Chapter 1 Exiting the Ghostlines

Astronomy compels the soul to look upward, and leads us from this world to another. — Plato, The Republic, 342 BCE Systems activated in the cryopods on board The Righteous Indignation, rousing the ship's captain and crew from their cryosleep. Headaches and nausea struck the crew almost uniformly. It is being both sick and hung over at once for the next 6 to 7 hours. . Clothing dispensers open on the side of your pods, another with various pills to help you cope with the headaches, upset stomach and various other ills that cryosleep can put on a body. Coaxing you awake and giving updates is the voice of LOTUS, the ships advanced computer network. Her accent, a faint hint of old earth New Zealand, was pleasing even coming out cryosleep. Good Morning Crew. It has been 34 days since you entered cryosleep. The Righteous Indignation has traveled 6500 lightyears. We are 10 hours away from last known position of the Grey Gorilla. All ship systems are running at 98.2% efficiency.

Veniya swings her legs from the pod and rubs her eyes. Sometime a bit of blood alcohol can ease the cyro sickness. Not this morning it seems. She puts on a simple white cotton shirt and cargo tousers and light brown military boots. She ties her thick black hair back into a loose pony tail. She looks at her reflection in the pod and grunts. She grabs the pill tabs and a bottle of water and heads to the door. She looks at the others also sluggishly getting up. "If anyone is dead raise your hand. Non? Good. Med check for everyone, you know the drill. Starting with you Captain." She hits the door release and exits. The med bay is next door and then places her thumb on the bio reader and the frosted glass door gently whooshes open. The lights flicker on. The bay is is pristine white and steel but some of the oncoming med equipment gives it a ghostly green hue. "LOTUS. Run medical pod systems check, s'il vous plait," she asks the room. She necks the pills. If they don't work then something stronger may. She takes a packet of smokes out of a draw and lights one. She takes that first drag and savours it, She starts to unpack her scanners. Breakfast can wait until the pills kick in. A coffee would go down well though. [OOC- if want to get checked you can just say that came in and went if not hanging around.]

Erik stretches, pulls on his jumpsuit, and almost immediately logs on to the network. "Good Morning LOTUS, any interesting messages come while I was out?" He slips past Veniya as she opens the door, and all but scurries down to the VIN room, and begins the necessary checks on LOTUS's maintenance schedule.

"Urrrgh... this was... *Cough cough* was never fun in the service, and it's certainly not fun in the civilian field." Lucav raised himself out of the pod, two hands on either side of the pod walls. 30+ days takes a severe amount of damage on the body and it's muscular system, even if the pods help significantly against atrophy." These stupid things don't get much better in the civilian world, all they do is just add more cushions inside the pod chamber... that's not even the worst part." Like routine he immediately heads towards the medical examiner station. Waiting to be called into the room, meanwhile he used a nice sturdy wall to sustain his balance by leaning on it with his shoulder. Keeping his head down since the lights were a bit too much to deal with right now on his eyes.

Tim pulls himself out of the cyropod. His muscle tremble slightly as they get used to working again. The familiar sickness is a relief because it means he is still alive even if it's not pleasant. Tim silently swallows his pills and pulls a black t-shirt over his head. He steps shakily into a dark grey jumpsuit and sits down for a moment to slide on some plain black trainers. His stomach growls in protest as he heads towards medical instead of the mess. Unluckily, or perhaps by cyrosleep wake-up protocol order, Tim finds himself at the back of the line of crew waiting to get checked. A blessing and a curse. There probably won't be much left in the way of breakfast by the time he finds his way there but at least he won't be the first one working on trying to squeeze the last 1.8% out of the ship's efficiency. Tim waits patiently in line and shuffles forward as it moves.

Looking back, Lucav smiles a small grin to Tim. With what one could call a half effort wave of the hand. Lucav was standing just slightly ahead of Tim in the line of the "living zombies" that were waiting for the med line to proceed. After maybe 10 minutes of waiting a low grumble could be heard from Lucav's stomach... well it started low, and developed into a slightly more audible noise to those who were within 3 feet distance of him. Lucav placed his hand on his stomach. " Easy there... breakfast is coming"

Veniya runs the scans on the waiting crew. Everyone looks like shit. She runs the machines over them taking basic bio read outs. She asks a few standard cognitive questions, ‘How long have you been on the ship?’ and ‘Any lingering cyro memories or nightmares?’, as if that will catch someone slipping into VPS. The soldier she calls forward out of the line. She makes him take off his shirt. Because why the hell not. It helps the headache. "You've elevated ketone levels. All these muscles breaking down. Drink plenty and you'll piss it out. It's gonna ache like hell after your next work out," she tells him. Hector Segura also began to assist in the checkups. Once the majority of crew and have been poked and prodded she asks Hector if he’s ok to finish up and then heads to get some food. After about half an hour, as Tim approaches the door, an alarm starts to beep on one of the medical processor units. Hector looks at Tim and shrugs apologetically, “Sorry man, you’ll have to come back later.” He touches the door control and it slides shut in Tim’s face. [3 scanning med tech successes. Info to follow?]

Hector is about as worse for wear as anyone else. It always the worst part of space travel. No one likes to feel like crap without the fun of getting drunk first. "Veniya, I will be fine as soon as the ship stops spinning. Stasis is the worst." He busies himself with going over the instruments in the med bay. ****************************************************************************************************************************************************** Erik, you have 48 new messages, 46 have been marked as spam."

Lucav makes his way to the gym prior to heading to the mess hall. On his way... he pukes in the hall. " Ok.. nevermind, on working out... definitely not in the shape for it." He finds a cleaning gear closet, cleans up the mess he made, and then heads to the mess hall now that for sure he didn't have a thing in his stomach.

Annabelle Dieu-Le-Strahd had done this more times than she cared to remember in the moment. Always ensuring she went into Cryosleep without a scrap of food in her body ensured she wouldn't immediately soil her surroundings. She always put on the tough act, with right good reason, and even in Cryosleep she wouldn't budge on that bottom line. But being a veteran of the Cold Sleep made it easier for the little things. The clothing dispenser opened to her usual wear, a pair of heavily cushioned boots, sleek black pants already with the boots at the bottom of the legs and a pair of black damn-near lingerie panties sitting atop them. With two quick steps she got into the boots and slowly pulled the entire assembly up her legs and resting it all around her waist. Slipping on a heavily worn black shirt the dispenser promptly spat out, and quickly followed by a rustic-looking old and weathered leather captain's longcoat pulled over her shoulders, the embeded eating elements all over the jacket starting to fill her body with extra warmth even before she could slam down the prepper-pills, give her head a shake and stomp down to see the doc. Like most captains, civilian or no, Anna hated stepping foot into the med-bay. Not that anything inside particularly bothered her, but it was always such a waste of time after Cryosleep, what with all the med-sensors embeded into the pods, if something was wrong, she'd already know. But regardless of her personal preference, setting an example for the crew, Anna walked in and promptly made little smalltalk, the headache countering what minimal niceties she normally might have mustered. "We've got 4 hours before I need everyone at stations, Cryo-Pains or not. Do what you can to speed this up, doc."

Erik runs through his system checks, making small chat with LOTUS as he goes along, having established in her protocols that she's allowed to 'gossip' with him about anything significant, even just anomalous readings on the sensors. (Computers for my PMCS of the VIN 4 successes, software repair 4 successes, hardware repair 2 successes) Once he completes his checks, he calls Annabelle with the ship phone. "LOTUS is all set to go captain. I'm gonna peruse the news stories she queued for me. I'll give you a call if there's anything of note." Erik skims the 46 messages flagged as spam, making sure there isn't anything important in there before he empties the folder. Then he opens the two other messages, giving them more attention.

After breakfast, Lucav heads to the armory (Or where ever they have the weapons stored). He needed to do an inventory of his gear one more time. What was that expression, when in a hurry, check everything slowly... or something like that. Going through the motions, consulting the VIN in the armory over the different check points on his prototype sniper rifle. Unlocking the access to it with bio-metric small pad that was overlayed on the handle. Allowing it to read his palm, and cell structure to unlock the safety. He was now putting on his NETSS, making sure the readings on it were at working peramitters. Reviewing the HUD as he operated the Nanos in his suit. "SYSTEMS OPERATIONAL" was the message that read after he finished reviewing everything on the HUD of his NETSS.

Erik finds one from his family, about not writing home enough, or visiting, or settling down and cranking out some kids. The other is about a job opportunity or a bit of info retrieval in a closed looped system, from an interested party...

Tim sighs as the medbay door slides shut in front of him. A resigned sense of pointlessness momentarily washes over him before he lets out a small chuckle at the universe. He heads to the mess hall for some food hoping to find something passing as edible. After downing some cold cereal and Fresh-U-Serve Nan-O-range Tim is feeling much better. He decides to skip his medical check up and heads down to Engineering at a leisurely pace. He nods politely to the crew he passes who are moving with much more purpose and speed as they ready the ship and preform post-sleep checks.

Erik sends off a quick note to his family, nothing but chaff to distract them, and a innocuous question about when he's going to have nephews or nieces to spoil. He sends a job quote to the other, for 2800 credits if he just has to get the info, 4600 if he has to make it seem like the info hasn't been stolen.

Hours pass and operational checks are found to be normal. With an alert beep, LOUTS speaks up. "Captain Dieu-Le-Strahd. I have just recieved up to date positional data from the sensor buoys in the Barastyr system. I have downloaded all relevant system data. Do you wish for me to display this to yourself and the crew?"

Veniya tucks into a bacon and egg re-heat. It's good. She spends the next couple of hours getting her shit ready. The palm scan on her locker clunks open and she takes out her weapon and COG. The pistol she straps with to leg with a thigh holster, but COG and the rest of the gear she stows in her bunk ready for later. SES brief dictates medics are armed at all times when in the dark. The mag is holding stuns though. She heads down to check on the med supplies. [1 success] After she checks in with Hector. Then she kicks back in the mess with a third coffee and half a pack. Her handheld scanner is on hand to nail down the crew that predictably missed their check up.

Pangs of hunger eventually remind Erik that he needs to do more than mess with the VIN, and he swings by his room, changes into a pair of silver and day-glo orange pants, a t-shirt with something written on it in binary, loads his GIC SOP with collapsable rounds & tucks it in his in-belt holster, along with a second clip, and one clip of his (slightly illegal) AP rounds, since they have SES personnel along for the ride, and you never know what might happen. He shrugs into a lightweight ship's jacket and turns on his cellphone. As he finally makes his way to the mess, he sits across from Veniya with a bagel and a cup of coffee large enough to do double duty as a saucepan. "Any problems with the inventory paperwork?"

In the hours since the crew awakened, Anna had seen to her check up with the usual indignant style a Captain was apt to, and immediately retired to her quarters where she dressed as the crew normally saw her, in her armored COG, two different pistols strapped to her thighs and laced with electronics. The captain had always been a tactical woman, and by her very appearance her decisions weren't ever given lightly. Standing on the bridge staring at the main display with closed eyes, Annabelle heard LOTUS' voice and took in a deep breath before answering, the effects of the drugs were helping ebb the pain, but not entirely. "Yes LOTUS, and signal the senior crew to report to bridge stations." she remarked with a casual air to her voice before closing her eyes once again while LOTUS brought up the information.

"Nope, no problems" she replies to Erik conspiratorially, "Everything is just where it should be." She walks around the table runs a quick scan, not letting him up, pulling an eye open with her thumb and flashing a pen light in. She's not going to get pay docked from some corporate paper pusher for not doing her job. "How's your girlfriend doing down there?" When she hears the Captain's notice she'll head up the stairs to command.

"Aye, Aye Captain Dieu-Le-Strahd . Signaling the crew and displaying information now." In front of every crew member, a video alert appears. It contains the Captain's orders to report to the bridge. Then the information over the Barastyr system starts to flow... (The handout titled Barastyr System Overview is now available to all players. Included are links to download a bigger image, instructions are in the body of the handout. If you wish to have a better idea how the screens opening up in front of your pc's, please read over the handout titled Technology and you: Nano-Interface Screen (NIS).)

((Initial Sensor Scans are 2 successes))

((Will give everyone a chance to post getting up to the bridge, appearance descriptions etc before going all "Captainy" on everyone lol :) ))

Tim is starting his old routine of relaxing and watch old-earth reruns of Senior Engineer LeStor's favorite show, Friends, on a small vid-screen in the engineering bay. The captain's message pops up just as Tim is about to doze off in one of trio of well-worn chairs comprising the 'engineering break-room'. "Hey Senior, did the captain call you up too?" he says, a modicum of concern in his voice. One of the major perks of being a junior engineer was not having to deal with a ship's captain unless you screwed up royally. Most of your ass-chewings came second hand from the Senior. Resigned to his fate, Tim heads to his gear locker and grabs his toolbelt. He buckles the heavy, tool-laden belt around his waist thinking it'll give him an air of officiality as he works through in his mind whatever mistakes he could have already made since waking up from Cryo. He departs the engineering bay and heads to the bridge.

Erik inhales the steam from his coffee, letting the scent help settle his stomach. "LOTUS is running at peak efficiency. The 1.8% decline must be something in engineering." As the captain flashes off the display, he tips back his mug and chugs the rest of his coffee, before standing and looking down at Veniya. "Shall we go see what the boss wants? It's probably just a general meeting, though."

"Oui, let's see what we've got to deal with this time. Allons-y." She accompanies Erik out of the mess. "Silver and orange.... really?"

Heading his way up to the bridge, Lucav was snacking on a protein bar he snagged from the mess deck. Moving through the P-ways, and up some flights of stairs. Raising himself up through a man-sized hole where the stairs allowed entry to the Bridge level. He nods to Captain Dieu-Le-Strahd, and looks around to see if anyone else was up here with her. "Ma'am... morning. If it is morning after all. Can't tell so soon after Cryo Sleep" He finds himself a wall, and waits for the others to arrive if anyone was missing. Leaning up against the wall with his left side, and snacking on his protein bar some more.

LOTUS speaks up, a file spinning in the air before the Captain. Captain, I have tagged the location of the Grey Gorilla on the system map for your convince. (See the Grey Gorilla Found! handout please)

Knowing how to at least read the nav systems, Lucav sees how far the Gorilla was out in space. " As my great grandfather use to say.... There's Waldo"

Veniya whistles in surprise too. "She is way out. That's almost interstellar space. What's she doing out there, Captain?" "LOTUS, have you made direct contact? Do you have any information on crew injuries or casualties?" She shifts her weight with unease. "Shit, if they're power down in the dark like that..." she stops short of mentioning the VPS inducement rates.

I have not been ordered to make contact Doctor. There have been no external transmissions other than a distress beacon made by the Grey Gorilla at this time.

Erik does a full spin in his chair, then swingts around to face his consol. "Well, let's see if we can make contact, shall we? Let's do a secured handshake through a virtual machine, shall we LOTUS? Don't want you catching any bugs they may have." With that he begins running programs. (Computers: 3 successes)

Erik finds that there is no active link to establish contact with coming from the Grey Gorilla.

Picking up the virtual file hanging in the air and giving it an idle spin, Anna slowly turns to take in the crew, watching their first few actions before taking a deep breath and starting what would no doubt be one very long day. "Good Morning." Annabella starts as the senior crew file into the bridge and get to their stations. "I'm not certain how many of you still have brain-frosting at this point, but it's time to earn our pay." she says with a stern face, but not one that's unquestioning or overly authoritive. With a nod to Erik she resumes, "Right now it seems the theory of no active communications on Her prove correct. I want every scan this ship is capable of before we get within standard weapons range. We've got four hours until intercept, and I want to have at least some idea of what's going on before we get close." "As for what She's doing out there, I have no idea. But we're about to find out." she says with a pause, turning back to the display. "Until we get close to Her, I want everyone at their best. The faster this is all over, the quicker we're all out of here with our money. While we've got no reason to believe anything is wrong on board, other than years of experience and the fact they sent my ship of all ships, I want everyone's eyes open. If you're not scanning, you're prepping. I want those parts they ordered ready to offload, and I want everyone armed." she says with hands coming to rest at her hips. "Something tells me Captain Desoto was doing something he shouldn't, and when we get Her back up and running, I don't want anyone unarmed if Her captain gets aggressive." she says with a nod to the assembled crew. "That's everything official for now. Lets get it done."

Erik sighs, "You heard the boss, LOTUS, let's get scanning." Hits a single key, and then sits there staring desultorily at the display before him while the ship runs it's scanners. (3 successes, love that +2 from my extra dice)

Tim raises his hand and waits for the Captain to acknowledge him. "Ma'am, the engineering crew will need weapons from the ship's armory, ma'am." Tim heads back down to the engineering bay to pass word to the others and begin prepping the cargo for transferring it to the Grey Gorilla.

Lucav steps up from his wall leaning for a moment. Having finished his protein bar earlier. "Captain, with permission to speak." Standing at ease where he was. Military at ease that is. " We may wish to security sweep the ship first prior to embarking with replacement parts. With your permission, i would like to take a security detail with a light engineering crew to establish necessary operating systems to ensure that the Gorilla is still NAV worthy. I also agree with giving some of the engineering crew small arms or light arms as well if necessary." Waiting for Capt. Annabella's response before moving from his spot.

"Lets give the Engineers everything we can. I want no one on that ship who isn't carrying arms. Bigger the better." she gives them an agreed nod. "And don't worry, no one's going aboard until we have at least some idea of what's going on over there. I won't endanger anyone on this crew without a damn good reason for it. I hear enough stories about floating horror-story ships." she says with a grit of her teeth, almost as if some experience on the matter might be in her mind.

"Captain, with your permission I'd like to set up a couple of triage stations and a quarantine pod in the hanger deck. We won't be able to accomodate a crew of a D class in med bay, assuming they have full system failure." With the Captain's decision she head back to her quarters. She puts on her COG and fits her weapon and med kits in place. It fits like a second skin, but sweet god why they hell don't they have pockets. She staps another pouch to her leg and puts her cigs and lighter in them. 'Stupid things...'

The scanners reveal some damage to the communications array aboard the Grey Gorilla. It appears that the damage must be from internal causes. There is no outside damage to the ship, according to the ships scanners. It does appear the back up handshaking signal to the airlock is functioning if the ship is at standard docking range of 35m. With the ship not moving, this will be an easy link up. The rest of the scans produce nothing useful. The scanners aboard your ship are not rate to conduct a life form scan. (just say that you are moving to link up, no roll is needed) (Captain, you only have a crew of 20 total including all PC's)

Veniya also goes to check in with Hector to relay the situation and the Captain’s brief. “How you feeling?” then, “I want to prep for rehydration and exposure. Serious trauma we’ll bring back to the pod here. Depending what we find, we’ll link up with the Gorilla’s med staff and ‘elp transfer the supplies. I do want VPS contingency in place though, sedatives and restraints. Probably all overkill, but they may have been drifting for over a month. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best non?”

Lucav goes down to his quarters to gear up. Retrieving the prototype sniper rifle he had, the Devor Lane SM3-XX010. His sidearm the Merko L45 with a laser sight. Finally securing his melee blade to his back once he had secured his NETSS in place. He popped out the clip with the rounds of the rifle, inspecting for any foreign particles or incorrect overlays, and popping it back in. Pulling back on the magnetic bolt entry lever to chamber the first round. Seeing it was working fine he checked his other 5 clips he had stored in his harness belt and pouches. The pistol also got the same treatment with thoroughness. The look on Lucav's face was one of "in the zone", he had gone through this proceedure of checking his gear a million times while out in the field, and he could almost do this blind fold if needed. After which Lucav checked the functionality of his camouflage system of his NETSS. Once he saw it was operational he proceeded to a communications terminal. Punching up the comm to the Captain. "Captain, i will be standing by in the staging deck, until we are ready to dock with the Gorilla, and ready to embark on her."

"Down the hatch," said the woman, popping some pills into her mouth and swigging some water to knock them down. Cryo-sleep affected Ms.Tong just as much as anyone else, giving that lovely hangover, head-pounding, body-aching feeling, all without the night of fun before hand. She dressed, sleek black pants and a jacket with an orange shirt underneath. Moving out from the pod area, she moves carefully to the mess to grab something to eat, chatting with various personnel as she went. She grabs a breakfast sandwich, some sort of egg-bacon bagel, and a juice, then heads to her station on the ship. Her place is sort of the "PR" department of their little vessel: dealing with outsiders, arranging deals and payment for the jobs they complete, so on and so forth. Always having a way with words, Kat learned all about the arts of speech and talking in her training at college and the Escort's Guild, and now put what she knew to work for the Righteous Indignation. It was certainly more interesting than just sticking to being an aide for someone on Claret or Mondus. The NIS lit up for her as she settled into her spot, and informed her of multiple messages. Job offers, love-lorn past escortees, pings from her contact in the GIC, etc. Giving the needed ones the attention necessary, she finished that up and her food. Their current job seemed a bit different, everyone on the ship seemed to be a bit on edge, dealing with a ship that had been dark and out here. "Captain, would you like me aboard as well?" she said, bringing up the comms to speak with Anna.

Erik heads back to his locker, where he shrugs into his COG. He insures he has 3 magazines of collapsibles, with his one of AP rounds marked with crosshatching on the bottom. It wouldn't do to accidentally put a hole through the ship's walls, after all. He then insures his PCA is secured in it's armored pocket, and tied into his suit's VAC properly. Last, and in his mind least, he insures his signal scanner and high speed servos are functioning properly. He checks his watch, then heads back to the mess for one last cup of coffee before they reach docking range, knowing LOTUS will continue her scans until he shuts them down.

To the other engineers, Tim looks nervous as he readies himself at his locker in the engineering bay. He loads tools and a tablet computer containing ship schematics and diagnostic programs into a soft-bodied toolbag. He pulls his work COG, a ZGE suit, off a hanger in the locker and begins putting it on. The X-ray visor modification will help him find any potential problems lurking within the Grey Gorilla and the Kinetic unit will help him move any debris he may encounter - not exactly combat capable, but Tim hopes to avoid that. He picks up the toolbag and heads to the mess. He tosses a couple pre-packed snacks into his toolbag, not knowing if he'll be getting meal breaks until the job is done. Once he is suited up and loaded down with tools and treats he reports to the armory to receive a weapon. He checks the weapon and makes sure he understands how to operate it - being mechanically adept has it's uses. He heads back down to the engineering bay to wait for the call to action stations. Another rerun of Friends is playing on the small vid-screen as Tim sits down into his well-worn chair.

LOTUS's voice rings throughout the ship. "Automated docking systems initiated. Establishing link with Grey Gorilla's primary systems..stand by....link failure, establishing link with Grey Gorilla's secondary systems....stand by...link failure, establishing link with Grey Gorilla's tertiary systems...stand by...link established. Extending dock...seal established at 100% integrity. Pressure equalized. You are free to transverse to the Grey Gorilla."

The Captain, still firmly on the bridge, pipes her voice directly to the boarding crew. She had ensured a diverse array of crew were on hand, as they knew very little about what they were heading into. "Alright, you are clear to board Her. Do not go chasing ghosts, stick together, and keep a constant comm-channel to Operations. If anything so much as feels off-putting I want to know about it. Make contact, get me in touch with Her captain, and lets get this delivery done after contact is established. Go." Cutting her broadcast Annabelle sits deep in her Captain's Chair, staring at the main display in front of her, watching several split-screen readouts of the crew members boarding the Gorilla. She might not be on the ship herself, but that didn't mean she didn't have the need to see everything that her crew saw.

Lucav took point as he was often to do. He waited for the sealed doors to open. Rifle in both hands at the ready. "Keep behind me as we enter. Don't want anyone moving further then the lead point man. Last thing we need is anything startling anyone and getting friendly fire. We'll sweep each room by room until we hit their bridge or run into anyone/anything. Copy everyone?"