Kaengarr gamely deferred to Khea's jittery insistence, though in this case he had a suggestion to make after Darrel volunteered for computer duty. "We do have an admitted secret agent in our ranks, though I don't know whether that makes them the best or the worst to have search for hidden devices."

 
  Kaengarr will act as Khea's assistant again.
 
This message was last edited by the player at 21:15, Sat 30 Jan 2016.

Khea leads KaengarrRuzokh to the life support machinery. She quite likes having a male to order around. "With all that unexplained high tech equipment on board I am not all that surprised that there was an Agent on board as well. We definately have to ask her which clan she is from.

22:19, Today: Kheaiftouaw rolled 11 using 2d6+2.  Inspecting life support, Edu + Help.

  Kaengarr once again made a point of having something ready when Khea needed it. He'd spent the first years of his professional career doing just that sort of thing as an aide to his then-pack leader. That had been in a business environment, but he'd made good use of the knack in other contexts ever since, including technical ones such as this.

  "We might not get an answer out of her. We might get a false one, too. It's strange to even admit to it, but everything related to this ship has been." A chuckle rumbled out from his throat. "Though we could take that to mean it's perfectly suited to the lot of us!"

  "It's making you nervous, isn't it? The unknowns around the ship?" Kaengarr angled his ears and tilted his head to one side as he asked the question, signalling equal parts curiosity and concern, though even so he didn't miss a beat when it came to passing tools and presenting diagrams.

Not wanting to elaborate what happened on her previous ship just yet Khea simply answered Things you don't know about tend to cause even more trouble when things get hectic.. She puts down her tools and looks Kaengarrs eyes What also concerns me is how much money several clans are putting into this century old ship, first by upgrading it with some of the newest technology you can buy and then CeruleanneBlue sending us to save it with a ship containing technology which officially doesn't exist only to sell this ship very cheaply to us.
Haven spoken herself into rage Khea turns back to the life support system and continues working to calm her down.

  "I was surprised by the one-hour jump, just like you." Well, except for the fact that Khea had appeared far more panicky at the time, but Kaengarr wasn't about to highlight that detail. "And there's no good reason for the repair drones to cost that much. The ship otherwise? It isn't as strange as it first seemed. Military interest and a secret agent, considering the iridium and its likely buyer... The systems are high-end, but it's ex-military and they're nothing compared to the scout's jump drive... It's old, but it's still solid..." There was a longer pause there. "In the Extents, old and used isn't held against the way it is in most other places. Neither is mismatched; some bits in my armor are older than I am, but they're still perfectly good. Ugly and suspicious or pragmatic and efficient? Some will sneer and some have sneered, but I'm still alive and they can't all say that."

  "I don't mean that we shouldn't be careful, but I don't see the ship itself as a danger. It's who else might have or grow eyes for it that concerns me."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:06, Sun 31 Jan 2016.

He actually disliked being called Gregory, and just Greg was worse, but while Gory had its appeal, he knew it wouldn't play well with other folks. He'd contemplated changing his name on numerous occasions, but it has just never seemed to be the right time. Then there was selecting a new name. He wasn't OCD enough to make list after list after list of possibilities, but he ran some through his head now and then.

He also couldn't decide if he wanted to change his surname. This was further complicated by the fact that he preferred to just be called 'Jones'. The verdict was still out on whether he could stand to be called Jonesy; it just hadn't come up... yet.

He supposed a decent nickname would probably suffice, but again, can you give yourself a nickname? Wasn't that a bit pretentious?

He'd tossed his 'recently acquired' two ship shares into the pot... as sort of buy-in for the Long Shot. It was a big ship, and, according to the others, it held a lot of secrets.... well, maybe just mysteries. Everyone seemed to have a preconceived notion of what such a ship should be, and therefore concluded that THIS wasn't it.

On the other hand, he knew a few things that the others didn't, and viewed the ship in that context. He wasn't quite sure how much the Count actually knew; they needed to have a conversation at some point.

For now, Jones was content to sit at Sensors on the bridge while the others ran through their inspections. He could just as easily have covered Comms or Computer, and he made a passable effort at Steward.

On planet, Sensors were problematic. It was downright rude if not outright spying to use sensors on the surrounding ships and starport. Still, he flicked the sensors on in passive mode, and began fiddling with the settings.

05:59, Today: Gregory Jones rolled 12 using 2d6+3 ((4,5)).

He'd already heard the others comment about high tech gear on the ship, and the sensors seemed to confirm that. But what other capabilities did it have?

He was still fiddling with them when the Count arrived on the bridge, along with Valeska. Her bombshell statement earlier had made him rethink his own position. But then he realized how canny she'd been by revealing her 'secret'.

"Good day, Sir," he said. "Everything check out below?"

OOC:I'll post as if Valeska is present, if not, just disregard that part.

"Hello Gregory, honestly yes and no. I know what the M-drives can do, I just don't fully understand the machinery behind how they do it. The more I know, the less I know, you know what I mean?"

Heads over to the computer station and begins the mainframe, data files and anything else of interest.
Darrel Cromwell rolled 13 using 2d6+5.  computer check, taking extra time for + mod.

"Valeska, is there anything special we should know about the computer, other than the interesting security system?"

As he's working, he glances towards Gregory, "How's the sensors looking? I know the ship is a converted SDB, but, normally, I think alot of the systems would have been torn out, sold and replaced by "civilian" models...Like I said, more questions and few answers."

In reply to Kaengarr Ruzokh (msg # 23):

Not taking the eyes off from her work Khea replies I do not know how it works with your people but I do not see the point in upgrading an old ship with rather new and exotic tech and then use it for intra system mining.

  "Is it new and exotic, or just to us? These things might all be old and familiar where they came from. Even a basic launch is new and exotic to a world that's never known space flight," Kaengarr shrugged. "If there are military scouts that can make hour-long microjumps, we might be looking at 'upgrades' they'd expect to see in a museum."

Realizing it was going to take longer that he anticipated to check out the computers, and as much as he wanted to check them out himself Darrel called over the comms, "If someone has a free set of hands not checking their stations, please head down to the repair drone bay and see if you can see anything special about them."

"I can't think of anything in particular that is unusual about the system. I wasn't intricately knowledgeable about the Engineering section. I just knew about the backdoor security measure. In case of pirates."

Once on board the Long Shot, Sharik went through the various bridge systems to familiarize herself.  With Samantha at the flight controls and Gregory putting the internal and external sensors to the test, the diminutive dilettante concentrated on the communications suite, the general avionics array, and the astrogation systems.  She took her time, knowing that systems she was checking were not on the critical path for maneuvering.  Shar started with reviewing the schematics while running the on-board diagnostics and then engaging various simple test and calculations that she was familiar with.

As she worked, the thin dame from Gaargir quietly hummed an ancient Solomani six-part fugue.  The interweaving threads of the harmonies seemed to mesh well with the calculations she was running.  At least, that was the theory.

  00:49, Today: Sharik Kaagira rolled 10 using 2d6+3.  Engineer (electronics)/Edu Check (General Avionics w/ Time).
  00:50, Today: Sharik Kaagira rolled 8 using 2d6+5.  Astrogation/Edu Check:   Diagnostics w/Time.
  00:51, Today: Sharik Kaagira rolled 11 using 2d6+3.  Comms/Edu Check: Diagnostics w/Time.

Count Cromwell finishes up his computer checks, thanking Gregory and Valeska for their help on the bridge.

Upon seeing Sharik enter the bridge, "Hey Sharik, what do you think of the ship so far, not too shabby for an 100 year old refurbished SDB?"

Darrel own question made him think about something Casey had said, Darrel calls up previous refit logs for the Long Shot.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:48, Mon 01 Feb 2016.

Sam was concerned. The ship had hidden secrets, which was ok. But what happened if one of them broke in the middle of nowhere - could it be fixed enough to keep moving? Or if they only discovered a secret that stopped them doing what they needed to when they needed to do it?

On the bridge she took her time working through a preflight at slow speed, and carefully checked each step, rather than the more cursory glance given to confirm what was suspected in a a usual preflight. She wanted to make sure the dials and readouts actually said what they should, and didn't have something else on them that might indicate another surprise. That the controls didn't have an extra button that she wasn't sure of. They had time, and whilst she wanted to fly this, she was more interested in trying to find out its secrets

ooc

14:42, Today: Samantha Kilgore rolled 14 using 2d6+5 ((6,3)).
Sam is going VERY slow -  2 increments slower - which I am guessing would take a Preflight from the 10 - 60 minutes time range up to about a 4 hour one?

Comms to Sir Zeller: "Walter I'm having a package dropped off with the cargo, here's the inventory list. Please make sure it gets to the Ship's Locker, Thank You."

Densitometer, Compact (TL 13): A handheld version of the standard densitometer, giving slightly better resolution. Wt 1.5 kg, Cr.28,000.

Forensic Sweeper (TL 13): This complicated handheld device is a multi-medium scanner which looks for radiation residue, ballistic particles, chemical traces and bio-organic remains all at once. Within an hour of sweeping a 20 square metre area with the handheld wand and succeeding in an Investigate skill check, the device will know all of the following pieces of information. Weighs 2 kg, Cr. 7,500.

• The types of weapons fired in past 36 hours.
• The known species of any beings passing through the area in the past 12 hours.
• The known species of anyone injured in the area during the past 48 hours.
• If any chemicals (drugs, poisons and so on) were in use during the past 12 hours.

Bug Detector, Advanced (TL 13): A handheld scanning device designed to detect electronic listening devices. The standard bug detector can only be used to scan for bugs but for Cr. 7,500 a detector/jammer is available. This unit has two more settings: it can overload and destroy bugs within range (a few metres) or simply jam their output for a time, leaving them functional after the jammer
is switched off . The advanced detector only detect, jam or destroy bugs up to TL 13. Cr. 1,000.

Bioscanner (TL 13): The bioscanner is a small handheld unit which ‘sniffs’ for organic molecules and tests chemical samples, rapidly analysing the make-up of whatever it is focussed on. It can be used to detect poisons or bacteria, analyse organic matter, search for life signs and classify unfamiliar organisms. Analysing a sample will normally take 1-6 minutes. Wt 3.5 kg, Cr. 350,000.

Electromagnetic Probe (TL 10): This handy device detects the electromagnetic emissions of technological devices and can be used as a diagnostic tool when examining equipment (+1 DM to work out what is wrong with it) or when searching for hidden bugs or devices. Cr. 1,000. The Sensors or Investigation skills can be used to sweep a room for bugs.

General Comms:"Picked up some gear, it'll be here when we come to pick-up the cargo, here's the list (see above). Thinking about things that might help us check out our ship, I contacted one of the better ship inspectors I had hired, he had some high-tech gear that couldn't be found on-planet that he had used in his inspections so I made a deal."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:17, Tue 02 Feb 2016.

Pablo finds the weapons turrets to be in good condition, although he can't find any record of them having been serviced since the initial refit. They aren't a requirement for ship inspections.

He does find that there is a Fire Control-2 program in the computer, both the main computer and the auxiliary weapons computer. There is also a bio-interface program that lets fire control to work a human gunner. (Roll for both and take the better result)

The simulation program has a slight delay between going active and releasing fire control. It's only 2 seconds, but he can't quite figure out why there's a delay. It's probably just a glitch in the program... some safety feature... give you a moment to rethink blowing another ship out of the ether... and killing everyone on board.

As soon as Darrel steps into the Med-Bay, he feels like he's struck it rich. There are actually 2 autodocs in there.

On second thought, maybe it's not so great after all. It's clear even superficially that they are old. He guesses they are TL 14, but from a 100 years ago. The manufacturer is Sterilon Corporation; they are a reputable company, noted mostly in the Spinward Marches.

The docs have a few dents and dings, scratches and scuffs, and there are areas that have been mended or replaced.

Running the diagnostics on them shows that they are functioning at 95%... the less-than-perfect rating is due to several drugs needing restocked, or replaced due to expiration.

There are programs for every known species... and apparently a few 'unknown' ones--ones that Darrel has never heard of... though one of them, the Skara, were in one of Darrel's movies. And here he thought they'd just been made up by the writers and make-up people!


The rest of the Med-Bay could stand to get restocked, too.

Not surprisingly, Life Support equipment is functioning at 101%. Spending most of the time in the asteroid belt, keeping the life support working would have been a high priority. Some of it is old, but some of it has clearly been replaced over the years as the old equipment broke down.

This normally doesn't get done in modern ships because they run to tight specs, but in the older ships, there was often a 'margin of error' allowed. This is obviously an older ship, built over 100 years ago, so there's a 20% margin of error in the specifications. In other words, it can handle 20% more people than it is rated for, or last 20% longer.

Khea is able to determine that the life support can be adjusted to a number of different species and living conditions, from desert to arctic. The life support is also zoned throughout the ship so that most staterooms can be set for specific conditions.

Jones can't actually use the active sensors but the passive sensors are another matter. He finds that they are quite excellent. In fact, as he puts them through their paces, he realizes that they aren't exactly what they are supposed to be. They are listed on the ship specs as 'Advanced Sensors'; in reality, they are Very Advanced Sensors.

That's not really surprising considering the ship had once been a System Defense Boat. It would have needed those kinds of sensors to detect other ships.

Alas, there is no record of them at that rating. It's probable that they are original to the ship, but for some reason they are not listed on the ship's specs as that.

Sharik finds the same thing that Jones did--very advanced comms. What that means is that they are quite powerful and can punch through any lesser jamming. They are also capable of sophisticated jamming.

It is capable of handling up to 1,000 separate and discrete channels. It is also capable of sophisticated frequency scanning.

It is capable of communication across the entire electromagnetic spectrum.


Astrogation is normal, but she finds that it is very fast, and has a huge database. Just as a lark, she punches in distant coordinates and actually gets a jump solution... for jump-5,000!

Darrel, assisted by Valeska, takes a stab at inspecting it, analyzing it, and investigating it.

Valeska can tell him about the 'failsafe' program. As long as the program is not running, it can be disabled, recoded, or deleted. The command code can be reset, and the time increment can be changed.

He finds that there is an extensive selection of games and entertainment files. In fact, he finds that all of his movies are in the database. These are all in a 'library computer' that isn't listed on the ship's specs.

The one thing that he finds that bothers him is that there does not appear to be as much memory available as there should be. It seems to be functioning only as a Model 4.

ooc

Anything for Sam?

<<"Copy that.">> Sir Walter said over the comms. <<"It will be waiting to be loaded along with the cargo I have acquired. Might want to have someone land the launch along side as I have been able to fill every space that we are aware of full of cargo.">> he said

With most of the systems being inspected and taken care off only the general state of the electronics remain, apart of course the general state of the hull and structure. Sadly electronics are not Kheas strong point yet with the male following her she can't show any signs of weakness.
Thats why she takes her time with inspecting them, hoping that he will assume the extra time taken is because of exhaustion even though she, thanks to the longer wake-sleep cycle compared to her companions, wasn't feeling much of yet.

OOC: 22:51, Today: Kheaiftouaw rolled 7 using 2d6+2.  Inspecting Electronics (Wiring, etc.) +1 Edu +1 Time.  Another +1 (and therefor an 8) if Kaengarr helps again

  Khea's ruse was doomed to be unsuccessful because Kaengarr was perfectly aware of Aslan sleep patterns, both academically and from the fact that it had come up with Khea herself in the last few days. He didn't comment on the time taken though, interpreting it as a matter of diligence rather than fatigue, and if Khea inadvertently let slip that she wasn't as familiar with this part of the ship at some point... well, what of it? The systems were even less familiar to him!

  Secure in their mutual misunderstanding, thus did the pair continue to generate material for Darrel's next xeno-relations sitcom.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:17, Wed 03 Feb 2016.