"Pah!" Pierce scoffs dismissively as he exits the room a few moments after Mel, heading toward the engine room to help Cnosos. So far there had been little excitement aboard the Greed, and when he stopped to think about it, Pierce honestly had no idea what they were doing up here, where they were going. But then again Damon and Mel didn't invite him aboard to help with the thinking.
Damon glances at Gaetanna, and offers her a wry smile. "If you keep scaring off the rest of the crew, you're going to have to cross-train in all of their areas of expertise."
__________________ -Rhun
"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge - myth is more potent than history - dreams are more powerful than facts - hope always triumphs over experience - laughter is the cure for grief - love is stronger than death." -Robert Fulghum
"They're just find another reason to say I'm getting in the way." She sighed. " I can't wait till we get into port, because at least there I would be of some service."
"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge - myth is more potent than history - dreams are more powerful than facts - hope always triumphs over experience - laughter is the cure for grief - love is stronger than death." -Robert Fulghum
Solly wanders onto the bridge, whistling Lillibulero as is his habit. Since leaving Unity he has whiled away the time lying on his bunk reading, playing cards with the rest of the crew (or Solitaire if the no opponents are available), and steadily working through the stock of ersatz coffee, "attempting to acquire the taste" as he puts it. He has a mug of it in hand now.
"So, Cap'n", he says to Damon. "Granted I probably don't need to know as ship's doctor, but mind telling me where we're going? Steve said something about a cargo for Jap One, and some wierd stuff about viruses and a lemon tree - I didn't really get that part."
__________________ New from The Lazy GM: Savage Creatures. 40 monsters, hundreds of stat blocks. The Lazy GM Series. Pre-generated monster stats for the discerning adventurer. The World of Conclave. Innovative (and free) webworld for d20.
"You guys have a lemon tree?" Gaetanna turned to the nearest long term crew member. "I hope you all set up UV lighting and hydroponics for it since it would be depressing to see such a valuable commodity die of improper care."
Damon shrugs. "Indeed, we do have a lemon tree...Cnosos set up something, making noise about lighting and proper water, soil and fertilization, but you'd have to ask him. I can't say I am much of a green thumb, and don't know the first thing about growing trees. You are more than welcome to take a look." Turning his head to regard Solly, he smiles. "We are headed to Jap One to drop off some steel. From there...well, we will just have to see what choices we have open to us."
__________________ -Rhun
"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge - myth is more potent than history - dreams are more powerful than facts - hope always triumphs over experience - laughter is the cure for grief - love is stronger than death." -Robert Fulghum
"Lift that" Cnosos says to the hulk, pointing at a big apparatus, with all sort of lights. "Leave it there and now take those." says the greek man, rubbing his hands with a piece of greasy cloth. He points at some fat sets of wire with heavy metal joints. "But put those gloves on first, I don't want a Christmas tree before time." the technician says with a chuckle. After Pierce is done with pluging the wires to the apparatus, Cnosos approaches to a console and types a few commands in the keyboard.
The devices starts working and shaking, with even more lights flashing, and a screeching sound. The bald man kneels next to the working machine and performs some adjustments with his tool until the screeching dies out. "Great. Unplug it and put it where it was Pierce." says Cnosos, cleaning his hands, as usual, as he turns the thing off from his console.
__________________ English is NOT my native language!
Mri'Thas: "Useless primates... " Sheng Zim: "Your existence brings the world out of balance. The chaos I bring shall revert it; unfortunately, your soul will be destroyed in the process."
-------------------------------------- Tuk Heavy Hands Apeldan: "Trolls are afraid to cats. Good to know" (Yttermayn's "Saga of the Dragon Cult") Cnosos: "I bet there's plenty of wonderful devices in that ship. Let's scavenge them at once!" (Blackrat's "After Earth") Metliz: Sounds like fun! (Arkandus's "The First") Thok: "Thok eats a lot, Thok big. Thok not good at first impressions." (MnL's "Valley of the Dead")
"What the..." Pierce doesn't lift the last of the equipment quite yet, instead he stands there, a bit of sweat on his brow from the heat of the machines and the effort of exertion. "You didn't just call me in here to lift the same thing again and again did you? Or was there a purpose?"
He asks the last as he unplugs the big apparatus and gets in position to lift with his legs, not with his back.
"Basically yes, I needed to plug it here, and then place it again in its proper place, where it will stay, now that I have calibrated it." Cnosos states, a bit distracted staring at his console. "But worry not, as soon as you put it back you are free to rampage the ship for sex." the technician says with his typical short introverted laughs
OOC: The gamers, great stuff! HA!
__________________ English is NOT my native language!
Mri'Thas: "Useless primates... " Sheng Zim: "Your existence brings the world out of balance. The chaos I bring shall revert it; unfortunately, your soul will be destroyed in the process."
-------------------------------------- Tuk Heavy Hands Apeldan: "Trolls are afraid to cats. Good to know" (Yttermayn's "Saga of the Dragon Cult") Cnosos: "I bet there's plenty of wonderful devices in that ship. Let's scavenge them at once!" (Blackrat's "After Earth") Metliz: Sounds like fun! (Arkandus's "The First") Thok: "Thok eats a lot, Thok big. Thok not good at first impressions." (MnL's "Valley of the Dead")
Finished hoisting the equipment in place, Pierce removes his electrical gloves and tosses them somewhere close-by where he picked them up, "Bah, I'd have better luck if I was..." He paused, obviously not sure where he was going with this train of thought, "If I...umm...Whatever."
He shakes his head at Cnosos as if it was the mechanic's fault Pierce couldn't come up with the witty phrase he'd been hoping for. Then he turns and leaves.
...Three days later...
Hyperspace, pass the Unity Waystation
Gaetanna notices there is something well encrypted in the database. Definately too well for her to crack, but after poking around now and then she does find something interesting. A video record just as the ship is about to enter hyperspace. A strange circular ship phases out of somekind of cloaking, floats there for a moment and then phases out again. Gaetanna has never seen anything like it. It looks like the ship's hull is made from mercury or similar material, having a liquid appearance and rippling distortion on the surface. Just as she is about to try to crack the encryption again, just for amusement though she now knows she can't, she hears a voice through her hud's speaker. "You know you shouldn't be poking around?" The voice has a mechanic distortion to it.
Meanwhile, Cnosos has managed to upgrade the engine's coolant system. He had hoped he would have gotten further with the process, but it was actually a hard job. After giving the schematics for a droid chassis and telling he'd appreciate a body to walk around, the android had kept quite silent. It is as if it had found something else to occupy it's mind.
Solly has taken the time to read the manual of the cryounits and is fairly certain they are safe to use. They are of a really good design and it only takes minutes to freeze and thaw people. Having been attached to the ship's computer you can easily program an automated thawing process on certain conditions. Looking through the logs indicates that they are already programmed to thaw the crew incase anything out of ordinary hyperspace travel and jump-sequence happens.
The boredom starts to settle with the crew and it's still a couple of weeks to the Jap 1. Mel and Solly are used to the lonelyness of the space but Damon and Pierce are seriously starting to consider the cryosleep to pass their time. Cnosos is so occupied with his tinkering that he barely notices the time passing or even the other crewmembers and Gaetanna is too excited for actually having found something to be bored right now.
OOC
You have made a jump to normal space and back to hyperspace at the station you encountered last time. The station is now manned with Unity Marines and undergoing repairs.
Cnosos made 1 success with the upgrading, leaving 2 more to be achieved.
Gaetanna's eyes lit up as she heard the voice in her HUD's earpiece. She quickly glanced around the lounge concluded that the message was private since none of her companions seemed to be giving off any signs of acknowledgment. Grinning she switched her card computer to keyboard mode and synched it to her HUD and began to type.
Hello, who ever you are. I'm Gaetanna. I know you aren't Cnosis (since you don't sound bored or lifeless), so don't try to fool me. Tell me, who or what are you and why shouldn't I 'poke around'? Don't I, as the newest member of this crew, deserve to know of you? Or are you just another dark secret that the crew is content on hiding? But then, if you are what the crew is hiding, then why did you contact me? More importantly, do know why they don't want me to know of your existance?
The voice speaks in Dah with a nonhuman accent so it is quite clear it's none of the crew. Oh, I'm just a harmless piece of malicious software that your ship has picked up. Don't mind me. The voice speaks to Gaetanna. Now why are you trying to open those sensor logs? Well the better question is, why are those even encrypted. Maybe the others do not trust you. Is there a reason for that? You're not very good with computers by the way. Why do you even try? I have been following your attempts the whole time. Very stubborn of you.
Mri'Thas: "Useless primates... " Sheng Zim: "Your existence brings the world out of balance. The chaos I bring shall revert it; unfortunately, your soul will be destroyed in the process."
-------------------------------------- Tuk Heavy Hands Apeldan: "Trolls are afraid to cats. Good to know" (Yttermayn's "Saga of the Dragon Cult") Cnosos: "I bet there's plenty of wonderful devices in that ship. Let's scavenge them at once!" (Blackrat's "After Earth") Metliz: Sounds like fun! (Arkandus's "The First") Thok: "Thok eats a lot, Thok big. Thok not good at first impressions." (MnL's "Valley of the Dead")
If you are malicious, then does the crew know of your existence? If so, why didn't they purged you from the system while they were at port?
Well, duh! Of course they don't trust me! I'm a person they never met before our initial meeting since I'm not one of those spacer kids that hands out at the Black Hole. In top of that I was also placed onto this crew by their employer who may or may not have some ulterior motive. As a result they might look at me as being a reminder that they have no freedom to act or go where ever they please.
I was trying to check the sensor logs since I was bored and because I wasn't really paying attention to what was said during my briefing. So I figured, what harm would come if I checked out the data for myself. Also, I know I'm not good at computers, but unlike most pieces of software like yourself, I could theoretically crack those files open given enough practice and time, since I'm capable of learning from my mistakes.
Oh, I can learn. I am a sentient being myself, just residing inside your system. And they know I am here. At least that engineer of yours does. He plugged me in afterall. I am just getting bored. I gave him some schematics and now he has been occupied with them since we left. He is not entertaining anymore, but your attempts to open the logs have been. Maybe if he builds me a body I can at least move around. The droid is being chatty as usual, though Gaetanna wouldn't know that yet.
Cnosos starts really consentrating on the work, taking his time to make it right.
OOC
I need one more Knowledge Tech check from you Voda. It will determine how well you understood the advanced tech you were building and as such how efficient your upgrades were. I can roll it for you or you can use IC as usual.
Ha! I knew they were hiding something from me! Gaetanna glanced across the lounge and grinned impishly as she began her reply.
Cnosis was entertaining? You sure? He doesn't seem to be the entertaining type. You know, what would be real entertaining? If you started to play with the intercom system.. like if you piped in some music while flickering on and off the lights. I'd bet you would get a kick out of everyone's response.
"I thought about that. But decided it would not..." The droid stops for a moment and then continues. "Now that is interesting."
The intercomm of the ship crackles and the droid's metallic voice can be heard through the whole ship, getting a jump out of everyone and especially Solly who was unaware of it's existence. "Hey there everyone! Captain Sir, you should probably get to the bridge. Your sensors are going wild." There is a certain sarcasm in the voice as it calls Damon captain.
Acting surprised, since she half expected something to happen, Gaetanna stood up wide eyed. "An AI!?!?! You installed an AI and did not notify Angel Industries!??! Give me one reason why I shouldn't report this!" Gaetanna knew that sometimes the best way to gain favors is to force them from someone.
*Since she was hoping he would do something. Just in case it's needed, Bluff +8 (+11 vs guys)
Linear Mode
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