In reply to StarMaster (msg # 323):

- I do not like this, - said Serge. - I doubt we can figure out how to switch gravity here within safe time. I think Khea offers the best course of action: take all we can and get far away of this thing before it releases next gravity surge. We should take into account that gravity surge might be a part of the Pyramid drive system so there is a chance that the Pyramid will jump away.

Serge approaches to one of the dead aliens, so that camera on his helmet got a good view of the alien.
- Longshot, are you recording all what I see?

Serge does not touch anything but checks if aliens have some sort of cloth or gadgets on them.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:51, Fri 20 Apr 2018.

+++Yes we are. Your call on how you want to handle it Vonon.+++ came over the transmitter from Walter.

Sam quickly looked around the 4 stations, trying to figure out if there was any difference between them - different symbols, or controls etc, as well as looking for anything small enough to pocket.

"We can still try to blow up the engines and hope that the gravity shots down. Or have one of the drones push random buttons.

Either way, don't forget to take the corpses with you and to put them into a low berth. I am sure some researcher will pay a lot for them"

Khea pauses as she suddenly has a revelation while going through all their options.

"Has anyone seen the missing lanthenum matrix from the scout? Maybe some automated repair program scavenged it to repair the malfunctioning gravity."

"I ain't seen it," Pablo replies, "but then I'm not a Scout so I wouldn't know what a lanthanum grid was if it jumped out and bit me."

"I suspect it was being analyzed in one of the labs we passed... or maybe just engineering. The outside of this alien ship doesn't have a lanth grid, does it? So, maybe they didn't understand what ours was for."

"We didn't find any cargo space... yet. Based on the layout, if there is a storage space, it has to be under the lower deck; there's simply no room for it above that."

"Okay," Verner replies to Morgan. "I'll leave everything on stand-by in case we need to bug out."

He heads up to the bridge.

The aliens don't appear to wear clothes of any sort, but Serge does spot jewelry on a couple of their arms. He quickly realizes, though, that they aren't decorative jewelry but some sort of electronic devices... perhaps some kind of communicator, or maybe an interface device with the ship's controls, since two of the bodies have more than one device.


As far as Sam can tell, all four stations are identical in configuration, but there are different images on the various screens. She recognizes what looks like a sensor station, and Khea can see that one is engineering as it has several images that were in engineering.

Sam inspects the sensor screen and tries to see if she can make head or tail of it.

ooc
The aliens are squashed, but does it look like they are in tact - ie could we try and pick one up? If not - ideas for how to carry one off appreciated - anyone got a container?

08:31, Today: Samantha Kilgore rolled 11 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 4,5.  Figure out alien sensors.

One of the things Sam can do is compare the Long Shot's sensor readouts with the alien one to see if there is a correlation... which there is. At least, across maybe 50% of them. That's not to say she can get an accurate translation, but if the Long Shot's cosmic ray sensor is showing 8 roentgens and the alien ship is showing 3 'marbles' then she has a correlation.

The alien ship clearly still has power. Most mechanical and electronic systems can withstand high gravity not so much because they are designed to do so but just because of the nature of construction. High gravity can distort things, like cause the center of an unreinforced metal bench to sag, but the metal itself isn't going to distort, and, generally, welds and bolts and such aren't going to fail unless stressed in a different direction. Only shoddy craftsmanship is likely to fail, and most ships are built with factory/robotic assembly systems, which are at least good quality.

The ship's internal gravity is set at .97-Gees.

With Serge's estimations, Sam is able to find the gravitometer on the ship, since its movement will coincide with the gravity.

She also finds the sensor readout that's showing the other two ships. At first, she thinks there's no picture (video/light sensor) but then she realizes that there is a distorted (to her senses) image, indicating that perhaps the aliens see in a different spectrum.



The aliens do not appear to have an internal skeletal system; they have an exoskeleton... not quite a carapace. That's what collapsed under the high gravity, cracking in some places, and probably crushing all the internal organs. The carapace is not made of chitin, but something a bit more flexible, so an alien body can be picked up without too much trouble.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 332):

Serge walked back to the ship, returned with some sort of plastic bag, placed alien inside (how heavy is it?), brought alien back on ship and put it into low berth.

UPD: Also Serge keeps ship ready for emergency take-off.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:45, Sat 28 Apr 2018.

Sam turns to Khea.

"Based on what I just did, we could try and work out what bit of the ship is generating the Gravity field. If Valeska can give us the strength of the generated field, and its growth rate, we can look for a correlation with that on the engineering screen - that might help us locate the systems we need to shut down or disable. I can try and use the sensors to see if that helps, but I think using the engineering console would work better."

ooc
I have had a look, and may have missed it but I don't think Valeska pinpointed the source of the field being generated is that right?


13:17, Today: Samantha Kilgore rolled 11 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 3,6.  Sensors roll. If it helps

"So we are blindly pressing buttons on an alien ship that killed its crew?"

"Still, the reward is probably worth the risk.
As I see it we can either try to find whatever is generating the gravity or try to cut the power, assuming that those systems are not one in the same.
And there is always the risk that cutting the power will cause critical systems to fail. Normally I would expect that there are redundant systems in place to prevent this, but the aliens were killed by their own ship so I won't bet on that."

Using the two vessels, Walter tried to triangulate the sensors to be able to locate the source.

+++Here is the sensor feed. I can not make heads or tails of it but one of you might.+++ he said as he feed the raw data to the others.

"Any idea?" he asked to Gregory
19:53, Today: Walter Zeller rolled 2 using 2d6-1 with rolls of 1,2.  Sensors no skill -3 + EDU.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:00, Mon 30 Apr 2018.

"The autopilot is doing its best to hold position with the tumbling pyramid ship," Jones answered, "but it's not doing it well enough to get pinpoint precision on the triangulation. Of course, it'll get more accurate as the gravity increases."

"But, as near as I can tell from these readings, it's up near the point. Since there's no lanthanum grid on that ship, they must be using some other method of generating the jump field. My guess is that it's a gravity sink. It's probably some variation on that, since we've never been able to get it to work."

"A gravity sink creates a hole in the gravity field of the universe and then the ship falls through it. That's the theory any way."

Sam looked at Khea "we're not blind. Partially sighted, at least" She called up the sensor display "Look I can work out that that " she pointed "is the gravity - perhaps we can work out what is generating by comparison as well. Then we blindly press buttons. Its probably worth having an explosive off switch ready just in case, but if we can do this without damaging the ship - even better."

Going into her jacket pocket she pulled out some goggles "And these might help us see better" she added and put them on. She looked at the sensor screen and adjusted the settings on the goggles to IR and Light intensifying to see if she can more clearly make out any of the alien readouts
This message was last edited by the player at 07:43, Mon 30 Apr 2018.

+++Longshot to away team, it looks like the source is up near the point. We might be able to narrow it down as the gravity increases but that depends on its rate.  Gregory thinks it might be some kind of Gravity Sink, whatever that is.+++ Walter transmitted to the team.

You forget that the aliens who knew how to control the ship failed to turn the gravity off, so a few button presses won't do it. Unless the aliens were completely surprised by the effect. Maybe a prototype?

And I fully agree that we need to create our own off switch. Have the drones search for a way to the point. Maybe also from the outside. There has to be a maintenance access somewhere.
If we do not find one we have to trust that the Longshot can destroy the point when needed, but I am not sure we have the firepower for that.

He was starting to get a headache from all the comm-traffic palavering going on!

"If we eliminate that these aliens did this on purpose... some sort of mass suicide for unknown reason, which is probably most of the way these aliens think anyway, then it was an accident," Pablo adds to the chatter.

"Now it's a question of whether the problem was purely an accident or caused by some agency. So, just one of the aliens could have been suicidal... or a sacrificial assassin... or a martyr for the 'save the space monkeys' protestors... Or, it was sabotage by the Droogs from Planet 9."

"Or, and this is the one I'm putting my money on... it was an external stimulus. They encountered something unexpected that they weren't prepared for. It wreaked havoc with their gravity drive and wound up squashing them. Maybe there was an emergency shut-off, but it kicked in too late to save them."

"Sure, sure... I know what you're thinking... I'm building a mountain out of vole-hill. But rather than just keep floundering around in the dark, I'm tossing out ideas that can be tested. Maybe one of them is right. If, for instance, as Jones said, it's a gravity drive, then maybe the increasing gravity means that someone's got their lead foot on the accelerator! Maybe the gravity is increasing locally because no one's put the ship into gear yet!"

"Yeah, it's not the way we think, but, oh, let me take a wild-ass guess... these are ALIENS!"

"Ha-ha-ha... I kind of like the idea that the gearshift is stuck in 1st gear while the engine is revving up to a million RPMs! So, find the engine and shut the damn thing off!"

The drone continues following its program, searching for 'secret' doors and then attempting to open them. It doesn't know what an 'access panel' is, so it's not looking for those, but it finds one anyway. Actually, it finds 8 on the bridge. These are, naturally, under the displays... two on each side. The one to the right is always circuitry and components behind it--a true access panel.

The left one appears to be a storage unit. All four have something stored in them.


The drone then continues on to examine the ceiling. It finds 4 access panels there as well. Circuitry and components and something not recognizable are in the spots behind the panel.

As soon as the one panel drops open, Sam gets a splitting headache.

Sam clutched her head and pointed "Can we shut that thing, now please?" She looked around for somewhere to sit down and eased herself down.

That must be source of what affected Darrell - I felt something similar on the ship when Darrel was taken ill - but not as strong.

As near as Pablo can tell, the drones haven't been programmed to close any doors, just open them. So, he heads over to the ceiling panel that Sam indicates and pushes it closed.

"Are you okay?" he asks her, glancing suspiciously up at the now-closed panel.

"What was that? Is that the thing that affected the Count?"

He points his gun up at it. "Should I kill it?"

Not quite surprisingly, the panel closes far more easily than it did opening. Presumably, the magnetic seal automatically re-engages when it is closed.

Whatever was affecting Sam seems to go away once the panel is closed.

Sam shakes her head as the panel closes, looking at Pablo she say "NO!" quite sharply.

She gets to her feet a little groggily and then laughs slightly "I'm not sure its alive to kill to be honest." She straightens up a bit, obviously trying to gather her composure

"I am not sure what that was, but I had it when Darrel was injured, but it hasn't happened or been happening since. Shutting the panel has stopped it. And I don't think we should damage anything yet. That " she pointed at the panel " may well be the doohickey that turns off the grav system for all we know. I'm okay - for some reason it hasn't affected me as badly as Darrell. But lets keep that panel shut for now okay?"

She looks up at it inspecting it for any obvious markings that might show up elsewhere on the ship.

Having listened in on this whole incident over the comm system Khea chimes in
For all we know that could be their version of an entertainment system. That in turn would mean what affectet Darrel was some kind of communication attempt? But it is strange that only some are affected by it.

Once someone sets up the charges in here I will come up and have a look at it. But it would be good to know what kind of radiation is coming out of that panel.

With one crisis averted, Pablo goes over to the storage compartments and begins examining the contents. The smaller aliens probably had no difficulty getting at the contents, but Pablo had to bend over, so he began pulling the containers out.

None of them appeared to be on wheels, but they slid out easily enough. One actually popped open as soon as it cleared the storage area. It appeared to be full of vacc-suits.

"Wow. Hey, guys! Look at this!"

One of the containers he pulled out appeared to be a cold sleep unit. It didn't look like any kind he'd ever seen before, but the top was clear and it had a row of electronic displays along the top... or at least where the head of the body that lay within was.

"Is she alive?" he asked, looking around at the others that were more qualified to decide that.