"Aye, Sir," Veronica replies. She steps back into the common area, and approaches the hatch leading aft. She works with the hatch for a moment, and she finally manages to open it. She starts to step through, and then abruptly stops. "First," she addresses Brent, "you may want to look at this, Sir."

"Whatever happened here, we should get the power running first."

Malcolm hears Veronica and follows her into the aft hatch.

"First, We should keep together. I don't think it is best if one of us goes off alone. I recommend we split into two teams of two. I can go with Veronica to find the heat source. I should be able to attempt to regain power."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:26, Thu 02 June 2016.

Brent nods. "Let's definitely stay together.  There is something odd going on here.  Let's search the ship first and then come back for the forensics on the bodies.  The heat source may very well be a live power plant that is running on minimum.  If we can get it going we may be ok here."  At Victoria's call he advances slowly to the aft hatch and looks past her, his gun ready.  "What do you have?"

Brent steps up to the hatch, and, with Victoria's help, manages to slide it open enough to pass through. At first, his headlamp illuminates what is obviously a cargo bay - since it clearly contains cargo.

"Switch your head lamp off for a moment, Sir," Veronica says.

OOG: Check maps six and seven..

Brent moves forward a bit more both so he can swivel about to the sides and let others look.  When he switches off his light he swears.  "Damn, something active back there."  He readies his gun and looks about.  "Cover me Victoria."

Victoria switches to a private circuit: "Glad to let the officer lead the way, Sir." She goes back to the team channel: "Aye, Sir. Right behind you."

The hatch is about 2/3 of the way open, and it won't move any further.

Brent chuckles; "Lead from the front, right?  That gets you killed a lot though.  Let the captain know we are investigating a light and heat source in what appears to be a cargo hold." Still he presses forward through the hatch, swiveling as best he can to see what has it jammed on the other side.

Veronica chuckles. "As you say, Sir."

The hatches are the pocket door type, so Brent isn't able to see what might be blocking the panels. He can see that the lift car has its safety latches engaged, which keeps it from moving down on him. Until the ship is powered up, the car, and the doors, should stay where they are.

As he steps into the cargo bay, Brent notes that he is being attracted a bit more to the deck, more now than can be attributed to the asteroid's gravitational field.

Brent swings his light and gun around as he stands in the entrance to the cargo area.  He looks around carefully including the ceiling after the initial scare with the sounds in the vents.  "Gravity appears to be stronger here, artificial I would say."

Nothing is moving in the cargo bay. His sensors beep - the atmosphere here is at about half standard pressure, and at about 75% nitrogen and 25% oxygen.

"Come on down Victoria, it looks safe here at least for now.  Atmosphere is a bit higher here, more like half an atmo.  I'm going to advance toward that light."  He steps forward a bit to clear room for her and pauses a bit to allow her to reach the deck.

"If we must commit suicide I suppose we should get started. Malcolm would you care to help me locate the bridge? We may be able to re-establish power there. Also I think we have enough information to theorize that these deaths may be suicides. I also suspect some kind of disease or infestation is at play. Venting the atmosphere might not be a terrible idea" 

Gareth will wait for Malcolm's response. Creating a false sense of comradery may serve Gareth better than orders for now.

Brent makes his way through the maze of boxes and containers. He soon spots a quartet of low berths - and one of them is clearly occupied and active.

Veronica steps down onto the cargo deck, moving carefully in the low gravity. "Right behind you, Sir."

Brent stops and curses again.  "A low berth and active.  Call the ship and get the doc prepared."  He steps forward and checks the read outs on the berth to verify vital signs and see if he can tell how long the berth had remained active.  That might give some clue to the age of this thing.

OOG: No pic this time. Sorry ;-)

IG: Brent steps up to the berth and shines his light on it. The woman within is lying on her back with her arms at her side, and her eyes are closed. Pale fluid fills the berth, and a blue light shows from somewhere above her face. She is nude, and quite muscular, Brent notices.

The berth's control panel is located at the head of the berth, but Brent can't read the language. There are four indicator graphics on the panel: two green squares, a yellow circle with a thin wedge of green at the twelve o'clock position containing "00:15:37", and a flashing red square with writing in it. The numbers change as Brent watches; 00:15:36, 00:15:35...

Brent releases a breath he had been holding when it is evident that the occupant of the low berth was human.  He examined things for a bit and then called out.  "It's a woman who appears to be alive.  I can't ready the instruments but it looks like there is a countdown going on with maybe 15 minutes left.  I think the berth is going to decant her."

Veronica steps up next to Brent. "Okay, that's one gal I wouldn't want to piss off. She's been in there a really long time; look at her body hair. She will need to shave just about everywhere." She pauses for a moment. "Sir, I've been trying to raise the ship for a few minutes now, and there's no response."

Brent notices that he is being drawn to the deck more strongly now. The same goes for Malcolm and Gareth; they feel a definite "down" sensation, and they aren't bouncing as they walk.

If Malcolm checks the bridge, he finds that two panels have come to life on the central chair's repeaters. Everything else is offline.

Brent's sensors beep at him, insistently this time. According to his heat sensors, something is really heating up just behind the bulkhead at the aft end of the cargo bay. The reading is at 2000K 400k - and climbing. It's just a tiny point, the rest of the area, about a quarter of the area of the aft bulkhead, is at a more sedate 322K.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:21, Tue 07 June 2016.

In reply to Hoot (msg # 143):

"Yes sir."

"You might want to stay behind me sir, just in case."

Malcolm takes of with Gareth to find the bridge and see if power can be restored to the vessel.

Malcolm reached the bridge and finds the two active monitors. "He holsters his pistol and sits at the station.

"Sir, Please watch my back. Ill see what I can do."

Malcolm tries to determine the language being used:
10:10, Today: Eddie rolled 17 using 3d6 with rolls of 5,6,6.  Skill check for language.
OOC: Yes! the Dice Roller Gods have finally stopped messing with me!

And tries to use the computer
10:24, Today: Eddie rolled 10 using 3d6 with rolls of 3,1,6.  Computer Skills.
OOC: And then they start to hate me again. :-/
This message was last edited by the player at 15:25, Tue 07 June 2016.

While Malcolm watches, the bridge's center station comes to life. Ghostly, holographic displays spring to silent life around him, and suddenly he can see the immediate area around the ship. The Daiidkhun is about 2km clear of the starboard side, oriented 90 degrees nose down to this ship. The primary glows brightly in the center of the map, and a white line reaches out from the ship's icon in the center, and loops around the ring fragment they are orbiting. Another line, this one magenta, traces the ring fragment's orbit around the gas giant.

Off to his right, Malcolm sees something that looks a lot like an environmental panel, and it's graphs are quickly filling in with green bars. Also, he is feeling a definite weight now, pulling him down into his seat. His head starts to swim from the effect, as he's been in freefall for months now, except when the ship has been accelerating.

His suit sensors report that the atmospheric pressure is now at about half standard, and it's increasing. The cabin temperature is rising, and he also hears more skittering noises; louder now (think of a cat with metal claws walking on a tin roof).

Gareth nearly falls as the gravity increases. His suit sensors also report that the atmospheric pressure is rapidly rising, as is the cabin temperature. He can hear the conversation between Victoria and Brent, and he can see the bridge displays through the hatch.

Then, the cabin lights come on...

Gareth follows Malcolm into the bridge with the pistol drawn. His first course of action after power is activated is attempt to close and lock the door to the bridge. If there is no lock he will attempt to disable the door controls after closing it.

21:03, Today: Hoot rolled 9 using 3d6 ((6,1,2)).

"Take up a station, Mr. Malcolm see if you can determine if the ships propulsion systems are functional. I will see if the ship can scan for the infestation I believe we are dealing with.

Gareth will now search the bridge for any kind of internal sensors, cameras or monitoring systems that can detect life forms or observe other sections of the ship.

21:06, Today: Hoot rolled 10 using 3d6 ((5,2,3))

Gareth steps into the tiny flight deck and looks at the door controls. He is able to close the hatch, but he can't see any way of locking it, short of attempting to smash the controls. The only station that is live is the one where Malcolm is seated. There are two empty chairs, one on each side of the central one. He is not able to really see the displays from his viewing angle, they are oriented for Malcolm at the moment.

Brent checks his sensors and notes that the air pressure and temperatures are increasing.  "We've tripped something for sure.  The heat could be a power plant activating but it seems poorly insulated if the bulkhead is getting that hot.  I'd guess she survived somehow and put the entire ship into a low power mode.  Given the appearance of things I'd guess it's been this way for a long, long time."

He calls to the others.  "Malcom, Gareth can you receive me?  We've found a survivor in a low berth here.  It's counting down and getting ready to open in about 15 minutes.  Can you contact the ship and pass on the information to them?  We've lost comms."

Malcolm will attempt to see what controls he can access and relay them to the group.

Everything is locked out, and Malcolm can't decipher the symbols. He is able to make guesses about some of the controls, like the basic flight controls. Everything *seems* to be indicating normally, and they are still tethered to the rock.

Everyone's sensors is reporting atmospheric pressure at 70% of normal, and you can all hear the ship's ventilation fans running at full force now. The gravity is up to .7 standard, something that most of you haven't experienced in months. Your limbs feel like lead, and your insides start to settle.

Veronica comes up on the comm. "I can't raise the ship. Has something happened to it?" Everyone can hear everyone else aboard ship, though.

OOG: Everyone roll against motion sickness :-)