, which is sitting on the floor next to her, but which she keeps missing with her outspread fingers.

"Where are you?  You're as bad as your brother, and you saw what just happened to him."  She starts to work her way back out of the small compartment, her bare feet sliding across the floor, but gaining just enough purchase for her to wriggle and squirm out.  "Don't make me introduce you to Mister Hammer, you stupid...   Hey!  Jago!" she gets her head out of the hole, and suddenly spots the captain standing there.  Carefully she sits up and slides the hammer across the floor, behind her back, until she's certain that neither Jago, nor the offending transition modulator can see it.

"Need something?" she asks, brightly.

Shui taps her fingers on the console edge, then turns to glance at Jago.  The Captain gets a quick nod - expedience is the watchword, here.  "Yes, Captain.  If you would, please ask Engineer Blake for a sample.  I shall do an analysis."

Then she walks away, moving with that same quick-but-not-hasty gait toward the crew quarters.  Her intention: carry out the Captain's orders.  The thought occurs to her that if it is something illegal there could be trouble, but...that would be foolish.  They're on board a ship, during jump.  Where would they go?

Showing up armed would be just the thing to precipitate a problem, though.

First stop - Miles.

Jago grins and nods his head, “ye, we just got a flag up on the environment board, that something is choking up the primary air filters, its not critical yet, but they wont last the whole jump. I’d like to get those filters switched over as soon as possible, so we can get a sample for Shui to identify. I’d also like to know what the spares situation is, in case things get worse, and if necessary, check if it’s possible to clean up used filters for reuse. I don’t want to have to issue the passengers with filter masks, it’s so unprofessional.”

"That doesn't sound good." Saskia replies, a frown creasing her brow, "I changed the filters just before the last Jump.  Normally I'd expect to do that about once every six months.  I judge it by the anniversaries of my last two dates."

She stands, "I'll get right on it.  Maybe we picked up something at Vilis.  That atmosphere wasn't the nicest."


Edit - dumb typo.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:46, Mon 20 Mar 2006.

Nothing.

No leaks from the cargo, which was about what Conrad had expected.  The manifest said the containers held liquids, not powder.  Still he checked them over anyway. running an atmosphere sniffer over all the edges and joins.

Nothing.  "Nuthin'.  So, what next?" he mutters as he returns the sniffer probe to its compartment in the instrument's case.

Saskia wastes no time removing and replacing one of the filter elements, then she sets to work collecting samples from it.  Some of the samples she leaves outside Shui's door, and the rest she starts checking over herself.  Some of her own effort is directed to finding what the strange yellow dust is, but most is concerned with finding ways to remove it, quickly and efficiently, without damaging the filters.

Conrad's survey of the hold shows no leaks, and the containers have no signs of contamination on them.  He does, however, find Yas and Tylen in the hold, tinkering with their respective personal vehicles, comparing engine outputs, gear ratios, and assorted other specs and stats.  He wastes no time in informing the gunners of the situation.

Shui approaches Miles Janur.  Miles is in his cabin, and as she passes through the lounge, Corlan gives her a happy smile, and a wave, then returns to his book.  Miles opens the door, and stands aside to allow Shui entry, when she asks to speak to him privately, on a matter of some urgency...

With a wave and a bow to Corlan, Shui returns his smile.  Her own fades, though, as she moves to speak with Miles Janur.  She nods at his gracious invitation, and steps into the cabin.

There's no point beating around the bush.  Better to make this fast - she has more than one person to whom she needs to speak.  "Mr. Janur.  Something of importance has come up, and I will be asking questions of the passengers.  Privately.  Our air-filtration system has filled with particulate, and the problem does not rise from the ship's systems.  Now, it is no cause for alarm - we can easily clean it out.  But I must ask: is it possible someone in your family may have released something that created this problem?"

She gives him a quick smile before continuing.  "I would like to stress that we are not looking for someone to blame.  Rather, we search for an answer to this mystery."

Jago enters his cabin and slumps heavily into his chair, with the wheels set in motion there is nothing to do now but wait. So much of this business is about waiting that it should be routine, but, at times like this, the possibility of even the simplest of the problems suddenly spiralling out of control rather inhibits the usual time filling activities.

Jago ponders on the perversity of life and absently reaches for the white, doughnut like object from the metal tray on his desk, he doesn’t move it far from its companion cube, but absently turns it round between his fingers.

Miles looks a little confused, then looks at the few belongings which are spread around the room.  The secret of the weight of the luggage soon becomes apparent to Shui.  Books, real books, bundles of heavy paper, with words printed on them.  Some of them look to be very old.

"As far as I know, Miss, there is nothing in our luggage that could cause such a problem.  We brought only clothing, and the required books of our faith."  He smiles, friendly and helpfull, "You are, of course, very welcome to investigate, but I would ask that you not touch the books with your bare hands, unless you are a member of the Church of Silver Light?" and now his expression becomes hopeful.


Tylen turns to Yas as Conrad moves away, "Do you think we should see if the captain has anything for us to do about this?"


Saskia continues with her research...


Jago toys with the toroid...

Shui smiles back, nodding.  "No, I fear I am not a member.  But I take you at your word-"  for now, she thinks, but it never registers on her face "-and will inquire of the other passengers."  She gives the man a quick bow.  "I am sorry to have disturbed you - and please remember, this is a minor problem."

She avoids saying 'There is no cause for alarm'.  That invariably triggers a panic.

Taking her leave, she heads to Marriel Korson's cabin next.  Pausing at the door, Shui frowns, realizing she knows very little of this woman.  Very little at all.  With the family, she knew they had children.  It would be unlikely they would try something...dangerous.  But this woman?

Thrusting her doubts aside, she chimes the door.  "Ms. Korson?  I apologize for the interruption.  May I speak with you a moment?"

If only they knew what the substance was....

"Jago?  Got a minute?" Saskia asks from the door of the captain's office, "I know what it is.  Well, not exactly, but I have a rough idea."

She moves further into the room, barefoot, as usual, "I was testing some samples and found complex hydrocarbons and proteins.  Whatever the dust is, it's organic.  I've got some solvents that might clear it, so we can clean the filters, but it'd be better to find out where it's coming from and stop it at source."

The white donut shaped object that Jago holds seems to be somehow merged with his fingers as Saskia walks in, but his hand comes away cleanly when he places it in a metal tray on his desk beside a cube made of the same material.

“My little pet,” he comments with a smile, “I was wondering if it was responsible but I don’t think so.”

“I was wondering about putting filter paper or something over one extractor in each room, just for a short time, to see if we can pin point where it’s getting into the system, what do you think?”

Saskia's eyes become unfocussed for a few seconds, as she stares at a spot somewhere about a metre above Jago's head, "That would impair the air circulation for a while, but not by too much.  Even if it dropped by, say ten percent, we'd still meet IBSS standard."

Her eyes snap downt to the things Jago had been playing with, "What are they?  Something you picked up on Vilis for spec trade?"

“No, I picked it up in a junk shop, way back on Tyrfin, it’s been in the safe since, but I moved it out onto the desk recently, which is why I wondered if it was the source of the contamination. I’ve no idea what it is, but it completely changes every now and again, and demonstrates some peculiar properties that I find rather intriguing. Usually, it’s in one piece,” Jago shrugs and invites Saskia to inspect the things with a wave of his hand.

Tylen turns to Yas as Conrad moves away, "Do you think we should see if the captain has anything for us to do about this?"

"I suppose, even if it shoudl be my time off," Yas jokes but sounds dead serious and puts her tools away with a sigh.  "See you later then."  The last is directed at her bike.

She wanders off in search of Jago and pops her head in through the doorway to his place.

"Yo boss, do you need...  What's that?" she asks and is distracted by the strange thing on the desk.

Marriel Korson's cabin looks as if nobody is using it.  The young woman is some sort of psychotic neat-freak.  Despite the fact that nothing, absolutely nothing, is so much as a milimetre out of place, she actually apologises to the steward for the mess.

When Shui explains why she's there, Marriel looks horrified, "Dust?  I don't think it's from me.  I tried hard to keep everything neat and tidy in here."  Nervously she drags a finger across the top of the jewellery case that sits on the bedside table, and inspects for telltale traces of dust, before adjusting the case mainutely to realign it with the edges of the tabletop.

Taking the the two objects from the desk, Saskia suddenly laughs, "I wish I knew, Yas."  She peels the cube off her fingers, then frowns as she rubs her fingers and thumb together, before laughing once more as she realises that both objects are now stuck to her other hand.

Finally she presses them down into the tray, and carefully slides her fingers off them.  Once again she rubs her fingers together, before sniffing at them.

"That's impossible.  They stick to things, but they're not sticky.  Could be some sort of molecular bonding.  Navy uses that for cold-welding stuff.  Only thing is that if I tried to hold something with a molecule bond surface, I'd lose a lot of skin trying to let go of it.  Molecular bonding is permanent.  But these things stick tight just until they get something else to stick to."

Saskia pops a finger in her mouth, sucking it briefly, then says, "Definitely no residue, so it's not some sort of chemical adhesive.  Jago, you know I always got Jett to download those tech mags for me?  Well, if anybody else has anything like this, they're not admitting to it."

She regards the cube and the torus, and asks, "So do they do anything else impossible, or is that it?"

”Everything they do, it does, is impossible,” Jago laughs, “but let’s not get side tracked, you can play with it later, once we’ve found the source of this dust.”

“It changes shape now and again,” Jago repeats for Yasmin’s benefit, “it might have produces the dust at that time, but if so, the problem is over, until the next change. I really don’t think that is the case, and we can soon see because the accumulation on the filters will tail off quickly.”

“We are going to try to locate the source by putting filters over the atmosphere scrubbing intakes, just for a while to see where the stuff is getting in from.”

"Of course, Ms. Korson," Shui says, inwardly wincing.  Hopefully the woman won't think she is mocking her name.  "I very much doubt it is coming from this room - you seem to have kept everything in mint condition.  As I said, the problem is not a serious one - the filters are more than capable of handling the issue.  But we do need to ask the question."

Begging off further discussion, Shui heads for the last person on the list, and someone she definitely does not suspect of being 'the culprit' - Corlan.  As she walks, the medic keys into her dataglove, opening a comm-channel to the Engineer.

++ Ms. Blake - your pardon, but do we have a sample of the material?  I would like to run it through a bioanalysis.  If you have some, would it be possible to meet me in the infirmary in...three minutes, or so? ++

"'Scuse me Jago." Saskia crosses to the intercom and mashes the button with her thumb.  "Shui, I took some samples, and I left some, sealed in vials, in a box just outside your door.  The thing is that I tested some myself, and it looks to be something organic.  Full of hydrocarbons.  I have some solvents that will clear it out of the filters, but the air will smell a bit strange afterwards."

Jago nods his approval as he listens to Saskia on the intercom, she’s a good man to have on board.

Tylen speaks up then after following Yas to the little meeting. "Could we configure the ships internal sensors to pick the stuff up, maybe locate it's source or where it's gathered mostly? I don't know much about sensors, but it seems like a possible solution, am I right Saskia?"

Corlan looks up from his reading and smiles as Shui approaches him in the lounge.  His expression changes somewhat as she explains the situation, and he hits the power switch on the book.

"You had better come with me, Miss Tiesi.  I have an awful feeling I know what this might be."  Standing, he crosses to his cabin and enters, and as the door closes, he dims the lights, before opening the closet.  "Sorry about that, but it can't be exposed to bright light."

Inside the closet is a bowl, holding some compost and a plant.  The plant is in bloom, and the flower is bioluminescent, glowing a pale yellow in the dimness of the room.  It is very delicate looking, a mass of filaments, rather than actual petals, and as Corlan brushes a fingertip across them, the light changes to pale green, then blue, before shading back to yellow again.

"It's a moonlily, from Regina.  I brought it aboard two years ago as a seed.  A reminder of my garden at home.  They only bloom once every couple of years, and then only if conditions are perfect, then it stays in bloom for a single day, and the blossom shrivels and falls the very next time it is exposed to bright light.  This one finally opened shortly after leaving Vilis, and I've kept it in darkness to preserve the blossom as long as possible."  Corlan sighs, and waves of colour shimmer across the strange flower.

"I never thought it would bloom, here, on a starship.  A testament, I suppose, to Miss Blake's maintenance of the environmental controls.  But I imagine I'll need to destroy it if it's contaminating the air."

++ Thank you, Ms. Blake, ++ Shui replies gratefully.  ++ I shall certainly have a look at it as soon as I have finished my questions.  I am...relieved it will not cause any serious problems. ++

That we have yet discovered.  But she doesn't say that out loud.

Silently, concerned, Shui follows Corlan into his room.  And there, to her astonishment, he reveals what may indeed be the culprit.  Eyes wide with wonder, she settles down in a crouch, her habitual reserve washed away by the vision before her.  "Mr. DeSant, this flower..."  She swallows as the colours change again, and feels herself close to tears, moved by the sight to an emotion she cannot quite define.

Then she looks up.  "No," she says, breathlessly.  Then, more firmly, repeats herself.  "No."  Still crouched, Shui turns toward the flower.  "Thus far, we have no proof it is this flower.  I need to do an analysis upon the dust.  However, should it prove to be the pollen, there must be a way we can keep the flower in a filtered environment."  The doctor narrows her eyes.  In order to do some of her medical work, she requires a sterile environment, free of dust.  Microfiltration units provide that environment, in an enclosed area.  If she sets them up here....  They will quickly become plugged.  But how quickly?  They will require cleaning on a daily basis, at the very least.

The doctor slowly pushes herself to her feet, and shifts back so that she can look at both Corlan and the flower simultaneously.  "Please, Mr. DeSant.  Let me see what I can do.  There is no threat to the ship, and we are not even certain that the flower is the problem."  With a sigh, she raises both hands.  "Though it does seem the most likely culprit.  However...there may be a way to preserve it."  Reaching out, she stops her fingers just short of his arm.  "Please.  It is too beautiful, and if it was only a small part of your garden...that is a memory too wonderous to even imagine."

"And such a memory must be protected.  Cherished."  Her hand waves toward the flower.  "Here."

Corlan looks depressed, even in the deep shadows of the stateroom.  "The flower will be gone within a day or two, leaving the plant to bear fruit - which I'll dispose of as soon as it appears.  Such a beautiful flower, but the fruit smells like something a month dead, washed up on a tropical beach." he smiles, a little sadly, "Most odd.  There are actually creatures up in the Highlands that like that stench, which is how the seeds are spread.  There's just no accounting for xenobiochemistry, I suppose."

"If you need to take a sample, the flower produces a pollen analogue in those three organs there.  The fourth, in the centre, stores pollen from other specimens, sometimes for decades, allowing the plant to produce fruit, even if the population of polinating insects is reduced by adverse conditions."

"These last few days really have been a trial for me, Miss Tiesi, and I just want to say thank you for all your help."


In Jago's office, his two odd little toys are returned to the desk, and Saskia heads off to work on the ideas put forward to track the source of the contaminant, nodding to Tylen, "I'm not sure if they're up to the job, but I'll see if there's anything I can do with the sensors.  Failing that we can go with the lower tech approach."

Which leaves Yas and Tylen still with the Captain, while Conrad finishes up his sweep of the hold.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:35, Fri 31 Mar 2006.

"Well, I'm going to check over the cargo again, inch by inch.  Can't hurt to make certainyl sure now, can it?  Nope," Yas says and turns to leave the cabin of the captain and head over to search the cargo bay.  If there is something wrong in there she will find it, and if there is nothing wrong in there she will probably find something else wrong, so either way it will not be a waste of her time, she reasons.

"Don't play with your things now, skippy," she calls out as she passes the the crew lounge, a crooked grin appearing on her face.

"Howdy Yasmine." Conrad looks up from the sniffer as Yas steps into the hold, "I'm jus' about done in here, an' it's lookin' all clear.  Nuthin' on any of the containers, or anythin' else neither."

He carefully refrains from mentioning that he ran the sniffer over the two personal vehicles while he was at it, just to be sure, fully realizing that some people can be a little sensitive about such things.

"What's nex' for me to be doin'?"

"If you don't mind I'll do it myself anyway.  Can't hurt, unless your feelings are hurt, of course," Yas replies with a teasing grin.  "But if you had it with the hold you can go do any other area, 'cept for the passengers for now.  Can't hurt that either, I think." she adds and smiles briefly before she turns her full attention to manually inspect every single container, even though it is a daunting task.  But that is something she is familiar with from her days the Marines.

Shui blinks at the description of the fruit.  Not all that glitters is gold, of course.  It's a shame about the stench, but why is Corlan looking so depressed?  Because the flower is almost gone?  Or is he thinking about his past?  Uncertain which, she doesn't try to offer any comfort, concerned she might offend.  It is probably the flower...things like this are not meant to be forever.  They burn too brightly.

Reaching out with a tissue (no doubt Yasmine would have something amusing to say about that), Shui brushes the indicated area ever so carefully, and then folds it up.  Then she stands and turns to face Corlan in the shifting light of the flower.  "Mr. DeSant...I will not say that I assisted you for duty's sake.  It has been, truly, my pleasure.  Please take me at my word, and you are most welcome for any help I might give, be that as a doctor, steward, or merely a fellow passenger who finds your company most intriguing."

"Please," she continues, "when the flower is gone, and the fruit arrives, I would like to examine it.  I can remove it to my laboratory, to...clear the room of whatever scent may disturb you."  She considers for a moment.  "Though I suspect you must think it an odd request - I assure you I do not prefer the scent of month-old rot to a bouquet of roses."  A quick bow.  "I would greatly appreciate it."

Meeting his eyes, she cocks her head to the side, a small smile playing a the corners of her mouth.  "It seems that every time I turn around, Mr. DeSant, you have another surprise for me.  I must admit, I am most curious to see what the next could be."  Dropping into a crouch, she studies the flower again, reaching out very carefully to touch the 'petals', her fingers as light upon them as feathers.

Conrad makes his way through to Jago's cabin to report in.  Tylen is there, with the captain, and Conrad nods to him as he enters.  Then, all business, he speaks to Jago, "Jago?  I scanned the cago, an' I di'n't find nuthin'.  Went right through the hold. an' it all checks out clean.  Yas said I should check the rest of the ship, 'ceptin' the passenger side.  Thought I'd start with the bridge, work my way aft, but this is gonna be a lot tougher'n the cargo.  Might go quicker if'n Tylen here could gimme a hand with it?  Unless'n ya'll got somethin' else for him to be doin'?"

“Good job Conrad,” Jago says, getting to his feet and gesturing with his unlit cigar, “we’ll both help, bridge first, then the hanger and the air car, I’ll trust everyone to check their own rooms.”

Tylen nods to both Saskia's reply and the prospect of a job to occupy him. They needed to get to the bottom of the mystery of the substance. For the passengers and for the wellbeing of the ship's crew, possibly even the ship itself. In that regard he was happy to be of serivce. "Ready and willing, where can I get another scanner?"

"Sure, I got a spare in my room.  Jus' let  me have a minute to fetch it, an' we'll be good to go."

Jago, Conrad and Tylen make their way to the Bridge, the latter two armed with sniffers and start checking for any sign of contaminants in the compartment.  Jago uses his familiarity with the layout of the bridge to point out odd nooks and crannies behind panels and under consoles, while the others use the sniffers to check the places Jago indicates.

Yas searches the cargo bay again, crawling about to peer under containers, climbing over others, and generally getting a good workout.  At one point she is squeezed into a narrow gap behind a stack of containers, and fails to see Shui pass through, carrying a carefully folded tissue.

Shui takes her leave of Corlan, and carefully carries the tissue back through the hold, failing to spot Yas on her way.  Outside her quarters is the box that Saskia had promissed her, containing a half dozen stoppered vials filled with the dust which is causing such a stir.  She carries the box inside and sets to work.

Saskia, sprawled in her usual seat in Engineering, pores over schematics for the atmospheric systems, flicking back and forth as she traces connections and junctions in the ductwork..

Tylen runs the thing over and around attempting to make sense of the readout. He's used one before but alas it had been a long time. So he carefully picks his way through the places that Jago points out, making little mental notes, so that one day he might be as well versed in this ship as her Captain.

There are so many empty spaces tucked away behind the equipment on the bridge, Jago orchestrates the opening of long forgotten panels and the pocking about behind banks of monitors and overhead switches a studied thoroughness. With Conrad and Tylen’s help, they probably stirs up enough dust the choke the filters without outside assistance.

Searching high and low, far and wide, near and narrow, up and down, Yas enjoys her little hunt and the limbering exercise it gives.  She peeks under and on top of everything, behind and beside all things and is having the most fun she has had since they left their last space dock and she ate the cake.

She finds places she had forgotten about in the cargo hold and spots a few things people have lost over the years while searching for her Unholy Grail.

Yas continues her search of the hold, and finds no trace of the dust...

Jago, Tylen and Conrad do their search of the bridge, leaving no access panel unopened and no crawlspace uninvestigated.  They work their way backwards and end up in the gunnery cubicles, before moving out into the forward crew lounge.

Nothing so far.

Shui works her way through the samples, both her own, and those collected by Saskia...

Shui's head slowly comes up from the holoscope, and she leans back in her chair.  Glancing over to the right, she carefully checks to make certain none of the tops are off the samples Saskia collected.  Moving with careful precision, she sets up an isolation system around the holoscope.  Then she keys her com-link.

++ Mr. DeSant.  Please do not concern yourself with removing your beautiful flower, ++ she says quietly, her voice calm and composed.  ++ I have determined that there is no connection between the dust and the pollen. ++

Another tap to a holokey.  ++ Ms. Blake - if you could take all of your samples and place them in isolation immediately, that would be a good thing.  Please continue filtration, but any particulate you capture should be washed into isolation, or incinerated. ++

Closing her eyes for a long moment, she breathes out once, slowly and evenly.  Only the white knuckles of her hand, gripping the table, give any indication of her feelings.  Then it's time for another call.

++ Captain Lanza?  Could you come down to med-bay, please?  While I have not determined the actual source of our...dust, I have discovered its composition. ++  Her jaw tightens.  ++ Your presence is requested immediately. ++

Quickly, Shui moves to wash her hands, then pauses.  Instead, she quickly whips up a sterilzing solution, and washes them in that.  It will irritate, perhaps damage the first few layers of skin, but...  All the while, a little voice inside her is screaming that she should take off her clothing and change, quickly.  But into what?  Her spare clothes are not hermetically sealed.  This dust is in the air.

Then she moves back to her holoscope to study her discovery, her face a mask of icy calm.  Regrettably, her haunted eyes betray her true feelings.

"Well, hello there!  What have we got there then?" Yas says to the thing she found.  A single hole in this paper-like, fragile ball.  Something that rattles inside.

"Uh oh."

She quickly places it down of the floor with the opening down against the floor itself, holding two fingers on top of it to make certain it does not roll over.  Then she begins to look around for a bucket or a tarpaulin or something to put over the ball, or to put the ball in it.

If this is what she suspects it is she wishes she had put on her comm this morning, but being in J-space with nothing to do and on her spare time fiddling with the motorcycle she did not wish to be disturbed.

"YO!  ANYONE AROUND!?" she hollers.

Jago wipes the dust from his hands on eh front of his jacket and takes the cigar from his mouth, “you guys carry on here, I’ll be back once I’ve found what the Doc wants.”

Jago remains relaxed and casual as he strolls out of the gunnery area, in spite of the concern engendered by Shui’s tone of voice.

It’s just a dozen or so strides to the medic’s room, and once there, Jago knocks and waits to be invited before entering, and closing the door carefully behind him.

“Well now Miss Tiesi, what have you discovered?”

Shui looks up from the Holoscope, and smiles.  It doesn't reach her eyes, not by half, which is unusual to say the least.  "Captain Lanza.  Thank you for coming so quickly.  If you like, it is more easy to show than tell."  Motioning for him to come closer, she steps out of the way of the screen, keying it for replay.

"I was studying the samples collected by Ms. Blake, comparing them against pollen from flowers in Mr. DeSant's quarters," she begins, her voice steady and quiet, "and I could not find any identifiable features for our 'dust'."

The holoscreen shows the magnified dust to be composed of smooth, semi-spherical objects, microscopic in size.

"I was...fortunate enough to come across this," she continues, tapping a key and calling up a second replay.

One of the tiny grains on the screen splits, and a small creature crawls from it, also microscopic in size.  An arthropod with four, segmented legs, and mandibles nearly as long as its body.  As this happens, another 'egg' splits as well.  The two creatures immediately orient upon each other, and the battle begins.  Within moments one of them is dead, and the other begins the process of consumption.

"We appear," Shui states, raising one eyebrow, "to have an infestation."

Standing in the lounge, while Jago goes off to see what the doc needs, Tylen and Conrad can hear Yas' yelling for help from the cargo hold.



The computer chirrups politely, alerting Shui that it's found a match in one of the databases.  Not the Medical Expert System though, but the reference library system.

Conrad hears the call, and curiosity drives him to go and see what the problem is.  Perhaps Yas has found herself in an embarrassing position, something they can have a good old laugh about later.

He steps through into the hold and looks about, unable to see any major emergencies or impending disasters. "Sumthin' I ken help y'all with, Yas?"

Saskia stares at the comm, even after Shui has signed off.  "Wow!  She's sure got ants in her pants about something."  Not that the medic need worry, Saskia has no samples left.  As soon as she'd found that the solvent she uses for cleaning fungus and molds out of the landing gear also worked to destroy the dust, she'd tested it on all her samples, just to be sure (and out of a thirst for vengeance on the dirt for getting into her nice, clean systems), then incinerated any residue.

She goes back to the schematics, and reluctantly concludes that there's no way to set up a sensor to check the air outside the vents.  The only sensors which provide atmospheric data are inside the vent system.

Probably just as well, she reflects, with a scowl, or Ridge would have been setting off the contaminant alarms all day, every day.

Tylen follows Conrad, momentarily leaving the panel looking, maybe Yas found something that they could actually be of help to them. He hurried after, any stop to, or even news about this, 'Mystery Powder', would be good. It made him nervous to say the least, as he suspected it did to everyone else as well. Little did he know, the truth of the matter was much worse...

"Over here!  Find a bucket or something like that, or a sealable container!  We got some kind of nest here, I think!" Yasmine calls out when she hears the new navigator calling out to ask how he can help, lifting one hand to wave to show where she is.

"No idea what it is, but something is moving inside, and I'm not about to find out if it's something lethal or not!" she explained, keeping her eyes on the fragile looking thing she kept a couple of fingers on.  "It'd be a bad idea to let it loose in the ship too, I suspect!"

Jago continues staring at the monitor for a long while after the scene has played out.

“Just what is that?” Jago asks, “or more to the point, how dangerous is it?”

OOC
Sorry for thge delay, I thought that had been posted :O(

"Alright, Chief, be back in a minute..."

Tylen jumps to, and sprints to the Infirmary, he was sure that he might be able to find a decent sealable biocontainer there.

Moments later he stood in front of the doorway to Shui's offices, and tapped at the door alert. Even in a situation like this he thought that Shui probably wouldn't appreciate a rude entrance. So he waited his foot tapping and looking back towards the hold...

"Hmmm...Harper's Termite," Shui states, reading off the holoscreen.  "Not as bad as I feared, but certainly not good, either.  Unless one happens to be a Hiver."  She glances up at the Captain.  "Here is the information, Captain."  One finger brushes the screen, which de-rezzes for a moment before reforming.  "It is native to Saurus, in the Vilis Subsector.  It can grow as long as-"

There is a chime at the door.  Shui raises one eyebrow.  "A moment, Captain.  Please, read this."


Shui quickly moves to the door.  Might it be Saskia, complete with whatever other samples she had taken?  But no, it is Tylen.

"Mr. Orgesh," Shui begins, noting his slightly disheveled state.  Has he been running?  "May I assist?" she asks politely, with more than a little concern.

Wouldn't you know it: another emergency.

"Make it a half and I will make you a cup of cocoa the way that only I can!" Yas hollers after the disappering Tylen and then grins at Conrad.

"I have no idea what is inside here, but I doubt it is anything nice.  Never is in J-space, after all," she tells him with a chuckle.  She is no expert on these things, but as far as she knows there is no little fluffy bunny , a cute little kitten or a charming chorlok from Estra 5 in this thing.

Tylen faces Shui with a look of dread and urgency. "Yasmine just found something in the hold....something alive and...shes afraid of touching it. Its in something at the moment but we need some sort of sealable biocontainer to move it in. Anything like that handy?"

The situation was alarming to Tylen to say the least, but its connection to the powdery dust remained a mystery, or if any connection was even present. The fact that it had escaped their notice until now was even more alarming. Perhaps he would take responsibility for the searching of luggage himself in the future. There was little to be done now and admonishing himself would only serve to delay action. He'd heard stories of other infested Scout parties and he had always had a fear of such things in the back of his mind.

Shui stares blankly back at Tylen for a long moment as she struggles to process what he says, shifting gears in her head.  It's a rare occurance for her.  Then she blinks, and her eyes focus.  "Yes.  Quickly."  She spun away, moving across the room with surprising alacrity.  One hand snatches up a hard plastic container, wide-mouthed with a screw-top; returning, Shui slaps it down into Tylen's hand.  "Go.  Be on the lookout for an arthropod, about so big."  Her hands encompass something about six inches in diameter.  "The one in the...sphere? is likely harmless now, but take no chances."

Her dark eyes urge Tylen to hurry.

"Captain," Shui states, turning back toward Jago, "we should warn the passangers.  There is an adult female on board, and it will bite if disturbed."  Shui considers.  "Probably in the ventilation system, as the eggs were easily gathered up by the filters."

Tylen nods to her, "Thanks, your a lifesaver doc," he flashes a grin already propelling himself forward.

As he does so, he snags ahold of the containter and his boots squeak on the floor as he turns to sprint back to the hold. He rounds the corner and zips past Conrad. He comes to sliding stop a few feet from Yasmine. Catching a breath, he sets down the container carefully. He unscrews the lid and holds it open for her to drop in the sphere. "So whaddaya think, you making cocoa or what?" his smile widening as he carefully watches the situation.

"I don't know, that was at least 32 seconds, you know," Yasmine replies with a grin and then shakes her head.  "Oh no, I am not lifting this up like this!  There's a hole underneath, and if I life it now I bet something will make a point of showing how irritated it is!"

"Find something to slide under this thing first.  Then we lift it and place it on that sphere and pulls the sheet or whatever away - the nest drops and we slam the container shut.  Either that, or you can pick it up after I go lock myself in the airlock and wait for you all to be eaten alive or something," she chuckles and winks at Tylen.

Tylen seems to considers that for moment. Then he shakes his head with a chuckle, and goes to the cleaning supply closet and pulls out the dustpan and returns. "Okay, on three I'm gonna slide this in and then we'll dump this thing into the box, alright?....Conrad we could use your help, if you wanna shut the lid on this container as soon as we get this, whatever-it-is in there. Doc called it an arthuropod..."

He carefully moved the dustpan up to the sphere in preparation to slide it underneath. Then looked to Yasmine.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 22:10, Tue 11 Apr 2006.

"Go!" Yas says as she tilts the nest up just enough to let Tylen slide the dustpan under the thing she found.  All the time she keeps a couple of fingers on top of it, not wishing to grab it too hard or anything.  Never know if whatever that is inside might bite or stick something nasty through the walls of the nest.

Once the pan was under there she coordinates it with him to lift it up to the container, ignoring any noises from inside.  In her experience as a Marine it is better to be safe than sorry when it comes to bugs.

Then she nods to Tylen and Conrad to pull away the duster again, ready to pull her hand away as soon as the thing is down inside the sphere.  "Ready."

The transfer goes smoothly, handled like the most delicate of bomb disposal operations, and the strange papery sphere, complete with its now silent contents is soon safely sealed within the sample container.  Everybody can breathe again, as the whole lot is carried through to the ship's small medbay for Shui to examine.

Saskia checks her inventory log.  She has several litres of the cleaning solvent which had worked so effectively at dissolving the dust, and calls Jago to let him know that she can clean the filters, as long as somebody can stop them clogging up again.

"Now, we had better make a sweep again, in case they come in pairs, just like all good things," Yas says to before the container is taken away.  "Preferbly without snatding on your head and what not, though.  Hey, Tylen, you mentioned something about scanners before, no?  Maybe that'll work?"

Tylen paused for a moment. "Shui did say that there was a female arthuropod. She said it would be about six inches long and most likely in the ventilation system all by her lonesome. Is there a way to get up in there and check it out by hand if not by scanners?"

In the medical bay, Shui stares at the huge bottle before her, studying it with a jaundiced eye.  She then finds a large, blunt object, placing it on the workbench, and pulls on a pair of gloves.  Rigging an isolation curtain around the bottle, she pulls over a ventillation tube, attaching it to the top.  Some searching yields a small bottle of extremely strong, organic fluid, used to clean off wounds.  It vapourizes, quickly, this liquid, creating fumes.  Pouring a fair amount into a beaker, Shui slowly unscrews the top of the bottle, then swiftly opens it up, drops in the beakerful of liquid (not caring if it spills or not) and closes the top, half screwing it on.

Then she closes off the isolation curtain and waits.  If there are noises, she waits until they cease, and then waits another ten minutes.  If not, she merely waits the ten minutes.

Hopefully the creature inside will either be dopey, unconcious, or dead.

Then, gloves on, heavy object at hand, she slowly unscrews the lid, and peers inside.  Hopefully the nest will be partially dissolved by the alcohol-like liquid.  She certainly doesn't take the lid off all the way, and does make sure to turn on the ventilation tube.

It wouldn't do for HER to pass out.

“Leave that for now Shui,” Jago says, eyeing the container curiously, “as it’s isolated it’s not the main problem for the moment. I’d like you to look into insectacides, find us something we can use to flush out the system but preferably, without slaughtering the passengers.”

Tylen, your idea is good, but it’s Saskia who will know all the access pints, if she’s not busy, have a word with here and see if you can come up with strategy between you.

“I suppose that I’d better have a word with the passengers.”

Jago doesn’t look particularly enamoured with the idea but climes to his feet and heads fro the door.

Just one thing Shuie, if this thing is a native of Saurus, how come it’s on our ship, did it just walk in because they also occur on Vilis, perhaps Corlan bought it ion on his moon flower, see what you cn find out on that as well please.”

With a sigh Jago turns again and heads over to the passenger quarters.

"Certainly, Captain Lanza."  The top goes back on the isolation tube, screwed tightly.  The liquid won't melt the tube, and the creature hasn't bored its way out.  Yet.  Carefully fitting the tube into a metal locker (emptied of various medical tools and supplies), Shui goes back to her research, hunting for further information on the invetebrate.

"The possibilities," Shui states quietly, "are endless.  Mr. DeSant grew the flower from a seed - that is unlikely."  One finger stabs a control, moves to the next record.  "Eggs could have come on board from any number of locations."  She checks the lifespan and growth rate of the creature.  "I will try to find the most likely match, assuming it came aboard as one of a set of eggs.  At least that will give us the maxiumum amount of days to backtrack."
This message was last edited by the player at 18:46, Thu 13 Apr 2006.

Catching the medics reply, Jago stops just long enough to point out that, ”the femails leave the nest to lay their eggs, so if there is one is still in there Shui, then goodness knows how many others on the loose, apart from the 40 thousand eggs that we know are hatching all over the ship right now.”

"Author pod?  What is that supposed to be?  Some bad novel or something?  Good thing you explained the six inches, though, or I'd been wondering what you were talking about," Yasmine chuckles at Tylen and continues her search while waiting to see if they could tweak the scanners.

"I'm not going to crawl in after some little bug, though, but you're welcome to try if you want," she adds after a moment.

Everybody hurries about their business...

He chuckled a bit at Yas' need for clarification, and gave her a sly face. Then Tylen had a sinsister vision of him crawling through the ventilation system with a flamethrower in hand. It was a satisfying thought. "I may just do that Chief," he said with a grin as he made his way to the engineering area.

---

He worked his way through the ship moving silently through the corridors. For all the excitement, there were still areas of the ship which were relatively quiet. Maybe thats why Saskia enjoyed staying back here. He tapped at the door to Engineering and stepped in.  "Saskia," he called out, "Skipper wants me to work with you on getting the sensor display of the ventilation system if possible or the entire ship, and make it callibrated for the nasty bugs we found. What do ya say?"

Jago pulls his jacket straight as he crosses the hold on his way to the passenger lounge, it remains slightly grubby and reassuringly comfortable, but straighter.

Stepping through the iris valve, the captain finds the adults all in the forward lounge. From the rattle of pulse lasers and scream of incoming missiles, he judges the kids to be in the rear lounge and can’t help but smile.

“I’m glad you are all here, I’m afraid we picked up a stowaway on Vilis,” he says when he has the adults attention. “There is a large insect on board, a Harper's termite, which could give some one a nasty nip if they weren’t careful. We are doing our best to track it down and remove it, but while it’s still on the lose I’d advise you to check your bedding before you turn in, shake out you cloths before you put them on and just generally keep an eye out. I’ll get Miss Tiesi to bring over some holos and if you do see it, just call me or any on the crew and we’ll be straight over.”

Jago looks at the gathered faces to see if anyone has a question, before he goes on.

Shui taps a command on her dataglove.  ++ Miss Blake, I think it would be a good thing to continue your cleaning of the filters.  Possibly on a regular basis.  Additionally, the solvent of which you spoke will continue to be effective upon any other concentrations of the 'dust' you discover.  Please be careful - the dust is actually the eggs of an arthropod.  They can grow to be the size of your hand, or slightly larger, and have a painful bite. ++

Another key - this time she types a message out to Captian Lanza, and sends it text-only.  Captain Lanza - the termites are vulnerable to common pesticides.  Do we have any aboard?  If not, how much longer will it be until we stop?  In either case, I believe we can keep the infestation to a minimal level, at the very least, until we can bring aboard the necessary chemicals to destroy the creatures.

It is very difficult for me to determine where these creatures may have come aboard.  They take three to six months to reach sexual maturity.  The mating chamber is normally occupied for seven to ten days.  However, the male would be dead, and the female gone.  I am going to investigate the chamber now.

Having sent the 'email' to the Captain, she returns to the isolation area, and begins her work on the container.  Once again - gloves.  Isolation.  Light.  Unscrew the cap, and shine the light into the crack (the entire chamber will not be opened).  Then Shui takes a tiny, fibreoptic camera from her surgical equipment and threads it in through the crack to have a look and see if anything has come out of the mating chamber.

She isn't opening the whole thing more than a centimeter, though.

Saskia looks around the Engineering Compartment nervously.  She doesn't usually get visitors, and always worries that they might spot something out of place, and get the wrong idea about her.  Sure, it's untidy, but that's usually because they caught her in the middle of something.  She looks at Tylen's heavy boots, which for some reasom have the word "sandals" stencilled on them.  Must be Darrian humor.  Without looking up, she answers him, speaking quietly, "Well, we have no sesors that can detect anything like that, except the ones built into the filter array, and they only detect whatever's in the vent system.  I think, um, Conrad, yes, Conrad had a hand unit, I might be able to strip that down and rig something up if - oh, excuse me."

She takes the call from Shui, "Miss Blake, I think it would be a good thing to continue your cleaning of the filters.  Possibly on a regular basis.  Additionally, the solvent of which you spoke will continue to be effective upon any other concentrations of the 'dust' you discover.  Please be careful - the dust is actually the eggs of an arthropod.  They can grow to be the size of your hand, or slightly larger, and have a painful bite."

"Right you are, Shui.  I can do that cleaning, no problem, and I'll watch out for the biting.  I never trust anything that doesn't look friendly anyway, and bugs aren't exactly on my fluffy'n'cuddly list."  As she closes the link, Saskia's voice drops back to her previous nervous murmur, "Sorry about that.  Where was I?  Oh, yeah, like I was saying, I might be able to strip a sniffer down for parts and rig something, but I think they're it'd probably be more useful as a hand unit.  I mean we have a sensor in the vent system, and another fixed unit wouldn't be as useful as a mobile one.  I think."

Tylen blushes slightly at her response to him coming in. Almost half turning as if she were getting dressed. When she spoke she seemed to relax and that made Tylen relax a bit as well. He listened to what she could do and the plan. hopefully Conrad would allow the dismantling of his sniffers, of course he'd have to take it up with him. He nodded seeing what she was getting at, "Then would there be a way to roll it through the ventilation system or maybe increase the capacity of the ones in place? I suppose I should just ask you, whats the best way to locate something in the ventilation ducts? And could I fit up there?"

Conrad decides that the safest place to be, under the circumstances, considering that there's a dangerous animal aboard, is probably near a trained killer who isn't aiming to kill him.  At least, not yet.

He goes looking for Yas, and finds her still searching.

From what seems like a safe distance, he asks her, "Hey there, Yas, any sign of our new playmate yet?"

"Playmate?" Yas almost snaps, peeking up at him for a moment, thinking of Ridge and his type of "playmates" - the kind that comes in centrefolds and gets pinned up all over mostly men's lockers and what not.

Then she realises what Conrad is talking about and chuckles, ducking down again to look under the containers.  "Oh, the bug?  No, luckily.  But I haven't crawled in the vent intake near the spot that I found the nest at, though.  I've learnt enough about bugs in the Marines to not go crawling into places they are likely to nest.  They tend not to like it, and a bug bite can be really nasty if it is the right bu...g," she explained, ending up going quiet rather abruptly where she stood on all four peering under yet another container.

Shui works on the paper-light ball, and soon turns up a somewhat... grisly... discovery.  One of the creatures is still inside.  Or at least some of it is.  Careful comparison with the library data shows it to be the remains of a male.  Pretty much just the front half of it, minus the jaws.


The passengers seem surprisingly unconcerned by Jago's announcement, except Corlan.  For the most part they seem moderately familiar with the insect in question.  Miles Janur almost laughs when Jago mentions it.  "Oh, those things.  We get them at home from time to time, mostly near the port when they get shipments in from Saurus.  Luckily they don't seem to do well on Vilis, I suspect there's something in the atmosphere that they don't like much.  We'll watch out for it Captain, and the children know avoid them."

He smiles, "I'm just glad you didn't tell us we had a whiptail aboard.  At least the termite isn't venomous."


Yas and Conrad continue their search of the hold.


In Engineering, Saskia and Tylen go through the possibilities with the detection of foreign particles in the vents systems.

Shui leans back in her seat for a long moment.  Then she stands, and carefully checks the bottle, then the area around the table.  Finally, she taps her dataglove, activating the line to Yasmine.

++ Ms Crow, I have a question for you.  When Mr. Ogresh brought me the sample, he indicated that you had found something alive. ++  She glances back at the bottle for a hearbeat, then looks around her room.  ++ If I might ask, what prompted that conclusion?  That whatever lay within the sphere was still living? ++

Hearing the ship's intercom crackle to life, Yasmine does not bother to answer at the moment.

"Conrad.  Tell her I got a live one for her.  A bug, that is.  Six long antennae, bright colours.  Thanks," she says to Conrad and does not move at all where she stands on all four.

"Maybe I can blast it with my gun and have her scrape some DNA samples off the walls, eh?" she wonders out loud as she reaches for the gun that never leaves her, except in the shower, unlike her personal com link.

"Shui, Yas can't take your call jus' now.  seems like she's got herself a new little friend over in the hold.  She says it's a live'un.  We'll try bring it over there for y'all to take a peek at.  Lay out the nice dishes and cutlery, seems y'all got company comin' over." Conrad takes his thumb off the intercom and moves over to see if Yas needs help, leaning down to take a look at what she's found.

"What do you think we should do?  Maybe you can grab her with your hand?" Yas jokes and tried to come up with a way to capture the critter without getting bitten or worse.

"See if you can block the other sides without it reacting, then we can herd it out here, perhaps.  I'll keep an eye on it and shoot it if it tries any funny things, like reaching for a gun," she says, wondering just what to do other than watch it.

++ A live one?  Where are you? ++  Shui is already moving, closing off the container (just in case) and snatching up a specimen jar of sufficient size for capture, as well a pair of strong gloves.  She hits the door fast, at almost a run.

++ I wish to see that thing in one piece, Mr. Dietz, to better judge how old it is.  Please give me your location and I shall be there momentarily. ++
This message was lightly edited by the player at 09:25, Mon 24 Apr 2006.

"We're not a big ship." Saskia replies to Tylen's question, shaking her head, "Not like some of the big Navy cruisers I served on, where you could walk through the vents standing upright.  Well, I could, most of the others were too tall."

She works her fingers across the engineering console, quickly and expertly, then waits, tugging at the dirty dressing on her left hand for a bit while the displays update, before balling the injured hand into a fist and jamming it between her knees.

Her right index finger traces several points on the display.  "For most of the system, the ducts are somewhere between fifty-three and one hundred centimetres wide, by ten to fifteen centimetres high.  So we won't be doing the whole scare vid cliché of crawling through the air shafts, even if that is where the monster is hiding out."

Four sections of the schematic flare green as she taps them.  "There are three chambers here, here, and here.  All of them are one metre cubes.  This one is the filtration arrays, this the humidity control, and this one is where the temperature and pressure regulators are.  The fourth one is the pump chamber, which is a little bigger than the others.  Each of the chambers has a maint hatch, so I can service the equipment, but in the case of the pump chamber it doesn't give access to the ducts, just to the outside of the machinery."

More sections light up, amber this time, "All the vent grills can be unfastened and opened, giving access to short sections of duct, if you feel like sticking your arm inside.  Every cabin and compartment has two grills.  The intake one is at floor level, so it sucks in dust stale air, the blower is just below the ceiling, blowing out fresh air.

"The cargo hold has three intakes and three blowers, and there's two of each here, in Engineering, same as on the bridge.  Everywhere else has one of each.  Air and dust come into the floor level part of the system, then through the filter and humidity chambers, before being pumped up to the ceiling level section and through the temp and pressure regulators.  Now, for the eggs to be caught in the filters, my guess would be that Momma Monster got into an intake, and she might still be in the lower section, since she hadn't bust through the filters."

Red flashing lines start to appear at numerous points on the display, "And these are the airtight seals, which drop in case of a pressure loss.  Don't have your fingers in the way when they do.  They have no safety sensors on them, since their primary purpose is to stop any air loss, and they'll sever an arm to do that, if they have to."

Jago relaxes from a tension that he didn’t realise he was carrying and lets a smile creep across his lips, “well let us know if anyone comes across it. I don’t suppose you know how to get rid of them,” he adds hopefully.

This time Miles does laugh, "They're not too fast.  I generally find that hitting one with a shoe does the trick.  We'll let you know if we spot it, Captain."


Shui comes into the hold, and spots Conrad and Yas peering under a cargo container.  She joins them, armed with a specimen jar and gloves.  The bug is slow, if a little nervous, and is easy to catch, though it does make a pitiful cheeping noise when scooped into the jar.

It's roughly circular, about 10 cm across, and has four legs.  Near the centre of the top surface is a small blister, beaded with about a dozen tiny eyes, which look in all directions.  Six long antennae sprout from the blister, waving slowly all around the brightly-coloured creature.

Shui, having captured the bug, slowly settles back on her haunches and looks up at Yasmine and Conrad.  Then she turns back to the bug, studying it as if trying to burn the image into her mind.  After a long moment, she slowly exhales.  "Miss Crow, Mr. Dietz...we have a problem."  The lithe doctor holds up the bottle, studying it speculatively.  "This is not the same species.  We have at least two different kinds of 'bugs' aboard the Profit Margin."

It isn't a heartening conclusion, not at all.

"A problem?  No kidding?  I wonder where it came from?  For all I know it could have hitchhiked all the way from Saurus with the cargo," Yas comments where she sits keeping an eye on the bug.

"Maybe we should open the airlocks, uh?" she says, seemingly only half in jest.  "Too bad we're in J-space.  I suppose we'll have to try to contain them somehow."

"For that, I cannot say," Shui says, studying the bug.  Four legs.  The same as the termite.  It's not an indication of being from the same planet, but it's a start.  She flashes a tight smile up at the marine.  "Regrettably, yes.  I imagine that might impact upon my own health.  If you see them, take no chances.  I do not know this species, and it may be poisonous."

Her eyes are drawn back to the bug almost immediately, though.  "I should take it back to the lab, and discern its identity."  The pathetic thing looks almost forlorn in the sample jar, but Shui hardens her heart.  She knows that it is sometimes the most inoffensive creatures that are the most lethal.  And those ones, appearing harmless, are by far the most dangerous.

Tylen blinks thoughtfully at the display. He follows Saskia's movements, and watches carefully, attempting to piece together some sort of plan since getting into the ducts themselves is a bit of a reach. Then an idea dawns on him, but he is totally unsure if this could be successfully be accomplished. "Okay, could we disable those safety seals and perhaps vent just the ducts, that might get rid of our problem the quickest and easiest. I don't know if that can be accomplished though, any thoughts? At the very least exposure to vacuum outta take out the nasty bugger."

Jago laughs out loud at Miles response, “right Mr Jenner, judicious application of the size ten, I’ll pass it along.”

“Sorry to disturb you,” the captain says as he turns back to the hatch, “and thank you.”

Saskia shakes her head, "The ducts aren't really designed for dumping atmosphere, so it wouldn't be easy to do.  The system isn't set up for it.  The seals don't cut off the ducts from the rest of the ship.  They're designed to divide the ship into sections, so we close the hatches to cut off a section of the ship if it gets holed, then the vent seals close to stop more air escaping that way, but the vent grills don't close."

"I could weld plating over the grills, but it wouldn't be nice for anybody aboard."

She runs her finger of the schematic display, tapping at the filter chamber to magnify it, "Sides, we're stuck in Jump for another five days.  Dumpimg air in Jump might disrupt the Jump Field bubble, and that can get real messy.  I don't fancy tidying up when we drop back into n-space with the ship inside-out."

She points out the lower section, prior to the filter arrays.  "I have some solvents that I can pour into the intake side of the system, which is where I reckon it is, since the filters are intact.  I use it for clearing molds and fungus off the landing gear in some places.  I tried some earlier, and it eats the eggs, so we can clear them off the filters.  That just leaves us with a Mommy Bug to deal with.  The same stuff might see her off too.  The air'll smell funny for the rest of the trip, but no worse than a Scout ship."

"Hhhmmm...," Tylen leaned back against a support girder and sighed, "well, it was a thought then I guess. I suppose if we can get it with the solvent, then that should be the way to go. Though I imagine in a couple months when we get in there to clean, we'll have an ugly surprise waiting for us. If there's nothing else we can do then lets continue with the solvent then. I can let Jago know for you. Dang, and I was kinda lookin forward to using my flame gun...," he grinned at her.

Tylen gathers himself standing upright, and looking somewhat downtrodden heads for the door. Then he pauses and turns, raising an eyebrow, "is there a way to make one of those sniffers work over a wider area maybe, without sacrificing alot of resolution?"

"Not sure.  I can work on that, take a look at one and see what I can do." Saskia scratches at her nose while she considers.  "As for the mess in the air system - well as soon as we hit port we can have the system cleaned out properly.  With a good enough port they might even have nanobots to go in there and clear the crud out.  The solvent is only short-term, but it's all we got."

"Well, you do whatever you want with that thing, just don't let it out, all right?" Yas says with a grin and stands up.  "So we got mroe than one bug aboard?  Strange, could have sworn Ridge left ages ago..."

"Bug hunting makes my thristy.  I'll go have a glass of cold juice, if you need me," she reveals and wanders off into the crew lounge to get herself that glass of juice.

Shui takes the bug back to the medlab and manages to extract a DNA sample from it without losing any fingers.  The creature seems quite docile in facy, and has a tendency to move around the specimen container in a way which seems to always position it on the side of the container nearest Shui.  Almost as if it's as curious about her as she is about it.

And every time she moves away from it, it squeaks... pathetically.

With Yas' mention of Saurus, she has a starting point for the genetic checks.


Jago comes back to the crew section, to find Yas taking a break, and is promptly informed of a different type of bug crawling about his ship.


Conrad continues his search of the hold, but finds nothing further...


In Engineering, Saskia and Tylen work on a system to get solvent into the intake side of the air system.  She has a couple of spray bottles that she can fill with the liquid, the pressurise.  The nozzles can be set to provide a fine mist, which will be drawn through the ducts quite nicely, and will dissolve the eggs, and the hatchlings too.  The adults might be tougher, but the eggs weren't in the filters a couple of days ago, so they probably have mostly eggs and hatchlings to deal with.  Maybe only a single adult.

"No fear of that, Ms. Crowe," Shui returns thoughtfully, studying the bug.

"No fear of that."

      *                    *                    *

Back at her laboratory/quarters/exercise room, the doctor carefully begins her examination.  She is mightily cautious inserting the DNA probe to gather the specimen, and pleased nothing...untoward occurs.  The attention she receives from the small beast confuses her.  Small arthropods aren't known for their intelligence...well, no small creatures are, though there are exceptions to the rule.

In nature, something like this creature would be one of two things - an incredibly dangerous/poisonous beast, birghtly coloured to ward off predators larger than itself, or a harmless, bumbling animal that depended on said bright colours to give the appearance of something dangerous.

She can't take the chance, no matter how harmless the creature seems to be.  No matter how sad it sounds.

Finally, though, Shui closes her eyes for a long moment, then rummages around until she finds a larger storage container.  She simply cannot bear the sounds any longer, and opens the smaller container into the larger one, which has been stocked with a small bowl of water and a scattering of different foodstuffs - meat, vegetables, grains.  An experiment, she tells herself.  See what it eats.  See what it consumes.  Determine what it is.

That's all.  It has nothing to do with her soft heart.  My weak heart, she thinks to herself, staring at the tipped container lying in the larger one.  My weak, foolish heart.

I am so sorry, father.  For a moment she closes her eyes, leaning her weight against the table, struggling against a sudden rush of painful sorrow and loneliness.  An odd time for it to come, to be certain; perhaps the feelings have been catalyzed by the creature before her, its sounds and movements.  Perhaps not.

No.  You have work to do.  People depend upon you.  Lives depend upon you.  Shui opens suspiciously bright eyes, wipes them.  The cool, impersonal doctor returns.

Lives.  I am sorry, father.  This time the thought is quietly dismissive, rather than distressed.  And the doctor turns back to her work, checking the computer for DNA identification.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:39, Mon 01 May 2006.

The bug continues to be cute in its sample container, waving its antennae in a friendly manner, and staring at the woman with its tiny, glittering eyes.  The computer chirps, and displays an identification of the DNA sample...
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:16, Wed 03 May 2006.

Shui reads over the notice once.  Then again.  Then she slowly relaxes.  "Well," the doctor says quietly to the strange insect.  "You receive a reprieve."

After a check on the nutritional requirements, Shui moves to her small stockpile of biological specimins and finds some nutrient agar - useful for growing bacterial, and so forth.  "It is not moss," she rambles as she prepares the material, from granular powder to jelly, "but it does approximate algae, both in form and nutritional value."  A glance at the bug.  "Not perfect, of course, but certainly it will suffice."  One eyebrow rises, delicately.  "Mr. DeSant will be interested to see you, I am certain."

Another glance at the beetle.  "I realize what you are doing, you know.  I also know you do not comprehend my words...at least, I think you do not."  She ponders this for a moment.  Is it possible the creature comprehends the meaning behind her thoughts?  The emotions?  Whatever the case, it does not matter.  "I would have fed you in any case," she notes quietly.  "Life...is sacred."

When the jelly-like substance is finished, she moves to the container and places it within upon a small plate.

In engineering, Saskia, with help from Tylen has two five litre cannisters of cleaning solvent filled and pressurised.  Now it just needs to be deployed.  She gets a hardcopy of the ventilation schematics and gives it to Tylen, not keeping a copy for herself, since she knows the ship's systems like she knows her own name.

"You take the starboard side, I'll take port.  Start aft and work forward through the passenger quarters, then do the aft and forward passenger lounges, and I'll meet you in the cargo bay when you're finished.  Do it all in the right order, to get best effect, and only spray the intake grills, that's the ones at floor level.  Put the nozzle through the grill bars, and give it, let's see - a ten second burst.  That should give us decent coverage."

"Got all that?"

The last thing Saskia does, before she and Tylen start working their way through the ship, is contact Shui, Yas, and Jago and let them know what she's up to.  After all, the solvent, while harmless, has a noticeable odour, and at least this way they'll be able to explain the smell if anybody asks.

Then they move out, following the plan as laid out by Saskia.  The ducting is sprayed in a specific sequence, designed to optimise the coverage, allowing them to use the minimum quantity of the not-so-pleasant liquid to spray the maximum amount of the air system.  It takes a while to do it, but the engineer is almost entirely certain at the end that there should be no nooks and crannies that remain unaffected.

Of course, once they're safely plant-side, they can purge the whole system properly...


Yas and Conrad continue their search of the hold, and find nothing else in the way of unregistered passengers, or their offspring.  Since the cargo, although loaded at Vilis, originated at Saurus, which is also the home of the insectoid stowaways, it seems pretty certain that the infestation is limited in scope...



The strange bug in Shui's lab purrs and buzzes in a pleasant manner as it slices off and devours pieces of the nutrient agar.  It's original diet may have been simple plant life, but it seems only too happy to adapt to the more hi-tech diet that the medic offers it.

Shui shakes her head.  There it was again.  She almost dozed off this time, recalling the tea fields and playing no-see with Huo and Gangzi.  The scent of the flowers in the air...the wind, brushing through her hair...a touch on her shoulder - 'No-see!'  Gangzi's voice, a whisper in her ear as she spun...her giggles in the air....

"Clever," she whispers.  "Very clever.  A 'reward', is it not?"  Shui stands, moves to look more closely at the small creature.  "And this...an attempt to make me wish to keep you around?  To continue to provide for you?"  She moves back to her compture, stares at the hideous creature on the screen.  The other bug, so different from this one.

I still have questions about this bug.  How could there have been something alive inside the nest?  This dead one is half-consumed.  It has been some time since last it could have moved.

"I give you food.  Shelter.  You return with this," she muses, her hand making circles over her head.  "Reward and incentive.  One wonders just how intelligent you truly are.  Is this instinctual behavior on your part?  Or planned?"

The doctor glances up at the brightly coloured bug.  "Successful behavior, whatever its purpose.  I shall have to find you a larger habitat when we arrive at our next stop...and you might be extremely useful in keeping patients calm."

Then she blinks, shakes her head.  "I shall have to work on my concentration, however," Shui notes, frowning.

Conrad straightens up from looking under what seems to be the last container in th hold, then moves to peek around the back of it, between the container itself and the wall.  "Well now, that's the last of 'em, an' it looks clear to me, Yas."  He stretches, and winces as something crackles low down in his spine.  Too much bending and stooping today, most likely, considering he spends most of his time in an ergonomically designed chair.

"All done jus' about in time for dinner too."

The bridge is deserted and, apart from the continuous sigh of the air circulation, quiet, illumination comes only from VDUs and the thousands of multi coloured tell tails that are scattered across the various consuls, looking like so many fairy lights in the darkness.

Jago sees none of this, for as he enters the light levels rise automatically to comfortable levels.

Slumping into his pilot’s seat, the Captain flicks a few switches and runs through his routine system checks, the computer could do this, in fact the Mallor systems Model3 spent a great deal of it’s time doing just this, but Jago liked to back it up a little from time to time.

“So, how are you today computer?” he asks absently as the machine comes to mind.

"Well, no news is good news when it comes to certain things, and I think this might be one," Yas agrees with Conrad and then cracks a grin at his condition.  Waving a finger in his direction she exclaims, "You know, you should work out a bit more!  I can help you with that.  Stretching, building muscle and getting rid of those troubles you're having!"

The grin looks something like what one would expect to see from a cat that just spotted a mouse too fat to get through its own hole in the wall.

"We can talk about it over dinner, since you offer it," she chuckles at him and starts to turn to get something to eat after the fruitless search of any further stowaways.