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.