Jack listened to Doc, scanning the instrument panels. "Well... I for one do not feel the need to spend the week headed back to Box 2 on Suzain," Jack said wryly. "Gypsy 2 will suit me fine if quarantine is necessary. And I sincerely hope it isn't."

Jack pulled his hand comp out of his sleeve pocket, looking for a patch into the ATV's computer. "Does anyone know how to drive an ATV? More to the point - can some one tell me where the damn fuel gauge is?"

"Afraid of ghosts Mr. Keveloh?," Jim asked, slightly amused - he certainly couldn't see spending a week in a launch with a perfectly good ship available.  "Hopefully quarantine won't be required, but decon will, and someone has to take the Suzain in.  Hate to needlessly contaminate the whole lower half of the Moth - we just got her."

Jim preps his rescue ball - sliding the open carcase under Dr. Talunt.  He leaves the fuel gauge question for others.

OOC: @ref - how we doing on air?

There is a standard connection on the ATV's powerpanel for Jacques to link his handcomp, or you can just use the ATV's computer itself.

Dani noted calmly, if a bit curtly, into the common crew channel, "Stay frosty, Jack.  I can drive the ATV if necessary."  She continued her vigil outside in the vehicle bay, adjusting the grip on her laser rifle slightly.

"But is that going to be necessary?" Danica prompted, "Or are we going to attempt to power up the Suzain fully and restore atmosphere on-board?  I suspect that we are going to have to, if we are going to turn her around and take her back to Box 2."

Dani glanced at the O₂ gauge on her suit, more a force of habit.

In reply to Danica Moreau (msg #282):

Everyone has about three and a half hours of air left.

In reply to Referee (msg #283):

Dani's words trigger a thought for Thera.
"Can we restore power without restoring atmosphere? I'm just thinking ZA is our friend if any more of those Trills are about. I wouldn't like to think any of those lab specimens are going to revive - especially that big mother. If we refuel the Launch as a safe room for the prize crew, maybe we could bring Suzain back depressurized?"

"Ghosts? Not at all... I've just been thinking of a good float in the Moth's sauna..."

When Jack saw the energy readouts in the cockpit, identical to the ones he had seen earlier, he berated himself under his breath, a long string of curses that he had learned from his Army brother. "Copy that, Ms. Moreau," he said to Danica's remark. "I keep getting distracted by something I can't quite put my finger on... No, no need to drive this thing," he murmued, humor seeping into his voice. "Though that would be quite a sight, you driving from here to the Moth..."

Reconfirming the fuel and life support left in the ATV, Jack began powering up its computer and running a search routine for internal logs, starting at the latest available date and working backwards from there - looking for clues as to why Asher should be awakened first and why the men were not wearing vacc suits - and why they curiously still had their boots on knowing they'd be down for weeks at least. He patched in his own handcomp to record the logs as they popped up and to assist in overriding security if need be.

Thera's comment elicited an approving sound from Jack. "I hadn't thought we'd bring up the life support, merely power her enough to turn her and get her back to Box 2, a week's worth of maneuvering fuel at most." He paused as he checked the progress of the search routines. "That should be straightforward and despite my misgivings I'm willing to spend the days in a vacc suit on this hulk monitoring the vector and our passengers."

"Speaking of, there's plenty of atmo for the crew in this ATV, and power enough to move on to the next two jobs - sweeping the rest of Suzain and turning her back to Box 2. We should be able to refuel the ATV from Suzain, here in its bay, to maintain power and life support for the last day or two of the trip. Then we don't risk further contamination or create a possible security risk by having those two on the Moth."

Jack picked up the laser rifle and examined it then checked its power supply. "Those two may go a bit stir crazy if they wake up but they'll at least know they've been rescued."
This message was last edited by the player at 13:43, Mon 09 Apr 2012.

"Are we sure we don't want to wake Asher before we start fiddling with the ship?  Hate to find out it's rig to blow or the aliens metabolize water and hydrogen or cause some other problems we can't even imagine.  This guy's been dealing directly with these things for days if not weeks.  We've been groping around a dark ship for just a few hours.  We could put in him some zip tie restraints till we figure out if he's got space madness or whatnot.  We can always put him to sleep again.  But if he's got critical information, best to find that out now." Hayden offered, as he considered the situation.

"Hmmm .. interesting points Hayden," Jim replied.  While he found the notion of 'rigged to blow' rather silly, he didn't discount the rest.

"But, I think Dr. Sargant is far more likely to be able to provide useful information.  And there is definitely something queer about that note and the nature of Dr. Sargant's shot that make me leery of reviving the pilot first," he added.

Having awkwardly contrived to put an open rescue ball under Dr. Sargant, Jim proceeds to look around the ATV. 

"Reviving him would not be a problem, but I think we need to have water and food on hand..."

In reply to Jacques Keveloh (msg #285):

There is sufficient food and water in the ATV for a couple weeks or more.

The logs in the ATV's computer are sparse.  The most recent one is dated 349-5741.  Asher sits before the camera and speaks, "Ship's Pilot Asher, Day 349.  Twenty seven days since amubsh.  Astrogator is nearing completion of wilderness refueling.  Our situation is unchanged.  We are still trapped in the ATV by several beings called Trills.

As previously indicated, Pathfinder Eubanks is going to take the ship to jump point, with my concurrence, and attempt two successive jumps to return to Espiaux.  The risk of fuel exhaustion in deep space is fully understood by all survivors and I personally take full responsibility for this action.

Doctor Sargant and I shall be taking fast drug shortly.  For better or worse, this will be over when, if, we wake up.

For the record, Pathfinder Claudette Eubanks has performed above and beyond the call of duty in the past twenty seven days.  She is most strongly recommended for commendation for her actions during and after the events in system zero eight two five.

Asher out."  Asher's tone is formal and flat.  His body language and gestures indicate severity (a scowl) and control.

Danica paused for a moment, the smile on her lips is almost audible, "Time's a wastin', boys."  She prompted the others, "I know that we can continue to argue that either or both of our sedated resuced crewmembers is loonier than bat guano, but we really don't have enough information to make more than an uneducated guess there."

"For all we know," she ventured, "Asher was in love with Claudette and Sargant was in love with the Captain or vice versa or whatever.  And the inexpert dosage on Sargant could be due to physical or emotion resistance by either participant.  We are unlikely to know before reviving at least one, if not both."  Her shoulders shrugged, which at least Hayden from his vantage point could see - the others might have seen her camera feed jiggle slightly, before she continued, "As such we can only make an educated guess as to which one or neither do we revive first and when."

"Asher's obviously barely holding it together.  Understandable, though - it's a frellin' gut wretching roller coaster to lose a lot of trusted people." and that is all that Dani had to say about that before she moved on.  Her tone made it obvious that she sympathized with Asher's plight, but also is curt enough that she had obviously compartmentalized it.

Another slight camera jiggle from a shrug, as she continued, "Doc, you are the one with the most medical experience.  I trust you to let us know the order of revival, if any, is required."  Her video feed showed that she continued to scan the ATV and the vehicle bay for any additional signs of movement, just in case.

"Jack," the raven-haired pilot of the Gypsy Moth noted. "I would prefer not to have to pilot the Suzain all the way back to Box 2 in a suit."  She definitely was not looking forward to spending the better portion of the next fortnight in a vacc suit, and the pause in her voice lingered a bit as she contemplated that.  But once that was noted, she intoned dutifully and without reservation, "But, if that is what it will take to get her and us back safely ... then we'd best get cracking."

Jack watched the logs, listening as well to the others' thoughts on the situation.

"I suppose we should wake the crew, it's probably protocol at some level to do so but I'll be damned if I can remember whether it is or not. But quite frankly I'd rather not. Let them sleep and let's get this bird turned around. The med bay on Box 2 is probably a better bet for them than the Moth anyway. Doc, have you and Dr. Keefe compared facilities?" For some reason Jack found it hard to suppress a snicker when he said that. He hoped Keefe had a sense of humor. "At any rate, it's not my decision. Hayden, Doc - I'll back whatever call you make on reviving these two."

"Thank you, Danica," Jack said in response to the pilot's offer. "But I didn't mean to volunteer you, if I did. I had thought I could babysit this hulk." Jack's eyes played across his handcomp, watching it record the logs from the ATV computer system. "But maybe neither of us will have to do that... do you think it's possible to slave the Suzain's controls to the Moth? Perhaps we could remotely fly her back from our ship."

”If this were a passenger ship, I’d be inclined to agree, let ‘em sleep." Hayden said, before continuing.

"It’s not.  It’s a scout ship that has made contact with a potentially intelligent alien species, and that contact has resulted in multiple deaths on both sides.  This is how wars start."

"We need to know what they know and the faster the better.  If these Trills are days behind with an armada, we need to give the Free Republic as much warning as possible.  If they carry some deadly disease, we’d probably want to avoid infecting Box 2."

"There are known knowns; there are things we know we know.  We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.  But there are also unknown unknowns – there are things we do not know we don't know."

"In any event, we’ll know a lot more if we wake these guys up and start asking questions.”

In reply to Jacques Keveloh (msg #290):

OOC: Revival or non-revival could be argued either way.  There certainly wouldn't be any censure for not reviving as long as you adhere to Hippocratic principles (first do no harm).  They have been under for 25 days at this point.  A standard fast drug dose is 30 days, give or take.  You are six days out from Box 2 now.  So, they may wake up of their own accord on the way back to Box 2, but maybe not as the doses administered may not last exactly 30 days.  A variation of 1-2 days either side is certainly possible.

Keeping someone under fast drug for a second consecutive dose could cause medical complications.  Dr. Keefe would probably object to trying to keep them down past 30 days without some concrete justification for doing so.

Box 2's facilities can handle twice the patients as Gypsy Moth, but the quality of care would be about the same.

OOC2: Slaving Suzain to Gypsy Moth's helm is possible, but would require full access to Suzain's computer system to achieve.  Asher should have the requisite system access, Sargant probably wouldn't, based on their jobs onboard.  Alternately, you could try to hack the system or ask that the code be transmitted to you.  Getting the code from Pathfinder authorities would involve significant time lag.  Hacking the computer system is, obviously, a computer based check once power is restored.  I'll regard Computer, Comms, or Remote Ops as appropriate base skills to set up a datalink, with bonuses for combining them, should you go that route.

OOC: Ack!  Damn, must not have hit Post Message the other night...

Jim finished awkwardly sliding his open rescue ball under Dr. Sargant.  Then, while the others were talking, he setup two hypos from his medikit - taking both in hand while consulting his comp regarding overdose complications...

Then, without hesitation, he quickly and proficiently injected Asher and Dr. Sargant.

"Yeah, we've wasted enough time - we need to get the damn power on and get this bird turned around.  Hell, booby traps, wars and who has to pilot the Suzain aside, I'd like to ask these two some pointed questions..."

He returned the used hypos to his medikit and retrieved two small tubes and an instrument, not seeming to show much concern for how well the revival drugs where doing their magic - or rather a lot of confidence.

Suddenly, his feeds showed him looking down and jerking one foot and then the other very oddly, ".. and I'm tired of this damn bloody suit!  Jack, how the hell do you turn these off!"

OOC:
07:21, Today: Dr. Jim D. Jones rolled 15 using 2d6+8 with rolls of 4,3. Medic/INT: Revive Asher (Rout).
07:22, Today: Dr. Jim D. Jones rolled 12 using 2d6+5 with rolls of 6,1. Medic/INT: Revive Dr (Comp+1).

"Hayden, you as usual have made some excellent points."

Seeing that Doc had given the men revival hypos, Jack took the laser rifle he had found and disconnected the power supply. He placed the two items as far apart as he could in the ATV control space then slipped his handcomp into a suit pocket and turned back towards Doc, chuckling at the man's exasperation. "Knock your heels together, three times. If you can do it while jumping it only takes one time."

He checked his snub pistol and re-holstered it, waiting for the men to wake.

In reply to Jacques Keveloh (msg #294):

Jim expertly injects the two patients and begins the revival process.  The words "revival process" don't accurately describe what Asher and Dr. Sargant are going through.  As their hearts begin to beat normally and lungs suck air again, blood that has been pooling for weeks starts to circulate and cells chemically forced into dormancy cry out for oxygen and nutrients.  Those of you who have experienced fast drug before can attest, the first few minutes of revival are unpleasant.  One feels weighed down by a heavy, wet blanket.  Muscles are unresponsive, eyes refuse to focus, and disorientation and nausea are common.  Patients often do not realize who or where they are for several minutes.  It is little wonder fast drug never became popular in passenger transportation.

Asher and Dr. Sargant go through most of the normal symptoms of revival.  Asher is the more vocal, his animal moans turn to, "wha...wha...what...what..what?" after only a couple minutes, though.  After about five minutes, Asher has enough muscle control to curl into a ball.  "I can't see, I can't see", he complains for about ten seconds before registering Doc's explanation that it is temporary.

Dr. Sargant only makes low grunts, but seems to have a rougher time of revival.  He dry heaves continuously for a few minutes and the muscles in his limbs spasm uncontrollably for several seconds until Doc injects him with some additional dose.

After what seems an eternity, but is actually only just under seven minutes, one of the patients regains lucidity.  Weakly lifting his head, Asher tries to focus on Jacques and Doc.  Rasping heavily, he asks, "Where am I?"

"You are safe," Jim replies clearly and distinctly as if it is an obvious fact and deserves no special merit - intending to reassure the man.

"You are aboard an expedition ATV and reviving normally from several weeks of drug induced sleep," he continues, glancing at Dr. Sargant.

"Please state the current year, Mr. Asher, and tell me, if you can, how many fingers I am holding up..."

Doc waves his middle finger two fingers slowly before the man's eyes.

"Doc" Dani prompts simply and quietly, "which quarantine protocols are we establishing?  You mentioned not necessarily wanting to have the boarding party return to the Moth.  Is that still in effect?  Or should I get a move on, and get back there?"

She knows that he is busy reviving Asher and Sargant for questioning, but depending of if they are staying or going, Dani knows that she and Hayden can start doing things either way.  Given direction; known knowns and all.

In reply to Dr. Jim D. Jones (msg #296):

Asher groans and answers Doc, "Uhh...5741".  He lifts his head and tries to focus on Doc's fingers and ventures, "I think it's two, but which set I'm not sure".

Asher lets his head drop slowly, recovering his strength.  "You're in vacc suits", he notes.

Suddenly Asher lifts his head again.  It seems recollection has suddenly come back.  "This is the mission ATV", he states.  "Where is Sargant?  What about the trills?  Is Claudette okay?"  He starts kicking his legs forward, like he wants to stand, but they aren't cooperating very well at this point.

Jim began replying to Dany, "It'd be nice to avoid contaminating the Moth...," before he was interrupted by Asher and responded, "Dr. Sargant is fine.  Claudette called us and saved you both.  You all are in quarantine."

Doc took several items from his medikit.

"Relax. I must take some samples," he stated as he proceeded to do just that for tissue and blood, from Asher's closest forearm.

As he finished, he added, "We took care of the Trill by the simple expedient of opening the ship to Vacc."

Jim's intonation turned the statement into a sort of question - querying why wasn't such already done...

---

*OOC: Assuming NPCs can handle Moth... I think everyone has skills that could contribute to re-energizing Suzain without leaving, including Thera doing EVA over and some hose connect stuffs (with Jack's help? and we could use some more O2?).

Besides chatting up survivors, seems a lot to do yet on Suzain...
Start refuel; start PP; start computer (slave sensors, or whatever); strap down ATV (and whatever else); nav & pilot systems; kick in life support?

Seems to me that syncing Moth in space sans terrestrial forces should be as easy as walking around a slowly turning person and holding a finger to their shoulder - with no self propulsion, ground friction nor medium resistance, only relative speeds and a simple 3D vector are important <shrug>... but, Ref may have other notions.

Anyway, leaving Doc's quarantine protocol as a suggestion - certainly do whatever you feel will engage your PC (I'll roll with it)!

In reply to Dr. Jim D. Jones (msg #299):

Asher relaxes visibly.  It isn't apparent which item in the mix is most soothing, but he is obviously relieved.  "Good riddance", he notes with palpable venom towards the Trills.  He appears to be willing to let Doc run whatever tests he needs.

Speaking of tests, Doc's medikit isn't a full pathology lab, but you don't detect anything immediately amiss that couldn't be attributed to the aftereffects of fast drug or to stress.  You don't find evidence of alterations to Asher's DNA or alien critters in his bloodstream.

OOC: Moth and Suzain's sickbays aren't full pathology labs either, but they have better diagnostic equipment than the medikit.

"Indeed," replies Jim over his external comm as he finishes fiddling with his medikit, "I am curious as to why such action wasn't taken much earlier - what precipitated such a reckless and foolish double jump hot into a system that was, only by extreme fortune, able to engage in a rescue attempt...?"

"Notably, my colleagues and I are wondering if there is anything other than the mission casualties and wildlife that caused such rash actions - especially as we are preparing to power up Suzain for recovery."

"I'm also wondering why the sign to wake you first?"

OOC: Just an aside at this point, but would Suzain's science lab contain a full pathology lab given the ship's mission?

"Standby, Ms. Moreau," Jack noted quietly over the crew comm. "Assessing our new friends. Thera, let's make sure our feeds are recording everything, please." he added as Doc drew samples.

Jack watched the men closely as they came out of sleep, looking for signs of... well, he didn't know what he was looking for, just something not right. Doc's quick serum analysis and Asher's reactions put him at ease. He keyed his external comm before Asher could respond to Doc's questions.

"Asher," Jack said to the Suzain's pilot. "I'm Jacques Keveloh and this glowing angel here is Doctor Jones. We're both ex-Pathfinder. You made it to Espiaux."

"Roger that, Jack." Dani responded to Jack, matching his volume level.  Her video feed showed that she did not break from her vigil in the vehicle bay as she continued to cast about the ATV.  Danica did continue to move to be able to get a view of various angles in the bay, just to make sure there wasn't any more active trills hiding, waiting in ambush or just milling about somehow.

As she did so, she alerted Prisa and Nino, "Gypsy Moth, Standby.  Be ready to approach the Suzain for revival operations on Mr. Keveloh's mark."  She knew that Nino already had the refueling gear assembled.  She just wanted to give Prisa and he a heads-up that they would likely need to move soon.

She added, just to make sure that they were all on the same page, "Dr. Jones has deemed that the boarding crew should reamin on the Suzain for the return to Box 2."  The ex-FRA officer continued, "Standard full quarantine measures are still in effect."  She also added, though there was that little bit of a smirk in her tone... "And make sure that Dr. Keefe is informed."  Though Dani was pretty sure that Casey is already listening in, to keep appraised of the situation and offer another pair of medically-trained eyes to situation.  What else is there for her to do on the Moth?

Danica figured that stuff could be set in motion for getting the Suzain back up and working, unless something drastic happened and Asher or Sargant had a murderous, psychotic episode or some such in the very near future.  Nothing that she had just ordered couldn't be undone, if the immediate circumstances changed.