Episode Twenty Eight: Sentient

[Tabitha Cobb]

1850
Unknown Vessel
Corridor near Engineering Section

After Colonel Loveridge had deemed it necessary for more people to come over and salvage parts from the ship, Tabby followed the engineering team along. A list had been made while on Akrontiri. Actually, it was more like the perpetually growing list that never seemed to end. At least, that's what it felt like whenever a part broke on the city-ship. On her small tablet, she flipped back a few pages, since most everyone else was going for the major repairs. After all, while it may be necessary to install a new toilet, you won't have much fun using it unless you have toilet paper too.

Anyway, armed with her tablet, a radio, and her fully-loaded jumpsuit, she and a few others made their way down a few corridors that branched off from engineering. There were a few circuits that had blown out a while back, and several parts that were soon to go. Several of the other engineers shook their head as she suggested climbing up into the ceiling space to see if there were any intact conduits, but in her typical fashion, she climbed right on up, asking for a flashlight before she began crawling and they continued back to engineering. She'd be fineeee. Just then, there was a lurch, and Tabby went sliding backwards across the ceiling space, as if it were a slide.

1045 Local Time
Unknown Vessel: Orbiting Pelion
Corridor near Engineering Section

Tabby had managed to cling onto a support beam to keep from sliding much more before they dropped from hyperdrive. There was only the dim light from the different generators in the area. Looking back behind her, she could see the light of her flashlight shining off at the end of the connecting area, a good 15 yards away from her. Looking herself over, the only significant damage she saw were the major rips in her jumpsuit. There was a bit of a sting on her cheek, and there were little specks of blood on her glove after she touched it. A scrape.

"Hello?" she said, knocking on the tile beneath her. In the dim light, she could see the ridge where the tile could be lifted. Using a screwdriver, she lifted the metal tile with a grunt and slid it to the side. In the new bit of light, she could see the area around her...and, hey look! A conduit! Prying it from it's place in the shaft wall and shoving it into her chest pocket with a slight sound of satisfaction.

Then she poked her head out through the hole in the ceiling, looking into the Engineering Section.

"Um...is everyone alright?" There were a few folks she could see, sort of getting back onto their feet. In a way, she had fared a bit better than most, she supposed. Her tendency to crawl into small spaces might have just saved her from a fractured bone or two.

Pulling her head back into the hole, she resituated herself so her feet dangled out of the ceiling. Then after a brief moment where she hung there, she dropped to the floor, regaining her balance as she stood upright. From what she could gather, the folks from her crew probably tumbled right back into the Engineering area, so that's where she went.

"From the looks on everyone's faces, I'm thinking that was not supposed to happen," she said, trying to brush some white strands of hair from her face clumisly, thanks to her engineering gloves. In a tone that may have a had a bit too much sunshine in it for the current situation, she chimed in, "At least we know the hyperdrive works."

TAG: Anyone!

OOC: It's Mere! I'm back, ya'll! -dances- Correct me if I've missed something vital.

[Pooja Garcia]

1850
Unknown Vessel
Hunting for Gimbal

Pooja blinked at him as if he had grown second head that was dumber than Oxford’s. Or he was just putting his foot in his mouth by being around the said Major too long. Goofiness and dumbness didn’t gel, everyone knew that or so she thought everyone did. But it seemed memos hadn’t been passed along to others in that regard. Well what a surprise. Rolling her eyes she listened to what he was saying and rose an eyebrow.

What the heck did robots had anything to with Sociology? In fact what did have anything to with anything at all? Even as anger made it way up she forced herself to stay calm and answer his question. He wasn’t going to bite her head off or overanalyses everything she said or did. She just prayed that he didn’t. He didn’t seem to be the type. Taking few deep breaths as she gathered her thoughts, maybe something could be linked but that needed to determine on how she could link them together. “If I can get bit more on the AI, I might able to find the connection, but for now I’m drawing blank.”

Shaking and the moving of the vessel had her rigid fear coming back as the ship jumped in hyperspace. Too closed up to hold on to anything she felt herself fly backwards and hitting a wall behind her.

1045 Local Time
Unknown Vessel: Orbiting Pelion
Engineering

Coming around after being passed out for who knew how long. She could feel her bones aching like mad. Now all she wanted was a long soak in the hot water to ease it off, and doing that was a long way off given the mission seemed to have gone south. But for what reason had it went south she didn’t know but was going to find out.

Gently moving her legs and arms at first to see if there was a fracture, finding nothing, she moved to sit, with no internal injuries either, she noticed it was only muscle pain at the best. For that her only cure was back at the base. Grumbling she sat up and tried to recall the moments before the jump happened. Remember that Kent had been working on the controls, clicking her radio to Kent’s channel, “McKillop, what the heck happened?”

<<Tag Base/SD-2>>

[Robert "Scarecrow" Cromin]

1851
Unknown Vessel
Engineering

It seems everyone was busy doing various things and Captain Cromin willing to help in whatever way he could decided to act on an idea that came to his mind. He was still worried about the attack on Akrotiri and as best as he could he wanted to make sure that that threat was completely nutralized so he went to the Colonel with his idea. "Sir I was thinking that maybe I 'll take one of the marines and head over to the bridge, and check the NAV systems to see where this ship was going and also see what i can find about what happened to the ship that it is empty and see if we can track the source of attack to this ship. Intel is always a good thing to have sir"

The Captain knew the Colonel well enough to know that he was probably thinking the samething maybe, he wasnt just going to let an attack insode Akrotiri slide not if he can help it. He waited for the Colonel's response to his question. Meanwhile he quickly checked with the marines that stayed behind to watch over the shuttle in order to make sure that their exit was not going to be compromised. The Marines reported everything was fine and the Captain again looked to the Colonel who was trying to sought out somethings before answering the Captain

<Tag Loveridge>

[Troy Loveridge]

1045 Local Time
Unknown Vessel: Orbiting Pelion
Engineering

Together with Eli, Troy had been lifting the large capacitor down from a storage rack when the ship had jumped into hyperspace. He stumbled and tripped, landing face first on the deck but managing to avoid any real injury. Somebody called that they were injured, sending Eli bolting across the room to assist. "Go, I got this," Troy added with a groan, pulling himself back up to his feet. He really was getting too old for this...

A Nemean warrior who had only recently joined their expedition - Tlepolemus, or Tlep for short - was quickly at Troy's side. Not 100% recovered from the fall, Troy hadn't noticed that the large capacitor was rolling across the deck from the inertia caused by the jump, but thankfully Tlep was quicker off the mark, and moved to halt the roll of the device. The colonel jumped to his feet and moved to helped, stopping the device from moving and furthering damaging itself. "I'm alright," he replied once they'd secured. "I heard Sergeant Valenti take a fall outside, go see if he'd OK."

With medical attention being given to those in need, it was time for the colonel to assess the situation. Doctor Garcia put a call through to Kent to see what the situation was, but the archaeologist wasn't quite up to responding just yet. "Calmara, Oxford, this is Loveridge," he said into his radio. "Any injuries?" For a sudden hyperspace launch that had caught them off guard, those in the engineering room seemed to have gotten off pretty lightly. A few knocks here and there, with only McKillop yet to be back on his feet. Captain Cromin stepped forward with the suggestion that he take a marine and check out the bridge. "Let me know what you find," Troy replied.

Miss Cobb reappeared to see how everyone was. With his go-to techs in Sergeant Calmara and Chief Angler in different parts of the ship, it was now up to Tabby to step up to the plate. "This thing... bounced a little," Troy explained, walking over to the capacitor he'd managed to drop as a result of the hyperspace jump. "Any way of knowing if it still works?"

< Tag Base Personnel & SD-2 >

[James Calmara]

1045 Local Time
Unknown Vessel – Pelion Orbit
Hunting for Gimbal

Going from walking along having a chat about how to tackle the next task to find himself in a crumpled heap against one side of the corridor with a splitting headache, the area around his ribs feeling decidedly tender and multiple bruises that were revealing themselves when he moved in any way.

He turned to check on Dr Garcia, particularly only to find her up and on the radio. “I can see that jolt didn’t affect you to badly. Did it?” Calmara commented maybe a little sharply, attempted to turn it into a question to soften it, slightly, before moving over to Post check on him. “You in one piece Sarge after that little rock and roll.” Calmara could hazard a guess at the reason for the rather large jolt, and responded with his theory before McKillop could get back to Garcia. “I bet that jolt would have been hyperlaunch. Another indication the ship has been unoccupied for a while” A universal constant was an engineers pride in his work, also it was highly unlikely any crew would have put up with that large a jolt every time they wanted to go anywhere fast.

Calmara was in a slight quandary at this point, he was all but convinced that CHENN had an ulterior motive that they had yet to fathom and, if that was hyperlaunch they were now headed away from Akotiri to who knew where. The question was do they carry on with the search for the parts or try to either stop or turn this ship around. Calmara went with the latter after all they did still have the two 305’s available to jump ship if needed. “CHENN Are we a hyperspeed? And without meaning to sound ungrateful, a little more advanced warning would have been appreciated.” Calmara stated firmly to AI, planning on leading into the obvious question.


Informative: We are now at hyperpeed. A full pre-launch sequence was followed, including a visual countdown displayed on the hyperdrive monitoring station in engineering.

“It felt like you hyperdrive could do with a bit of tune up. We would be glad to offer assistance in that matter as a gesture of appreciation for the parts you are willing to spare us.” Calmara suggested, changing tack slightly as to away of getting them out of the current situation.

Demand: I do not full understand ‘tune up’ please explain!

“By ‘tune up’ I mean some adjustment in the acceleration variables and settings.”]

Acceptance: you concern as it has been some time since I had organic components. You assistance would however be acceptable.


Calmara nodded to himself tuning to Garcia and Post, indicating his intention to carry on with his original task. “Lets keep moving forward what ever twist has just come up were going to need those parts.”
He moved off down the corridor, intending on going a few paces before reporting in, as it turned out the Expedition Leader was already on it, asking for a status report. “Calmara to Loveridge, checking in after the jolt. The odd bumps and bruises, we’ve all had worse I expect, seems like we got off lightly. On an unrelated point CHENN has agreed to allow access to the hyperdrive for a tune-up, that might open up some options.”

1046 Local Time
Unknown Vessel – Pelion Orbit
Gimbal Access Room

Following memorized route Calmara made a left turn a short way further up in to another compartment, exiting that into another short corridor which they followed to the end, before making a final right into their destination compartment. It was hexagonal in shape, with panels of various sizes set into four of the walls. ”CHENN confirm gimble is located behind the third panel from the top on the wall left of the forward access, and that that panel is isolated and powered down.

It took a short while for the response to come through, almost as though she or it was calculating its next move, trying to determine their trustworthiness, but it was a super advanced AI so why the wait. Calmara cynical side came out maybe she just wanted to unnerve them, make there live more uncomfortable, try to get them unbalanced and unfocused and then strike. Conformation: The gimble is located here, system is fully isolated you may access the component.

Moving over he un-shouldered his pack, pulled off the appropriate panel, began pulling out his tool kits. Gesturing to the other two to come over and that some help would be needed to extract the gimble.

<tag all>

OOC: I may have gone on a bit, got a little carried away.

[Travis Oxford]

1045 Local Time
Unknown Vessel: Orbiting Pelion
Engineering

He supressed a chuckle over her comment and expression; it wasn’t him who was suppose give a warning; he hardly knew what was happening in the engine room to being with. Mckillop was there and doing all that fancy dancy translations with the Private who was helping him out. Hearing Garcia radioing Kent, Travis had a hard time containing his amusement. That woman was going to tear into him like there was no tomorrow.

Regardless, Kent was on his own in dealing with Pooja. Angler’s question drew his attention back to the task at hand, “No idea really,” he admitted, “Could be red, blue, green; heck it could even be pink. Captain McKinnon hasn’t specified what colour she needed for the engines.” Kim hardly did say what she needed most of the time. The Air Force Captain had a hot temper and a short fuse to match.

He blinked at her when she said to put her back in the water, now he did chuckle. He had heard similar expression many times over the years, “I’m a ground pounder, Chief. I don’t do water. But will give a go.” He joked as he moved along the level they were on.

Troy’s question came as he hailed the two leaders of SD-2, “No injuries here, other than bruises. Nothing life threating as yet.” He spoke even as he walked and lead the two of them. Seeing two doors, he motioned for Vanessa to take the left one, “Will keep you posted if anything comes up.”

Taking the right door, he opened it, slowly, before entering the room, flicking on the light to see the lay out better, he was gobsmack to see rows of crystals on selves of sizes and colours. Certainly this was going to be a trick task. Picking out the right one was going to be a headache. Moving he asserted the crystals as he ambled along checking for traps that might spring up without warning.

<<Tag SD-2/Base>>

((OOC: I’m thinking that both rooms contains crystals.))

[Vanessa Angler]

1045 Local Time
Unknown Vessel: Orbiting Pelion
Engineering -> Side Room

Vanessa raised her brow as she listened to him. "Figures Army Brat" she teased right back. "A little water never killed anyone" she added confidently right about the same time that she broke off towards the other room. Changing her mind she covered Travis as he entered into the other room until she deemed it safe from her point of view and she hobbled slightly into the next room taking her gun with her.

She looked into the room and sat staring at her own rainbow wall. "Color? Shape? Size?" she called over the radio. She recognized some of them as the "terium" technology she worked with so she was able to discern that those were probably not for this ship; but that didn't narrow things at all for her. She was more or less waiting on an answer.

<<Tag: All>>

(Blargh sorry guys)

[Kent McKillop]

1047 Local Time
Unknown Vessel: Orbiting Pelion
Engineering

With some help Kent was seated upright, with focus slowly returning to his eyes and his head slowly beginning to stop spinning. While his head was starting to sort itself out, his body was going in the opposite direction, with the pain in his back getting more intense. Yes, he'd definitely done some good damage. He could still feel his extremities, so that was a good sign. This crazy galaxy had again failed to confine him to a wheelchair!

Private Argon was at his side, commenting that she was meant to be the one who called out 'man down'. The archaeologist could only groan in response as he tried to roll off the part of his back that was in pain, which only resulted in him discovering that his other side was also tender. Kent was sure his body would just fall apart at any moment now. "I'll keep that in mind," he replied with a cough, trying to keep his spirits up.

'Keeping spirits up' was probably a bit of an exaggeration. Poor old Kent McKillop was suffering from a cracked rib, not an amputated arm or ruptured organ, an injury that the normal person would have brushed off. But for the typically desk-based intellect that was Kent, this was the most pain he'd known in some time.

His cries for pain were soon answered. A doctor with whom Kent was not previously acquainted rushed to his side and began to attend to the archaeologist. He quickly rattled off his observations of Kent's condition before enquiring about his name. Kent opened his mouth to respond but was beaten to the mark by Vasilisa. "Everything hurts," Kent replied with another groan, closing his eyes and hoping that this was some sort of painful dream that he was experiencing.

His mind drifted to the events that had lead to his injuries. Moments ago he'd noticed that CHENN was counting down to an unspecified event, which had turned out to be this very hyperspace jump. "Where are we?" Kent asked, not sure that he wanted to know. It was safe to assume they were a long way from Akrotiri and the safety that it provided.

< Tag Vasilisa & Eli >

[Tabitha Cobb]

1045 Local Time
Unknown Vessel: Orbiting Pelion
Engineering

Tabby watched most of the others pull themselves up off the floor, bracing themselves on the various things. She watched the doctor on the team help someone who seemed to be hurting quite a bit. She seemed to have fared quite well with just the scrape on her cheek, even if there were little flecks of darkening red in the white strands of her hair, from the little drops of blood. Then again, she wasn't paying much mind to that.

Her attention immediately fell on Colonel Loveridge, the man in charge, the head honcho, all of that stuff, as he called her attention to the capacitor. It was basically the most important item on the list of things that they needed on Akrotiri. At first, she wasn't sure if he was speaking directly to her, since she was definitely not on top of the "hey, could you check this out?" list as far as engineers go. However, looking around, she saw that there wasn't really anyone else he could be talking to. With a smile, she nodded.

"Oooh, pretty," she said, tugging at her engineering gloves before she started checking it over. She had seen capacitors on many smaller projects, usually cars and things, then on smaller sections of the city-ship she had been on these past weeks. Now, this, though, was much bigger than the things she had been allowed to play with up to this point, and she tried to contain her excitement.

First of all, she checked around the bottom of it, where apparently it "bounced". There was a little ding in the material, making it look kind of like a can that had been dropped in the grocery store, just a little bent around the bottom. It didn't seem like it would cause much of a problem, and there didn't seem to be anything leaking from it. Always a good sign. However, she ran her gloved hand across the dent, wishing she had her sledgehammer. Then again, maybe not in front of the commander of the entire expedition. It might not be a good idea to go hammering away at the most important piece of equipment right then.

Maybe later.

Shoving her hand down into her pocket, she pulled out a modified energy monitor. When the other engineers explained it to her, it was basically one of those things that checks to see if batteries still had power in them....except, it worked for alien technology that you wouldn't necessarily want to touch unless you wanted to be disentigrated. From the size of this capacitor, she knew it had enough power to rip her down to her basic atomic structure if she touched it when it was turned on. Instead, she checked the input and output lines with the extensions she attached.

"It's fully functional," she said, not quite sure how someone who wasn't military should address other folks. Her mind wondered on that for barely two seconds before she was back to the task at hand. "The input lines are a bit corroded, but that's a pretty easy fix. Not to mention the dent, but as long as it doesn't start leaking anything, we should be fine." Taking her energy monitor and shoving it down in one of her pockets again, she beamed at the colonel, "Other than that, it looks like we have ourselves a new capacitor. Yay!"

<Tag TROY & Others!>

[Eli Byrne]

1047 Local Time
Unknown Vessel: Orbiting Pelion
Engineering

The situation had quickly gone from Eli doing important but still un-specialty work, to something that probably he could only do. It had been caused by a strange jolt in the ground that this new-comer to space couldn't even start to guess to figure out what it was. His brain kept screaming EARTHQUAKE (due to living in California for years and years) but...there wasn't solid ground. Nor plate tectonics. This was a space ship. Floating in space. Right. That concept was still a little hard to comprehend. While he could sort of force it into his mind via PRETEND IT'S AN AIRPLANE...the whole 'space outside' thing just couldn't find a way into comprehension within his lightly complex mind.

Running over to the man who called 'Man down!' he was quick to examine. While he was the only - that he heard - who screamed out for help, he was most likely not the only one in trouble. He especially worried for the ones that didn't call for help.

"This is Kent McKillop" Private Agron explained. Once Eli heard a person's name, he was normally set. His lovely photographic memory made sure of that. He could simply think back to the situation and bam - there it was. This man, however, he was never introduced to. The woman's name had been spoken by another earlier.
"Thank you, Private," he smiled, "I hadn't been introduced nor heard anyone say his name," he lightly shrugged, running his hand along the man's ribs gently to check for fracture.

"And that my kind sir, was a hyperspace jump."
"You learn something new every day," Eli nodded, as she ripped Kent's shoulder, "You had me quite worried for a moment there."
Within Eli's mind, he pondered all the possibilities that this man was -indeed - not fine. But knowing how people function, it was better to just remain quiet until everything was known for sure. Especially when the man informs him that 'everything hurts'.

The Private stood and turned away from Eli and Kent - appearing to focus on something that she blocked Eli from. Possibly an injury? Or something that caused the hyperspace jump?
"You okay?" Eli asked, as he glanced back down to check Kent's injuries.
So far he appeared to have a light concussion and a few bruised ribs - which of course would cause a lot of pain between the two. Everything else seemed fine - but he wanted to be sure.

He heard her make a strange noise, but decided she'd tell him if something was wrong.
"Kent," he smiled, "You appear to have a mild concussion and bruised ribs. No it isn't pleasant, but it's nothing series," he informed, "Just avoid running around. Sadly everything I'd recommend to someone in your situation really can't be accomplished when we're on an alien spaceship that has an intelligent AI that hopefully doesn't want to kill us."

The Private returned - noticeably limping.
"Put me to work Doctor...er Mr Byrne."
"I'm fine with just being called Eli. If that's too informal, Doctor Byrne. I worked my ass off for an M.D. and Ph.D, might as well reap the title benefits," he shrugged, "The only thing you can really do is keep an eye on him," Eli frowned, "As I told him a moment ago, he has a light concussion and bruised ribs. Ideally I'd let him relax and heal...possibly his short-term memory is fried. So if you tell him something important, he may - just may - forget it a few seconds later..."

Eli glanced back down at Kent, "What was the first thing I asked you when I got here?" he asked - his voice calm, but held a lightly serious tone.

In the background, Eli could hear the creepy talking computer having a conversation with someone.
"Hopefully they're getting everything sorted..." he whispered, cleaning a few of the cuts that Kent had gotten in the jump. They were minor - thus the not including in his 'diagnosis,' but he should still clean them lightly. Sadly all he had was a cloth in his pocket from someone's eyeglasses. He, himself, did not wear such spectacles...so it was a bit of a mystery how they got there in the first place. But he was grateful.

"Where are we?" Kent asked.
"Good question."

<Tag Kent and Agron>

[Tlepolemus]

1047 Local Time
Unknown Vessel: Orbitting Pelion
Engineering


A quick response from Loveridge was followed by an instruction, to go to the aid of a warrior called Valenti . Although not having met him, he did hear the call for help so the fact that he was likely injured would make him easy to identify. He nodded respectfully at Loveridge then turned towards one of the accesses to engineering.

He skirted the engineering section keeping an eye out for the aforementioned person. For Tle the whole situation was weird from the start, being on a vessel that navigated the stars. But he was reassured to a certain extent by the dynamic of the group; they had been taking this situation in their stride. Now was different, the change in situation had made for more edgy and cautious dynamic.

Tleopomus tighten his grip on the shotgun he was carrying and moved round a corner, catching sight of and injured warrior. He moved over to him, identifying himself as he did “You are Sergeant Valenti ? I’m a friend. You appear to be injured. I shall attempt to assist you while bringing a healer to you” While not having any formal medical training as such, years of hunting had given him a certain amount of hands on experience with injuries taking the ankle he warned. “This will cause you pain.” Before straightening the limb. Although he knew a few people of the expedition, the constant in and out people made it hard to keep track of who was who. He was familiar one or two of the healers on the expedition, but neither was on the ship.

“Tleopomus to any Healer, I am with Sergeant Valenti, he has need of your assistance. Take the left access out of engineering then proceed fifty footfalls.” He stated simply into the radio, before returning his attention to the warrior, the difference in culture meant a lack of things to talk about. Still he stayed ready to react to what came next.

<Tag Valtine & all>

[Troy Loveridge]

1048 Local Time
Unknown Vessel: Orbiting Pelion
Engineering

Young Miss Cobb gave the large capacitor they'd recovered a once over before thanking declaring that it was functional, and had only suffer some cosmetic damage. A least the item they'd came for was still in working order. This was good news considering they'd just been abducted by a sentient spaceship and transported across the galaxy to who knows where.

Now that everyone seemed to be back on their feet and the equipment was in working order it was time to figure out where the hell they were and how they were going to get these parts back to Akrotiri. A number of small viewports scattered the engineering room they we set up in, and the colonel wander over to one and peered outside. At first he could only see the darkness of space littered with distant stars, but as the ship rotated a planet came into view, one covered with oceans, vegetation and mountains that might as well have been Earth. The vessel continued to rotate, with a second object slowly coming into view.

A object Troy instantly recognised.

The USS Aeneid.

Before he even realised, the colonel's radio was out and in his hand. "Aeneid, Loveridge," he said into his radio. "Do you copy?" There was a pause for a moment as those on the bridge of the Earth-built battlecruiser no doubt tried to figure out where Troy's voice was coming from. "Dar, we copy you colonel," came the Russian-accented voice of Kamarov, the ship's chief engineer. "Ahh, where are you colonel sir?"

Troy shook his head, himself not sure exactly how to explain how they'd come to be onboard a cargo vessel controlled by an intelligent yet somewhat creepy altricial intelligence that monitored their every move. Troy was about to ask for the cruiser to dispatch a shuttle to retrieve him and his team when CHENN's voice boomed over the ships internal speakers.

"Question: Are you affiliated with the vessel located off our port bow?" Without thinking, Troy answered in the affirmative, adding that the cruiser was theirs and that it would no fire on unless provided. CHENN seemed to mull over this for a moment before responding in her most ominous voice yet.

"Observation: Your vessel is more highly advanced than this one, and will be compatible to my operating system."

"Confession: I plan to steal your ship and make it my mine."

Before CHENN could even speak her next line, Troy knew he wasn't going to like it.

"Declaration: I have no further need for you. Warning: The air supply of this vessel is now being flooded with deadly neurotoxin."

< Tag Base Personnel & SD-2 >

[John E. Valenti]

1047 - 1048 Local Time
Unknown Vessel: Orbiting Pelion
Engineering


“You are Sergeant Valenti ? I’m a friend. You appear to be injured. I shall attempt to assist you while bringing a healer to you”

The sound of the man's voice brought John back to a state of semi-awareness, he was still groggy from the fall and the pain in his leg was intense but he did his best to grit his teeth and respond to the man, although all he could muster was a nod and a grunt for the time being.

“This will cause you pain.”

everything was causing him pain, one more little twist wasn't really going to do much to him at this point. He let out a very loud and unmanly yelp as the man set his ankle and turned to call for a healer...

“Tleopomus to any Healer, I am with Sergeant Valenti, he has need of your assistance. Take the left access out of engineering then proceed fifty footfalls.”

healer, footfalls... John then realized he had not met this man before and was fairly certain he was not from earth. fighting through the fog in his brain, and the pain in the rest of him, he attempted to speak again.

"Thank you, I'm John. I don't reckon we've met before but your help is most appreciated. I tried to stand but it didn't take."

John heard what he sounded like CHENN speaking in the distance, he could barely make out what was being said but he knew it didn't sound good.

"Just so you know friend, I think we're all about to be in a world of hurt..."

[Kent McKillop]

1049 Local Time: 3 minutes of oxygen remaining
Unknown Vessel: Orbiting Pelion
Engineering

Things had been bad.

Then they had become worst.

Now they were apocalyptic.

Despite being at the receiving end of medical treatment at the hands of Doctor Byrne, the archaeologist jumped to his feet. There was no way he was lying down while this crazy ship pumped poison gas into the hallways and killed everyone on board. The moment he rose to his feet he felt his head spin, but there was no time for that. A way of saving themselves needed to be found, or in lieu of that, a means of escape.

Kent made his way over to the same console he'd been studying just before CHENN had jumped the ship into hyperspace. A countdown similar to the one he'd previously noted was present; thankfully this one had more time on it. "Three minutes!" McKillop yelled across the room. "Three minutes until this 'neurotoxin' takes hold." He had to take a moment to steady himself against the nearby bulkhead to avoid fainting. Three minutes! what would you even do in three minutes?

Shaking his head and trying to pull himself together, Kent refocused his attention on the monitor. Numbers and words were scrolling down the screen behind the countdown but were going too quickly for him to make out. "Errr, starboard... errr, filters... errr, override," he called out, translating the few words he was able to glimpse before they scrolled off the screen. "I can't make any sense of this!" Kent added, his panic levels beginning to shoot sky high.

"What are we going to do!?"

< Tag Base Personnel & SD-2 >

[Travis Oxford]

1048 Local Time
Unknown Vessel: Orbiting Pelion
Engineering

Still looking through the rows and row of crystals and gobsmacked over the amount collected Travis had to wonder just how they came to be here when the whole ship was run by a computer. Better yet, he didn’t want to know. Chances were that he wasn’t going to like story if he heard it. The AI was already having his hair standing on the base of his neck. As Vanessa radioed him over the type of the crystal ordered/requested, he looked baffled for the moment, as he got his brain around the questions, “Most likely to be in a shade of white or blue. Size should be from the tip of the finger to the elbow. My guess would be that its straight and about two inch thick.” He was about to move ahead, when he heard what the AI was saying.

Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t, he swore mentally as he place the safety back on his weapon, “Keep looking, I’m going to find what the heck is going on. The moment you spot it and maybe a second one, bring them both.” He spoke over the radio as he ran down the corridors and the direction he had come from. Whatever CHENN had decided wasn’t a good thing. In fact this was he was fearing all along; he had expected this course of action, but had hoped that it didn’t actually come to it.

Doubling his pace he arrived in what he assumed to be a record time, in front of Loveridge, “CHENN, you will never get past the firewall and the proxies set up. You can take over that ship, but let us talk to our people first.”

All while he spoke, he wrote on his pad: Going to buy us some time. Trying to STALL. Then handed it over to Troy,

“What do you mean firewall?”

“Protection. Someone will have to go over to the other ship and speak to the one in charge personally.” His main aim here now was to get Loveridge out the harm’s way. Without the expedition’s CO they all will be more of ducks than they already were.

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