In reply to Cala (msg # 21):

The Dislocations require putting hints together.  You find a reference to famine conditions over most of Asia.  An unknown device built in Saturn's orbit that is fifty miles long without humans.  A 'Carrington Event' referred to as 'God's Mighty Hand of Deliverance'.  The execution of several hundred 'Machinemen'.  Stringent laws against AI.  But that's it.

The Doctor comes in, and tells you that its meal time.  He eats with you in his spacious cabin, which is unusual.  The food is minty rice, and a wine-soaked beef, and stuffed apple sized cabbages.  Its quite good, and the Doctor entertains you with stories over dinner.

Robots do the work.

He tells you to rest, and threatens to make it an order.

"Your brain needs time to recharge, and your spirit to gain strength.  You've been badly stunned today."

The night passes in a small room with vivid dreams of your old life.

The next morning, you're hard at it again.

A chart of the Solar System shows The Robolord Empire owns Western Europe, Central America, NEO colonies, and the asteroid belt.  Something called the Translunar Demenses opposes them, which is on and near the Moon.  A collection of NEO colonies near the South Pole opposes them as well.  On Earth, the Han Empire opposes them, and the rest is counted as Minor States, and Wasteland.  There is a Martian Republic, but its small.  There are other minor states scattered about, even one as far away as Neptune's orbit named 'No Visitors'.

The History books go back to the Creation.  Much of World History is familiar to you, but with a different slant.  It could be your Earth, or one close to it.  Forex, they don't have WW1 and WW2, they just have the Anglo-Teutonic Wars.

Stunned?  Eh...

Looking everything over...

Well, history is written by the victors. Did I suddenly warp super far into the future from a mere spark? Ugh. Next time I see the doc I need to ask him about how I'm supposed to pay the fee to register when the only currency I have hasn't been used by anyone on Earth in the last 4 to 5 thousand years.

I go back to the room I slept in and try to meditate to pass the time.

Never been good at meditating.. or able to just... let my mind go? To focus? Bah, everyone I ever knew is gone, responsibilities don't currently exist, and magic might actually exist but the means to  use it conventionally aren't available to me. Meditation sounds pretty good right now.  Who knows, maybe I can reach out to whatever passes for a deity to see if they can explain the whole time hop / universe switching thing that happened.

I meditate, and every now and then try to mentally reach out to whatever might listen.

In reply to Cala (msg # 23):

Your meditation in this strange circumstance goes well, but if you contact anything, its a faint and ephemeral contact.

+@1 Meditation.

Talking with the Doc reveals that its been only eight hundred ninety-seven years.  2914-2017=

"You can ask for a temporary waiver, and once you get a job, pay it."

You see two other Humans not in their control bubbles today.  Both nod at you as they walk past.

"Really? Less than a thousand years? That's much better, but also mildly confusing. What emperor doesn't reset the calendar when they establish an empire?"

I hesitate for a moment. Should I ask him about magic? He's a doc, so it's probably mumbo jumbo to him, but it has been nearly 900 years. It didn't exist in my past, but this isn't necessarily the same Earth. Even if it's only divine magic, of which I really have no interest in, might be useful as a link. Eh.... let's go for it.

"Hey doc, this is probably a bit of an oddball question, but... does magic exist in any quantifiable or demonstrable state? Like, have people publicly done magic that is arcane or divine in nature and not simply parlor tricks and sleight of hand?"

After we finish up for the day, with nothing pressing coming to mind, I go to meditate, or sleep, preferably the former, but I'll not shy away from the latter.

In reply to Cala (msg # 25):

"The Empire wishes stability, so it anchors itself in the past." He says as if its a truism.

"Nothing provable by an experiment." He answers.

You're yanked from your sleep by a whooping siren.

Ahh, I knew it. MC status confirmed. That's really loud.

I get it, make sure I've got everything and casually peer out the door.

I have no idea where the armory is, assuming this is pirates, which it probably is. I wonder if they'll believe that I slept through the alarm? Well, no one but the doc recognizes me. I don't want to be mistaken for an intruder... even though I am, and shot accidentally.  Might as well lay low.  If the doc comes for me, fantastic. If not, I'll stay here.  I can go with the excuse that I got lost and managed to avoid the fighting entirely.  I somehow made it back here and decided to stay put and not get in anyone's way. Yea, let's do that.

I sit where I am and meditate, trying to ignore the siren.

In reply to Cala (msg # 27):

Its really hard to ignore the siren, but the echoing silence after it cuts off one minute after it started is blessed.

You hear shouts, and crunches of metal on metal, and cries of 'Robolords, on me!" and 'For the Redhead!", and then it fades.

I move to be next to the door, so that when it opens, it will look like the room is empty.

Probably best to not let anyone catch me skipping out on this.

Thinking for a moment as I move, Redhead... huh.

Once out of sight, I remain there waiting to see if I hear anything else.

If the pirates win, I might get captured.  On the up side, I didn't fight them, so it's not like I killed their buddies.  On the downside, captured.

In reply to Cala (msg # 29):

You hear shouts.  They sound like orders, but its too far to hear the words.

The whole ship shifts under foot, and you stumble.

A while later, the door opens, and a man with a different sort of costume, and armed pokes his head in, and then out, and runs on down the row checking rooms.

Hah, knew it. Well, let's give it some time.

I wait.

Doesn't sound so good for the crew of this ship.  My mediocre skills would probably be more harm than help, and I'm not too keen on getting myself killed. Especially for people I don't know. They may as well be npcs, and in a battle between one faction of npcs and another faction of npcs, best to just let them sort it all out.

If the crew of the... what's this ship called again? Riches and Radioactivity? Riches of? Bah, if the crew of the RR survives, huzzah.... or not. Doc and that one robot are they only two I've met, and only a couple of others have seen me before the attack.  If everyone that has seen me died off.. well... that would  be bad.

On the other hand, if the pirates win, I can always feign prisoner status and join up with the  pirates.  Or try to join up.  They might just kill me, but I can only hope they'd be up for replenishing their crew to help recoup whatever losses they faced from this endeavor.  Better to train a complete noob than get someone set in their ways that might do you harm later.

Well, we'll see. I just hope there's enough crew leftover, in either case, to get this ship to Earth or whichever destination the pirates want to take it.

In reply to Cala (msg # 31):

There is some very loud ringing noises that come through the metal hull, a lurch, and then a more significant lurch.

Time passes.

No one comes.  You notice the air getting stale.

Welp, that's not good.  No air circulation. Time to leave.

I get up and leave, trying to find signs for engineering. If I can find a robot to direct me, I'll ask it to escort me.   I'll also try to find out information on the battle.

Wait, I know literally nothing about engineering. Why would they turn it off? Logically, it would make sense if you wanted to make this look like an accident? A malfunction caused life support to drop and everyone eventually suffocated.  So long as you remove the bodies, or at least position them in such a way to suggest a mutiny, you can cover it up pretty well.  By extension, they'd need to keep the crew locked up to prevent anything going wrong, which would also mean having people looking over the engineers, or having their own brought in to take care of things.

Or maybe shit just hit the fan and the damage spread there, so nothing can be done and we're all going to die anyway.

...

Well, to engineering it is.

In reply to Cala (msg # 33):

You spot a robot, and it seems surprised to see you.  It takes you to engineering.  Along the way,  you spot a lot of slash damage, but no burn or melt marks.  The milbots are broken, hacked apart.

Engineering is a small room, and simpler than you expected, which seems good, at first.

The RR is a mile long.  It is one of ten ships in the Spring Caravan.

It is pushed by a giant solar sail which catches the light from a laser cannon mounted in the asteroid belt.  It is slowed by a laser cannon in Earth orbit.  The laser sail is shredded.

The RR is off-course, and headed above the plane of the elliptic in a flawed cometary orbit.  In about eleven years, its going to impact in the Sun.

All of the people have been taken off.  And the A,B,C,D,E,F, and G holds have been detached from the ship bringing its total length down to one-fifth of a mile.

"Captain, your orders, sir?" Says the robot as you drift helplessly through space toward certain doom.

Nice.

I think to myself sarcastically.

Well, nothing but time. Escape pods, though I doubt it? That's probably the holds?  Time to take inventory, maybe I can rig the lights for a makeshift S.O.S? But pretty much everything in space is ridiculously far apart. It's nearly impossible to see something visually, as everything is done via scanners and tech.  It's off course... we're drifting though, we might run across something.

"Take inventory. What robots remain operational on the ship and how many. This ship isn't nearly that long anymore, aside from the holds, are there any escape  pods on this ship?  Lastly, take me to the bridge, and have every functional robot meet me there."

In reply to Cala (msg # 35):

They have no escape pods.  It takes a bit of thought, but you realize that anyone 'podded' would be stuck out in space, with not nearly enough power to get anywhere.  Sailors, for similar reasons, have passed on learning to swim.

17 robots show up, and greet you as captain. One is a milbot. You are on the bridge.  Its a spacious, comfortable room not designed for sudden decisions.

You set up an SOS. Whether its noted by any other ships is not known.

Computer Skills new use. +@1.

Yep, as I suspected. No one that chooses the name of this ship has good taste.

I look at the assembled bots.

"In order starting from you," I say as I point to one of them on the end, and then motion towards the others, "what is your function? What role and skills do you have?"

I wonder if the library is still here.  If so, might be time to read up on all that forbidden knowledge.  The sail is useless, but I wonder if there are thrusters anyway? If not, maybe I can rig something up?  We're drifting, so long as I can change course, even slightly, a bit of change goes quite a ways over a long distance.  Still need to worry about food and water, though that isn't an immediate threat.

In reply to Cala (msg # 37):

They are all General Utility Bots, capable of doing any job needed on the ship, that they can do.  Except for the milbot that tells you its job is to fight pirates and restrain drunken Robolords at the command of the Captain only.

The Library has been raided for some of the more valuable looking books, but is otherwise intact.  The Forbidden Section is behind a locked, rather durable looking door of armored metal.

There are microthrusters, suited for docking maneuvers.

You've got a year of food, and unless the water purifiers break down, an infinity of water.

Going to see if one of the bots has a torch function, or something similar. I've got at least a year to get through the door, should try to do so this month, to give time to read whatever is beyond it - assuming what's beyond it isn't torched by force entry through the door.

Micro-thrusters are going to make it hard, but over a distance, I should be able to adjust course.  Best case is crash course for earth, ideally someone will stop me on the way. Little movements go a long way. Need to get a bearing on my current heading in relation to where I need to be to head towards earth. Then make small adjustments. Might need to rearrange all furniture and equipment in one end of the ship to assist with the swing type movements.

As robots can do pretty much everything, it's time to see if we can repair the sail. If that's not an option, then we'll need to keep everything running, so maintenance for everyone. Might be a good idea to use this time to familiarize myself with the ship, see if I can learn from the bots. A lot can happen in a year.

I also need to see what materials we have on hand for repair. If we are lacking, we'll need to re-purpose the useless stuff, and I might need to rig up a forge for that.

Time to see if the Library has anything on solar sails. Time to familiarize myself with ship technology.

"Ok, here's what we're going to do."

I address the assembled robots and start distributing them according to plan. Most for maintenance, a couple to get through the door, if they have a torch, or if not, assisting me with getting through it by alternative means.

"Also, I still need to breathe air, so we need air circulation and supply. It's a bit stale, so I need that fixed." I assign a robot to assess that problem, and fix it if possible. If not, to let me know.

I have the millbot patrol the ship, after finding out what tools and weapons it has available to it.

Ok.

I get one of the robots for a moment. "I need to broadcast a message across all public channels to any ships that might pass by the area, or at least is in range of communications. Ideally, this message should auto-repeat. Is that possible?"

<If it is, then I set that up. If not, then that is fine. In either case, I try to broadcast a message, with assistance from a robot.>

The message: "This is Cala aboard the remains of the imperial ship Riches of Radioactivity. I am requesting a rescue from anyone that can hear this message. As I am not an imperial citizen, I honestly don't care which nation, entity, or corporation comes to my rescue. Rescuers are free to take what they want from the ship, and I will work for you for a period of time. Please help me."

Once the broadcast situation is taken care of, I spend the rest of my time meditating / sleeping, while I wait for access to the forbidden area of the library.

If the broadcast message has to be done manually, then I'll be broadcasting variations of it every now and then (no specific schedule, but multiple times an hour.)

In reply to Cala (msg # 41):

A message comes back twenty minutes later.

"This is the Captain of the Promise of Plutonium, and your treachery is not unnoted.  The Spring Caravan cannot rescue you as you well know, so you should have the decency to go down with the ship without begging help from the pirates."

The robots tell you that Promise is one of the other ships in the Spring Caravan.

A few minutes later, a mildly mocking voice with a strange accent comes on.

"This is Lieutenant Hardin of the Radioactive Reindeer, , pirate, and loyal servant of the Space Dragon himself.  I do apologize for not taking you off your ship when we raided it, but its always a rush when we do raid.  The Imperials might get one of their laser cannons to take a pot shot at us if we stay too long.  I'd recommend rapping against the walls of the Captain's cabin.  He almost surely keeps the good stuff there.  You're doomed, mate."

In response to the first broadcast,

"Traitor? Can't betray what I haven't allied myself with. If you are unwilling to take me off the ship, that's fine. Cthulu takes care of his own."

In response to the second,

"Hey Hardin, I've got time, especially given the bearing of this ship. Why don't you have one of your mates come back another time? I'm sure these other folks aren't so bored that they'll keep me company."

Then, to whomever might be listening, "By the way, who came up with the name Riches of Radioactivity? It is utterly stupid. Also, here's a fun tidbit to ruminate over as you sleep at night. Last week it was 2017 and I was comfortably working at home. This week, nearly 900 years later, I'm on some stupid ship, with weird tech, and robots. Talk about culture shock. Also, I looked over them rules for Hidalgos, chivalry wasn't particularly cool in medieval times, and having a glorified version of it is ridiculous.

Also, while I'm at this rant... what type of emperor doesn't reset the calendar at the start of his reign?"

Ahh, that feels better. Really had to get that off my chest.

I go and see if I can find the 'good stuff' in the Captain's cabin.

In reply to Cala (msg # 43):

You go beat on the walls, and after messing around for a bit you figure out that moving one picture of a wineglass right side up, and flipping another picture of a wine bottle sideways will open a wall cabinet.

Inside is four bottles as follows: sherry, port, something called 'Rockdust Cutter' and a peach brandy.  There is also a very nice saber with a knuckle cover guard and a gold chain tassel in a red leather scabbard.

"Huh."

I take the saber and stick it in my belt, or otherwise attach it to me.

I head over to the Library to see what is behind the forbidden door.

Maybe I should play some music over the comms?  Nah, not yet. Don't want them to shoot me out of the sky. Maybe later, though. Give them some time to cool off.

I also try to see if the Library has anything on 'Rockdust Cutter'. Nobles.. I wonder if it's illegal.

In reply to Cala (msg # 45):

The scabbard near the hilt just sticks to you.

The Library door is about half cut through, and its very hot, and heavy with fog of a particularly nasty smell in there.  You suddenly realize the books in the main library area are being exposed to this.

Choking, you leave the Library with a book on 'Drinks of the Modern Age'.  Yes, its in the illegal section along with a dozen others, several of which sound positively insane.

Its drunk by the asteroid miners to help  them cope with the rockdust created by their drilling machines.  It does well with that, but the hallucinatory and paranoid tendencies it creates explain why its illegal for miners operating thirty ton mining machines to drink it.  But for a miner without much money, its far cheaper than regular medical care which will go on their debt.

Why a noble has such a thing is a good question.