Upon stepping out of the other side of the gate, the team enters a world of darkness. Fortunately, they brought their own light.

The light from the flashlights continue to show the image transmitted by the MALP. Its own lights are out... to conserve energy.

The stargate, the triangle DHD and the MALP are all still there.

—and emerged in utter darkness, not seeing where the ground was and crashing hard. But the hardy Cimmerian rolled and bounced up, ready for battle, flicking on her flashlight.

Freyda comes in and looks around. I will work on basic power and lights first and check the life support. Once the others come through. I don't think Hilda the yelling was necessary but it fits the mood I think.

She turns on a light from the chair taking out a working light from the mechanics kit a lot of light from a small device in a radius keeping the setting low for now as she looks around at the structures.

Having stepped slowly and carefully through the gate, Kaspar only stumbles slightly, as he steps out.  He gives himself a shake, to ward off the chill from the transition, as he turns on his flashlight, and waves the beam around.

"Anyone see anything recognizable?" he asks, "I mean, can anyone tell if we are in a big cargo bay, or in a big hanger bay, or what?"

"Hilda, I noticed you have a pair of infrared goggles in a pouch on your belt.  I'd like you and your youthful eyes to climb up on the MALP and keep an overwatch."

"Sargeant Mojdar, I want you to head out into the surrounding dark and try to find the limits of this chamber, keeping a special eye out for exits.  At no time are you to proceed so far that you loose sight of the lights we're setting up here.  If you don't have IR goggles -- well, shame on you, Ranger! Borrow Hildas if you have to, though I'd rather she keep hers for overwatch.  That's all I can think of, Rajip, unless you have something else to suggest? I'm open to suggestions."

Kaspar shines his light down at the deck plating he's standing on.

"Somebody give me a scan of the floor." Kaspar orders, "Check the analysis against what we know about the materials that a Ha'tak is made from.  Remember, General Hammond told us they are only assuming this is a Ha'tak, from the size of this chamber.  Let's see if we can confirm it.  Also, let's get some environmental scans, just to confirm the MALPs telemetry.  Make sure it's all the same.  Last thing we need is to suffocate in our sleep because we got the carbon monoxide levels wrong, yeah?"

Kaspar clips his flashlight to his webgear, then digs his pipe and tobacco pouch out of their respective pockets, and begins filling the bowl.

"And, of course, if anyone comes across any alien writings..." Kaspar says, placing the pipe in his mouth, firing up his lighter -- taking note of how brightly/dimly the flame burns -- and drawing the tobacco to smokey life, "...do let me know."

Freyda does a baseline mechanics analysis of the ship locating all the basic system locations and size etc. using an Asgard Scanner linked to her computer to start reporting the results.

ooc: 15:16, Today: Freyda rolled 19 using 1d20+10. Mechanics Analysis. ~no gear modifers applied might be +4 higher~

Just as the Cimmerian did, Rajip also took a wrong step in the darkness around, falling off a low platform, hitting the ground below it with a noise betraying their presence at the gate. Unlike the warrior woman, however, he had not gone through it so painlessly, crashing his knee against the floor. He hissed in pain and anger, but then calmed down as in the strong beams of his teammates' flashlights he noticed there was no serious damage to his leg and the pain itself would abide soon enough.

He stood up, his own flashlight also on, penetrating the darkness ahead.



OOC: What do the immediate surroundings location look like?

Exiting the stargate with the same caution she imbues into her every action Vasandra steps down onto the floor with an almost insulting grace, all the while guiding the FRED to as safe of a stop as possible for such a heavily burdened vehicle.  Quickly issuing instructions to both the MALP and the FRED Vasandra has their powerful floodlights active and facing in opposite directions down the longest available paths of the room in order to provide the most effective visibility possible.

Oops. I goofed again! The room would not have been dark around the stargate because the stargate's event horizon generates a good amount of light.


Vasandra has no problem hooking up the floodlights that Hilda brought along. The MALP and FRED only have spotlights... better for directional lighting. She gets them set up with plenty of time to spare before the gate closes. One of the mission parameters was that the gate would remain open for a full 30 minutes before shutting down.

The floodlights illuminate a large area around the stargate, but the light does not penetrate to the walls, at least not in any meaningful way. Anyone at the walls, however, would be able to see the lights clearly.


Freyda's scans produce only minimal results. She can determine that the walls are around 100 feet away, and that they are made of a trinium alloy consistent with ha'taks, as is the floor and the 50-foot high ceiling. But there is no power... no active systems for her to trace.

Frowning, Hilda looked about herself and in the pouch for these goggles — she didn't quite know what all the stuff the SGC granted her really did — but came up empty. 'I don't have any goggles.' she reported, unembarrassed to be found lacking. If they were important, then they should be in one of her scouting bundles.

Regardless, she stowed her shield and sheathed her sword before climbing up on the MALP, shining her torch around and casting electric light into the gloom. Coming from a pre-industrial world, she knew what it was like to truly be in the dark. Unfortunately, her eyes were still adapting, thrown by the lights been set up and shone around.


OOC: Spot 10, Listen 23
14:14, Today: Hilda rolled 23 using 1d20+5. listen.
14:14, Today: Hilda rolled 10 using 1d20+5. spot.

Once again, Gavin was the last to go through the stargate, though it had nothing to do with any reluctance. The others went through first because of certain priorities, and because of their mindset. Hilda was what the Tau'ri called 'gung ho'. He almost always smiled at her... enthusiasm.

The others seemed to subscribe to the general attitude of 'we have to do this so we might as well get it over with'.

Gavin was simply more prudent. If there was ever some reason for him to go through first, he would do it.

While Rajip scouted ahead, Hilda stood watch atop the MALP, Vasandra set up the flood lights, and Freyda began scanning the ship, Gavin was left to do the other thing the Major requested. He set his tech kit on the back of the FRED, opened it up and began running the requested scans.

He is testing the gravity, the temperature, the air pressure, the humidity and the atmospheric content.

"Running those scans now, Major," he tells Kaspar. "Everything feels normal, though, but we'll see what the doohickeys have to say."

With his weapon trained at the point where the light from his personal flashlight revealed a fragment of the far wall, Rajip took several steps to the front and walked across the width of the room, methodically revealing every bit of the darkness-covered part of the stargate chamber, memorizing the locations of entrances and any type of control devices along the walls as well as searching for possible video cameras or other monitoring devices under the ceiling.



OOC: 20:47, Today: Rajip Mojdar rolled 12 using 1d20+5. Spot.

Once the stationary flood lights are set up in a close perimeter around the Stargate Vasandra begins issuing movement commands to the MALP and FRED to advance the coverage of their headlights out to the walls and assist with the search for access panels or doors likely to lead to such things.

The stargate is situated in the center of a large room around 200-feet square. Rajip finds one door, closed in the wall straight ahead of the stargate. It's a typical truncated triangle door. It does not open as he approaches, and even pushing the control panel to the side doesn't cause it to open.


On the wall to the right, Vasandra finds another door. It doesn't open, but she also makes another grisly discovery--on the floor is a skeleton.


Gavin's readings confirm what the MALP's sensors had indicated. 99.5% standard air and temperature. Pressure is 1.1% higher than at Earth sea level. Ambient room temperature is 73^OF. Air content has 76.1% nitrogen, 21.12% oxygen, 1.03% argon, .051% carbon dioxide, .2% water vapor, and 1.1% krytpon, and other trace gases. Gravity is .95 Earth normal.

"The door here won't open," Rajip reported back to the Major after he'd inspected the rest of the wall, then moved on to the other door indicated by FRED's spotlight. Once there, he attempted to open it and, if successful, to retreat behind the cover of the wall again.

Sparing the skeleton little more than a glance Vasandra walks around it to the far more important door, looking for access panels or any indication that anyone has tried to force it open.  Only after an inspection of the door does she continue her sweep back to the Stargate to report in.  ”There is another door, they are clearly without power and we may not be able to apply power directly to the doors, we may also want to check for flaws in the DHD as soon as the wormhole closes as the whomever left the skeleton behind may have been trapped in the room for a long time.”

"Skeleton?" Kaspar asks, taking the pipe from his mouth, "There's a skeleton at this second door?  Well, well..."

Kaspar walks over to the FRED and retrieves the shoulder bag holding his specialty gear.

"Hilda!" Kaspar calls, starting to walk off towards the skeleton, "You're off overwatch, grab one of those big flashlights and come with me! Vassandra, I leave checking the DHD to you.  Everyone else, keep doing what you're doing; we're setting up camp here for now, it seems.  Sargeant Mojdar, please keep searching the perimeter of this chamber -- knowing where the two doors are is fine, but I want to know the location of every button, switch, panel, and console you can find. It may be relevant at some later time."

Kaspar, with his flashlight still lit and hanging from his webgear, heads over towards the skeletal remains.

Once he gets there, he pulls the laptop out of the satchel, turns it on, then sets it aside to go through its boot-up.  Then, with the exrtra light brought by Hilda, he takes out the digital camera and snaps a few shots of the skeleton from a couple of angles.

"Okay, Hilda.  I want you to use your 'trackers eye' to look over these remains with me, and tell me what details stand out to you.  Your persective is different than mine, and you might make some connections that I wouldn't.  First of all, let's consider how this person was dressed..."



OOC: First off, we'll need a detailed description of the skeleton and any gear on or near it.

Not exactly sure just what skill, or set of skills would be needed, here, but I'm going to start with studying the remains with my Knowledge: Anthropology -- treat this as an Anthropological analysis of a grave site.

Knowledge Roll: 05:46, Fri 20 June 2014: Kaspar Radoslaw Gorski rolled 27 using 1d20+9 ((18)).

ALSO, as a Free Action (^_^) I will spend 1 Action Die to use my "Professor" ability to "grant the benefits of any basic skill feat he possesses to each other member of his team. This effect lasts for the duration of the current scene. This is the Scientists core ability". I will do this with Hilda, to grant her skill with Knowledge: Anthropology.  Only thing is, I don't know if Knowledge Skills are basic skills (I'm at work, as I post this, and don't have access to the Rulebook). I'm not sure if this ability grants Hilda a skill level equal to mine (+09), or, because this is an Action Die, if she just gets the skill with a "level" of 1d4.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:51, Fri 20 June 2014.

Hilda jumped off the MALP, landing heavily on the deck in her army boots. 'Okay.' she acknowledged. Had she ever said "sir" to a superior officer? Not often. She grabbed her extra equipment off the MALP, pouched it, and made to follow. 'Shouldn't you contact the SGC? If we are to be trapped here — again — then we should tell them what we have found now before the gate closes.'

Joining Kaspar at the corpse, she looked dubiously at the skeleton. 'The bodies I'm used to are usually much fresher. Or animals... Okay, stand back, don't step on prints.' The hunter first scanned the floor around the body for footprints, whether of dried blood or grease of scuffs in the dust, before she moved in to close to inspect the remains for wounds left on the bones or holes in the clothes, using a pokey thing from her evidence kit.

'Well, he's dead.' she reported mischievously.


OOC: Investigating the body, using an evidence kit (whatever that does).
Track: Survival 11, or take 20 for 26
Search 6, or take 20 for 23
19:41, Today: Hilda rolled 11 using 1d20+6. survival.
19:42, Today: Hilda rolled 6 using 1d20+3. search.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:06, Fri 20 June 2014.

Freyda and probably Vasandra know that the doors are powered, and to the best of their knowledge, there is no manual way to open the doors. On the other hand, there is an access/control panel to the left of each door. Prying the cover off will give access to the internal circuitry, at which point power can be directed to the door.

The same applies to various 'hidden' control panels around the room. Freyda can locate them with close-up scans. These should all be controls for altering the parameters of the cargo bay.

Having established where the doors are, this further indicates that the team is in one of the four corner lower cargo bays on a Ha'tak ship.


Other than determining that the skeleton is, indeed, dead, all that Hilda can determine is that there are no tracks... because there is no dust... and that it was an ettin! In this particular instance, the evidence kit has no obvious use.


Kaspar is able to determine that it was a human (99.2% certain) male, around 6-feet-6" tall. It is lying face down, arms above its head. Any determination of age is impossible because of the second skeleton within--a Goa'uld.

There are no clothes, no skin, no other organic remains other than bone, nor are there any jewelry or devices.

There is no obvious cause of death, no broken bones or burns, no skull fractures.


Kaspar's Professor ability doesn't grant skills only the skill bonus from a skill FEAT. Only Scholarly would apply in this instance (+1 to Knowledge), but Hilda doesn't have any Knowledge skills. However, given the imprecise definition of Scholarly, I can see that it would let her use a relevant Knowledge skill untrained (the Professor is instructing), and it could even apply to her Survival skill.

Still, for a measely +1, it's probably not worth burning the Action Die.

Freyda gets her kits out there should be a portable power source, gets our her Sonic Screw Driver and gets to work on the door hitting some buttons as it makes funny sounds.

Sound FX  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzZedNx2XOY
(ooc: player is such a nerd)

She tries to wire the power source into the door its likely not strong enough for more then gets the panel working trying to keep it simple open the door not do much more or screw anything over.


19:39, Today: Freyda rolled 28 using 1d20+16. Electronics.
19:40, Today: Freyda rolled 18 using 1d20+16. Mechanics.
~ Asgard gear bonus verses G'ould Tech added. ~
This message was last edited by the player at 23:42, Fri 20 June 2014.

Kaspar takes a few close-up photos of the secondary skeletal remains curled up inside the rib cage, then jots down a few notes in one of the notebooks.

"Alright. Step by step. First, this is a human skeleton; it is amost identical to the anatomical norm for Earth Humans, or those descended from them -- like you and other Cimmerians."

"Second, this was a Jaffa. We can tell that because the secondary skeleton -- that of the Go'auld parasite -- is down here where the abdominal cavity would be, rather than wrapped around the neck and spinal column, up here."

"Third, there is no indication of a violent demise; no broken or fractured bones. The skeleton -- skeletons -- are almost pristine.  From the lay of the bones, I might guess that he either crawled to this position -- indicating a weakened physical condition, most likely starvation -- or that he was kneeling here, praying to his God to open the door and save him, when he died and fell forward.

"But we have some questions, too.  We have, here, an almost pristine set of bones; there is no lingering connective tissues, no flesh, no hair, no sign of body coverings.  If this man was a Jaffa, where is his armor, his uniform, his staff and helmet?  From what we see here, he might have been naked.

"And that brings up a secondary question -- if he'd mummified, his skin would be tightly wrapped aound his bones, and some clothing might remain bound to him; but we see none of this. However, if all his flesh and soft tissues -- and maybe even his clothing -- rotted away, there should be some evidence of their presence; if nothing else a stain on the floor under the skeleton.

"What was he doing here?  Why was he naked?  Was he naked? Were is the rest of him; where are the remains of his remains?  The skeleton is pristine, almost as if it had been cleaned.  Or stripped.  But, if so, by what means?"
Kaspar stands and takes a final snap shot of the skeleton, then looks around.

"This cargo bay has two doors.  The skeleton is in front of this one.  Why?  Just because it's the one he came in through?  Did he come through the gate and this was the first door he found?  As a Jaffa, he probably knew his way around the inside of a Ha'tak, so, if we assume he knew where he wanted to go..."

Kaspar turns to locate vassandra, and calls over to her.

"Captain Tourmaline, a question! In your experience with starships, when a cargo bay has large doors like these, where do they generally lead? Either into, or out of the ship, yes?"



OOC: not to be a pest, but, um, Freyda...which of the two door are you trying to open?  I wasn't sure...
This message was last edited by the player at 23:52, Fri 20 June 2014.

ooc:
Good point, if there are controls whichever is not for an airlock, she can read G'ould and other languages if one is air pressure or had any security features that would prevent opening into a vacuum that is likely a door out, over one going into a hallway.

Hilda could have said something about the skeleton, but Kaspar had already said it all and more. 'Perhaps fire or ray-dee-ay-shun burned his clothes and flesh up?' she suggested, not having much else to add.

'Should I use this evidence kit? It has something for detecting blood?'
This message was last edited by the player at 00:41, Sat 21 June 2014.

Kaspar ponders Hildas suggestion, "Hmm. No, I think that any ionizing radiation that was strong enough to vaporize flesh would also vaporize the bones, too,  As well as making this entire chamber radioactive for a thousand years.  But burning ... mmm ... again, I'd have to say no.  There is no sign of scorching, either on the floor or wall, here, or on the bones themselves.  But, maybe, some new thermal energy based weapon we haven't seen yet...hmm, maybe.  Good thinking."

Kaspar thumps himself in the temple, after Hilda suggests checking for blood trace.

"Excellent idea, Hilda!  Please, swab the floor just underneath the skeleton, and swab one of the larger bones -- maybe that femur, there -- as well."

Inspecting the large door, and it's control panel Vasandra acknowledges Kaspar's guess.  ”Almost any ship with a dedicated cargo hold, or more than one, will include large exterior doors for loading and unloading cargo quickly, as we are inside the ship this door no doubt leads outside while the smaller doors will lead inside or to other cargo bays with their own exterior doors

It is most likely that only someone stripped of any survival gear and intentionally left here to die would end up like this, in which case the flesh and whatever meager organic clothing was left behind was no doubt eaten either by carrion bugs or bacteria from non sanitary conditions.”

"Yes.  It's something like carrion bugs I'm a little worried about..." Kaspar says thoughtfully, "But, I think it's pretty likely this Jaffa wanted in to the Ha'tak, so I think it's a pretty fair bet that this door leads in, rather than out.  So go ahead, Freyda -- open this one up, if you can.  And let's all hope that this cargo bay isn't the only place holding breathable air..."

Leaving the others to work on the closed doors and the skeleton on the floor, Rajip moved on to continue his search along the walls. This time, however, he put his IR goggles on to have a free hand and a wider field of view than just one small spot revealed by a flashlight. Taking care not to look back into the floodlights behind him, he paced slowly along the walls of the room looking for anything other than the walls themselves. Additionally, this time he intended to also check out the area behind the stargate ring.



OOC: 13:53, Today: Rajip Mojdar rolled 13 using 1d20+5. Spot using IR.

'Ah! A disintegration ray. Like a Klingon disruptor.' Hilda proposed, remembering the television stories she'd seen on Midgard. They'd had lots of skeletons left behind after blasts of magic or ray guns. 'Or maybe a robot with a vacuum cleaned up the decay.'

Kneeling beside the bones, she cracked open the evidence kit case and laid it open the floor, looking over the array of specimen containers, tools, and phials of chemicals. The Cimmerian knew nothing about the science behind all this, but she did know there was a science behind it. Fortunately, the kit had clear, pictorial instructions for untrained SGC soldiers to follow, and Hilda went carefully through the process. She took swabs from the floor, the femur, and just inside the eye-socket, as the brain inside would be the last to rot away.


OOC: I'm not certain what to roll for the blood test and Hilda isn't even remotely qualified. Here's an untrained Knowledge check (and rather a good one) with +1 equipment bonus:
21:11, Today: Hilda rolled 20 using 1d20+3. Knowledge (biology/chemistry).
Maybe another PC should roll?

Freya says. I'm also a genetic scientist, if you need help I will get to that when I'm done. I'm a many talented ,what is that Tau'ri term, an Egghead. But I need to get the door open and then figure out if I can get the main power up to check the systems.

As Hilda pointed out, there are fairly clear instructions on how to use the kit. The only difficult part is not knowing all the terms. However, when it says to use luminol, there is a bottle clearly labeled 'Luminol'. It also says that you need UV light.

On the other hand, there is HemaScein, which doesn't require it. She can just spray that on the swab. If it turns blue, it's blood.

Hilda does so... and none of the swabs turn blue.


Rajip checks out the other walls. The temperature of the walls, however, is the same ambient temperature of the air in the room, so almost nothing can be detected with IR... almost nothing. There are three areas on each of the non-door walls that show a slight variation in temperature which indicates an outline of what might be an access or control panel.


Freyda has the tools to determine that there is a breathable atmosphere on the other side of the door she is trying to open. Prying the panel off is easy, and bypassing the circuit to isolate the door is almost as easy. Connecting power up to the door is also easy.

She's ready to open it when the Major says.

OOC: ... the Major says "Don't shoot, I'm just the Piano Player!" ^_^


"No blood trace?  None?" Kaspar responds to Hildas findings, "Then that means either somebody or something cleaned up all the trace and sterilized the area, or that this -- these, skeletons were placed here; that this scene was staged, for some reason."

After Freyda reports she is ready to open the door, and that there is air on the other side, Kaspar stands and opens the radio channel to the entire team -- he is wary of possible feedback from the walls of the chamber, as he does this.

"Okay Team, Freyda has confirmed an atmosphere on the other side of this door, and she's ready to open it, so stand by."

Kaspar lets go his microphone and nods at Freyda.

"Right, Freyda, go ahead. But slowly, if possible.  And if you or any of your gadgets detects any contaminants or other threats coming in from the other side, you just slam this door shut as fast as you can. Let's do this easy and cautious.  Hilda, be ready, but no weapons drawn." so saying, Kaspar doesn't grab hold of the P90 hanging on his chest, instead he simply stands relaxed...with his left hand resting on the holster flap over his Makarov pistol.

Freyda opens the door a bit, smells, opens it slowly and well is a sitting duck if anything attacks but is ready to close it if needed and shut out anything with a Sonic Screwdriver blast.

Gavin considers what the others said, particularly Vasandra. Her evaluation of a cargo ship was clearly based on what she was familiar with. Even the Tau'ri used the same design, and so did the Tollan... for the most part.

The Goa'uld, however, didn't think like that. They weren't concerned about the convenience of loading cargo because they weren't going to be the ones to carry it. Besides, most cargo went in via ring gate.

He didn't think the Major's interpretation of the layout made sense.

"I think you'll find that both doors lead to hallways, probably ones that connect. Goa'uld don't move cargo themselves, and they wouldn't care how much work it causes the Jaffa. And that's assuming they don't use a ring gate."

Finished the examination, Hilda looked up from the dusty, damp swabs and reported 'They have not turned blue. There is no blood. Maybe it is much too old?' She disposed of the swabs then packed away the kit to return it to the FRED.

Joining the others at the door, she took up a defensive position before Freyda. Kaspar had said not to draw a weapon, but Hilda couldn't understand why not. So instead, she had her heavy wooden round shield out, ready to block any attack. Plus, she could brain someone just as effectively with it as any other weapon.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:02, Sun 22 June 2014.

"Too old?  No.  I've heard of those things being used on old mummies and still picking up the tell-tale traces." Kaspar says, as the door was slowly opening, "These blood trace detectors are just looking for chemical signatures, and those can take a very long time to break down.  It's DNA that can break down, if it isn't locked in something, like deep inside bone marrow, or trapped in amber."

At each of the suspected areas, Rajip took out the knife and carved a mark on the wall: two paralel lines crossed with two others made so that together they formed a kind of a double 'X' with the intersection being well below the center of the symbol. He also took care to locate the carvings right of the top right edge of the area.

Once he was certain he had inspected every wall, he approached the Major with a report.

"There are several points on the walls round us that may be hiding something, Major. I'll try to uncover one of them now."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:10, Sun 22 June 2014.

Asgard use machines but we still take efficiency and time into account why would the G'ould not consider it and they are less advanced. Time does matter sometimes a ship layout would still depend on common sense. Remind me to work on some drones to map and scout areas but its another thing to add to the list. Freyda says as she looks at the ship and makes educated guesses.

"Mm-mmm" Kaspar mumbles as the door finishes opening.  Puffing on his pipe, he grabs his flashlight off his webgear and shines it around.

Pretty much as expected, there is a wide hallway outside this door, about 30-feet wide, running left-to-right from his POV.  There is another, closed, cargo bay door directly opposite where Kaspar is standing.

With his free hand, Kaspar reaches up and opens the comm channel to the Team.

"Okay, everybody, this door is open, and the expected hallway was found.  So far this appears to be following the standard Ha'tak layout.  So, the question I now put to all of you -- do we continue setting up our base camp, right here.  Or do we halt that, and make a run for the control center, right now, before we finish setting up camp?  I have to admit, I'm very curious to look out a window and see where this ship is located."

"So, vote. Who wants to stay and follow protocol and set up case camp before we do any exploring, and who wants to say screw it, and just head for the control room, now?"

Hilda waved her torch around the hallway, frowning at the proposal to make camp. 'If there are ettins here, we may have to run back through the Stargate in a hurry. I don't want to have to break camp on the way. Let us scout the corridors around here, look for signs of Jaffa and if this ha'tak is abandoned and why it is so. Then we can make camps or look for control rooms.' she advised. After all, she was a scout, trained to be mobile, and had led a guerrilla campaign against Jaffa on her own world. Of course she wanted to keep moving and not dig in.

Hilda, until I can get the power on there is little I can do, that will take time, and if there were enemies here we made enough noise to bring them here. Just relax and plan for something else coming through the Stargate. Freyda says.

Joining the others to take a look through the one open door Vasandra seems surprised to be the only one willing to state the obvious.  ”We do not have the resources to defend a room with this many doors, even if that was our only concern, we need to keep moving until we get somewhere useful and the FRED will easily fit down this ship's wide corridors so there is no reason to make a stationary base, particularly not one with a back door into every planet in the galaxy.

If we want to park the MALP out of the way in a dark corner where it can see the gate opening we will have some warning if anyone else comes through but we can not afford to leave anything else here.”

"All valid points, Captain." Kaspar responds, "But the flip side is that it's good strategy to maintain control of your means of exit."

Kaspar smiles around the pipe hanging from the corner of his mouth, "However, I wasn't planning on camping here long term, anyway.  I figured that, once we located and cleared the Go'auld's personal chambers, we'd move in there," Kaspar winks at Vassandra, "Those should be comfy and luxurious enough, yes?"

"And parking the MALP off in a corner to watch the Stargate is an excellent idea!  I hadn't thought of that.  But, now that you put the thought in my head, I think we can take it a step further, and maybe have Sargeant Mojdar rig the MALP with remote detonated explosives, so if a large enemy force does come through the gate, we can decimate them from a distance."

Kaspar suddenly frowns, takes his pipe from his mouth, and points at Vassandra with the stem.

"Don't tell General Hammond I suggested that.  Americans hate it when people break their toys."

Kaspar placed his pipe back in his mouth and puffed on it a couple of times, again wreathing his head in a small cloud of tobacco smoke that smelled faintly of cedar and chocolate.

"Okay, so, that's two votes for heading off to the control center, and one vote for setting up a proper base camp.  We just need to hear from Gavin and Rajip." Kaspar lets go of his pipe and opens his mic, "Rajip.  Gavin. What d'you boys want to do -- go visit the control center, or set-up camp?"

If anyone was here they would have heard us like I said, and with no power all the doors will be like that one. I need to find a way to open them faster. Maybe adjusting one of my engineering or mechanical devices. Freyda says.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:12, Fri 27 June 2014.

"*sigh* I was hoping you wouldn't need my vote," Gavin responded to Kaspar. "Both approaches have something to offer."

"I wouldn't bother putting explosives on the MALP. For that matter, did anyone bring explosives? They'd only do enough damage to affect whoever was near it, not everyone in this room."

"I believe you have an expression, 'in for a penny, in for a pound'? We didn't come here to go camping, so while securing our exit is a good idea, I honestly think we need to move on. If we turn and run home without exploring anything, then why did we bother coming here in the first place?"

"Anyway, as I suggested, this is one of the corner cargo holds. That door across the hall leads to another, just as the other door in here leads to another hall across which will be another door into another corner hold."

"If we go out into the hall, going right should lead us to an outside door. Going left should take us to the center of ship. That's where access to the other levels will be found. I doubt, though, that the ring transporter will be working."

"Our primary goal now is to identify the location for what it actually is and whether it's empty or not. I say we leave here two of us two secure the stargate and check out the remaining doors while the rest of us go out to explore the place."

As Gavin brought up explosives, Kaspar looked shocked and began poking the many pouches on his tactical vest.

"Wait. What? You mean the Americans didn't stuff something explosive into one of these pouches?  I thought Americans didn't even go on picnics, without something that explodes!"

Kaspar smiles, "Okay, fine. We won't blow up the General's MALP.  But mark my words, I predict that we shall come to regret not being able to use that thing as a rolling shrapnel bomb!  Either that, or none of our MREs contain freeze dried ice cream.  I'm not sure; my powers of prediction are sometimes hazy..."

Kaspar hangs his flashlight back on his webgear, then claps his hands and rubs them together.

"Alright, then. Sorry Freyda, but it looks like the majority wants to move out, so you're going to have to keep figuring out ways to open closed doors."

When Rajip suggests leaving a guard or two behind, Kaspar assumes a shocked expression; even going so far as to remove his pipe from his mouth and let his jaw drop.

"Sargeant!  I am shocked, shocked I say!  Why, in every one of your American horror movies I have ever seen, whenever the group splits up, the smaller group always gets killed by the axe-wielding psychotic!  Are you trying to get someone killed?"

Kaspar chuckles, "Sorry Rajip, just joking. But, I do think that Captain Tourmaline's idea to place the MALP off in a dark corner and let it stream video of the gate to us, is the way to go.  Besides, except for this curious skeleton, here, it looks like things are pretty quiet on this level.  It's the rest of the ship I'm more worried about; between possible damage or neglect, I think we're in more danger from accidents, than we are from Jaffa.  Or whatever.  No, for the moment we'll stick together."

"Okay, Vassandra, why don't you position the MALP off in a corner, and set up the video feed. Freyda, I want you three to go over to that door across the hall and get it open. Hilda and Rajip, you go with her as protection, just in case there is actually something dangerous over in that other cargo bay.  Gavin, you and I will wait here while Vassandra sets up the MALP, to keep an eye out while she works."

"Let's go, people.  We've moved on to Plan B, and I'm already thinking up Plan C."

Hilda nodded in agreement with Vasandra. 'I agree.'



Hilda frowned. 'I do not think Earl Hammond would like that.'

Listening to the continuing discussion on whether to watch or defend the Stargate somehow, she chipped in with "I don't think we need to guard the Stargate. We would not do this on a world of trees and fields, so why worry here among the corridors? The terrain has changed, but the mission is the same as on Oz. There are too few of us to split up.'



The Viking grinned wickedly. 'Sorry, I didn't bring my axe today.' Her hand rested on the hilt of her sword.

Hearing her orders, she went off to guard Freyda as the goddess solved the puzzle of the other locked door.

Already working on maneuvering the MALP into position, once again in it's power save mode, by the time Kaspar gets around to a specific order to that effect Vasandra keeps working as she offers an off hand answer to Hilda.  ”In an open world there is a reasonably small chance that whomever comes through the gate is both looking for us, and knows where to find us.  Here in such a contained environment it is very likely that any gate activity not intended to assist us is intended either to compete with our goal or thwart it directly and given the relatively confined space of any ship finding us becomes inevitable rather than unlikely.”

When the slow MALP is finally in position and it's camera zeroed in on the stargate's entrance area Vasandra pulls back her sleeve and spends a few moments typing on her left wrist on what must be a keyboard of sorts, although it neither glows nor makes any noise when accessed, once satisfied that the feed from the camera has been connected properly she shakes the sleeve back down and rejoins the others.

Freya works to adjust a device to use magnetic force to open doors here, picking a device that uses magnetic force to work on things and try to make it so she can still use it as a tool.

07:56, Today: Freyda rolled 15 using 1d20+10. Modify Device - Door Opener.

It isn't that Freyda can't modify her device to use magnetic force to open a door. It's a question about power. Her device is intended for short range, fine manipulation, not massive brute force utility.

Inspite of it being a sophisticated Asgardian device, it requires a tremendous amount of energy to move a heavy metal door. At the moment, the only source of that kind of energy is Vasandra's generator, or the FRED.

Also, after calculating the energy needed, Freyda realizes that putting that much power through her device has a 5% cumulative chance of burning out the device. She probably could repair it, but it would be very hard here. She'd have to scavenge parts from this ship.

She still has to unlock the door first, which the device can do. It's just disengaging safety locks.

Then there's the problem of closing the door afterward, if it's needed.

Essentially, Freyda is a whiz at high tech problems. Unfortunately, this is a low tech problem--manually moving something.

So, do you still want to proceed along those lines?

I can undo the locks of the big door but not open it, I will see if I can do other small doors and such on the ship with this. They are lighter and should be easier to do. will see about opening the human sized doors with her device if adjustments can be made.

17:54, Today: Freyda rolled 24 using 1d20+10. Modify Device - Smaller Doors  Mechanics.

ooc: I didn't mean the cargo bay doors those are BIG, I should have been clearer I meant the smaller doors like the one she opened see if she could open those at least enough for muscle to push open. This sliding doors on a Star Trek ship of Jefferies Tube door. Smaller and lighter internal openings that may be hard to open if all are like the hallway door in the room.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:55, Fri 27 June 2014.

The door Freyda opened already and the one across the hall are both large cargo doors. She was using power from FRED to get the first door open. She isolated the control circuit so that when she fed power to it, the power would only go to the door.

occ: Oh, then she will work on something else like opening doors faster next time.

After watching Freyda work her crafts upon the big doors for a time, Hilda stepped forward to volunteer 'Your Greatness, can I try lifting the doors for you?' She didn't want to imply the Asgard was small and spindly or anything, of course not, but merely figured she could best serve the goddess in this way.


OOC: Is it something we can do with Strength checks?

The doors slide aside, not up, so you'd need to first get a hold of the edge. My mechanical imagination isn't up to snuff right now, so I can't picture how the internal mechanism works to move the door. Simple gears seem so blase.

So in this instance, I'll allow a Strength check to push the door aside, once you can get a handle on it. Normally, power would also keep the door closed as well as open it, but without power, there's no force working against it.

Freyda, Gavin and Vasandra can all determine that a DC of 20 will allow you to get a 'grip' on the door, and a DC 30 to open it... so it may require teamwork.

OOC: yeah, and since the doors do slide to the side, rather than up/down, we really only need to open them enough to get ourselves and our equipment through, so, technically, it shouldn't take as much power to open them; they only have to slide aside a couple of feet, then pull the plug ^_^

As Hilda moves out into the hall, her magical light seeks to penetrate the darkness. She's quite familiar with the dichotomy of light sources... a campfire, for instance, doesn't penetrate the darkness around it all that well, yet it can clearly be seen miles away.

As she shines the flashlight up and down the hallway, there does not seem to be any lurking creatures, though she might have been expecting eyes in the dark. However, the third time she shines it down on the left, she thinks she spots something white out at the edge of the light.

"That would be a big risk we'd be taking if we left the stargate unguarded, especially if there are so many possible exits from the room, Major," Rajip spoke quickly,m seeing that the door's already moving. "I don't want to us to stay out there, aware of an enemy presence in here, yet unable to reach the gate."

"There are only two doors into this cargo bay with the gate," Gavin responds to Rajip. "That does not seem like it would be too difficult to defend, though that would also apply to the enemy, whoever or whatever they may be."

"It is also possible that there is a second gate on this planet, though clearly getting to it could be rather difficult."

"I suspect, however, that this ship was attempting to transport this gate off world."

"Kaspar, do you have some particular reason for wishing to open this other door, other than to see what is behind it? I am only asking because I could possibly phase through the door to see what is on the other side."

Leaving the others' talk behind, Hilda stepped out into the hall and flicked her torchlight down the corridors. As she peered into the gloom, she tried to shield her eyes from the glare so she didn't lose her dark-sight. The big wooden shield strapped to her arm certainly helped. Then she spotted something, something that hadn't been there before. 'What is that?' she exclaimed, alerted the others, fixing her torchlight on it and trying to identify it.


OOC:
16:49, Today: Hilda rolled 23 using 1d20+5. spot.

Kaspar turns to Gavin, "I'm a Pole who grew up under Soviet Rule and who served in the Soviet Army." Kaspar pauses a moment, then continues, "And, as a Tollan, that means exactly nothing to you.  Sorry.  Um, yes, call my desire to check the other cargo bays a cautious paranoia."

Kaspar points at the nearby skeleton.

"From what Hilda and I could tell, that is just a skeleton that was placed here. Note I said skeleton, not body.  We could find no trace of bodily remains. So, how did a skeleton -- that is to say, a pair of skeletons, get here.  And, since this was never a body, that brings up some question about the presence of the symbiote skeleton; it must have been placed inside the human skeleton.  Why?"

"A human skeleton with a Go'auld symbiote skeleton inside it; was it a jaffa?  Is it just made to look like a dead Jaffa?  In some very primitive Earth cultures, body parts and even entire skeletons are hung on posts at the edge of a tribes territory, marking it and sending the message 'go no further, or this will happen to you'. This may be something like that, only it's saying 'go away Jaffa, or die', you see?"

"But if it is something like that, and this bay door we just opened is the tribal border, then their territory must be the rest of the ship."

"What is that?" Hilda exclaimed, fixing her torchlight down the hallway.

"And here we go..." Kaspar said, grabbing his flashlight in his right hand, and joining Hilda in the hall, "What did you see, Hilda?"

The speck of white was probably always there, it's just that Hilda's eyes hadn't quite adjusted to the different level of light out here in the hall. Even as Kaspar joins her after her exclamation, she is able to focus on it now and see that it appears to be another skeleton.

'Ah, it is just another skeleton.' Hilda relaxed, though only a little. After all, she'd seen Tau'ri shows where skeletons got up and attacked people, so why not here? Carefully, she approached it...

"Sargeant!" Kaspar calls back into the cargo bay with the gate, "I understand your thinking with wanting to leave a guard here, at the gate.  And I even agree with it.  However, if an attack in force actually were to come through the gate, behind us, all any guard could do would be to alert us, before he was overun.  We leave the MALP to watch, instead, and we still get warning, but no person is lost."

"Besides, if an attack in force does come through the gate, we'll have the advantage of time to set our defenses -- the enemy will have to search deck-by-deck to make sure they aren't leaving us behind them.  The reality is simply that we just don't have the manpower to both secure the gate twenty-four/seven and make our explorations of this wreck."

"So, if you would, please, hump it out here!  We've found more evidence of violence -- another skeleton."

Leave me here taking anything you brought, if G'ould come through they are unlikely to kill an Asgard, and risk war, I can say I was sent to investigate the ship to see how far their tecnology was advancing. And if they find you here with me it could be seen as an act breeching the treaty its better you not be with me. Freyda says.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:52, Tue 01 July 2014.

Rajip spared Kaspar but a momentary glance after the latter one's words, then replied. "You're in command here... but I hope you're not wrong about it all."

Then he turned and ran towards the Cimmerian woman who was inspecting her new finding.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:21, Tue 01 July 2014.

"That's why they call it 'Burden of Command', Sargeant." Kaspar responds to Rajips back, "But as much as my training is telling me to be paranoid, my gut is telling me we'll be fine."

Kaspar turns to Freyda,

"No can do, Freyda. We have orders from General Hammond to keep you as safe as we can -- and yes, I know you can take care of yourself, but those are our orders.  And the best way to ensure your safety is for you to stay with us, not get left behind."

"So ... Gavin, in answer to you, yes, if you can phase through these doors and check each cargo bay out, it will speed things up.  In fact..."

Kaspar raises his voice, just a little, and calls down the hall to Rajip, "Hey!  Sargeant! Slight change of plan, come back here." Kaspar called, "I want you to go with Gavin and make a quick survey of the remaining cargo bays. Look for potential threats.  The rest of us will move on to the central core of this deck, and look over this new skeleton, while you two do that."

Kaspar turns to Gavin, "You can do that, right? I think I remember reading something about your device being able to bring along a passenger, of sorts...?"

Barely ten steps down the hall and Hilda sees that there is more than one skeleton. Before she can report to Kaspar, he calls Rajip back. Another ten steps even reveals a third skeleton.

Like the other one, they are face down, heads in the direction of the gate room behind Hilda, which, if Gavin is right, would be the same direction as the door that leads out.

It looks as if all three of them were ettins.

"Okay, Rajip," Gavin says to the soldier when he rejoins them, "let's go for a walk."

"Just keep a hold of my arm. If there's something threatening on the other side of the door, it can't hurt us as long as we're out of phase. If you let go, though, you'll be back in phase."

"Ready?"

As soon as Rajip is ready, they step through the door with their flashlights on.

'Another one!' Hilda reported, satisfied for the time with simply finding these odd skeletons. Peering inside the ribs, she noticed the thin fish- or snake-like bones of the serpent, the Goa'uld larvae. 'All are ettins.' Then she stood, surveying the trail of bodies, all pointing and lying the same way, and recognising something about it...


OOC: Can Hilda tell if the Jaffa were shot from behind while running to the Stargate? Survival (tracking) 16. Was the first skeleton in the gate room facing toward the Stargate or the door?
11:47, Today: Hilda rolled 16 using 1d20+6. survival - track.

There is no indication that the Jaffa were killed by any weapon, for there are no broken bones or burn marks that Hilda can see.

The skeleton in the gate room was facing the door.

OOC: Or rather, did the ones in the corridor fall down while running/walking toward the Stargate?

Maybe a disease killed them, it might be wise to consider appropriate protocols just in case. Freyda says.

Whatever the mechanism behind that effect, Rajip felt strange as soon as he touched the Tollani arm. He couldn't even name the sensation for what it seemed to be to his confused senses. Even though he had fundamentally known what was about to happen, the second they actually entered the solid substance was the moment he had almost loosen his grip on the only person that guaranteed his safety. Luckily, he managed not to and after the briefest moment of his having realised the possible consequences, he subconsciously strenghtened the grip, uncaring for what Gavin could feel.

Once Rajip and Gavin have walked through the solid cargo bay door, Kaspar shakes his head in wonder at the display of Tollan technology, then turns to Freyda.

"Well, Fleet Officer, it looks like you can stop trying to open this door." Kaspar says, "At least, I hope we won't need to open it to go after those two.  Anyway, let's follow Hilda towards the central core, and see what's up with the skeleton she's found."

Kaspar walks off towards where Hilda is.

I'm not aFleet Officer I'm a Geneticist and Engineer, Thor my mentor is one of those honored to defend the Asgard in combat. Anyway I must get the power on at least minimally to do more work on the system study and see what can be salvaged. she gets ready to go.

With the MALP in position Vasandra switches her control device over to the channel used for the FRED and carefully maneuvers the big vehicle around the skeleton and through the door into the next room to join the others.  ”Clearly there is no point in staying here, or really even bothering to open the other cargo holds, even if they have something helpful in them we will not know what we need until we assess the nature of the problem, clearing a safe path to the engine room should be our primary concern, after that we will either know what we need to do in more detail or check the bridge for more information.”

Kaspar paused in his steps and turned back to address the two alien ladies.

"My appologies, Freyda.  I'm still reading my way through the Asgard Handbook that Stargate Command gave me, and I'm still a little fuzzy on the workings of your Apprentice-Mentor relationships, as well as how high level Asgardians, like Thor, can hold both Military and Civilian positions without confliction of interests.  It's not exactly like our system." Kaspar appologizes.

"And I suppose you're right, Captain Tourmaline, but I just want to make sure that there aren't any Jaffa in stasis pods, or killer robots, in the other cargo bays, waiting to awaken." Kaspar smiles around a puff of his pipe, "As I mentioned to the Sargeant, just a moment ago, that's just the paranoid way the Army I was trained by taught me to think.  I'm hoping that, with Gavins device, he and Sargeant Mojdar will be able to rush through an inspection of the other bays, and confirm if they are either empty, or full of inactive stuff."

"As for why I'm so hot to go to the control room, well, I agree that it would make more sense for our mission if we went straight for the engine or power room, and started on the tasks there.  However, I got this nasty itch to look out the big window in the control room and see just where this Ha'tak is sitting. You can call it a peculiarity of the Tau'ri -- this need to see where I am -- if you wish, but really, I'm just pulling Rank to get what I want."

Kaspar again smiled and puffed, "To be completely honest."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:36, Sun 06 July 2014.

Gavin and Rajip step through the cargo door into another dark room, illuminated only by their flashlights. What they see is quite bizarre.

There is debris scattered everywhere across the floor. A closer inspection shows that it is all just equipment that has been scattered about. After a quick tour around the room, two crates are found in one of the corners. It's those crates that give a clue.

The debris looks like it may have all been inside other crates that somehow vanished, spilling the contents all over the floor.

Hilda waited impatiently by the third skeleton, looking back for the others and seeing they had stopped to talk again. Hello? Skeletons? she wondered. Sighing, she left them to it and decided to scout ahead. Moving carefully and quietly down the corridor, she tried to look for another skeleton or a door to another room.

Kaspar glances over his shoulder, down the hall where Hilda had gone, "Well, now, Ladies, shall we go and join Hilda?" he said, as he turned to, again, head down the hall.

"If this deck is laid out as Gavin said," Kaspar continued as he walked, grabbing his pipe and gesturing with the stem at the wall, "He and Sargeant Mojdar will proceed through this cargo bay, cross over to the next bay over in that corner, then cross to the final bay in that corner.  I believe we should be in the central transit core by the time they get there.  Then we can figure out how to go up."

With the final gesture of pointing up, Kaspar returned his pipe to the corner of his mouth and puffed it back to life.

"In truth, I expect no significant difficulties.  But, as Colonel Oneill is so fond of saying, since when has Plan A ever worked, yes?"

Asgard don't put all our efforts into one plan I'm doing lines of research in areas others aren't kind of using your explorations to hopefully help us, in return for my help boosting your technology along lines expected. Its good for both the Asgard and your people and your allies. Freyda says as they travel.

"Uh-huh. Interesting." Kaspar responds, as he walks up to the first of the new skeletons that Hilda has found, and crouches down to observe; looking first for the presence of a secondary Go'auld parasite skeleton, then taking note of where that second skeleton is located -- around the neck or coiled up where the abdomen would have been.

All three of the skeletons have what appear to be Goa'uld skeletons in the abdomen.

Kaspar pulls out the notebook he had started taking notes in, earlier, and once again ... makes notes.

"As with the skeleton found inside the arrival cargo bay," Kaspar mumbles as he writes, but whether that is from habit, or an attempt to inform Vassandra and Freyda of his findings, as they come up after him, is unclear, "these skeletons are presented as being Jaffa; the presence of a secondary skeleton, that of an apparent immature larval Go'auld, would seem to confirm this conclusion.  Yet ... I wonder ..."

Kaspar looks up as Freyda floats near, "Freyda, you are a geneticist, yes?  How familiar are you with Go'auld biology?  Could you tell the difference between the skeletons of an adult Go'auld parasite and that of a larval stage?  Captain Tourmaline -- don't wish to exclude you, so -- can you tell?"

"The only thing I can think of to confirm if this actually is a larval skeleton, is its length -- adult skeletons are longer.  This appears to be larval, by that qualification, but I'm not sure..."

occ:
20:22, Today: Freyda rolled 17 using 1d20+12. Biology.
20:23, Today: Freyda rolled 27 using 1d20+12. Genetics.

Freyd gets out of her chair to get a better look and tries to answer the question using her knowledge of Biology and Genetics.

Hilda took a photograph of the body, then put her camera away. Someone could get the magic paintings off it later. 'Look where the serpent has fallen in the belly. These must be Jaffa. It is said the Goa'uld have serpents much higher.'

'All I know is they taste terrible.'

Freyda gives the Asgard EWWWWWW expression.

Unfortunately, Freyda can't determine if the Goa'uld skeletons were part of Jaffa or planted there. All that's left are bones; there's nothing left for her to analyze.

She is able to determine that the bones are consistent with Goa'uld bones. While they are still primarily calcium, the other trace elements match Goa'uld.

Lets get a look where we are and then I need to see if I can power this ship up, if the reactor is intact I can likely fix it. Freyda says.

'Doesn't the Dee-Enn-Ay survive deep inside the bone marrow?' Hilda wondered, recalling Kaspar's earlier explanation. 'Can you read anything from the bones?' She supposed it was a form of divination magic, like reading the entrails of a sheep or something. Only without the entrails. Bones were certainly cleaner.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:57, Fri 18 July 2014.

I need the right tools, I don't have those but we could send them back to the command center for a DNA study. Freyda says suggesting it might be a good idea.

Kaspar puffs on his pipe in thought for a few moments, then says, "No, no need for more detailed scans; we can get those later. For right now we'll take the evidence of these skeletons at face value -- that a bunch of Jaffa died from an unknown cause while enroute to the stargate."

"However, I want everyone to keep an open mind about this so-called evidence." Kaspar adds, "Because, if looked at the right way, all these skeletons look like they've been staged; they have no equipment, no evidence of soft tissue remains, not even stains on the floor underneath them. It just looks like somebody laid down a bunch of cleaned skeletons, in an effort to scare off any intruders, like us.  There might be rational explanations for all this, but until we find some evidence of those explanations, let's just keep a little suspicious about them."

"Now, let's head to the central transit core, over there, and meet up with Gavin and Sargeant Mojdar, shall we?"

Forensics is outside my training I'm what you would call a Grease Monkey but most of our technology doesn't need messy lubrication for mechanical systems, I just want to get a look at the power systems of the ship. she replies as they travel.

Having squared away the MALP's observation system as planned and having no interest in bodies of the dead Vasandra can be found already investigating the way up, still in sight of the others but clearly not worried about whatever fate befell the long dead.  ”Getting the power back online will help significantly with the diagnostics of the ship but there are many other systems we will need to know about before we can even begin to guess at potential uses for it beyond scrap metal.”

Leaving aside the puzzle of the bones, Hilda resumed taking point, scouting ahead and listening out for danger. And trying to get ahead of Vasandra so she could actually be the one taking point.

Gavin winced a bit at Rajip's near-panic grip, but smiled a bit at the soldier's trepidation at phase walking.

"Who knew the Goa'uld were such sloppy house-keepers," he commented humorously to ease Rajip's tension.

"Almost looks like what you'd find in a crashed ship. Doesn't seem like it, though, does it? No signs of damage, and the ship is sitting almost perfectly level."

"Well, I don't see any threats in here. Do you?"

"Then let's check the next cargo bay."

With that, Gavin wends his way through all the scattered debris over to the cargo door in the middle of the left-hand wall... and steps through... presumably out into another hallway.

As time passed and more and more walls had been crossed, Rajip slowly calmed down, further conforted by Gavin's attempts on cheering him up. He started to react slowly and eased his grip on the Tollani's arm a bit, careful though not to let go of it.

Gavin and Rajip walk through the other cargo door and find themselves in a hallway as expected. Across the hall is another cargo door, also as expected.

Not seeing or otherwise detecting any threat in the hall, they proceed across to the next door... and step through, prepared to step back just in case.

However, there's no need. This cargo bay seems to be completely empty. A quick walk around it confirms that there's nothing in there.

Again, there's a second door on the left wall, and walking through that one puts them in the expected hallway with another door across the hall.

With no threat apparent, they continue through the next door.

This cargo bay is also empty of cargo but not of something of interest: more skeletons. There are three just inside this door, positioned as if they were trying to get out. In front of the door on the left wall are another four skeletons, also looking like they were trying to get out. Then there's one in the middle of the room, and two more in the far corner. All but the ones in the corner are face down; the corner ones seem to have been sitting there.

Hilda, Freyda, Vassandra and Kaspar have reached the center of the ship on this level. There is a large central column that runs up through the center of the ship. This is where the ring gate would be if it was active. Wrapping around the outside of this central column are circular ramps that lead up and down.

However, you quickly notice that the deck below and the deck above have been sealed off by some sort of iris hatch.

The ramps are just barely wide enough for the FRED to negotiate.

Hilda leaned over the rail, peering up and down the great well-shaft than ran through the ship. She tried to see if there was anyone or anything moving around on the other levels, then tried to estimate how the next level was. 'Maybe we could climb down somehow?' she suggested to the others.


OOC: How far down/up are the next levels? Are they in climbing distance?
This message was last edited by the player at 03:44, Sun 27 July 2014.

There's a horizontal iris hatch across the entire central column at floor level, and another one above, so there's no access to other levels at the moment, not physically or visually.

The ceiling is 20-feet high, there's typically 5-feet of decking that contains structural supports and infrastructure (air, water, waste and power).

Freyda and Vasandra both know that there are ten levels above this one and one below, which is engineering. The lower one is double the height, though.

Freyda considers if these defenses were in place for a reason, perhaps defense from an intruding force.

As far as Freyda knows, the only time these hatches have ever been closed on ANY Ha'tak ship was when it was invaded by some alien creature or it was in imminent danger of crashing in a hazardous atmosphere (or vacuum).

They don't get closed when invaded by another System Lord because it is a simple thing to open them.

In fact, Freyda wasn't even sure they truly existed because only a handful of people had ever seen them closed.

Freyda relays the information to the commander with a simple. I advise caution.

Rajip shook his head in confusion, yet this time it was not a sign of his mind's inability to cope with phasing through ever more layers of solid matter - he seemed to have had finally adapted to that process. What was troubling him now was the situation they'd encountered at the location.

There were skeletons everywhere. Skeletons and little more...

"Wait," he halted his Tollanit companion. "Let's get back to the previous room. The dark one, with those crates in it."
This message was last edited by the player at 09:43, Sun 27 July 2014.

"We can do that," Gavin replied and led them back to the room with the debris.

"Did you see something important?" asked Gavin as they shone their flashlights about the debris.

"I'm not sure, yet. There are too many skeletons around and hardly anything else, right? What was the purpose of these things here?" Rajip asked, the beam of his flashlight fixed on some of the scattered remains. "Try to find anything characteristic about that part over there," he said, the spot of light briefly venturing farther on inside the room, then back. "I'll use the IR goggles here, later on, we'll switch places," he decided activating the device he still had on his head.

Without waiting for an answer, Rajip bent down to examine the debris, looking for anything that could possibly be hidden in its midst.



OOC:
20:47, Today: Rajip Mojdar rolled 16 using 1d20+3. Search roll.
20:47, Today: Rajip Mojdar rolled 13 using 1d20+5. Spot.

The infrared goggles allow him to see heat differences, but as Rajip looks through all the debris, he doesn't see anything with more than a degree of difference. The items have been here too long in the constant closed environment of the cargo bay so that everything has reached an equilibrium.

When there is a slight temperature variation, it's always metal that's just a tad cooler.


At Rajip's urging, Gavin looks through the debris more carefully than before. He still can't make any sense of the scattered equipment until he comes to a pile of tools... or tool parts. He's starting to get an idea...

He picks up two of the 'tools' and brings them back to show Rajip.

One is a saw blade without the handle. The other is hammer head... without a handle.

Hilda was disappointed to see that she couldn't see anything because of the big round shields across the shaft. She was reminded of the iris on Midgard's Ring of Stars. 'Can we open these? Would we want to?' she wondered to her team. Surely the sky-castle had been warded and sealed for a good reason.

"Hmmm," Kaspar hums, pondering an answer for Hilda.

"I suppose these are some kind of bulkhead." Kaspar finally says, grabbing his pipe and pointing with the stem, "The big ocean vessels of Earth have bulkheads so that, if the hull is damaged, all the bulkheads can be sealed, and only a small part of the ship gets flooded; keeping the vessel afloat.  Another reason for bulkheads is to contain things that get loose aboard -- like rats, or even a fire."

"It appears like somebody locked down the bulkheads on this ship, sealing off each deck, for some reason.  Maybe there's something dangerous abouve us, or below us.  Maybe the ship was breached on some other deck.  Or maybe it was boarded, or there was a fire, and all the decks got sealed off. Could be any reason, including that the Go'auld who ran this ship simply got bored and locked it down before he walked away; not caring that he sealed up most of the crew, as well."

"My fear is this -- if, back when the ship had power, an automatic command was given to seal off each deck, then the automatic controls would work to keep the doors from opening.  Now, as Freyda has shown, she is able to get these doors to open; while the ship has no power.  I fear that, should we somehow manage to power the ship up again, those circuits that would keep the doors from opening, would also re-activate."

Kaspar shrugs and puts his pipe back in his mouth.

"Oh, well. The chore of opening all the bulkheads between us and the control room now seems too daunting to even consider.  I suppose we'll do as you ladies suggest -- Captain, Freyda -- and head for the power room; that's just one deck down."

"So, Freyda, if you would, please, go ahead and get that hatch over the ramp down opened up." Kaspar shifts the P90 hanging over his chest to a position easier to grab, "Hilda and I will cover you.  Captain Tourmaline, would you kindly watch for our two errant scouts, please?"

"What do you make of these?" Gavin said to Rajip as he showed him the tools without handles.

He wasn't familiar enough with either Tau'ri culture or Jaffa culture to know whether this was 'normal' or not, but it did seem strange.

"There was a whole pile of them. I kind of got the impression that they may have been in a crate of some kind and they just got dumped out. Wouldn't these normally have wooden handles? Look here... the rivets are here in the saw blade."

Hilda listened attentively to the lesson about bulkheads, mentally filing it away for future battles. But something gnawed at her mind, doubts, ideas. Battle, fire, rats. 'But those bones bore no burning, not blacked nor broken.' she reminded, slipping into alliterative poetry. 'No flesh or threads, no weapons or war-gear. So they did not starve, they were not slain in battle, nor by fire. What does that leave? Rats?'

The Cimmerian was disturbed, but went on with the mission. 'Well, we could switch power off again, or once on, command the doors to be unsealed.' The scout took up a watching position, ready to guard and protect the goddess Freyda.

Freyda smiles well does but the others don't notice a she gets out her tools including her sonic screwdriver and works on the primitive mechanism.

Hilda please hold this light for me on the panel while I work. Freyda hands her a flashlight.

04:43, Today: Freyda rolled 30 using 1d20+16. Open Bulkhead Electronics.

Hilda took the flashlight like she'd been granted a magic wand. 'An honour, greatness.' she said solemnly, and shined it steadily upon the Asgard's work.

"I do not know," Rajip answered carefully to the question asked by Gavin. "It doesn't make sense. You're right that the tools should have the handles attached, the rivets suggest the actually had. But...," he went silent, looking for an explanation.

"Some voracious borers ate the wood up or what? Wait... would you say that the crate those were being held in was made of wood?"

"That was a possibility that comes to mind," Gavin replied to Rajip. "You'll notice that there are other crates... all made of synthetic materials. If we think of all this equipment having been in wooden crates, and something suddenly caused those crates to disintegrate somehow... that would certainly account for this mess."

"Yes, you're right, Hilda," Kaspar says, nodding in thought, as he stands guard near Freyda as she works, "We had already eliminated death by fire as a possibility of what killed them.  With a lack of both fire traces on either the skeletons or anywhere on the ship walls or floor.  As for rats -- or some such similar creature -- remember that we swabbed the floor for traces of blood or body fluids, and we didn't find any. If the bodies were eaten by some creature, it probably would have been messy; even when organic tissues are consumed by bacterial organisms, there is still the waste produced by the little bugs, that we'd have found traces ..."

Kaspar suddenly stops speaking, his face scrunched up in in puzzlement.

"We only found the skeletons..." Kaspar suddenly mumbles, then swiftly walks away -- over to the nearest skeleton.

Reaching down, Kaspar grabs a femur, then straightens up and holds the bone in both hands, one end gripped in each hand.  Then, in a sudden motion, he brings up his right knee and snaps the bone across it.  He then stares intently at each of the broken ends of the bone.

"I believe the Americans have a saying that I find appropriate, just now." Kaspar says emotionlessly, without looking away from the bone pieces he's holding, "And that is ..." he looks over at his three companions, "... I think we are royally screwed."

Rajip nodded. "Yes, it would. But just how does that come together with all the naked skeletons in the other rooms? Let's move on and explore several other rooms, maybe we'll find the connection."

"I think that's all the cargo bays on this level," Gavin replies.

"If we go out into any hallway, it should lead us to the central access area. That's where the others were heading."

He takes them back out into the hallway and turns the phase device off.

Kaspar's examination of the broken bone confirms his suspicion--there is no marrow in the bone.

Just about then, they spot a light down the hallway.

At the same time, Rajip and Gavin spot a light down the hallway toward the center of the ship.

Morbidly wondering what else could have done away with the flesh of the dead ettins, Hilda looked back to where Kaspar was busy desecrating the dead. The hunter had seen enough of death and cooking to know what was wrong. 'How was the marrow taken out of the bone?' she asked, but didn't expect an answer. The dark legends of Cimmeria and the Norse came unbidden to mind, creatures devoured flesh, drank blood, and sucked the marrow from one's bones...

'"Screwed?" By kings?' Hilda wondered, not getting the Midgard saying. Then she spotted the distant flicker of light in the darkness. 'Light!' she warned, raising her bow in that direction. She triggered her radio. 'Rajip! It is Hilda. We see light. Where are you?'
This message was last edited by the player at 15:18, Tue 29 July 2014.

The moment his radio came alive, Rajip threw himself against the wall, pulling Gavin along with one hand and raising his weapon with the other. Once safe behind a partial cover of a shallow niche of the corridor, he turned the radio down a bit before responding, "We can see some light right in front of us, too. Seems to be the central point of the entire structure."

Without using his radio, Kaspar just call out in a loud voice,

"Wszystko jasne, Sargeant." Kaspar calls out, not realizing he's spoken Polish until after he's spoken, "Come ahead.  We've found some distrubing facts..."

Once Gavin is sure the lights are from the rest of the team, he hurries forward, and meets up with the others.

"We checked out all four of the cargo bays, arranged as I suspected, one in each corner of the ship," he reports.

"The second bay had some equipment in it, but much of it was scattered about. The third bay was completely empty. The fourth bay, however, had ten skeletons in it, like these. Not all were grouped together, though."

He refrained from mentioning their speculation, letting either Rajip do that or see what Kaspar had to say first.

"Well, we think we've solved the mystery of these skeletons." Kaspar says, "It has been bothering me that we didn't find any other trace evidence from the bodies; we just found bare bones. Then, Hilda and I were discussing if the bodies might have been eaten by some kind of creature -- and I realized that the traces we were looking for were all organic, and that the bones, being calcium compounds, were inorganic.  So I broke open a bone to check for bone marrow residue, and sure enough..." Kaspar holds up one of the pieces of broken bone, showing the interior.

"As you can see, there is no residue inside this bone. The interior of all bones -- well, that is to say, all Human bones -- is a soft, spongy marrow, which is an organic material."

Kaspar tossed the two pieces of broken bone over to the skeleton he'd taken it from.

"It's obvious that something completely dissolved ... no, not dissolved, that would still leave behind traces. Hmm, either all the organic material, here, was affected by a complete molecular dissolution, or it was consumed completely by an organism that leaves behind no waste or other trace of its presence."

Kaspar looks at the three 'aliens' of his team.

"Gavin, Vassandra, Freyda, do any of you know of a weapon, or a type of radiation, or even a creature or organism that completely removes all organic material, while leaving behind anything non-organic, without leaving any trace of itself?"

Freyda tried to think of such a creature.

01:47, Today: Freyda rolled 13 using 1d20+12. Biology.
Kicks dice roller.
01:48, Today: Freyda rolled 21 using 1d20+12. Robotics.

'It must be you.' Hilda returned to Rajip, but watched the light down the hallway until it flashed and moved and revealed Rajip and Gavin before she lowered her bow. She listened carefully to Gavin's report and through Kaspar's summary, not entirely sure what all the concepts he mentioned were, but she thought she got the gist of it from Hermod's lessons.

So she was a little annoyed that Kaspar had not considered her as well when he asked for information. She knew many things! So it was Hilda who spoke first. 'Like a disintegrator gun?' she suggested, pleased her initial guess could well be the right one. Television had not lied to her!

But nor had the sagas, and she remembered the worst of monsters to haunt the dark hills of Cimmeria. And she was filled with unspeakable dread. Her voice turned dark and haunted as she said 'Or maybe it is a draugr. It is said the again-walker devours flesh and drinks blood, and it can turn into mist and pass through soil and stone. A draugr could do this and much more. We should flee before it drives us mad.'


OOC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draugr

Another great idea! Probably better than mine. But the draugr could also be the Goa'uld...


Freyda does not know of any biological organism that can do this, though there are many varities of reducing bacteria that might appear to do the same thing. Nanites, however, could be programmed to remove all organic material from a target.


That's pretty much what Gavin knows, too.

"Yes, exactly! A disintegrator gun." Kaspar says, snapping his fingers and pointing at Hilda, "Some kind of weapon or energy form that causes molecular dissolution in either organic-specific materials or in low density matter."

"I would guess, from the lack of equipment with these skeletons, that they weren't Jaffa warriors, but probably something like Jaffa technicians or plain servants, who were dressed in clothing made of organic fabrics."

Hilda's next, spookier, suggestion brings a look of surprise to Kaspars face.

"A Draugr?" he asks, searching his memory for the meaning of the old Norse word,

"Wait -- you mean a Revenant? A Ghost-troll?" Kaspar asks, incredulously, "Well ... okay ... I'm willing to allow for what Shakespear said in Hamlet, but ... a flesh-eating Zombie?  That's the stuff of American television, Hilda.  And besides, didn't the Draugr eat their victims whole? Not just the flesh and blood, leaving behind a clean skeleton."

Not able to answer the question specifically Vasandra offers the best she can.  ”I am not a weapons specialist but there are any number of flesh eating contagions, both mechanical and biological, that can do that sort of thing.  The odd part is that they appear to consume wood but not bone generally something would either destroy both of those or neither, that suggests that it may be something more like an insect that was eating but finds no nourishment from bones.

Either way it may be a good idea to secure ourselves against to much interaction with the environment on the other side of those doors before we go through.  If we have already come in contact with it here then it must be very very slow, it is more likely that it came from outside the ship and whatever was inside the sealed sections of the ship has long since starved to death, or entered a hibernation state.”

'The draugr is real!' Hilda insisted vehemently, with all her ancient superstition. 'Three years ago, a whole village in the west mountains was devoured by draugar amidst a great storm, the people torn apart as if by wolves. And in Katteheim, they unearthed the barrow of a suspected draugr, and found its corpse-body blue and black and bloated on those it had eaten.'

'They have many strange powers. They can change their size and shape, into dead animals and into giants. It is as giants they swallow their victims whole. But in a spaceship, they cannot become giants, so they must stay small to eat flesh and suck out the marrow. Why else would they swallow bones but to get the marrow? The draugr answers all this!'

"And the great storm you've mentioned, Hilda, and the bloody attack did occur during, or right after, a period of famine, disease or a a blood feud, didn't it?" Rajip was determined to stop the Cimmerian from being overtaken by her obviously irrational fears. "And the suspected draugr that had been found was of regular, human," his eyes measured her posture in a cursory glance, "Cimmerian size?"

Then, before really waiting for her answer, he continued, "That's more or less something we've figured out, Vasandra, I mean the insectoid form of what had done this. However, I'd rather not think that the rest of your speculations could be true."



Edit: Specified Vasandra as the one being addressed in the second paragraph.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:38, Thu 31 July 2014.

Hilda, are you saying the Asgard did not properly protect your people from a threat on a world we oversee? Freyda says about the attack by such a creature.

"Now, now, people," Kaspar interjected, "I'm not ready to discount the possibility of a creature -- maybe even something the size of people -- being responsible for this.  I just don't put a lot of faith in the possibility that this was the result of something supernatural. We will discover the cause of whatever did this to all the organic material, and we will be able to explain it scientifically. That's all that the supernatural is, if you think about it; just something that hasn't been explained scientifically, yet."

"I mean ... Consider, all of you, if you had a folklore that included Trolls, don't you think that you might mistake an Unas for a 'troll', the first time you met one? And an Unas is certainly capable of eating an adult Human."

"So. We move on. The watchword is 'Vigilance', yes? We don't know enough, yet, to place the blame for these deaths on a specific threat, so keep an open mind! It could be anything."

"Freyda, if you would, please, continue trying to get that floor hatch open, and we'll proceed to the power room.  Agreed, everyone?

The iris hatch in the floor is a bit more difficult to open mostly because finding where the controls are is harder.

Freyda soon discovers that it has four locks, which, because there's no central power, have to be unlocked individually. Once she determines that, she is able to disengage the locks. When the last one is unlocked, she is then able to activate the mechanism that opens the iris. That's when she has a surprise--there are actually TWO irises--an outer one and inner one. The outer one just covers the ramp areas--the outside of the central shaft. The inner one covers the central shaft. As near as she can tell, the composition of the metal isn't sufficient to stop a ring gate from functioning.

The outer ring opens with a faint whirring sound.

The two ramps go down into darkness. Nothing comes up out of it, though.

"Excellent work, Freyda. Thank you. Now, just to be on the safe side, why don't we perform whatever air quality scans we can?" Kaspar says, apparently ignoring his own cautious words, as he stands on the edge of the opening, looking down into the darkness, "Let's look for dangerous gasses and/or biologicals.  If we can.  Frankly, I'm not sure just what we can scan for."

"Sargeant, why don't you crack a couple of glo-sticks and toss 'em down there, while we wait for the scan results."

Rajip obeyed without a word, then stepped back, just in case.

'I don't know, but draugar do spread madness and disease.' Hilda answered Rajip. 'And the corpse was said to be very large, but the draugr must return to the same size as its coffin before it rests.' These terrible monsters always had another power to cover some weakness or oversight.

She caught herself at Freyda's interruption, and bowed her head, afraid to give criticism or offence. 'No, High One. But evil can slip under even a god's gaze — as the ettins did.'

Hilda settled after Freya and Kaspar's words, but had one last point to make. 'We walk through portals between worlds, with a living god at our side and seek to slay other living gods, with weapons that shooting lightning and thunder. Legends are all around us. Do you not think we should at least consider the supernatural?'

She returned to standing guard, now keenly watching the shadows and walls for any sign of draugar. She stepped forward to cover the revealed entrance as Rajip lit it up.

Even before the door opens a thin transparent membrane extends upward from the thin black sheath that Vasandra wears under her clothing to encase her head in an oval like bubble at the same time as what could have been mistaken for cuffs flow downward over her hands and fingers, melting into a seamless covering.

As if nothing odd had just happened Vasandra addresses at long last Hilda's superstitions.  ”You are welcome to use whatever words you need to in order to describe to yourself events that you do not understand but would you please stop trying to attribute similar levels of ignorance to the rest of us.

Supernatural is only a word used to describe something you have not bothered to learn about yet, some of us have put a considerable amount of time and energy into understanding how the world works.

I met an Ancient once, I think, they are far more advanced than we are but not divine beings but its possible others are higher still. We Asgard have a war with a deadly enemy in our galaxy and have other more pressing problems than seeking such mysteries. We did in the past and explored many galaxies our goal is to learn what is unknown but we keep meeting threats.

Finally we engaged a species that can match us if they find there way here to this galaxy the G'ould will pale in comparison in power. Force isn't working and we don't think like your people, in simple terms, we lost that. So I'm learning from you to tell my people your tactics in dealing with superior threats without advanced technology. Such tricks might help now. We would never make a weapon like that and its better than some of our weapons in many ways.

Freya touches the machine gun the leader has.

Gavin patiently listened to what the others had to say, but since he had nothing more to contribute to the discussion, he remained silent while pondering their words.

He understood Vasandra fairly well, but she seemed to take things far too literally. He did not think her words were meant to insult Hilda, though her even tone often came across as cold and unemotional.

"Although we have a similar saying in Tollani," Gavin offers, "I find the English version rather quaint and evocative. It's 'any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic'. And while we think we know enough to say that magic doesn't exist, we really don't know that it doesn't... some way, somewhere."

"Remember, there are scientific reasons behind the legends of the nosferatu and the yaendalla... what you know as vampires and werewolves."

"Who's to say that the draugr don't have a similar scientific explanation... perhaps some sort of necrophage. So you say 'technology', Hilda says 'supernatural'. To her, they are the same thing."

In any case, he felt a little more confident using the phase device, but without fully knowing what had killed the Jaffa, he couldn't be positive that it wasn't able to affect him while out of phase. It was still a defense that none of the others had, so he chose to lead the way.

He began walking down the ramp.

"Gavin, stop." Kaspar says in tone of authority not yet heard from him, "First of all, the possibility of flesh-eating germs aside, we don't know how long this ship has sat sealed and inactive; the air down there may not be breathable. So we'll wait for the scans."

"Second, while I have no question of your personal courage or your resolve to explore the unknown, being the first person to walk into an unchecked and potentially dangerous area is not your job -- it's his." Kaspar points at Rajip.

"Once we get an okay on the air quality, down there, Sargeant Mojdar will head down and secure the bottom of the ramp.  We won't follow until he gives us the all clear." Kaspar looks at Rajip, "I mean, unless we hear you getting involved in a firefight, then we'll all come rushing to your rescue like we know what the hell we're doing. That's standard operating proceedure, right?"

Hilda scowled at Vasandra's haughty words, and the big words she struggled with because English was not her first language. She didn't like being treated as a poor fool because her world did not have what the others took for granted. 'So says the dark elf. I took Thor's Test of Worthiness and won the right to be a student of Hermod, the Asgard teacher. He taught me many things. I know how the world works, or the gist of it. I know what I know and I know what I don't. I know that legends have some core of truth and we see these truths around us now, and that there are many strange things in space we do not yet know.' she declared, and nodded in agreement at Gavin's words.

She stepped up as Kaspar pulled back Gavin. 'And it is my job too, remember?'

"Yes, Hilda, I remember." Kaspar says, tapping the upside-down bowl of his finally-extinguished pipe on the palm of his hand, clearing the ash.

"I also remember asking you to stay close to Freyda and focus on her defense, if we get into trouble." Kaspar pauses a moment to gently blow through the stem of his pipe, "And since Freyda, like Gavin, will most likely not be entering new chambers first ... well, that's what I meant when I said Sargeant Mojdar would be our pointman. I wasn't discounting your usefulness as a scout."

Kaspar leans over the down ramp and takes a deep breath.

"Well, none of us have dropped dead, yet.  And nobody has reported detecting anything dangerous in the air coming up from down there, so..."

Kaspar turns to Rajip.

"Okay Sargeant, you're up. Go down and secure the bottom of this ramp, on the level just beneath us.  It should look similar to this junction." Kaspar indicates with a wave of both hands the place where everyone is currently standing, "But don't take anything for granted.  We'll all wait for your all clear.  But please, call us if you run into trouble."

'Or a draugr.'

"I take nothing for granted whith my life at stake, Major," Rajip replied as he started down the ramp, his flashlight on, illuminating just the spot the bullet would hit in should he fire. He kept to side of the ramp so that he's at least a little less easy target even despite he knew that with the beam of light from his flashlight he was giving himself away to any potential shooter. However, this time any potential threat was not supposed to have ranged weapons... unless what they'd seen so far had only been giving them false leads.




06:55, Today: Rajip Mojdar rolled 13 using 1d20+3. Listen roll: reconnaisssance.
06:55, Today: Rajip Mojdar rolled 16 using 1d20+5. Spot roll: reconnaisssance.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:56, Sun 03 Aug 2014.

Remind me to work on a portable scout drone for teams, I can make something small enough, it would make this much safer. Freyda wonders how the hell they survived so long with substandard technology in many areas.

Descending the spiraling ramp into the darkness, Rajip sees nothing out of the ordinary (whatever that means on a Ha'tak) in the beam of his flashlight, nor does he hear anything but the silence of the tomb.

At the bottom of the ramp, he finds himself in an octagonal room with the central column in the center. There is about 20 feet of open space around the central column, and in four sides of the octagon there is clearly a door. They are all closed.

"Mojdar here," Rajip activated the microfone. "It's clear. You can come down."

With that, he moved on closer to the left-most door and stopped by the wall beside it, while sweeping each of the other doors in turn with light from his flashlight.

"Roger that. We'll be right down." Kaspar responded over his own radio, then, turning to the others with him, added "Okay, folks, let's go."

Kaspar led the way down the ramp, adding the beam of his own flashlight to the searching beam of Rajips.

"Eight doors, eh?" Kaspar said upon reaching the bottom of the ramp, "Y'know, I was about to say 'look for the door marked Power Room'; forgetting for a moment that the Go'auld restrict their slaves from doing much reading. Of course, this area would have been the realm of Jaffa technicians..." Kaspar shrugged.

"Oh, well.  Any guesses which door should lead to the power room?  Anyone?"

Since Rajip was scouting the trail ahead, Hilda stayed back with the wise ones and the goddess, looking back to make sure nothing was sneaking up on them from behind, not even a draugr. Steadily, she traipsed down after the others, then shone her torch around the room.


OOC: Is there any writing or clue? Hilda knows Goa'uld and was on a pyramid work-gang for a while. Knowledge (untrained) 17.
19:53, Today: Hilda rolled 17 using 1d20+2. knowledge.

Kaspar will look for the door to the Power Room, using what little he knows of Go'auld society and design concepts ^_^


15:09, Today: Kaspar Radoslaw Gorski rolled for Knowledge: Go'auld getting 15 using 1d20+6.
15:08, Today: Kaspar Radoslaw Gorski rolled for Search getting 20 using 1d20+3.

Freyda is not sure the layout makes little sense, an Asgard design though rarely is paranoid from even their crews turning on them.

She tries to figure out which one might lead to the power room assuming normal mechanics which is likely not the case.

15:16, Today: Freyda rolled 11 using 1d20+10. Door to Power Room Guess.

There are only four doors. Not every one of the eight walls had a door in it.

There are symbols on the controls next to each door. The symbols don't actually mean anything, but they do stand for certain things. One symbol stands for 'deflector', one for 'power', one for 'engine', and one for 'weapons'.

Vasandra seems to remember that on this design of ship, this entire level is a power room. That is, although each quadrant has a specific function, the inner control area goes completely around, so it's easy to get from one section to another.

If there's any security between the areas, it will be a forcefield. However, since the ship has no power, that's pretty unlikely.


As Hilda is bringing up the rear, she's the last one to descend the ramp. As she takes her first step, though, she hears something. It almost sounded like a whisper. It doesn't repeat, so after a moment's thought, however, she wonders if she really heard it. Or perhaps it was just the sussurrus of air through one of the vents.

Despite being fully contained within her space suit Vasandra's voice passes through it unchanged by the transparent bubble around her head as she points to the room with the symbol for 'power'. ”This one should lead to the section we need to access to either enable or recharge the power systems,  it is unlikely that any of the security mechanisms are active now but turning the power on may restart some of them.

Despite providing the answer to the question asked Vasandra makes no effort to pass forward in the line or interact directly with any of the doors, simply waiting at the landing directly at the bottom of the ramp.

"Excellent.  Thank you, Captain." Kaspar acknowledges Vassandras identification of the door they are looking for.

Turning to Rajip, he asks, "So, Sargeant, what do you think? You and Gavin phase through and look around, while Freyda gets the door open? Or have you some other idea?"

"Sure, we can phase into the room to make sure it's all clear," Gavin answers Kaspar. "If it's clear, we'll tap on the door, and you can open it."

"I can't think of anything else to do at this point."

Freyda tries to open the door, while saying in Asgard.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
How the hell did these people beat the G'ould, they can't even open such a simple door mechanism.

---

At the eerie whisper, Hilda spun, looked quickly back, shining her torch up the ramp for long, anxious moments. She was sure she'd heard something, but now — nothing. She was a hardened warrior, unafraid to die, but even she felt the chill of winter at her neck, felt like wolves were behind her. Draugr... Hilda caught herself, breathing steadily, centring herself. No. No, she'd worked herself into a great fear earlier, but she could not let her fear devour her. It might be a draugr, but it might not. And if she told the others, they'd think her mad. But equally, she could not hide her suspicions, lest they turn out to be true. A warrior should trust her instincts. 'Be wary, I heard something.' she hissed to her companions.

"Good, Gavin." Kaspar says to the Tollan, as he gestures towards the door "Well, it looks like Freyda has gotten started, so you two should get go..."

'Be wary, I heard something.' Hilda hissed, looking back up the ramp.

Kaspar turned to look back up the ramp, his hand falling to his holstered Makarov.

"What did you hear, Hilda?" Kaspar said in a lowered voice, "Maybe you should wait a moment, Sargeant. Hilda, are you sure it wasn't just some echo from us?"

Rajip didn't need the Major's careful suggestion as he had noted Hilda's earlier reaction out of the corner of his eye and, while she was giving a warning to the team, his flashlight had already begun to lend its own light to envelop the ramp with the shining blanket of illumination. Simultaneously, he strained his ear to catch the sound the Cimmerian might have heard.



OOC: 23:00, Today: Rajip Mojdar rolled 14 using 1d20+3. Hearing roll.

Hilda shook her head, and gestured up the ramp they'd just come down. 'Back up there, I heard a whisper, or maybe wind blowing through vents — but there is no power for air condish-unning.' she offered, aware of a simpler, though no less suspicious, solution as she explained.

Kaspar raises a hand for silence, then closes his eyes and listens for a minute.

OOC: Take 20 Listen. 23 (20 + 3)

After a whole minute, Kaspar says "Well, just because we didn't hear anything now, let's keep our eyes, ears and minds open. I won't discount the possibility we aren't alone on this ship. Not yet."

"Right, then. Gavin. Rajip. Go ahead and phase through the door. Freyda, please continue trying to open said door. Vassandra, Hilda, you and I shall be on guard."

Draugr, Hilda thought dismally. She acknowledged the order then took up a position in the corner to stand guard and watch the whole room.

Hilda can't really see the whole room because of the central column that blocks her view, plus she can't see all the way up the ramp as it spirals up to the above level. The best place for her to be on guard is probably about halfway up the ramp. From there she can see most of the octagonal room below and also see up the ramp... from where the noise came from.


Gavin and Rajip have no trouble phasing through the wall into the engineering room. Once inside, they can see that it is one large room that wraps all around the central hallway. However, as the signs indicated, each of the four sections has a different function.

There is nothing functioning in here.


Freyda continues trying to open one of the doors. In the octagonal room, there are only four doors. While it cannot be determined by observation alone what the orientation of the doors is, from the above layout, these four doors would be in the 'corners'. It's turning out to be harder than she expected. It's not so much that these doors have tighter security, since with the power off, there really is no security. But these are what the Tau'ri call 'blast doors'--they aren't meant to be opened easily.

The doors seem to have some sort of built-in security, which has to do with interlocking doors and physical locks. They also require considerable more power than normal doors.

This is something completely new for Freyda. She's never run across any set on a Ha'tak ship like this. It takes all the power she generate to get the doors open, but she finally manages to do it. The door slow slides open with the clearly audible grinding of gears.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 165):

"That...didn't sound good." Kaspar comments as the heavy door slowly grinds open, "Is there something wrong with this door mechanism, Freyda?"

09:13, Today: Freyda rolled 21 using 1d20+16. Answer Question.

We forced open a large blast door used in security situation I'm not doing it fast enough, find another Asgard Grease-Monkey to do it. said in Asgard if anyone knows Asgard.

Then looking at them. Its a Blast Door its not meant to be easy to open, like the security doors around the gate room.

Hilda took her position and stood guard, patient and observant. She tried to focus on her poetry to pass the time. A draugr dead and dreary dark... Okay, maybe not that.

Gavin and Rajip had stepped through the wall into the massive engineering section. As with everywhere else on the ship, it was dark and silent. It still 'bothered' him a bit that the temperature was an even 68 degrees throughout the whole ship. It would continue to bother him until he found an explanation. Although there was no active air circulation going on, he supposed the ventilation ducts might still be open, allowing for an equilibrium to be achieved.

There was no discernible threat in engineering, but before he could report back, the massive door began to grind open. His Asgardian wasn't that good, but he caught the gist of Freyda's 'complaint'. He could sympathize with her; she was trying to advance her knowledge, and so far, that didn't seem to be happening.

"You are working sufficiently fast enough, Freyda, to get the task done," he attempted to placate her. "Just as this ship frustrates you, it frustrates the rest of us even more because we can't do even half of what you can. For the most part, we can't even assist you."

As the doors continued to grind open, Gavin stepped forward and examined what mechanisms he could.

"Most peculiar. I do believe the grinding noise is due to a lack of lubricant, but the mechanism itself is quite elaborate. I wonder if this is an older model ship, or a newer one?"

Best option is to try to power up the ship, if the reactors have fuel we can take that back to Earth. And strip the vessel of weapons and download the database depending on the time we have. My first thing is shut off any distress call system we do not want a System Lord to send a force here. The computers can tell us the information you seek and likely have recordings of what happened. With your permission to begin Commander. she already is poking around the power system however.

"Yes. Please!" Kaspar said, gesturing to encompass the entire power room area, "This is well beyond my expertise, and I bow to the greater knowledge of all of you. Please, do whatever you feel is needed to get us some power. And I like your idea, Freyda, to see if there is an emergency beacon that might be activated, before we turn on any power."

Kaspar looks around, aiming his flashlight willy-nilly.

"Um...okay. While you three with the technical know-how to fix things around here get started, Rajip, what say you and I double check the rest of this deck -- it would appear that it is one huge machine space, with this central column in the middle. Why don't you go around that way, and I'll go along this way, and we'll meet 'round the other side.  Hilda," Kaspar grimaced, "I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record player, but you stay close, here." Kaspar finishes with a nod towards the Asgard.

Even the Goa'uld usually have something equivalent to a transponder--the emergency beacon, but Freyda has no idea where it might be on this ship. She'll have to power up an engineering console in order to locate it.

She tries to turn on the system, but nothing works. Finally applying her own power source to it, she is able to get the console to come up. The two immediate things she is able to determine is where the beacon is... or is supposed to be... and the fact that the ship has no fuel. It runs on liquid naquadah, but there is none.


Hilda is still keeping watch outside the engineering room while the others enter. Once everyone else is in the room, she should probably move to guard the opening, but as she moves in that direction, she spots something out of the corner of her eye.

Even when she turns to look, she's not sure what she's seeing. Naturally her first thought is draugr. What caught her eye was movement up the ramp. As she looks more intently, she finally realizes that the movement is something sliding down the ramp. It seems to be some sort of yellowish-green ooze, which is why it isn't moving very fast.

I'll deactivate the transponder, and the ship has no fuel sadly and we have no means to power it unless there are Gliders we might transfer the fuel from them. But it has weapons and a computer core I likely can cannibalize for you, with help. Freyda says and shuts things down until she disable the transponder.

14:53, Today: Freyda rolled 20 using 1d20+16. Disable Transponder, Electronics.

It doesn't matter how brilliant Freyda is, she's going to have a very hard time disabling the beacon because... it isn't there!

She goes over to the section of the floor where the diagnostic panel indicated it should be, but when she pries up the floorplate, where the beacon should be is empty.

She doesn't recall seeing any indication on the diagnostic panel that there are gliders in the ship.

Strange, I suggest not powering systems up more than is necessary case by case removing weapons and the engine if possible, I can download key parts of the memory core if lucky to adapt your technology but it is kind of primitive. she says planning on how best to do all that and look brilliant.

In reply to Freyda (msg # 175):

"Okay, I get there's no fuel for the reactor that generates the power. Okay. But, are we talking kilowatts? Megawatts? Terawatts?" Kaspar asks.

"What I'm getting at is, could we take the power output cables from the cold naquadah reactor, and hook them to a big American diesel generator? Or are we talking too much power for an industrial generator to generate?"

"And what about the small generators you and Captain Tourmaline brought? Are they only powerful enough to power door systems, or what?"

Acknowledging Kaspar's order, Hilda started moving to stand guard in the new position, when she caught sight of movement up the ramp. Draugr! She whipped her bow up and around, arrow nocked, and stared into the darkness to see what thing crept there. She didn't know exactly what a draugr looked like, though there were stories of blue-black corpse creatures and foul mists. This yellow-green stuff wasn't it. 'I see something!' she hissed to her team over the radio, but struggled to describe it in English. Coming from rustic Cimmeria, she could scarcely make sense of what she was seeing. 'Yellow-green... mud, slime? It's coming down the ramp.'

While still involved in helping out Vasandra clearly has little or no interest in the ship itself, although the somewhat peculiar series of flaws with it does seem to catch her interest for a moment.  Not nearly long enough to distract from what could pass as a direct question she is able to answer. ”If we can isolate the door power requirements from the draw the rest of the ship puts on the system any of our generators will easily have enough power to manage something that simple, the challenge will be making sure the power is not wasted trying to power up the whole rest of the ship, or even the life support systems on any particular deck which should default to the highest priority power draw.

I barely opened that door with one and I had to tweak, powering a ship like this could be a challenge with your primitive fuel based generators. Maybe if you have a Fusion or Ion reactor however at the base I could work out something. It might be good for some systems to use such generators but with the life support questionable there is a matter of Carbon Dioxide poisoning. Freyda answers wishing she had Asgard technology those reactors are small.

Kaspar nodded as both Vasandra and Freyda made their comments on the power situation.

"I see. Damn. I don't suppose there are any backup..."

'I see something!' Hilda suddenly hissed over the radio, 'Yellow-green... mud, slime? It's coming down the ramp.'

Kaspar immediately opens his own mic, "Roger, Hilda. Keep it in sight, but don't touch it." he orders, "Sargeant Mojdar, to the central chamber, please."

Kaspar turns his attention back to Vasandra and Freyda, "Ladies, it appears we've been found by some kind of ... something. Please stay behind the military personnel, while we all assess this. Freyda, we may need you to be an ad hoc Biologist, again. C'mon."

Kaspar heads for the open door out into the central chamber, when a thought hit him. Reaching up, he again opens his mic.

"Hilda, how fast is the slime, or whatever, moving?"

Rajip reentered the central chamber just a moment later, just in time to hear the Major's latest question. It was an important bit of information, he had to admit it. There was also something else they should know, however.

"Gavin," he looked back. "Is it possible for you to phase us upwards? All of us, I mean."

None of the power sources that the team brought with them are capable of powering up an entire Ha'tak ship. They might be able to power the engines... for about 3 seconds.

It is unclear whether they are sufficient to power up the computer core. Even if they can, you'd have to disconnect all systems from the computer, then add them in one at a time to 'disable' them.

Freyda can estimate that it would take at least 20 pounds of liquid naquadah to power up the ship for about an hour, and close to half a ton to get the ship back to Earth.


Hilda easily estimates that the slime is moving downward at a slow 5' per round. She also realizes that it isn't behaving quite like mud would: it's moving downward all across the ramp in an even line.

Freyd tried to remember of there are any slime life forms that fit the appearance etc. of the substance moving not necessarily sentient but alive.

17:39, Today: Freyda rolled 15 using 1d20+12. Biology- Slime (life forms).

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 182):

"I'm no Biologist, but even I can tell that that isn't normal." Kaspar said, pointing at the slow-moving sheet of mud-slime oozing down the ramp.

"Blocking our escape up the ramp like that, that has to be the move of a predator, yes? Oh, crap! That could be what ate the Jaffa, upstairs! Don't let it touch you!"

Watching the slime advance down the ramp from inside her still airtight inorganic space suit Vasandra seems more interested than afraid as she ponders the problem. ”Even if it is resistant to attacks we should be able to out maneuver and trap something that slow easily.

If it can spread itself thin enough to cover the floor of the whole room we could have a problem, but assuming it has some maximum dispersion limit we should be able to lure it away from the ramp and circle around to go back up.

It may also be a good idea to test disabling it first so we know how it will respond before it is to late.

Biology, of course, wasn't Freyda's strong suit, since she was trying to find a more synthetic body to house the Asgard's consciousnesses. She vaguely recalls that there was a 'collective organism' in the Metroid Galaxy that had developed a hive consciousness. It wasn't quite sentient, but exhibited a modicum of intelligence.

It could avoid traps, and knew how to flee from harmful things, like fire. It fed on wood, though; otherwise, it was just a nuisance, getting into gears and systems and disrupting them.

There is a slime consciousness in our records it ate wood, didn't like fire and mucked up gears and systems if this feeds on other sorts of organic matter it could be very dangerous. I suggest try cold or heat see if it responds. I'm setting my chair for a higher hover just in case. Freyda says more guessing than anything else.

"I can take two other people with me when I phase," Gavin replies to Rajip. "We never were able to figure out how to get it to phase through floors and ceilings. That is, the phasing was easy. Being able to control it against gravity proved too cumbersome. It required a device the size of a vehicle, and even then we had problems. If you phase downward, how do you know when to stop? How do you see where you are going?"

He was pretty sure he was safe from the slime as long as he was phased, but he'd rather not put it to the test. Who knew what other properties the slime might have.

"I'd be very careful, Vassandra. It might be able to penetrate your suit as it is probably a molecular organism. It might also be able to dissolve the material, though that doesn't seem too likely."

'Of course I'm not going to touch it!' Hilda retorted irritably over the mike. What did he think she was, a fool? No, she'd throw a rock or something at it first. Except their weren't any rocks or sticks laying around. A bone, maybe. She could always fire an arrow into it. She wondered if this was had consumed the flesh of the dead Jaffas.



'Very slow. Like crawling speed.' she returned, just as Kaspar and the others came back to see for themselves. Hilda pointed out the sheet of creeping slime.

Hilda struggled to think of slime consciousnesses and ooze creatures, but found a more familiar image in her experiences. She should have thought of it earlier, instead of draugr. Unless this was really the draugr... 'Once, I saw a swarm of ants, a great army of them blanketing the forest floor. They stripped bushes of leaves and berries and carcasses of flesh. And they engulfed living creatures with stinging bites until they fell... I got away, but spent a day up a tree until they passed. So, we should not get close. It may move much faster. Remember those Jaffa? They died running.' she warned ominously.

'We can't go back that way. Where should we go?'
This message was last edited by the player at 02:26, Fri 29 Aug 2014.

In reply to Freyda (msg # 187):

"Well, okay, fire makes sense." Kaspar said, "That stuff looks organic, and most organic things don't like fire." Kaspar suddenly snapped his fingers, "Hilda, I remember you loading several cans of fuel aboard...the..."

Kaspar looks upwards in dread, seeing the glow of the FRED's headlamps beyond the open hatch, on the deck abouve.

"...FRED. Aw, shit." Kaspar places his hand over his eyes, and shakes his head.

"Okay, new plan." he says after a moment, "Anyone got an emergency flare? Or a bottle of vodka?" Kaspar lifts his head and peeks one eye out between spread fingers, "A can of hairspray, perhaps?"



OOC: I hope, maybe, I just didn't see it, but I went back through the posts and could not find a reference by anybody that we brought the FRED down this ramp with us. I hope I'm wrong, but...

Hilda shook her head; she currently had none of these things. She tried to remember to bring some explosives next time. 'There should be a fire-starter in your survival kits.' she recalled, patting her own.

Considering the problem of the slime beast, she decided to first see how it attacked and behaved, like she would any other strange beast. Hilda produced a spare chocolate bar from her MREs — her bundle selection had left her with seven day's worth — peeled it open, then tossed it across the room to land neatly just in front of the slime beast. 'Let us see if it is hungry first.'


OOC:
16:56, Today: Hilda rolled 20 using 1d20+3. throw chocolate bar.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:10, Sun 31 Aug 2014.

Hilda's throw drops the chocolate bar about four inches in front of the advancing slime. It was hard to tell because of how slow it is moving, but it seems to hesitate for a moment before surging forward and engulfing the chocolate. It can be seen briefly through the slime but then just seems to vanish.

The slime then moves forward again. It seems to have gotten faster!
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:55, Sun 31 Aug 2014.

I suggest don't feed the slime. Freyda says seeing what happened.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 192):

"Okay, that is terrifying." Kaspar says, as the slime devours the chocolate and moves on, "I am giving the Team official permission to panic!"

"Come on, guys, think! This may be the critter that beat the Go'auld and their Jaffa; and they couldn't stop it with their tech. So what's that mean?"

"The Jaffa use plasma weapons ... that's basically fire, really, really hot fire ... and that must not have worked ... and the 'Zat guns use neuro-electric energy, so call that plain old electricity ... that probably didn't work, either ... the Go'auld Masters have that palm-blaster thingie ... I think that's a blast of pure kinetic energy ... again, if it had worked, that critter wouldn't be here! ... so, what's that leave us?"

"Gavin, you said you had something like the 'Zat gun, yes? How is it different? Might it work on this slime? Anything else? what other kinds of energy can we generate, here, folks? How about cold? Anyone have a can of liquid nitrogen on them?  What about cryo-coolants back in the engine room? Anything we can access back there?"

Cold, I suggest try that. Freyda thinks is there any options on a ship like this. Or that she has.

00:49, Today: Freyda rolled 29 using 1d20+10. Mechanics.

Freyda can only think of refrigeration units, which require power to run, and coolants on the engines, which also require power. She's not aware of the Goa'uld ever having used liquid nitrogen or even developed the technology for it.

Hilda regretted not eating some of her chocolate bar first, then watched amazed as the slime beast suddenly engulfed and consumed it. 'Maybe it just likes chocolate.' she mused, not convinced, as she took a few steps back away from it. She stared at the oncoming slime, wondering how by Thor she could fight it. She doubted an arrow would do anything. A sword might cut it, but could it come back together again? She didn't want to get close enough to try.

'Bullets! The ettins don't use bullets!' she exclaimed in answer to Kaspar. From anyone else, it might have sounded like the bloody obvious suggestion, but the idea of using a gun was still new and astounding to the Cimmerian, and she thought she was clever to think of it. She chose through her many weapons slung about her person. 'Which thunder weapon? P90 or shotgun? I only have nonlethal shot.'
This message was last edited by the player at 09:24, Sun 31 Aug 2014.

Rajip looked up, measuring the distance to the ceiling and the result made him abandon the idea that briefly lifted up his spirits just a moment ago. It seemed they couldn't go back to the level above them in any way other than the one they had gotten here.

Then he heard the Cimmerian's suggestion. It didn't seem to him much help but wouldn't hurt either. And they had to try all they could.

He gave a single shot into the slimy film covering part of the ramp, aiming near its front.

Hitting the slime is nearly child's play, but the result is most unsatifactory. It's a bit like shooting water. You may slightly damage the water, but for all intents and purposes, the water is not affected.

Shooting the slime has a slightly more effect, but it doesn't appear to damage it. The bullet penetrates the half-inch thickness of the slime before impacting the floor and ricocheting back out of the slime. There's a bit of concussive 'damage', but there wasn't enough resistance to produce hydrostatic shock. The slime immediately reforms around the tiny gap that the bullet produced.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 199):

"Hey, whoa!" Kaspar calls out, flinching at the sound of the shot, "I admire the practical application of the scientific method, but I already mentioned kinetic energy -- impacts, punches, dropped pianos, bullets -- all that is kinetic energy. When you hit something with something else, that's kinetic energy, got it?"

Kaspar paused for a moment, watching the effect of the rifle shot.

"And, to be honest, I don't think that any amount of kinetic energy, or even any amount of great weight dropped on it, would affect this critter. It looks and kinda acts like a slime mold. It's like a colony of billions of single-celled organisms; so I think that no matter how heavy an object we dropped on it, this stuff would just ooze out from under it."

"But it does appear to be organic, I think, maybe we could poison it? Bleach or alcohol, or some other kind of acid or toxin. Anybody got any ideas that don't involve materials we left up on the FRED?"

Maybe that life form is all over the planet and the ship is resting in it like on many planets it might in an ocean, just thinking out loud, I hope not. I could try to hover over it and get out that way. Get help like get coolants to try to freeze it back. We don't have many options unless w risk leaving the ship luring it off. It would be interesting to get a sample of it but not now. Freyda sees how high off the floor she can get and with a passenger to see if the fly over it could work.

Hilda watched the bullet explode in the slime puddle, not as gloomy about their prospects as Kaspar seemed to be. She remembered Hermod's lessons on the arts of observation and analysis, and not trusting all that panicky people shouted in her ear. 'No! We don't know what it is, and we don't know all that may harm it. I do not know this kinetic energy, but the kara kesh only pushes, and one cannot push slime. It causes pain, but this has no mind. Ettin staff weapon plasma does not keep burning.' she pointed out the flaws in Kaspar's earlier reasoning.

'But bullets explode, and fire from oil will keeping burning. With enough harm, it may not reform, or least be discouraged and turn back.'

With that, she switched her P90 sub-machine gun to burst fire, unlike Rajip's single-shot, and took aim at the approaching slime beast before squeezing the trigger...


OOC: Oh boy, first time I use my firearms untrained, I roll an error, 2.
19:22, Today: Hilda rolled 1 using 1d20-1. P90 (untrained).
Should be a narrow burst, -3 attack, +2 damage.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:52, Mon 01 Sept 2014.

I have an idea you phase, get to Stargate and tell them we need liquid nitrogen with a releasing system fast then you get back to us take Hilda. Its the only option we can try and we don't have a lot of time. I suggest while they are gone we find a way out of the ship just in case its better than being slime food. Do you have explosives we may have to get out using less subtle means? Its the best plan I can come up with. Freyda says.

"I might be able to phase out and walk up the ramp through the slime without it affecting me in order to reach the stargate, Freyda," Gavin replies, "but the slime might also have some sort of bio-electric properties that can affect the phase device. I'd rather not try it unless I have to."

As Hilda's bullets go in directions they shouldn't have gone, Gavin instinctively ducts behind the wall.

"I should be able to phase us out of the ship, but it's possible that the outer hull has properties that will prevent that. In any case, I suggest that we retreat into the engineering section and... close the door!"

"We can discuss our options once we are safe."

"This ship was sealed when we arrived. That means that every section is airtight and watertight; however, I do not know how far that extends into the microscopic. Water is very insidious. The slime seems to have some sort of collective intelligence. It certainly isn't mindless, like normal slime. So it may be able to insinuate itself into the cracks and crevasses of the doors and still reach us. But that will take time."

"We've now seen that the slime can move quickly when it wants to, though its normal movement seems to be more cautious. That smacks of self-preservation."

Freyda is not sure if this will work but a high sonic device might work.

Mandatory cheesy song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UydYg5HLCpw

Taking out her Asgardian Sonic Screwdriver she sets it and aims it at the slime letting her rip, using different frequencies to so if any hurt it and make it stop as the red crystal lights up and extends as she adjusts it. Well if it works she may get them to the gate.

Sound FX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHOZttXp7nU

In reply to Hilda (msg # 202):

Knowing that he's too old to have the kind of reflexes that could snatch the gun away from someone as young as Hilda, Kaspar just shouts abouve the gunfire.

"Hey! Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-nice shootin, there, Tex! Put up yer iron, you've killed the mood!" Kaspar shouts at Hilda, "Like I said, bullets won't kill it! Yes, you may be injuring it, but not enough to be significant, so cease fire before one of your ricochetes hits us!"

Kaspar turns to Gavin, "I hate trapping ourselves inside the engineroom -- remember we found sealed cargobays with Jaffa skeletons, but no slime, so obviously it can get through, but as you say, it probably takes time. And we can't just stand here for much longer, so, everyone fall back into the power room. Freyda..."

Kaspar looks to the Asgard, just as she is preparing to try her sonic tool (*snicker*) on the slime.

"Yes! Good idea, lets see if sound has any effect! You focus on that, try the entire frequency spectrum. Vassandra! While Freyda is testing her theory, do you think you could work on getting this door closed?"

Letting the others shoot themselves Vasandra is as usual already well under way moving on to the next problem of closing the door between herself and the slime. ”Already on it, any effort to not speed the slime up any further would be appreciated.

In reply to Vasandra Tourmaline (msg # 207):

"Yeah, well, blame the Go'auld!" Kaspar says, not taking his eyes off the slime and slowly backing towards the door -- hoping against hope that Freyda's sonic device will have an adverse affect against the stuff.

"I mean, really! What kind of a frigging technology doesn't make use of some kind of acid or caustic agent, or some kind of fuel or lubricant that's flammable, or any kind of cryo-liquids?!"

Kaspar suddenly pulls out his trusty old Makarov and waves it indiscriminantly towards the cieling.

"And I swear, I will shoot the first one of you that says 'An Efficient Technology'! I mean it!"

A flurry of activity produces a bunch of results.

Hilda's short 3-bullet burst sends the bullets ricocheting around the central chamber. There are so many angles, though, that there's little chance of the bullets hitting anyone before their energy is spent.


At this point, the slime was about 10 feet from the bottom of the ramp.


Vasandra has been able to disengage the electronically activated lock on the door so that it can now be operated manually.


Freyda's idea seems sound at first, until she remembers that sound is also kinetic energy--the motion of air molecules. This is equivalent to hydrostatic shock. However, high frequency sound has been known to boil water.

The first result of Freyda's effort is that the slime stops advancing. There's no appearance of damage of any kind, but clearly the sound registers on the slime.

The second result, as Freyda increases the frequency, is to invoke that hydrostatic shock through the slime, which manifests as a rippling across the surface of it. Again, though, there's no indication of damage to it.

Finally, at the top end of the frequency Freyda can produce, sections of the slime suddenly erupt in little explosions. Where droplets land outside of the slime, you can see that they are brown--no longer yellowish-green. Within seconds, they fall apart into dust.

The slime moves back up the ramp about 20 feet.

That's when you realize that more slime is coming down the second ramp. It has reached the bottom on the other ramp, which puts it 180-degrees around the central column from the open door.

This has a fresh power supply but I can't hold this off for long Commander, but sound seems to work, cold is still our best weapon. Or we can withdraw from the ship but if this is a native life form we cold be resting in it. It is an intriguing life form but I would be preferring to study it from a distance preferably with a probe. Freyda says as she tries to come up with a basic idea using sonics with what she has. But is an Asgard outside the box methodology is not her strong point.

13:43, Today: Freyda rolled 12 using 1d20+10. Idea Using Electronics for Sonic Defense.

In reply to Freyda (msg # 210):

"Okay. Yes. This is good. Uh..." Kaspar furiously sets his academics mind to trying to lay out the puzzle, so that it can be examined from all angles.

"Right. Sonics have a significant effect, it's just that the sonic generator isn't big enough. So, c'mon, think! Um, a bigger amplifier? Frequency...Resonance!! Could we set up a resonance in the ship's hull that matches that frequency? Anyone?"

Kaspar suddenly frowns, "Oh, wait. Uh, we see that this frequency causes damage to the slime, but what would it do to us? What effect would it have on People?"

I'll use it in short bursts to try to hurt it to back off, but I'm working on the problem the bad thing is our thinking is not primitive like your people, no disrespect its a big advantage, we use the scientific method in clear tirial and error. she zaps the slime as its advancing in half minute bursts under direction of the Commander.

"Whatever you're going to do, to it fast," Rajip cut in in a rushing tone. "We're getting surrounded here in case you didn't notice," he explained, pointing at the the second ramp.

In reply to Rajip Mojdar (msg # 213):

"Cholera!" Kaspar curses in Polish, looking at the second wave of slime that Rajip points out.

"I cannot believe we are surrounded by all this juicy Go'auld tech, and we can't find something to use against a frigging slime mould!"

Kaspar looks back at the door into the power room, then up at the top of the ramp they had come down, then back at Vassandra at the door to the power room, then over at Freyda keeping the slime at bay with her 'sonic screwdriver'.

"Right. Executive decision, folks. We can either lock ourselves up behind a door that I, personally, don't believe will hold off that thing for very long, or, we can use the weapon we have right now and make a dash for the 'gate. Freydas Doctor Who gimmic probably won't operate for very long at the level she's using it, I'm guessing, so I'm opting for getting the Hell out of Dodge."

"Here's the plan, feel free to add mods if you think of any. First we all snuggle up close behind Freyda and her floating electric chair. She blasts ahead and around the chair, clearing the floor for us to pass. We head up the ramp -- watch for dripping slime! -- and get to the FRED. Assuming the the FRED is still in functional condition, we all pile atop it -- dropping whatever gear we have to -- and then the FRED snuggles up tight behind Freyda. Freyda continues to clear the way as we head back to the 'gate."

"Then we dial home and scoot. We make a report, then come back tomaorrow with flame throwers, acid sprayers, defoliants, anti-fungals, liquid nitrogen -- hell, we'll even bring along insecticides, just in case. We come back and burn, boil, freeze or poison this goop until its all gone."

"Any objections?"

What if it follows us I would think a small amount crosses in your base it will be impossible to deal with if it gets bigger as it eats. On the good side I can likely create a weapon able to be sent through, open up on this ship wide, and clear it given some help. But I suggest he phase out and get ahead to warn Stargate Command to have coolants ready to on any that gets through if he is willing to take the risk. Used fully we have a half-hour and who is this Doctor Who? she figures continuous use of her device will not last more than half an hour maybe a bit longer its not meant for such high power use continuously and changing the power cells will take time.

"Do all Humans panic so easily?" Gavin asks no one in particular.

"I think you are overlooking a couple key points. First of all, the slime was not on the cargo level, and since it's coming down, I think it's safe to say it wasn't on this level. That means it was on the levels above."

"I suspect it was dormant until we disturbed it... or woke it up... because movement requires energy, and energy requires fuel. If it had consumed all of its fuel... all the skeletons... then it wouldn't have had any energy to move. So it was dormant."

"Until we opened the hatch to the lower deck, it probably wasn't aware of us. Not only did that make noise, but it probably sent vibrations through the floor. I think it's safe to say it can detect vibration."

"I do not believe you could ever set up a resonance in the hull of the Ha'tak that would damage the creature. First of all, you would need at least a full load of naquadah to power a device that could do that. Secondly, that frequency would destroy most of the ship. About all you'd have left is scrap metal."

"I also think you are misinterpreting what we found. You assume the ship was sealed and the slime still managed to get to the Jaffa. It makes more sense, especially given the nature of Goa'uld, that the ship wasn't sealed until after the slime got aboard and started killing everyone. The Goa'uld, and therefore the Jaffa, would not have been capable of accepting defeat from a mere slime/mold."

"Also, organic clothing would have been consumed by the slime, but metal items, such as weapons, could just as easily have been retrieved by any surviving Jaffa as they fled the ship... sealing it behind them."

He paused for a moment to let his words sink in.

"As I said, it needs fuel. There cannot be an entire planet of slime because it wouldn't have anything to consume. Also, if it is native to this planet, it probably has a natural enemy. Once it got onto the ship, its enemy was not present and it had a rich source of fuel. It might have started out as little more than a bucketful, but grew with each new fuel source it consumed."

"So, I think we will be safe enough in the engineering section, and can always move outside the ship."

Hilda yelped as the P90 bucked in her hands, spraying a few bullets and ricochets in every direction but at the slime beast. 'This is why I prefer the bow!' she complained sourly, switching on the safety and slinging it back. 'We may have to shoot a lot more bullets at it.' she warned Kaspar, who didn't seem to get the philosophy of overwhelming force. She wondered who Tex and what was the mood she killed.

Her experiment ruined by poor aim and firearm handling, Hilda followed the others into the room they were sheltering. In the ensuing argument, the primitive warrior had much too little to add, but instead carefully observed the creature and the environment. She might not be able to kill it, but she could think of other tactics. 'Let us lock ourselves in this room. While the slime beasts bay at the door or even seep in, Gavin can spirit us through the walls into the next room, and the next. Then we open the door, and while the slime is still on the other side, we run up the ramp and back to FRED. Then we may try the fuel oil on the slimes as they follow. See if they will cross fire.'

In reply to Gavin (msg # 216):

Kaspar wasn't panicing. He didn't think he was panicing. He was confronted by something completely beyond his training and skill set, and he desperately wanted to get himself and his people away from the threat.

That wasn't panicing...

Okay, maybe a little panic -- but he wasn't going to admit it!

Kaspar turned to Gavin and opened his mouth to make a crack about the annoying Tollan attitude of indifference, when Hilda suddenly spoke up.

'Let us lock ourselves in this room.' Hilda said, 'While the slime beasts bay at the door or even seep in, Gavin can spirit us through the walls into the next room, and the next. Then we open the door, and while the slime is still on the other side, we run up the ramp and back to FRED. Then we may try the fuel oil on the slimes as they follow. See if they will cross fire.'

Mouth hanging open, Kaspars eyes suddenly widen at the thought.

"That is...that is an outstanding idea, my dear." Kaspar said with a smile, "Sargeant, do you see any difficulties with the idea of closing that door, then drawing all the slimes attention to it, while the Team exfiltrates out the opposite side of the deck?"

Now you know WHY we protect certain planets, amazing people like her, okay you close the door if the slime comes in I can blast it, we must seal all ways in I have things for that. But will need help. Freyda says getting a panel open with Asgard Sealants most better than Tauri materials.

Hilda beamed with pride and more than a little smugness as first the professor and then even the goddess praised her plan. She faced the one on whom the whole plan would depend. She didn't want to say "weak link", but the Tollan thinker was no Cimmerian warrior. 'Gavin, can you do this? Can so many crossings be made so quickly?'

Once everyone is behind the door and it is being shut Vasandra draws and activates her Zat gun, its distinctive charging noise alerting everyone to it's nature as she does so. ”Drawing the slime's attention should not be particularly difficult.

Just before the door shuts she fires off a pulse of electricity into the nearest slime to both ensure that it's attention is riveted to the closed door and to test the outcome of that sort of energy assault for herself, without the problematic assumptions.

Time to seal ways in. Freya gets an Engineering Scanner and four flasks of sealant foam a steel like seal used for fast repairs.

Spray where I say. its like your fire devices it will foam up and turn to a solid material like your steel. Get vents first then we look for any way it can get in. And spray the door outline. It should keep it out if we don't miss anything but air will be a problem. I'll go less I'm smaller and use less air. I hope we have enough. Hilda take the Sonic Screwdriver if it comes in aim at it like a bow and fire off ten second bursts. Freyda gets to work.

13:07, Today: Freyda rolled 30 using 1d20+10. Mechanics, no item modifiers added GM.
*huurah!*

In reply to Freyda (msg # 222):

"Actually, Freyda, I think just sealing this door will suffice." Kaspar says, reholstering his Makarov, "Gavin suggested a way that we might keep the slimes attention, when he said that he thought the sound and vibration of our opening doors might have awoken the slime from dormancy."

"Therefore, we shall make as much noise at this door as we can. Then, when we think that all the slime that's currenlty mobile is down here, we'll start phasing through the wall on the opposite side of this deck, rush up to the next deck, and try to get those floor hatches sealed again."

"So, once the door is sealed -- Hilda? Can I assume that, among your armanents, you have an impact weapon; a hammer or a mace, something like that? If so then please, attack that door! Make it ring so loud that the Holy Mother, herself, will hear its tolling in Heaven!"

"That's my plan, at least. Anyone have any suggestions or modifications?"

Yes remember I'm more important than the Tauri and Hilda so if its necessary sacrifice yourselves to allow the aliens to escape. (pause) That was meant to be a joke I heard you do them sometimes to reduce stress. she is trying to get the humor thing it fascinates her.

In reply to Freyda (msg # 224):

Kaspar grimaces at Freydas words, "Yeah, well, I think we can all agree that you were close to being funny. Better luck next time."

Seriously if it looks bad I'll transfer my consciousness to the module Hilda and you can leave my body, if needed. she adds not looking forward to that process.

Vasandra fires her zat at the slime just before the door closes. She has a brief glimpse of the result--the zat seems to have no effect on the slime. It's pretty clear that there is too much slime to be affect by a zat.


At the moment, there is no next room. All four sections of this level, the engineering level, are interconnected, but with no walls between them. There are bulkheads that can be closed, but they aren't closed at the moment.

'Yes, high one.' Hilda took the sonic screwdriver with reverence, as if she'd just been handed a magic sword and tasked with wielding it like a heroine in the sagas. She studied the secret of controlling it and stood ready against the slime beasts.

Then as the goddess asked her to sacrifice herself, she nodded dutifully. 'Yes, high one.'

Then she stared at Kaspar like he was being foolish. 'I don't have a war-hammer. I have a little one for tent building, but I think it will not be enough.'

She looked back around the space, finding it all one great cavern, without walls. 'Oh. We don't need to be spirited through the walls anyway. Let's just let the slime beasts follow us as we circle around to the ramp.'

Rajip's eyes slid off Freyda with the slight grimace of distaste on his face. It certainly looked like his initial impression of the alien had been correct and it just didn't fit in, even despite all the services it gave to the team.

"I wouldn't put it that way," he then said in response to the Cimmerian's proposal, "but since we have few better ideas..."

Hilda, I didn't mean acrifice yourself but if it looks like that slime ill get in to me I will do the soul transfer you see I get to Earth, your life is more important than mine, all of yours are, but I have work to do our race is dying I have to keep working on a solution. I will have to add that value with your commander to decide things like who risks not returning. My body doesn't have to my mind does. she says sealing the room and monitoring the room.

In reply to Freyda (msg # 230):

"Alright, alright, everybody can just keep their own consciousness' in their own pants." Kaspar said, gesturing for everyone to calm down, "Good. Now that the door is sealed, Hilda, if you would, please, start banging on that door with the hammer that you have; I only asked about a warhammer or a mace because I knew you wouldn't want to bang on a blast door with your sword."

"Sargeant, unless you feel a tactical need otherwise, after five minutes please relieve Hilda at banging on the door, then after five minutes I will relieve you. The three of us will keep this up to attract the most amount of slime."

"You three." Kaspar turns to the remaining non-Terran members of his Team, "As our experts on Go'auld technology, I have two questions and, maybe, one task. First question, does this pile of junk..." Kaspar waves around at the room full of equipment, "...have anything like back-up batteries or an emergency power reserve? I'm not asking because I think that it may have power still -- I seriously doubt that -- but I'm asking because we might be able to recharge something like batteries, without needing any liquid naquada."

"Alright, second question, is either the main computer, or any kind of back-up computer core, on this level? And if there is any kind of computer data storage crystals on this deck, then pleaase go and remove them to take with us."

'I understand... Freyda.' Hilda returned, one of the few times she'd dared address the Asgard by name. Shaken and awed, she was aware of the great responsibility and trust that the goddess was placing on her. And she was more than ready and willing to bear that responsibility and determined to do so successfully. 'I vow by Thor and by Freyda to bear your soul safely back to Midgard and to the Asgard.' she declared solemnly.

With Kaspar's words, she considered her sword, then drew it with a singing steel scrape. It had a heavy iron pommel for balance and with a flat end should serve as a decent hammer anyway. She raised it up and banged it into the blast door with a resounding and ominous doom! After a bit, she did it again. 'Come to me, slime-beasts!' she bellowed.

Both Freyda and Vasandra knew that there was an engineering computer on this deck, but it couldn't run the entire ship. No Goa'uld would ever have trusted a Jaffa in that position.

The engineering computer is decentralized, though. It's strung out through all four sections.

There aren't any batteries. There are back-up reactors, but they run on naquadah, too.

"I can phase through the wall with two people at a time," Gavin answers. "Then I'd have to leave the first two out there while I got the next two."

"It occurs to me, now that the issue has come up, that we don't really know how much slime is out there. All we saw was a surface effect. I would propose that was because it takes more energy to move a higher or thicker mass across the floor. Same reason it wasn't climbing walls--takes more energy to defy gravity."

"However, if we attract it with vibrations, we could wind up getting all of it--however much that is--down here. I suspect most of it was on the upper levels. Makes me think it came in through the cargo level doors, killed all the Jaffa it found on that level, and then moved upward. The Goa'uld would have been the last to die, I'm guessing."

"Uh-oh. That gives me another thought that I'm not liking. While I can't see the Goa'uld being able to survive the slime, what if it could... take over the slime?"

"Anyway, I think our first effort should be on getting out of the ship. Once outside, assuming the environment is safe, we could make noise at the base and then climb up the outside and enter there."

In reply to Gavin (msg # 234):

"Actually, you know, I hadn't considered the possibility that we could end up attracting enough slime to fill up that outer chamber, there, and thus trapping ourselves in here." Kaspar replies to Gavin with an odd kind of calm in his voice. "I'd like to thank you for placing that terrifying image in my head, Gavin, and for making me pee myself in fear."

Kaspar suddenly turns a frown at the Tollan.

"Okay, fine." he says in a more annoyed tone, "We go outside. But before we do, I got three points for you to consider. One..." Kaspar holds up a finger, then points it outwards; in the general direction of 'out', "To get out there, you have to phase through the outer hull. Not a blast door, but the armored hull itself. Can you?"

"Two. Earlier you mentioned the possibility that the slime might still affect you, even if you were phased. Now, assuming you can phase through the hull, what if there is a hostile environment out there that can affect you? If I remember correctly, the first Terran-Tollan meeting had the SG-1 Team finding a bunch of Tollans who were dying from the effects of being enveloped by a volcanic pyroclastic cloud -- and phasing hadn't helped them."

"And Three. So, we all manage to get outside -- including Freyda's Flying Comfy Chair! -- and you wanna climb up the exterior of the ship. Fine. Except all the climbing gear is upstairs, packed on the FRED. Now, maybe you Tollan are all the picture of health and good eugenics, but until four months ago I was a tenured University Professor, lecturing bored students, smoking too much, and eating way too many pierogies! I am almost twice his age..." Kaspar points at Rajip, then points at Hilda; still banging on the door, "...and I am twice as old as her!"

Kaspar pauses and scowls at Gavin, "I'm just saying," he adds, calming back down, "I don't think I'll get very far, free climbing the outside of a Ha'tak."

"Okay, fine. Go. See if you even can phase through the hull; go see if it's safe outside." Kaspar conceded, waving vaguely toward the outer hull, "We'll stay here and keep ringing the dinner bell. Go."

Hilda stopped her stupid banging as Gavin pointed out it could attract much more slime than they had bargained on. She stopped and stared impatiently at Kaspar, who seemed to have a habit of making everything more complicated than it had to be, then talking far more than needed, with strange irrelevant things she didn't understand. Who was he, the personification of Loki?

'And if outside there is space?' she pointed out the obvious. They were, after all, in a spaceship.

Going frustrated, she sheathed her sword and decided to push forward with her plan. The Cimmerian way as to be direct and brave, or at least cunning. 'No. No more banging, it will come to us for food anyway. Lady Freyda, I beg you please close these other doors to stop the slime circling around us. When they creep in this door, Gavin can spirit us through the other door, back to the ramp.'

I wanted to seal every way in earlier, Hilda and others take one canister and aim where I say. she takes out a simple engineering scanner to find likely ways in to seal up. Oxygen will be an issue but that slime gets in they are dead.

She will hand her Sonic Screwdriver to the Commander just in case and its pre-set.

Commander you may have to decide who leaves first, my work is vital to the survival of the Asgard. I'm one of many engineers and scientists addressing a major issue vital to our species. My mind must get out at all costs and into a clone body, my genetic systems are younger and I will live longer than others of my race cloning. Hilda was taught the procedure and is my guardian she will not fail me or the Asgard.

12:43, Today: Freyda rolled 21 using 1d20+10. Mechanics Seal Ways In.

In reply to Hilda (msg # 236):

OOC: all 4 doors that lead into the engineroom/powerroom are already closed. The one that Hilda was banging on was the only one of the 4 that was ever opened, and that one is now the only one sealed/welded shut

Kaspar takes the device offered by Freyda, and shoves it in a pocket.

"Yes, please, I insist that you make it as difficult as possible for anyone to ever get back inside this chamber." He says to Freyda, then turns to Gavin.

"Gavin, you're still here. Why? You just got done whining at me to authorize you to go outside, and yet you are...still...here.  Let me make it easier for you -- as Team Commander I am ordering you to phase yourself through the wall and investigate the conditions outside the ship, right now. As in, this instant. Immediately, even. Go!"

"C'mon, People, start moving like you have a purpose! No more delays."

Spraying sealants on the other doors, any vents and openings the slime could use the stuff should slow it down.

"Excuse me, Sir. Should anything go wrong back there," Rajip pointed at Gavin, then turned his hand to point at the door behind, a growing puzzled expression on his face, "are we to get back past the door, now? We can lose our own way out of here this way."

"Unless you were planning on squeezing out the same way the slime might get in," Gavin suggested to Rajip, "the sealant isn't going to be strong enough to stop the door from opening. The sealant isn't organic, but it is adhesive, which is just enough to keep the slime from pushing it aside... assuming the slime can get through the cracks anyway."

He then activated his phase device and stepped through the hull of the Ha'ak, but just enough to poke his head outside... and see what he could see.

Gavin finds the effort to pass through the hull of the Ha'tak difficult going. It was like moving through molasses, or whatever the Tolan equivalent might be.

He finally manages to get his head through to the outside.

His first impression is forest. It's hard to get a perspective, but as he looks down, he can see a number of trees have been squashed by the ship when it landed.

He estimates that the area would be classified as timberland. It's not quite mountainous, but there are rocky hills. He can also see a river off to the right, that might pass fairly close to that side of the Ha'tak.

There is no immediate sign of life, but as he glances around, he thinks he can see a trace of smoke coming from the opposite side of the Ha'tak and drifting lazily over the ship.

The Tau'ri would probably classify the world as 'Earth-like', but to him it was more Tolan-like. There was something off, however. It took a moment to determine what that was--it was the color. Yes, the vegetation was green, but it was an odd shade of green, and even the bark of the trees had a green tinge to it.

The one thing he couldn't determine, however, was whether the air was breathable. It was about a 10-foot slide down to the ground.

Hilda took the proffered can of sealing foam, then stared dumbly at it for a while. She'd actually wanted the slime to creep in this door, then while it was caught in this room, they would sneak around behind it. But, thinking back, she couldn't recall if she'd actually said so. Well, it was too late now. Shrugging, she started squirting the foam around the door, making a mess at first and but eventually getting the hang of it. Meanwhile, as Gavin walked through the wall and her words of warning went unheard, the Cimmerian fell into a deep and stormy sulk.

Gavin chose to wait a minute or so, with his head sticking out of the side of the ship, just in case something changed. When nothing immediately occurred, he slowly withdrew back into the ship.

"Forest," he informed the others. "Timberland. I also saw smoke, like from a campfire or chimney... on the other side of the ship, so I could not determine the actual cause."

"Of course, I had no way of determining if the atmosphere is breathable. And I appreciate your concern, Hilda. We are, indeed, in a spaceship, and we could very well have been sitting on an airless world. For the few moments I would be outside, though, I was safe, barring any cataclysmic event."

"There is something unusual about the hull, however. I found it difficult to move through. It is clearly made of something other than pure trinium. At a guess, I would say it is made of some sort of trinium-naquadah alloy."

"All that means is that I can only take one of you through at a time. Once on the other side, you just need to let go. It's about a 10-foot slide down the outside of the ship to the ground."

Hesitating only long enough to glance back at the door Vasandra rallies herself fairly quickly. ”I should go first then, I will be able to determine the quality of the air without needing to breath it myself, the rest of you should use your gas filters as that is likely to be the largest problem.  We know the air is oxygen rich enough to allow for fire so it should not be immediately fatal to you.

"In case you had to come back, for whatever reason, you don't need to get down onto the ground right away, do you," Rajip spoke out. "I believe there is a way to hold onto the side of the ship..."

After a moment's pause he continued, looking at Gavin, "Maybe we could even find a ledge or something along the side of the ship."

"Oh, and I've got good news and bad news, too," Gavin adds as if in reply to Rajip, using an expression he heard at Stargate Command.

"This isn't a Ha'tak ship. It's a Tel'nak... a mothership. Just like the one Ra had that O'Neill blew up."

"And, yes, Rajip, there are ledges, but they are all above us. The ship is open in landing mode, so those ledges are actually balconies with viewports. I didn't see anything small that we could stand on or grab. The side of the ship looks pretty smooth."

"The good news is that because the side is smooth, sliding down shouldn't be a problem."

"That's a very good observation, Vasandra. I should have thought of that. Can you detect the composition of the atmosphere? Yes, it would have oxygen and CO2 because of the trees. The internal pressure of the ship should be the same as outside, as well, so that's not an issue."

"It's any exotic elements in the air would be a problem."

A Tel'nak with a very dangerous life form on board that may or may not be native to this planet. And I'm not ruling this not being a biological weapon we are dealing with. Now are these exotic elements really an issue it not like staying here is an option. There is another issue what of that came through the Stargate if that gets into it before we can warn SGC it can be an issue as well. This poses many dilemmas/ Freyda said simply.

In reply to Freyda (msg # 248):

Kaspar just glares at Freyda for a few seconds -- after all, getting to the gate to warn the SGC was an idea he'd expressed several minutes ago -- before turning towards Gavin.

"Okay, Gavin, the difficulties in getting outside are noted. Sargeant Mojdar has a point, though. If there are people-or-whatever outside the ship, we'd be in a better position if we were up on one of those balconies that're now opened, abouve. Is there any chance you can phase through the hull in a vertical direction?"

"And, you say you saw some smoke coming from something on the other side of the ship?" Kaspar points off in that direction, "Well, this is one big, open deck. Why don't we walk over to that side of the ship, and you can repeat your scout. Take the Sargeant with you, so he can have a look-see, also."

Kaspar actually knods in self-satisfaction, "On second thought, I really like that idea. C'mon, everyone, lets walk over to the other side of the ship."

Kaspar then starts strolling around the wall of the central corridor...heading around and to the left.

Hilda scowled like a thunderstorm as the others got to talking about the planet outside the ship and not the threat outside the door. It was like herding cats. Did they have no fear or urgency? 'Are you forgetting the slime beasts?! We should get back to the Ring of Stars first. Gavin, please look through that far door, tell us where the slimes are now.' she ordered firmly, but didn't forget her manners. Poor Gavin was being sent through walls all over the place.

In reply to Hilda (msg # 250):

"Y'know, I had a plan to get back to the Stargate, a little while back." Kaspar says over his shoulder, as he keeps walking away, "I wanted to get the slime into a corner, then make a break for it on the far side, away from the slime. Then return to the gate and make a report, maybe get a few more specialists and weapons to clean up the slime. But there were objections when I suggested we withdraw. I was accused of hindering the mission, wanting to return too soon, of personally slowing down our progress."

Kaspar takes out his pipe and begins filling a new bowl, as he continues to walk away.

"However, our experts spoke, and said we can't leave yet, and as a good commander, I listened and followed their advice. Now we are sealed into a large chamber with no means of egress, except for a Tollan Personal Phasing device, which will probably tun out of power before we can all get outside. And the only way back to the Stargate is to go outside the ship and hope that there is a cargo loading ramp let down, that will let us climb back up to the cargo deck, where the Stargate is located, where we will try to once again all phase thru the wall. We'll keep our fingers crossed."

Kaspar halts just before he would dissapear behind the curved wall of the central corridor and lights his pipe. After a couple of starting puffs, he continues.

"So now we have a new plan. Not a plan I'm happy with, but the plan we're following nonetheless. Gavin, you have your orders. Please take Sargeant Mojdar with you and go see if you can see the source of that smoke you noticed, on this side of the ship. Then, depending upon what they report, we are all going to exit the ship. Probably after Captain Tourmaline makes a scout to test the outside environment."

"So let's go, people. My little experiment in Military Democracy has determined that the Action is not up there..." Kaspar points to the cargo deck, abouve, "But is over this way." and he points in the direction he is walking, "And we're headed for the Action. Move out."

Hilda sighed, shook her head and blonde locks, and followed the others, muttering something Nordic under her breath. She was growing more and more sure the slime creatures outside really were draugr, and that they were driving the team mad.

Although he didn't laugh, the situation did bring a smile to Gavin's face. It wasn't that there were too many leaders, just too many ideas, few of which had sufficient data to formulate a clear path of action.

"As I recall, by the time we knew we were being threatened by the slime, it was already too late to retrace our steps to the stargate," Gavin offered.

"And none of the cargo hatches and ramps were open. We looked down all four of the hallways on the cargo deck, and the hatches at the end were all closed. It was further evidence that the ship had been abandoned and sealed behind them."

"To answer your question, Kaspar, no, I cannot phase up or down. The device has no way to overcome gravity. As it is, the first effort send the test object to the center of the planet as there was no way to keep it from phasing through the floor, and the ground and the mantle."

"The technology was eventually developed to allow a dynamic interface with a horizontal surface via gravitic surface tension. While there was the potential for incorporating an antigravity device into it, it would have made the size impractical for its purpose."

"No doubt you Tau'ri would have developed some devastating weapon from it, but the Tollan were never warmongers."

Thinking that he'd better placate Hilda, who seemed convinced that everyone was ignoring her, Gavin decided to stick his head through the interior wall to see what the status of the slime was.

After sticking his head through the door, Gavin saw a disconerting sight: the slime was two feet high all around the outer area, and appeared to be on the ramps, too. The light from the glowsticks was barely coming through the slime, so it was hard to get a good view.

Hilda waited eagerly for Gavin's report. That was the one thing about the draugr legend: it was Gavin here who could pass through walls, not the slime outside. What did that make him?
This message was last edited by the player at 08:45, Tue 23 Sept 2014.

I'm sure the slime can't get in here but we can't stay here it is air tight, I need the least oxygen being smallest, but in time I will have issues to and don't want to be left alone. Perhaps Stargate Command can help destroy this substance I still think cold will stop it, very little life can withstand liquid nitrogen and we can maybe get samples for study. The Asgard would likely like to learn about such a unique life form. And it might be a useful weapon against the G'ould. Freyda says she is growing concerned.

Rajip glanced at the door behind which the slime was, checking if the sealant still held. Luckily it looked liked they were safe... for the time being.

"The slime is up to here," Gavin reports, indicating the height to which the slime seemed to have filled the outer hallway.

"I doubt if it is all that unique," he then responds to Freyda. "It is only its size that seems intimidating. You make a very good point, though. Yes, we will run out of oxygen eventually if we remain here. However, this is a large room, and we opened it to the outer room, and the outer room to the upper level, and that level to one cargo bay, so we have refreshed any condition that may have already existed."

"But this ship travels through space. Therefore, it is air-tight. The slime does not function down to that level, so sealing this room probably wasn't necessary, but it certainly can't hurt."

"The point that Freyda made is that, being air-tight, whatever oxygen is in here is all that we have access to now. I estimate that the six of us have about 36 hours of oxygen. That includes Vasandra's air supply."

Gavin turned to Rajip then.

"Are you ready for another phase-walk? We will just peek our heads out to see what is generating the smoke. Is 5 seconds sufficient? I am concerned that someone out there may spot us if stay visible too long."

'What?' Hilda exclaimed as Gavin indicated a height of two feet. 'How is there so much of it now? It was only a finger's-width over a patch before. Now it floods the room... We have attracted a horde of slime beasts now.' she ended dismally. It was Kaspar and his foolish hammering idea, she was sure. Her big clever plan was now entirely moot, she realised. They couldn't go back out there.

"Interesting thought," Gavin replies to Freyda's idea about using the slime against the Goa'uld. "However, I feel I should point out that perhaps the Goa'uld had the same thought... using the slime against the Asgard... and Tau'ri. If that is the case, then look what it has brought them to."


"It's probably not much consolation, Hilda," Gavin then responded to Hilda, "but I don't think it was ever a viable plan. The minute we started moving around, the vibration of our movement probably got its attention. Had we chosen to go upward, we would have run right into it."

"It was hard to tell if it was still moving, but it covered the ramps up to the next level, too. It does seem unlikely that there can be too much more of it. I don't think it's quite intelligent, so it isn't likely that it would have kept something in reserve. Nearly all of it should be down here by now. It will probably start climbing the wall soon."

"It might also have been attracted to our scent, which may have taken awhile to filter up to the upper levels where the slime was resting. I suggest this only because the multiple gate activations and the presence of the MALP didn't seem to attract it. Or maybe it just took awhile to rouse from its dormant state."

"The sealed ship makes it hard to estimate how long ago the crew were killed. I think it's safe to assume that there were more crew on the upper levels, so if it fed on them, that could have increased its size."

"Having had some time to think about it now, it also occurs to me that any remaining crew left alive could have used the rings to get off the ship... after sealing it... and the ship could have landed by autopilot."

"I can see, too, that the Goa'uld might have remained behind fighting the slime because he refused to accept that something was beyond his power. He could have depleted the ship's energy doing so. Or, he may still be trapped up above on the bridge. Without power, he has no way to get off now."

"It's a thought."

"Freyda, Vassandra, do either of you know if a Goa'uld ship like this has that auto-pilot capacity?"

Most ships do, but there is no liquid naqueta or other source of power. But we need to deal with the slime. If I could get to Stargate Command I could likely create a short term power source enough to at least get the ship into space and head it into the sun of the system it would not need to be a huge source of power. I still think cold will work liquid nitrogen sprayed on it would likely stop it, not kill it, but stop it. Once its contained perhaps lured into a hold we could spray it down remotely giving me time to rig a power supply up, but I can't pilot the ship. We will likely need help there. Freyda proposes pretty sure she could rig up a short term reactor or something to send the ship on a one way trip into space if hyperdrive isn't used.

Completely unconcerned with other opinions Vasandra simply answers the questions asked as best she can.  ”The vast majority of Goa'uld ships have only the most rudimentary of autopilot systems, they do little more than maintain the current status of the ship and have little or no ability to adjust to external stimuli.  Landing a ship like this is difficult at the best of times and it is highly unlikely that the auto pilot could manage it with as little structural damage as we have seen.

As the floors are also very nearly level there was not a crash of any significance which suggests the ship landed before the problem with the slime was detected.  The hardest part will be getting the ship into orbit, and that will take a lot of power relative to what the SGC can make portable, it will almost certainly be better to get rid of the slime.

Well a power source will just need to hold up to leave orbit and move to the suns gravity influence or another body the ship can crash on. I'm sure I can jury rig something using Earths primitive nuclear sources. But freezing the slime would likely be the best option. At least it will buy us time. We could maybe move the ship to this planets polar region if cold enough it would make the slime inert. And the power needs would be lower just enough for low orbit and a rough landing. But its just an option we need to plan to get out of here before we can do much else. Freyda says noting what options she can come up with favoring the second option.

"I, too, was considering freezing the slime in some way," Gavin chimes in while he waits for Rajip to signal he ready for another phase-walk.

"It occurred to me that Freyda's Asgard technology, coupled with Vasandra's and my own Tollani technology, might be able to produce a freeze ray. It's just about generating an energy field that slows down molecular motion. The drawback would be that we'd never know if we got it all."

"We'd also have the problem of not knowing whether the slime could resist freezing. If it's gotten into nooks and crannies, we wouldn't know when and if it came alive when it warmed up."

"The only viable solution is to sterilize the whole ship, but I can't think of how to do that short of flying it into the sun. That, of course, would defeat the purpose of the mission."

There is a problem if I blatently use our technology it will breach the Protected Planets Treaty I can help but along your technology or that you might find. But liquid nitrogen would work combined with some of your C-4 to breach the containers. If you got the slime to absorb them and then spray the odd bits. Your space suits could offer some protection perhaps if attacked. Freyda said clearly plus a freeze ray would take a lot of time to develop.

In reply to Freyda (msg # 265):

"Sargeant?" Kaspar asks, "Scouting the outside is a tactical issue, but if you've had enough of phasing through walls, today, I can understand. Should we have Gavin proceed on his own?"

Lost and kind of bored of the technical discussion, as she could add so little, Hilda remained silent. But finding something she could do, she spoke up after Kaspar 'I could go through the walls with Gavin. If there is forest outside, then that is my issue.'

In reply to Hilda (msg # 267):

"That's up to the Sargeant." Kaspar responds, puffing on his pipe (and contributing to contaminating the air), "That's a tactical decision, and he is in charge of tactics. But I have no problem with that, if he doesn't."

Rajip nodded briefly, once more glancing at the door which separated them from the slimy being outside.

"We need to get out of this room. But we can't allow us to take a no-return way down. Hilda is right, she can go down there first. Before she does, however, Gavin, how far are we from the ground level now? Also, can you possibly fasten the rope to the bulk of the ship before we leave here?"

Freya gets out some tools. If you can get some metal, I can make two places to secure a rope to make sure its well secured, but my issue is I'm not very strong at climbing and physical tasks. And I need to take my food rations they are not bulky.

In reply to Freyda (msg # 270):

Kaspar, now leaning against some unidentified piece of equipment, takes his pipe in hand and points at Rajip with the stem.

"Good thinking, planning for when and how we will actually leave. However ... Gavin said he saw what looked like woodsmoke drifting over the ship, from that side..." Kaspar points at the now-nearest outer wall, "...when he was looking out through that wall." Kaspar points at the wall now farthest away.

"So, before anybody actually climbs down to the ground, you and Gavin should stick your heads out that wall..." points again at the nearer wall, "...and see what is out there. From Gavins description it is probably only a single campfire, but I want you to do a recon before we make any further plans. There may be an entire Jaffa Battalion camped out there. I don't believe that there is, but I want to be sure, before we start climbing down out of here."

"So, right now, please go stick your heads out through the wall and look around." Kaspar pauses, and a grin spreads across his face, "I never thought I'd ever say that sentence." he says, then shakes himself and continues with his original thought.

"Afterwards we can let Hilda loose upon the local flora and fauna. Meanwhile, we'll all dig through our packs and see how much rope we have available."

'I would be honoured to carry you, Lady Freyda,' Hilda offered dutifully, but inquired 'But wouldn't your flying chariot be better to take you down?'

She turned her attention to Kaspar. 'Then let's go. I can tell if the smoke is from one campfire, or many, or a bonfire.'


OOC: I didn't get any rope, unless it's inside a survival kit?

Rather than interrupt the already sluggish process of sorting out one procedure from another Vasandra waits until the first recon of the far side of the ship is underway before raising what she clearly thinks is a relevant question.  ”I understand that the typical mandate is to explore but should we not plan to go up rather than down once we reach the outside of the ship, at least to return to the stargate and see if the area is clear enough to send a message through before the next scheduled contact?

OOC: The skill kits are fairly specific to their own skill, you would need a climbing kit to have any use for climbing, and even that is more likely to be peripheral gear rather than rope itself which comes as part of task specific bundles.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:29, Wed 01 Oct 2014.

"I have no doubt of that, Hilda." Kaspar says, still puffing on his pipe and leaning against one of the many big objects near the wall he's expecting to soon be walking through, "Nor have I forgotten that you are qualified to do most of our scouting. My desire for Sargeant Mojdar to perform this recon is more an issue of what we huma--uh, I mean, we Terran military types call 'table of organization'. You see, even if you did go take a look, when you came back you would have to report what you saw to me, and, because of the command structure of this Team, I would then give that data to Sargeant Mojdar so that he could make a tactical analysis of it, and come up with some suggestions on how to deal with whatever might be out there. In our Teams 'Table of Organization', Rajip is our Tactical Expert."

Kaspar smiled, and puffed on his pipe, "I may be the Team Leader, but that just gives me Strategic Command. In other words, it's my job to come up with ideas for what we will do, militarilly, but it is Rajip's job to come up with ideas on how to do those things I want to do. Sure, sometimes I might come up with a tactic on my own, and, as Commander, I might decide, for any number of reasons, not to follow Rajip's tactics, but I'd be a pretty poor leader if I ignored my experts all the time, wouldn't I?"

"I hope you've been around our Tau'ri military people long enough to recognaize that we make a distinction between soldiers and warriors.  I am a soldier -- I can fight, and I will fight, but I am no expert at it; my function in an army is in support of warriors. Rajip is a warrior -- almost his entire skill set is focussed on fighting and survival; and trust me, as someone who was once considered an enemy of his country, I can say with sincerity that the US Rangers are very good at both of those things. We are both Military; we both serve in dangerous, even combat situations."

"But he is the skilled warrior, and I am the dedicated soldier. So when there are questions of how we might have to do our fighting, he is the expert, and I ... usually ... listen."

Kaspar again pauses to puff at his pipe.

"Here's something for you to consider ... are you familiar with a Tau'ri weapon called a 'tomahawk'? You might have something similar on Cimmeria -- it is a light, long-handled, single-bladed hand axe, like a hatchet, but it is balanced to be thrown. Weapons like it have been used by various peoples on Earth for centuries, most notably by the natives of North America, the so-called American Indians. It is a magnificently deadly weapon. Quick, silent, and bloody."

Kaspar nods towards Rajip, over near Gavin, "He may have left it at home, this mission, but I know for a fact that many US Rangers carry tomahawks, and prefer to use them in the field, rather than their rifles. And they are so good with these weapons, that their commanders just shrug their shoulders and let them do it. The reason I mention this is that I don't want you to think that I have higher regard for Rajip because he uses a rifle better than you, or that I somehow think you inferior for your use of hand weapons. I do not."

"And one more thing, Hilda, I do not hold Sargeant Mojdar to be this Teams only tactical expert. I do consider you to be such; while I hold the Sargeants training and experience in high regard, you have actually spent time in the field fighting Goa'uld and their Jaffa troops. So believe it, when we encounter Jaffa -- and I have no doubt that we eventually will encounter them -- everyone on this Team will be looking to both of you for insight into fighting them."

Kaspar levers himself away from the device he's been leaning against.

"Now, as you said, let's get these men moving....Rajip! Gavin! If you are both ready, go get yourselves a look see of what's out there. Let's go!"

"I can only do one thing at a time," Gavin quips in mock protest. He walks over to the outside wall, waits for Rajip to join him again, and then proceeds to stick his head out through the wall, assuming Rajip is doing the same.

OOC: He is.



Feeling very much uneasily, Rajip joined Gavin with his hand on the other one's arm. As the Major demanded, he did a quick assessment of the distant smoke, giving most care to determine wheteher it's of natural origin or if the fire which produced it can have been caused by sentient beings. Having done that, he inspected what he personally was most interested in: the distance to the ground and the trees around, whether they could be reached from the spot the were standing.



My observation/assessment rolls:
06:35, Today: Rajip Mojdar rolled 22 using 1d20+5. spot.
06:34, Today: Rajip Mojdar rolled 12 using 1d20+8.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:36, Thu 02 Oct 2014.

Gavin and Rajip stick their heads through the wall, and as Gavin reported, it feels like moving through molasses... or maybe quicksand.


The smoke's source is somewhere in amidst the trees, possibly a clearing, but still obscured from view by the trees. Judging by the color, size and consistency, it is clearly coming from a man-made campfire.

It's about a 10-12 foot slide down the side of the ship, into a tangle of broken trees, apparently squashed by the ship landing on them. There are a few clear patches, though, where you'd just slide down to the ground.

As the two of them look, Rajip suddenly spots two Jaffa moving through the forest, about 20 yards from the ship. He gets the distinct impression that they are on a perimeter patrol around the ship.

In reply to Vasandra Tourmaline (msg # 273):

"Indeed, Captain." Kaspar responds to the violet-skinned woman, "That is my intention. As we all appear to agree that it isn't worth the risk to try and phase through such a large batch of slime as is waiting outside those doors, our only option is to go outside. Once out there, it is my hope that there is an easy means of getting to the cargo hatches that we observed at the ends of the corridors, in the outer walls of the cargo deck, abouve."

"The only glitches to that program, as I see it, are any difficulties we might encounter between here and there, and how badly they sidetrack us."

Hilda just stared and stared at Kaspar as he talked and talked, feeling her mind begin to seize up as if she'd had some bad mushrooms, so bewildered she was. The Tau'ri were mad! The Norsemen of Cimmeria favoured direct talk, openness, practical common sense, and all this did her head in. As he talked on, about who talked to who, and tactical experts and soldiers and warriors, and tomma hawks, and whatever else, Hilda tried to jump in with her comments and questions, though they seemed to get lost in the flood. More than once, she opened her mouth then closed it again as, no, Kaspar kept talking or he came up with something even more confusing.

At last, when he finally stopped, she exploded in sheer exasperation with 'We are in the same room! Cannot I just talk to him? Or he listen to me? What do axes and tables have to do with this? The slime is outside. Why. Do you. Keep. Talking?!' As she complained, with blue eyes wide and teeth bared and muscles tensed, they could see the Cimmerian warrior could well be a berserker...

But she restrained herself with a hard breath, she had more control than that. 'I only offered to go through the wall next, to use my woodcraft skills to spot the smoke, to see the lay of the land, trails, streams. Rajip said I could go next. This was decided, by the tactical expert and the team leader. Then you change it. Why do you slight me, sir?' she demanded firmly.

There is a new issue the Protected Planets Treaty if the G'ould suspect I'm allied with you it could be voidd if they can reveal this to the System Lords. My life is not worth the risk of that. Freyda says.

Rajip tugged Gavin slightly on his arm to get the Tollan's attention, then indicated the direction of the two Jaffa with a movement of his head, then once he too saw the enemy, withrew inside.

Once they spotted the Jaffa, Gavin and Rajip quickly drew their heads back inside. After all, they weren't invisible, so it would have been passing strange to see two heads sticking out of the ship's hull.

Gavin was back inside just in time to hear Hilda's lament. He thought of it that way, because he just couldn't picture a Cimmerian 'complaining'.

"Now, Hilda... it wasn't like that at all," Gavin tries to placate the Cimmerian warrior. "Your skills far exceed Rajip in many areas, but in this case, we needed a more technical 'first' observation."

He decided to let Rajip report to the Major as he probably had more experience with Jaffa than Gavin did... or at least more training.

"NOW it's your turn, Hilda. We definitely need your assessment of the area. We need to wait just a minute or two, and we should step over here closer to the corner."

After stepping over to the indicated area, Gavin continued. He wasn't about to suggest to Hilda what she should look for; she probably knew that better than he did. This time, he'd look for signs of civilization and technology.

"Are you ready? Remember, don't let go while we're in the wall. Also, it'll feel like putting your head into quicksand, except without the wet."

As soon as she was ready, and took hold of him, he pushed into the wall until just his head emerged into the outside.

He looked in the direction the Jaffa were going first, to make sure he couldn't see them and thus they couldn't see him, then looked from whence they came in case there was a second patrol.

Finally, he started scanning the area farther away from the smoke and ship area, looking for the gleaming spires of a city or maybe even industrial pollution. He also was looking for anything that smacked of cleared land... plowed or planted fields, orchards, etc.