Vamperina spends the next couple of hours flying nape-of-the-earth. It is a harrowing experience as she dodges between mountains and follows the dips and peaks of the surface of Black Moon. Eventually she pulls back on the stick and goes vertical. She increases thrust and zips through the lower atmosphere and up into the ionosphere before breaking free of Black Moon's gravity.
Once into space, she flips some switches and sets some controls to continue maximum acceleration. The interior of the ship maintains a comfortable 1G.
VAMPERINA: "We'll be accelerating for another seven hours and..." she peers at a control before continuing, "twelve minutes," she finishes. "Then we flip around and deccelerate for the same amount of time. We'll be entering the asteroid belt well away from ROCK or the mining pod. Once we get into the asteroid belt, we'll have another 10 hours of dodging asteroids before we get to ROCK. I don't plan to contact Max or Chase via radio since it might get picked up by Serene. We can just dock at ROCK and then I will head over to the mining pod. If anyone else wants to come with, feel free. Otherwise Max, Chase and I will come back to ROCK the following day and we can talk things over. That will also give Eli and Surge time to evaluate the repair needs of ROCK."
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CURT: I can't remember who all is going back on the PEBBLE, so if I'm missing someone, let me know.
CURT: On the way up to space, Curt will ask "As far as mining in space goes, do I NEED to wear a space suit? I don't need one to keep me alive, so I was wondering if I would be better off just not wearing it while I was mining. I would take it with of course to move from place to place, but while I'm actually mining, do I need to wear it?"
NOBODY: "You got it right. Me, Surge, you and Vana. If the asteroids are not monitored, and Surge will be able to determine that soon enough, then I see no reason to use the suit if you can fly, survive the rigors of space, and have enough protection to keep you safe from debris. Also, once we get the hang of mining, I see no reason why we need to mine near the pod. It would actually be more ideal to keep us seperate for Vana, Max, and Chase. We can mine in the vicinity of the Rock and bring ore in as needed."
VAMPERINA: Vamperina smiles and says, "Max and Chase were mining in the vicinity of ROCK last month. That's how they found it. Turning to Curt she continues, "Working in space without a spacesuit is not something that I have any experience in. My first instinct is to say that you definitely want to be wearing it at all times, but that's probably because most people, including myself, need them and would die without them. In your case, you'll have to decide for yourself. At the very minimum, if you need it to move around, then you want to make sure you have it tethered to you at all times so you don't end up floating helpless in space."
NOBODY: "I was working under the assumption that we had planned to move the Rock further away from the POD area. Wasn't that what you mentioned earlier?"
VAMPERINA: "I don't recall saying that. I don't see any reason to move ROCK. If you and Surge disagree, and think that ROCK should be moved further away, just let me know when you are ready and I will move it. Otherwise I think the distance is fine as it as: a 45 minute trip by vacc suit."
VAMPERINA: "That does remind me that we will need to keep you updated on the resupply ship visits. I wouldn't want you lighting off the main engine, or doing active scans, just as the resupply ship arrives in the area. They normally arrive every Monday or Tuesday."
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NOBODY: Eli is going to poke and prod about, making sure that he doesn't interfere with the function of the ship or the comfort of the passengers. If there is a manual, he'll spend a few hours absorbing that as well. Any records of ownership, registry numbers, etc? And, of course, he'll ask Vana for the complete story of what happened during/after the interview.
GM: You find that the ship's computer does include maintenance manuals. There are no records of ownership or any other information that relates to the history or ownership of PEBBLE or ROCK. One thing of particular interest that you find as you are poking and proding about is a machine that was definitely not part of the original design of the ship. The ship itself looks like it is at least 50 to 100 years old but this piece of equipment looks much newer and was probably installed in the last 10 to 15 years. There is nothing about it in the maintenance manuals or anyplace else in the computer.
GM: You spend some time with your electronics tools, taking off the cover and doing some analysis. The machine is wired to the ship's power system and has leads going to the basic structure-frame of the ship's boat. After a couple of hours, you conclude that it is a psionic shield that protects everyone inside PEBBLE from external psionic attacks. The machine uses technology that you have never seen before.
NOBODY: "AH HA! That explains why I couldn't get through to you, Vana. Excellent! This gives me a null zone in which to continue my personal studies of my psionics without danger to others. Lovely! Do you know if the Rock is equipped similarly?"
VAMPERINA: "What are you talking about Eli?" After Eli explains, Vamperina tells him that she does not know if ROCK has the same shield.
..........
VAMPERINA: "The last I saw of you guys was when you went into the interview rooms. I sat there for awhile, reading the information that they gave us about their operation. Then I started feeling very tired all of the sudden, which is unusual for me. I got up and went over to the door to get some fresh air, but the door was locked. Before I could do much more, I went unconscious. I suspect that they used gas. I didn't eat the food or drink the water, so it couldn't have been that. When I woke up, I was in the mining pod with Chase and Max. Our suits were with us. There were some instructions telling us what we needed to mine to keep the mining pod stocked with food, water and air. We weren't too happy, of course, but we decided to make do and mine until we came up with a better plan. The quotas started low and by pooling our ore, we were able to keep up and, once we got used to mining, we actually started making a pretty good profit. That really only started happening in the last couple of months."
..........
The next 15 hours pass uneventfully. Vamperina spends some of the time sleeping, in preparation for 10 hours of maneuvering through the asteroid belt. As she promised, she wakes up after 7 hours and flips the ship to begin deccelerating. She does not want to hit the asteroid belt at high speed. At this particular plane of the eliptic, the asteroid belt is very crowded and the chance of hitting an asteroid is pretty high. Thus, when you start seeing asteroids several hours later, PEBBLE's speed has been reduced substantially. Vamperina takes over the controls and begins maneuvering through the asteroids.
PEBBLE's navigation computer is capable of plotting courses but is not as good as Surge, so Surge takes over that task, passing occasional course corrections to Vamperina. ROCK's location in the asteroid belt is pinpointed in the computer and Surge has no problem keeping Vamperina on course.
So it is that, 10 hours later, Vamperina approaches an asteroid that looks just like thousands of others you have seen. She noses up to it and pushes a button on her console as she gets close. After pushing the button, a rocky section of the asteroid, a bit more than 3 meters in diameter, pivots to one side exposing an opening. Vamperina tells you that another opening on the opposite side of the asteroid also opened and, sure enough, looking through the long shaft of PEBBLE's docking bay, you can see stars at the other end, just like looking through a large tube floating in space except that this tube is embedded in an asteroid.
Vamperina maneuvers into the shaft which is barely larger than the ship. A guidance system aids her in lining up the airlock on PEBBLE with the airlock on ROCK. Once PEBBLE is secure in her berth, Vamperina shuts down the engines and then pushes another button on the console. "The docking bay covers are closing now," she explains. A green light comes on when the hatches are completely closed. Then she walks over to the airlock and cycles it. Moments later, you are all standing in a corridor in the starship ROCK.
GM: CC2 map is attached.
SURGE: Very cool. Surge will definitely spend any extra time on PEBBLE examining the ship. He'll make sure he doesn't disturb operations but otherwise he'll learn the systems and such. Communications, computers, navigation will be his focus.
SURGE: On ROCK, can you tell us about the various rooms? Much of the map has the rooms unlabeled. I'd expect Vana to give us a quick tour. After that Surge will meticulously go over the whole place. First would be to quickly look over the various systems. Communications, computer and navigations systems will again be my focus. Checking out the tools and supplies on board would be next. I will also ask Nobody if he needs any help. Given Nobody's expertise as a starship engineer and his experience in fleet I will follow his lead. Finally, going over every inch of the place to make sure there are no surprises with my extra time. It's not important to do that immediately but I will do it eventually.
SURGE (OOC): Can you indicate where my lack of starship engineer keeps me from being useful on the ship? I'm not really clear what systems I would be considered an expert in and what systems I would be clueless with. Clearly propulsion and energy sources would be but what about weapon systems or the ship's computer?
GM: With both Electronics and Mechanics skill, you would be useful for all of the auxillary systems on the ship, from the two broken hatch covers, to the avionics suite, to the auxilliary generators. |