"Me? Doubtful. Though maybe. Or maybe..." He trailed off, lost in thought. He then addressed the survivors as a whole.

"We're going to get out. No-one dies if I can help it. I'm going to see about repairing the ship; if any of you were an engineer or a spacecraft repairer in another life, come with me. The rest of you, you will be safe. Do not panic."

He gestured at one of the others who seemed to portray leadership qualities. "You're in charge until I return."

He frowned, and shook his head, moving towards where the Starboard engine should be, if this ship was layed out in the way he's used to.

"Little girl, you're with me too." Half-protective, half-condescending.

"I am Sereth of the Draconian Empire; and I shall not be laid low so simply."

She glared at the lizard-man, ready to protest at being ordered about like he was a Caretaker. She couldn't make his engines work. Then again, she didn't want to stand here doing nothing but play in the person-chain. She wanted to be outgoing, to explore and do things. She was a Kang, and she wouldn't wait to be made unalive. The egg-head needed her to find his way.

She separated from the chain and quickly helped the neighbouring two people link up, before walking off with the lizard-man to the carrydoor. 'Smoke Alarm.' she told Sereth of the Draconian Empire. It wasn't clear if it was a name or part of the fire safety system.

No one moves to join Sereth and Smoke Alarm as they open the aft hatchway and head through it into the companionway.  From here there is a narrow passage straight back toward the engine compartment, and a section that seems to branch around the cargo hold toward back toward the front of the ship.  The pair of them can feel heat radiating from the left-hand side of that branch.

Judging by what he saw of the Lucky Drifter's layout before boarding, Sereth believes the engines themselves will both be accessible through the aft compartment; more importantly, there should be diagnostic controls there that can give him a better idea of what he's dealing with.  The corridor sways beneath them for a bit as they make their way back and through the hatch into the engine room.

Smoke Alarm doesn't make much of the banks of controls and flashing lights she sees inside the compartment.  Her attention is immediately drawn to a woman -- old as a Rezzie -- crumpled and motionless against the base of one of the consoles.  There's a welt and a gash on the side of her head.

While Sereth isn't familiar with the exact model of ship or its systems, one thing he can tell right away is that there are a lot of warning lights flashing.    He also notes that there's a comm panel with a flashing yellow light of its own.

To interpret the readouts and determine what needs to be done would be a Tricky(15) Ingenuity + Technology roll.  Rules note: just getting assistance from another qualified character is typically good for a +2, and the information already conveyed over the intercom would qualify here, since it points you to what you're looking for.

As pretty as all the flashing lights were, Smoke couldn't say what half of them meant. Nothing good, though. 'This sky-fly is not shape-ship.' she muttered.

She left the egg-head to deal with it while she dashed to the fallen Rezzie. Oldsters were easily broken, she knew. One knife or arrow was enough to put them down. That was why they were so sneaky. Smoke wouldn't trust her, but she guessed this was the Rivvan meant to make the engine work. So, they needed this Rezzie. First, Smoke checked her air conditioning, by seeing if breath came out of her mouth, and she looked to see if red paint was still leaking out of her head. If both had stopped, then she was unalive.


OOC: Checking the old woman's injuries:
13:47, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 13 using 2d6+5. awareness + medicine.

He examines the readouts carefully to figure out what to do, paying no notice,for now, to the probably dead Rivvan, and only -after- he figured out what to possibly do did he pay attention to the comm panel. That was no doubt the somewhat useless crew asking for help; and he'd answer that when he'd done something about it.

OOC:  20:57, Today: Sereth rolled 15 using 2d6+8. Ingenuity + Technology.

Smoke Alarm lets out a sigh of relief to find that the Rezzie is breathing.  Not ready to be sent to the cleaners yet!  But she doesn't rouse at Smoke Alarm's touch, and Smoke Alarm knows that sometimes forcing people back to wakefulness can be harmful.  The best thing for now might be to make sure that she doesn't get hurt any further from the jouncing and pitching of the sky-fly.

Sereth looks over the readings.  He sees that the starboard engine is shut down because a portion of the fuel and coolant systems supporting it are showing red indicators: it looks like an explosion has broken the lines and vented the contents to space.  The engine itself seems intact -- there are some temperature and stress warnings showing for it, but he doesn't see anything that would keep it from operating properly.

Both engines are designed to allow for isolating damaged feed lines and rerouting the redundant systems on port and starboard to serve both engines.  The port-side lines are intact -- the only consequence of rerouting the systems will be that the ship's range would be severely limited.

There is another problem.  The starboard damage has wrecked the automatic control systems for the feed network.  To carry out the rerouting, someone will need to throw the heavy valves by hand, and it looks as if this can only be done by going through a narrow crawlspace up toward the damaged area.  Someone will also need to be on hand to restart the engine when the fuel and coolant flow resumes.

'She's alive. Not ready to be taken to the cleaners. But she's broken.' she reported to Sereth. Smoke was a little lost as to what else to do. She was too hurt to play wakey-wakey, but she couldn't just leave her like this. What to do, what to do? The Kang hovered fretfully for a few moments, before drawing a knife on the Rezzie.

The knife was old and worn, the handle taped back together and the blade sharpened back so many times it was thinner and more wavy than any knife had a right to be. Part of the point served as a screwdriver in a pinch. It had served the Kangs in many different ways over the years. Once, it might have been a kitchen knife. Sometimes, it still was. Wielding her knife, Smoke attacked the woman's jacket, cutting it up and tearing off a long strip of strong cloth. Smoke's own clothes were already far too ragged.

She then wound the strip around the woman's head as a makeshift bandage, to keep the cut closed and the red paint in, then tied it tight like a bandanna. After that, she laid the Rezzie flat on the ground, bunching her remaining jacket under the head, so she couldn't bump around too much. That would have to do.


OOC: Applying first-aid to the woman:
22:55, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 12 using 2d6+4. ingenuity + medicine.

My Keen Senses bonus of +2 might apply to the earlier examination.

A frown from Sereth. "Listen. I'm going to try to do something that gets the ship back in working condition. But you need to stay here, ready to get it back online, unless she wakes up."

He shook his head, and pointed out to her how to restart the engines when it was time. He didn't really want to go into the crawlspace himself; but there was no way he could ask a girl to go in and throw about the valves; whilst it should be no problem for the Draconian. Nothing for it.

Before he did so, he moved towards the comm area; and used it to hopefully communicate directly with the crew rather than shipwide.

"Right, Captain, you have a problem. Luckily for you, I can fix it. We believe we have Rivvan here; and she's alive, but in a bad way right now. There's... going to be some issues with what I need to do; but it's the only way to try to get the engines working anything like properly again. If you can spare anyone, getting someone down here to help would be ideal.

He sighed, and made any preparations he could.

Smoke watched the lizard-man explain all the button-pushing, then memorised the sequence by going over it herself several times. Although she didn't know what everything did, she was a clever-clogs who could work things out.

Then she looked in surprise as the big lizard-man outlined his own plan. Then she laughed. 'You, go creepy-crawly through the air ducts? You're too big! You'd get stuck like a fat Rezzie!' she laughed again. 'I'm small and quick. I'll be outgoing through in a jiffy.' she declared, and moved to the access hatch. She paused. 'Uh, what do I do?'

A frown as he eyed her. "Well, therein lies the problem. YOu may be small but you're also weak." He shook his head. "It involves moving quite heavy objects about so that it can be done." A look towards her; fully expecting her to acknowledge she couldn't do that.

Smoke Alarm wasn't dissuaded in the least. 'How heavy?' she asked, then raised her arm to display her arm muscles. 'I'm strong, I'm brave, I'm a training fighting machine.' she boasted, quoting Pex the Musclebrain. The small Kang went through other bodybuilder poses until she convinced the Draconian, though she didn't have much to show. But as scrawny as she was, she had a wiry, athletic strength packed into her small frame.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:04, Tue 03 Dec 2013.

"Eh?  Who's that?  Wait, it's you, isn't it?  Sereth?  The Draconian legate?"  There's a pause, and the captain -- Sereth recalls the man's name now, another Earthman named Henzler -- goes on in a worried voice.  "Sorry, Legate.  Rivvan and me ran this ship on our lonesome, couldn't turn a credit with more hands.  You've actually got experience with pulsed-ion systems, then?  What's the board telling you?"

He frowned at the girl's protestations but, though it galled him to admit, she might have a point.

"Very well then. What you need to do is..." And he explained to her in elaborate detail what needed to be done.

When the response came in, he responded in kind.

"Yes. It's me. I have some experience, though not as much as a Draconian pilot would have."A pause then, before he responded, checking the read-outs as he did so, to make sure there were no sudden changes. <DarkGreen>"Your starboard engine is under stress; but seems to still be intact. BUT, the lines seem to be broken from what I can tell. I can rereoute some of your starboard systems to enable the ship to get moving again; but it's range will be limited. WHich will be a problem if we're still under fire. My associate will be doing something to enable that. If there's only you and Rivvan, who's currently unconscious, I don't see an alternative."

There being only two could explain lack of evasive tactics, at least partially. Mind you, a trained fighter-pilot would still be able to; but he couldn't expect perfection he supposed.

Smoke Alarm nodded her head through the egg-head's explanation. She quickly got her bearings relative to the sky-fly, and repeated to herself the instructions. Go here, go there, shift some levers, got it.

While Sereth talked over the talkiphone, the Kang simply crawled into the narrow space, without a word of goodbye. Staying low, moving fast, she scooted down them like a rat. After evading those mechanical men through the sewers, this was getting to be old hat for her.


OOC: Finding my way and not getting lost:
10:23, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 16 using 2d6+9. awareness + ingenuity + SoD.
I applied my Sense of Direction bonus.

Smoke Alarm winds her way through the ducting without too much trouble.  Way easier than making your way down the carrydoors of the Tower; not nearly as many ways to turn and get lost.

She finds the insides of the metal tube getting hot to the touch, and then all at once she finds the levers that the egg-head had told her about.  An experimental tug on one of them encounters more resistance than she'd expected, and it's hard to get good leverage twisted up in the pipe.  (Probably easier than the egg-head would have had it, though.)  Hadn't he said something about the pipes being busted open to the Big Black?  That reminds her of the horrible Cleaners and their Vac-You-Me tubes.

I'm calling this a Tricky Coordination+Strength roll.

"Get me both my engines," says Henzler, "and I'll take care of getting us away from the goons out there.  Sounds like we'll have no choice but to put down on one of the other orbital rings to try and get the Drifter sorted out proper, though."

Serath watches the pressure gauges for the feed systems.  The girl had scampered off without any way to signal him, so he was going to have to switch the system over and restart the engine quickly when she threw the valves, or risk venting all the fuel.

Another Tricky Ingenuity + Technology roll.

He watches carefully; really wishing she'd taken a way to communicate. They needed portable comms for sure!

He sighs though, waiting for when she achieved her end of the job, then preparing start the engine at that point.

13:56, Today: Sereth rolled 9 using 2d6+6. Ingenuity + Technology.
Dice were bound to fail sooner or later....

Crawling down the narrow duct, Smoke was worried to find it getting hotter, and felt too much like a Kang stuck in a wicked-witch Rezzie's oven, but no one had given her any sweets. That was disappointing, to be made unalive and cooked up and eaten and not even get any lollies. Or maybe she was actually going down the waste-disposal shoots, down to the Basement, to be mashed and minced and burned and fed to the Great Architect... Shaking her head, and reciting 'Brave and bold as a Kang should be.' Smoke Alarm recovered her courage and pushed on.

She came upon the levers sooner than she expected. She had expected a modest size room, a big block of controls, and some very big levers for her to hang off. She grabbed the first lever for the valves with both hands, and pulled. Although she was strong for her size, but had little weight to bring to bear, and couldn't shift the lever. She pulled! And couldn't even budge it. The rocking motion didn't help either, nor the sweat on her hands. Then Smoke attacked the levers savagely, trying to shake them up and up and left and right trying to loosen something. 'Yah-yah-yah-yah!' she growled.

Fiddlesticks! Smoke didn't want to go back and face the egg-head and admit she wasn't strong enough, that he needed to do it for her. Brave and bold as a Kang should be.

Finally, she twisted and rolled around in the duct with amazing flexibility, until she was facing the opposite direction. Now she brought her even-stronger jumping legs to bear. Clamping her boots around the lever, bracing her hands against the roof of the duct and her back against the base, Smoke pushed the lever, down, down...


OOC: Pull the levers!
16:11, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 12 using 2d6+9. coord + strength.
Bah, no more than Normal. I'd like to spend a Story Point and bump that up to a Success vs Tricky, as under the "That was close, nearly didn't make it!" usage.

Sereth, you can spend two Story Points to do the same, turning your Bad result to a Success. An SP can be spent to improve the results of a check, by one grade per point, but never to more than a Success.

We need to get the engines going so the ship can escape the bad guys before they blow us up, so the situation is sufficiently vital for this use of a Story point.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:56, Tue 03 Dec 2013.

OOC: Okay then yes, I'd use those story points, because we do need the engines running. Or we get in trouble.

OK.  This, incidentally, is essentially where companions balance off against Time Lords: the Traveller can hit some crazy high numbers in her specialty areas, but has far fewer in the way of Story Points to toss around.

Generally it's to your advantage to look at the likely number you'll have to hit on the dice and pay story points for extra dice up front, as I described under your character writeup.

By the way, if you are declaring and making rolls before I set a difficulty for something, like Smoke Alarm has done a couple of times, I consider it completely legit to see that you've got a poor roll and add extra dice for Story Points.

Straining hard as she, Smoke Alarm finally gets the lever to slam home.  Now that she knows the trick of it, the others go easier.  She can hear a thrumming around her, food for thirsty engines flowing through the pipes.  Ice hot!

Back at the engine controls, Sereth sees the set of routing indicators for the feed system flip to green, and works through the restart sequence for the starboard engine.  There's some disturbing creaking and the stress indicators jump, but the readings settle in the green.

"Haha, good job, Legate -- we are go!" Henzler calls.  "Please be so good as to look after my lady for me.  Going to try to lose these guys and make for the Farhaven Ring."  The shipwide indicator for the comm system lights again.  "Ladies, gentlemen and others, hang onto your hats: we are about to do some flyin'."

Some more complicated maneuvering follows.  There are a few additional jolts of impact, but nothing new goes red on the damage control panel, so far as Sereth can see.

'Ha ha! Icehot!' Smoke laughed down the ducts as she got all the levers down, the valves thrown, and the sky-fly's belly started rumbling.

Rolling on to her front, she started crawling back to the engine room, to tell Sereth what an icehot job a Kang did.

Sereth moved quickly to Rivvan, trying to keep her steady through the manouevring, though his eye was on the console as well; making sure no more emergency lights started to flash. He didn't notice the girl return; or if he did, paid no attention.

The engines strain, all at once, briefly alarming Sereth, but Henzler puts in, "Coming in to land, now.  This might be just a little rough...."  And there is a bit of a bump when the Lucky Drifter comes to rest, but nothing very far from the ordinary.

What worries Sereth more, as the engines start their shutdown cycle, is that the ion reservoirs are practically exhausted.  From his briefings and review of the Arsuran system, he recalls that Farhaven Habitat was home to a small religious sect of mainly Earthmen, lacking docking, repair or refuel facilities so far as he knew.

Take care of any final shipboard business you'd like, and then check over in the Farhaven thread.  There should be a post describing the Lucky Drifter's arrival shortly.

Smoke emerged happily from the crawlspace, feeling like a rat in a wall-hole. 'I did it! Icehot lever pushing! Easy-peasy-pie!' she boasted, skipping over the effort required to shift the levers and throw those valves. She climbed the rest of the way out, and patted the dust off her ragged clothes. 'Did you make the sky-fly work, egg-head? Is it all shape-ship?'

It seemed it was, as the man on the talkiphone said they were coming to land. Already? Smoke Alarm held tight to the nearest thing that was nailed down, but there was no need as the sky-fly bumped down more softly than the earlier turbo-lence.

Then it was over. They'd escaped the wipeouts and fires and Caretaker sky-flies. They were alive, not unalive, not taken to the Cleaners, not gone to the Great Pool in the Sky. The Kang ran at the Draconian, threw her arms around him and jumped up and down with child-like joy. 'Ha ha! We did it! We're alive! Icehot!' Now this had to be a laughing matter.