2020.06.06:The Rescue of Isaac Zelazny
| The Rescue of Isaac Zelazny | |
|---|---|
| A Union Team encounters a distress signal and goes to investigate | |
| IC Date | 6th of June, 2020 |
| IC Time | Unknown |
| Players | Eden Huxley as co-ST, Deja, Midge, Zelazny as co-ST |
| Location | Deep Space |
| Prp/Tp | One-off short story |
| Spheres | Mage, Technocracy, Mortal+ |
Colour Coordination:
- Eden
- Deja
- Midge
- Zelazny ST poses
Perhaps it was timing, or a serendipitous event - but the VS Force Majeure woke from its skeleton crew and minimal functioning a few days before the old distress signal even hit its receivers.
Eden looked as spry and burnt out as she ever did, trying to breathe life into her ship cold hands. Shaking them out as Midge was defrosted from cryosleep, her pod filling with pressurized gasses that frankly, most people didn't know how to pronounce. Her vitals stable as a blue/green cocktail shot through her veins to help breakdown the crystalline structure her body had become. Knocking on the thick glass pod as Midge's eyes fluttered, "Hey doc. Quit napping. Try and wake up.", Eden said with encouragement, a robotic attendant which mainly consisted of a lengthy arm chipped in, "She likely can't hear you yet."
Eden ignored the robot, "When your out of there. Come meet me on the bridge.", rubbing her hands together and leaving the Medbay to head to the ship's bridge. "Fuck... can we turn the thermostat up?", she asked while talking to the ship's AI. - "There is nothing wrong with operating temperatures, Pilot Huxley.", whirring a giant mechanical globe eye about, "As discussed earlier. We received a distress call from this sector, 27-B. It appears old. Maybe not worth our time. But there are no signs of contact. Protocol is to respond.", the large AI whirred and pulled up various flat digital maps to observe and estimate distance.
Eden breathed into her hands, "I guess we are plotting a course. Take it slow. It could be a trap. Shit always goes wrong in space."
Midge slowly opened her eyes crusted with sleep. The agent coming into focus. She pressed a button inside her containment to dispel the chemicals, finally taking off the breathing apparatus from her nose and mouth and stumbling out of the chamber. By the time she gets to the bridge the doctor has a manufactured capucino in the biggest size she can get. Priorities, coffee before heroics. She moves quickly enough to the sensors, doing her calculations on how to jump fastest to the origin of the signal. "Setting course," she says finally moving the controls and engaging engines that most would prefer not to think could be real.
The signal is indeed old. Any attempt to decrypt it would all lead to the same conclusion: This signal is no longer in use. Its at least 20 years old, from the time before The Event. It carries with it decryption codes linked to the old Copernicus station. It is a pretty standard signal, really. It lists as Ship in Distress, along with a ship designation: “Infinite Horizons”.
The ship itself, as it turns out, is not a ship at all. It is a small escape vehicle. A bit bigger than a pod, meant for up to three crewmembers at a time. The design is old, but lists it as a long term escape vehicle. This particular model would have come with cryopods. It would come with a single small cockpit for a pilot. The engine compartment would be a small crawlspace under the main deck. A small cargo hold at the rear of the shuttle. All in all, it is about the size of a doubledecker city bus.
It is damaged. The one side of it has scorchmarks along the hull, as if it passed by something very, very hot. Apart from that, though, the shuttle appears intact. There are no apparent hullbreaches.
The windshield turns nearly white as the stars rush and the ship is hurtling through faster than the speed of light. The cabin pressure returns to normal after the warp and Midge removes her safety harness. Is that really a pressurized container that she releases to regain her coffee after a warp? Midge and coffee, its a problem. "Approaching the distress signal, ETA seven minutes fifty three seconds." She sips her coffee as she watches the blips on the radar terminal.
Deja makes her way to join the others from the medical bay where she was working when this whole Scooby space adventure started. She walks in flexing her hand as she trys to adjust to her newest implant as she looks out the window at the other vessel and then to everyone present. "Sorry i was in the middle of implanting a new chip and testing it."
Eden looks to the coffee cup, "How was cryosleep?", she asks the coffee before looking up at Midge. Perhaps staying awake for the awkward months they had been deployed had gotten to the Drone, as she rubbed her eyes. Trying to stretch and pop her spine, "Dr. Halima, I don't trust space. Safety precautions first. Welcome, Dr. Laffon - we have a derelict vessel with potential life forms in cryogenic stasis. While I'm all for recovery, I'm not for getting our ship or crew infected with anything.", biting her bottom lip. "So let's setup a quarantine section and onboard and survivors slowly. Medical tests should be thorough. Just rather be safe than sorry, energy weapons are authorized Incase things go sideways.", watching the ship approach the vessel.
The escape shuttle, considering its size, must have been part of a really large ship. The sort of ship the VE’s would have deployed in the golden times before The Event destroyed so very much. Its engine core is off-line, meaning the beacon and any cryopods are operating under some sort of battery power, or something similar to it. It is drifting slowly through space, rotating casually along its mid axis.
There are no signs anywhere on any other long range sensor arrays of any debris from a larger ship. There are no signs of anything at all, except for the shuttle itself. Where did it come from? And where is its mother ship? More importantly, how long has this thing drifted through space?
Midge bops her coffee cup back and forth and she affects a cartoonish voice for the coffee. "It was a long road but Im feeling very peppy thankyou." She smiles taking another sip, fine tuning the engines and reverse thrusters to get into close orbit of the distressed capsule. "Orbit to 300 yards."
Deja walks over and stands behind Midge as she looks to the vehical in queshtion. Being a doctor, and obviously a powerhouse now her skill set isnt really useful just yet.
Midge casts eyes back to Deja and smiles to herself briefly. "Lets see what Eden can tell us before we go in blind."
--Throug Edens Remote Vision-- The interior of the Shuttle is a mess. The lights are off, however there are enough monitors and status displays active to give off a straight eerie glow within the main cabin. The cryopods are set up against one of the walls. They are vertical rather than horizontal. Two of them appear to be in use, but the viewport is frosted over and difficult to see through. The third pod is demolished.
There is something else, though. Strange, thick weblike strands are stretched from roof to floor, occupied corners and has completely sealed up the cockpit. They are .. alive. Pulsating, dripping with residue. The strands all go into the engine compartment and, as far as Eden can determine, appear to have drained the engine core completely.’
Eden slides her mirrorshades from her pilots jacket and wears them normally for a moment, her focus extending outside her body and exploring the vacuum of space. Brow furrowing as she sensed the escape shuttle. "Tricky bugger...", she mumbles.
Sliding her sunglasses up, "There might be one or two people we can recover. Yet they have some life form aboard that drained the ships engines and is living off its reserves. Let's not allow it on board, I'm authorizing plasma casters and a flamethrower. It has some serious webbing. As much as I am interested in tissue or material samples, if it's too much of a risk... we will scorch this sector of space. Heck, we don't even know where the parent ship to this escape shuttle is. Be on guard.", whistling and pointing an arm to the armory. "We don't want to end up like them. Shoot first, ask questions later if needed."
Deja sits in whatever seat is hers and says "Well Im ready when you have a plan. I do have the basic hand to hand training and a mid grade on firearms."
Midge says, “Are you sure you want a flamethrower Agent Eden, fire spreads quite rapidly in comparison to Plasma. I will be fine with it but others perhaps not.”
Eden smiles, "Look, the flamethrower is like a .... -you know-. I'd rather have one and not need it, than need one and not have it.", nodding softly. "We don't need some xeno-morph planting it's young inside your guts to replicate a host of monsters onto our ship or crew.", heading to the armory to strap up, "Deja, lock and load.", looking back at Midge. "Seriously, this isn't like Earth. We must err on the side of caution. Something is aboard that shuttle, I saw it. Those people need rescued and I want to return home when all is said and done."
Deja walks over to the weapons locker and grabs a gun and vest as she gets ready to go. She has evdently seen her way around a firearm as she checks it out carfully and inserts the clip.
Midge goes to suit up as well. She adds the flamethrower and gas pack to her loadout. "Ill carry it then, less margin of error. I'll try and hold out on fire until we have the people in hand...unless they are hosts...". She doesnt finish her thought on that aloud.
Once properly loaded up, the trio head to the starboard side of the ship. Finishing donning their armor and spacesuits with magnetic boots, tethering themselves to the ship and doing a preliminary check of oxygen in their airlock. "Let's not mess this up.", Eden grumbles, a huge fan of space and her many deaths in it. Sealing their chamber so pressure can be exchanged, her helmet tight on her head. "You two feel ready?"
Deja gives a salute as she double checks her gear and says "Lets do this."
Midge nods. "No time for cold feet. People need our help down there. Im ready."
The Shuttle comes with a standard pressurised airlock, allowing for someone in the an unfriendly environment to get inside without threatening the integrity of the main deck. Inside the ship, it is a real mess. There are things floating about in the zero g, creating all manner of shapes and shadows from the corners of ones eyes. All the main lights are dead, but there enough illumination from various status displays and monitors still running on backup power, to create an eerie hue on the main deck itself. Directly opposite the entrance are three vertical cryo-pods. They stand side by side, with the right one being totally demolished. The other two are, apparently, in operation. The viewports are fully frosted over, blocking view of who, or what, is inside.
The worrying part, however, is the webbing. Thick, weblike, strands are stretched along the roof, the corners and the floor. The majority of them seem to go into the engine compartment, but all strands connect to a central pass that is currently blocking (and presumable filling) the cockpit. Its alive. The strand are pulsating and some sort of sticky residue is slowly dripping from them.
Midge looks with worry at the webbing. Eden's plan to bring flame throwers seems so much smarter now that she has boots on the ground or...not on the ground as the case may be. Her dark skinned face is dimly illuminated by the LED lights inside her digital readouts from the helmet. "Lets try to get those we can save out of here before we wake it up." Her face doesnt look sure that the thing isnt already awake.
Deja says, “Do the pods detach from the walls? Might be smart to bring them in frozed and see if they got any bugs in em before we defrost. Id like to check them out first."”
Eden tries to avoid stepping on the pulsating and sticky webbing, "Lets try and wipe down the viewing ports.", Eden suggests while having a plasma caster by her side, breathing deep of sealed air. "Yeah, dismantle them from the wall if we can. Should be able to yoink them out if they detach. Check them, then send 'em back to quarantine.", pointing at the first pod not smashed in and broken. "Let's get that one first. Then one and two.", trying to clean off the viewing port for a face and status reveal of pod number one.
Midge has the nozzle of the flamethrower still attached by its tube to her backpack and hanging hands free for now. The plasma caster is in hand. She moves to the other non destroyed pod to wipe off the viewing port and see what might wait inside. "We'll have to see Deja, usually the pods aren't detachable Id think but maybe. This is an old ship."
No plan, no matter how well made, ever survives point of contact. First part is that the pods are indeed not detachable. They are a part of the ship and removing them would mean dismantling a significant part of the wall and who knows how close they are to the hull of the ship and the vacuum of space.
Second, there is a sudden screeching sound, a high pitched vibration that fills the entire ship. The mass in the cockpit suddenly flare up in a pulse of light which shoots through its strands, going into the engine compartment. Within an instant, the entire ship comes alive as a surge of power is restored to it. Engines, dormant for who knows how long, sudden flares up in a single burst causing the entire ship to twist once, creaking and groaning.
Midge was right. It is indeed awake.
Deja from her training shoulders her riffle and looks down the leangth of it towards the webs. "grab a medical kit and we can sedate the inhabitants and transfer them to new pods if we have to."
Midge lets the plasma caster drop in its sling and takes out the flamethrower slowly from her pack. "Do it quickly, I think Im going to have to put a scorch on this place once we're ready to egress."
Midge is surprised at the backward pressure of the flamethrower when she pulls the trigger so splashes the roof above the mass of tentacles with fire.
Eden ends up taking one for the team as she is enveloped in spidery tendrils or tentacles or whatever it might be. Fighting the xeno-morph as she screamed calmly at Midge, "This is why we brought the flamethrower. Just gotta stay calm and be set of fire.", ripping off an arm as Eden was stuck wrestling the alien entity. "Oh god, it's so slimy. Get it off me!", fighting the monster in a do not panic mode.
The slimy tentacles went for Eden, but the creature was not prepared for her strength. She could feel it, though. The power within those tentacles. Being pulled into its central mass would most likely not be a good thing. At all.
Then there is fire. The heat from the rolling flames licks near one of the tentacles and the creature lets out a loud, screeching sound. It abandons its attack, its tentacles instead grabbing a hold of edges to the hatch leading into the engine compartment. With speed a creature like that should not move with, the entire thing explodes free from the cockpit and *SPLURCHES* into the engine compartment. Like a squid squeezing into a way to small entrance.
Woe is the day, with alien foreplay, one night stands and sticky departures. Eden tried dodging the mess, but it was just too much. Using the windshield like wiper on her visor, "First encounters are always messed up. Imagine if we came down here in light gear and no weapons. This is why you bring flame throwers and weapons even on simple rescue missions like these.", sighing and trying to go back to fiddling with the Cryopods. "Deja, we need to extract them. Midge, be on the lookout for my new boyfriend.", looking around with urgency.
Midge stands guard with the flamethrower, the small fire burning at the nozzle casting reflections on her helmet and her tense expression.
The creature now being out of sight but, from the sounds of the creaking and other squishy noises, it's still onboard. Somewhere. In the bulkheads, in the engines.
It does give the team a chance to get to the pods, finally. The status displays shows that the middle one is in use but when checking for lifesigns, it shows none. The pod, it would appear, is empty. However, the logs will tell Deja that when it started up, there was someone in there.
The last pod, however, appears to be fully occupied. Vitals according to the display, are strong. It lists him as Human, Male. It also comes with an ID: 'I. Zelazny. Engineer Junior Class. Reserve Crew 'Infinite Horizons'.
The pod is on good condition, and getting him out of there should be no trouble at all.
As it turns out, this I. Zelazny is indeed a male, human. He's dressed in what looks like an older style Ionic cloth suit. Its integrity is intact and his helmet is on. His right hand is clutching an older style weapon as well. It looks like an old DPDE device.
Deja works on freeing the survivor, and then guides him towards the main ship as she floats him to the medical bay to put him in another cryo pod to stabalize him as quickly as possible.
Waking up from Cryosleep is not a fun thing. And these pods seem to be of an older variant. It does not leave the sleeper very aware for a while. So leading him along for Deja is not a difficult thing; its like leading a zombie along.
The moment she has Zel heading towards the hatch, the engine suddenly comes to life once more. The entire ship hums to life, lights turning on and the cockpit lighting up like a christmas tree.
Eden helps Deja escort Zelazny towards their ship, "Cover us, Midge.", she says while doing her best to body-block between the VE and alien life. Her gun ready as they retreated in a v-formation, attempting to hold the line. "He needs to go to quarantine and be checked.", looking back at the cockpit and wondering if the shuttles log was even worth.
Midge backs up on rear guard, once the group is into the rescue craft she leaves a powerful blast of flame behind her. At this point she isnt trying to be accurate just leave an inferno in her wake. She then hurries after the others.
As if on cue, just as Edens fleeting thoughts run through her mind, the ships primary systems finishes booting up. A voice calls out from the loudspeakers, "Infinity AI, online. Primary systems, online. Secondary systems, damaged. Engines, damaged. Engine core, unstable." a brief pause, "Warning. Warning. Anomaly detected in engine core; secondary hull."
Deja is in the medbay looking over Zel. As soon as she ships medical scanners confirm no critters she releases him from the med bay.
So close. The monitors are right there, with data ports for easy access to get any of the shuttles logs. But the team leaves the Shuttle, sealing the doors behind them to return to their own vessel. A minute passes, after which the engines of the shuttle suddenly flare up. A sudden and quick burn from the damaged and unstable engines causes the shuttle to pick up speed, starting to travel away from them. But who engaged the engines? Where did the power come from? As the team tend to the mysterious man they rescued from the ship, the shuttle is slowly heading off into the black beyond.
Midge keeps a hand to steady Zelazny as the ship speeds away. "Some disorientation is normal. We will have to explain to him that everyone he knew is dead." She looks sad as she squeezes the unconscious mans shoulder.
While the rest of the crew transports Zelazny, Eden goes through decontamination twice. Hosing and spraying down the ooze and slime off her space suit with antimicrobial soap, till she was completely clean. Then peeling out of the hardened gear and checking the patient recovered with Deja. "I really don't want to go back there. But we will if we need to. Can you watch him, Doctor?", sticking a piece of earth gum into her mouth.
Deja nods her head "Yea I got this, he seems healthy and well not in imediate danger."
