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The Long Sleep

lonesoldier

First Post
"Admiral, could you please send Mr. Costa down to the engines? We are getting some errors we are unsure about... " Captain Hurst asks in her eternally-even tone. Ackland motions for Ze to get a move on, and once he has left returns to tinkering with the command chair.

Perhaps modeled a little too closely to a real human, Hope begins talking awkwardly, nearly babbling.

"Uhh, the sensors were under my control. My fault, I was doing some scans of the..." She stops as suddenly as she started and then calmly continues, "We are in the proper system, but as we came in I picked up a lot of interference on most of the radio bands. I assumed that it was just the planet's magnetic field or a local anomaly and tuned it out. Cameras active." The light darkens until the only light comes from the consoles, and then slowly the walls. As you know, the entire bridge is covered in flat view-screens. When active it affords a 360 degree view of space. The back wall is nondescript, pinpricks of light against an unending black field, the sky of Earth on a clear night.

The front however... At the corners of your eyes you can see the pockmarked micro-meteorite shield floating into space, but your eyes are drawn to the blue-green world at your 'right'. Everything from the lazy, little white clouds to the oddly-shaped land masses reminds you of Earth. And then, you notice the blocky building floating off to your 'left'. It's all hard angles, polished steel and rivets. It's big too, big enough to fit the Hope inside and have room for a couple more. Every now and then there's a square opening, one has flashing lights and it seems the Hope is slowly drifting toward it. Soon to strike the building broadside unless a 90 degree turn is taken!

Just after the view-screens activate, Andrew's console, the sensors, goes crazy. At first the seaboards just shine brilliantly, then as you lower frequencies you can make out urban sprawl, cities, streets... civilization. Hope had mistaken the incredibly high amount of transmissions for interference and blocked it...

The piloting station comes alive in Ashley's hands. A simple touched based GUI appears on the surface of the console and a half-dozen helpful, but limited programs begin chattering, all at the same time, about how to avoid Sudden Doom. In the middle of the 'map' is an outline of the Hope, the port side is strobing red.

Those with military inclinations notice the batteries of weapons recessed into the hull of the space station. The camouflage is well done, but what you presume to be the barrel is just visible. More than a few are trained on the Hope.

Ackland whispers loudly, seemingly to Hope, "What do you mean you took the liberty of hailing them and introducing us?!"
 

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Shayuri

First Post
Ashley's mouth dropped open as she stared at the vista. For a moment she didn't even realize her station had been activated.

"My god...what is that thing? It's not possible...they would have spotted this...there's no way there's aliens..."

Then she realized the course the ship is on, and breathed a sharp curse as she forced her eyes down to her console.

"Adjusting course to avoid collision," she said automatically as she selected one of the AI suggestions and began to implement it. The ship shook slightly as lateral thrusters fired, followed momentarily by attitude correction jets.

Slowly the ponderous hulk of the Hope began to turn in space, interposing its main drive between itself and the bizarre alien...well, space station was the only thing she could think of it being.

"Thirty seconds to main drive burn. That will give us zero speed relative to the...the...structure...and still leave us enough delta-v to insert into orbit if...they let us." She swallowed, abruptly realizing what was at stake here. Nothing less than the potential future of humankind.

(pilot skill is +7 to make The Hope go (-4 from her normal skill). If it's enough, she'll take 10 to avoid collision. Otherwise she'll use an AP on rolling. :))
 


Kaodi

Hero
" My God... That planet is inhabited! The number of transmissions Hope's sensors are detecting is astronomical, amazing, " says Andrew, jaw hanging open.

Scanning the readings, he looks for some way to isolate the stronger signals, listening for something meaningful to broadcast to the rest of the ship.
 

Shayuri

First Post
"That kind of radio emission should have been detectable from Earth," Ashley grouses angrily as she keeps her eyes on the navigation data. "What the hell is going on?"
 

Rhun

First Post
Victor grimaces and holds on, readying himself for the ship's change in velocity. He really hated these situations...nothing was in his hands, and all he could do is sit by and watch events unfold.
 

stonegod

Spawn of Khyber/LEB Judge
Lem rolled the stogey around in his mouth, hands on his weapon. Until told otherwise, his job was to stand near the Admiral. However, he did want to add something.

"Permission to speak, sir?" He whispered to the Admiral. At the other man's curt nod, he added, "Might be advisable to thaw out some of the security squad sir. Just in case."
 

lonesoldier

First Post
Ashley's quick reflexes pull the massive colony-ship about and her console returns to a safe, pale green. Everything is within good tolerances: mag-shields, particle-shields, auto-pilot system, fuel. At the same time John's station reports that all the missile launchers and lasers are in working order, though the laser's capacitors are uncharged. The point defence system is already active, though targeting nothing at the moment.

----

Thankfully their radio systems are no different than your own. But it doesn't seem like there is any restriction on usage. As Andrew goes through the frequencies he is bombarded with everything from infomercials to weather forecasts to telephone calls. Then with the a short burst of static all the channels fall silent and a single, female voice comes through the speakers.

"This is Rigil IV Orbital Docking Command. Do you copy?" Ackland is silent for a moment, considering his words carefully.
"We copy. This is the HMCS Hope."
"HMCS? What designation is that? Where are you from?"
"His Majesty's Canadian Ship. We are from Earth" The voice took a moment to respond, clearly stymied by the response.
"... Repeat that last part?"
"We are from Earth" Despite the silence his hands are not still, flying over the trackballs. From his position Lem can see that the Admiral is taking his suggestion seriously and ordering other teams awake.

Another voice, authoritative and male, replies. "Bring your starship into the dock with the flashing lights. We'll need to inspect your cargo and identification." The connection is closed with another burst of static.

---

"I'm sending Mr. Costa back to the bridge, we've had a slight problem with the engines," Captain Hurst's voice says over the ship-wide intercom.
 

DrZombie

First Post
John silently types in a question for the computer, asking it how long the ships' been in the freezer, and to compare that with the time it was originally planned to be underway. He also asks for a routine check of the estimated elapsed time since takeoff in earth (compare with predicted movement of stars in that timespan and such).
 

stonegod

Spawn of Khyber/LEB Judge
Lem chomps on his cigar, a frown on his face. He then aks the obvious to no one in particular. "Err... Isn't it only in sci-fi where all the aliens speak English? Or did the brains install some translator that us grunts weren't told about?"
 

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