I'm not aFleet Officer I'm a Geneticist and Engineer, Thor my mentor is one of those honored to defend the Asgard in combat. Anyway I must get the power on at least minimally to do more work on the system study and see what can be salvaged. she gets ready to go.

With the MALP in position Vasandra switches her control device over to the channel used for the FRED and carefully maneuvers the big vehicle around the skeleton and through the door into the next room to join the others.  ”Clearly there is no point in staying here, or really even bothering to open the other cargo holds, even if they have something helpful in them we will not know what we need until we assess the nature of the problem, clearing a safe path to the engine room should be our primary concern, after that we will either know what we need to do in more detail or check the bridge for more information.”

Kaspar paused in his steps and turned back to address the two alien ladies.

"My appologies, Freyda.  I'm still reading my way through the Asgard Handbook that Stargate Command gave me, and I'm still a little fuzzy on the workings of your Apprentice-Mentor relationships, as well as how high level Asgardians, like Thor, can hold both Military and Civilian positions without confliction of interests.  It's not exactly like our system." Kaspar appologizes.

"And I suppose you're right, Captain Tourmaline, but I just want to make sure that there aren't any Jaffa in stasis pods, or killer robots, in the other cargo bays, waiting to awaken." Kaspar smiles around a puff of his pipe, "As I mentioned to the Sargeant, just a moment ago, that's just the paranoid way the Army I was trained by taught me to think.  I'm hoping that, with Gavins device, he and Sargeant Mojdar will be able to rush through an inspection of the other bays, and confirm if they are either empty, or full of inactive stuff."

"As for why I'm so hot to go to the control room, well, I agree that it would make more sense for our mission if we went straight for the engine or power room, and started on the tasks there.  However, I got this nasty itch to look out the big window in the control room and see just where this Ha'tak is sitting. You can call it a peculiarity of the Tau'ri -- this need to see where I am -- if you wish, but really, I'm just pulling Rank to get what I want."

Kaspar again smiled and puffed, "To be completely honest."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:36, Sun 06 July 2014.

Gavin and Rajip step through the cargo door into another dark room, illuminated only by their flashlights. What they see is quite bizarre.

There is debris scattered everywhere across the floor. A closer inspection shows that it is all just equipment that has been scattered about. After a quick tour around the room, two crates are found in one of the corners. It's those crates that give a clue.

The debris looks like it may have all been inside other crates that somehow vanished, spilling the contents all over the floor.

Hilda waited impatiently by the third skeleton, looking back for the others and seeing they had stopped to talk again. Hello? Skeletons? she wondered. Sighing, she left them to it and decided to scout ahead. Moving carefully and quietly down the corridor, she tried to look for another skeleton or a door to another room.

Kaspar glances over his shoulder, down the hall where Hilda had gone, "Well, now, Ladies, shall we go and join Hilda?" he said, as he turned to, again, head down the hall.

"If this deck is laid out as Gavin said," Kaspar continued as he walked, grabbing his pipe and gesturing with the stem at the wall, "He and Sargeant Mojdar will proceed through this cargo bay, cross over to the next bay over in that corner, then cross to the final bay in that corner.  I believe we should be in the central transit core by the time they get there.  Then we can figure out how to go up."

With the final gesture of pointing up, Kaspar returned his pipe to the corner of his mouth and puffed it back to life.

"In truth, I expect no significant difficulties.  But, as Colonel Oneill is so fond of saying, since when has Plan A ever worked, yes?"

Asgard don't put all our efforts into one plan I'm doing lines of research in areas others aren't kind of using your explorations to hopefully help us, in return for my help boosting your technology along lines expected. Its good for both the Asgard and your people and your allies. Freyda says as they travel.

"Uh-huh. Interesting." Kaspar responds, as he walks up to the first of the new skeletons that Hilda has found, and crouches down to observe; looking first for the presence of a secondary Go'auld parasite skeleton, then taking note of where that second skeleton is located -- around the neck or coiled up where the abdomen would have been.

All three of the skeletons have what appear to be Goa'uld skeletons in the abdomen.

Kaspar pulls out the notebook he had started taking notes in, earlier, and once again ... makes notes.

"As with the skeleton found inside the arrival cargo bay," Kaspar mumbles as he writes, but whether that is from habit, or an attempt to inform Vassandra and Freyda of his findings, as they come up after him, is unclear, "these skeletons are presented as being Jaffa; the presence of a secondary skeleton, that of an apparent immature larval Go'auld, would seem to confirm this conclusion.  Yet ... I wonder ..."

Kaspar looks up as Freyda floats near, "Freyda, you are a geneticist, yes?  How familiar are you with Go'auld biology?  Could you tell the difference between the skeletons of an adult Go'auld parasite and that of a larval stage?  Captain Tourmaline -- don't wish to exclude you, so -- can you tell?"

"The only thing I can think of to confirm if this actually is a larval skeleton, is its length -- adult skeletons are longer.  This appears to be larval, by that qualification, but I'm not sure..."

occ:
20:22, Today: Freyda rolled 17 using 1d20+12. Biology.
20:23, Today: Freyda rolled 27 using 1d20+12. Genetics.

Freyd gets out of her chair to get a better look and tries to answer the question using her knowledge of Biology and Genetics.

Hilda took a photograph of the body, then put her camera away. Someone could get the magic paintings off it later. 'Look where the serpent has fallen in the belly. These must be Jaffa. It is said the Goa'uld have serpents much higher.'

'All I know is they taste terrible.'

Freyda gives the Asgard EWWWWWW expression.

Unfortunately, Freyda can't determine if the Goa'uld skeletons were part of Jaffa or planted there. All that's left are bones; there's nothing left for her to analyze.

She is able to determine that the bones are consistent with Goa'uld bones. While they are still primarily calcium, the other trace elements match Goa'uld.

Lets get a look where we are and then I need to see if I can power this ship up, if the reactor is intact I can likely fix it. Freyda says.

'Doesn't the Dee-Enn-Ay survive deep inside the bone marrow?' Hilda wondered, recalling Kaspar's earlier explanation. 'Can you read anything from the bones?' She supposed it was a form of divination magic, like reading the entrails of a sheep or something. Only without the entrails. Bones were certainly cleaner.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:57, Fri 18 July 2014.

I need the right tools, I don't have those but we could send them back to the command center for a DNA study. Freyda says suggesting it might be a good idea.

Kaspar puffs on his pipe in thought for a few moments, then says, "No, no need for more detailed scans; we can get those later. For right now we'll take the evidence of these skeletons at face value -- that a bunch of Jaffa died from an unknown cause while enroute to the stargate."

"However, I want everyone to keep an open mind about this so-called evidence." Kaspar adds, "Because, if looked at the right way, all these skeletons look like they've been staged; they have no equipment, no evidence of soft tissue remains, not even stains on the floor underneath them. It just looks like somebody laid down a bunch of cleaned skeletons, in an effort to scare off any intruders, like us.  There might be rational explanations for all this, but until we find some evidence of those explanations, let's just keep a little suspicious about them."

"Now, let's head to the central transit core, over there, and meet up with Gavin and Sargeant Mojdar, shall we?"

Forensics is outside my training I'm what you would call a Grease Monkey but most of our technology doesn't need messy lubrication for mechanical systems, I just want to get a look at the power systems of the ship. she replies as they travel.

Having squared away the MALP's observation system as planned and having no interest in bodies of the dead Vasandra can be found already investigating the way up, still in sight of the others but clearly not worried about whatever fate befell the long dead.  ”Getting the power back online will help significantly with the diagnostics of the ship but there are many other systems we will need to know about before we can even begin to guess at potential uses for it beyond scrap metal.”

Leaving aside the puzzle of the bones, Hilda resumed taking point, scouting ahead and listening out for danger. And trying to get ahead of Vasandra so she could actually be the one taking point.

Gavin winced a bit at Rajip's near-panic grip, but smiled a bit at the soldier's trepidation at phase walking.

"Who knew the Goa'uld were such sloppy house-keepers," he commented humorously to ease Rajip's tension.

"Almost looks like what you'd find in a crashed ship. Doesn't seem like it, though, does it? No signs of damage, and the ship is sitting almost perfectly level."

"Well, I don't see any threats in here. Do you?"

"Then let's check the next cargo bay."

With that, Gavin wends his way through all the scattered debris over to the cargo door in the middle of the left-hand wall... and steps through... presumably out into another hallway.

As time passed and more and more walls had been crossed, Rajip slowly calmed down, further conforted by Gavin's attempts on cheering him up. He started to react slowly and eased his grip on the Tollani's arm a bit, careful though not to let go of it.

Gavin and Rajip walk through the other cargo door and find themselves in a hallway as expected. Across the hall is another cargo door, also as expected.

Not seeing or otherwise detecting any threat in the hall, they proceed across to the next door... and step through, prepared to step back just in case.

However, there's no need. This cargo bay seems to be completely empty. A quick walk around it confirms that there's nothing in there.

Again, there's a second door on the left wall, and walking through that one puts them in the expected hallway with another door across the hall.

With no threat apparent, they continue through the next door.

This cargo bay is also empty of cargo but not of something of interest: more skeletons. There are three just inside this door, positioned as if they were trying to get out. In front of the door on the left wall are another four skeletons, also looking like they were trying to get out. Then there's one in the middle of the room, and two more in the far corner. All but the ones in the corner are face down; the corner ones seem to have been sitting there.

Hilda, Freyda, Vassandra and Kaspar have reached the center of the ship on this level. There is a large central column that runs up through the center of the ship. This is where the ring gate would be if it was active. Wrapping around the outside of this central column are circular ramps that lead up and down.

However, you quickly notice that the deck below and the deck above have been sealed off by some sort of iris hatch.

The ramps are just barely wide enough for the FRED to negotiate.