Traveller: Life in the Marches - A ship of our own

Mollyb60

OldGoat wrote: »

Nestor heads to the bridge carrying an infusion of leaves that she presents to the captain. "Earl Grey, hot."
"Any thought on our short or medium term plans yet?

Verne takes the tea with gratitude, its been a looong day. 'If I can get the engineer, who may be called Evan, to tell us if we have enough juice to get somewhere then I think our best bet is to set down on the nearest planet for repairs. The computer says we're almost a full year behind where we started so we should have plenty of time to fix this bucket and try save the planet we just destroyed. I've asked Glenn to send out a distress beacon in the meantime. What do you think? Is there any other options Bones?.....sorry, I mean Nestor.'

Banjo

From the back of the ship there is a cry of "what part of 'we have no ****ing engine' is it that you are all struggling with?? Space-Christ!"

It could have been anyone. Probably Seneca.


Ooc: I presume that I'm correct, no MDrive equals no maneuvering. Waiting on dm feedback on making adjustments to the repulsers or ad hoccing a mass ejector.
We can jump once but you arrive miles from planets in safe empty space

Once the cryopod audit is complete, Evan looks at starting calculations for the 3 best jump targets in range based on their population sizes and lawfulness

OldGoat

"I have an invitation to the opening of an art exhbition in a gallery in about 12 months time that I want to attend. Apart from that I'm easy."

Nestor sits on the captains chair and idly starts to doodle on the arm with her laser scalpel.

"I know we may have caused some minor damage to the volcano surface but on the geophysical scale what we did was but a scratch. The volcano was going to go with or without our interference. Realistically, even if we had gotten this ship up, laid out all the monitors, done all the scans and measured all the measurements we would not have changed the outcome. The volcano was going to blow. If we get back what we need to do is instigate a planet-wide evacuation. I imaging that the authorities would need a couple of months to arrange it safely.

We can do that by sending a report and persuading them that we have foresight due to our unexpected timejump.

I say we fix the boat and get on with earning some credits."

She wipes the dust from the arm of the chair and spend a moment admiring the image there, a simple geometric design.

"...'course we could go to the K'Kree homeworld and horsenap Bathlet before he joins us, the previous us I mean."

Professor Moriarty

Seneca jumps up and helps Dhinor back to his feet. "Maybe we can do this again? We have a lot to teach each other". Seneca wanders over to where Milt is fluting around with controls trying to look as if he knows what he's talking about. "Need some help?"

Banjo

"sure. If you're any good in a vac suit, could you get out and give us a push? Or if you're up for it, I need some mass to eject and generate a little bit of force planetward.

Ok, sorry, I'm under a little stress. We're in the middle of nowhere, we have no capability for movement, we have very little food, our 'leader' is a violent troglodyte with delusions of godhood, about the only person who could physically subdue him thinks the sun shines out of his arse. Although... You didn't do to badly.... Anyway, we're sitting ducks and the logs say we just sent a distress call. Might as well hang an all you can eat buffet banner out. There's **** all radio chatter out there, we're either in a ghost system or some cannibal pirate reaver patch.

So yes. You can help. Build me an engine. Scrape together some guns and ammo. Find me a few hundred metres of cabling, a remote drone, some laser emitters for pressure and enough mirrored material to rig a solar sail. Or start jump calculations so we can get out of here in a hurry.

Or a cup of tea would be nice."

Professor Moriarty

"Okay, Milt So you do remember that I've been in the freezer for centuries? You know, that plastic coffin over there? Technology has changed just a tiny little bit in that time. However, there are five suns beating down on us and it occurs to me that the toilet I cleaned was wall to wall mirrors (don't know why and don't want to know why). How about I start taking them down and you build a frame?"

Banjo

"cry me a river, captain Birdseye. You can't hide behind hibernation sickness for the rest of your life. Either remember what you can do or learn something new.

Ok, if we're rigging a sail we'll need someone with vac suit experience, strong arms and no common sense to go out there and fit it, maybe adjust it from time to time. Tell Dhinor you're doing it because I said he was too chicken."

Evan gets to work.

Baggly

Dhinor walks into engineering twirling and spinning TN, does a lap of he place while continuing to spin and twirl TN, and then leaves without talking to Evan or Seneca.

Professor Moriarty

Banjo wrote: »

"cry me a river, captain Birdseye. You can't hide behind hibernation sickness for the rest of your life. Either remember what you can do or learn something new.

Ok, if we're rigging a sail we'll need someone with vac suit experience, strong arms and no common sense to go out there and fit it, maybe adjust it from time to time. Tell Dhinor you're doing it because I said he was too chicken."

Evan gets to work.

Seneca wonders where Milt learned his leadership skills. "Ok Milt, I'll do it. Get building that frame. I'll be back soon with the mirrors." Seneca returns two hours later with the mirrors. "That frame ready yet Milt?"

Banjo

Evan tuts at the prancing fool as he leaves, adding to Seneca "...on the bright side he's still carrying that thing so he clearly didn't see the adjustments I made."

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

Seneca wonders where Milt learned his leadership skills. "Ok Milt, I'll do it. Get building that frame. I'll be back soon with the mirrors." Seneca returns two hours later with the mirrors. "That frame ready yet Milt?"

"Yes. Yes it is. Whatever you do, don't sit on the couch in the common room. It's now more of an optical illusion than it is a piece of furniture."

Comms to group:
"We're going to need someone with vac suit experience to go outside and fit this sail when we're done building it. Seneca and I need to guide the installation from engineering, Glenn needs to stay on comms and sensors in case the distress call gets picked up or someone gets here first. Verne has the helm. Nestor should be on hand in med bay in case something goes wrong. Alex is on guns. Other than that, we're free and easy. Any volunteers?"

jasonb

Glenn gets back on the Comm... "Actually, I'm good in a Vac suit, and the ship's computer will let us know if anyone answers the distress call, or turns up. Let me know when the sail is done..."

Professor Moriarty

"It's done, Glenn. Milt is in the head, I think the pressure got to him so I'd say he'll be there for a while. We can't waste a minute. What do you want to do?"

Banjo

From the toilets there is a blood curdling scream.

"MY FACE IS GONE!"

Banjo

"Oh wait, the mirrors."

jasonb

"Well Seneca, I need Evan to tell me what to do with the mirror. Evan, are you going to be long in there?"

Professor Moriarty

Seneca passes a diaper in to Milt. "Come on, you're needed now."

Banjo

Evan is about to flush when he realises the solution to his mass ejection jump start problem was inside him the whole time.

"Ok, I need everyone to take all their fear, all their anxiety and all the claggy synthmeat subs that are gluing up their lower intestine, and void it. When the sail is in place, we'll use it as a shove-off. Oh yeah, and don't go in the raft bay. I've borrowed a lot of the reflective insulation to bulk out the sail. With the increased surface area and using the last 500 years or so's advances in Lebedev arrays we should be able to get this bird moving. Might need to lowberth non essentials to preserve rations though."

He shows Glenn where the hull anchor points are for the cabling and how to rig the laser emitter and shaving mirror on the gun turret as a ghetto Hull-Nichols rudder that can be controlled from inside the craft.

Ooc : here's the deal. Four is out tonight. If we keep pushing this implausible stuff, he'll maybe let it go but punish us with our success. Or we sit around and get boarded by space cannibals instead. Up to youze

Professor Moriarty

Banjo wrote: »

Evan is about to flush when he realises the solution to his mass ejection jump start problem was inside him the whole time.

"Ok, I need everyone to take all their fear, all their anxiety and all the claggy synthmeat subs that are gluing up their lower intestine, and void it. When the sail is in place, we'll use it as a shove-off. Oh yeah, and don't go in the raft bay. I've borrowed a lot of the reflective insulation to bulk out the sail. With the increased surface area and using the last 500 years or so's advances in Lebedev arrays we should be able to get this bird moving. Might need to lowberth non essentials to preserve rations though."

He shows Glenn where the hull anchor points are for the cabling and how to rig the laser emitter and shaving mirror on the gun turret as a ghetto Hull-Nichols rudder that can be controlled from inside the craft.

Ooc : here's the deal. Four is out tonight. If we keep pushing this implausible stuff, he'll maybe let it go but punish us with our success. Or we sit around and get boarded by space cannibals instead. Up to youze

Seneca looks frantically for an air vent as Milt comes back from the void. He finds none but has found some cable with ESB written on it. Wondering what ESB might mean, he turns to Glenn "Probably best if you're tethered when you go outside. You'll need some factor 50 too."

Ooc: Let's go for it?

Fourier

Pter wrote: »

OOC: Four would we roll here or can I just declare Dhinor the winner.

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

Ooc: Should I be rolling dice here?

OOC: Really, in a character developing scene between you two, we can resolve it as you want, either with the proper combat rules or just ye decide how you want the story to turn out.

Fourier

Banjo wrote: »

From engineering (assuming it's right behind the common area as on most scout couriers) Evan calls out a gutteral "Finish him!" In the hope it triggers some dormant neural programming in the Sleeper.

He performs a quick inventory of cryopods on board. How many, their operational status and whatnot. And looks in the locker for a replacement for the part they fused into the hull.

The component fused into the hull is the nutrient pump for the cryotube. Luckily the ship's locker has several.

Banjo

Ooc : so we have a single low berth? Or Seneca dragged his own cryo tube on to the ship but we left Bakleth to die?

Need numbers. Help could take time and we have limited rations

Fourier

Banjo wrote: »

Ooc : so we have a single low berth? Or Seneca dragged his own cryo tube on to the ship but we left Bakleth to die?

Need numbers. Help could take time and we have limited rations

OOC: Twelve Low Births, Seneca took the pump from one of them.

Fourier

jasonb wrote: »

Glenn sends out a distress call to the planet...

The ships console lights up green, a transmission is being received that will unlock only under Glenn or Verne's authorisation.

Banjo

Ooc : I thought you were out with the FG crowd? Uh oh ....


Evan makes a mental note to replace that pump if necessary. But 11 functioning berths is plenty, plus additional excess mass for generating force.
"Glenn, are you suited up? I can't tell because you're so weird looking even when you're not suited up."

jasonb

While waiting for the Captain's go ahead to don his Vac Suit and try to fit the sail, Glenn checks the status of the distress call and sees that there's been a transmission. He tells the computer to play it...

Fourier

jasonb wrote: »

While waiting for the Captain's go ahead to don his Vac Suit and try to fit the sail, Glenn checks the status of the distress call and sees that there's been a transmission. He tells the computer to play it...

"This is Falgo Porten of Blue Starport, Scout Ship what is your situation?"

jasonb

"Hi there... Our M Drive isn't functioning so we are unable to maneuver or land. Would you be able to assist?"

OOC: I don't know if Blue has the tech to replace our M Drive, but I assume it does if it has a Starport? If that's the case I assume them 'towing' us to land would be a good start?

Fourier

Several minutes pass as the message travels to Blue and back.

"M Drive not functioning? Oh dear.....well we don't have a ship currently, Blue is rarely visited you see...."

Somebody else begins to speak to him.

"Hello, this is Imperial Officer Olga Fanst, our equipment is picking up a faint whistle at the end of your words, am I speaking to a Droyne?"

jasonb

OOC: Ok, as it seems to be just you and me Fourier, and I've no idea what I'm doing (and whether talking to an Imperial Officer is a bad thing, á la Star Wars, or a good thing, á la something else) so I think I will leave it here until a few more of my crew mates join in, I don't want everyone to come back to find out we're all dead because I said Hi to Olga!

Unless of course Olga has a Droyne fetish and really wants to get to know me. Let me know!

P.S. Inside joke, but 87 mins left and I haven't died yet...

Professor Moriarty

"We should talk with them and assume the best. We're dead meat either way. Milt had to run back into the head. What are you going to do?!

Banjo

"I'm preparing a mass purge for emergencies. You'll thank me (fwaaaaaarp) later!"

Mollyb60

Fourier wrote: »

Several minutes pass as the message travels to Blue and back.

"M Drive not functioning? Oh dear.....well we don't have a ship currently, Blue is rarely visited you see...."

Somebody else begins to speak to him.

"Hello, this is Imperial Officer Olga Fanst, our equipment is picking up a faint whistle at the end of your words, am I speaking to a Droyne?"

Verne nods to Glenn to continue. The Officer seems interested in speaking with a Droyne and anything that could paint us in a favourable light is worthwhile.

jasonb

Glenn replies to the Imperial Officer...

"Hi Officer Fanst. You are correct, I am a Droyne. My name is Meeeelfeghyumkupraytsirvysu, but most people call me Glenn, for obvious reasons. Are you able to help?"

Fourier

There is a pause on the other end.

"For a droyne, yes. We will have emergency ships brought from the systems Oort cloud. They will be with you in 38 hours.

Fanst out."

Mollyb60

Verne pats Glenn on the shoulder 'Excellent work Glenn. Looks like we might not have to depend on our crazy engineer after all. But there's no reason we shouldn't continue with his plan for the solar sail while we wait for rescue.'

Professor Moriarty

Seneca puts the finishing touch on the solar sail. Looking up, he notices that two more suns have risen. "Whoever is putting this up better wear a hat" he mutters to himself.

jasonb

“Thanks Captain, I really didn’t know if they’d be happy or not with talking to a Droyne”, Glenn replied. “Now, I’ll go suit up and get this sail fitted”. “Seneca, Evan, are you ready to walk me through fitting the sail?”

Glenn suits up, ensuring all the equipment is working fully.

OOC: I presume this procedure will need a dice roll? Also, did we get confirmation that we’re 349 days in the past, or the future?

Fourier

Glenn heads to the airlock with the solar sail. The ship's computer automatically voids the air, opening the final iris out into the void.

Glenn can see two paths to the rear of the ship, where the sail will replace the M-drive. One leads over empty weapon turrets and the other along the windows to the common area.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnDzLLqxFX8

OOC: 349 days in the past

Professor Moriarty

"Sure, Glenn. Right here." Seneca goes over to the starboard window.

jasonb

OOC: It’s pretty sad that for a second I looked at the first image of that video and looked for the weapon turrets and windows Fourier, but it’s a sign of how good your visuals have been in this thread! Now, turrets path or windows path, it’s like a Steve Jackson ‘Warlock of Firetop Mountain’ book...

Glenn decides to go via the windows, so at least then people can see him if it all goes wrong. Ensuring he has the folded up mirror array with him, he comms... “This is Glenn, I’m stepping through the door...”

Professor Moriarty

Seneca watches as Glenn emerges into the blinding suns and hopes that he has a pair of shades. "Checking communication, Glenn, can you hear me?""

Fourier

OOC:

To help in visiualising the ship here are the deck plans:


Full colour:


3D Deck Plans:


Exterior Shot:


And somebody who made it in Lego:

Fourier

jasonb wrote: »

Glenn decides to go via the windows, so at least then people can see him if it all goes wrong. Ensuring he has the folded up mirror array with him, he comms... “This is Glenn, I’m stepping through the door...”

Glenn walks out maglocked to the ships surface, walking over the transparent metal of the common room window. Inside Nestor is drinking tea, though given his orientation she appears upside down to him.

He can see some volcanic rock glowing in the night still embedded in the ships crystal iron hull.

He remains in the shaded side of the ship. The powerful glare of the trinary star system eclipsed by the ship's body.

Finally he comes to a stop at the mirror installation point.

Professor Moriarty

Watching Glenn stepping through the door has reminded Seneca of an old Bowie song which he briefly hums to himself knowing that the others do not understand the concept of music. As Glenn approaches the optimum solar sail installation point Seneca says "Okay Glenn, place the pole in the slot. Turn the sail so that the light from the brightest sun reflects directly through the fuel purifier."

jasonb

Glenn carefully follows Seneca’s instructions, turning the sail and feeling it lock into place. Ensuring it’s aimed correctly, he comms Seneca “That’s done, anything else I need to do?

OOC: Should we be worried about the rock embedded in the hull?

Professor Moriarty

Secure the mirrors in place with the cable marked ESB,Glenn.Then get back in asap as your vac suit monitor says you're overheating."

jasonb

Glenn secures the mirrors in place, double-checking the cable, and the slowly walks back the way he came, staying in the shade of the ship and waving to Nestor as he goes past the window. He enters the air-lock and gets the computer to seal it after him. He then enters the main corridor of the ship, removing his warm Vac-suit and hoping to himself that it was worth it and the mirrors will work. He comms Seneca... “I’m back onboard now, hopefully that all worked. Thanks for your help...”.

Mollyb60

'Ok evan, lets see if your plan worked and we can get this baby moving!'

Fourier

Evan sees readings from the console that the makeshift solar sail is picking up more than enough solar energy to move the ship. The ship starts moving slightly and the mirrors can be powered to 100% capacity on Verne's command.

Inside the crew sees the ship rotate on its axis as the triple suns come into view, the computer automatically dimming the light to 0.5%. Even so it is enough to be uncomfortable for Nestor.

OldGoat

Fourier wrote: »

Inside Nestor is drinking tea, though given his orientation she appears upside down to him.

jasonb wrote: »

... and waving to Nestor as he goes past the window.

Nestor has finished the tea and is holding the cup and saucer inverted in her hands just to mess with Glenns orientation perception.

Fourier wrote: »

Even so it is enough to be uncomfortable for Nestor.

I leave the viewport as the light levels become uncomfortable and head to the computer workstation and start researching Blue Starport.