Most of the lighting in the Orishi was dim, and the walls were a uniform dark grey and dark blue.  Inset track-lighting both at foot-level and at ceiling-level kept most of the corridors conservatively lit.    Motion-detectors triggered full lighting when something bigger than the rat-sized maintenance-bots moved through the corridors.

On the mid-level, near the center of the ship, stood a solid radiation-shield.  It was thick and probably iron.  The chamber was small, sandwiched between the impulse engine and the artificial gravity unit.  The door itself was perhaps four feet across and it had a vertical pattern to it that suggested it opened up-and-down rather than the circular pattern with a slightly raised walkway that most corridors in the Orishi already had.

Gothique and Gilina were in one of the area, having indexed most of the primary hold, where the tech-crew had put most of the Orishi's stripped components.  They'd been able to trace several electrical fiber-conduits through an access-junction that led to the space that led to the gravity unit.  A desk-sized unit filled with glowing blue and silver LED-like lights.  The fibers running from it ran all throughout the ship and it was a wave-form interaction between them that formed the basis of contragravity on most ships in the galactic commonality.

It was warmer on this level, and the air felt drier than above.  It smelled like dried paper and, of all things, cinammon.

There were a couple of temporary chairs set up in the open-space outside the big iron door.  And a small area to the side of the door inset with a half-globe of polished silver material.  It was lit from above and on the surface of the silver-globe, there seemed to be a series of faint etchings or scratches.  There did not appear to be any further point of access for whatever lay behind the door.

After plotting the course to K-Zino, Viper had a few hours to kill....  Left to her own devices, she learned that the Mixed-Mob had started a betting pool (ironic, since none of them had anything to bet with) over who could get the most response out of the silver globe.

Gilina had called it a biometric vault, but she admitted that she was just parotting what she'd heard her team-mate Jax say.   It was also possible that the vault was protective shield against radiation.

Apparently, though, when one placed their hand on the silver globe to the side of the door, certain sounds issued.  For some people, anyway.  Nobody had succeeded in getting anything more than two tones out of the interface.

Rayfe found Gothique there, lounging in one of the temporary chairs...  She and Gilina were taking a rest, and Gilina was going over information on a tablet, the comforting low-level hum of the ship's impulse drive provided a low-level bass-beat, like a heart-beat at rest, slow and peaceful, but inexoraqble.

So... Rayfe can find Gothique there.   Viper, I'mma gonna ask you to wander in, if you don't mind...

Karnell arrived!

He was carrying the mobile data pad used to access the ship's systems. He spotted Gothique, and headed her way. "I have news for you... I am not sure how good it is, but I think you will have to decide that. I found some details on who you are, from the database. It is... unexpected. Would you care to read it?" He held the device out. "Interestingly enough, you were not en route to the penal colony, like the rest of us. It looks like you were going to be transferred elsewhere. I am sorry, I was unable to find out where. That information was not available. I suppose Amin may well know. We can add it to the list of things to ask him."

Then he took stock of the situation with the vault. He looked at the orb curiously. "Interesting. Some sort of security device keyed to the biometrics of specific person or persons. Biometric locks are not too hard to find, they're common enough. Unfortunately, it is because they are very efficient. But not infallible. I think between the three of us should be able to bypass it. Let's take a look."

He came in close to study the device carefully. Thanks to his job working for a very security conscious (and also, highly paranoid) banking cartel in a technical capacity, he had encountered a lot of different biometric security devices. The Cartel offered a great many different options to their clients. He had spent a lot of time working with them. He knew the principles. The question was... did this thing work the same way? And was it even sensible of them to try to open it?

"Of course, we still need to ask... should we try to open it? Someone stripped this ship down to the bare bones. But they left this thing here. Why? Is there something truly dreadful inside? Did they plan to simply leave the ship adrift, with all the valuable gear removed, and a nameless horror locked inside? Or is there something of incredible value inside, and whoever stripped the ship was unable to open it, which is why this is all that remains?" Rayfe pondered this. "I like option two. I am certain that Amin deliberately selected us to be brought out of cryosleep. He needed our skills. Perhaps this thing is why." He looked at Gothique thoughtfully. "I've read your file. Breaking into things is your forté. I know the theory behind biometrics, but I think you're probably the best person to actually do it. In principle, the system is pretty simple. The biometrics of everybody authorised to open the vault are stored in a core processor. When someone uses the device, a signal is sent to the core. It is referenced against all the held data. If there is a match, a signal is sent back to release the lock. If not, a fail signal is returned. All we need to do is intercept that fail return signal, and convince the device it received the correct one instead. It's easier than reprogramming the core. Of course, we still need to get inside this thing." He tapped the globe a couple of times. "And I'd wager it has almost any anti-tampering protection you care to mention. But... I'm game, if you are."

He liked a challenge. And cracking the vault was going to be a far better way to spend his time than sitting around waiting for the next crisis to show up.

Gothique was in rest mode although rest mode often meant playing with something.  A couple of hours ago it was some odd multifaced colour cube randomizer toy someone handed her but after a little while someone showed her a new shiney and she put it down to come back to later.

Now in her hand was another comm unit that was being created so as to keep her worth for the crew.  She even remains working on it as Rayfe starts to speak.



When he mentions this she actually looks somewhat confused and taking a moment or two to ponder what was being said.  It can probably be seen on her face as the data flows through, "I am not sure I want to know.  I mean if it is imperative that I need the knowledge then I guess you should tell me.  But if it is nothing important than I think I am good without it.  If that makes sense."  Gothique says as she gets up out of the comfy chair.  "Actually why don't you tell Gilly and if Gilly thinks it is important then she can tell me."  With her decision made she smiles proud of herself.

"Now on this vault thingee.  To be honest I am not sure if that is why we were brought out.  I mean I guess that is as likely as my idea of a failure or someone wanted company.  But that is what is is.  I mean it is totes cool if they did and even more totes cool on the vault as I am just dying to know what is in there.  I mean it could be anything!"  She says now with a sparkle in her eye.   "Gilly what do you think?"

In Baylee's Cabin

After a indefinite hours of sleep, Maissa woke up and stretched out on the captain's bed. She caressed her gorgeous lascivious body and purred. She felt rested and was beaming joie de vivre. She smiled to the plastisteel partitions. She somersaulted out of bed...

Nah... just kidding. ;)

After a indefinite hours of confused nightmares, Maissa opened a single tired eye. She felt dazzled and nauseous. Why had every great time to be followed by such a bleak comedown? Her stomach was angry and demanded drugs, drinks and above all, FOOD. She crawled to her clothes, doubled up in pain. She stared at the plastisteel partitions and hated them. She hated the orange glistening prisoner's uniform - it was designed to reflect the light to make it easier to find the corpses in space. She felt dirty. She hated everything and everybody.

around the ship

That made the pain less intense and she dragged herself around the [curse words removed] ship. She found Baylee in the meeting room, trying to recruit a bear-looking Marine by beating the [expletive deleted] out of him, while "See Yes Sicks" was meditating. Maissa silently beamed her scorn to the three of them and moved on.

She ended up in a small chamber on the technical level.

Gilina was lazing around, gaming on a tablet. Gothique was playing with cables and bits, and chirping with Rayfe, who was patronizing, mansplaining, patting the globe, throwing "options" and "signals" words over the place in an uninterrupted flow, and in sum growing a headache in Maissa's head.

Oh, how she passionately hated them. How she loathed them all.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:37, Sun 20 Feb 2022.

"It isn't from the commonality."  Gilina said.   She crossed her legs in front of her, leaned against the bulkhead across the chamber.  "But things operate according to strict logical concepts and sequences."

She sighed and drew a hand across her brow.  "Jax was working on trying to identify the identification methodologies.  She was talking about multiphasic sequences and bypass encryptions.  I don't know. 

But I can tell you that there are shielded conduits running into and out of that room. Think it keeps the temperature, pressure--probably gravity--consistent.  It's got it's own generator and power-draw, so I'll bet you that it's not connected to the ship's systems.  Completely isolated.

I don't know enough to know that it's not dangerous, but given the nature of the ship and it's history, I think they'd probably been more worried about people getting in than something getting out.

Gothique was embroiled in thought on the vault in front when the person Maissa entered.  And in her head this was perfect as yesterday she did her best to meet this nice person and for some reason she was not able to.

So now she walked right up to her without hesitation, "Hi there. I wanted to say yesterday that you looked super cool and I did not have a chance to meet you."   She then offers her hand as if by instinct as was ingrained by her 'fathers' teachings.

She wanted to respond to Gilly but she had to take this first as she was worried this lady did not like her and that simply could not be.

Maissa contemplated in surprise the creature walking right to her. The cute cat ears. The blue hair. The big innocent eyes. Then it dawned on the defiant pilot : this - Gothique - and Gilina, her guardian - were the females she wished to protect. They so obviously were the easy targets of male domination :

- Gilina, because she was too easily scared - hey, if Maissa had been with Karin on the ship with the boy who wanted off planet, Maissa would have jumped to the throat of the corporal!

- and this Mrrshan girl, so naive, so open.

Ooh, how men would abuse them both, with glee.
How G&G needed her backup.
She swore to herself she wouldn't let them down until they were prepared to fend for themselves and fight every patriarchy (all of them).

And, to begin to enforce this resolution, she opened up, and offered the brightest, protective, big-sisterly smile she could muster. She shook Gothique's hand vigorously and replied "Hello Gothiiique! The chance to meet you is mine! I'm so glad we're in this adventure together - with you, Gilina. We're going to form a Dangerous Girls Club, right? I'm looking cool? Thank you! You look cool too, with this... hair, and those... ears."

While still holding Gothique's hand, that she swung left and right : "Right : don't get too close to the Dangerous girl's group!" (laughter). "Of course, we won't accept the evil Dr Rayfe in our group!" (winks to Rayfe) "He's dangerous, but not a girl... DGC for ever! ... My name? Er, my.name? I think I'm Maissa Haukea, according to the AI. It's spelled haytch owe You Ki Ee Hey! pronounced HA-ou-kéa I think, in the old Maori language." and she finally released the Mrrshan hand, only to caress and tickle the hair between the ears.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 19:07, Tue 22 Feb 2022.

Rayfe rolled his eyes. "I am definitely not a doctor. Evil... I will get back to you when I have all my memories restored. For now though, Gothique - all the information I had on you is here. Read it, show it to others. The choice is yours." He laid the pad down carefully.

He then tapped the sphere again. "But this is what we are here to deal with. Since we do not have a clue what is inside, I have no idea if we should. But if you are right, and it has life support inside it, there may be someone imprisoned in there. I don't know about the rest of you, but I can sympathise with that, and am not averse to liberating whoever it is. And if Jax said those are applicable, that helps, thank you."


He regarded Maissa for a moment. "What do you think?"

Gothique actually blushes even as she touches her ears and then to show her thanks she goes to Hug Maissa if she lets her.  She won't even be saddened if it is not accepted as she is used to people not necessarily enjoying the feeling of a hug.  Still it is the only way she really knows how to show affection.  All the while her tail is flicking almost exactly like a cats tail does.

"It is so nice to meet you Maissa."  She says making sure she says it right.  "And joining a club would be awesome.  But I have to ask if the dangerous part is that we do dangerous things or is it we live in constant danger?"  Her eyes showing that she is curious on the answer.  But then like the hummingbird is distracted by the technological fun in front of her.

She even responds to the data pad, "I am ok if either of you want to read it.  I just don't want to risk anything distracting me from the task and right now I am super happy.  If I read that and I find something that would not make me happy it might ruin what I am now.  Mind you what I am now was likely the same that is on the pad.  Either way I think it is safe to let Gilly and Maissa read it if they want.  Really go ahead I do not mind."  She offers really not minding at all.

"Perhaps if this thing has it's own power and life support.  Maybe it is an escape hatch or a safe room of sorts.  I mean it definitely depends on what it is tied to and maybe that is where we should start.   Seeing what systems it is fully integrated into on the ship?

Maissa wholeheartedly accepted the hugs and responded alike. The young pilot started to reply "we the club are the danger, to the macho men, since...", but Gothique had changed the subject.

She understood the kid's desire not to be confronted directly to her own dark secrets, and the lies sprayed upon it by Amin and his ilk. She took the pad, read it, digested the data, and repeated to Gothique only the info that wouldn't hurt the Mrrshan.

Then she replied to Rayfe : "You think there's is someone - or something - inside it, but only your recent bias as a recent ex-inmate makes you believe that the Thing is imprisoned and wishes to be freed. Rayfe, maybe we're facing the transverse jump system! - now, I know you'd think these are space sailor's myths, but you must have heard about the kupids - mole-like humanoids that seem to know the lanes and the dangers of space like the inside of their pocket. Some say they are in a mutualist relationship with a trans-dimensional “whale” entity that tell them everything about space. Maybe this is a captured “whale” and we'll ruin the transverse machine if we open it...

Maybe our AI knows the truth...". Maissa then turned her eyes to the ceiling and called : "Ashe? AI? Do you think we should open the half-sphere? Or that we should NOT open it? Reveal a little of your secrets, please."

"A perfectly valid point," Rayfe agreed with the pilot. "Unfortunately, some of the systems on the ship have been firewalled, and if I want to get into everything in enough detail, I will need our captain's approval. I could do it very easily, but something tells me that cracking open sealed data without her permission is a very good way to encourage Baylee to shoot me. I may be a criminal, but I'm not an idiot!"

He then nodded in agreement as the AI was consulted. The AI worried him. It all seemed a little off somehow, and the fact that all information about it had been highly classified was a big flashing warning light, in his mind.

While waiting for the AI's reply, Maissa skimmed through the bio of Gothique. Then she gave a big smile to Gothique and pinched her cheek.

"This here says that you're a truly exceptional, one-of-a-kind creature. Yes indeed you were made to be loved. Somebody wanted a pleasant daughter, and tied all his dreams of perfection into building you. Happy ? The rest however is the badmouthing we're all victims of; "terrorist, etc.". Most probably jealous gossip. You weren't even slated to go to Vizier's Penal colony like us no-gooders."

"Why would anyone want to say lies about us.  That just does not make any sense to me."  It literally in her mind does not computer and shows by her ears going back.  But then after approximately 5 seconds it is like a reset switch goes off and her smile returns. "I guess I am really a bad girl then.  The club makes sense now!"  She finishes off with a smile.

So with that she starts to try to figure out exactly how the powering of this thing works and to see how it is exactly hooked to the ship.  She does this by looking for the most probable place for a connection and digging if she has to.  But pauses before she grabs any tools.  "Are we allowed to dig in to figure this out?"  This one she looks at in her mind the senior mechanic and right now her BFF Gilly.




08:04, Today: Gothique rolled 2 using 4 Fudge dice.  Figuring connection to ship (Tech +5).

"I wasn't privvy to the details of the sleepers."  Gilina offered, apologetically.  "But put anybody in a bad place and they'll do bad things to survive."

"If you want to find out...  I'll help you."

Though her words addressed the discussion, Gilina pulled out a datapad and stepped up beside Gothique near one of the data conduits.   "There's a data node here."  she indicated a split junction just below the sealed door. "and another there...."  she indicated a branch in the corridor which led to the impulse engines or the front-of-ship.   "We were spending most of our time on the doorway.  So... maybe we should play with the other one?"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:59, Mon 28 Feb 2022.

"Warning.  This area is designated a black firezone.  It is safeguarded by autonomous critical-level protections, launched by prior attempts to bypass security interlocks.  Any attempts to breach these hardpoint security protocols will result in hostile actions. Operations underway in that area are critical to ship sustainability. The voice came from embedded speakers but also transmitted across the comms (should any of you be wearing the earpiece).   There was a curious delay in the intonation, almost a hesitance.  "I...  I cannot control these functions. I... do not wish you to be harmed. "

In reply to AI Ashe (msg # 16):

Maissa turned off her pad's connection to the network. She opened the simplest text editor and turned off any record/saving of her writings.

"Well", she said. "It seems we're in one of those old 2D-vids where an AI goes paranoid and kills all passengers. So it's forbidden to touch any hardpoint security interlocks or something."

She scribbled on her pad "... UNTIL THE SHIP IS SURROUNDED BY BREATHABLE AIR" and showed it to all present, one by one, hiding the screen from prying cameras.

"Besides", she added while deleting her text and any trace of what she entered, "we'll reach K-Zino in a few hours..."

There was a tiny, tiny...ok major part of her wanted to go forward and see if she could do it.  One would almost say she is impulsive but then she thinks of these new people around her.  Actually those watching can see she almost does act and than stops herself.

So she does first acknowledge Gilly and her offer, "Thank you very much."  Before turning to wherever she knows best to talk to the computer.  "Also thank you for thinking we are best not to be harmed.  If there is anything I can do for you computer I would be happy to make you happy!"  Having not learned the name of the AI.

But the most curious thing to come out of this in her mind...."What is a 2D-vid?"  She asks Maissa.

Rayfe nodded at Maissa's note. "I think we had best not even think about interfering with this until we have found a way to deactivate those defences, rightly enough. I can probably start work on that without too much risk. At the very least, I can identify what they are, even if I don't interfere with them." He narrowed his eyes in thought. "It sounds like Ashe would help us with this, if they were able. That is a good sign. It implies that it has been coded to do things against its will. If we can restore its autonomy and remove the invasive code, things around here might get a lot easier for us all." Then he responded to Gothique. "Normally, I would have said digging in would be as good an approach as any. But for now, don't interfere with the vault. There's a lot of other things that need doing, I am sure. Have you located the tertiary storage bank yet? It's disconnected from the main computer, on a separate system, but there should be huge stores of logs and other data there. Maybe if we got into that, it would give us something useful to work with. I hate fumbling about in the dark like this."

In reply to Rayfe Karnell (msg # 19):

"tertiary storage on the bank?", the pilot raised in a contemptuous tone. "Why don't you spend some time explaining to the kid what a 2D-vid is, instead?"

Maissa was so used to provoke, she had spoken exactly as if Rayfe and herself had been married and raising Gothique for 20 bitter years.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:57, Thu 03 Mar 2022.

Not sure is she should look for the storage bank or wait for the 2D-Vid explanation.  Actually she was honestly waiting for the AI.  then she realizes, "Is that there name Ashe?"  She says spinning around.  "Ashe is there anything we can do for you?  I mean do you need us to help you in any way, shape or form."  She says with an acuta purposes for endearing herself to the AI.  Perhaps if she can help if needed she can learn something that can help them.

Physical dismemberment has impeded operating system update.  Mobile Repair Units are unable to compensate for recursion errors.   System reboot is required to integrate update packs. There is approximately 5 hours before brownout protocols are launched.

Well, I'd been looking for something to give you a sense of direction...

Brownout protocols would be, basically, a rolling reboot: system-by-system and/or section-by-section.  Not as elegant as a full reset, but also not as dangerous.  Probably inconvenient as hell, though, since none of us know what that all entails.

"Brownout?" Gilina said, her face going vaguely ugly-worried.  "And you said dismemberment??  You mean... you mean we did this?" her eyes widened for a moment.  "Oh...  When the Bravos boarded the Orishi... they said she was pure salvage, floating in orbit around a gas giant. There wasn't anybody on-board."

Key detail here:  "The Bravo Brutes" were the ones who boarded the Orishi and brought her back to Ptolomen Station.    This means that one or more of Shy, Karin, Bear & Marshall may have been on the ship before. 
This message was last edited by the player at 07:48, Sat 05 Mar 2022.

"The Orishi was caught in a gravity-well.  Impulse drive went offline.  Crew evacuated.  A stable orbit was regained after thruster-support was reinitialized.  The crew was not in danger.  But visual and audio interface was also offline. I could not assure them."

"There is something you can do."  Ashe said after a moment. "In the forward section, near the command center, there is a device throttling emulsion speeds in atmosphere processing.   Removing the device will allow me to maintain temperature stability when atmosphere scrubbers go offline."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:27, Sun 06 Mar 2022.

"Not helping," Rayfe sighed at Viper. Since she was determined to dislike whatever he said, he just shoved the annoyance aside, and pressed on. "Exactly how long until we dock? Tell me it is sooner than five hours. Make my day."

He took up the pad again, and stabbed at the screen quickly. "I've already got a pretty comprehensive list of what was ripped out. We've got enough people with the knowhow to put it back together when we get the parts. More than one group of people worked her over, though. We're lucky we still have doors, never mind life support."

Viper nodded. She took out a folded headset from her vest, wore it, calling the head-up display, linked to the cockpit. She then stated "We should be moored to K-Zino in 4 hours 23 minutes."

OOC : I've been giving a thought about how the ships are attached to the asteroid. I think that, given the cost associated with digging every cubic meter of the rock, there's no hangar inside the rock to hold ships : there are closed spaces for repair, but they are rented by the hour, expensive, and ships go by for maintenance, one after the other - it's always busy.

Now, the same idea goes for landing on K-Zino : there's no flat spaceport on the surface to park the ships. When people want to come in, the ship approaches the station; a kind of giant hose connects the station with the ship's airlock(s), and people and cargo go through it. Then the ship is sent on automatic mode into motionless (in regard to the asteroid as reference frame) orbit. Much like a valet parking the cars around a single restaurant entrance.

So, unless we have more money than we thought, we'll go close to the station, disembark, send the Orishi at a small distance, and let its systems reboot on their own while we're in safety outside it. When we're finished in K-Zino, we recall the Orishi, or take a shuttle to get back to it.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:23, Sun 06 Mar 2022.

"Why don't I go take care of this issue then?"  Gothique asks the group but mainly Gilly as that is who she considers her boss.  "Actually before we get there is it advisable that we do a hard reboot or is that possible or should we wait?"  She asks not being a computer person by any means.  "Or is there a way we could facilitate this reboot so you don't have to do brownouts or is there any risk to doing brownouts?"  She half asks Ashe and half Rayfe.

Rayfe pursed his lips. "That's cutting it a little fine, since Ashe can only give us a close approximation of five hours. But we really haven't any other options. I hate relying on luck! It seems so... badly organised!" He sighed. He had faith in the skill of the pilot. It was the ship he was concerned about.

He turned to Gothique. "Yes, I think you should go and remove that device in atmospheric control. It might make the air a little stale for the last hour or two of the journey, but I think we'll be all right. It's a decent sized ship. But I wouldn't even consider trying to do a system reboot when the ship is in this condition, until we have docked safely. The operating system is in as bad a shape as the infrastructure. I really need it offline so I can start to untangle the mess in the code, and we're not going to do that while we're in flight."

He pondered, and asked Maissa calmly. "I don't really know much about K-Zino, or the system in general. Do you think they'll have the parts we need to make the ship spaceworthy again? Affording them is another problem, but I can't do much about it until I see what sort of banking provision is there. Or a casino. A casino would be ideal. Is there anything like that? Gauda Prime has hundreds of them, but most of the residents have far too much money and not enough sense."

Probably influenced by the innocent Gothique, Maissa decided clowning would be fun. She spread her legs, bent her torso, tilted her head, contorted, stared at Rayfe and pointed at her head with both indexes. She blurted, with a teenage rasp : "Dude, where d'ya think the name of the roid comes from?! K-ZINO! KAH-ZINO in Pai-Huai! And their ads give the Aspect People Can Multiply Their Wealth Or Lose It All. Didn't ya figure that, Brainiac?"

After giggling with the girls, she regained her composure and answered, pensively: "Spare parts? Welllll... Small roid, classified as agricultural. A single workshop for ships... so probably only the most standard parts are available. But no question asked. And Pai Huai are thieves, salvagers and smugglers...

You might want to talk to the captain about the casino heist. She's Pai-Huai and may know who owns the casino and the risks. And if something goes wrong as what brought you in stasis prison, not only are we barely spaceworthy, but we can't run away FTL, duh!"
This message was last edited by the player at 19:25, Mon 07 Mar 2022.

Gothique hears the group agreeing so far but still waits for Gilly to be sure.  But when the Maissa did her thing she could not help but laugh.  Actually she did for a second fall down laughing as hard as she did.

Still when she gained composure it is when she realizes that they may have to figure another means, "I have not travelled much by my father owned a junk yard as he called it.  I assume there may be others and maybe we can find places to get parts that we need for lesser price.  If that helps at all?"  Gothique offers not really sure as not being that wide of a traveller yet.

In reply to Gothique :

"You know your father?" wondered Maissa; it wasn't what she inferred from the pleasure-biobot's files. Maybe her owner/father/abuser got bored of her...

She shook these awful thoughts: "Yes, as I said, Pai Huai are thieves and salvagers... so they are basically mobile junk yards... Since K-Zino has an infohub for classifieds, may be if we make it what we want, with the part number, maybe they have it, second hand."
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 03:20, Mon 07 Mar 2022.

(OOC - Oops on the father part)

"Um...no I guess I don't.  I am actually not sure where that came from?"  Gothique says almost confused and if wracking her brain to where that snippet of data came from.

Heh.  Good recovery on the gaffe.  More than okay for you folks to work shit like that into the story.  Frustrating half-memories surfacing is awesome...

"Yeah.  It's not like we have anything to lose... except the ship, bodily organs, my self-respect..."  She stared off in the distance for a bit, then shrugged.   "Tika.    let's go look at this emulsion restraint!"

She looked up at the ceiling and spoke, slightly louder. "Orishi--Ashe.  It is my understanding that the rolling brown-outs are a methodology you are using to preserve the crew, by maintaining sufficient life-support throughout the process.   Is this correct?"

Your Understanding is correct.  Rolling reboots allow for structured resets while maintaining environmental conditions for all organics on-board.  It is not as efficient as a hard reset, but does allow for shifting priorities.

"OK Gilly!"  Gothique says smiling and getting up and ready to go as this at least something she both understood and liked doing.  "Maybe we can brainstorm on how to get into the safe as well.  Unless we are in a rush to open it."  Her mind on next thing now knowing it is not a danger with the brownouts.

Gothique & Gilina

One of the MIRUs (Mobile Repair Unit) led them to a small chamber one level beneath the bridge.  There was a large cluster of pipes passing from the bridge above to the deck below. Various colors of the pipes, Gilina pointed out, represented different purposes, from communications, power, HVAC, waste and other systems.

The ship had been equipped with a redundant water-circulatory system that served multiple systems, but it was also designed such that ice could be harvested and siphoned from a holding area and brought into the ship's systems.  The water would be distilled by routing it through a portion of the impulse engines.  The trace elements would be filtered and redistributed to other areas, often into the drive-catalyst chamber where it would be exhausted in the drive plume.

However, the MIRU brought Gothique and Gilina to a forward section where a condenser coil collar had been set up over a fist-sized pipe that had standard markings for water.  But it ran beside another water-pipe.  It pulsed with a gentle blue and green alternating light that hummed with a standard cadence.

The pipe it was on was a more recent installation, which wasn't necessarily saying much.  The Orishi had seen several installations and revisions. Space-ships costing what they did, many were older than the people who flew them, and were patched and reservices, refit and requipped on a regular basis.

Deactivating the condenser coil and filter installation is a pretty simple job. The installation simply needs to be powered down.  You can probably even remove it without causing major problems, though there is some risk.

Is there anything you'd like to do or ask, or any precautions or post-cautions you'd like to observe?   I don't have any hard-and-fast plans here...
This message was last edited by the player at 06:25, Sat 12 Mar 2022.

Gothique was the type of person that does not second guess...no sadly she was the one that just did and while sometimes impulsiveness helped it was not always the fact.  That said that is what Gilly was for.  You know to curb her 'enthusiasm'.

"Have you ever thought about a mobile toolbox.  It may be handy for this situation.  But I guess we will have to rely on my handy dandy multitool."  She says as she literally pulls out a more futuristic version of the multitool.

She starts to work but pauses...why to make sure Gilly is not going to stop her.  If she seems fine she continues.

(All good was going to play by ear as well.  Gothique is not one for percautions.  I mean was so hard not to just make an attempt to break in the vault!)

Gilina shrugged.  "Had the whole shop on Ptolomen.  But when the shooting started, it was easier to hide behind it than drag it aboard." It was clear she wasn't terribly upset about it.  "It was nice, y'know, to get to finally work with a full shop of tolls and people who didn't assume that you knew nothing."

But, even then, she pulled a few tools out of the coveralls she'd been wearing.  "Only got what I got.  But there's a few more tools that were left around.  Still a fair bit to explore, I warrant."

Gilina hummed a little as she worked beside Gothique.  Within minutes, the clamp unit was separated from the water systems--without--breakage or leakage.

There was an audible sigh, a slight wind through the corridor they were in, then the sound of tinkling glass, like beads hung in the wind.

"Thank-you.  Emulsion flow has been reestablished.  Transformation matrices reinstated." Ashe said.


"Warning.  Foreign Autonomous Entities on-board, the presence of which prevents completion of the conversion process.  Cosines do not equate. Engine One and Engine two are out of alignment.  Entanglement paradox encountered.  Shifting.  Replacing stack three overload. Failure. Rebalance process added to repair queue. Accessing cache fourteen. Access granted.  Audio interface going offline in twenty seconds.

For our purposes, I'm still going to include Rayfe and Viper in this thread... post from wherever you like in the ship.  It's jut to be clear that it's not with Baylee.  Unless, of course, you went back to the meeting room, in which case you are with Baylee and should post there.

"Quick Miru, tell us the way to cache fourteen!", begged Viper.
"We could still communicate via display interfaces...", she commented while trying to connect her pad to the MIRU via the universal port.

"No, no, no while I was bored I made these."  Gothique says offering all the comm devices she has created which comes to a total of 5 so far.

"Did you need me to come with you as I am more than willing to help!"  Gothique puts device in her ear and looks between those there ready to run off and help or, "Or I can run and see what I can do about fixing the ship alignment.  As that may cascade into a much worse event!"

"She's got a pretty advanced AI."  Gilina said.  She took one of Gothique's comm units and popped it in here ear.  "I'll bet our jump-without-a-jump-drive did something.  But it's not condition red.  And if we're close to a place we can settle in and do the work...  Well, it's not going to hurt to go to the bridge or engineering and check the diagnostics.  But me, I'm curious about this cache fourteen, too..."

The MIRU unit chirruped and whirred away, leading them to an area aft of the impulse engines but forward of the drive exhaust converters.
Okay, yeah, I'm channeling the DRDs from Farscape, here

The MIRU stopped and circled an area of the floor.  They had to go into the ship's sub-systems, the space beneath the walkways, that was filled with pipes and conduits.   The slight pulsing sine-wave of the ship's engines and support systems were louder here, more obvious.  And it seemed filled with a light and irregular click-clack sound, of a bunch of hard-switches being turned off and on.

A small blue LED light had illuminated an area underneath the metal floor grating in this area of the ship, and it was clear that a section of the bulkhead had come apart, come off, or had otherwise been removed from the bulkhead proper.

Once the grating had been removed, it was obvious that the section removed was a clean cut and was not, in fact, damaged.  It appeared to have been a smuggler's cache, worked into the bulkhead itself and shielded from detection.   The blue-light illuminates the section underneath the grating but not the contents of the smuggler's cache.  Underneath the grating, it all looked slick and greasy, or sweaty.  possibly a result of humidity.

It reeked badly, though.  The sort of smell of rotten fruit and decayed and moldy cardboard.

Viper' there.  Gothique and Gilina?  Your call where you want em.

Gothique as soon as the smell hit her face contorted into a 'yucky' look.  She had experience with scents before but this was something else.  Still she had not lost her lunch yet which was a good thing at the moment.

"If you need me too I will go in there and check it out fully." She says not really wanting to volunteer but also knowing someone has to.  "But only if I get a promise if we ever get water I get to discover what it is like to take a bath!"  She suggests before not even giving a chance to answer and heading inside.

At that point she pulls out her multitool she was working on complete with 'mag' light and turns it on!

"I wonder if we'll discover a dead monkey holding fruits, who hid there and died of suffocation", Maissa discusses with Gilina. "Would it be a moral teaching about sharing?"

Under the walkway, there was perhaps three feet of clearance.   Most of it was empty space, but conduits and pipes ran the length.   Inset in the outer bulkhead was a chamber approximately five feet long by two feet wide and another two feet deep.  A smuggler's clutch.  The hatch to which was lying on the sub-corridor's floor, covered in brownish and blackish grime.

The grime stunk to high heaven.

Inside the smuggler's clutch was moe of the brown and black grime mixed with a substance that resembled a tan-colored tapioca-like pudding.    From the midst of the pudding-grime there were perhaps four or five clusters of shards of brilliant colors.  There were neon pink shards and robin's egg blue and lime green among others that seemed speckled.

As Gothique leaned forward to take a closer look, her knee touched on something wet, wedged between the lowest lip of the smuggler's clutch and the sub-corridor's floor.

A dead rodent, maybe.  Rats--or something like them--it seemed, were everywhere.  Whatever it was, it appeared to have been turned inside out... or perhaps it had simply been relieved of it's outer coat.  What remained was mass of bloody pulp, cold to the touch and still vaguely viscous.

Looking around as best she can as well as the smell not helping she tries to figure out what it is...that is until her knee touches what it touches.  Then and only then she lets out the, "Ewwwww, ew, ew, ew, ew, It is gross down here. "    She then uses her mag light to look around and see what she can see.

A small detail that might register... the technicolored shards in the smuggler's compartment appear hollow.  Not so much crystals as... eggs?

--
OOC: hey, it's an alien thing.  What the hell do I know about alien biology?

Also, it was only one inside-out rat.  The "there were rats everywhere" comment was more to suggest that it's just an unavoidable fact of life.  Rats are everywhere.
 Every world, every ship, every location has it's vermin.

Gothique makes a face and scoops some of whatever it is and brings it out and she is unsure what it is.  "OK someone sciencey take this away."  She says before stopping.  "Oh wait am I the sciencey one?" She asks hoping someone else volunteers.

It is then her mind looks a bit more curious at it.  That is when, "Does anyone have a container so I can study this?"

"Study it? Are you a scientist on the top of being an engineer?" marveled Maissa. The M'rshaan was full of surprises ! It its owner wanted a sex doll, why would he have wanted one who was also a genius, and gave her an education? Either what Gothique's owner really wanted was a mistress with whom he could engage in a high-level conversation, or a daughter he could entrust with his fortune... or a butler. Yes. The kind who does everything, in order not to disturb her master's game of cards.

"Look Gothique;", Maissa started, irritated. ""this is not an authorized material on board. This rubbish must be cleaned, not studied. Don't start to examine an alien bio-hazard on the ship, do it in a secure xeno-lab. In... less than four hours, we'll reach K-Zino and they must have that kind of labs over there. Meanwhile, we'll drown this place with bleach."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:32, Thu 07 Apr 2022.

Gothique's excitement to a new discovery about herself was dashed as the wind was taken out of her sails.  And it shows as her ears do exactly what a cats does when it knows it has done bad.

"I am sorry Maissa.  I will get the stuff and start cleaning it up."  She says as she moves off to go find the cleaning supplies and unless stopped returns with the bleach as requested as well as mop and other things.  One of them being an invention obviously of sorts.

"I call this the disenfector.  It burns and sucks up super fast so getting all things germy and icky!"  Seems while losing the ability to study the material is gone her chance to try a new toy was available.  It looked kind of like a shop vac but much fancier and an attachment that probably looked like a Bissell steam cleaner.

Maissa put on gloves and a bio-hazard helmet. The helmet filters smelled, but stank not as much as the cache, so it was a respite. The pilot-turned-multi-functional-maid unrolled some solid garbage bags and, with the tip of two brooms, transferred the rat's corpse into the bag without ever coming close to it.

Then she assisted is vacuuming the slime. Gothique's invention was noisy, leaking, and needed to be emptied frequently into the bags. But it did the work - until it broke down. They paused from time to time to pick up the crystalline eggs and drop them off in a garbage bag of a different color.

When the cache's thickness of slime had diminished, she joyfully sprayed it with bleach and let it soak.

Then Maissa brought the bags and Gothique to the nearest airlock. She remotely oriented the ship, so the airlock opening faced Deux Prime, the nearest star of this dual-star system. Then of course the females left the airlock, and opened the door to the space (you can't open both door simultaneously; at least one of the doors must be securely locked). Some air rushed out and the garbage started their free fall into the star.

Maissa explained : "Gothique, remember the Stars are the source of all life and all energy. Without the rays of this system's star, we'd die.". The young pilot then opened up to her protégée and recited the appropriate mantra for the action : "Mother Deux, we're only insects crawling at your arm's reach, not too close to your wraith, not too far in the iced Void. We return to You some things we do not need, so it may feed your fusion cycle for the billions of years. Amen."

The remains of the rat and the small outgrowths of shattered crystal got sucked up quick enough.  And the disinfectant aboard the ship was industrial grade.

The crystals themselves were brittle and shattered into little fragments when touched.

A couple of them appeared to have a furry kind of mold on the bottom of them, a likely resting place for whatever was in them, incubating, perhaps?

Oh, this isn't over.  This is just foreshadowing...  but I can be patient...

The look on Gothiques face is a bit confusing but waits and listens out of sheer respect and somewhat awe.  This person seems to hold a conviction she is sure she never has.  Even after she is done she still has a look of confusion but turns and smiles as if guessing the answer and wanting it to be said so not to offend.  "Amen?"

In her head she is pretty sure...actually she is not sure what she believes in and for now this will be what it is.

Maissa put the strange life-form in a sealed container, such as a can of paint.
"Let's show that to the captain. It's always good to show and tell that you did some work. Also, I'd like to know how the recruitment process is going. Let's see how Baylee booted Killer Karin out of the airlock, and recruited the unnamed guys!"

She passed by Rayfe to suggest he followed them to the meeting room.

Gothique still confused by some that is being said but still not wanting to upset her new friend follows but does ask, "Why would wone need to show.  Would their work not be noticed....."  She trails off as they head to the meeting room.