|
Slaan posted:D- Bloody hell you guys are incredibly paranoid. Just go back to sleep. Everything will be fiiiiine. My paranoia is only fueled by the fact we are on a spaceship we don't know much about, fleeing a faceless enemy, and Loel is posting a bunch in the thread.
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2016 23:18
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 20, 2024 01:15 |
|
|
There Bias Two posted:Ooooor maybe they just rounded up a bunch of paranoid undesirables and shipped them off after the war so that they could enjoy Earth in peace and quiet. quote:Golgafrincham was a planet, once home to the Great Circling Poets of Arium. The descendants of these poets made up tales of impending doom about the planet. The tales varied; some said it was going to crash into the sun, or the moon was going to crash into the planet. Others said the planet was to be invaded by twelve-foot piranha bees and still others said it was in danger of being eaten by an enormous mutant star-goat.
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2016 23:19
|
|
|
B.B. Rodriguez posted:Everything will be fiiiiine. Aww 
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2016 23:19
|
|
|
Diogines posted:I meant we should act as if we were. Nah, it was mentioned in one of the updates that we aren't the only one.
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2016 23:20
|
|
|
Canuck-Errant posted:Except that if damage is cumulative - say, every time you thaw and freeze - we're risking the health of a 7 year old for no better reason than 'let's see if it's working'. I assumed it was possible to do a better visual check without thawing? I may have missed that part of the update tho
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2016 23:58
|
|
|
FoxTerrier posted:I assumed it was possible to do a better visual check without thawing? I may have missed that part of the update tho Oh, I thought you were wanting to thaw out the little girl, not just do a better visual check. Sorry 
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 00:09
|
|
|
Canuck-Errant posted:Oh, I thought you were wanting to thaw out the little girl, not just do a better visual check. Sorry Yea visual is all I want. Going 'Eh, I can kinda see the top of her head so she's probably ok' just doesn't strike me as ideal. Just a better check
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 00:32
|
|
|
Diogines posted:What sort of animals did we bring with us, if any? Do we have any fetuses or bio samples? Do we have what we need to resurrect dead species? Are.... there ever going to be dolphins again? You have tissue samples and genetic data for a number of species native to Earth. You have no idea if any of them will be viable on Tyson-664d, there isn't enough data about what sort of environment you are heading too. Yes, dolphins are among those you have data for even if they are super annoying to talk to. cat_herder posted:As long as we aren't defrosting anyone early, especially kiddos, I don't see a problem with a quick visual and vitals check on the colonists, after that electrical problem. Was the affected wiring strictly for the warning light, or was it for more important use? The affected wiring was essentially shorting out on the bulkhead, causing a dip in the current as some of it went into the metal around it. This meant a lower signal at the bridge panel than the local panel was sending out, which the bridge panel was interpreting as random pods being opened. It may have caused other oddities in the data but the most visibly obvious sign of the issue was the flicker on the status panel. You spent enough time on the bridge that you are confident the flicker is gone. It was happening with a random interval, but you know the average interval and wait 10 of them, which gives you a very high statistical chance of seeing any defects if the rate remained the same. Even if the rate had been cut in half you would still probably have seen it, your computer estimates that you are 99.9% sure it is resolved with the same recurrence rate, and 96.9% sure at half the recurrence rate. Bedia will continue to monitor it, obviously. You are not the only colony ship that left, but you have essentially no way to know if the others have been successful in their efforts. You could very well be the last hope of humanity and it would probably behoove you to behave as such. Diogines posted:Are we actually fleeing the Cylons, the world government just didn't want us to know? FaustianQ has covered most of the other points quite well. Humanity had tried to colonize the moon and mars but neither of those colony efforts ever managed to be self sustaining, they depended upon Earth for resources and were abandoned during the war. A lucky few made it back to Earth to help fight, most died in space, for the moon (and Mars) is a harsh mistress. You are not aware of any cylons, the robots seemed to think the human form was weak and inefficient and over the course of the war became increasingly less human shaped. You are certain that they have been defeated. However the Doctor is missing, presumed to have fled into deep space after his creations went awry. His journal entries are disjointed and several leading psychologists believe he went insane, he talked of needing a tabula rasa, a blank slate on which to begin anew. It is possible, although rather unlikely, that he is still alive in deep space, his madness progressing and his robot warriors amassing an army to return to earth with his answer to whatever grand problem he thought he faced. It's boardgame night, so any update will be later, though this one will probably be shorter than the last two and will include a four year time skip again, moving you closer to "home." You are going to check out the remaining pods, a process that shouldn't take too long. Currently awake and available to participate in the check are you, Vladimir, three members of his security team, and Bedia. Bedia is nominally in charge of the cryogenics and crew health while in transit though the wardens all share duties to double check each other and to provide redundancy. Would you like to go as one big team, bringing everyone, split into pairs, or two trios, or send some people back to sleep and work with a smaller group? Obviously the more groups you have working independently the faster the work will go. If you want to split up, let me know who you would like to go with. Olothreutes fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Aug 27, 2016 |
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 02:17
|
|
|
Lets have us, Vlad, and Betia in one team, and three red shirts on the other 
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 02:25
|
|
|
Teams of 2, radio check-in every 20 minutes, keep partners in sight at all times. Treat it like a drill
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 02:30
|
|
|
the_steve posted:Teams of 2, radio check-in every 20 minutes, keep partners in sight at all times. Treat it like a drill This is the part of the movie where the redshirt dies to an unseen horror 
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 02:36
|
|
|
One big team. Time is not a limiting factor, and more importantly, never split the party!
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 02:39
|
|
|
Let's split into pairs and get it done quickly, unless we're trying to hurt morale and spread paranoia, as opposed to just being thorough. Each named character gets paired with one of the nameless NPCs, assigned by personal chemistry. Someone chatty for Betia, someone taciturn for Vlad, and Tabitha will take whoever's left.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 02:40
|
|
|
Hexenritter posted:Great read so far. Ceramic Shot posted:Off to a great start, Olothreutes! Mexican Deathgasm posted:Also, this is genuinely excellent sci-fi Olothreutes, thanks for running it. Loel posted:ACF, and this is a really good start OP Nettle Soup posted:ACF and yep, this is good so far! Thank you guys. I'm glad you are enjoying it. This is my first venture into fiction writing, unless you count all the bullshitting I did in technical reports as fiction 
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 02:44
|
|
|
FoxTerrier posted:Yeah, I agree. Agreeing with plan Diog and this. I'm not interpreting this as waking her up, just crawling around on top of the pod or whatever so we have visual confirmation she's in good shape. Ah I'm too late to vote I think. Nonetheless, it's been a fun read so far! edit: two trios, Vlad with two redshirts, and us, Bedia with whoever else. vorebane fucked around with this message at 03:11 on Aug 27, 2016 |
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 02:47
|
|
|
Pairs or trios
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 02:54
|
|
|
vorebane posted:Agreeing with plan Diog and this. I'm not interpreting this as waking her up, just crawling around on top of the pod or whatever so we have visual confirmation she's in good shape. You are not too late! I haven't started to write anything so vote away!
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 02:56
|
|
|
One team. Treat it like a drill to be followed by a tabletop simulation. Here's the simulation we could run with. Cryogenic malfunction has forced a group to be pulled out/wake up prematurely. So now we have to manually check the chambers to see if anyone else is impacted, then figure out how to handle an extra hundred ppl being awake until the chambers are fixed.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 02:56
|
|
|
What, exactly, are we even trying to look for? The panel on the bridge being busted was to a cord being wired improperly. There is no saboteur. There are no cryopods in danger. There are no space alien/robots lurking in the depths.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 03:00
|
|
|
Visual inspection of the pods, just in case. Im not expecting anything at all, really, I just want to double check while we're awake. Routine walkby.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 03:01
|
|
|
Slaan posted:What, exactly, are we even trying to look for? The panel on the bridge being busted was to a cord being wired improperly. There is no saboteur. There are no cryopods in danger. There are no space alien/robots lurking in the depths. Hey cylon, we wouldn't have gotten this choice if there wasn't a wrong answer.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 03:17
|
|
|
Slaan posted:What, exactly, are we even trying to look for? The panel on the bridge being busted was to a cord being wired improperly. There is no saboteur. There are no cryopods in danger. There are no space alien/robots lurking in the depths. Nothing really. Just taking advantage of the fact we are all up to give everything a once over. No reason not to
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 03:19
|
|
|
RandomPauI posted:One team. Treat it like a drill to be followed by a tabletop simulation. This. Prevent morale loss by calling it a training drill, and... actually run a difficult training drill, so as to be better prepared if something does happen.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 03:42
|
|
|
Slaan posted:What, exactly, are we even trying to look for? The panel on the bridge being busted was to a cord being wired improperly. There is no saboteur. There are no cryopods in danger. There are no space alien/robots lurking in the depths. My biggest goal is for the captain to be more familiar with the ship, that way if something does go pear shaped in the future, we have a better understanding of the terrain. There's always a chance we lose access to our tech, so having actual tangible experience navigating ourselves around here can come in handy. Edit: Plus, it's one thing to have a map. It's another to actually walk the area and see for yourself. Helps build up visual references.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 04:39
|
|
|
Slaan posted:What, exactly, are we even trying to look for? The panel on the bridge being busted was to a cord being wired improperly. There is no saboteur. There are no cryopods in danger. There are no space alien/robots lurking in the depths. You're most likely correct, but your posts so far have been hitting alarm bells in the back of my head and I couldn't figure out why until now. I've played a lot of the BSG board game and one of my friends constantly gets the 'You are a Cylon' card. He's never been caught because he makes super reasonable arguments for us not to check on things and how everything is fine. That's is until he's President and locked everyone in the Brig and then jumping to Cylon space.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 05:30
|
|
|
Diog and I kept saying that!
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 05:33
|
|
|
It's also possible that there are no actual Cylons, and Slaan, as in other games, is posting to try to destroy everything for the glory of the blood god. There isn't actually any difference in his behavior between that and him being an actual Cylon, though.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 05:45
|
|
|
our team has been immobile for four years, and the Wardens must be bored out of their minds. taking a few days to do inventory is both prudent and healthy. Bedia has the advantage because she walks regularly, but idk if you can say the same for many others. it also gives you an idea of the demographic you'll be working with upon reaching the new home planet.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 06:20
|
|
|
Something like this maybe? 1) Take full inventory 2) Review emergency plans 3) Table top a scenario where some of the cryo cambers had failed, prompting the occupants to wake up. How would we handle something like that until the chambers could be repaired? Then do an after action review. E.g. what were our strengths and weaknesses? Edit: 4) Write our after-action report. Include our decision not to more completely inspect the birth of the child. Yes, it was an anomaly, but at that point things were mostly accounted for. Edit 2: 1, 2, 3, and 4 would be time intensive, but they can also be handwaved away assuming the inspections found no problems. It could be TLDR'd as "Everything was fine. We went over what to do in an emergency and held a simulation. We identified some potential problems down the line. Then I did paperwork" RandomPauI fucked around with this message at 09:00 on Aug 27, 2016 |
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 08:52
|
|
|
I think just a "review emergency plans and write a couple brief reports about what happened" is sufficient. No one died, no one had undue radioactive exposure or damage from the reactor, no pods opened. Also I think the kiddo was alive already when she came aboard the ship. It seems reckless to put a pregnant woman in cryogenic stasis.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 10:47
|
|
|
Speaking as enlisted , having an unnecessary but labor intensive drill oozes new officer. Reminds me of when we had a guy march his company through a blizzard around a track for 2-3 hours, while my company just stayed inside and watched. Because, its a loving blizzard. We're giving the lads a bit of extra work (check the pods), let's not present an excess of enthusiasm.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 16:00
|
|
|
Loel posted:Speaking as enlisted Altering the sentiment of my vote to match this. (I'm keeping the same vote, just drop the bit where I was on board with treating it like a drill)
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 16:46
|
|
|
Better to be thought of as an overeager new officer than as a paranoid madman.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 17:12
|
|
|
Just once I want a space cyoa where we don't descend into madness and paranoia. This isn't 40k, I think we should trust our people when they say everything is okay. Do a cursory sweep of the other pods make sure nothing else is flickering and go back to sleep
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 19:33
|
|
|
Lazaruise posted:Just once I want a space cyoa where we don't descend into madness and paranoia. This isn't 40k, I think we should trust our people when they say everything is okay. This.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 19:39
|
|
|
Lazaruise posted:Just once I want a space cyoa where we don't descend into madness and paranoia. This isn't 40k, I think we should trust our people when they say everything is okay. Not a emptyquote
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 21:59
|
|
|
Loel posted:Speaking as enlisted Lazaruise posted:Just once I want a space cyoa where we don't descend into madness and paranoia. This isn't 40k, I think we should trust our people when they say everything is okay. Acting like scared children is certain to damage the morale of our crew. And if you don't think the currently awake will tell stories about this to those who are sleeping when they wake up, I have a bridge to sell you. Split up, do a fast sweep of the cryopods, and go back to bed.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 22:24
|
|
|
cat_herder posted:Acting like scared children is certain to damage the morale of our crew. And if you don't think the currently awake will tell stories about this to those who are sleeping when they wake up, I have a bridge to sell you. I'll take that bridge, I can command a ship from it!  I'm mostly not feeling very paranoid, it looks like the things that broke are entirely innocuous, but I'm leaving my vote where it is. Enough rides on it that it's worth being careful.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2016 22:44
|
|
|
You let the remaining security personnel and Bedia, who is the warden in charge of crew health and the cryo systems, know that you would like to do a quick walkthrough of the cryobays just to make sure that nothing else is going wrong. Emphasis on quick, we aren’t pulling out any millimeter wave scanners to try to observe people while they sleep. Just look the pods over to make sure there are no obvious issues. Between Vladimir, his officers, Bedia, and yourself there are six people available to do walkthroughs. In the interest of time you decide to split up into pairs to cover the most ground in the least time. Vladimir will be going with the unaugmented officer. Bedia will be going with the officer you saw accompanying Audun earlier. He’s quite large and seems rather friendly really, despite his all-business attitude to the matters at hand. The remaining officer, Victor, will be coming with you. He was with Vlad in the cryobay earlier so you have met before. He seems nice enough but like all of Vlad’s staff he clearly is business first and pleasure later, if there is time. Vlad did a very good job picking his staff, the three you have seen so far today have all been very competent. Each pair will have 13 bays to cover, each containing 200 cryopods and various gear that the colonists in that bay will be responsible for during the planetfall period. Jobs and responsibilities will differentiate further once you are down on the surface of Tyson-664d but that is many years, or a few days, in the future. Depends on how you want to view it. It is certainly many years for Bedia but that is arguably less true for the rest of you. Victor Espinosa was infantry during the war. He lost one of his arms and both of his legs in a robot attack on a convoy. Buried robots ambushed them as they drove, a more terrifying version of a landmine. Even during the tense pre-unification days the various nations of Earth had decided that landmines were unsavory, harming soldiers and civilians indiscriminately and if they weren’t found before the war was over they lingered, deadly specters of a conflict long past. The robots found the idea to be a good one and improved on it by turning the mine into a highly capable killing machine that could tear apart multiple armored vehicles instead of a simple explosive charge. Although explosions did the job pretty well and most of the robots were designed to detonate when they were disabled. Nasty things overall. Victor, despite this, is rather cheery. He thinks that being awoken is simply part of the job description and this beats a robot ambush any day. The exercise is good and he moves with a brisk stride that you have to put some effort into matching. He doesn’t ever outpace you, though, which you are certain is him being polite. Those legs of his could probably propel him the length of the cryobay in a matter of seconds and up to the catwalks above in a single leap. Apparently he also has the ability to scan for magnetic fields in the area around him, which enables him to find buried or hidden metal. Like a robot waiting in ambush. At the quick pace set by Victor the pair of you cover lots of ground and there do not appear to be any issues in the first cryobay. Victor’s magnetic sensors can apparently check the current applied to each pod so he is monitoring them for any fluctuation. ”Captain, if I may, what do you think we’ll find on Tyson?” His slight accent marks his as being from some portion of Central America. “Really, Victor, I have no idea. The scientists on Earth were confident that the data they gave us was solid, and that the planet is notionally habitable. I won’t claim special knowledge of anything there, but the planet is bigger than Earth and farther away from the star. The star is larger and brighter than Sol is, and it burns hotter. I’m told that the UV radiation could be much more intense than on Earth. Or maybe not if the atmosphere is thick enough. I’m not familiar with enough with the mechanics but they said that a decent atmosphere would help to protect us from higher energy photons through a process called Rayleigh scattering.” You pull up a quick briefing from your computer on the process. “According to my data, Rayleigh scattering is a process by which photons elastically collide with atoms. They don’t change energy, only direction. It’s apparently more effective the higher the photon energy until you reach the point where photons begin to collide inelastically. So a thick atmosphere will help to scatter the UV away from the surface of the planet. Apparently this is the same process that makes the sky on Earth blue.” ”Is that all we know?” He asks, a hint of concern in his voice. “No, we have a lot more data than just that, thankfully. We know that based on there being no atmosphere and perfect absorption of all the solar energy it should be colder than Earth, but this doesn’t tell us the actual temperature of the planet because the atmosphere will retain some heat. We can’t say how much. It should have pretty normal gravity, maybe a bit higher than Earth’s. Your legs could be pretty handy.” He looks a bit proud as you say that, finding benefit in his new life based on misfortune in his previous one. “And we know it has one moon, smaller than Earth’s. They don’t expect there to be much tidal influence from it, so sea level should be pretty constant around the planet. Beyond that we don’t know a huge amount, but that’s enough to make a pretty good decision. There’s oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere, it should be able to support liquid water if the temperatures are high enough. That was one of the big things I asked about, finding a maybe breathable atmosphere. If we get lucky maybe we won’t have to wear helmets. I’m keeping my fingers crossed on that one. We left a planet with a ruined atmosphere, arriving to a clean one should give everyone a good morale boost. We’re going to have to bust our asses to make this work, no doubt about it. But if we can bust our asses without a sweaty helmet on that would be pretty nice.” He seems pretty satisfied with your answer. You know a fair bit about the planet and you have realistic expectations of the crew and the planet, as well as having shown some good judgment about how you selected a planet. You even have some hopeful optimism for the comfort of your crew. He gives a good nod as you finish, looking confident. You feel pretty good about this discussion, coming away with the impression that he’s more than satisfied with your abilities as captain and the steward of so many lives. You move on to the fourth bay, making good time. A quick radio check-in with the other teams show that they are also making good time, and no one has found anything of concern. In the fifth bay you and Victor decide to check out some of the equipment at the far end of the bay. This bay appears to have some massive land crawlers, with wide tires that should be able to handle many types of terrain and high clearance to get over obstacles. They are impressive, quiet mammoths asleep in the dark of the bay. When you arrive they will wake and lumber across the land, carrying your colonists and supplies like the pack animals in old stories. The crawlers look fine, you aren’t sure that anything but the massive crane overhead could move them against their will. Fine pieces of engineering they are, and they should be able to weather any storm your new home can throw at you.  The rest of the survey goes pretty quick and after a few hours all three teams are done. You reconvene in the conference room attached to the bridge. No one found anything out of place, the ship appears to be safe and secure. You make sure that everyone has a meal and takes their meds before returning to cryo and thank Bedia for all her help today. She’s done a good job. You ask her to have a written report ready for next time if anything happens while you are asleep, that way you can read it while you guys go for a walk instead of her having to explain something she potentially isn’t as familiar with as the other wardens. Just a quick summary of everyone’s notes for the interesting things. She nods. And with that you tell everyone they did a great job today, you’ll see them in several years. Smiles all around, and Bedia wishes you all sweet dreams as you return to your cryo pods. Year 8 AD, colony ship Absolution: You are running on a new planet, howling winds and fierce storms chasing you across a blasted and barren plain. The white star in the sky is obscured by clouds of toxic gasses, your environment suit struggling to filter them from your air as you search for the crawler. You were sure it was around here somewhere, but all the static electricity is messing with your comlink and you can’t reach anyone. Lightning strikes near you, the sudden energy and heat causing parts of the atmosphere to react with others, a literal trail of fire into the sky. White vapor wafts from the pillar of flame, settling on and melting anything it touches. You start to run faster. The lightning continues to fall from the heavens as if you had angered some vengeful deity from ancient days. The hab is gone, the crawler is your only salvation from this hellscape. Where is it!? Your pod chamber hisses and clicks open. What the hell was that dream about? That was horrific, almost as horrific as this headache. Was it this bad last time as well? You recall it being pretty bad as you stumble towards your desk, where you placed a bottle of water and your meds before you went to sleep. You collapse into the chair and choke down the pills and the whole bottle of water. Your head is spinning and you reach for the waste basket you put here just in case. You retch, but manage to keep everything down. It helps that there isn’t much to keep down anyway, but the pills don’t taste great going down and you don’t want to try the other direction. It takes you nearly half an hour before you are ready to head for the bridge. You check your messages on the computer and find that Bedia has indeed compiled a report for you with the major events of the past four years. It seems like nothing major happened at all. Your fuel consumption is on target, maybe even a fraction better than expected. The magseals around the reactor are holding and the interference is nonexistent. The cryopanel hasn’t flickered at all in the past four years, Audun did a bang up job on the repair. You make a note to commend him when he wakes up, hopefully many years from now. In the absence of any major issues demanding your attention you decide to take a walk rather than head to the bridge immediately. You swing by the reactor area, as you get within 20 feet of the door your comlink begins to pick up the interference. 5.2 hertz, same as last time. Good. You silently thank whomever designed that magnetic monster, it is powering you through the inky blackness of space with a reassuring level of constancy. That little bit of curiosity sated you decide to go look at the stars. You saw them last time with Bedia and it was truly magnificent. A view that no one other than you and she will ever have, the only humans ever to look at the stars from that point in space. And you suspect that no human ever will again. The same will be true this time, where you stand is a unique point in an infinite universe and you want to make sure at least someone remembers what it looks like. As you approach the viewport you hear a giggle. What the hell? You slow your pace and try to do your best to imitate Vladimir’s incomprehensible stealth. You edge around the corner and see Bedia and Cedric, sitting and looking at the stars, holding hands. You decide to head to the bridge, a smile on your face. Bedia wasn’t so wrong about Cedric after all. Otto and Ann are on the bridge as usual, both plugged into their stations and ship diagnostics running. Data flies past the screen at a rate you could not hope to read, but there are no red lights and no sirens so you are pretty sure everything is fine. You ask Otto how things are going, he startles a bit but not too badly. ”Very well captain. The last cryo interval has been quiet. We have had no major issues. Minor issues have all been easily corrected.” He is polite, but succinct. Rather than discuss the minor issues with you he forwards a copy of a log to you, a list of the minor issues. Radiation spike in an unoccupied part of the ship, external sensors show it was a small burst of HZE particles. Spikes like this are expected, you simply can’t shield against them 100% of the time and they are a known issue in space travel. They are one reason you take the meds that you do, to help repair any damage that these radiation events might cause. Early astronauts used to see them as flashes in their eyes as the particle traversed their retina. The damage they caused wasn’t known at the time. There is a list of minor events like this, routine things that scientists projected would happen in interstellar space. The wardens have responded by the book and thankfully everything has gone by the book as well. You are about halfway through the list when Bedia and Cedric return to the bridge. You turn to look at them and out of the corner of your eye you think you see a bit of... jealousy cross Otto’s face? Amusement maybe? It’s gone as fast as it appeared and the data continues to flow past on his screen. ”Oh, Captain! How are you? Did you have a better time waking up?” Bedia is all smiles and seems very chipper. Cedric seems to be avoiding eye contact with you as he heads to his station but you can see that he has a barely repressed smile as well. You tell Bedia that waking up was about the same, a small lie but you don’t want to put a damper on her enthusiasm. You do tell her that you had some vivid dreams this time. Very strange ones, or maybe not so strange considering that in a few days subjective time you will be setting foot on a new planet. You hope that your dream is not a portent of things to come. You spend a few hours on the bridge and hold a quick informal meeting with the wardens just to get their general impression of the trip so far and the ship integrity. They are all in agreement that the trip is going well, and that the issues you addressed last time have not cropped back up, for which they are thankful. The ship is holding up well, you have encountered less radiation than was feared, but the projections included some error bars and you are within them, so basically right on target? Well this was pretty easy, which is encouraging. Your headache hasn’t even faded all the way as you head back to cryo. You hope that you won’t wake up with an extra bad headache because of this. You remember to put out your meds and a few bottles of water for next time, within easy stumbling distance. After a bit of deep breathing you step into the pod, another four years set to fly by in a blink. Year 12 AD, colony ship Absolution: Your platform groans under the colossal force of the tides, the giant pylons gripping the ocean floor far below. They are built of the same materials as the space elevator you used to bring everything down here and you hope that they are enough. When you arrived to find no usable land, indeed no land at all on this world, you needed to make a decision. Surface, or ocean floor? You had considered the ocean floor first, as it provided you with a measure of safety from the tides and the hurricanes. But the gravity here is too high, and the pressures too great to safely construct anything down there. You lost more material than you wanted down below to the crushing depths. And more men than you could really afford. Your surface platforms are robust but the tides here are unlike anything you’ve ever even dreamed of. You lost two of them in the first year as the pylons that supported them gave way, the strong gravity pulling the platforms and their occupants swiftly below. You toyed with the idea of ROVs to try and recover the materials but decided against it as throwing good material after bad, the ocean depths swallowed nearly everything you put down there. Only the space elevator materials had survived so far, and even those groaned as you lived atop them. You evacuated the water from the central pylon so you could begin to dig and replace the resources you had lost. The bottom was just ice, frozen by the crushing pressures, solid even at room temperature. There was no metal to be recovered down there, and in the cold your hopes froze as solid as the water beneath you. Your head feels like it is in a vice. The cryopod hasn’t even opened yet and you can tell this is going to be worse than the last time. You trip as you step out of the pod, crumbling to the floor. In the haze of the worst migraine you have ever experienced you wish you had gotten a pain shunt installed. Maybe you could live with this then. You feel your diaphragm spasm and you vomit, but you skipped having a meal last time so there is nothing there. A small part of you is happy that you are not going to choke and die on your own vomit, laying on the floor of your cabin. 45 minutes later you are up and about, having drunk both bottles of water. You hold off taking the meds until you are sure they will stay down. Your head in your hands you pull some data from the computer about the long term effects of cryocycling. There is essentially no data. You write a few journal entries for the sake of science, you are a pioneer. You smile grimly at the thought, hopefully no one else would ever need to experience this. You read about how things are metabolized while in cryo, or not metabolized. Before you go back to bed this time you are going to take some painkillers and anti-nausea meds. They should still be in your system when you wake and you hope that they will help. If this continues to get worse you think you might die one of these times, this much pain can’t be good for a person. Ok that bit about dying is probably hyperbolic, but it might be worth talking to the doctor about, although waking him might mean that his next time is even worse as well. First order of business, you head for the medbay. You rummage about and find some painkillers and anti-nausea pills, you take some of the painkillers and pocket the rest. You sit down and take your vitals, making a note in your personal file of your experiences and the data your vitals provide. The meds begin to take effect as you do this, so you finish up and head for the bridge. Your blood pressure is higher than normal, as is your heart rate. You enter the bridge and all four of the wardens are at their stations. There is an air of tension that wasn’t present the last time you were here. You note that Cedric and Ann have traded stations, putting Cedric as far from Bedia as possible. ”Captain. Hello.” Bedia smiles, but it looks a bit forced. You check and find that you have a report waiting for you, you hadn’t read it while you struggled with the headache. ”Let’s go on a quick walk.” She rises and heads for the door before you can respond. The pair of you walk silently towards the reactor. You pass the mag seals and head a bit further into some of the other machinery that helps to make the power from the reactor usable for the ship. It is a large room, not so large as the cryobays, but substantially more occupied. There are massive metal pipes and other devices you don’t recognize running all over the place, it is a warren of noise and heat. Bedia shouts to be heard over the noise, ”Something is wrong in here, but we don’t know what. Our fuel use is on target, so the reactor is working normally, but we’re getting some power fluctuations. We would have woken you early but it only started 8 hours ago.” poo poo. This is not what you wanted to deal with right now. The noise is not helping your headache at all, which is barely being held at bay by the painkillers you took. You check your comlink and the reactor is continuing to pulse away at 5.2 hertz. Good. One less thing to worry about. How did you notice it? ”The power dipped to the drives a bit. Not enough to affect our speed or acceleration, but enough to trip an alarm. It hasn’t happened again, but we figured that you would want to check it out. Otto came down to check with me and see if it was something simple, but we couldn’t find anything.” 1. Well gently caress. Time to wake some people up. Who? A – Your head engineer, Tubal Abeyta. B – Vladimir. C – Your head science officer, Dr. Silvia Pagnotto D – Your first officer, Thomas. E – Audun, the poor engineer you woke to deal with the cryo problem. F – Wasan, the poor engineer you woke to deal with the magseal problem. G – Another engineer or engineers. Chances are Tubal will wake several if you wake him, he will probably want a team on this. H – No one, it's fine. Everything is fine. This is fine. I – Someone else. Specify. Olothreutes fucked around with this message at 07:12 on Aug 28, 2016 |
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2016 03:35
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 20, 2024 01:15 |
|
|
G, also ask Bedia about the tension/seat change
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2016 03:45
|
|