Cees, that is bumblebees, that are shaped like the letter 'C' chase you from a racetrack, and out into the parking lot where airships descend from the pink sky. They are filled with cannibalistic elves who also set to chasing you, and seeking respite, you leap into the air to fly to an airship...

You are floating. Your eyes are closed. You are in no pain.  A faint hum, mechanical in nature, pushes air past your face. There is a background of intense, crackling will that you can feel, and this makes no sense, but its there all the same.

The closest thing you can compare it too is when some very high charisma person walked into a room, and without saying a word, totally dominated their surroundings. Its an electric feeling in the air, an anticipation, a wonderment, and it makes little sense still to you.

PT

I open my eyes look around and then try to move if I can.
I look all around where I am looking for anything and anyone.
I am so confused on what is going on one minute I was with Gold, then the time travel and now this, what will be next?

You are floating in the air above a delicate lacework of metal in a long corridor that extends for over a hundred yards.  One the wall, in nets are boxes with labels like 'Mary Piper: Sardic', and 'New Haven', and 'Mary Piper: Emerald'.

Suddenly your perspective shifts, and you see yourself as hanging above the floor a hundred yards below you. Terror grips you, and only grudgingly lets loose as you don't fall.

You see your wheelchair bang against a wall lightly,a nd rebound.

Its floating too.

PT

I try to float across so I can grab the netting or a support of the wall and look for areas I can walk on, or a door of any kind. How do my legs feel?

You find you can swim in the air, after a limited fashion. A minute later, you reach the wall, and the netted boxes.  Grabbing the net makes you move much quicker, and more surely.

Your legs feel decent, but still a bit unpractised, and out of tone. You are able to use them, although they are stilly clumsy, and 'hard of hearing'.

You pull yourself up to a door, and it opens by sliding sideways.  You pass into a short T-passage outside.  To the right and around a corner, you hear some snores. To the left and around another corner, you smell coffee.  There are similar doors to the one you just exited which are next to the room you just left.

You're still floating.

PT

I float down the hall towards the smell of coffee, I need a cup in a bad way, I try to 'swim' down the corridor but stay close to the wall to help me travel if I need it. I will head towards the coffee.

A small cozy cylinder of a room with brightly colored pillows attached to the walls greets you. A clear plastic cabinet holds large plastic bulbs labelled coffee.  One is attached to the wall by a bit of string, and it has the smell of coffee coming from it.

Another small plastic cabinet holds rolled up sheets of laminated paper, and a Red Cross first aid box.

PT

I float over to the clear cabinet and grad one of the bulbs and try to figure out how to drink the coffee.
I also look around to try to figure out where I am and what this place or ship is. I look for any names or identifying marks.

You find out that a gentle squeeze seems to activate it, and shoots a stream of coffee into your mouth.  On the bottom of the squeezebulb is the following: Property of Mary Piper. Mfg. on Rimward by the Service Guild in 572 A.L.. In the middle of it is something like a large stamp impressed into the plastic. Its reminiscent of city and state insignia with its four quarters and its ball, gown, broom, and triangle all mounted on a shield, and surrounded by helpful hands holding leafy branches.

PT

I examine the label and then I finish the coffee, and then head back down the hallway towards the snoring sounds.
I found where I am but I have no clue what it means, need to find someone to talk to and figure out what is going on and to find someone who can tell me what is happening to me.

A young guy with short, spiky blonde hair, and the cutest, and perfectly symetrical face is wrapped up in a sleeping bag velcroed to the wall. From your perspective, he's sleeping upside down with his head to the floor, and his feet pointed at the ceiling.

There are four other bags in the room, but they are empty.

You see next to him a small net of personal objects which includes something that might be a hand pistol of some sort....laser blaster?

The wall opposite him is slightly curved, and you see a porthole in it.  Looking out, you see stars, and a giant white curving band.

PT

I figured we where in space but this confirms it. I am leary of waing him because of the Laser pistol, but there looks like there are 4 others on baord as well. I need to find answers well here goes nothing.
I then say," Hello there could you possibly assist me?"

He opens his eyes, and smiles.

"I'm dreaming. No. I didn't self-hypnotize myself. Ah, you're an ...no. But that leaves you being real. And thats impossible."

He pulls himself out of the bag. Spinning easily, he turns himself upside down or right side up to your frame of reference, and then he stops by throwing his arms out without touching the walls.

"After all, we're doing a good hundred Xcee, and nothing in the universe can catch up to dominated mass."

He closes his eyes, and slaps his face. Then he opens them.

"You're still here. Well thats not all bad. Did I mention I like redheads. Well I also like blondes, and brunettes too. My name's Carl, I'm the cargomaster on the good ship Mary Piper."

PT

I was surprised he took it better then I thought, I then say,
" Hello my name is Amanda, pleasure to meet you. I guess I appeared in your cargo bay after I well this will be hard to believe I think I am some form of time/space traveler, also my wheelchair is also in your cargo bay."

"We don't have teleports among our people. Also, what is a wheelchair? Is it some form of noble or royal conveyance, I should know about?"  He looks puzzled, and with a follow me gesture, he shoots past you, and down the hallway leaving you to plod along behind.

It seems when it comes to Zero G travel, you're a toddler, and he has an adult's skill.

He's fascinated by your 'royal conveyance'. Its clear he's never seen one before.

PT

I try to follow him as fast as I could, I say," It is not a Royal conveyance , I use it because I use to be paralized and unable to use my legs I just had surgery to correct my condition, but I still need my chair."

"Surgery?" He blinks. Its clear he's never heard the word before. And then his face lightens. "Ah a surge of neurokinetic energy to overcome a dominated illness someone placed on you.  Most amusing way of describing it. Very witty." He grins. "I'm not a bad dominance myself, but not delicate enough to work on a human body."

He shows you what he means by reaching out a hand, and frowning.  A heavy box from the far end of the room slips from its netting, and floats up to his hand before stopping.

"Pretty basic stuff, but I can tote cargo for hours. In that respect, I'm almost as good as the Shiplords. Just need to learn some delicacy."

PT

I listen and then respond," Well not exactly, the Robots used tools to actually do work on my body. What you have demonstrated is Telekinesis."

"Robots....that's fiction." He smiles condescendingly at you. "And uh, tele...something.  No, this is Dominance. Mind over matter. My will vs. the inertia of the matter. I tell it what to do."

He pauses.

"I better take you to Bascom, he's chief of security."

PT

I listen and say," well obots aren't fiction and it is called telekinesis, it is basicly mind over matter, I will go see this head of security if you wish."

He looks at you strangely, and then nods.

You follow him back the way you came, and down to an airlock. Once inside the airlock, it starts moving circularly and you feel gravity arrive.  Once its matched its speed with the great circle that houses most of the ship, a door is opened in the bottom of the airlock, and you see a hundred foot ladder straight down.

OOC: To give a clearer idea of the ship...There is a central fuselage with cargo, and engines that is shaped like a cigar.  Around this is a giant circle like a ring.  The ring rotates to mimic gravity with centrifugal force.

A tunnel with ladder steps joins the 'cigar' and the 'ring'. There is also an airlock that can circle the cigar to match the speed of the ring, and then connect to the tunnel.

You are looking 'down' the tunnel, and wondering if  your still weak legs are up to the challenge. You are currently in 1/4 gravity, but the gravity will grow until it reaches full Terran gravity at the end of the tunnel...one hundred steps below.

PT

I look down the ladder and grimmace, my legs feel ok now but this could be hard on my legs the further I get. I turn to Carl and say,
" Carl my legs are still weak from my procedure, I am not sure I can make it all the way down without my legs giving out?"

"Well, if you trust me, and don't resist mentally, I can lower you down by dominate, err, taliknet whatever you said." He looks over at you. "Course if you panic and mentally resist, you'll mess up my control. I don't have good 'cut through' which is one reason I do cargo, and not other stuff."

PT

I seem a little nervous at his request but I calm down very fast and then say,
" I agree I will not resist mentally or physically Carl."
I then try to clear my mind and keep my body as relaxed as possible and get ready to be moved.

He lowers you without a hitch.  Its a most odd feeling.

Once both of you are down, he goes in search of Bascom.  The formidable man appears with the cargomaster in tow.

"I'm Bascm, chief of security. And you are a stowaway. Legally, I could flush you out of the nearest airlock sans spacesuit.  So, why are you here? How did you get on our ship. Little things like that."

PT

I think for a minute and say," Honestly I am not exactly sure how I got here, I was on a mining planet with a Robot we took off using this weird propulsion system, and the worls went weird and I awoke floating in your cargo bay with my wheelchair floating nerxt to me, my legs are very week could I please sit down before I fall."

Bascom nods at the Cargomaster, and a chair floats up behind you. Feeling a bit weak, you settle in to it as Bascom continues to intently stare at you.

He asks a long list of probing questions, and you answer them.  He's brusque to the point of rudeness, but you sense no malice in him.  He's got a job to do, and if that requires breaking you, he will do it.

And then you realize how his questions are so clever and insightful.

He's reading your mind.

He raises an eyebrow.

"It took you that long to consider the obvious. That is in some ways the strongest arguement for you. Although, your legs, your manner, nearly everything argues for you, and quite loudly too. You're either the most perfect plant, and mind-scrubbed dupe that I've ever seen, or you're something impossible. I shall send you to the Captain. Do you have any questions you'd like to ask now?"

Oh I have so many questions but I decide to choose the first ones carefully.
" I know we are on a cargo ship in space, I am from Earth in the year 2008, where exactly are we and what year is it?"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:46, Sat 24 May 2008.

He pauses.

He blinks.

He thinks a bit more.

And then he ruefully shakes his head.

"Congratulations, you've just totally thrown your interrogator for a loop. That's never happened before." He thinks. "We're passing on the left, M985341, or as we call it Waypost 3. Its about a lightyear out to the left, a little dot in the sky. Its the closest star."

He touches his desk, and a hologram star chart appears.

"You're here, near the outer edge of Home Galaxy. And if our records are right, some 25,000 years give or take a few millenia after humans first used space. You're about, we think, 20,000 lightyears from home, but we're not sure because frankly we're not sure where home is, and we're not sure its even still there. Logic suggests it won't be, but we try anyways."

You can see a red line in the star chart that heads from almost the outer edge inward.

"More specifically, you're aboard the Mary Piper which is a legendary starship. Its said to be almost as old as humanity, and its said to have been in continous operation on various paths laid in over the last deca-millenia.  Our Cargomaster here thinks you're some ancient secret woken up from some past that we've forgotten. If you are, you're better than I am. We are like children climbing into a great control center, and punching buttons. We don't know what secrets this ship holds.  However, none of our starships could possibly survive a 20k trip, and we know this one can."

PT

I am very taken back, then I say," Ohmy God it has been that long, back on Earth I was a science teacher maybe I can figure out things about the ship you can't , could you pleaseshow me the controls and I will see what I can do."

Your prayer settles your mind, and you find yourself readier than you'd expect for the new challenge.  They look at each other as if they are communicating at levels you can't hear, and then the massive, bear-like security chief, and the sprightly blonde cargomaster usher you over to a control room.

You look out windows, and see stars wheeling to your left as the ring spins.

The controls are many and varied. You see that several have obvious additions of signage added to them.

"Ring Spin Speed"
"Magnetic Bow Wave." A quick remembrance of the effect of atoms hitting something at light speed or thereabouts convinces you that you definitely don't want this FTL ship hitting a dust mote.  Sparkles light the space directly ahead of the ship.

PT

I see the sparkles and I am worried, I look at the controls and try to figure out how to alter our corse to avoid the sparkles.
I try to open my mind and a place a hand on the controls and try see the controls in my mind.

Suddenly everyone in the room stops moving.

And there is a guy with red hair, and the calmest blue eyes standing next to you. Behind him is a composed lady in a very modest dress, and bonnet. She has a purse in her hands.

"Hello, I'm Christophe, lots of people call me Double Cee as I was known as The Captain for a nonce. Um, this is my wife, Annie. Anyways, I'm rounding up a few people like you and me for a problem that needs solving. I can drop you off back here same time you left if you like."

He looks at your hands, and says calmly.

"I wouldn't change the heading. Those sparkles are the interstellar dust impacting the forward shields. And dust is, according to my ladywife, one of the constants of the universe."

"The major constants are God's love, human stupidity, and Samuel Colt's wisdom. Dust is a minor constant." She pats her purse, and you realize you can see the outlines of a pistol in her purse.

OOC: Basically, I'm going to be taking two weeks off starting tommorrow, and letting Krillis run a temporary gather of all the players.  This is your chance to join in if you like.

And I've taken vacations before, and been back before.

PT

I stop and don't change the heading, then I turn to the two who are now next to me and say, " I am Amanda and I guess I will help if you think I can, I also would like to know exactly what has happened to me as well, and yes I would like to be brought back here when we are done."

The two look at eachother for a moment, and smile in some inside joke.  Annie replies, "Oh, yes dear.  I'm sure that your experiences in the next days will be more than enough to shed light on all things.  Seek the shade of a Great Oak if you need guidance."

You take Cristophe's hand, and the world wavers around you...
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:26, Sat 31 May 2008.

I nod to Annie as the world wavers around me, I wonder what is going to happen next, this has been quite an interesting journey already, but I need answers and these two seem to know alot more then I do, I wait to see where I end up now.