Act I: Mercurian Underground

[thepanda]

Hop-skip-jumping his way back to the craft, Christopher waits for the others to arrive before entering the airlock and after that the ship. His first order of business, unless he’s immediately called to help with the docking procedure, is to thoroughly check his spacesuit for holes, tears, and any other potentially fatal ruptures in it. Once that’s done he checks his air pack, determining how long they were down there versus how much air they have left to get an idea of just how long they can practically be out searching in future missions.

“So, this is some find, eh? I know I sure didn’t think we’d be this fortuitous given the reported condition of the Lunar Palace when it was first rediscovered. I think Lady Mizuno is gonna lay an egg when she hears this.” He chuckles, a brief image of the lady in question quite literally laying an egg having popped into his mind briefly.

“In fact, why not tell her now?”

[Halbarad]

Your suit is still in one piece - a bit dusty, but otherwise fine. Your air recycler is still working fine as well; it relies on a magical filter to convert waste gases from your breath back into useable air. Your reserve tanks (for the event that the recycler fails) are unused, and currently contain about a two hour supply of air.

[Ebiris]

Entering the ship behind Chris, Rowan takes off her helmet and takes the opportunity to scratch a persistant itch on her nose that she's had for the past half hour.

"Michael's probably updated mission control that the docking systems and power are functional, although I suppose we should add in what we discovered in the bay itself.

"Hmm... if we land the ship in the bay, will our communications array still be able to reach the Moon through the bay doors? I imagine they're heavily reinforced against solar radiation..."

Grabbing a carton of fruit juice and drinking thirstily, she returns to her conversation with Chris. "I just wonder what we'll find beyond the outer bay... imagine if we could find an intact spaceship? A functional Silver Millenium vessel would likely put this thing," she taps the bulkhead, "To shame."

[Jon]

Michael keys the PA. "Welcome back, guys. Sent off a preliminary report; waiting for a reply. The least you could do would be to keep in touch while you're down there, though." He leans back in the watch chair, marking his place in the book.

[Carthrat]

"Sorry," replies Arkian, sliding into the control deck. "I tried, but because of the depth of the colony, we couldn't actually make contact."

Tapping the PA himself, he goes on to say, "Chris, I'll need you to go back outside and open the docking bay again. We should have just enough time for you to get back on board before we leave."

[Halbarad]

The computer expert readily agrees, and asks when you want him to get started.

[Carthrat]

"After lunch," replies Arkian, heading to the kitchen to sample the wonders of processed food.

[Halbarad]

The galley is next door to the head, and not much bigger. You have to stop in the hold to retrieve the subspace gate to the 'pantry', though. Once obtained, you head inside to find... a lot of microwaveable meals, hermetically sealed. There's also a fair supply of canned goods and dry pasta; most of the drinks are stored in the small refrigerator on the ship itself.

[Carthrat]

Arkian grabs some Spam, bread, and juice, and sets out to make himself a Spam Sandwich!

[Halbarad]

This proves to be a bit of an ordeal, as the ring that's designed to pull the lid off the can comes off in your hand - it wasn't attached to the lid very well, apparently.

[Carthrat]

Arkian produces.. a pocket knife, and decides to slice up the lid!

[Halbarad]

The can puts up a fierce struggle, but it's no match for Arkian's prowess with the blade! It's only a matter of moments before you've extracted the meat-like goodness within, and a sandwich is produced soon after.

[Carthrat]

Arkian sheaths his blade, and then partakes of meaty good..ness.

Well, you can't really expect much from spam.

Once that's done, he simply heads back to the cockpit and bugs Chris again..

[Halbarad]

Chris acknowledges you and heads out of the ship; the viewscreen shows him heading over to the location of the keypad - it takes him a few minutes to find it again. Shortly afterwards, you feel the ground begin to shake slightly, and Chris begins to hop back towards the ship.

[Carthrat]

Once Chris is back on board, Arkian carefully lowers the ship into the docking bay.

"If we're unlucky, and the docking bay systems have somehow broken, this could be a real short trip," he notes to every present, in an all-together too-cheerful tone.