Act I: Mercurian Underground

[Halbarad]

Tuesday morning arrives at last, and the four explorers are gathered at the hangar for their departure. Goodbyes have been said, last-minute preparations have been made. Most of the high-ranking officials in and around the palace have gathered for the departure, from the Queen and Sailor Mars to Dr. Mizuno and Commander Ten'oh on down to many of the government's technicians and engineers and their families. "Good luck!" is the shouted benediction from all gathered, as the four finally board the Silver Star.

Arkian has little trouble taking the ship out of the Lunar atmosphere, and with its course set for Mercury (preset by Dr. Mizuno before you boarded) everyone settles back for a few days while the ship makes its journey. Most of the time is spent reading or chatting with one another, and little of note occurs... until about 2 AM on Saturday morning. A blaring alarm sounds, startling everyone out of their sleep, followed by a feminine voice from the ship's intercom system.

"Stable Mercurian orbit achieved. Autopilot now disengaging."

[Ebiris]

Counting on Arkian to go do his piloting thing, Rowan takes her time, getting herself cleaned up before dressing in a silvery bodysuit and exiting her quarters to find a spacesuit.

Assuming nobody stops her, she takes several minutes in donning the bulky suit, checking all the seals are in place before grabbing a helmet and going up to the cockpit.

[Jon]

Michael doublechecks everything that he possibly can, somewhat nervously. Please, God, don't let me screw up or kill everyone. Once that's done, he proceeds to get suited up, and heads out to meet the others.

[Carthrat]

Arkian stumbles out of bed, and doesn't bother getting changed; he rushes to the cockpit, plants himself in the pilots chair, and starts pushing buttons and looking at viewscreens.

One thing he makes sure to do is find a map of where the entrance tunnels are to the underground colony systems of Mercury, and crossreference that to a surface scan.

[Halbarad]

The scan is still going, but you've got a preliminary lock on one of the old entrances. There's a very large, ancient crater near the Mercurian North Pole, and one of the entrances is marked as being concealed at its center. It's one of the smaller entrances, though, not large enough to admit the ship. There are a good half-dozen other entrances on your map, but you'll have to wait for more of the surface scan to complete before you can pinpoint their locations.

[Ebiris]

As the scan does its work, Rowan pokes her head into the cockpit. "Found us a landing site, yet?"

[Carthrat]

"No," replies Arkian, glancing at the screens. "Not until it's finished its surface scan. Then we still need to pick one.. preferably with the longest possible Mercurian night. That way, we'll get the most time down there without having to leaves because of the heat."

[Halbarad]

The computer continues its work for about ten minutes, as you orbit the planet slowly. The completed scan shows three entrances in total on the night-side; the first is the polar one, already identified. The second one is at approximately 45 degrees 'north' latitude; according to Dr. Mizuno's notes, it's large enough to completely admit the ship into the tunnel entrance - if you can get it open enough. Unfortunately, the entrance is located such that it's fairly close to the sunrise line - the computer estimates that it will encounter sunrise in approximately three weeks. The third entrance is the smallest of the trio, although exactly HOW small isn't shown. It's at approximately 30 degrees 'south' latitude, and it's just passed the sunset line within the past few days - giving you nearly three months to work with it. The only other feature of note is the entrance to the capital city, which is currently on the day side; it's estimated that it will enter the night side in 25 days.

[Carthrat]

Arkian glaces at Rowan.

"We seem to have three choices," he says, drumming his fingers on the console. "We can travel to the Polar entrance, here." He points at the location on the map.

"Or we can travel here," he continues, indicating the northern location, "But we'll only have three weeks to work with it. However, I know the ship will be able to directly enter that area.

The last location gives us several months to work with, here, but I don't know if it will be able to admit the ship.

Personally, I think we should explore the northern one while we have the chance," he states, tapping at it again. "We won't get another chance for some time. We'll also be able to take a look at the Mercurian capital a short time after we're finished there, anyhow.

After we're done there, we can explore the other zones at our leisure."

[Ebiris]

"That sounds like the most effective use of our time," Rowan nods her approval to that plan.

[Carthrat]

Arkian nods. "Once everyone is in here, I'll get started," he says, tapping the 'Wake-up alarm!' button a few times for good measure.

A loud siren blasts through the ship..

[thepanda]

Christopher finally appears on the bridge, disheveled and confused by the sirens and still rubbing sleep from his eyes. Spotting Rowan he gives her a grin, which quickly terminates into a yawn.

“Morning all!”

“Did we hit something? I mean, out in space? ‘Cause, you know, that would suck royally.”

[Jon]

Michael walks in and looks at the display. "It's a pity we can't get at the capitol," he says.

[Ebiris]

"Well, we're about to hit Mercury," Rowan smiles at Chris, before glancing at Arkian. "Albeit, hopefully in a controlled fashion...

"Speaking of that, we need to decide who's going to make history by being the first person in over ten millenia to set foot on the planet..." looking around, she asks almost hopefully, "Anyone have a speech for it?"

[Carthrat]

"Oh! I almost forgot," interjects Arkian. "Someone should contact Lunar control and tell them where we are. Perhaps they can give us more intel on the various landing sites."