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Re: Interactive Story - LARP/MMORG for the whole CofI to join in, if you like or dare

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After a few rounds of Tonk, Dorotea has lost a bit more than she's won. Someone taps her shoulder - Jame says, "I just called Harold. Apparently he's up on the First Class Observation deck having a "party" with several youngsters."
 
Ref says: CPO Sawer can you tell me why the engines seem not to working up to standard? A preliminary diagnosis shows me that something is clogging up one of the intake values? When we cast off from spacedock, why wasn't this dealth with before the jump?

Right now we have a few dozen passengers who a bit jumpy. All we can tell them is that the situation is under control. Heads will roll from the Master Engineer downwards if this problem is not solved within 3 standard hours.

As far as the crew coms, the engine takes priority we don't want corporation to look bad when we break out at Far Point, do we now? Get on to it. Dismissed.

At that moment, the ship goes through an involuntary shutter before normality is restored. The Captain storms out of his ready room and turns to the Command Crew and barks out: "Report!"
Click to expand...
 
"Whoa"???

"I did not like the feel of that and I have'nt even had my first drink yet! Someone ask a steward what happened"
 
Ref. says: The steward looking ever more distressed, says, "Nothing to worry about. Please have another drink." And promptly leaves his post.

As the group pursues him. They overhear the following conversation with the Steward and one of the maintance crew...

"I tell, there up to no good. There pushing the ship to the limit. It was a rushed job, you know to get it out, so that it could impress the Zhodani."

"Nah, its just routine engine troubles, just 'em being saying all the time."

"Maybe, it has to do with what their doing up there on the Upper Observation Deck. Some pretty weird stuff was carted up there before cast off, a mate of mine in Cargo told me.

[A third voice unrecognizable] "Oi, what you scabs doing back to work before I make a formal complaint to the Captain."

"Yessir, Mr. Reynolds. Right away."

Moments later, both crew members emerge but no sign of a third person.
Click to expand...
 
Usssep rises and turns to Matt: "I think that more is wrong here than a slight drive inefficiency.
I also think that armoured marines do not normally serve as bouncers ..."

"I am going to the observation deck. Will you come with me, new-seeker Matt Jeffers? "

He turns to survey the lounge: "Perhaps there are others who also seek answers ..."
 
Originally posted by kafka47:
Captain says:

CPO Sawer can you tell me why the engines seem not to working up to standard? A preliminary diagnosis shows me that something is clogging up one of the intake values? When we cast off from spacedock, why wasn't this dealth with before the jump?
Click to expand...
Sawter let's the name slip slide without a trace of visible contempt. "The thrusters were within operational parameters until the jump drive was engaged. In fact up till then all ships systems were operational."

Originally posted by kafka47:
Captain says:

Right now we have a few dozen passengers who a bit jumpy. All we can tell them is that the situation is under control. Heads will roll from the Master Engineer downwards if this problem is not solved within 3 standard hours.


As far as the crew coms, the engine takes priority we don't want corporation to look bad when we break out at Far Point, do we now? Get on to it. Dismissed.
Click to expand...
Ignoring the dismissal and interruption Jeff continues, "As I was going to add sir, while the loss of the crew commnet seems minor it was the first in what the Master Chief sees as a cascading failure related to stresses in an uneven jump entry. What's more with the crew comms down the integration of the artificial crew is also offline. We are doing the best we can but without the robotic assistance we are understaffed for all but routine monitoring of engineering. The Chief suggests you move your command to the auxiliary bridge adjacent to engineering, there's little you can do here that can't be done there while we're in jump and she suspects the main bridge will be cut off from ship systems shortly."

Originally posted by kafka47:
Ref says:

At that moment, the ship goes through an involuntary shutter before normality is restored. The Captain storms out of his ready room and turns to the Command Crew and barks out: "Report!"
Click to expand...
Jeff is left alone in the ready room. So it begins, time for part two of the plan. Moving quickly to the wall between the ready room and the bridge he removes a panel. Reaching in he pulls several nodes from the junction box and pockets them. Through the open door he hears reports from the command crew as their terminals report the loss of computer feeds. He restores the panel and quietly steps onto the bridge.

"Excuse me Captain but this is probably more of the cascade failure the Master Chief predicted. The shaking was probably a stutter in the Aw Gee Icy, sorry the Artificial Gravity Inertial Compensators, when the extreme forward area of the jump field collapsed. There is probably a large portion of the forward ship hangers missing and exposed to jump space and vacuum if the simulation is accurate. Fortunately that area is not supposed to be populated so there should be no loss of life yet. Unfortunately the loss of more of the jump grid is likely, beginning forward and progressing aft. The main observation decks and bridge will be the next to be flooded by jump space. How long is just a guess at this point, probably hours at most. I should join the damage control party at the forward airlock sir."

Sawter salutes and exits the bridge, thinking the Captain has a lot more to worry about than how things are going to look to corporate IF they come out at Farpoint with minor thruster problems. And no one in engineering is the least bit worried about losing their job so much as surviving this trip.

Too bloody big. A ship this large, built on the lowest bid and fastest completion, how could they not see it being a disaster. And putting the main bridge as far as possible from engineering, well at least they had the foresight to put the computer and auxiliary bridge in engineering. And thanks to his pulling the circuits the bridge crew has no reason to stay on the main bridge.

Coming to the first tube station off the bridge Sawter enters a shuttle ball and selects a tube station nearest the lower midship communications center for his destination. Alone, the shuttle glides aft and Jeff pulls a small autoinjector from a pocket, checks his watch and injects a small dose into one temple and then the other. The redness fades almost immediately and he blinks away a tear.
 
"Hey Lord Jame. Does it look to you that there is an unusual amout of activity and ship personnel going forward?
Perhaps we should stay here and have our drinks brought to us?"
 
"Yeah. But I think one of us should go to the Observation Deck and get the good Dr. Calis - Howard."

Dorotea finishes her second rum-in-cola, puts the glass down and says "I'll go. Maybe a visit from the "boss" of the group will do him good."

She gets up and leaves.

Jame goes up to the Steward, befoe he has a chance to go further, and says, "My good man, just to be sure, there are escape vehicles nearby, right?"
 
Sawter mentally reviews the general ship stats once more while en-route to the comm center. One megaton of luxury with full Jay six and high agility thrusters to speed the rich on the way in Jay Space and En Space. In fact the ship could be a major combatant. Well protected by a top level meson screen and full battleship level hull plating, not to mention the best spinal mount meson gun for "protection" and the many smaller defensive bays and turrets. Jeff again wonders if this ship is really a warship disguised as some cruise liner. Except for the fact that the hull is gracefully streamlined and the interior furnishings are gaudy and expensive it could easily be a warship. He imagines this thought must have crossed a few minds.

Then too there's the hundred ship hangers, the smallest capable of carrying a 100tons of ship. And even with all that they managed to include enough fuel reserves for an extra Jay two and four more weeks of powerplant output. Granted the power plant is marginal. That "quaint" jump dimming custom was no affectation for the idle rich aboard.

Further the passenger capacity, while phenomenal with sixteen thousand luxury staterooms and amenities, and twenty thousand tons of freight in addition to baggage allowances, seems more suited to transporting an entire army.

The shuttle slows and pauses briefly, a quick check of the screen shows it's not at a junction or due to traffic, probably another power re-routing. The shuttle resumes it's speed and Jeff wonders again why he keeps going over the ship specs. Is it just to keep his mind off why he is here? Not that retirement was what he'd expected, a Navy pension just isn't much, but why did he jump at the chance to go to space again after nearly four years of dirt and sky?

Fortunately the shuttle slows for his destination and he is spared wondering further what ifs, time to worry about what next.
 
Stepping up to the barkeep AI. "I'll have a large Anthalass tea please". The shipboard specs did have a few more details specs than the advertising literature. Interesting that they didn't show the meson gun in the advert details.
At least the designers were smart enough to put entrances to a few escape shuttles in the lounge area.

It is interesting to see the reactions of the different passengers to the strange happenings on the ship.
 
Originally posted by Piper:
Usssep rises and turns to Matt: "I think that more is wrong here than a slight drive inefficiency.
I also think that armoured marines do not normally serve as bouncers ..."

"I am going to the observation deck. Will you come with me, new-seeker Matt Jeffers? "

He turns to survey the lounge: "Perhaps there are others who also seek answers ..."
Click to expand...
"That sounds like a good idea. A really good idea, Usssep." Matt gets up and follows his droyne compadre to the lift.
 
Ref. says: The grav lift promptly stops at the 119th floor - the observation lounge. At either exit are two Imperial Marines apparently transfixed by the sky. There is an enormous panoramic star-field approximately at 45 degrees inclination there appears to be a whirlpool vortex sucking in all light and matter from the surrounding area. The ship seems to be approaching the vortex.

In the lounge itself are at least 100 individuals wearing saffron & yellow robes chanting:
"Ohm, Ohm, Ohm, Diddy-Ohm, Ohm, Ohm, Ohm, Diddy-Ohm, Ohm..." each seem to be connected to a large machine in the centre via a fiber optic cable attached at the base of their skull. The machine is making odd sort of static sound. In the centre is a hoop which seems to be covered in an elastic texture of a soap bubble.

The Marines snap to attention and demand to see their security pass.

----------------

Meanwhile, back in the lounge. A tall leggy beautiful brunette in a tight black cocktail dress (think: Angelina Jolie & Vanessa Williams combination in a "Mrs. Smith" dress)sits beside Vegascat and asks:
"Is this your first time into the black? Well, don't just gawk, are you going to buy a girl a drink?"
Click to expand...
 
Dorotea, joined by now by Jame and possibly the Baron, shows the Marines the security pass. They immediately notice Dr. Howard Calis lying in a chair - face down...
 
Ref says: "I am sorry Sir, this area is restricted to Gold level and above. I will have ask you to leave." to reinforce the point the Marines cock their Gauss rifles.
Click to expand...
 
Usssep addresses the guard: "Apologies are offered. Steward gave ticket to show. This show not one have ticket for."

Reaching forward, he taps the lift control: "Apologies all around for abrupt action. A lift tube is not proper venue to dispute Gauss rifle."

Back in the lounge he steps to one side and touches a pad on his porta-comp. The control interface springs into being around him. Deft fingers stroke and prod the holographic images. The effect is not unlike watching a skilled harpist.

"This new-thing in observation lounge seems bad; very bad. Need data."

He accesses the passenger datanet. Gently, carefully, he begins probing, seeking an opening in the firewall. After several minutes, he finds one. The room service ordering program is linked through the purser's system back to the shipside datanet.

"I am trying to access security sensor network. It is wrong to do this, but the wrong on observation deck is much greater."

"Machines should serve sophont beings, not other way around. Linking mind/machine very wrong. Droyne do this long ago. Very bad."

A deft flick of a delicate, scaled hand dispatches a seeker program into the ship network.

"Now we see."
 
Ref. says: At that moment the entire telemetry of the ship pops up in a three dimensional representation. Power is currently being diverted from tertiary systems into the Upper Observational Deck by a rather sophisticated computer program. Further inquiry into the source indicates it seems to be using the Lanthanum jump grid to bypass detection by the ship's other systems.

The computer promptly notes that the current vector and velocity are standard for a jump of the magnitude expected for a jump to Far Point.

Attempts to activate cameras on the observation deck meet with failure either because they are switched off or there is a higher level of security that your portacomputer cannot crack.

At this point, your portacomputer alerts to the fact the security protocols have been activated. Almost instantly Naasirka emerge from the grav lifts and begin rifling through the crowd.

The ship's lights dim for a moment allowing the security detail to see perfectly were the source of the break in is occurring.

--------------------

Meanwhile, elsewhere, you overhear an Aslan male shout out:
"Firukhte!
What do you think you are doing with my companion, fiyfiyalrya'uist? This calls for aisaiaokheh now!"
"Firuah, firuah" he chants in a deep growl
Click to expand...
 
"Guard, my companion is lying in that chair right there. If I could have him back, I would leave with alacrity."
 
"Indeed" adds Baron W. "We could each take an arm and leave with all haste in the direction from which we came"

Baron W makes a move to put actions to words.
 
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