Fortunately, the ship didn't sustain any damage from the radical course change within The Drift, and the rest of the journey proceeded smoothly.

Before too long, the ship left The Drift.

Proximity alarms went off immediately!

The Starhawk had come out in the middle of an asteroid field!

Normally, asteroids in a belt are far enough apart that it's a bit hard to get hit by one. That's the case here, as well. It's just that one asteroid came within about 100 feet of the ship.

"That was a close one!" the captain announced.

"We need to figure out just where we are before we can re-enter The Drift."

"Meanwhile, we're going to get out of this asteroid belt!"

Revonoss decides to assist the pilot in navigating the astraoid field manning the sensors and helping him plot a path to saftey out of the belt leaving the figuring out where they are to the others.

((OOC: I was working on the next adventure when my brain was hijacked by aliens! I finally managed to escape; now I just have to find my way back to Earth!))


Maneuvering out of the asteroid ring was a better option than trying to match vectors with asteroids because while most of the asteroids had the same heading, not all of them had the same velocity.

With Revonoss's assistance on sensors, it only took a few minutes to get clear of the belt and take up a relatively stationary position while they determined their location.

As expected, they were somewhere in The Vast, in an unmapped, unmarked, unexplored section of the galaxy.

"If it wasn't for the Vesk that we believe are following or pursuing us, we could take the time to explore this area," Captain Zenith announced.

"As it is, we're in a complex trinary system with 17 planets and three asteroid belts. We're taking all the sensor readings while we can, but we're not planning on hanging around unless we find something compelling to investigate."

Phelar begins accessing the computer, comparing the external stars to existing star charts, as well as distance travelled in the Drift before and after the course changes to try and determine where they ended up.

There are no familiar star patterns in the sky, but that was to be expected, since you are so far away from the Pact Worlds that most stars appear much dimmer. The astronomical science recognizes that there are certain stars that have a consistent pulse regardless of where you view them from. These are called pulsars.

By identifying them first, Phelar is able to triangulate the Starhawk's current position.

As it turns out, you are in an unmarked area of the galaxy--an area that hasn't even been designated into quadrants, sectors, or subsectors yet. Completely unexplored.

There's not even any record of a trinary system.

Even as Phelar determines the ship's location, Revonoss picks up something on sensors: a moon of the nearest gas giant planet appears to be ejecting something. Once they separate farther from the planet, Revonoss can determine that they are spheres... about 100 feet in diameter. There are five dozen of them, and they are heading straight for the Starhawk. They'll reach the ship in about an hour.

"I have our position. We are here." She put's up a starmap, then puts a green dot on it for their current position. Then expands it out putting a blue dot for the position that they are trying to head to, and a yellow dot for the position that they left, and red for last known position for the vesk. "I've expanded it out and placed markers for our destination, where we left, and last known location for the Vesk shit."

Probably more calm then he feels he says to the captain.

"Captain sir. You might want to see this and go on full alert just in case while we try to hail them?"

He redirects the images to the captain while he tries to get a better scan of the things to determine what they are and how dangerous.

The size of the approaching objects is consistent with a small starfighter, but the sensors are picking up energy readings considerably greater than what is normal for that size ship. Until now, it would have been considered impossible, but clearly it isn't.

"This is not good," the Captain says when the sensor readings come through.

"If they have a power generating system that good, it is indicative of an advanced technology. And the only reason to put it into a ship that small is to power weapons."

"That many starfighters indicates they probably aren't friendly. At the very least, they are prepared to defend themselves against a known enemy."

"I don't think they should know where we come from. They might be conquerors."

"So, no, we aren't going to hail them. As fast as they are, they don't appear capable of reaching us before we enter The Drift again."

Using Phelar's data, Zenith had the astrogator plot a new course and moments later, the engines cut off and the ship entered The Drift.

"I wouldn't put it pass those ships to pursue us into The Drift," the Captain announces, "so we're going to make another course change."

"Well, we never thought that this would be easy or uninteresting."

"Here's hoping we can get this data back to the Pact Worlds. I don't think they are ready for yet another war."

He studies Phelar's data again, and directs a radical oblique course change.

"Entering The Drift isn't the same as finding another ship with your sensors, so hopefully, we'll get away from them... assuming they even follow."

Phelar will ensure to pay more attention this time to the direction, speed, and time in drift and plots them into the computer allowing it to do keep a more real time tracking of their location as best as she can. This way she can have a better idea of where they are when they exit, and hopefully have to take less time to figure out their location when they exit the next time.

Revonoss just nods in agreement with the captain relieved there was no order that made them stay to find out if that overwhelming force was friendly. Still he'd love to get his hand on one of those power sources to look into but much like the last location there would most likely be plenty more things he would love to see before they found Golarion. For now he keeps scanning just to make sure they did not follow.

"The potential threat definitely outweighed the possible benefits," Sol agreed with the Captain's decision.

"I'm still deciding if things have gotten more interesting the farther out we go. Nor have I decided if what we've encountered so far bodes well or woe for us. And the Pact Worlds."

He made a mental note of these 'oddities' that they'd run across already. He doubted if he'd ever make it back to further investigate them, but he'd check reports if others did.

After two days on the current course, sensors detect something ahead. It soon turns out to be a wall of fire!

Although sensors can't make the distinction, presumably this is a 'piece' of the elemental plan of fire that was shifted to The Drift.

The Captain brought the ship to a stop before it entered the 'wall of fire' and let the sensors do their job.

"Our shields can handle the heat for a short while," he comments to everyone on the bridge. "It depends on how extensive the fire is."

"Hmmm. Sensors aren't indicating any immediate way around it."

"Wait! There's something in there!"

He directs the sensors to focus on a spot on the screen and enlarge it.

It appears to be some kind of citadel. At least, it's built like one. It is about five stories tall with a domed top. Its brass walls glisten in the fire.

"Is it just me, or does that look like a piece of the City of Brass?"

"It does look familiar doesn't it? But if its there its at least a little misplaced isn't it?"

Revonoss starts a scan to see if there is a safe path to it. Their home system had citadels in the sun that where approachable on the right angle after all. He also starts to try plot a route around it just in case.

As the image on the screen enlarges, there is something about it that looks familiar to Phelar.

A nearly forgotten scrap of knowledge floats up to her consciousness.

It's a temple of Casandalee, the android Iron God part of Triune.

Revonoss may know that a star or sun is not quite the same as the Elemental Plane of Fire. The Elemental Plane of Fire in intertwined with magic, which is why efreeti can wield such powerful magic effects. Suns don't have that, though there might be some sort of connection with them.

He's also aware that every time a ship enters The Drift, it seems to pull some random piece of another plane into The Drift. Current theory says that it's a 'flaw' with the Drift engine itself, but that's also 'blasphemy' against Triune. However, others speculate that this is intentional by the Triune and that eventually all Planes will become part of The Drift. If that happens, one theory claims, it will mark the end of the universe.

Revonoss can't find any 'path', 'channel', or otherwise safe route to the temple. This is probably because the temple was not intentionally built for the Elemental Plane of Fire.

Nor is he able to find a route around it. The ship's sensors simply aren't that great. One option is to leave The Drift and then reenter it at some point beyond the fire. The problem with that, though, is that you don't know how extensive the fire is so you don't know where to reenter.

Phelar slowly walks up to the screen, and cocks her to one side. After a moment she straightens up and lifts her hand, tracing it around the temple for a moment. "Casandalee. But how do I know that?"

Then suddenly she would stagger a bit, then straighten up, shaken her head she just stood there for a moment staring off into the distance like she had before. "Fires of the strange fires are not normal fires they are from the elemental plane of fire." Then another short pause. "Worlds not of our own, planes not of our own, piece of the elemental plane of fire." Then a final short pause but this time instead of her saying anything prophetic, the computers working, working on the shields, adapting their modulations. It was her. She was doing it. Suddenly her voice came over the PA. "Someone needs to go to the shield access port, and close breaker B, they will also need to install a bypass module at junction A. I am working on the computer modulations that are necessary. Doing so will make the ships shields able to withstand fire indefinitely. Please hurry if you wish to pass through the elemental fire to the temple before the Vesk discover us."

THat was interesting. Revonoss looks at Phelar for a moment and then jumps onto his feet. Fire immune shields and this place was a promise of maybe getting rid of their pursuers? He leaps onto his feet to go and make the neccecary adjustments trying to figure out if it was all regular science or if Phelar was doing something in the process of him doing this of a more magical nature.

Many debates and many experiments have been conducted over the centuries on the nature and differences of fire, magical fire, and solar fires. About all that was determined was that they are different but have some similarities.

The adjustments that Revonoss and Phelar make the to ship's protective shields seems to have upped the resistance to solar fires, which is impressive since the fire of a sun is considered a thousand time more powerful than any normal fire.

That's not to say the new modified shields will be effective against magical fire. In a way, it's like weaving gold threads into a normal cotton fabric. Once you weave magic into the fire, something about the fire changes. It's not as potent as solar fire, but it affects things somewhat differently.


Once the fire-proof shields are in effect, the captain decides to take the ship to the structure.

It becomes more distinct the closer you get as there are not as many dancing flames flickering between you and it. It's a bit hard to classify... it has the general look of a citadel (as opposed to a fortress) but has a tower-like look to it as well. The central structure is a domed-top tower with flanking  buildings at the base from which protrude two spires. The whole thing appears to be made of brass, and every surface except the dome is finely etched with runes (including the underside, which you can see as you approach since the building is just 'floating' in the fire).

The crew constantly monitors the shields and the ship's external as well as internal temperature as the ship enters the fiery region and slowly creeps forward. Should anything suddenly change, the captain is prepared to retreat as fast as possible.

Nothing changes, nothing goes wrong. As you near the structure, double doors open in the tower just below the dome, a platform extends outward and two people appear in the doorway holding out welcoming arms.

In short order, the ship 'docks' at the platform, and the captain heads for the airlock.

"Phelar, Revonoss, Solsantharis and Saia... you're with me. I don't know if this place has anything to do with our quest, but I'm sure we won't know until we ask!"

Revonoss was more then a little in awe of the feat they pulled off. Eyes on the readings he says to her.

"Phelar my dear you are a miracle but a magnificent one. The stuff hidden in that pretty head of yours makes me wonder what more marvellous things beyond talking with machines comes out."

When its time to go he puts on his Rinbgwear to join the away team setting his drone up to keep an eye on the temperature at all times and having it warn them of rapid and dangerous temperature changes.

"...that's what scares me. How did I know all this, and how did I know who that is a temple to..." She said softly to Revoness, before going to get ready herself.

He gives her a quick hug and a warm grandfatherly smile as she expresses her fears.

"We are here to get you through anything that comes up no need to be afraid dear."

"I still say I am older than you." She seemed to relax when he hugged her though. "I wonder if that can be checked..."

"Hey, does the ship have any historical archives in it's computers? You know, pre and post Gap?" She wondered.

"Of course we do, Phelar," the Captain replies. "I don't know if they'll have whatever you are looking for. It is my understanding that no computer is ever going to have 100% of all the data of civilization, even if we have the memory capacity to do so. It's about logistics. While computers can talk to each other, it usually requires some sort of human interface. That's where the errors occur, though they can be errors of omission."

"I've ceased to be amazed at the wonders of the universe. Not that they don't intrigue me sometimes, but once you've traveled through The Drift, everything else is just... stuff."

"Amnesia is a peculiar thing, Phelar," Sol responds to her.

"Sometimes a sound or a scent can trigger a memory. I suppose it's like a computer with many folders and files, not to mention hidden files. You can do a search for a specific word, and it will search through every file and give you a list of every place that word is found. Sometimes, if you are lucky, it's only in one file."

"In your case, we don't know if your amnesia is a result of injury and trauma or if it's somehow been induced. I'm beginning to think it's induced. I have no idea what the point of that is, or how or why it was done. I'd guess that the entity that did that to you did so for a specific reason, maybe several. For instance, if it all came back to you at once, it might be overwhelming, to the point that it sends you into neural shock."

"There may also be an endgame in which you are to play a significant role. If you knew about it ahead of time, you might do something, unintentionally, that changes the outcome."

"Remember, we're on a treasure hunt. You are either the map, or the key to reading the map. I remember a tale where the treasure map was tattooed onto a person's shaved head. When his hair grew back, the map was essentially hidden."

"The map might have identified Pointed Rock as the starting place, then show 50 paces northwest, etc. That's what we've got going here."

"So, you only get to recall things when that piece of information is needed. No need to clutter up your mind with data that isn't needed."

"Anyway, as Revonoss said, these adjustments you made are impressive. However, it's not like it was quantum step forward. In another 10 or 20 years, our techs might have figure them out, too. There just hasn't been a need for it... till now. And who else is likely to find this place again?"

"Captain, when we're done here I would like to start looking in them if I could." She asked with a small nod.

Then she looked towards Sol a moment, considering what he's saying. "That's true. But it makes me wonder...  Did I lay it out myself?" She asked with a shoulder shrug. "Anyway, we have a curious temple to a god that is a part of the Goddess Triune, both of which I am somehow tied to, in the middle of a lost segment of the elemental plane of fire, AND full of people, to go check out!" That all seemed to make her especially enthusiastic.

Not surprisingly but still rather impressive, when the ship's airlock opens, there is only mild heat coming from the structure.

Not to ask his crew to do anything he wouldn't, Captain Zenith steps out of the airlock quite cautiously, prepared to step back in if it feels too hot.

It's warm, but clearly it's a dry heat, so it's not uncomfortable.

"I am Captain Zenith of the starship Starhawk. These are some of my crew. You'll pardon me if I'm a bit terse with my manners, but what is this place?"

"No need to apologize," the one figure says as it waves you inside.

"This fiery terrain can be very intimidating."

"I am Thorion Jinx and this is my protege Aleria Psyll."

"Welcome to Soliton, a bastion of cool in the midst of eternal flame."

As you approach them, you can see that they are both dressed in shimmering gold robes. Thorion appears to be some sort of lion-man while Aleria is a female centaur.

Revonoss follows suit his drone by his shoulder sampling the air and temperature ready to warn them at a moments notice as he simple makes a small curtsey as the captain introduces them as crew. But with the man in charge talking he just tries to absorb as much data as he can.

Phelar finally speaks up. "I'm Phelar Morilla." She said, kinda abruptly but she did not let that stop her. "That's a temple to Casandalee, the android Iron God who is now a part of Triune." She said pointing to the temple. "It seems, out of place. How'd it get here?" She seemed more curious then dismissive.

"We brought it here," Aleria answers.

"Anyone steeped in technology is essentially a worshiper of Casandalee, so, in that sense we are all priests of the temple."

"A ship we were on passed through The Drift near this phenomenon, which the captain said wasn't here the year before. That meant it was drawn in to The Drift fairly recently. We all agreed that this was a perfect opportunity to investigate it."

"And here we are."

"I see you have the interphasic shields that let your ship endure this blazing inferno. Did you come here intentionally, or are you wanderers that stumbled upon it?"

"In a way, it's a bit of both," the Captain responds.

"We think we're being pursued by a Vesk ship, so we made a couple of unexpected turns in The Drift. We spotted this temple here in the flames of what we guessed was a piece of the Elemental Plane of Fire. So we decided to check it out."

"It wasn't until we got close that we became aware it was actually occupied."

"How long have you been here?"

"...I don't really worship any deity. To be honest, I have no memories or knowledge of any of the gods, or anything else for that matter, except for what suddenly flashes to my mind. Such as, how I found out I have Triune Blessing, but have no knowledge of her..." Phelar said to Aleria.

"That's also how we got the shields. We did not have them a few hours ago, then suddenly...I knew how to modify our shields. I sometimes get these, glimpses like that..." She said as she looked around again, then back to Aleria.

"We are from Glorantha," Aleria responds. "This is our mobile research station. We are here in The Drift to explore, investigate and analyze these extra-planar phenomena. While current theory holds that these phenomena are shifted into The Drift each time a ship enters The Drift, it was thought that the size was in correlation with the size of the ship. This piece of the Elemental Plane of Fire is far greater than any size ship we are aware of."

"We are attempting to ascertain if it's a composite of smaller pieces or brought here as is."

When the correlation was explained Revonoss feels its safe to chip in without being rude.

"We also encountered a massive slab from the elemental plane of earth. That too was much bigger then any ship known to us. Sadly enough we had to little time to explore properly because of our pursuers."

"We've only been here for three months now," Thorion responds. "Even with the proper technology, it's still dangerous taking samples from the Fire."

"And it's not like earth that remains relatively intact for eons. Plasma... fire, if you will... is volatile and constantly in motion, blending, merging, shifting."

"We are still trying to ascertain its properties so we can better analyze it. Not sure how much longer we will remain here if we don't produce results soon."

"Air is even harder, with water similar. We might have better luck investigating an earth zone."

"I don't suppose you've encountered any of the quasi-elemental deposits, have you?"

"No, we have not been in The Drift that long," Sol replies.

"Nor have I heard of any such deposits from other drifters.  If there were para-deposits, would not they merely be a merging of two primes? For that matter, how could you tell?"

"Here in The Drift, that may very well be the case," Aleria replies. "But does that hold true in the Para-Elemental Planes? They've been in existing for millions of years. Are they still just a mix of the two, or have they taken on a separate identity?"

"If every ship that enters... or exits... The Drift causes a shift a material from the Elemental Planes, is there a way to eliminate that? Minimize it? Reverse it? What is the end product going to be? As near as we know, The Drift is endless, so it can never be 'filled up'. But it is already starting to make travel through it difficult."

"Without knowing the cause, how can we say that it won't start pulling in pieces of other planes? There have already been a hundred books written by sages and scholars about what that would mean."

Phelar only barely understands what they are discussing, but one thing Aleria said seemed to tickle a corner of her mind.

Suddenly at something Aleria said Phelar would stagger a bit, then straighten up, shaking her head she just stood there for a moment staring off into the distance like she had several times before. "Worlds not of our own, planes not of our own, they do not want to be here, as much as we do not want them here." There was a short pause in what she was saying, her voice was unusually prophetic before she finally snapped back. "I can help you. I'm not sure, why the flash suddenly came to me...  But I can help you. And we can reverse it too."

She seemed a bit lost on how she knew what she knew, but she did. "...what you are trying to do can be done via a process of quantification, by attuning the metaphasic shields to a micro-wavelength. I don't know what causes the effect though, but I am certain it can be reversed."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:43, Mon 09 Nov 2020.

When Phelar has yet another insight the old engineer stands close to her and even his drone sweeps by to record every word she says.

"Please go on dear. I will start to work on the theory to put it into praxis straight away. Or at least try to create a working model. I might be out of my league on the divine aspect but i can do science."

Already the CPU in his drone was being tasked with doing the calculations on the suggested theories.

"Divine aspect?" She cocked her head to one side. "I do not see what the divine has to do with a simple matter of quantification by attuning the metaphasic shields to a micro-wavelength. Unless you mean the divine put me where I was to set you on your path?" She asked, blinking, cocking her head the other way.

"Anyway, I digress. Take me to your equipment, and along the way I'll explain what needs to be done. As you can see, my friend will record everything I say so nothing will be forgotten!" The older apparently teen human said. Then almost instantly without waiting she began a long explanation of what needs to be done to eliminate the elemental drag, and possibly even reverse it.

"That's... astonishing!" Thorion responds. "How is it that you get these flashes of brilliance? Such things are usually only associated with geniuses!"

He and Aleria lead them to engineering section of the citadel.

"As you can see, we are able to harness the heat and light from the fire to power the shields. You'd think, at best, we should be able to achieve a state of equilibrium that way, neither succumbing to the fire nor repressing it fully. But, you see, the heat and light comes from all directions, which means we receive more than just that which comes from straight ahead. Yet, it's only the fire straight ahead that is dangerous to us, to the ship."

"I have a vague notion about what you said, Phelar Morilla, but the engineering is beyond my meager abilities. It is the robotic tools that do that sort of work."

She looked to Thorion a moment and cocked her head to the side, considering his question. "I do not know. I have flashes of many things. Brilliance, danger, the past...  But yet I do not know anything about myself except what a computer told me, my name. And that somehow, I have a blessing from the God, for which the god that this temple is a part of, that I have no idea why I have and no idea why I would even worship such a deity as a human." She explained as they walked. "Then there are the dreams, of the past, and futures yet to come."

"Maybe we can help each other. Yes?" She asked, quietly. "I will help you do what you need to do, and give you what knowledge I can on reversing the elemental drag effect as long as you share it with others. In return, you help us with what we need." Then she turned to look at him again. "Both about Golarion, and if you can, me."

It still isn't known if The Drift is a natural phenomenon (such as one of the planes) 'discovered' by Triune or if it was created by Triune. At the very least, Triune gave everyone the ability to enter The Drift. There are some who claim to understand how the stardrive works, but it's unclear if they truly do.

That's why the 'elemental drag' is so baffling. And, of course, there are as many theories as their are scientists.

Even what will eventually happen if The Drift gets 'full' is debatable.

As it turns out, it's the interface between two elemental planes that is the 'source' of the drive/transition. This interface is in a constant state of flux. Thought to be just the collision of two elements, it's actually the flux that keeps them apart. By tapping into this flux, a ship can transit to The Drift. Because it's tapping into a flux between two elements, one or both of those elements get 'dragged' along.

At this point, it's equally uncertain whether this was a 'design flaw' given to the races by Triune (for some unfathomable reason) or if the stardrives were just misinterpreted or simply built wrong due to lack of understanding or proper resources.

The drives aren't designed or built to make those kinds of micro adjustments. It's like focusing a flame: if you balance the fuel and the air just right, you get the perfect and hottest flame possible. If you don't, you still get a flame, but it's not as hot as possible and it wastes fuel.

The drives, by not being focused finely enough, 'scoop' up pieces of the elements. The bigger the ship, the bigger the drives, and the larger the pieces of elements that get dragged into The Drift.

The theory here is that a ship could be designed such that when it leaves The Drift, it drags elemental debris with it, which will put that element back in its proper plane.

While Phelar 'explains' some of this to Thorion and the engineering robots, Revonoss realizes that current stardrives cannot be adjusted to do this. It'd be like using a yardstick as a micrometer. So, while new engines can be built to these specs, it is going to be impractical to replace all existing engines.

"That's almost incredible," Sol says when it is explained to him.

"I mean, it's amazing, but it really does make a lot of logical sense."

"Somehow, though, I think this technique can be weaponized. I, myself, cannot see how, but then, I don't think along those lines. I'd rather there be peace among everyone."

"So, Phelar, any idea where we go next?"

"Does the captain know where to go next?" Soneau says.

"And we still have those Vesk on our tail, don't we? And we think they have a starfinder to track us. I don't suppose, Phelar, you have any tricks up your sleeve for hiding us from a starfinder?"

Revonoss just listens in near rapt awe at the whole thing and then starts to think up plans that might make this not only a viable ship to use but also tries to think up some automated drone to 'clean up' the drift. IT would maybe give a nice patent to sell to a big company and net them some money but then cleaning the drift had to be something profitable. Imagine leaving his family with a solid income in the future. As he works on his handheld he seems to have forgotten everything around him.

"I think the answer to where to go to next is here, somewhere." She said, after she had finished explaining and annotating everything down regarding the drives. "Somehow, I think they can help us, and me at least a little bit. After all, this temple is from an aspect of Triune."

"Possibly," Sol conceded, "but remember, we weren't following your directions when we entered The Drift. It was to throw the Vesk off of our trail."

"Is there anything else we need to do here? Is it okay if we leave?"

"Oh right. And I already determined our next point..." She said with a nod. "Still, there might be something here. It's a temple to one of Triune's parts. If anything, it might help me out some."

"You are free to explore the temple," the lion-man pseudo-priest says to Phelar.

"I don't believe there are any hidden secrets here. But, there may always be something that has meaning for you but not for us."

"As far as we are aware, this temple has been around for 300 years."

Revonoss simply thanks the priest and takes in the scene with all the data overwhelming his mind and al lthe possibilities he would just tag along to make sure his companionms where safe as his drone recorded everything. Once on the drift again there was a whole lot of science going to happen.

"It would definitely seems as if this temple might have some connection to our quest," Sol comments. "It does make me wonder just how much 'free will' we really have."

"I mean, if this is a link in the chain, how would we have encountered it if we weren't trying to avoid the Vesk. Although, come to think of it, I suppose an argument could be made for cause-and-effect. Given the information found and the decision to send out this expedition, it could easily be deduced that the Vesk might try to... interfere in some manner."

"It's not like we were digging through some dusty old ruins looking for Golarion. Not that that's beyond the ken... shrink a planet and then hide it in a bag of beans. Ha!"

"Then it just requires the assumption that we become aware of the Vesk pursuing us. And how long before our Captain decided to take an evasive route?"

"It's almost like one of those children's puzzles where you have to connect the dots to get the image."

"The same thing with us finding Phelar! On the one hand, you could say, 'what are the odds?' while on the other hand, you could just realize that it was inevitable. It's kind of like going down to the ocean and finding a ship. What are the odds?! Now, going to the mountains and finding a ship... well, that's a horse of a different color!"

"So, did we find our ship in the mountains, or did we just find what was inevitable?"

As the four of them explore the temple, he realizes that Revonoss is recording everything, so all he does is make a mental note of anything that looks... interesting or significant.

"Has anyone ever told you you talk too much?" Soneau responds to Sol.

"Philosophers worry too much about the whichness of the why. The rest of us just get the job done."

"I can see, though, that I don't know what worries me more: that our actions can be so predictable--but hopefully not by the Vesk, or that we don't have the free will we think we have."

She, too, makes note of anything of interest, stopping now and then to examine a bit more lengthily any tapestries, paintings, frescoes, carvings, statues, or whatever that they encounter.

"Thank you, I would greatly appreciate that." She said with a soft smile to the Thorian.

"The thing is, what if Sol has a point in all of that talking?" She said considering. "It's evident that these crumbs we have been finding were laid out for a reason, in a manner that the gap could not erase, and for someone that could interpret them. The question we should ask is, who laid them out, and when? Then, that leaves the question of, are they responsible for Galorian's disappearance, or did they find it, but was it not time to reveal it?"

"I suppose those questions will only be answered once we finally get there." She finally said with a nod.

The tour of the temple is rather mundane. The scale is large but not as large as some temples. It consists of the foyer that leads to a hallway that circles around the central part of the temple. The computer altar is at the back.

There are many rooms around the perimeter. Some of them are quarters, including galley, lounge and lavatory. Others are store room.

As you are lead around to the left and then down the hallway at that end, Aleria shows you the Junk Room, as she calls it. It is full of various equipment piled up haphazardly in stacks. While there is some furniture there, most of it seems to be electronic and mechanical equipment, but there are other things that defy description and purpose.

Revonoss spots at least three junkcycles and parts to several more. He doesn't see any gun type weapons but spots what might be a fangblade and a crossbow, plus at least the arm of some type of armor. Then there are obsolete computers, wheels, broken treads, and many mundane items such as vacuum cleaners, blenders, microwave ovens, portable searchlights, etc.

"In any other temple, this junk room would be strange, to say the least," Saia comments as she surveys the piles of junk.

"On the other hand, one man's junk might be another man's treasure. See anything in there, Revonoss, that might interest you? Those junkcycles don't look like normal ones. Do you suppose these ones actually work?"

ooc: Sorry i thought i posted but seems i just thought about posting

Revonoss inspects the  treasure room with great interest and as he sifts through the materials there. He agrees its interesting in the least to see all this stuff in this place and was imagining all kinds of stuff he could make with this to make their exploration easier and maybe even safer. Thinks to complement his own drone and make some more. If they put materials to risk it might prevent harm to crew after all. When Saia mentions the bikes he gives them a little more interest. But secretly he was more interested in the things of which he did not know what they where.

"Aye this place is quite interesting. I will gladly clean out the junk room to start some hobby projects if you are willing to part with it."

"I have spells that could use some of this." She said, pointing to the general junk. Then she considered for a moment. "If they are willing to part with it, and Revonoss you are willing to help me, I may have a long term use for some of it." Her eyes flashes with a bit of gleam in it.

She will walk through the junkroom, looking closely at the things that seem to defy description and purpose.

"That's pretty much what all of this is here for," the Lion-man replies.

"Normally, we'd have four or five technicians working on various projects, but when our researches took us into The Drift to research these planar intrusions, none of the others wanted to go."

"I suppose if you want to clean it out, that's okay, too. As the saying goes, 'we need to make room for more junk'."


As Phelar and Revonoss wander through the room and began extracting items, you run across a bizarre assortment of... things. Some have tags hanging from them, some have built in labels, some you vaguely recognize, and others defy description. One looks like a blender, for instance, that has the top glued on and the inside piled up with a chaotic coil of wire.

You find a polaric obfuscator (that's what the tag says), a quantum entangler, a subetheric rectifier, a superluminal etherometer, a torsional acclimator, a thermionic retroscope, six ingots of nitronium, a flux disruptor, an oscillation overthruster, an electro-phoretic imaginator, an infusium compensator, a quantum flux capacitor, seven sky discs, a pocket tesseract chamber, a trans-etheric magmifier, a mega-theramic replicator, a protosynthetic retronator, and other undefinable items.

REvonoss was more then willing. With the young humans weird connection to technology and her  uncanny insights in things these things might lead to scientific breakthroughs that might not only help them on journey but even back home. Thanking the man for his junk Revonoss will port it all over and catalog it to decipher what all is once they are on the float again. For now he seems mostly interested in the junk bikes as extra equipment and the rest for later inspection.

"I always kind of wanted a junkcycle," Sol says, "except one that actually worked and didn't explode if you looked at it wrong. I just liked the look of them. And the idea of flying around on one."

"Think you can get one of these working, Rev?"

"I wanna make a junk golem. Wanna help me Revonoss?" She said with a cheeky grin.

Then she looked over towards Thorion. "What else can you tell me of the temple itself? I mean, what more do you know of it? You know, like, where did it come from, or was it always here? Does it have it's own mainframe I can look at?"

Nodding to Sol he replies.

"Aye think that should not be to hard with the materials on hand."

And then quircks a brow at Phelar.

"A junk Golem? What should i imagine by that? A big droid that breaks all the scientific rules?"

"As near as we could find in the temples archives, it was once a salvage ship before it became a temple," Thorion replies.

"It's been a temple for close to 200 years. We found it in orbit around Bretheda. As near as we can tell, it was all but abandoned because the priests of the temple couldn't convert the Barathus to the Religion. I think that had to do with a certain inability to communicate with the Barathus."

"When we offered to bring it here for our researches, the last of the priests left, giving us their blessing."

"You are certainly welcome to access our Mainframe."

"Thank you Thorion, I am most appreciative." She said with a simple nod. "There might be some clues, to something for us or me in there, or there might be nothing."

Then she looked at Revonoss and smiled. "From what I have seen in the ships archives, they break many laws of science and magic! That's why I want to make one!"

Revonoss laughs.

"I guess you are feeling lonely in your abilities then if you want to make one. Just let me know if you find something in that database till then i will be cleaning out this place."

And that is exactly what he is doing. Gathering literally all scrap he can get.

"Lonely in my abilities?" She asked cocking her head to one side. "Maybe lonely in my empty head, yes, but my abilities no. I have many an intelligent conversation with the ships computers in places where no one can hear them. You should hear the things she says. Yup." Phelar said with an accomplished single nod. Was she...being serious?

Then she looked towards Thorion with a soft smile. "I do not need anything special for the mainframe, I merely need to touch any terminal that has access to it." She waited for him to lead the way.

Thorion leads Phelar to a terminal and she taps into the temple's mainframe memory.

While there is lots of information in there that she finds fascinating, little of it seems pertinent to their mission. However, when does a search on 'Golarion', it produces two hits.

The first is merely a picture... apparently of her standing on a planet's surface at one end of a rainbow. Her end is narrow while the other end of the rainbow is much wider. There is no other data concerning it, no time stamp, no hidden coding in it.

The second hit is also an image. It shows seven 3-dimensional geometric shapes of different colors in a circle with one at the center. It has a caption: Dynaflux transoscillating retromagnetotron. The shapes are a violet cube (center), an indigo sphere, a blue trylon (elongated tetrahedron), a green multi-pointed star, a yellow hexagonal cylinder, an orange pyramid, and a red torus.

There are also a string of numbers in the lower left corner of the picture, which might be stellar coordinates.

"I...was there...?" A single tear runs down Phelar's cheek. "But that would mean, I'd have to of been there, pre-gap..." She continues idly.

"Captain, I am sending a pair of images to the ship." She says to him, over the communicator if he did not follow.

After that she will then search for any hits on the caption of the second image, then a third search for her name.

Meanwhile Revonoss is carting all the 'junk' to the ship and is looking up materials needed for a junk Golem and junk bikes. Who knew how long they would be traveling again and this gave hims something to do and added something that his companions liked to have.

Somewhat reluctantly, Sol helped Revonoss haul the room of junk back to the ship. It went faster once they retrieved a grav pallet from the ship's cargo hold as well as a cargo net. Pile stuff on the pallet, throw the net over the whole mess, and haul it back to the ship. Might only take 10 trips that way, rather than 100+ individual trips.

"Why would you think that image means you were around before the Gap?" Thorion responds to Phelar's comment.

"It's clearly not a photograph. No rainbow has ever looked like that, so you couldn't have possibly stood in front of one that way."

"Since Golarion is indexed to both of these images, it clearly means there's a connection between them... other than just the name, of course. No two of these geometric shapes are the same shape nor the same color, though they are all about the same size, assuming this image is to scale."

"I'd say the correlation is the colors. This dynaflux transoscillating retromagnetotron appears to need to be assembled. What it will do when it is assembled is anybody's guess."

"I think the pictures are meant to indicate that the person with the rainbow is supposed to find the matching rainbow colored objects. And assemble them, since the colors all come together with you. You might not be the only person this was meant for. If someone else had come looking, it might have been her... or his... image inserted into the picture."

"If you were me, in my shoes, you'd understand why I think that." She said with consideration to his words.

"Also, while a real rainbow does not look like that, a manufactured one for someone to stand by can. Even a green screen can make one behind someone." She pointed out.

"Still, all of that being said I have a feeling it was meant for people with special talents. Look at how I was able to get our ship here. How I was able to give you the information on on new drift engines, to prevent the pulling of debris into the drift. And look at how I access the computer after all." She said with a smile, and a bit of a proud look.

"Okay...back on track." She said, laughing a bit. "They are just pictures. Why would pictures do anything when assembled. Oh right, these number's down here, they are spatial coordinates I think. Maybe the item of the corresponding color is there." She scratches her head again. "Something tells me there is more to why my image was inserted there, but I won't know what or why until I find all of these things."

She then looked towards Thorion. "Thank you for helping me break down what I was looking at."

"You are welcome, Phelar," Thorion replies. "After what you've done for us, it was the least I could do."

"Besides, it's only my opinion. I could be wrong. You could be wrong. It does seem like your quest is on a trail of bread crumbs. If there even is an end, this may be the path that leads there."

"I would say that if there's anything else we can do for you, you know where to find us, but I really don't know how much longer we will remain here. The information you gave us about the Drift engines will require some study before we know what to do with it. How long that will take I cannot say. A day, a week, a month, a year... Well, probably not the latter before it becomes important enough for us to return with your information."

"I am not sure we could sell it to anyone, even if we finally understand it, but would  you not wish to sell it to a corporation to produce these new Drift engines?"

Revonoss has no problem finding data on junk bikes, but it is accompanied by much laughter, and an inordinate number of images of goblin-built junk bikes exploding. About half of them never go more that a few feet before exploding while some actually manage to work for a few days. Most of the explosions seem to be the same, though a few appear to be caused by poorly installed armaments.

Just from watching the videos, Revonoss gets the impression that the power couplings on the bikes may have been either faulty, or installed wrong. He interprets that as the goblin builders believing that one end of the power coupling is the 'up' end when it probably wasn't. It seems equally probably that they were taught wrong in the first place. Another 30-40% of the explosions may have been caused because an adapter wasn't used when it should have been, or else the wrong adapter was used.

As he looks over the scrap junk bikes, he's amazed that none of them had exploded!

The junk golem is another thing all together. There are a few treatises on making one, but no one has ever published a 'manual' for building one. The general consensus is that anyone who decides to make one just uses whatever scrap items he's got laying around. If he's got a photocoupler, then that's the power source he uses. Other power sources seem to be thermocouplers, celebur, and radium. Most 'authorities' agree, however, that a junk golem is made via technomagic.

AFter his studied Revonoss is certain he can make hover bikes that do not explode but doubts he can make the golem. Then again with the aid of Phelar who knows. He starts work on one of the bikes to make ti operational in a safe way unless interupted for other tasks.

"I would rather license it to all, make just a small profit from it over time. Like...1%. That way everyone get's to have it fairly cheaply, and I still get something for it. Then use that money to further other research into similar things." She said with a simple nod.

"Hmm..." She considered something a moment, but for now decided to keep it to herself.

In the process of helping clear out the 'store room', Sol had Revonoss identify any components that might be needed as replacement parts for this temple/ship. He then set up a shelving unit to one side of the room and put the parts on there, securing them as best as he could. Didn't want them flying all over the place if something happened!

"Well, I think that's the last of it," Sol said when the last of the junk was transferred to the Starhawk.

He thanked Saia for her help.

"You're welcome," Saia replied. "We're all in this together. No one said in the beginning that we'd only have to do the nice things!"

By now, nearly everyone has forgotten that you are still in The Drift.

The captain puts the ship back on its original course, which was to elude the Veska ship that seemed to be pursuing them.

It takes two days to complete that journey before the alert sounds for exiting The Drift. The transition, once you get used to it, isn't all that significant, but sensors don't let you see what's 'out there' waiting for you.

Not wanting to hang around long enough for the Veska starfinder to get a fix on them, the captain immediately sets a course using the information Phelar provided.

And once again, you are back in The Drift.

When it was time to transfer in and out of the Drift Revonoss made sure he was manning the sensor stations and for the rest he was working on building one or two junk cycles that would prefereably not explode when you kicked against them like the goblin ones. They might actually help when exploring surfaces of new worlds. Though a way to counter a Starfinder might be a good thing by now. Once he has a working model he asks Sol to join him for a test drive in the hangar bay.

"Sure, that'd be great!" Sol says, and heads for the hangar bay.

"Not that I'm doubting your abilities," he says to Rev when he sees the two junk cycles, "but just how powerful is the explosion if they go boom?"

Phelar will keep examining the pictures she had found on the drives, studying them for any other clues.

After awhile she would call the captain over. "At some point I believe we might need to visit these locations."

Revonoss chuckles and eyes the devices.

"Well i upgraded them. The engines pull a little more power  and the trusters have some btter boost to make em more agile. So i guess the explosion will have the force of the sum of their two half forces. Or something about there. But if you don't crash into things and dont soak up gunfire you should do okay."

Sol went ahead and mounted one of the cycles, glancing around the hangar as he did so, sizing up the area they had to maneuver in. Thoughts of cyclists spinning around inside the Globe of Death came to mind; he'd see one such act on Jordan's World.

He started it up and slowly started taking it for a spin around the deck, getting a feel for it.

After a couple of circuits without it blowing up, he stops along side Revonoss and asks:

"Can these tings fly upside down? Do they work against walls or is that strictly based on momentum?"

Revonoss chuckles.

"They can not fly at all. If you want one of those we should see if we can scrounge together stuff for a hoverbike. or take the shuttle."

"Really? My mistake, I guess," Sol replies. "I thought the junkcycles were hoverbikes."

"That explains the wheels better. I thought they were just for negotiating tight spaces."

"Still, do they have enough power to run across a wall? Just the centripetal force keeping you up there for a little bit."

"Anyway, I was thinking that a hoverbike would be more useful to us on our mission. And a lot more fun. So, can we work on making a couple of them?"

The scholar had been studying the images Phelar had found, and looking over the name and the objects. She knew it was supposed to make sense, yet it didn't.

"I don't suppose you've had any other insights into it, Phelar?" she said, approaching Phelar.

"Either these images aren't 100% accurate or there's no mechanisms within them. It's all going to be electronic technomancy."

"I think this device will let us... contact... Golarion. I can't see it having enough power to bring Golarion back, but it might have enough to send us there. At least then we'll be able to ask the right questions."

The time seems to pass slower than normal, but then the Captain is making course corrections while in The Drift. While not unheard of, it takes a very skilled astrogator to do it with any accuracy.

You won't know for certain if the Captain made the coordinates Phelar gave him until after you exit The Drift.

Although you can only polish the silverware so much, everyone with space travel experience knows how to keep occupied during the transit through The Drift. Sometimes it just means slowing down and not rushing through tasks.

So, the days pass quickly enough.

And then the alert sounds and the lights flash an hour before the 'scheduled' exit time to tell everyone to get to their stations. The exit itself had never been an issue, but you never know what you'll find once you're out in normal space again.

Unfortunately, Phelar couldn't tell you what you were going to find.

If she'd told you what you do find, you probably wouldn't have believed her anyway!

No sooner do you get out of The Drift than the alarms sound! You've emerged in the midst of a swarm of creatures! They don't seem to be aware of the ship at first, but soon start swarming towards it.

It takes a moment for anyone to identify the creatures--they are snarks. Often thought to be fantasy spaceman's tales, a snark is some strange amalgam of cat, dog, shark and bird. It's about the size a large shark, has the head of a dog with the face of a cat, and it has a pair of wings that somehow enable it to fly through space.

Some distance away, sensors pick up a large spherical object. The computer quickly identifies it as the snark nest.

Revonoss eyes Sol as he asks for a Hover bike right after the gift of the junk cycle and chuckles.

"Yout these days. Never happy with some solid wheels on the ground. Lets inventorise and see what we can do shall we."

And in the following downtime it was his next project seeing if he could make a small set of them for the team. And then the group exits the drift. Revonoss was at the scanners and curses at the blaring alarms.

"Engage or disengage sir?"

Meanwhile he scans the area for anthing else that might pop up to use when fighting or fleeing.

ooc: 09:45, Today: Revonoss rolled 19 using 1d20+12.  computers.

"Only what Thorian had told me. I assume you read the log I made?" She said in reply to Shaneel. She herself has been studying the images as well. "The question is, who would we be asking..."

As the days pass, she'll keep studying the images, trying to figure them out. Or gleam any other information from them. Then finally the alarms wake her from her trance. "What's going on now?"

She looks at the sphere a moment. "Why's that here? Can we get a more detailed scan on it...?"

The scan of the nest shows that it's made of debris... mostly rocks from asteroids, but also metal parts from ships. It seems to be held together mostly by ice, probably from comets.

Based on the size (about 2,200 feet in diameter), it can hold around 2,000 snarks. It's lined with a maze of tunnels.

As it turns out, the coordinates that Phelar provided are exactly where the nest is, so presumably, the first item is somewhere in the nest. There's no indication that the nest was built around it, but that still could have happened.

"It's a swarm," captain Zenith replies to Revonoss. "Evasive maneuvering isn't going to work, and their claws can do a lot of damage to our ship."

"Add to the fact that we have to enter the nest to get the artifact, we don't really have a choice. Engage!"

Dranthalas grimaced as he considered the Captain's words. Zenith was correct in his assessment, of course, but Dranthalas prided himself on his intense study regimen and he felt that there had to be something they were missing, some way to mitigate the swarm's potential damage.

If they couldn't evade them maybe there was a way to repel them. He wracked his brain for an answer as the snarks approached. An effective deterrent could augment the effectiveness of their attacks but time was running out.

The nest is rather dense because of all the debris it's made of, so a more detailed scan isn't going to be possible until you are right on top of it. Even then, you probably won't be able to get differentiation of all the individual items.

While you could probably blast the next apart, there's no telling how that might affect the artifact you are looking for, even if you could find it amid the outward exploding debris. Without knowing its composition, the only way you'd have of spotting it would be visually... unless, of course, it suddenly turned into a pulsar.


Snarks were known, but weren't encountered often enough that there was much detail on them. Usually, a ship could just avoid them. That, unfortunately, wasn't the case here.

It occurs to Dranthalas that there's probably one way to keep from taking damage, which is keep the snarks off the ship. Since he realizes that the Starhawk is more maneuverable than the snarks, the 'easy' way to do that is for the ship to spin like a top along its x-axis. The ship should be able to do so rapidly enough that the snarks won't be able to land. The only possible vulnerable points would be straight ahead and straight aft. If that becomes a problem, the gunners should be able to deal with that.


The gunners don't actually sit in the turrets like in the 'old days'. The weapons are much too automated and fast for that. Thus, anyone with Pilot skill is a gunner; you just have to sit at a weapons console and direct the weapons at the targets. It's mostly about keeping the weapons from firing indiscriminately.

Try as he might, Dranthalas was unable to produce the type of Intel that could provide them with a proverbial 'magic bullet' against the snarks. Nonetheless, he passed on his tactical suggestions to the Captain in the off chance that it was helpful and resigned himself to battle.

"Thus, a tight spin along the X-axis would limit our exposure to the fore and aft, funneling the snarks directly into our field of fire."

While he could not avoid the swarm, he could man a gunnery seat. He was a passable pilot, at least.

"Captain, if you have an open weapons console point the way."

"Thank you for the suggestion, Dranthalas," the Captain responds. "It certainly sounds like it'll work. Of course, it depends on just what these snarks are capable of."

"I doubt if they'll realize that they can get at us from the fore and aft, though, so we'll only have a few to worry about."

"Of course, that means we can't land on the nest. We'll have to drop the away team off in a fly-by."

"The next question is: how far away from the nest will they pursue us? Perhaps if we go slowly enough, we can draw most of them off."

"Normally, Phelar, I wouldn't ask you to join the away team in a situation like this, but, even though I'm sure everyone will recognize the artifact when they find it, I'm thinking that there might be some... 'catch' to getting it... one that only you can figure out."

"Is that acceptable?"

"So, Soneau, Revonoss, Solsantharis, Phelar and Dranthalas... you five will be the away team."

Revonoss nods and rushes to get into his combat gear ready to pilot the shuttle again.

"That's acceptable." Then she cocked her head to one side. "Why wouldn't you normally ask me to go on a away team in a situation like this?"

"This looks to be an intense combat situation," Captain Zenith replies, "and I hope you'll pardon me if I'm mistaken in that you are not a combat specialist. So, not only will this be quite dangerous, but if we're to have any hope of succeeding in finding Golarion, we can't afford to lose you."

He calls Revonoss back for a moment.

"You won't be using the shuttle. We're going to do a 'touch-and-go' maneuver. We'll touch down for as brief a time as we can to drop you off and then keep going."

"You couldn't set the shuttle down and just leave it--these snarks would tear it apart."

"No, you'll have to check out the nest on foot... not too bad in the low gravity, but the shuttle might not fit through the tunnels anyway."
This message was lightly edited by the player at 19:31, Sat 10 July 2021.

Revonoss groans but only a little. The shuttle was at least a nice layer of steel to protect them. But he nods none the less.

"Alright captain. So we are going in really hot. Do we have some grenades in storage we can use? They might come in handy to clear out rooms."

Dranthalas' confidence waned with the news that they would not be taking the shuttle, but only a little. As soon as he heard the Captain's reasoning he knew it to be sound; the shuttle's hull would offer precious little protection against a concerted snark assault anyway. Still, a little protection would have been nice...

He nods at Revonoss, "Agreed. We should make sure we pack well or we may not be coming back." He wasn't usually so dramatic but he felt that now was a good time to indulge himself.

"Although I must admit. It is a singular academic opportunity.", he thought out loud. "To study the snarks at such a close proximity." He prudently left unsaid, Because there are not many who encounter snarks and live.

He turned back to the Captain, "Do we have anything to carry some of their tissue in?" He noticed the team's questioning glances. Then, by way of explanation, he added. "For further examination. It may expose some of their weaknesses to future expeditions."

"Considering our mission, the answer to your question, Dranthalas, is 'yes'," Soneau replies.

"We have the usual investigative kits, a bit abbreviated because we are not investigating a crime, but they are capable of storing samples."

"I suppose gathering a bit of knowledge as we go is prudent so that our mission, should it ultimately be unsuccessful, will have something to show for it."

The Starhawk is able to maintain a spin while it approaches the nest. Five minutes before impact, it suddenly accelerates, leaving the snarks momentarily behind. Then it touches down on the nest, and the away hurries off the ship and into the nearest tunnel.

And then the ship is gone... for the moment.


As the team starts to head into the tunnel, you all notice that the tunnel walls are composed of an assortment of debris. A lot of it is rock, but there are bits of machinery and spaceship parts mixed in with it.

There's very little gravity in the nest, and it's primarily down to the center, so as you walk forward, it's like walking downhill.

There are no snarks immediately visible, but there are several side passages.

She nods to the Captain and at his reply. "I believe I can handle myself very well in combat sir, but I respect your vision."

She then followed the others and dismounted the ship as the away team took to their mission.

As they touch down Revonoss readies his weapon not planning to be taken by surprise by these things and sends his drone ahead to scan for trouble as he looks at their little band.

"So formation? My guess is we put Phelar in the middle. Anyone confident enough to be front man?"

"That's why I'm along," Soneau replies to Revonoss. "Not sure a scout would do us much good down here... too alien a terrain to have any sense of tactics."

"Push on, as fast as we can. The less time we spend in here, the less chance that we'll have to get attacked!"

Taking the point, she began to hustle. The 'downward' slope of the tunnel would probably cause them to fall if they tried to run, and might make them run into a wall if the tunnel made a sudden turn.

The walls of the tunnel weren't smooth, with jagged rock edges sticking out, but you could pieces of them on the floor knocked off by passing snarks, indicating they had tough hides.

Nor was the tunnel particularly straight. While it didn't make any sharp turns, it did kind of weave back and forth like it'd been dug out by a bunch of drunken miners.

Every so often, there'd be a side tunnel leading off from the main one. Oddly, though, no snarks were visible down any of them.

It wasn't until you got almost half a mile deep that you'd spot a snark down one of the side tunnels, but they didn't react to your passing. As a probably hive mind, your group wasn't perceived as invaders this deep inside the nest. Outside, yes. Deeper, probably. But for now, it was smooth sailing.

Once you stirred up the core, though, all the outside ones might start to reenter the nest to defend it. Fortunately, they could only come at you one at a time down the tunnels. Well, maybe two at a time if one came up behind you.

By the time you reached the halfway point, the downward slope has gotten steeper. Hustling is out of the question now; in fact, it's almost to the point of having to climb down... except for the lower gravity. Soneau just simply lets herself fall, grabbing at handholds to slow her fall. In any case, because the gravity is so low, you never pick up that much speed, and not all that quickly anyway.

If the situation wasn't so serious, it'd actually be fun!

And then it happens. A snark comes out of a side tunnel just as Soneau is passing it. The snark collides with her and drives her into the opposite side tunnel.

Whoever is next then collides with the snark! It lets out a startled squeal/bleat/shriek, which you can't hear because of the vacuum, but it does register on your comms!

Soneau whirls around, having felt the vibration in the ground, and sees a snark entangled with Solsantharis.

She fires her arc pistol at the snark.

22:39, Today: Soneau rolled 11,7 using 1d20+6,1d6+1 ((5,6)).

"Damn! Missed!" she swears over the comms.

"Don't just stand there!" she yells at the others. "Help him!"

She then charges at the creature in an effort to separate the two.

Revonoss was in shock for a short moment but then Soneau rouses him from that moment of inertia and he grabs his pistol and sends the drone over to assist. But though their aim is true trying not to hit allies makes it that they do little harm.

ooc: Revonoss shoots and hits AC 20 for 1 damage with cold
Drone hovers in overhead and hits Ac 24 for 1 damage.

10:57, Today: Revonoss rolled 24,1 using d20+6,1d4.  Drone.
10:56, Today: Revonoss rolled 3 using 1d6+2.  cold damage.
10:55, Today: Revonoss rolled 20 using 1d20+5.  Pew pew.

"What the hell?" Was all that Phelar said as she drew her explorer handcoil and fired it at the snark!

[OOC: 01:07, Today: Phelar Morilla rolled 24,6 using 1d20+4,1d6+2.  explorer handcoil.
01:11, Today: Phelar Morilla rolled 3 using 1d6+2.  Additional Crit Damage.
Hit AC: 24 (Nat 20, Critical Hit.)
Damage: 9 Electrical

If there is a second enemy near it'll arc to it for 1d6 electrical damage too.]

While Soneau's miss and the minimal damage that Revonoss and his drone delivered didn't seem to affect the snark at all, Phelar's electrical shock seems to have at least startled it to the point where it runs off back down the tunnel it came from.

It doesn't seem to have sounded an alarm, although in the vacuum, it's not clear what that would have been.

After a quick assessment of Solsantharis, who wasn't injured at all, just knocked down, the group hustles forward again.

The tunnels aren't really straight, and even when they diverge, one side always seems to head deeper into the nest.

Although you catch glimpses of snarks down other tunnels, none of them seem to be heading in your direct or even indicate that they are aware you are there.

After about an hour of weaving through the tunnels, you come to the center of the nest. It's a large open area with a spherical tangle of material in the middle, connected to the sides by strands. There's a single large snark sitting on this sphere, and there are half a dozen other large snarks prowling around this inner room. Their claws allow them to grip the material and literally climb up the walls and across the ceiling, though that's only from your perspective, as there is no gravity in here.

Phelar looks into the room and frowns a little. That where a lot of snarks.

"I really wished we had some room sweeping weapons now. Think we can communicate with the big one?"

Think we can ommunicate with the big one?...Of course! Drathalas was embarrassed by the simplicity of the question. It was a long shot but worth a try. He immediately began to chant the tell-tale language of spellcasting, his hands moving in concert with his incantations.

He looked at the lark snark perched upon the sphere and says in a loud, clear voice. "Can you understand us? We mean you no harm." He winced at the cliched request but it seemed apropos.

[OOC: Drathalas casts Comprehend Languages.]

"Right idea, Dranthalas," Sol comments over the comms, "but I don't recommend taking your helmet off to try and speak through the vacuum of space."

"I can't imagine them being able to pick up, let alone understand, radio transmissions."

"I also don't think fighting them is the answer. I don't know if the large one is their queen or a pack leader, but unless I miss my guess, I'd say that's what we're after just under her right paw. I suppose it was scavenged like all the rest of the materials this nest is made of."

"The snarks seem to be vulnerable to electricity. That suggests a possible way to get them to leave this room even if only temporarily."

As expected, there is no response from the large creature, nor from the other ones.

It doesn't take much mental effort to realize that the smaller snarks are guarding the leader. As such, they will not leave the room as long as the leader is there. Therefoe, as long as you don't enter the room, they won't attack you. That makes it a stand-off.

After Dranthalas's attempt to communicate, it prompts Soneau to try her own method. The leader is out of reach, but perhaps the guardian snarks can be reached.

She attempts to contact the closest one telepathically.

After a few moments of concentration, she reports her results to the others.

"As I suspected, there's a mind there, but it's not intelligent... exactly. There's a rudimentary spark but it's mostly bestial," she says over the suit comm.

"While it's still conceivable that the leader is more intelligent, either due to becoming the leader or because that's a criterion for being the leader, we'd have to get closer in order for one of us to make contact."

She looked around at the 'walls' (in theory, they could be standing on one of them, depending on one's perspective in the zero-gravity), but couldn't see a way past the guards.

"I don't suppose you have any shock grenades, do you, Revonoss?" Sol asks.

"I have a static shock pistol. I can combine that with my solar mote. If the three of us--me, Revonoss, and Phelar with her handcoil--all attack at the same time, that might provide enough electrical energy to chase the snarks from the chamber."

"Anyone else have a better idea?"

Solsantharis was right, of course. The odds of the creature hearing/understanding him through his space suit were incalculably low but his telepathy was limited and, thus, insufficient so he gave it a shot.

He sees where she is going with her line of questioning. "I have an energy spell that can cast a ray of electricity. Although it is of modest damage, it may be beneficial to our needs."

Revonoss shakes his head.

"I got 2 smoke and two frag grenades but thats it. Maybe we can sneak in under the cover of smoke but i fear we might need the object not just look at it up close."

"If they wanted to attack, they would have by now. They are protecting him, waiting for us to attack." She said pointing to the leader. She considered something for a moment. "Maybe, if one of us just goes over. I can use telepathy like Soneau, wait here and cover me."

And with that, Phelar casts two spells. The first, fabricate scrap, the second Vigilant Junkbot. After a moment the little bot begins to float around her as she enters the chamber, ensuring that she displays a non hostile mannerism as she does so.

As Phelar steps forward into the chamber, the closest snark steps forward as well, and seems to physically threaten Phelar, though it still doesn't attack just yet. It seems to be keeping an eye on the others, though.

As the snark shows some sense of inteligence by stepping forward Revonoss holds up his hands in a non hostile matter. He was anything but pleased that Phelar just ran off like that. She seemed too important to do somethng this foolish.

Phelar stopped the moment the snark comes forward, extending a hand out towards it palm up to demonstrate her intentions of none hostility. She will switch the vigilant junkbot to it's melee protocol, then she will reach out to the snark with her mind.

As Phelar steps forward, Sol keeps his hand on his weapon just in case the snark decides to attack her.

He really didn't want to have to kill any snarks... or any other creature, but sometimes it was inevitable. The best he could hope for was to attempt to keep from getting into a situation where that could happen.

Somewhat strangely, when Phelar is able to make contact with the snark's mind, she doesn't find the bestial savagery she was expecting. The mind isn't intelligent, but there's a sense of curiosity and defensiveness.

There's also a link to... other minds! There's some sort of hive mind to the snarks.

Although she can't speak the snark 'language'--if they even have one, she easily understands that mental concepts for them are not language based. Or, if it is, it isn't a vocal language since sound doesn't carry in a vacuum.

It's also animalistic... simple, concerned with day-to-day survival. 'Friend' and 'peace' don't seem to have exact correlations, and Phelar realizes that most animals don't have 'friends'. They have 'threat' and 'no threat', but she realizes also that her thoughts conveyed the 'no threat' idea.

The snark glances at the rest of Phelar's group, and when they make no threatening moves,, it glances back at the queen/leader.

At this point, Phelar realizes that they are waiting... for more input.

As Drathalas watches the scene unfold, he notices, specifically, the sharks reticence to attack at Phelar's approach. Suspecting some type of, at least, low level intelligence he throws his support behind Phelar and moves from a defensive to a nonthreatening stance.

He copies the palm up gesture and holds out both hands in front of him and walks slowly forward behind Phelar. He reaches out to them with his limited telepathy, trying to indicate peaceful intentions.

She motioned for Dranthalas to stay where he was for right now, then turned her attention back to the Snark's.

Looking at each in turn for a moment, she would now focus her attention on the leader/queen. She will then reach out to it.  As she communicates with the leader she will continue her slow, nonthreatening approach.

In reply to Phelar Morilla (msg # 132):

Dranthalas stops in response to Phelar's gesture. Making no further move to approach, he watches her progress with great interest.

As Phelar moves forward, the snark in front of floats out of the way to the side. There does not appear to be any significance to the object in the nest that you are looking for... it has no place of prominence, it's not really part of the structure, and it's not a 'shiny bauble' that would have been collected as 'treasure'. It's just one of several not-too-different other objects in the nest. In other words, it just looks like junk or debris.

When Phelar approaches the pile of debris, the Queen/Leader backs up a bit so that Phelar doesn't actually have to get too close. Even when she slowly reaches out to touch the violet cube, there's no reaction. Apparently her thoughts of 'non-hostility' coupled with those of the others sending the same thoughts are pacifying the Queen.

It takes a little bit of wiggling to get the cube loose, but Phelar manages it without too much trouble or disturbing the pile.

Once its in her hands, she backs up slowly until she's out of the room.

Revonoss looks in partial awe and relief seeing they seemed to pull this off without incident. He lookst at Phelar and her prize.

"Got what we came here for?"

"That's the violet cube," Sol comments. "How many violet cubes do you think there are in the universe?"

"So, now, we need to get out of here. If we run back the way we came, we'll quickly be out of range of telepathically influencing the snarks, so... run like hell! Well, jump or climb or whatever here in the low grav."

With that, he turns around and starts going back up the tunnel as fast as he can.

He nods and assists the group with the jetpack he has on his suit. It was time to bolt so that was what they where doing.

"Yes, I got what we came for." She said with a gentle nod. She also seemed to not be in to much of a hurry to run away either. "I do not think we need to run away. They know we mean them no harm. As long as we continue to show them no hostile intentions, I feel their leader will continue to keep them at bay until we leave."

Then she considered for a moment. "We should notify those back home of this encounter, and how we were able to move amongst the Snark's. It could help with research and understanding them, and possibly even being able to coexisting with them." She said as she looked over the cube more closely, examining it as she walked behind the others.

At Phelar's suggestion, the group doesn't hustle quite as much as it had started to. Indeed, now that they know the snarks are somewhat vulnerable to electrical shock as well as telepathic influence, the threat does not seem to be so great.

In due course, they reach the surface again, and the Starhawk is waiting for them there, having been notified via comm.

As was shown in the illustration Phelar found, the violet cube is about 24" square, and each of the six faces has an indentation in it. Each indentation is geometric, about an inch deep, and corresponds to the shape of one of the other objects in the picture.

Once you are all aboard, the ship quickly heads away from the territory of the snarks.

"...I wonder what it does. This also only reinforces my theory that I was meant to be where I was. Still leaves the hole of how I got there, or why." She said as she sat there examining the cube. Her one blue and one green eye taking it in with interest.

Lee was arriving after stowing his tools and clothes. He really wished that someone else had the ability to Mindlink as effectively as he could. Manual reading was almost physically painful.

The no-nonsense from the security officer made him smile. He liked her but there was hardly time to make friends as yet.

He gives a quick introduction by way of, "I'm Le'Auil, just Lee is fine. I prefer telepathy and days spent free walking in the void. I am better with my mind than most. The Void blesses me and I can pass that on to others... Mostly."

"I am glad you qualified that middle statement with a...most." She said with a small smile, as images and words flash on a computer screen next to her. No one was touching a terminal near it, and only once in a while she would glance at it, almost as if double checking data. It was hard to tell if she was more entranced in the cube, the terminal, or both.

Having met two humans with cyberware that allowed them to do exactly what Phelar seemed to be doing, Lee wasn't certain why a human- of anyone- would be concerned about a Lashunta saying they were better at using their mind. To all but a very rare few humans, it would be a given. The slight confusion leaves his face after just a moment though when he closed his eyes and let out a slow breath. "What is your name? You seemed to be considering that cube... Something about getting to a place unexpectedly. I just arrived to help the explorer team. Maybe I can help. Tracking things is what I do, though only twice have I had a job where I'm tracking backwards from the endpoint. I also have some understanding of the mystical as the Universe is a mystical place."

Complex or swift computer usage WAS a bit beyond him personally, and he was too diplomatic to question her about it or get into any kind of contest.

Phelar had no visible cyberware, least none that anyone save the medical team could identify. Finally as Le'Auil addressed her she would look up to him. "I am Phelar Morilla. I can use telepathy to access minds at distances greater than your race normally can, and to access the minds of computers and constructs. Not only am I a technomancer, but I am also a psychic. I have been blessed by Triune, and the Dream Prophet's."

Then she looked at the cube again, and back to him. "Actually I am not trying to get anywhere, yet. I am more trying to determine it's use, which is my speciality as a Technomancer. Amongst other things."

Revonoss looked at the new one and Phelar getting to know each other as he was getting himself a coffee from the mess. The old Lashunta carries Phelars regular drink and puts it down next to her as he looks at the new recruit.

"The name is Revonoss. I was technical support till we found this young lady that might actually be a lot older then either of us. Who does things with tech i did not consider possible. I assume you are send over to join the 'away' team?"

"Yes, sending my mind through our ships communications to the other ship to use their internal sensors was both a interesting use of both technology and telepathy!" She said adding to what Revonoss said, beaming at the idea, and success of it.

Then she smiled at the drink. "Ooo...thanks!"
This message was last edited by the player at 07:22, Sun 12 Sept 2021.

Lee nodded to Rev, "I've expanded my telepathy well beyond the standard of our species. It would be easier to communicate most of that using one such gift. Rather than take the time of more mundane communication. Finding lost or runaway things has been my profession for several years now."

He turned to Phelar... His mind was twisting up with a myriad thoughts. Most at least polite if not particularly awed. He was impressed by Rev's praise but was unsure of the usefulness of taking information from machines that, in his experience were, likely to not know anything useful. Maybe it was just cynicism from dealing with too many criminals and people who tried to hide useful or valuable things, "Well, good luck with that since you don't want assistance." He wasn't the type to disparage others nor did he consider it useless gifts. Technomancy was a rare gift and any being dedicated to any art deserves respect.

"I never said I would not need assistance, just said I do not need it yet." She explained calmly, finally looking over to him again. She had one blue eye, and one green eye. It was obvious she had a human condition known as heterochromia.

She looked at him for a moment, cocking her head to one side, as if gauging him. "How are you with memories? Digging into one's mind?"

Lee smiled, "That depends on what the issue is. An unwilling target that actively knows... I can extract information but it is unpleasant at best and possibly fatal to them at my current skill. Something a willing target simply forgot, I think I can help with that. If someone else hid or removed the memories I can determine what method was used... Half of the time. The other half I will require more training to determine but by then I will be able to fix anything in the first half. It may be some time, but I have seen visions of the powers of the Void. I will eventually be able to fix all those things and even more, unless perhaps, one believes in Divine affliction." he held up a hand and a green scale 8bit animation of a brain throwing documents from inside itself to the wind appeared in the air above said hand but after a moment another brain grabbed them and stuffed them back until a cloud fried them both with lightning and the animation ended.

She nodded once, then looked to Revonoss with a small grin, before looking back to Le'Auil. "Then I have the ultimate test of your mental skills for you."

Revonoss returns the smile and eyes the bitter youth and nods.

"Aye i think mister 'you dont want my help' is going to earn his wage well before he is shown his quarters."

He laughs again and eyes Le'Auil.

"So whats your preferred drink? I'll grab one while you two get to know each other. Though the risk of injury means i want you both in the med bay when you start."

Lee smiles to Rev, "Odd as it may be, icewater. The void has plenty of alcohol and other chemicals. I favor it to celebrate life and the void all in one neat cup, or packet as the case may be if there is only liquid water, I can adjust."

Lee looked at Phelar, "Is it that you want me to work on you or is there someone else who you want me to work on? If the mind in question is willing I have never had damage result and we would begin with analysis first there shouldn't be need for a med bay... Unless it is someone unwilling, stashed in another room," he was a little lost still since he didn't use telepathy for anything other than tracking minds moving about at the moment.

She looked to Revonoss and smiled. "That is what he said, and I would be most willing. Plus, right here would be a good place as I am tired of seeing the inside of  that medbay. All those check-up's all the time are getting bothersome."

Then she looked towards La'Auil. "Yes Mister Le-Auil, you are correct. I am the one you are to look at. One they found me in that temple, I was a blank slate, no memories of anything. The only reason I even know my name is because it was in the stasis pods that they found me in computer. Take a look inside..." She said tapping her head. "...and see what you can find, or find out, if anything."

Lee nodded a soft smile and began to let himself lift from the floor a few inches as the dark markings from his skin seemed to expand and engulf him the darkness crawled and shed as it spread nebulously down an outstretched arm and began to trail off from Lee into the room around them. Lee looked into the mist that began to slowly turn and gaps became apparent to most people's eyes it was a fine mist after it settled into it's slow revolutions. To Lee however it would light up anything being acted upon by magic. "Just Lee is fine. If you have any active magic at work on you please stop it if you can. That will let me get a better reading. Most magics fade almost instantly. I've never witnessed magic that left aura for more than 5 minutes. Remove known magical gear from your personal and put it on the table." He ignored the glow of some of his own backpack, his voidglass was in there and was faintly magical but he was aware of it.

After he had a chance to assess, assuming the result didn't overwhelm his senses, he would open telepathic link to share the view of the glittering void with the others.

OOC: Making detect magic epic again!

Establishing a telepathic link to another willing mind is easy. It's like a computer's communications handshake, only your mind does it so fast that most people aren't aware of it. So, Lee sends out his telepathic thoughts to Phelar and her mind recognizes it and accepts it. Technically it works the other way as well, though, in this case, Phelar isn't trying to establish a reverse contact.

After that, it starts to get tricky. Depending on what Lee is trying to do, Phelar has natural mental barriers that go up as soon as someone tries to probe beyond the surface. While Phelar wants to remember who she is and where she comes from, it takes a concentrated effort to lower those barriers.

For Lee, it's a bit like stepping into a house with a lot of rooms and closets and cabinets. Most telepathic minds have mental compartments where certain information and abilities are 'stored'--these rooms represent her compartments. The first room is the equivalent of a living room. This has all of her current memories from when she woke up. There's clearly nothing here about her life before then.

There's a door in the living room that he then checks out. He opens the mental door and can't help laughing at what he sees--it's a closet with a skeleton in it.

Lee continues by looking into the other rooms in Phelar's mental 'house', but they are all empty. He's not really sure what that means, but it's like everything was removed from them. The last one, however, if it's a room beyond, has a locked door. Or, more precisely, the door won't open. There's no visible lock or doorknob. If there's a way to get through it, he can't figure it out.

Again, he doesn't know what that means, but it would seem as if something has been 'locked away' in her mind.

T

Le'Auil sat back and considered the jaunt into the deeper mind he just had. The answers might correlate with information he could glean from his spells.

"Do you have any idea what a skeleton in a closet is doing -being the only stand out thing in your mindscape?" he asked Phelar. He tried to access the medical database to look at skeletons maybe the species would be recognizable and that could lead them another step.

"...hm, interesting. Skeleton in a closet you say?" She tapped her chin, then shrugged. "As I am sure you saw, I am a blank slate. I am not sure what else you saw in there other then a skeleton in a closet, though that is a good clue that I have did something in my past." She explained. "It's a metaphor. Human's use it alot. A metaphor that means there is something about me that I'm trying to keep secret. Some think I was placed there, but I am beginning to wonder if I didn't maybe have a hand in my placement. Anyway were you able to tell if someone influenced my predicament? Or did you see anything else?"

A hand held terminal comes to life, and some things flash across it's screen until it settles on the explanation of what "skeletons in the closet" mean as a metaphor. She then hands it to him.

"Hello. I'm Solsantharis, though Sol will do," Sol introduces himself to Lee.

"A skeleton in a closet! How amusing! Yes, it signifies a secret that somebody wants kept, though whether that is of Phelar's doing or someone else's or even a combination of the two would be hard to say. Such skeletons usually come out eventually, so maybe that's what it signifies... that there will come a time when the secret is revealed."

"And, yes, Phelar can talk to machines, but she doesn't build them or repair them... well, not as well as Revonoss. And certainly better than me!"

"It is interesting that you... or she... saw her mind as a house with a lot of empty rooms. I suppose an alternative could have been a bunch of blank slates... literally. I wonder if that has some significance? Like maybe it's supposed to be a house of cards, or maybe its supposed to mean the House of Rann... or whoever."

"So, Lee, having just joined us, you missed the point of our finding this violet cube. We ran across this temple/ship in The Drift and Phelar found an image in the computer that showed her with a rainbow and then these seven colored geometric shapes that looked like they were meant to fit together."

"We interpreted this as having to find them, though it wasn't clear what would happen when we found them all and put them together."

Le'Auil nodded and the datapad floated softly to the table. "Good to meet you Sol. I'm familiar with the metaphor. I've worked with and even for humans in the past, I just don't want to overlook a possible literal connection. It looked like this," he held up his hand again and a 64bit image of the skeleton manifest which he slowly put more resolution into and enlarged until it was laying on the table.

"I agree the environment of the mindscape says something of the individuals. I've seen some that are pretty terrible to visit, mine is a solar system in which each planet is different portions of my life. Some have moons of important events of that phase or people if I knew them well enough. But at the end of my exploration of Phelar's- your- mind," he said turning to her, "I saw a door that was at a minimum out of place without a doorknob and would not press open. Maybe it indicates something actively sealing off the rest. Once I have more skill with the void and how its power reflects into the mind I can perhaps make periodic checks and see if things have changed. It may be a default setting but... Why that? Many spacers have ships or fleets or shipyards and stations... Where were you found? Was it this team?"

She cocked her head to one side, well, more to the other side this time as she looked first at Sol, then at Lee. "The house could mean the structure of my mind is still present, just not the substance that was in it. Sort of like a flask that someone drank all the fluid out of. You still have the flask, just not what was in it." She said with a simple nod.

"As to why there would be a skeleton in the closet, I am sure there is a secret in my past someplace. This path we are on now may well lead us to that secret, and my memories." She said with a small shrug.

She taps her chin considering. "That is odd...  From what I have read via the ships database while trying to learn more about myself and my own abilities, a door like you describe seems very much out of place. Locked away portions of ones mind is normally behind a normal locked door of some sort that takes effort to break down. This one though...  I wonder if a certain event has to happen for it to open?" Then she paused, looking at him regarding his last couple of questions. "Yes, this team found me. It was at a temple that had script in it dedicated to each of Triune's base deities, before they merged into Triune. It was located out in the vast."

Lee's eyes opened a little wider, "A puzzle box! That's what I'm reminded of. Doors with no handles are common enough. Magnetic locks or even TK locks might be sealing them. Of course actual telekinesis used inside your mind doesn't work. But I am loosely familiar with other powers I mentioned before, that can work as whole construction crews in the mind or other powers. Less common are crystals with matrix to amplify power for a single use of one such, if we came across some I could use them now. I wouldn't expect to find them but we might be able to get some with a gear replenishment sent from the Grand Vizier."

Lee considered a few moments more, "But the skeleton is still in the present or accessable portion. It should have happened sometime since you began forming memories. It isn't sealed away. You may not remember actively or perhaps it is just a nod to your favorite occult related holiday. The mindscape is unique and the more we know about ourselves the more it is possible to make sense of what is found there. Yours has little to no context unfortunately."
This message was last edited by the player at 11:30, Sat 18 Sept 2021.

"I cannot have a favorite holiday when I have no memories of any holidays." She said with a small frown as she reminded him of that. "...no, I have been continuously suspecting that I have had something to do with all of this. Both in the past, and now as the means to resolve it." She continuously frowned at the thought. "The question is, what and how. I am sure that is why the skeleton is there."

"It almost feels like we're still one step away from getting a handle on this," Sol agrees.

"What abut you, Dranthalas? Got any insights into this?"

New to this group, Lee closed his eyes and focused to recognize, trying to ensure he could recognize these minds again without having to see them with his eyes. He didn't want to confuse anyone on this ship now with a potential enemy later. He'd had to save a target or two from devastating attack with orders to bring them in alive. He had no desire to crash one of the few friendly minds he should have the backs of.

With the talk about Phelars mind going off into the abstract and unclear Revonoss gestures at the device they found.

"Mind if i have a look? See if we can get it to interface with something.

"Huh?" She said to Revonoss. "Oh...interface. Why didn't I think of that. Yeesh, I merely have to think and I can interface with any computer in existence. Yeesh... I'm the genius here, and I didn't even think of that. Let me try this first, then we'll try the old fashioned way." The she thought a moment. "Still, keep an eye on things, okay?"

Then she looked at the cube, and because to try and access it with her mind. Hoping it was some form of computer.

Lee panicked for a second as the girl announced her intended action. "I'm not the most tech savvy anywhere... Certainly not in the room, aren't you concerned at all about security software? I've encountered mind traps, aren't software things more common? And you just dive in with your brain?"

"I can handle them. Dealing with computers and anything computer related comes as a second nature to me." She explains, almost absently. Almost as if she was only partly there. "I'm even slowly beginning to see your minds as just an organic computer."

[OOC: Figured I'd drop a hint as to a future class ability I'm taken. ;) ]

Revonoss looks over the cube but finds no seams on it. If it wasn't for the odd assortment of indentations, he'd think it was probably just a paper weight.

He then tries to detect any energy that was being emitted by the cube, but he can't detect any. Next effort is to see if it reacts to any energy that he can generate, but again, the cube seems to be totally inert.


Phelar now tries to interface with the cube. She gets the sense that it's a machine of some sort, but if it has a computer, she can't 'find' it or interface with it.

The effort, however, triggers a memory!

She sees herself in a house, apparently like the one Lee described in her mind. She is younger than you are now, but you can't quite say by how much. She's writing on a green chalk board. You know it's you because you can see your reflection in a mirror just to the side of the chalkboard.

You are writing astrogation coordinates on the board. Someone off to the side that you can't see tells you that it is correct.

"...I...remember..." She said softly. "..a house...a chalkboard." Then her eyes suddenly go wide and she activates her communicator. "Captain, I believe I know our next destination!"

She then looks at the cube again, then to Revonoss, Sol, and Le'Auil. "It triggered a memory. I was writing coordinates on a chalkboard. Someone else told me that they were right..."

Revonoss smiles at the young woman.

"And so we are on to the next step on this fox hunt. And till now no sign from our pursuers so lets go."

Turning to DRanthalas he asks.

"So are you already quartered in? Got any hobby to pass the travel time?"

Having nothing directly to add, Dranthalas is quietly but intently watching the events as they unfolded. Revonoss' inquiry shifts his thoughts back to himself. He smiles as he considers the companionable question. "Thank you. Yes, indeed I am settled in and I do have a hobby, so to speak." He sighs, suddenly tired. "My hobby is continuing study, of all things practical and interesting. It should be more than sufficient to pass our time in travel." After a short pause, he asks Revonoss, "And yourself, will you have time for a diversion during the trip?"

"Well said, Dranthalas," Sol comments. "Just remember--all work and no play may make you a dull companion!"

"My hobby is, essentially, my calling. I study worlds and space and species... and do my best to catalogue them. I am currently detailing our encounter with the snarks... committing to paper, as it were, everything we learned about them. For me, that is fun."

"Do you play cards? I like dragon poker and its predecessor, fizzle binochle, because of the vast complexities of the card permutations. Dragon poker is fun because of the ancillary rules... you know--day of the week, which direction you are facing, what color socks you are wearing... that sort of thing. Some, of course, are standard, but the ancillary deck has the weird rules, generally enacted by the turn of a number of cards determined by the roll of a six-sided die."

"Fizzbin, as it's usually shortened to, on the other hand, is all about the card permutations. I've heard it claimed that there are players who have actually learned all 1700 permutations. I haven't decided if that's a noble goal or not; I only claim to know about 30 of the stranger ones."

REvonoss smiles.

"Aye more then enough time. I like to tinker with tech as much in my free time as on the job. Build Slsantharis a nice junk bike but we have had no time to actually try it out yet. So we do not know if it will explode with him on it."

She frowned at all the talk about hobbies, she had none that she could remember. Though she had a strong desire to want to build a junk golem. Maybe that was a hobbie she had...building magical living constructs? Finally, she spoke up on the topic. "...I do not remember any hobbies that I had, but I do have a strong desire to build a junk golem."

She reached near the terminal near her again, and input the coordinates in it that she saw in the memory, to see where it went to. It seems using her telepathy to access computers has become second nature to her finally.

Lee wasn't certain they were ready for his most enjoyed recreation... "I can provide life support and snacks if you want to test that bike outside so as to minimize ship damage. I'm afraid I'll be practicing skulking or meditation to pass the time. I prefer to meditate outside, though a good match of wits is welcome." Meditation outside, that much was safe to say on it at least.

As Phelar puts the coordinates into the computer, Captain Zenith analyzes where they will lead.

"Once again, the coordinates lead out into The Vast... out into an unknown and unexplored section of the galaxy," the Captain explains.

"While your offer with the junkcycles is appreciated, Lee, we need to get underway as soon as possible because the Vesk are pursuing us. They have some way to track the ship and the only way to avoid them finding us is to keep moving."

"Once we're in The Drift, we'll see about the junkcycles then."

After using the ship's sensors once more to scan the surrounding space, he activates the Drift engine, sending the ship into The Drift once more.

"Lee, I think you helped with the memory, as did my interfacing with the cube directly. The house I saw in it was as you described, only less empty." She explained when the Captain was done talking to him. "If the Captain is fine with it, I would like to work with you more on my issue."

Lee thought a moment, "How many such jumps have we already made? How different from each other have they been? I'd like to do an analysis of the jumps to date if we have three or more, to start some profile on what is going on. I might be able to pull a location if we are on a path or if we are moving around a particular point. I have found a number of targets by looking into negative patterning for beings that don't want to be found or obscure pattern analysis for targets that don't care or know someone is looking for them."

The Vesk were a concern but they weren't just locusts to mindlessly consume. They were honorably minded. "Have the Vesk attacked this ship before? What areas were damaged?" His mind began cycling though myriad tracking analytics. This might be a place that makes more use of him than he originally anticipated.

"This will be our fifth entry into The Drift," Captain Zenith replies.

"The first one took us to a planet with a lone temple on it. That's where we found Phelar. In the next transit, we encountered a stranded Gnome mining ship on an earth slab in The Drift. The next transit found another temple/ship in The Drift at the edge of a fire aspect. That's where Phelar got the information about the device."

"The next transit took us to the snark nest."

"We're apparently on some sort of treasure hunt, as each place or item we find leads us to the next one. Whether this will get us to Golarion... or just to an answer about what happened to it... we don't know."

"The Vesk haven't gotten close enough to attack yet. I'd rather they never do that."

"The first temple, the one that they found me in, has writing's to Triune's three aspect, or lesser deity part's. For whatever reason she is why I can use computers with my mind." She said with a simple nod. "The other temple he mentioned was to Casandalee, which is an aspect or part of Triune. It's where we found the information for the items we're looking for now."

"You forgot the temple to Toma Thule we jumped to." She reminded the Captain. "We jumped there before the temple near the fire aspect."

Lee thought a bit on what he was being told. Old gods made new, young gods, certainly Phelar was making more sense now. It was odd that they would visit Triune, or all the composite in a shared shrine and only one separate piece. It was interesting that all of these places were holy sites. He would need 6 points at a minimum to plot a point in space at their center. Unless they were blatantly forming a path then there likely want much to be said for the points so far.

"I am also interested in the kinds of styles and decorations that were in the room or rooms that you could see if you could help me with that, then maybe I can get a better idea of who the people were who lived or worked there."

Revonoss chimes in on that request.

"Good thing my droned goes everywhere we go. I got footage of about anything for you. I'll send you the link where its stored on our system if you like. Its several hours of footage so enough time to dig into that."

Lee nodded, "Indeed the places you visited might have some clues perhaps but the house Phelar remembered might be the biggest clue. How we waste time and resources tells much about what we might do in other areas."

Lee began recreating the general lay out in holographic pieces on a large dollhouse scale on the table, adjusted pieces here and there gesturing for Phelar to add and interact.

"Well, I sure feel like a ninth wheel," Sol said as he watched Lee build his holo-house.

"Didn't see inside Phelar's mind, so a blank slate would seem appropriate."

"How about you, Dranthalas? You got any insights into this stuff? I'm starting to feel like I'm just along for the ride."

Dranthalas remained silent as he considered their current plight, listening with intense interest to the others' reasoning. He had gotten involved later on in the process than some of the others and felt that he was still a bit behind. His guarded nature meant that he tended to be circumspect in his speech which was exacerbated by his desire for additional information.

He smiled a Solsantharis' sentiments which echoed Dranthalas' own. "I understand the feeling and share it to some degree." He responded, pausing for a few moments before continuing. Then, to Revonoss, he added. "Lee's point is sound. I, too, would like to view the footage. Perhaps it would help give my thoughts better direction."

She stopped concentrating on the computers for a moment, and moved closer to the repsentation of the house that Le' had created that he had seen in her mind. "...lets see. It was this room here I believe. There was a chalkboard here...  I was standing here writing on it. And from what I could tell by the sound of the voice there was someone else in the room, likely about here."

Then she looked over to Sol and Dran. "You are not a ninth wheel. Everyone has a purpose for being here. A reason, some are just not known yet." There she goes, talking about fate.

Revonoss laughs.

"And some think they are on board as IT specialist just to be shunted to the side by a living computer picked up on the way. I think we simply have to many overlapping skills to feel special. But do not forget we are on a mission that needs the brightest minds so it was inevitable to happen."

He gestures at his own computer multi screen setup at his work station and invites those interested to take a seat as he opens the mission footage folders to show what they want from Phelars temple and star map up to the interior of the snark nest.

Lee shared in soft laughter his humor registered less physically than as a feeling that he was genuinely amused and sympathetic, Unless Phelar is hiding some exceptional telekinetic skills which -no offense intended, doesn't seem to be her style, you'll always have a place as hardware specialist.

A lot of these mental abilities are kind of my wheelhouse I have an overlap with everyone here as the ability to speak to people's minds and with most of you as a at least moderate telekinetics. meanwhile I'm absolutely certain that the majority of you could beat me in virtually any kind of athletic contest, as long as it isn't surviving naked in space.

She cocked her head to the side as Revonoss said he was shunted to the side. "You have an ability I don't have. Your drones. Sure, I can summon junkbot's to help defend me, but only after I fabricate the scrap with a spell, or find scrap laying about." She said simply. "Plus a little overlap of skills and abilities is not bad, what happens if someone gets knocked out? Having someone else with similar skills is handy."

"...though I have one ability, no one else does. That I am still unsure of where it came from." She said as she looked down a moment. "...the visions."

Then she looked at Le a moment and smiled. "You mean these telekinetic skills?" She said as mentally lifted one of his pistols from it's holster and pulled it to her then grabbed it from the air. She then handed it back to him.

Then she smiled. "Rev can pilot way better than me! I mean WAY better than me. I only know the basics."

In reply to Phelar Morilla (msg # 187):

Dranthalas nodded at Phelar, his face exhibiting a grateful smile. "Thank you for the reassurance. I agree that, in truth, all 'wheels' are important. I was merely empathizing with Solsantharis since I could understand the feeling of being a bit behind in this situation." His forehead creased in consideration. "Although, it is quite understandable given the circumstances and the helpfulness of your gift. I fear we will all be needed more than we even desire, soon enough."

This trip through The Drift gives Revonoss and any who wants to assist him time to build the junkcycles, even improve them so that they won't blow up... especially after just one use.

You also continue to study the cube, and between Dranthalas and Phelar they are able to determine it is, indeed, a power source. It's nature, however, is beyond them, though would appear to be immense.

Also, try as they might, they can't figure out any way to harness that energy. When the other objects are attached to it, presumably it will power them, but the mechanism by which the cube will transfer power to the other objects is currently unfathomable.

Also oddly, if there's a computer inside the cube, Phelar can't tell or communicate with it. It seems unlikely that there isn't some sort of regulator within the cube... regulating the power. If there is, in fact, a computer, it seems to be shielded from her. On the other hand, it could be some type of analog device.


All too soon but never soon enough it seems, the ship exits The Drift into normal space again. You are definitely in 'uncharted space' this time, beyond where any known ship has gone... or known to have gone.

Within a few minutes, however, the ship's sensors detect an electric storm up ahead. It seems to be fairly large, but it can probably be flown around though it'll take a few days. Apparently what you are looking for is on the other side of the storm, but your sensors can't penetrate it well enough to tell.

Le'Auil casts the spell Know Coordinates using the cube as an anchor/reference point. While normally the spell only works on a planetary body, apparently the anchor point enables it to work out here in the Void. You already had coordinates for the next piece--that's what brought you here in the first place. The spell, however, appears to refine those coordinates, adding a few extra decimal places, which means you have a specific location down to within about 10 feet.

"This is the Captain. As he can probably see from the sensor screens, we've encountered some sort of electrical storm... here in space. I'm not sure how that's even possible."

"There seems to be some sort of pattern to it. It's also in motion. We're trying to figure out where it came from and where it might be heading... assuming it has any direction."

"Le'Auil, Solsantharis... this seems to be right up your alleys. Have you got any knowledge about this phenomenon or what we should do about it?"

Le'Auil began to think back through what he knew, "I'll share what I can recall with everyone in just a few moments Captain. Or failing anything significant, I'll volunteer to try to communicate with it." He traced fingers along a large raw crystal he wore, usually strapped to his torso. It's negative emotion rose but he took that into himself to sharpen his own mental faculty.

OOC:
 Le'Auil rolled 20 using 1d20+13.  Perception.
 Le'Auil rolled 20 using 1d20+9.  Mysticism

Sol studies the sensor readings, trying to make some sort of sense to them.

16:00, Today: Solsantharis rolled 14 using 1d20+12 ((2)). Physical Science check.

Oh, no! He fumbled his brain! Well, almost...

"I have no idea what we're looking at. I can't even explain how an electrical storm like that can exist in space let alone stay cohesive while in motion," he announces.

"I wouldn't get too close, though, or it might discharge into the ship!"

Revonoss sits at the sensor deck and scans the storm much like the others.

"Captain i'd like to send a probe into it to understand this phenomenon. It might be a part of the electric plane much like the fire one."

Phelar began examining the sensor readings a moment, then the screen. "Hmm..."

[OOC: 05:27, Today: Phelar Morilla rolled 18 using 1d20+10.  Mysticism.
05:26, Today: Phelar Morilla rolled 20 using 1d20+10.  Physical Science.]

Dranthalas moved in close, examining the sensor readings over Phelar's shoulder, trying not to disrupt her work. He hoped to add his  expertise to the effort and was optimistic of quick results given the crews' complementary yet disparate viewpoints.

[OOC: 14:42, Today: Dranthalas rolled 16 using 1d20+11.  physical science check.]

Lee began to speak excitedly, "It may sound crazy... I do believe the cube is a battery, but dead. I think that this IS part of the para-elemental plane of Lightning. I also think we can use the battery to absorb all this and clear a safe path but also prepare the cube to take on future job as power source. I can go out there and place the cube or prepare another with magic faster than donning a suit though I am less willing to risk another for my thoughts though."

((OOC: Bleh. Crappy week.))


The captain gave Revonoss permission to launch a drone to investigate the electrical phenomenon to see if there was a way through it rather than spend days going around it.

Between the ship's sensors, which were broader in scope, and the drone's sensors, which were a narrower tighter spectrum, a lot of data was coming in.

Phelar's scientific knowledge, after eliminating several more obvious possibilities, finally came to the conclusion that this might be a life form!

Dranthalas, with his own analysis, agreed.

Once that was determined, Revonoss could 'fine tune' his drone remotely to gather additional information. It quickly appeared that this wasn't one HUGE singular lifeform, but many individuals. He couldn't get the drone to delineate them, or to differentiate between them. Whatever made one electrical lifeform different from the next, the sensors weren't able to determine that.


The drone did register a vast amount of static... not unexpected with so much electrical energy, BUT... with this new information, examining the static produced the possibility that this was how they communicated with each other!

In a way, it could be a language.

After more evaluation, analysis and sensor tweaking, it seemed like it might be possible to communicate with them.

It would take a blending of several skills, though... Computers, Cultures, Diplomacy, Mysticism, and Perception. Use the skill with the highest score as the base, and add half the score of the other four.

"Excellent work!" the Captain congratulated everyone. "I never would have thought that this was a lifeform!"

"I guess I really shouldn't be surprised... out here in the Vast. It's a good reminder, though, that we can expect to run across phenomena that our outside all our experiences. We need to keep an open mind to these new possibilities."

"So, you think you can communicate with it? Who thinks they can do that?"

"And, Le'Auil, how does that affect your intent to recharge the battery? Would you want to try and trap one of these creatures in it?"

Revonoss looks at the data and all the work they where doing together a small smile on his face at yet another grand discovery. Visiting a snark nest and now a space born electric entity. Just imagine the stories he would be able to tell his great grandchildren.

"Well i think we could make a tesla coil. Thatshould be able to produce the language. I can build it and program it but i think others should be helping me on the cultural and diplomatic aspect. We might even find the entities willing to discharge into the cube to power it?"

ooc: Revonoss brings computers 13 and perception 7 (3 or 4 then) to the table.

Lee didn't hesitate, "If I get close enough I can tell if it is intelligent or several intelligences. I also feel like I have a pretty good shot at communicating with it on a useful level. In general I try to only imprison those that deserve it, I have spent the past several years as a Bounty Hunter, Captain. It may be nice, but maybe it knows a guy," he ended with a chuckle.

OOC: copied from my ooc post that has more details...

diplomacy 7(3), culture 8(4), mystic 9(4), sense motive 10(5), perception 13

Auto senses intelligence at telepathy range.

Can survive in space with no metal, magic, or tech active on him... and still maneuver freely, oh, and may light up at will
This message was last edited by the player at 18:08, Wed 27 Oct 2021.

Even the the normally reserved Dranthalas couldn't help but smile at the their discovery as well as their Captain's praise. He was truly given a great gift to travel with this crew. A nest of snarks and the possible discovery of an entirely new life-form! His colleagues would be beside themselves with jealousy. His smile widened with his last less-than-gracious thought before he regained his proper, more scholarly, composure.

He considered his options to determine what he could bring to bear against their current challenge of first-contact communication with an electric entity. If he were somehow able to combine his years of scientific study, limited telepathy, and comprehend languages spell with his companions' particular expertise they may be able to create a link with the strange creatures.

[OOC: Sorry to hear about the crappy week. Praying it turns around for you
14:57, Today: Dranthalas rolled 17 using 1d20+11.  Computers 8, Cultures 4(2), Diplomacy 1(0), Mysticism 0, and Perception 3(1).]

"Well, that let's me out!" Sol says when the parameters for communication with the aliens were explained.

"I can see a few problems. First, we're going to have a hard time getting close enough for our telepathy to work. Getting that close could make the electric beings perceive us as a threat. And we don't know how effective their attack, whatever form it takes, might be against the ship."

"While you can free float out in space, Le'Auil, what protection do you have against the electrical energies? We think this electrical phenomena is a lifeform, but I'm not sure that means we can contact them telepathically. I'm just saying that we should have a back-up plan. If you are out in space, you'll need some sort of communication device to contact them."

"Also, it's great that you have the Comprehend Languages spell, Dranthalas, but given the nature of these aliens, it may not work. Or may not work the way you think it will."

Le'Auil nodded, "Could be dangerous as hells. Could be as simple as finding a common frequency and speaking over comms. Could be that someone needs to give up their body to THOSE electrical impulses for a while to act as a medium.

Captain thinks it's a good guy, or several good guys. There are a lot of variables and I would feel better having a communication module that I could freely change electrical amplitude and frequency of..." He looked at some of the scans and the visual feeds, "The facts we have are still small. I'd like to send something like a drone but it might think all electrical energy needs to be free. From batteries to neural synapses we'd be hosed. I've been in a lot of weird situations and have learned to keep eyes open for anomalies that suggest hostile movement or intent in sentient and animals alike... Doesn't mean I like it, just means I might be the best small investment at this juncture. If it is native to space then maybe the Void will help me out."

"I'll try. After all I was able to communicate with the snarks." Phelar finally said softly with a small nod. "I'll need some time, and help from Revenoss setting something up to protect from from the electricity as I get closer. Mentally I should be okay though."

"What do you think, Revonoss? Can we send a drone out?" Sol asks.

"I can think of two things we might one to explore first. If this static we're picking up is an actual language, that pretty much implies that it's intelligent. And while it's possible that it isn't aware of non-electrical beings, I find that kind of hard to believe. As strange as it is to us, we've at least determined that it might be and intelligent being. Beings."

"The second thing we should probably explore is... how does it maintain cohesiveness in space? Is it capable of interstellar travel? Or is it confined to one system?"

Revonoss nods.

"Aye i think sending out a drone as our 'spokes person' is the best option. It will be able to relay our message and we will not die if the speak through electricity like all of you. First work on first contact then study it further."

Lee nodded and sent telepathically to the others 'I will continue to monitor the anomaly for indications of it recognizing the ship's presence, searching for something, are moving about. I'm currently going to be looking at it through the eyes of one studying a non-sentient predator.'

"Why didn't I think of that?" Sol says. "It could easily be that it's looking for something to prey on... to gain more electricity."

"On the other hand, it probably gets energy from the sun... not just light but electromagnetic energy, possibly other particles."

"Is there some way you can program the drone to kick in a physical drive to get back here if it starts to encounter problems with the electrical energy?"

"Also, send it in a little bit at a time. Wait. Is it going to emit some kind of signal? Do you think it can pick up a radio signal? Oh! What about multiple signals? Repeat something in our language... like, 'Greetings. We come in peace. We are the starship Starhawk.' Then after repeating a dozen times, change it up to another repeating message."

"How about you, Le'Auil? Know any good first contact lines?"

Lee's mind cocked an eyebrow if that was possible, "How you doin?" he issued vocally with more swagger than he had previously thrown around.

'Honestly, I'm a hunter. If it isn't my target I say something like Greetings. I only bring my gun that is on stun to the table. I buy a drink rarely that's over done. Chicken strips isn't though. Appetizers go to a person's stomach and makes them like you without seeming like you want something like alcohol does. I don't even go to the table until I've done at least an hour of analysis though.

This thing could be dying, without a more consistant environment. Or it could be fine. We've already been over how this isn't really anyone's wheelhouse. his eyes were still on the scans looking for indications of nebula shift or crawl in all the fluctuations. He imagined frequency and amplitude, possibly size and directionality of flashes all meant something but was it twitches or tapping a foot... Was it breathing or blinking... Or was it crouching as if to spring forward... He hardly knew and worse he knew he didn't know.

"They do appear to be just drifting," Soneau points out. "Not seeing any signs of propulsion. I'd guess that would be electromagnetic. Until it gets within range of a planet, it wouldn't have any way to move. Plus, it's probably conserving energy."

"I doubt if it's some sort of energy vampire, but if we could give it some extra energy, that might be helpful."

"I believe our armor is EMP-proof. One of us could go out there suited up until we're within telepathy range. That's an option, isn't it?"

Revonoss starts working on his wrist screen to work out a drone that would suit all specifications.

"We could include an oxygen tank that releases its pressure when there is loss of controll and program it to be always aiming in the general direction of the ship. But that assumes the entity will not grab hold or has some form of gravity well around itself. But an emergency escape could be possible yes. But its only interesting if its signals are cut off.

As for sending someone out. I rather not have anyone out there before we have determined how dangerous it is. Anyone within telepathy range is far out of safe distance in case things go south. And i doubt any amount of electrical proofing is going to help against that thing deciding to zap you."

Lee pitched in to support Revnoss' assessment, Even with my Voidglass shard increasing my natural telepathy ranges we are talking about... A lightning elemental that is some days across large. Or possibly a colony of smaller elementals which would be far safer to a particular individual if they could be guaranteed to move freely, faster than the elemental. The void is normally an insulator which may be trapping it/them the way most of us would be suspended.

If it is one it will have a reach of what... A day's travel? If a colony then we may need some different tactics altogether.

If it/they are hostile we WILL likely lose whatever we send first.  Did you all have any interaction with the Fire from that plane?

"Interesting thought--that this is an elemental," Sol says. "I've never heard of a lightning elemental. It boggles the mind if this is one humongous lightning elemental."

"On the other hand, it could be a lightning elemental swarm. I always thought a swarm, though, implied low or no intelligence. Instinct behavior."

"I'm not getting any sense of hostility, but that could change if we threaten it in some manner."

"So, yeah, try to establish contact first."

The trick to communicating with this/these creatures is analyzing the static signal you are receiving and figuring out the method it is being generated. You could probably generate your own static signal, and eventually work out a language, but you have no way of knowing if they could detect the static.

It turns out that the static is a sideband of electrical pulses that course through the electrical 'storm'. Further analysis determines that these bear a significant resemblance to neural impulses you find in organic beings.

With the team collaboration and his Void shard in hand Le'Auil begins first attempt at communicating. He has a few low budget visual effects via Token Spell in mind to help in case telepathy isn't as effective as they had hoped. He could also turn on and off his whole body as far as light effects go but he could only carry that on for a few minutes.

Le'Auil rolled 44 using 1d20+29.  Commune with lightning in space.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:07, Wed 10 Nov 2021.

Lighting up and off doesn't seem to have any effect as far as establishing any communication with the electrical beings. As near as anyone can tell, the electric cloud doesn't seem to be able to perceive the change in light... probably because light itself doesn't react with electrons.

It's about figuring out something that they CAN detect. Possibly gravity, but it might need to be higher than you can generate.

Putting their heads together, Dranthalas, Le'Auil, Phelar, Revonoss, and Solsantharis are able to come up with the OBVIOUS solution: electricity. The question then becomes how to transmit an electrical current. That turns out to be an easy solution--use a carrier beam. You heterodyne the electrical pulses on a radio signal. Getting the right frequency is tricky because you want the radio signal to get disrupted when it contacts the electrical field and thus release the electrical pulses.

You could also put in a little bit of electrical energy to 'get their attention'.

On the other hand, a micro current might wind up being the equivalent of a whisper.

However, it is Lee that figures out the language... such as it is. It's probably not a sophisticated language... more simplistic because there aren't as many ideas that need to be conveyed. At least, that seems to be reasonable.

A certain amount of repetition makes him think that that particular sequence of pulses represents a 'name'... probably not like people, but merely a way to identify one electrical being from another, at least among themselves. It therefore seems like the best way to start the message as it would be directed at a specific 'individual'.

So, what message do you want to transmit?

Lee says aloud, "For an animal language it is like if one could talk to a child. I say we try to transmit that we mean no harm then see how complex they get if we ask if they want any help. I can be just over an hundred feet away and transmit a more complex signal personally asking them to make a safe passage for us by moving aside or simply not blasting through us if it doesn't hurt them for us to move through their space. Those are more complex and I doubt traditional telepathy skills can make it happen. Anyone think we should do differently? I mean I do expect to re evaluate after asking our question about help. But in case they reply they don't need help I wanted to have a next step."

"Good point about complexity," Sol concurred. "I'm sure they'll have concepts equivalent to love, joy, danger, and so forth. It's the technical end of the spectrum that they won't know. Hell, even biological references may beyond their comprehension, such as brain, lungs, air."

"On the other hand, it depends on just how intellectually advanced they are. While we have difficulty comprehending the full nature of these electrical beings, we still didn't have any problem identifying them as such. So, they'll probably know about gravity and light and magnetism and physical planets. After all, the planets will generate electrical energy to recharge them. Knowing about organic beings that might live on the planet... probably not."

"As to what to say after we say 'hello'... How about something like... where we are from, and where are they from. Exchange information. Then we ask if we can pass through them to get to where we are going."

Since the ship was now drifting with the electrical swarm, there was no hurry to get the communications situation ironed out.

It took a little bit of finesse to get the radio carrier beam dialed down to just the right frequency. Soon enough, the message is transmitted.

Within seconds, you get a response! It's more of that static but it seems to be more focused now.

zzzzz You are not of the Mind. zzzz What are you? zzzzz Who are you? zzzzz Where are you? zzzzz How are you? zzzzz How are you communicating with us? zzzzz

It takes several minutes to actually translate all of that since there are concepts involved that you hadn't previously detected in the internal static communications among them.

Lee produces a single snapping noise without moving, "That answered a lot of questions. Of course it leaves a few new ones. There is a ton we may learn from them but perhaps we should just be clear about asking them to reposition... Though I'm surprised the focused beam isn't acting like a voice to our ears. They should have a decent ideas of our location -generally at least."

He brought up charts, and tried to get the computer to do something before getting frustrated by it, "Please get this thing to sort out some radiative anomalies... From there we can ask them to move by giving them six anomalies around where we want the destination to be. I'm not averse to continued dialogue but we have a mission too. Anyone want to add anything?"
This message was last edited by the player at 21:09, Tue 16 Nov 2021.

"We should answer them before they decide that we are hostile." She said considering the questions being asked. "Unless, you want me to try?"

"For all our techno-magical knowledge, it does seem strange that we still don't know the fundamental nature of telepathy," Sol responds. "Of course, we learned to use fire thousands of years before we understood its nature. Hope it doesn't take that long for us to figure out telepathy."

"So, what that means, is that we still don't know if we can communicate with these electrical beings telepathically, even though the electrical impulses seem to mirror those of the human brain."

"The bottom line is that we don't know if you can communicate with them, Phelar, as if they were a machine."

"I'm not sure how to explain to them that we wish to pass through the space that they are currently occupying. Communication is possible, but it's handicapped by lack of a common language."

"I don't think we're going to find common ground in just a single exchange of... words. They may understand the concept of direction, though. Reference the sun and planets... and motion."

"I can communicate with things if they are machine, or biological. It is worth the try. That being said, I suggest having me hooked up to medical equipment before I try though. As a precaution." She said with a simple nod.

Lee sighed he didn't have time to speak while planning some astrogation which was NOT one of his strong suits, like his failure with computers sure he can make a computer work, by telekinesis or by hand, but he WAS kind of hoping his request would make one of... Anyone better with computers than himself light up. 'As they are clearly neither mechanical nor biological by anything close to our standards... The only thing 'worth a try' definitively is setting a course around them while refining communications. I can give them an instant 10 minute upload IF they have a mind for telepathy to work on regardless of language. The problem is if I don't make it 6 minutes of identification and math then two minutes of explaining our understanding of who they are and two minutes of explaining the concept of making way so we can pass we may not have another opportunity to actually express such complicated thoughts. It still would put me at risk of them deciding I'm food or hostile or adorably in need of petting and frying me.'

Taking much longer than virtually anyone else here would likely need he brought up the required numbers for radiation and mass that his connection to the Void could at least help him convert into relative feelings for some kind of explanation. He had some thoughts that were only mostly hidden about teenage girls' seeking daddies' approval or having problems with their fathers but it was one thought and only a tenth as clear as his speech... He just muttered under his mind.

"I think I have a convoluted way of asking them to move as well as describing at least the ship in a way they should be able to reference. Do we do both Captain? She is your ship. Identifying us would put a target on us, friendly or no." emissions patterns on a few different frequencies and relative mass effecting gravity it would be a wonder if these beings hadn't already dismissed the ship as a rock or not a wonder if they had ignored it completely.

"While I am well aware of our mission, I also don't think the chance of success is very great," Captain Zenith replies, "though I suspect it goes up with each step we take."

"Still, it is within the scope of my command to investigate other mysteries. I think this qualifies as such."

"I suppose going around them isn't really a difficult task, just time consuming because we have a pursuer. So, going through them is the better option. But I still think it is worth our time to establish communication with these electrical beings and learn more about them."

"I think the greatest threat they pose is damaging our ship... well, us, too, but we can alleviate some of that. In the case of the ship, if it looks like we might be under attack however inadvertently, engineering will shut down all power."

"In our case, we should keep a wire from us to the ship to ground us."

Dranthalas pulls himself out of his meditations, during which his talents were practically lost to his companions. He is not used to working closely with others but promised himself to remedy the situation. No further retreats into himself to the detriment of his crewmates. "I apologize for my", he searches for the proper word. Finding none, he continues. "absence. As for my 'two cents' as they say, I would always err on the side of first contact. If there is any way for us to converse with such a novel alien intelligence, it is worth the risk. I, personally, would be willing to take any risk to attempt such a meeting."

He looks at the Zenith, "Besides, as the Captain says, we have neither the time nor the distance to waste by avoiding them."

Revonoss looks at everyone deciding who wants to make the first contact and simply sits down at his console to make sure all data gets recovered and stored for study of this new species when one after another volunteers to make first contact.

"Well maybe we should gather in the shuttle and set out. It will pose the minimal risk option as we only loose the shuttle and its crew when things go bad. But i also think someone should reply to that message unless we want to be rude in our first contact."

He says with a gesture at the translated message on the main screen.

Lee's mind sighs, as he shuffles around some more on the computer interface to ensure that he has the specifications he sent a text based message to medical asking for biochemical libraries of their explorer team. The more literal they could be about who and what and where the more likely they could establish some understanding.

Describing their craft as the medium through which they move as an electrical circuit. This transmission was going to be a lot of math that Lee wasn't ashamed to be copy pasting. He would be very careful that he wasn't wrong by much though, "Y'all ready to jump into the shuttle and go? I've got a couple minutes on this still the electrical... Resistance and... Capacitance of our bodies seems important to let them know so that they can maybe have contact without harm if they want. I'll just cable to the outside. I can work while we walk after switching this to my compad . "

Everyone who feels they can contribute to the first contact gets into the shuttle, or onto it in the case of Le'Auil, and the shuttle launches.

Once clear of the ship, it changes direction to head for the electrical phenomena at a very slow speed.

The first thing to do as the shuttle gets within range is to try telepathy.


While Phelar and Sol are likely to have the least to contribute on this venture, Phelar is in the pilot's seat.

With 140 ft range via Telepathic Message to bridge the gap Lee hopes to not have to move too close. His mind link, 10 minute insta-brief of telepathy, is prepared and has graphs and charts that show correlation between locations of stars around them and their types as well as some words for more complex concepts that might want to be shared. Rapid fire pages of definitions an images collapsed to a fine burst... If they have enough mental control, language will be less to no issue. Less power and control will be needed for concepts of spacial relation in the local area. Even less to the biological necessities of our team and resistance of the shuttle. Even less to suggest that we wish to befriend them if possible and move through their space without conflict.

He plans to message, -We wish to learn from you and travel in peace-

At 45' range he can still use the limited telepathy with others in the ship. The team would know of his idea and he'd offer to send more 10 word messages as the group likes. He can only get 10 word replies though and doesn't want to risk being closer than 100 ft until they have had a few simple messages that establish decent intentions and calm demeanor from the electric life forms.

When Lee did his thing outside and Phelar sat on his regular pilot seat Revonoss was sitting at the computer with the rudimentary translator program to translate the general static in case Lee's plan did not work and makes sue the specially prepared communications drone is send out to him once they closed the distance. He will try to have the drone relay the same message as Lee but then in static.

Dranthalas' plan is simple. If they can successfully approach within his limited telepathy's range of 30 feet, he will cast comprehend languages and attempt to communicate with the entity. If he is able, he will send a message of peaceful intentions and a desire to learn.

The shuttle slips out of the ship and slowly approaches the electrical phenomenon. Surprisingly, as you get within about 30 feet, it starts to move away from you.

Both Dranthalas and Le'Auil can attempt to make telepathic contact with the entities.

At 140 feet, Le'Auil sends his message telepathically. It's only a second later that Revonoss picks up a massive increase of static.

Le'Auil picks up a thought... at first, he thinks it's a 'stray' thought, but he quickly realizes that the entity is trying to reply in a way it isn't familiar with. A moment later, Le'Auil is overwhelmed by the sudden influx of thousands of thoughts... all the minds in the 'collective' trying to talk to him at the same time!

This lets the shuttle get within Dranthalas' telepathic range. While he's pretty sure the Comprehend Language spell won't have any effect on telepathy, he quickly discovers a side effect that he hadn't ever experienced before. It lets him focus on a single entity. It's like if he was trying to communicate verbally with ten people at the same time that all spoke a different language... it'd be just so much babble unless he focused on just one of them at a time.

He gets the impression that he's communicating with a/the leader, though that may be a bit misleading.

~~You... not... us... you... other... who... you... what... you...~~ The thoughts are somewhat disjointed.

Le'Auil, finally recovering enough to push away the many, many thoughts, discovers that he not only can listen in on Dranthalas' communication, but he's acquired a massive amount of data on the Zzzzaxxxx... apparently the single thought that identifies them to themselves. It could take hours, days, months, perhaps even years for him to sort through it all, and that's assuming he winds up even understanding any of it.

Lee's instincts came just short of using his Scream until those same mental static skills that let him stun a person or two at a time sort of helped him separate himself from the whole mess of telepathy slightly.

He got it in a short span. He sends a telepathic question to Phelar, Can you... copy/paste thoughts to computer data files? if you can be ready and brace yourself... it kinda disoriented to get the data from the Zzzaxxx... so they seem to call themselves. maybe you can get it to the computer and then to the main ship via relay. machines may be able to sort it out faster than me... But can you get it delivered?
This message was last edited by the player at 15:39, Mon 06 Dec 2021.

"Yeah, I can do that. Could do more really, but I'll do that for you." She felt sort of like a fifth wheel right now. Even sounded a bit frustrated at being nothing more then a pilot and a copy and paste doll right now when she could contribute so much more. "Let me know when you are ready."

Using telepathy he connects and mindlink for passing the whole mess over though he decompresses it somewhat to fill the slotted ten minutes of available compressed communication after she is done he then suggests, 'You are welcome to work on it personally or contribute as you see fit. We clearly aren't stopping anyone. Copy paste is an important task in catalog formation though and certainly none of this exploring could be done without pilots so please don't disparage noble and essential professions though is good to be eager while we are young...'
This message was last edited by the player at 17:18, Fri 10 Dec 2021.

Both Lee and Dranthalas quickly realize that there is going to be a 'translation' problem as the Zzzzaxxxx don't have a 'spoken' language. One of the issues Lee is having is that he has to convert a thought into an equivalent word. He doesn't have to do that for himself, as he understands the thoughts well enough, but most of the thoughts don't translate into words... or, more precisely, words into thoughts.

Big concepts like planets, suns, and the distance between them 'translate' well enough--they have perceptions of those things. Small details are so totally alien to them that it takes several separate thoughts or a string of thoughts to convey them to the Zzzzaxxx, and even then, it's not fully comprehended.

One thing that Dranthalas picks up on is that there seems to be a 'leader'--a stronger 'voice' that the others, though, again, the concept of leader seems to be foreign to them. To their way of thinking, they are all one common mind, though Lee knows now that that isn't truly the case. It's an alien way of thinking.

This leader appears to be bigger and more powerful than any other single Zzzzaxxx, but the degree isn't readily discernible via thought.

Dranthalas, at least, is able to direct his thoughts at just the leader, who seems to have designation of A'Zzzzaxxx, further indicating that there are multiple entities.

After several minutes, Lee is able to sort out the 'noise' in his head. It was sort of like being in a crowd of a thousand people who are all talking at the same time and trying to understand what any one of them is saying.

Dranthanlas focuses his thoughts on A'Zzzzaxxx, fearful of losing the connection. We are peaceful travelers. We would like to learn from you. Who are you? Can you teach us how to communicate with you? He sends the thoughts more like ideas: we, travelers, you, peace, learn, communicate. He continues to concentrate his mind on the 'leader', awaiting a response.

Being able to sort them out to an extent, he starts figuring more of their thought interactions if he can. After all, he has trained to identify thought and mental patterns. He may not know a "face" until he can physically see the mind he has known but he can track a mind in a crowd.

It is the inversion of this technique he wants to apply. He begins to ask the void to dance. Drifting and shifting around, only a little slower than he might normally walk, he quite literally danced among the void causing his line to pay out. If new minds came into range or other minds dropped out he would at least have a idea of how many minds were in any given area of 20 feet or so. He could mindlink with others and would do so. He would try passing out mental 'power point' presentations and see how efficiently they communicated different information to each other. It might be easier to teach them than to learn everything from them, though he would have to rely on a team mate to supply a table of elements so he could begin talking with them about physical matter from a place they might understand.

Meanwhile Revonoss was working away on his computers trying to make some rudimentary translator for direct communication as he sifts through massive loads of data presented by the rest of his team. He radios to the away team.

"We need to convey that we like to pas but that our predator should not be let through once they catch up."

"Maybe let me try Le'Auil. My mind doesn't exactly work like the rest of yours so I might be able to convey the thoughts to them in a manner they understand more clearly." She said, offering him the consideration. "I have a feeling that we might need to think to them in a more binary way... Much like how I control and link to computers mentally."

"Interesting idea, Rev," Sol comments. "Good thinking. I'm not sure it'll matter. Even if the Vesk ship used the exact same course, which is almost impossible, the time factor would put it somewhere else when it dropped out of The Drift."

"In ways we still don't fully understand, the universe is dynamic... it's in motion constantly in one way or another. These Zzzzaxxxx weren't just stationary here in space. They were moving. It was so big that it'd take too long to go around or wait for them to get out of the way."

As it turns out, once the initial premise has been absorbed and considered, everyone has a piece of the 'puzzle'.

Dranthalas has figured out that simple, single thoughts work best. It's one of the reasons why it's hard to 'translate' telepathy into words and vice versa. All the peripheral grammar just confuses thoughts.

The Zzzzaxxxx, especially A'zzzzaxxxx, doesn't understand yet that you are physical entities.

~~You... communicate... this... way... where... you?~~


Lee is able to discern up to 6 Zzzzaxxxx minds at any given moment in a 20' radius, but they are constantly in motion, moving around within the electrical cloud much as individual fish in a school swim around without ever touching each other.

He does run into a problem with his 'power point' presentations. He has no problem transferring the image via telepathy, but there's not comprehension of what it is. They don't quite understand the concept of a two dimensions. Or the physical universe... at least as Lee understands it.

While they normally communicate via electrical impulses, they are capable of telepathic communication. As near as Lee can tell, they've never done it before.

In a way, it's like teaching a child.


Phelar can access the comms and attempt to use her binary ability to generate static to communicate with them. It takes considerable trial and error before she gets the hang of it. It's an odd 'translation' problem... converting a series of binary impulses into the electrical 'language' that the Zzzzaxxxx use. Each packet of electrical impulses that they use conveys SOME information, but it's not in a language. That's what binary is--a language.


Each one of you manages to 'teach' a single Zzzzaxxxx or group of them a bit of knowledge. Each such  bit is rapidly disseminated to the rest of the Zzzzaxxxx, but because the group is so large, it takes nearly an hour for the entire array to get each bit.

After several hours of this, Dranthalas, Lee and Phelar are mentally exhausted. You've established a viable method of communicating with them. I many ways, you've just taught a blind man to see... or the equivalent of that.

Lee is pleased at the communication boundaries they have been able to appreciably approach. He feels things wearing on him though and sends his originally prepared message of math that details the functions of the mass of the ionized cloud that is the Zzzzaxxxx school opening a little more than enough to allow the larger ship through. Then closing after they had done so, to the others on the team asking, 'Someone please double check my math on this?' mentally. He sends the file to shareable space to include the file path in the mental information.

Phelar will look over Le's math, considering things. "I would see if they could maybe disable any pursuer's, in trade for something. You could add it in."

[OOC: Do I need to roll anything to check it?]

Phelar has no problem 'adding' that request in... except that the Zzzzaxxxx don't understand the concept. There's nothing that pursues them, therefore they have no idea what that means.

It gets down to first explaining the concept of matter to them.

It winds up taking about 3 days to fully establish complete communication. While this is going on, however, they do let the ship pass through them without having any effect on the ship's systems. Over the course of this dialog, you are able to determine that the ship's shields would only have been partially effective. You probably could have punched through the Zzzzaxxxx before they could attack you en masse but if they had, the total power of the Zzzzaxxxx would have overwhelmed your shields.

"I don't think the Vesk are likely to try and fly through the Zzzzaxxxx," Sol suggests at Phelar's proposed request.

"We tried to establish communication with them. The Vesk won't do that. Besides, the Vesk ship is more powerful than ours. They might actually have the power to defeat and destroy the Zzzzaxxxx. Asking the Zzzzaxxxx to disable the Vesk is probably not a good idea."

"I ensured that they had all the relevant information to base a decision themselves on whether they wish to help us in that regard or not." She said with a simple nod. "That being said, while it is obvious that the Zzzzaxxxx would have soundly destroyed us, and that the Vesk ship pursuing us us is stronger then us by a considerable margin I do not feel that the Vesk could destroy the Zzzzaxxxx. Plus I only asked them to delay them, not destroy them." It's obvious that she had thought this out well and good.

As it turns out, one of the side benefits of establishing peaceful communication with the Zzzzaxxxx is that they are able to help you improve your shields. It's about converting some of the energy of an attack into powering the shields. The ship can't be completely rebuilt to handle the maximum, but the modified design can be incorporated into future ships. Each shield gains a +50% increase.

"I know I shouldn't be surprised by our encounter with the Zzzzaxxxx and especially the outcome, but I sill am," Captain Zenith tells everyone at the after-encounter meeting.

"I was expecting us to encounter a lot of strange things on this quest, but it still seems like the reality is way beyond any expectations we could have had."

"So, now that we're past the Zzzzaxxxx, I've continued on to our next object."

"I thought I'd just take this opportunity to get any input the rest of you have about our encounter."

"Phelar is kind enough to help me in documenting what I have been able to learn. The computers should be able to decompile it better than I can present it... There is a lifetime of data that I am currently ignoring to function. You can see the data block decompressing into usable parts on the computer. Not to mention the logs for communication, signaling, and translation that we updated the system with so others won't have to go through all that," spoke the bounty hunter with a sigh of relief. It was good to be back aboard ship, as much as there was a certain comfort to the void. The void was familiar, certainly better than an alien place... It was a good first cooperation for him to have with the team.

"It was interesting to say the least, though it's not anything I recall ever reading about. Though, it's only recent stuff I recall reading about." It looks like Phelar has been sifting through the data already and sorting it at a rapid pace. Cataloging it, sorting it, and everything else so that it was compiled in a way that would make it more easily read and understood. In fact, anyone that looked could see the terminal in front of her flashing bits of the data by as quickly as the computer allows her to process it.

Revonoss just sits in front of his unit looking at the raw bulk of data and the speed the new tech duo processes it all and throws up his hands. For now he had no use there. But once they had it all sorted he would build a communications program so they could communicate with this species even without tossing crew members into space. And as a biologist he starts to write up a scientific piece of the species for the captain to pass when the ship made contact with home. The marvels they discovered each time where beyond imagination.

Dranthalas pulls himself out of his deep internal reverie and considers the captain's query. What in fact did the scholar learn from their encounter?

After a time, he believes he has come up with an answer. "It was a great privilege to join the mind of such an alien entity. One that had advanced beyond a need for a physical body and yet still maintained a vestige of its previous self through language. It was a serendipitous encounter that taught a method of communication which was previously unknown to me. I now know that choosing to focus on single thoughts and ignoring grammatical conventions may provide the best chance to communicate with incorporeal beings."

Finished with his well-considered answer, he is pleased that the captain asked it since it forced him to quantify the effect of the visit. With nothing further to add, he turns his thoughts inward and regards the void.

Phelar suddenly stops sifting through the data about the race they had met, and then shifts to data about the goddess Casandalee which leads her quickly to the goddess Triune. "...I...see. That makes so much sense now. But...why would she be speaking to me back then, and why would she be giving me the coordinates to the pieces?"

Dranthalas's introspection gives him a few additional insights and a revision. He doesn't think that the Zzzzaxxxx ever had corporeal bodies. They were an energy life form from the beginning.

Additionally, they didn't have a language until you all introduced it to them. They did communicate, but it was more like the way insects communicate.

Finally, you now realize that you have pushed them onto an evolutionary path. Their awareness of the universe has expanded a thousandfold.


As the Starhawk cleared the Zzzzaxxxx swarm, there was a sudden glow ahead of the ship that quickly brightened into some sort of spatial anomaly and then erupted in a bolt of coruscating lightning. You could almost see the crack of thunder that would have accompanied it in an atmosphere. The bolt zipped past the ship and intersected the Zzzzaxxxx swarm. Under normal circumstances, this would have been of major concern as it could have been construed as an attack. It wasn't anywhere near the power of the Zzzzaxxxx, though, and probably was more like a shot of adrenaline to them.

However, in the wake of the bolt, sensors pick up a body floating just ahead of the ship. Visually, the body appears humanoid, it's glowing, and it's being pushed ahead of the ship.

At the same time, the ship's sensors registered the presence of a planet up ahead. It's 2,000 miles in diameter and is very low density. The biggest oddity is that it isn't circling a star. It's 'drifting' in space--a rogue planet.

It also becomes apparent that the coordinates Phelar provided were for where the planet will be when you get there!

It's about 10 hours away. And it's indigo in color.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:46, Sat 15 Jan 2022.

Le's initial concern is that the Zzzaxxx we're killing something they perceived as a potential threat to their new friends and how many might also exist unknown.

He is relieved to note that the bolts are not repeating. Once the body is confirmed though he is off like a shot to an airlock. He is not bothering to hide his concern for the care that needs to be taken by other life to exist in space and how that time is limited. At least he can extend his gifts to others though he might have to rest afterwards. "I doubt they are going to be hostile... but it's poor form to leave someone on the doorstep. I'll happily keep them outside and lightly entertained if you want them met by medical and security Captain."
This message was last edited by the player at 13:33, Sat 15 Jan 2022.

The body outside the ship was of passing interest to Sol simply because he figured whoever or whatever it was was probably already dead.

What caught Sol's attention was the glow and the data that the sensors were registering. As a Solarian, this was the sort of thing he lived for!

"A spacial anomaly!" he exclaimed as he tried to coax more data from the sensors.

"I don't even begin to understand how that happened, but, like on a planet, the lightning bolt was established from the positive anomaly to the negative Zzzzaxxxx."

"Ah. I think it's a rupture. There's a trace of Drift in it. I think the energy came from the Other Side. At a guess, I'd say it was a lightning bolt from that Other Side."

"I don't think it came from the planet up ahead. Sensors are showing little to no atmospheric activity."

"Damn! Look at the density! For the size of that planet to have that small of a mass, it practically has to be hollow!"

The body that was floating in space initially appeared to be limp, and humanoid in shape. In the background the yellowish glow from the electromagnetic phenomena was still quite visible as well. There was also a small suitcase floating next to the body as well.

All of a sudden, the body started to move!

It began to twitch at first, then it moved more and appeared to be clutching at its face and throat. It appeared to be...suffocating! And small snowy ice crystals began to appear on its skin as well.

This awkward panicked thrashing lasted only about 5 or so seconds before the body put its hands on its face in a moment of accepted despair, before suddenly...stopping. All of a sudden, it seemed to be able to breath, and the ice forming on its skin immediately melted away to reveal human-like flesh beneath.

The body's face - which now appeared to be some sort of young human male - was breathing in deep sighs of relief, which then shifted into an obvious look of surprise and disbelief! His hand reached out and grabbed to suitcase floating nearby, and he looked on, still shocked and surprised.

Then his eyes opened wide as he took in his surroundings. The approaching spaceship, the glowing electromagnetic aura, the storm-entity in the distance and planet in the other direction.

The young man's face shifted slightly to sheer bewilderment.

"...everyone I figured out who the voice was in the memory that Li helped me recover. It was Casa..." Then she suddenly stopped talking as another part of the computers systems caught her attention.  "...um, sensors show the body in front of the ship is moving. Should he be moving?Le, how many people have similar abilities to you?"

Revonoss was taking in data and processing it as fast as the computers could compile it but when the floating body was discovered he also got ready to provide medical aid when necessary. Grabbing some supplies to treat void exposure he goes after Le while answering Phelar on the way out.

"Well the bolt did not originate from the Zzzaxxx and they do not seem agitated by it. So whatever that is is either dead by the time we cycle trough the airlock or it has a void suit. So lets not just take anything on board without making sure its safe first."

Using his void granted abilities, Le was not particularly fast in space, but it only took seconds to send a message as he closed with the individual to shoot a comms, "There are technologies and blessing manyfold in the void that let people live in the void. My particular set of blessings is uncommon but having to do with our new friends the Zzzaxxx, would not surprise me if they have at least as strong a connection to the void. I just need them to be intelligent to send pure thought. Though I imagine they already have our common tongue at least. I believe this may be their ambassador to us. More in a minute." he reached out with his mind to the new man.

Offering his long coat if the fellow had no clothes. Le could live nude among the stars but it was usually awkward to others. His mental introductions would state as much. He would also offer some mystically created rations as eating was a requirement. Bland food like this would help a new stomach and taste buds warm up to existence slowly, if his theory held that is.

One of the sensors a lot of people forget was the visual sensor... a.k.a. the camera/telescope. Most people thought that their own eyes could see whatever was there, so what was the point?

Sol just wanted a closer look. As he increased the focal length, he could now see that the source of the light was from the anomaly behind the figure. He was able to focus on the anomaly and he suddenly saw that he was looking through a 'hole' in space... like the aperture of a camera. Further enlargement revealed another world through the hole!

The man floating in space suddenly began to float and move under his own power. However, after about thirty feet he suddenly stopped, a surprised look on his face.

Anyone who tries to probe the floating body with telepathy can indeed determine the mind and the body are very much alive and mentally active.

Realizing that the man floating in space, if he wasn't already dead, would soon be before the shuttle could even launch, Le has to exit the airlock himself and try to bring the man in. While he can fly in space, he uses his titanium cable as a safety line just in case.

Revonoss realizes, too, that he's got to exit the ship and assist Le. His EFG belt will protect him for a little while, but he only has enough oxygen for about 20 minutes. Revonoss can use his jump jets to reach the man, but he, too, reels out his steel cable as a precaution.

Soneau, Sia and Sol head to the airlock, too, but wait inside to assist the others bringing the man in.


Upon reaching the man, Revonoss easily detects the electromagnetic field surrounding the man. The field isn't too far different from the EFG, but it clearly doesn't have a sustaining power source, and is beginning to diminish even as your reach him.

Between Le and Revonoss, they are able to haul the man back to the airlock just before the EM field completely fizzles out.

Inside the ship, Alyn has to gasp for air for a moment, but hasn't sustained any significant damage or injury... though he might be in shock.

When the spaceship shuttle thing gets closer to the man in space, he suddenly turns and looks and begins waving his hands and arms trying to get the ships attention.

He makes awkward flapping motions with his arms trying to propel himself through space, although mostly just looks goofy as he's in zero grav and can't really do much bot float there.

...except once he stopped moving he lurches forward and suddenly sped about 50 feet through space toward the shuttle. The man had a VERY surprised look on his face as he flapped his arms again helpelessly before suddenly lurching to a complete halt! The had an exasperated look on his face then.

...at which point, the steel cable is launched neat the man, who has a visible sigh of relief - yes he sighed in Outerspace somehow - and he took hold of the cable.

To those watching who could sense magic...somehow, the man was surrounded by an invisible bubble of air that more or less acted like a healthy human-friendly atmosphere. That explained how the man was still alive. Even if he was kind of awkward and goofy right now.

Then man was in shock, but it was more a mental shock than physical. Physically...the man was in perfect health. He just seemed very flustered and surprised by what was going on, although he did clutch the suit case in his hand tightly to make sure he didn't lose it in space on accident.

"Oh...my...Gawd! Aliens! And Outer space! and Space ships! And omigawd I can breathe in outer space!" the young man suddenly uttered in a stream of consciousness.

His voice sounded weird. Strange. Something never heard of in the world of Starfinder. Except then, the listeners noticed a weird garbling and hum in their heads that stopped as suddenly as it started, and then they understood every word he had said in the Common Language. This wasn't telepathy. No...it was like, the universe warped a bit to accommodate a newcomer. If that was even possible!

When he was in the airlock, he looked around at the outer space behind him as the doors closed, then back to his rescuer.

"Oh...my...gawd!" he exclaimed excitedly.

"I'm being abducted by aliens! I can't believe it! This is soo cool! So Mister Alien sir...if you can understand me, how far away is Earth? And are you going to anal probe me? I mean please don't because that's my sacred space back there man. But if I don't have a choice, then at least use some lube first. And you've GOT to tell me what kind of creature you are!" he exclaimed excitedly. Almost manically.

"Do you got like tentacles under there? Because I'm sooooo not emotionally prepared if you wanna go there. Are you a grey man with a bald head? Or are you like so advanced you have crazy rad psychic powers and have come to educate me as a lesser being? Because I'm soooo down for an alien abduction / psychic mentorship hybrid combo! Oh my gawd!" he said, just so excited and overwhelmed.

Le'Auil got a distinct feeling when the man said Earth, he didn't mean soil, or the Elemental Plane. Le couldn't help but be glad the universe was accommodating this fellow. Le hated to be the one to consider it but did the universe accommodate the fellow any clothes? Now that the survival aspect was met shorter term needs could be seen to... It had been an exhausting day.

The young man appeared to be a human male, adult but a young adult (age ~20 years old). He was dressed in what OOC would be called preppy getup like in the picture above. He was, for human standards, extremely good looking and had an even stronger force of personality and magnetism. He was lean but healthy looking.

And seriously...those clothes were not high tech at all in Starfinder terms. If it weren't for some mysterious power of the young man's, he'd have died in outer space before being savable. They were probably unlike anything the Lashunta had ever seen before, but they were just fabric clothes at a glance. No magic or tech in them.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:01, Tue 25 Jan 2022.

Revonoss looks at the human in his strange trappings that had little to no practical use especially in the place where this person found himself. His behaviour was more then odd and looking at Le' he shrughs and then adresses the human as he takes one of the ships void suits in the airlock.

"Please calm down sir.  We have not abducted you. You merely seem to have travelled to our location by some mysterious means. Please put on this suit so we can isolate and quarantine you in the medical bay. There i will give you a full medical check up to make sure you have suffered no ill effect from your short trip into the void."

Then to put the erratic man a little at ease he answers some of his questions as he helps him into the environmentally sealed suit giving Le' a short glance.

"We are Lashunta. My name is Revonoss and i am the ships scientist and medical expert. I am sorry i have no idea where this Earth planet of yours is. Do you know in what system it resides?"

Le nodded, his voice was set to be calming and he was not getting too close otherwise, "I'm beginning the checks now. Please relax and tell us a little about your upbringing. I suppose we probably could give you some kind of psychic mentorship but that isn't generally expedient. It isn't likely you are a main character in some kind of war among the stars, no matter how cool energy sabers are.

It seems you were partly anticipating the trip. Do you have fruits, vegetables, other foods, or weapons in your case? While not physically invasive do you consent to my walking through your mind while we get you settled in, partly for security and partly in case you missed something important that could help us get you home?"

Casting Detect Ailment on the human to learn of any afflictions.

When the alien man started talking to him, and even more when Alyn realized he was understanding every word that was spoken, his face lit up with excitement.

"Oh wow! I can totally understand you! And I was right you're a psychic alien oh my gawd sooo cool!" the young man replied excitedly.

"La...shu? La...shun...ta...huh? Ugh!" the young man exclaimed as he suddenly grabbed his head as if he was having a painful headache. "I...what? Huh?" he continued, a bit confused and pained.

After several moments though, the man's distress abated and his eyes glazed over a moment as he looked at Le.

"Lashunta. A race of psychically active advanced humanoids. Come in two sub-species that are both sexually compatible, one that focuses on the mind and one on the body." he muttered aloud, before his eyes suddenly returned to normal and he seemed fully alert again.

"I...I have no idea how I know that, It just came to me, in flashes. I...it's weird. Like some Star Trek meets Miss Cleo shit oh my gawd!" he said, normally.

"Psychic scan? Oh that's so cool I get to be the first human possibly mind probed! Just please don't turn me into a mind slave ok Mister Lashunta sir. But I guess if this isn't an abduction, then you gotta take precautions. Oh I could be a space spy! Or a space pirate sneaking into an alien ship and you gotta make sure I'm safe?! So freaking cool! Ya go and mind meld me!"

Your Detect Ailment spell reveals the young man is a human, and in perfect health. If anything, he seems unusually energized by something. Like he has his own inner wellspring of power similar to, but yet...VERy different from, a Mystic. He's not a technomancer and has no probes on or in him though that you know, but unlike a mystic he doesn't seem to have power from a source. He seems excited, but even the headaches that came and went weren't registering as "unnatural" or unhealthy. The headaches did correlate to a momentary surge in his inner magical energy though, but it was benign.

OOC: Out of character, he is a Witchwarper and due to his cross-dimensional connections, he is gleaning bits and pieces of info from the Starfinder dimension as well as other realities. Earth is in another reality (so beyond plane shift if that makes sense...it will take wish or artifact tier effects to get to and from Earth and there's a reason he's here which will be revealed soon). As time passes he's slowly connecting with more and more dimensions as his powers are very, very quickly stabilizing. He can speak Starfinder Common and bits and pieces of "common knowledge" from Starfinder are appearing in his head.

Between this and a primer given by you guys he'll be a functional crew member eventually.

At this stranger's even-stranger words, Sol immediately got on the comms and requested Phelar's presence.

"Better get down here ASAP, Phelar. The stranger may need reassurance from another Human."

He found it kind of strange that this person could speak their language, but it certainly wasn't the strangest think they'd encountered so far.

He refrained from using his telepathy on the man for the moment. Didn't want to overload his brain any more than it was.

Le passed inky clouds with twinkling stars over the fellow and nodded, "He is in good health, almost oddly good health... he also isn't any particular health risk to anyone else. Do you remember your name? Human is an awkward title..." His spell would have manifest different spacial anomalies in different locations if there were problems, as it was, it was like peeking into the void of glittering lights.

Alyn frowed when he realized that telepathy wasn't going to happen right now. But then he realized he was being asked a question.

"My name? Oh...oh wow. So this really isn't an abduction after all if you're asking so nicely..." the human man replied, a hint of disappointment was on his voice, the weirdo that he was.

"I...I'm Alyn. And I um...hmmm...I was on an electric scooter, trying to deliver my package, then all of a sudden..." he said, pausing a bit to gather his thoughts.

"Hmmm...what happened? How to explain it...ok this is going to sound really weird. Although maybe not because I'm totally talking to telepathic aliens right now!" he said excitedly.

"But I was on my scooter making my delivery, when all of a sudden out of the clear blue sky I was being jolted with electricity, like from some sort of freak storm. Except there wasn't a storm it was a clear beautiful day. And then this...oh yeah, it was totally a wormhole. Like on one of those Startrek shows! And it sucked me in and then WHOOMP it closed up behind me. Just gobbled me up from Earth and BAM I'm floating in outer space here. And then I start choking, and then all of a sudden warm air surrounds me and I can breath. And then you guys come get me." he replied sincerely.

"I haven't felt right since being dumped out of that wormhole thing. Although I don't feel bad or sick or anything. If anything, I feel more energetic than ever. Except I keep getting flashes of something...images, thoughts. Sounds. And of course somehow I can make air in space which is so freaking awesome!" he continued.

He then looked ponderous all of a sudden.

"I...if it wasn't you guys, then I think that wormhole did something to me because I am pretty sure I wasn't like this before."

Revonoss keeps trying to get Alyn stuffed into the void suit as he keeps babling a waterfal or words as large as his smallest grandchild tend to do babbling on end with no end in sight.

"The energetic feeling you have might be the result of an adrenaline rush. It should dissapiate in bit when you get accustomed to your new situation. You are quite excited still so it might be a while. Sensors did pick up another planet nearby so this might be your earth and an anomaly from us transfering to this system. Lets get you checked up and we can introduce you to our other human who came to our ship in almost similar mysterious circumstances."

"I mean I'm super stoked that aliens are real, and spaceships, and um...whatever it is I did in space. Magic? Maybe I'm psychic? Oooo maybe it's both? Omigawd that'd be freaking awesome! But no...this energy I'm feeling. It's like I have this well of power and energy in me I never had before. Like I could make air in space several times over!" he replied.

Alyn's eyes perked up.

"Other human? Oooo is she from Earth too, or do they like have humans of some other sort?" he asked.

Suddenly is eyes glazed over a bit.

"Humans come from Golarion, a planet that no longer exists. They now have a massive space station as a homeworld of sorts."

Alyn's eyes returned to normal.

"Oh holy hells I got another one of those flashes. And what the fudge is Golarion? Never heard of it!"

He looks at the suit that Revonoss is holding.

"Huh? What's that for?"

"I am on my way." Phelar said as she headed down to the airlock.

It wouldn't take long for the attractive young human blonde woman to walk into the room. Her different colored eyes looking over the situation as she does so. "What's going on?" She'd ask Solsantharis upon arrival.

"We found this Human hitchhiking outside the ship, possibly as a result of a micro wormhole," Sol explains to Phelar. "He's from a planet called Dirt, he's never heard of Golarion, and he's never seen a non-Human before... he calls us 'aliens'. Thought he might be less... agitated... if he sees there's another Human on the ship."

"Dirt? What next...we find a fish person who comes from a planet named Water?" She says a bit sarcastically. Then she finally shrugged and looked towards the others. "I mean...I guess I could try and help. What harm would there be, right?" She said with a small shrug.

Alyn looked with interest at Phelar.

"Oh wow! Another human! Did they pick you up from outer space too? Or are you actually a real abductee gone native or something? Because I could so totally dig that trope too you know." he asked excitedly.

Alyn chuckled!

"Dirt? Ha! Mind you some humans treat it like crap but not...it's called Earth! The planet Earth. And apparently, I wasn't abducted but instead rescued by them after being spit out into space from a...wormhole? Ya...let's call it that for now. Cus nothin else makes sense. Then again, I also can apparently make air in space and that don't make much sense either. But I'm totally not complaining!"

REvonoss wondering if this human might not instead be a cat with how impossible he was to handle smiles softly as he explains to him.

"This is a void suit. It protects you against exposure to the void in case you do not have a nice and protective bubble around you next time. It also provides you with a safe environment to breathe and isolates your atmosphere from ours in case your Earth plane has microflora that might be bad for our health."

When the human seems to get another data upload from the universe he looks at Phelar who just arrived.

"Like you this one seems to be plucking information from some unknown reserve. He might be a lot like you."

At Revo's explanation, Alyn's face lit up (figuratively).

Oh cool! That suit sounds neat! I get to wear alien futuristic tech gear! So freaking cool!" he said as he consented to the suit.

"So um...what now? I think you guys know I'm not some sort of space invader - which would be awesome by the way if I was mind you. But nope I'm just boring 'old me...well I guess less boring lately, given how I'm changing. But I promise I come in peace!" he declared aloud, making a peace sign with his fingers.

He wondered what would happen next, and decided maybe he could convince them to let him stay with the as a sort of VIP special guest. Like how they pick up people in Star Trek, or Farscape, and other types of shows.

"Sooooo...ya'll seem like a fairly civilized bunch. And you got a human too that somehow isn't like me but yet is. And psychic powers apparently! And a spaceship! And void suits!" he continues.

"So um...I don't have anywhere to go right now. I think I'm from another dimension or something. Do you guys think I can stay with you as a special guest or something for a while at least? Maybe learn from you more about this universe and how you all work and function here? I promise I'll find a way to return the favor some day. I mean I make air bubbles so who knows what other cool stuff I can do!"

At the Earth man's incessant babbling, Sol is prompted to suggest: "I'd vote to shove him back through the wormhole except that it's no longer there."

"The energy surge on his world must have been so great that it made a connection with the Zzzzaxxxx, which, in turn, ripped open the wormhole. We may have to redefine what we mean by 'wormhole' or else come up with a new term since it not only ruptured space but dimensions as well. Or realities. Or universes. Or wherever he's from."

"We have those concepts but they are all fictitious or imaginary. Except the Planes and The Drift."

"For your information, sir, if anything, you are the alien here. The star system and worlds we come from have a wide array of beings of which we are only one. Humans are another... which is why we so readily accepted Phelar into our ranks. She was also the key to our quest."

"If you wish to remain on the ship, that is up to the Captain. However, he's a pretty reasonable and tolerant person. He firmly believes that whatever we encounter is relevant to our quest."

"As for aliens, you might take a look at the Zzzzaxxxx." As he says this, he calls up an image of the Zzzzaxxxx on the nearest vidscreen. "They are a species of electrical lifeform."

Once their new guest was stuffed into the Revonoss guides him to the med bay replying to Sols remark.

"Aye planet Earth will be such a quiet place now. Or do all humans on your planet never stop talking? Maybe fit a schock collar on him that if he speaks more then 5 words per second he gets zapped?"

He manages to produce a soft chuckle though as he says it. And as Sol distracts the human with imagery of the most likely source of his abduction he directs him into the med bay and sets the scanners up to do a full body scan.

"I do not pluck information from an unknown reserve, I get glimpses of the future that when they occur put me into a daydream like state." She pointed out, correcting Revonoss.

Then she looked at the annoying 'other' human. "Earth, dirt, terra, they all mean the same thing. Why someone would name a planet after something you walk on, and plant crops in, is beyond me. The gods of your world must not of had any sort of ingenuity or imagination." She said matter of factly.

"The way the words keep coming out of your mouth you are doing anything but come in peace. My name is Phelar, Phelar Morilla. To answer your earlier query no I am not from your world of dirt. To that end I also do not know exactly where I am from, only that I am from somewhere in this dimension. Likely Golarion. Which does exist, somewhere." She further points out.

She then reaches over and touches a computer terminal. Without typing on any of the keys on the keyboard it suddenly comes to life and the screen flashes several times until it settles on an input screen. "What's your name?"

[OOC: As an FYI Alyn when Phelar talks she seems a bit, stoic in her mannerisms. A lot of them stems from her having no memories from before the group found her.]

Alyn looks at her curiously.

"So you're not like me then, huh? It's like I'm connecting with...um...something. Multiple things. Like the world, but not in a druggie hippie sorta way. It's hard to put in words. Like I never heard of Golarion before and suddenly know about it, as if this dimension is telling me directly." he replied. "So are you like...psychic like these aliens....erm, excuse me I mean these Lashunta?" he said, trying to catch himself but failing as his composure still wasn't fully regained yet. He'd probably not fully calm down until having a night's rest at the very least.

"And it's not a world of dirt...well I mean it kinda is, but I think it's over 70% water or something. And gods aren't real you know. They're just cultural icons people make up and use to justify atrocities against one another. And also we don't have psychics and spaceships though. Or wormholes for that matter. I'm probably the first Earthling of my kind to um...become whatever I've become." he continued.

"My name is Alyn, by the way. Alyn Reed. Nice to meet ya." he added.


OOC to Phelar: Got it, and np problem! Thanks for mentioning it. FYI...Alyn is super excited right now because everything that's happening still hasn't fully sunk in yet and it's all sort of overwhelming still.

"My psychic abilities go far beyond theirs, to include Le's there." She said flatly as Alyn's name appeared on the screen without her even typing it. "Not only do I have telepathy to longer ranges, as well as telekinesis, I also as you can see mental control over computers and machines."

Then at the mention that gods are not real she pauses and looks at him a moment. "You are in the wrong dimension to make assertions that gods do not exist. In this dimension, gods do exist. It was the Goddess Triune that gifted the races with Drift Engines. From what I can tell, it is also her that gifted me with my ability to communicate and control machines like I do. The only memory I have of my past, is of the Goddess Casandalee speaking to me to confirm the coordinates I had written on a chalkboard to the destinations we are going to now. So you will find that here, gods and goddesses do in fact exist."

"I am what is known as a Technomancer, and a Phrenic Adept. I deal in both technology and magic, and any combination thereof. Add to that the psychic abilities I explained earlier." Then she looked towards the others. "I suggest we take him to the medbay to have him checked out, and inform the Captain that he will be there."

Once in a containment suit, Alyn was escorted to the Med Bay where the medic Thranel gave him a thorough physical scan.

"Medically," she soon reported, "he is fine. No dangerous diseases, substances or energies that I can detect. However, I am detecting sporadic pulses of energy coming from him... into him? Not sure yet. Sometimes they are divine energy, so maybe the gods that he doesn't believe exist are feeding him knowledge to acclimate him to this dimension."

"That, in turn, suggests one of two things: either they aren't capable of sending him back to his universe or else they feel he is needed in this one. Considering our quest, the latter seems to be the better choice, though both could be valid."

"On the other hand, I can't vouch for his mental stability. While he's being fed information about our universe, we're not becoming privvy to his, so I can't say whether what he babbles is truth or even makes sense to him."

"Anyway, Mr. Reed, you are free to go. Just to be on the safe side, though, I would suggest you don't go anywhere on the ship alone in case you open the wrong door before you Voice tells you what's on the other side."

Once delivered into the safe care of medical staff and Le and Phelar looking over the new 'recruit' Revonoss returns to the bridge to see what discoveries where made about the planet that appeared with the new human.

The planet was there before the Human appeared. It was easily detectable once the ship passed through the Zzzzaxxxx cloud. It was just the man's appearance became a distraction.

Sensors show the planet to be on the small side... it's only 2,112 miles in diameter. But it has a very low mass. For it to be that large with that small of a mass, in nearly needs to be hollow.

It's just floating in space. It has motion, so it would appear to be a rogue planet.

The surface has typical valleys and mountains and 'oceans', but there is no atmosphere. There is no life or water on the surface, though clearly there once was.

There are numerous craters scattered across the surface.

The planet is rotating only slightly, making one complete rotation in about 63 days.

Even as you approach, sensors pick up 'the trench'. This is a narrow but deep gorge cut into the surface at one point. It's about 2 miles wide, 6 miles long, and 38,000 feet deep.

Alyn simply looked on wide-eyed as Phelar spoke. All the things she was saying were so fantastical. She was a human, but yet...NOT an human int he way he was. and apparently had gifts like these aliens. In it seemed HE was the strange one to them, despite it all being so surreal to him.

"I don't know what to say about that. In my dimension, we don't have gods. We simply have empty religions. I mean...if there are gods there, they act very VERY subtly. So much os that if something seemingly miraculous is happening, you don't know if they really did anything at all. I suppose the divine could be real there, but there's no concrete evidence of it though." he replied.

"We don't have mystical powers, and telepathy, and aliens, and spaceships, and stuff like that. So the fact I now get powers and um...weird energy flowing into apparently is neat as hell! I mean we can barely make it to the moon. And sometimes those rockets blow up you know. This ship, though, is beast as hell." he continued.

He consented to whatever medical examinations they needed to give him. It was surprisingly mundane and non-invasive despite their high-tech approach. He was unsure if he was greatful, or disappointed.

When the medic Thranel spoke, he considered.

"What sort of quest are you on, by chance?" he asked curiously.

Revonoss looked at the data presented and sends an image to Phelar to show the other human.

"Ask him if this is his home planet."

\Then turns to the captain.

"Sir think we should send a team down? It was the next spot we needed to be right?"

"It was one thing to think we were following a trail of bread crumbs," Captain Zenith replies to Revnonoss, "but these coordinates Phelar provided are too precise. But they are only precise at this exact time. In an hour, they'd be off; in a day, impossible. Makes it feel like we're being led around by the nose!"

"Still, there's no guarantee that we'll be successful. At least, I don't think so. It's completely impossible that all these obstacles would be placed in our path intentionally, but, as the saying goes, 'the gods move in mysterious ways'."

"Anyway, the coordinates appear to be in the center of the planet. That makes sense because clearly the planet is hollow, however odd that is."

"I suspect you'll need to take the shuttle down into that crevasse and hope there's a way to reach the interior. We may not be detecting any life on the surface, but I'd hate to have to blast a hole through the crust to the interior and cause the whole world to collapse, only to find out that there people living on the inner side of the crust."

"If I had to guess, though, I'd say that Alyn here is one of those mysterious ways, so you'd better take him along."

"In fact, since we don't know what we'll find, better take the whole team. Oraeus and Saia can protect the new guy, if necessary."

Revonoss nods.

"What equipment we going to give the new recruit sir? Send him to the quartermaster to get an away team outfit?"

Regardless of the answer he will message all the away team members to get ready to leave as soon as the new recruit is ready to go and prepare for a mission in vaccuum.

In reply to Revonoss (msg # 297):

Phelar looks at the data and picture Revonoss has sent her, and lifts a brow. She already suspected the answer but decided to ask him anyway. She turned towards the terminal new her, touched it and brought up the images that Revonoss had sent her on it. "I was told to ask you if this is your home planet Mister Reed." She asked, pointing to the image of a world on the screen of the terminal.

"I'm not really seeing much difference with Alyn's arrival than if he'd just stepped through the <i>aiudara<i>," Captain Zenith replies.

"Yes, he should definitely be given a suit and a weapon. Make sure he knows how to use both, though."

Alyn is suitably equipped on the way to the shuttle, and by the time he gets there, everyone else is already aboard.

Once everybody has settled into their seats, the shuttle exits the ship and heads for the planet.

Nothing is encountered along the way and nothing about the planet appears any different than a typical airless world would. Even the large crevasse isn't that unusual, except for the depth.

Flying down into the crevasse is slow but not particularly difficult until you near the bottom when it starts to get much narrower. Then, rather oddly, the 'passage' starts to twist from side to side making flying harder but it doesn't get any narrower, even widening a bit every now and then.

It takes almost three hours to fully negotiate the crevasse, all the while expecting it to close it until it's impassable or just outright end. And then you come to the airlock!


It's about a 200-foot wide iris-type airlock--easily wide enough for the shuttle to fly through! In fact, it starts to spin open even as you approach.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 302):

Alyn, BEFORE they dpeart the ship, asks once again what special quest they are all on.