In reply to StarMaster (msg # 17):

- Where is a button for the windscreen wipers? - Serge asked Sharik.
Then he switched on internal communicator:
- Capt'n! You have to look at that. May be.

Sylvester, down in engineering, was oblivious to what happened on the bridge. He paused when Serge said 'Capt'n! You have to look at that. May be.' But, immediately went back to work, not considering it any of his business and having no clue.

Sam usually liked to be on shift when they exited, but figured that as a fairly routine job, Serge could use the practice. Tempting fate, she realised when she heard his call to Vonun. She made her way to the bridge, and asked for a report when she got there.

She spoke quickly "Did you get a look at what sort of body - Sharik - can you pull up any more info on it. See if there are any more as well."

ooc
Twins have arrived. Not sure how things will pan out on posting. I'll try and keep up as best I can. But going to have 3 weeks paternity leave, so might be more intermittant for that time (as I usually post from work)

OOC - Congratulations DAD!

Sam can see the body for herself, as it's still there on the viewport. There's no air friction to have caused it to slide off and it may have caught on something, but it's not moving off the ship at the moment.

The body is a male human approximately 30 years old (possibly) dressed in nondescript clothing (a faded dark green jumpsuit). He's not wearing a vacc-suit, which is consistent with the cause of death--being in space without a suit: he's frozen. You can see that he's clutching a book against his chest with one hand.

The expression frozen on his face seems to be one of grim determination rather than the expected horror or surprise.

     From immediately behind Serge, Vonon says "May be, what?  It looked like a body to me."

     Vonon moves from standing behind Serge at the Pilot Station and drops into the Command Station,

     "Bring the ship to a full stop, Serge, and hold position." Vonon orders, "Shar'r, locate that body--is it even still in one piece, after hitting the ship?"

     Vonon opens the intercom on general broadcast,

^{COMM STARTS >>>}  "Sam and Pablo, report to the Ship's Boat for Recovery Operation--we just ran over a pedestrian.  Pablo, suit up--you're going for a walk.  This is a possible Rescue Op, so if any of that cargo in the Ship's Boat get's in the way--dump it.  Captain's Authority."

     "Repeating.  Sam and Pablo to the Ship's Boat for Recovery Op, possible Rescue Op--there is a body outside the ship.  Sam will Pilot the Boat and Pablo will suit up for EVA.  You are authorized to remove whatever cargo you have to from the Boat to get the job done.  Do it fast, and if you have to, dump it."

     "Let's move, people!  Likely whoever we just hit with the ship is dead, but if there's a chance they live, we're going to keep them that way!  Reese, get the Med-Bay ready to treat for impact trauma and exposure to space.  Or to store a body for the Authorities."  ^{<<< COMM ENDS}

Sharik puts the sensors through their paces but does not find anything else in the immediate vicinity.

There are no more bodies that she can detect, no debris field or even isolated debris, and no ship anywhere near. That last was to be expected since the proximity sensors hadn't gone off.

It was just a lone corpsicle floating in the void.

- Aye, capt'n! Full stop... err, relative to the body!

Walter was finalizing the import paperwork for the cargo when the message came over the comms. Raising an eyebrow, he saved the file and headed towards the bridge to find out what was going on.

"Where do you want me Captain?" he asked as he entered.

OOC: My knee-jerk reaction is to assume that "corpsicle" means "body-without-spacesuit", rather than "spacesuit-emitting-no-heat-or-power"...


[LONGSHOT BRIDGE]



     "You do that and I'll be really impressed, Serge." Vonon grins towards the ex-Scout, "But I was really talking more about that big-assed planet over there..." Vonon points towards Invermory, three-hundred diameters away, but still exerting a powerful gravity effect.

     "Staying close to...whatever that was we hit--it could be an empty suit just as easily as it could be a suit with a person in it!  Anyway, staying close to that...suit...would be convenient--and a right fine piece of precision piloting, as well-- but not getting sucked down to that planet is critical.  So put us into a temporary orbit, right here."

     "Shar'r, get Evelyn up here and get her ready for Orbit Control to start screaming--'cuz we most definitely are not supposed to stop here.  And I don't want to declare an In Flight Emergency until we know more."  Vonon instructs his old friend, then, more quietly, asks,

     "Uh, Sharik...it is a suit out there, isn't it--or somebody in a suit?  Tell me that's not somebody who's been spaced."



     "Ah!  Sir Walter." Vonon acknowledges the knight, "We-e-ll...if that's a frozen body--with or without suit--it's not going to be very flexible.  Which means Pablo won't be able to bring it into the Boat through the Airlock--he'll have to open the Cargo Hatch and depressurize the Boat's Cargo Hold.  I don't know what's in there, right now, but if it can't handle vacuum, you might want to get it off the Boat real quick.  Actually, you might want to make a few cubic feet of space in the Boat's hold, no matter what--like I said, whatever Pablo will be bringing aboard, unless it's an empty suit, it probably won't just fit wherever he shoves it."

"There are 13 tons of Electronic parts there and it should not be a problem with being depressurized. However, if I might suggest, we could maneuver close to the body and EVA to it rather than having to conduct launch operations. We could then bring it through the air-lock, sending the body in first. Pablo could then come in after it. If you wish, I can suit up and assist him. Ground control might wonder what is going on but if we send out the launch and then bring it back, they are going to want to know what we were up to, possibly sending someone to investigate." Sir Walter suggested.

Sam raised an eyebrow when Vonun suggested she pilot the ships boat. But she just nodded and left the bridge to head towards the docking bay. She walked slowly, typing a message as she went.

At the docking area, she waited for Pablo to turn up in the cockpit, starting pre flight checks on the boat as she did so.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:23, Thu 11 July 2019.

OOC:
What characteristic DM should I add to the Pilot skill when trying to match velocity vector with the body?
This message was last edited by the player at 09:34, Thu 11 July 2019.

Sylvester brings the engines to a full stop leaving the thrusters online for Serge to control the ship, What the Sam hill was going on he wondered! "What's happening up there? Why are we stopping?"
This message was last edited by the player at 16:38, Thu 11 July 2019.

Inderpal came up to the bridge and took her seat in the Communications Chair as the engine came to a stop.

"That is a very good question." she says, strapping herself in and firing up the console, "I need to know what is going on... and what to tell ground control is going on."

Sharik was tapping away at her console, gathering and processing as much information as possible.  She always tried to be on station when the jump transition was schedule to happen; even though the variability meant that it could be a long shift.  The diminutive astrogator always felt safest strapped in when the lights dimmed and the transition occurred (pure superstition she knew) and liked to have immediate feedback once the transition flash (and the resulting sensor blackout) faded.  Part of it was her job as the astrogator, which would require quick reacquisition of signal after the jump and to ensure positioning such a misjump hadn’t occurred.

Bodies drifting in space was bad ju-ju all around.  Sharik pursed her lips when the first thing that greeted them was a sophont with no ship at the jump point.  “Not good,” she muttered, as a candidate for understatement of the year, “this isn’t some one just dumping their garbage ...” which was known to happen before transition - but this was unusual.

She started to pull in and collate the telemetry in response to Vonon’s orders.  Already as in her vacc suit, Sharik was ready to EVA if necessary.  As a veteran of two Imperial Space-faring services, it was ingrained in her to have her suit when attending to her duties (and even sometimes when she wasn’t on duty), as you never know when pressure on the ship might be lost.

“We need to report what we’ve found.” she noted simply to Indy, “We can’t just leave it here and act as if nothing happened.” Their black box (well, actually their six various transponders) would likely have recorded the collisionincident.  Besides, if anyone investigated once the body was found and reported, they’d know based on any public flight plan that the Longshot had been in close proximity.

---

[OOC:  Dice don’t fail me now...:D. Though, I have no idea what might be appropriate...

  14:03, Today: Sharik Kaagira rolled 10 using 2d6+4 with rolls of 5,1.  Astrogator/EDU check:  Orientation
  14:03, Today: Sharik Kaagira rolled 13 using 2d6+4 with rolls of 4,5.  Sensors/INT check:  Body, out here?  What else?
  14:05, Today: Sharik Kaagira rolled 13 using 2d6+3 with rolls of 6,4.  Investigate/INT check:  What else?  Are we missing something?

So, pretty much Sharik wants to make sure they are in Invermory, scan the area for ‘other stuff’ that might be unusual, and then collate and generate any theory as to why the body is here doing its thing.  Just grasping at straws, given the limited info ...]

Sitting in her cabin Khea listens to the com chatter trying to figure out what is going on. Finally she gives up and wanders to the bridge.

"Say that again? We just arrived in the system and you managed to hit someone doing an EVA?

The ship was shaking, dangling from side to side. Serge tried to balance the inertia of the ship with bursts of maneuver thrusters, but to no avail. Changings of trajectories due to gravity well were not helping either.
- Nope. We need to use the launch to get closer, or I'll smash the body. Again.



OOC:
11:33, Today: Serge Baklanov rolled 5 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 1,2.  Pilot/DEX check: matching velocity.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:44, Fri 12 July 2019.

Horatio waits at his station on the Aux Bridge.  He begins prepping a repair drone just in case he need to help.

Inderpal nodded.

"Got it. I don't want to send an early report and have to correct things. If they contact us, I'll let them know, but I think it's best to get the body on board first before we initiate contact."

She started to draft a message to send by text down to the appropriate people. At 100 diameters out, voice communication would take over a second each way and she could get all the facts together in a coherent order before sending.

The body is not wearing a vacc-suit and it is still stuck on the viewport of the ship, so no maneuvering is necessary to match its vector.

Additionally, the ship can't be stopped instantly. The gravity drive still isn't inertialess; shutting off the engines doesn't keep the ship from moving forward under its current inertia. Getting the ship to remain in place is impossible. By the time you slowed the ship down to a dead stop you'd be way beyond that place.

In any case, it isn't necessary, as the body seems stuck to the ship and is moving with it.

The transponder has already received and replied to the planet's sensor net ID request, so you do know that you are in Invermory system, approaching the planet.

There is nothing else detected in the area... no other bodies, no debris... nada. In fact, if the body had been more than a thousand feet away, it probably wouldn't have registered on the sensors... except maybe as space debris.

You don't need to use the ship's boat to retrieve the body nor even do an EVA... Horatio can send a repair drone to bring it in through the cargo bay.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 38):

[LONGSHOT BRIDGE]





     Vonon frowns in annoyance, as he presses the button on his console for Intercom, Engineering, then answers both people,

^{COMM START>>>}  "What parts of 'Recovery Op', 'Rescue Op', or 'there is a body outside the ship' were unclear when I made that All-Ship announcement?  Which reminds me..." Vonon switched over to the Intercom, All-Ship, "Sam, Pablo--stand down the Boat launch.  Who ever it is out there--and yeah, it is a whoever--as in without a suit.  They're stuck tight to the Bridge viewport.  So cancel Recovery Operation."

     "Horatio?  Get to Drone Operations and send out a couple of the DRD's to get the body unstuck and bring it inside.  Let Reese know where it's coming in--hear that, Reese?  Horatio will let you know where to pick up the body.  Go have--wait one..."

     Vonon turns to Walter without closing the mic on the All-Ship,

     "Hey, Sir Walter, could you send your Sex Doll to help Reese, please?  Carrying that frozen body is going to be--if you will forgive the pun--a stone cold bitch, and the robot would be a big help.  Thank you."

     Vonon turns back to the still-open All-Ship, "Reese--Sir Walter is going to send his Sex Doll assistant to help you carry the stiffy.  B-bridge Out."  ^{<<<COMM ENDS}

     Vonon closes the All-Ship circuit, then falls back in his seat, throws his head back, and literally howls with laughter.

Sir Walters head dropped to the point that his chin was resting on his body as he shook it in exasperation. COMM START>>>"Copy Captain. FYI, the bots name is Veronica. What is was used for on Casandra is not my place."<<<COMM ENDS he said as he got up from his desk, collected Veronica and headed to the drone bay. "Going to need your help Veronica please." he asked as they went to the bay.

COMM STARTS>>>"Roger that V, standing down boat."<<<COMM ENDS Sitting back in the pilots seat, she pauses a second, smiling at trying to picture Walters face, and then shuts down the systems she had started as part of the pre flight.

Once done she exits the boat and secures the hatch. COMM STARTS>>> "V, unless you want me elsewhere, I'm gonna go help out with the body, see if I can pick up any clues on who it was, and how they got there." <<< COMM ENDS

COMM STARTS>>> "Horatio, clue me in where the body is coming in as well please." <<<COMM ENDS

Whilst she waits Sam heads towards Med bay

"A body, legal trouble is all we need."