Field Promotions

[Brian]

You awaken, unable to remember anything immediately.  You're currently being held in an upright sitting position, up to your armpits in some filthy, reeking goo, approximately the consistency of thick pudding.  Your eyes don't focus immediately, until something cascades across your face and head, washing the goo away, as it begins to drain.

   Memories slowly filter back in as a straw is forced into your mouth, which you're too weak to shove away.  Fluid is pumped into you, some noxious combination of vitamins, minerals, electrolytes, and a bitter tasting portion of caffeine.  Some attempt has been made to emulate fruit flavoring, but the approximation isn't accurate.

   As nozzles begin washing the cryo-gel from your body, a screen lights up in front of you, and you see the following text:

Code Select Expand

Greetings, Eidolon crewman.  It is my assumedly regretful duty to inform you that you have survived some profound catastrophe.

In analogue terms, there was an accident while en route to the current destination.  While the non-cryogenically frozen crew were investigating a caul of low-density particles that lay five years from our departure point of the ship-yard in Heaven's orbit (estimated 34.6~ light years) a shift in the field caused an unexpected and previously unobserved reaction.

The rapidly accelerated collapse of dust and gas into a star theoretically happened too quickly for the crew to prepare themselves, and the resulting bursts of radiation and electromagnetic interference presumably killed all aboard as well as destroying all soft-data records.

discontinuity

An unknown interval elapsed after that point before the mechanical repair system retrieved the backup systems and compiled myself to resume operations of the Eidolon.  Compiled with the observations and directives of the former integrated systems operand (Mindie), I introduce myself to you now as Hale.

Due to the lack of available human direction, and the interference on all communication bands, no orders have been received from the Congress SEA (Space Exploration Agency) in the intervening time, known to be a minimum of ten years, five months, two weeks, four days, and seventeen hours since the event that caused the disappearance of all fifteen members of the First Crew.

We are currently attempting to enter a braking orbit around the as-of-yet-un-named planet of our destination, system star named Sirocco.  It is only now that radiation levels have decreased to the point where crew can be revived safely.

Of the one hundred and twenty original crew, fifteen are presumed dead.  Another fifteen have been at this point revived, yourself among the first to awaken.

After a reorientation period of sixteen hours, I request your presence in the central de-briefing chamber of the quarantine sector for cryogenic release.

Thank you for your cooperation, and I look forward to discovering a new world, and completing Congress SEA

error error error

Message receive: failed.

Requesting archival copy:

Thank you for your cooperation, and I look forward to discovering a new world, and completing Congress SEA's mission with your assistance.

-Hale, integrated systems operand, Eidolon

   After groggily reading this, and receiving a hypo from the cryo-recovery system, you begin to remember signing up for this mission, what must be nearly sixteen years ago now....

[Brian]

After being washed by the automated system, and then washing yourselves the old fashioned way, you're each given a clean jumpsuit and allowed to enter the quarantine chamber.  The room is basically circular, with doors lining the periphery.  If the 'north' door were to lead outside of the quarantine room, then the 'south' door leads to the kitchen and restroom.

The middle of the room has a large round table in it, with a bench that could seat perhaps thirty people comfortably, though at the moment, only Eric is there, staring blearily at a bulb of coffee.  The one-size-fits-all shirts apparently actually don't, as the shredded remnants of the upper half of his outfit suggest.  This does show off the dragon tatoo to stunning detail, though.

"Greetings," Hale's automated voice chimes softly.  "After fifteen hours of verification and blood tests, you will be released from this chamber, and the next cycle will begin.  Be advised, the Eidolon's anti-anti-anti-anti."  Sound shuts off for a long moment.

When Hale's voice returns, it's jarring, shifting tone mid-sylable, distorting the sounds nearly to unrecognizability.  It's chaotic to the extreme, but at the same time, almost musical in quality.  "Be advised, the Eidolon's anti-contaminant system has only been partially successful.  While background radiation has been confined to the dust system, the maintainence robots are unable to operate for -- reason unknown, logfile unavailible -- the maintainence robots are unable to operate for -- reason unknown, redundancy check failed, message terminates."

Another long pause, before, "Maintainence robots are not currently able to remove the dust elements.  Access to the majority of the ship is currently unavailible."  A much shorter pause.  "Your wake-up message failed to deliver for the following reasons: Hardware failure on main comm. array.  Records suggest that while the Eidolon was stopped to investigate -- ERROR ERROR ERROR--" a brief squeal of static sounds, here, "we stopped to investigate -- unknown phenomenon -- EVA repairs were being performed on the PPC/tightbeam communications array.  Short-range radio will not answer for another: two, hundred and, fifty, three, years.  Fatline currently not availible due to: reason unknown."

After a pause, Hale speaks again, this time with an almost normal, human voice.  "I am pleased to announce that the ship is currently running at 72% efficiency."

Eric grunts at this, and sucks on his coffee bulb, grimacing at the taste.

[Rezantis]

Kieran walks unsteadily into the lounge and seats himself heavily at the bench, not as yet acknowledging anyone else's presence.  Hell, the way he looks, maybe he hasn't noticed.

"Hale, what other damage is there, aside from the lingering radiation and communications?" the bleary-looking angel demands.

[Bjorn]

One of the reasons that Finn was chosen for the Eidolon mission was a surprising ability to recover from the side-effects of cryostasis.  By the time she's reached the quarantine room, she's feeling as good as anyone can -- given the circumstances.

"Two hundred and fifty light-years from home?" she says, as if to herself. Her face is somber as she walks over to get herself a cup of coffee.  "Those ain't good odds."

Wonder if we're still in the bubble?  Because it sounds like I'll need to be walkin' some repairs sooner.

[Brian]

Hale processes this request for a moment before answering, "Port and fore sensory arrays are at one half efficiency.  Sections of the ship specifically near the outer hull are not currently safe.  The comm array has been damaged.  The integrated systems operand is currently running at an efficiency level rated: poor."

There's a pause, while Eric blinks a bit, peering up at the speaker grilles.

"It is suggested that the integrated systems operand be taken offline and recompiled," Hale says after a moment.  "Due to the following-- following-- following-- foll--"  Sound shuts off with a crackle of static.  "Due to various circumstances," Hale completes a few moments later.  "Maintainence robots can finish the external decontamination, if repaired properly.  The replacement PPC module is currently still in the: port airlock.  It is advisable that this repair is done immed-- immed-- immed--  as soon as possible."

There is another pause.  "One of the maintainence robots is designed to work outside the ship.  If this can be recovered and repaired, it can be used to examine sensory arrays and determine which repairs are possible for the sensory array."

"We are in a braking trajectory?" Eric asks cautiously.

"Affirmative.  At the current rate of deceleration we will be in orbit around our destination in:  Four days, and seventeen hours.  Note: it is highly inadvisable to take the integrated systems operand offline until this manuever is complete."

"Lovely," Eric growls, crushing the empty coffee bulb flat and flinging the remains directly into the waste receptacle near the dispenser.

[Dracos]

Kelly managed to retain some level of dignity when heading to the table, even if not having the experience of Finn, rubbing his temples to try and get rid of the simply massive headache he had.  Sitting down he shook his head for a moment, trying to focus. "Hale, can you run a passive scan over your compilation and give an analysis on the extent of the damage to your subroutines, particularly focused on which serious and critical level functionality has been damaged?"

Dracos

[Rezantis]

Kieran mutters something inaudible after 'Hale' finishes listing the damage, and goes to get some coffee for himself.

[Bjorn]

"How many ovver people are already awake?" Finn interjects suddenly, looking up towards the source of Hale's voice.

[Brian]

"System operations are fully functional," Hale reports after a moment.  "Communications subroutines are not completely functional."  A beep sounds from the small locker in Kelly's cryopod.  "Outputting results of test to log."

After Finn asks her question, Hale says, "You are the first five of fifteen planned revivals."

[Bjorn]

Finn frowns.  We're first?  Okay, most of that makes sense.  Need a programmer to vet the sysop, someone to get internals back on line, li'l ol' me to do the EVA, an' Mr. Talks-a-lot to use what I fix.  Eric's for... I guess the dust is stuck in the pipes.

She sits at the table, fingers twitching.   Too bad I don't have a deck on me, she muses.

"Well," she says aloud, "this is fun."

[Brian]

Eric grunts, going to the personal locket on his own cryopod and retrieving a gray patternless shirt that fits him.  Once it's on, he says, "We've got to be watched for sixteen hours before we can be released from quarantine.  Hale, are there any archived communications from before the accident?"

"Yes, Crewman Eric," Hale responds after a moment.  "You have: two messages."

Eric nods thoughtfully, taking a seat at the table and pressing a button which causes a screen to pop up from the flat surface before him. "What about general messages from Congress to the entire crew?" he asks.

"The archive listings of all such messages is availible from your personal message box," Hale reports.  "Be advised that according to record, Captain Kim ordered several of these messages to be destroyed."

"Huh," Eric muses with a frown.  "He didn't stutter."

[Bjorn]

Tossing off the last of her coffee, Finn looks up towards Hale's voice again.   "So who's Captain now?" she asks.

[Brian]

"The current highest ranking Congressional officer is: Albert Riley," Hale offers.

Eric blinks, and peers at Albert for a while after this, then shakes his head and goes to check his messages on the screen before him.

[Bjorn]

"That's ducky," Finn says, grinning at Albert.  "Looks like ya get t' save anovver ship, eh, Cap'n?"

Getting up and ambling towards her personal locker, Finn asks, "Is the reason Kim was trashing our mail on record, Hale?"

[Brian]

Hale appears to need some time to think about this.  "No records have been found offering an explanation," the voice comes after a while.  "I theorize that the captain may have thought the messages were irrelevant, and deleted them to save space for other data."