Noting Kheas swift exit, Sam says nothing but raises an eyebrow.

"Well spotted Pablo, I hadn't twigged that either" she says over comms. She stays with the onboard explorers still in overwatch mode.

In reply to Brayln Adone (msg # 298):

"There's apparently some group investigating the pyramid, but I highly doubt that this is the first time in recorded history that there are actually any Ancients present with an Ancient artifact, if it even is an Ancient artifact as opposed to just some unknown alien tech."  Clearly Brayln leaned towards sensationalist journalism, in Morgan's opinion.  "From the sounds of it, we're stuck were we are for now.  We could probably eventually thrust out beyond the gravity well it's putting out far enough to resume jump, but if it's much quicker to just get the gravity shut off, that would be better, since it's clearly a hazard sitting on a jump lane the way it is."

Then Morgan's survival instinct kicked in and he had a horrible thought.  "Now that I think about it, this could be exactly what it is intended to do, pull ships out of jumpspace, like a snare on a game trail.  Some unknown attack craft could then show up and collect themselves a whole bunch of trapped ships.  Maybe even take all the crews as slaves ... or worse."

"Its like talking to a Khir
Fine, if you intend to let everyone know about that ship then at least make sure that we get the the most valuable pieces of salvage before even more ships arrive

Vonon and the drone finally get the next door open, which is the first door on the left wall when they go around the corner. It's clearly a bit farther from the corner than the outer doors in the other wall. In fact, now that you look, there are only half as many doors in this wall. However, there are just as many doors on this inner wall than on the wall you entered through.

The image that the drone transmits is another sophisticated electronics room, with some sort of apparatus in the center which, though odd shaped, seems like it might serve the same function as a chair.

You can also see some sort of goo and stuff in this chair. It's kind of unclear what it is or was.

Some of you first recognize the controls in the room as weapons control, though it isn't clear what the weapons are. However, it's consistent with some kind of beam weapon, and some kind of missile weapon. But there seem to be controls for at least two other types of weapon.

It isn't until the drone flies into the room that you get a better idea of the chair. It appears to be the squashed remains of an organic being... that may have had the same appearance as the robot.

Sam glances in the room and drawls "Looks like we're not the only sophonts having a bad day"

She carries on into overwatch mode and then says "Can we do a scan of those remains, and then use the analysis of the chemicals or something to see if theres any other places where those chemicals exist on this ship? Might let us know where potential live ones would be at least?"

"Shall we invite these new folks to join us or the investigating team?" Valeska said to Walter.

"After all, we're now all in this together. Someone over there may have an insight into this alien ship that we don't."

"Oh, yuck!" Pablo says when he sees the remains. "Is that what happens when you suddenly get hit by 20 gravities? Or would it have to be more than that?"

"Yep, that's the controls for a beam laser. I can tell by the display. Doesn't mean I can operate it. Wait! Look at these screens here! You can see that other ship! Let's see what happens when I do this... A-ha! Just what I thought!"

"Based on the angle, I'd say this screen is fed by a video cam on one of the corners. At a guess, all four corners have that same capability, and that includes the beam laser that it controls. That means, I think, that the weapons are housed in the corners of the pyramid."

He points to the left-hand wall to indicate what he means.

"Interesting concept. If the ship turns its base to the enemy, it has all four weapons bays that it can bring to bear on them, while at the same time interposing the bulk of the ship between the enemy and the bridge... which, I assume, is near the apex of the pyramid."

"However, unless the corners can pop out some, it means they can't bring the lasers to bear on anything in front of them."

"Ship, robots... all built to imitate their own shape."

The drones have the capability of scanning anything they find, so that is being done automatically, though, in the drones' case, they are usually looking for valuable ores.

Sam nodded as Pablo spoke "So we probably want to head up" She said, pointing with her finger for emphasis. "Which means finding lifts or stairs of some sort"

"So, now that we know what happened to the original crew can you finally start to gather all the items you find? Even those remains might be worth something.

Figuring it would be easier to discuss their situation if both crews could all gather face to face Morgan signaled to Walter's ship a desire to engage in docking maneuvers.  They could mate up airlocks and then they'd be able to get together and converse freely to try and brainstorm ideas on how to handle this situation.  Walter had mentioned their was a team already investigating the pyramid, so maybe they'd already found something that would solve everything and make them all fabulously rich in the process.  (Or at least not blow them all to component subatomic particles.)

Not sure what was delaying Walter, Valeska decided to prompt some reaction from him by taking the initiative. She activated the communicator.

"Long Shot to Starshine. It'll be a lot easier for the two of you to have a drink together for old times' sake if you go ahead and dock with us."

"We can work out any problems a lot easier that way, too."

It's easier and quicker to go around and check all the doors along the inner wall because there seems to be more reason to them. The four corners all house a robot and there is a door on each side. Next to the robot is a locker than holds two vacc/suits designed for a pyramid shaped creature. Next to the locker is either a weapons locker or a fresher. The center door is either an airlock (on opposite sides) or a storage locker. The storage locker holds tools and devices, as well as bottles of water and what is probably some sort of food packets.

Along the outer wall is where things get interesting. After the weapons control room, there was a center door that leads to... engineering! Even though the layout is strange and the instruments are even stranger, there's just something about engineering that's just unmistakable.

The odd feature immediately noticeable is that these aliens didn't use gauges or digital displays. Instead, they use sequential strings of LEDs (or whatever their equivalent is). Some run horizontal, some run vertical. Some are a single color; some are variable colors. Presumably, the direction and color has something to do with the function.

There are two chairs in the room, one facing each of the side walls. In one of them is another squashed alien.

Coming out of the fresher, Walter flicked the water off of his hands.

"What was that? They want to dock?" he asked as he headed to the communications panel.

+++Long Shot to Starshine. Hold that thought until we know that the object is not going to harm us. We would be an easy target if we are docked.+++  Walter said.

She'd been monitoring the communications relay from the away team via the drones.

"I don't think there's much chance of that," Valeska cut in to Walter. "The gravity well that forced us out of j-space seems to have squashed all the little B.E.M.s. Don't leave your friend hanging."

"Besides, if there's still something there that can attack us, the distance between the two ships isn't going to matter."

She did some quick calculations.

"The gravity was greater when we dropped out, and has been decreasing incrementally this whole time, but it seems to have leveled off. I'm still picking up a fluctuation, though. By extrapolating it back, I think it was close to 10 gravities originally. Enough to squash a bug regardless of any chair. That seems to be consistent with what the away team has found."

"On a down note, it may be starting to increase again, as if it's in some kind of cycle. They either need to find the source and shut it down, or get their sorry asses out of there!"

+++Starshine to Longshot.  Acknowledged.+++  Randolph was frustrated with ship-to-ship communications, but he understood his old friend's point.  Switching to intraship, he called down to the bridge.  "Since nothing's wrong down there, you two might as well come on up and see this thing first hand."

+++Longshot to Away team, be advised that the gravity appears to be powering up again. Since you seem to be in engineering from what you describe, Kheaiftouaw, it looks like its your job to kill it if you can. If not, everyone get out of there.+++ Walter said over the mic.

In reply to Walter Zeller (msg # 315):

- Away Team to Longshot. How much time do we have before bailing out?
Serge squated a couple of times in order to check if he already can feel that gravity changed.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:33, Fri 13 Apr 2018.

At the moment, the increase in gravity is still in the micro-gravity range, so Serge probably only weighs 5 grams more than he did when he came aboard... far too little for him to discern a difference.

Disabling an unknown machine which managed to kill its original owner who knew what it does?
As much as it pains me, this sounds more like something a demolition expert might achieve. Do we have any explosives nearby just in case?

And while I am working would you kindly load everything you can carry on the scout? Maybe even risk taking one of the robots after everything else is loaded. Those would be worth a fortune.

Khea grabs her toolkits from the drone and hurries to where engineering is supposed to be to see if she can figure out which machine is which for starters and where the off button for the power supply is.

OOC:Kheaiftouaw rolled 8 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 3,4.  Finding alien off button.

Sam triggered comms "Valeska, Based on your readings, can you extrapolate how long we have before the gravity is going to be a problem for us on here, for us getting back to the ship, and the ships bugging out? Any thoughts on what might happen if we're in system when it triggers?"

Switching to those on ship "Much as it pains me, I thin we need to do as Khea suggested and start clearing this out. That said, I think i might make a bee line for the bridge, the off button may be up there. Can I take one of the drones for that?"

- Just in case, we have some, - said Serge, pulling out a piece of plastic explosive and a breaching charge.
- Depends on what exactly do you want to destroy. This (Serge shows breaching charge) will take out a door, so I think a computer will be damaged beyond repair. This (Serge shows plastic) is enough to blow up a car. If you need to destroy a whole section, though, bigger demolition pack will be required.

"I've got some explosive charges on me, too," Pablo offers. "Never leave home without them."

"Of course, this is better on the inside than on the outside, but finding a weak spot helps."

Preferably we should destroy the main power line or fuel pump, if this ship even has those things and only if we cant deactivate the otherwise.
Blowing up the entire engineering would be the last resort and only when we are far away from the ship.
After a pause during which she grabs a ultrasonic probe from her toolkit Khea adds in a resigned voice.
Or we grab everything we can and let the ones we sell the location to worry about the gravity. Unless if course the rising gravity results in a jump drive activation. And the higher the gravity the more ships will be pulled out of jumpspace here.

The drone has continued to move around the hallway on Vonon's program, opening all the doors. You find a couple more bodies, a galley/mess and a sensor suite, plus 5 more quarters, but no bridge.

It takes a bit more searching before the drone finds the door in the ceiling. There are handholds that would let one of these aliens climb up the wall to reach the ceiling, indicating they probably move around like spiders.

There are actually four such doors, one on each side of the pyramid ship.

Climbing up to the bridge, you realize that the bridge is also engineering. Each of the four walls of the bridge have a central display screen and numerous controls to either side of it. There are four command/acceleration chairs in the room, one facing each screen.

Each chair has a dead alien in it.