On the 10th of February, when Vamperina arrives to take PEBBLE out for a few hours to give Eli and Surge the opportunity to search the interior of the docking bay, you make an interesting discovery.
The docking bay itself is a long cylinder that runs through both levels of the ship. There is a hatch on both the top and the bottom of the docking bay that gives pass-through access for PEBBLE. In the docking bay, there is an upper airlock that PEBBLE lines up with when docked, and a lower airlock that PEBBLE lines up with when loading or unloading cargo. When PEBBLE is lined up with the lower airlock, the back end of the small ship sticks out into space so the exterior hatches cannot be closed.
All of this you already knew. Your new and interesting discovery is that there is panel about halfway between the two airlocks that appears to be held in place with rivets just like every other panel that lines the docking bay. However, careful inspection reveals that the rivets are false. You conclude that the panel is designed to recess and slide to the side. However, you are unable to find anyway to cause it to slide. You look for some sort of "secret catch" but don't find one.
Let me know what you want to do about it.
SURGE: Surge will want to spend more time in here then. Maybe spend 24 hours conducting a more detailed search. Does it look like it's mechanical? I'm assuming its not electrical or I'd expect to pick that up. I'll just trace all the places the switch could feasibly go, if possible.
GM: Your best guess is that it is mechanical. You find no sign of any switch to open the panel, at least not in the immediate area. You'll have to let Vamperina know if you want to spend more time. As it stands now, she plans to dock PEBBLE again and get back to mining after you do a 5 hour search.
SURGE: Can we do these searches with the PEBBLE docked? Or is there a way for us to enter the docking bay and not going directly into PEBBLE?
GM: PEBBLE fits pretty snugly in the docking bay. You could rig up and airlock to open without going into PEBBLE but there isn;t enough room to move around in the docking bay with PEBBLE there.
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NOBODY: Eli will recommend that we look over the Pebble to see if there might be a matching panel. The trigger may be in the Pebble. It also may be a switch triggered from the bridge. If we don't find anything like physical switch, then we can earmark that when we look into the electrical curcuitry and/or programming of the both the Rock and the Pebble during the extensive survey/inventory. If we find a corresponding panel on the Pebble, but no switch, or are unable to activate the panels via these switches, then we could try it by lining up the Pebbles pael with the Rock's panel. Good chance its a nice little smuggler's hatch. If we don't find any physical trigger during this search, then we could look into seeing if Curt has enough of his desolid ability to inspect that area. Eli will make sure that it is noted in the schedule, but also flagged for removal once we have a good idea what we have.
GM: When you finish searching the docking bay and Vamperina brings PEBBLE back in, you spend a little time searching PEBBLE but do not find any other hatch or airlock. You ask Vamperina to try to line up the airlock on PEBBLE with the hidden panel. It takes a little time to do this since, unlike the two airlocks, there is no indicator to show when she is lined up. However, as she is trying to line the ship up, Surge senses something in the control panel on PEBBLE. There is an indicator, but it is not activating on the control panel. Surge and Eli then spend some time with their electronics tools investigating this and find that a control panel indicator can be activated for the hidden panel by pushing a few buttons in a specific order. Surge does this and the indicator activates. Vamperina initiates docking which, to her surprise, is successful. PEBBLE is now docked at the panel which means that the panel must have slid open and extended some sort of docking collar.
Sure enough, when you cycle the airlock (taking all necessary precautions, of course) you find yourself entering another airlock the same size as the one on the Bridge level. When you pass through this airlock, you find yourself in a large shop area designed as both an electronics and a mechanics shop. There is also an elevator in this room. It is in the same location as the elevator on the other two decks. It is now obvious that this level is nestled between the other two levels, with the Bridge level above you and the Engineering level below you. The elevator almost certainly also has some sort of combination that you can press to get to this level. You investigate and find this to be the case.
Beyond the workshop is a large recreation room. There are game tables, couches and a large electronic entertainment system here that is bigger and better than the one in the wardroom.
The remainder of this level is occupied by two more staterooms and a passenger suite. Stateroom 5 looks unused, but stateroom 6 and the passenger stateroom look very used. Stateroom 6 is obviously the room of a young girl. It is decorated like a young girl would decorate it and the cabinets and storage areas are filled with toys, games and clothing that a normal girl of 9 or 10 might have in her room.
The passenger suite is obviously set up for use by a man and a woman. The suite includes a small kitchenette. There are also some actual printed books in a book cabinet. About half are written in imperial and all have to do with psionic research, literature and case studies. The remainder of the books are all written in the same language. You don't know for certain, but you think it might be Zhodani. You find some written materials that seem to indicate that the books and notes (and probably the ship) belong to Professor C. R. Riket. You have never heard of him before.
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NOBODY: Eli is predicting a minimum of another month of survey/inventory to be added to his schedule just for this level. He's thinkng of the necessity of an additional month due to this being a spy ship of some sort, thus there is the good chance of a few new surprises and boobytraps. He strongly recommends that Surge be extra careful when sifting through the data and software.
NOBODY: We're starting to look at about 6 months before Eli considers this ship will be as fully checked out and stocked as we are capable of.
NOBODY: "Damn! I kind of wish, now, that I was that Zho spy that I had been convicted of being, then I'd have a really good idea of what we have here. Something here really stinks, and I sure as hell don't want to wake up that little girl until we have a really solid idea of who/what we are dealing with.
NOBODY: Although I can't say that I'm unhappy with finding the workshops and the psionics textbooks. But they'll just have to wait until after the work is done."
SURGE: Surge nods. "This is very interesting indeed. I will be very careful in my data searches. Do you have a recommendation on what I should focus on first? I was going to start with the ship's computers and avionics."
NOBODY: "Yes I do. Control. Pure and simple, we want to make sure we have absolute control of this ship, that we're not going to end up dealing with any surprises down the line. The universe knows how many secrets we have yet to uncover, but I'm guessing that there's going to be some hidden computer hardware that can send out rewrites to override current control parameters. Plus, there's going to be hidden hardware for switching the signalling from Zhodani alliance to Imperial alliance, to who knows what. There's got to be some hidden Zhodani encryption and communications hardware and software...
NOBODY: Pretty much we have to assume the worst case, and try to figure every angle possible, and then always assume we've missed something. Damn! If I hadn't been convicted of being a Zho spy, I wouldn't think twice about handing this over to the Imperium's experts. Then they throw a little girl in the mess with clues that indicate that her legal guardians may be, or have been on this moon and are probably Zho spies. God! If I was a zho and wanted to mess with this group, plus make sure we incriminate ourselves by keeping this ship secret, thus giving the Zho's a blackmail-type hold over us, I couldn't have planned it better.
NOBODY: Well, you stick mainly to your strengths, Surge. Electronics and computers. I'll do the same. And lets make sure we fill out the reports in a timely fashion so that everyone can read them and offer their input.
NOBODY: Our big job just got bigger and messier."
SURGE: "Aye, I'll focus on the computers and electronics. As a sidenote, I have just started working on increasing my abilities with my electro-mech senses. I'm hoping to adapt it to more deeply probe electrical systems. I'll keep you posted as I work on it."
NOBODY: Steve, were there any pictures, in the 2nd level staterooms or in the ship records, that might indicate what the previous owners looked like?
GM: Yes, when you look over the passenger suite, you find a few pictures of a man, woman and child. The child is the girl that is sleeping in stateroom 2. Some written notes indicate that they are Professor Ricket, his wife Carlotta, and their daughter Lisan.
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On your newly found level 2 of ROCK, there is a compartment that is labeled "Closet". In the back of the closet is a cylinder that runs from floor to ceiling. The cylinder is metal, but the outside of the cylinder is lined with thick, compressed padding. There is a small hatch in the cylinder that can be activated electronically or manually. The cylinder is part of the shaft that runs from the bridge to the engine room. From the inside of the shaft this hatch is well concealed. After some time searching, you find that there is a particular combination of false rivets that can be pushed to cause the panel to open. Thus, this shaft, like the elevator, gives access to all three levels. |