003: On the Road to Aki

[Tiglath]

Roscoe looked at the rest. “With this added to what was done to us, I think we are in more peril than we can imagine. If anyone finds out the full scope—or even some of it—we will be hunted across the width and breadth of Charted Space. I don’t even know the specifics of what was done and I can see that. What do we do?”

Garvin replies "We do what you do if you don't want to get caught - don't come to notice an' if you do 'ave a cover story. I made a career out of it an' Arkar's no slouch neither. Jaelah's right we just keep at the bounty game with maybe a sideline in trading - both physical and stock markets. We'll need a business front - otherwise, while we're impervious to the Imperial Navy, we'll get rumbled by the taxman. We're flush for cash an' in the criminal game bein' rich allows you to some'ow not actually be a criminal anymore an' instead become... a respectable "pillar of the community". I think we can 'ide in plain sight well enough".

[terrymixon]

Walt-
”Then maybe we trade this site for freedom and go leave the sector for a while? There’s lots of cool places out there.”

“Doable, I’m sure,” Roscoe said, “but Madam Treegsrden isn’t stupid and she knows this ship better than anyone. A glance will tell her it’s twice as big as when she owned it. If we want to keep her from impounding it—and us—we’ll have to convinced her the ultimate payoff is more than what she is losing. We can downplay what we have, but she will want to see this base before anything else and I’m willing to wager she will want us there with her. The base is worth it, but we will have to convince her to turn a blind eye to us.

“As for running, I like the Imperium. I don’t want to burn out bridges if we don’t have to. We need to admit to hanging some things, but not so much that she can’t justify turning a blind eye.”

[ateno]

everyone's been busy...

"I got a couple ideas, first, do we tell Treegarden of what's happened, not anytime soon if I have anything to say. I'm not saying that shes a bad seed, but her loyalties and ares are not the same.

Can the holographic program make our ship look like our old one? That way we can still jump in and out without a visual problem.

Speaking of the ship, do we need annual maintenance?

We can never trade for freedom, that never works.

Also, can someone give psionic training, I want to know if I can turn invisible or fly."

Arkar

[Thumper]

”Ooh, good questions Arkar. Roscoe, Bills, Metz: would it be possible to create patterns of all the parts the ship WG or maintenance and create the bots sufficient to do our own?

I suppose I’m the closest thing to a psi expert. Never trained anyone. I suppose I could try teaching how I was taught. Metz, might have some insight as well.

Perhaps always keeping the ship at roads with the holo on, might we be able to fool people about the size and shape? I suppose we’d have to be consistent everywhere we went and never pull into a dock.

Spitballing here.”

[helvorn]

William is blown away by all of this to say the least. "If we are the Ancients now can we access the base computer to find out more of the history and why they fell apart. Can we do a genetic analysis of the dead humans? Is there anything left of their memories we can salvage?" He ate heartily with the rest. "I wonder if there are any training modules in the base we can access to better understand what is going on here. We need to think carefully about how we turn this over to our patrons. It probably warrants cutting the cord on any debt. Also we need to take care of Mad Dogs killers."

I will take nausea for the endurance bump

I will take the forward of the two staterooms right off of the lounge

[terrymixon]

Walt-
”Then maybe we trade this site for freedom and go leave the sector for a while? There’s lots of cool places out there.”

“Doable, I’m sure,” Roscoe said, “but Madam Treegsrden isn’t stupid and she knows this ship better than anyone. A glance will tell her it’s twice as big as when she owned it. If we want to keep her from impounding it—and us—we’ll have to convinced her the ultimate payoff is more than what she is losing. We can downplay what we have, but she will want to see this base before anything else and I’m willing to wager she will want us there with her. The base is worth it, but we will have to convince her to turn a blind eye to us.

“As for running, I like the Imperium. I don’t want to burn out bridges if we don’t have to. We need to admit to having some things, but not so much that she can’t justify turning a blind eye.”

“I believe I was imprecise,” Bilis said. “The ship can change shape now, inside as well as out. It can also shrink though the weight would not change. It can reconfigure itself to look exactly as Madam Treegarden expects. Even the drives and power plants.

“The Ancients used three basic building materials for most things. Inert, formable, and malleable. Inert is whatever shape it is made from then on. Formable has some ability to change along preprogrammed lines. Like the table you found for eating could make a bowl and extrude utensils. Malleable can freely change form while retaining capability. This ship can become a silver ovoid of Ancients design. It can be the ship you see now. It can shrink as well, though the cargo aboard would make that problematic unless we move some of it to this supposed new storage space.

“As that is aboard this ship, and we do not know what is on the other side, I recommend a reconnaissance as soon as practical. Perhaps even before exploring the base further, although the engineering robots discovered a little more to the base that has not been explored. It’s on the same level as the bay where the ship currently sits, so we should at least look inside it.”

[terrymixon]

everyone's been busy...

"I got a couple ideas, first, do we tell Treegarden of what's happened, not anytime soon if I have anything to say. I'm not saying that shes a bad seed, but her loyalties and ares are not the same.

Can the holographic program make our ship look like our old one? That way we can still jump in and out without a visual problem.

Speaking of the ship, do we need annual maintenance?

We can never trade for freedom, that never works.

Also, can someone give psionic training, I want to know if I can turn invisible or fly."

Arkar

“The holographic hull cannot but the shape changing ability can. We do not need annual maintenance any longer. I everything is self repairing and only damage will need to be addressed.”

[terrymixon]

William is blown away by all of this to say the least. "If we are the Ancients now can we access the base computer to find out more of the history and why they fell apart. Can we do a genetic analysis of the dead humans? Is there anything left of their memories we can salvage?" He ate heartily with the rest. "I wonder if there are any training modules in the base we can access to better understand what is going on here. We need to think carefully about how we turn this over to our patrons. It probably warrants cutting the cord on any debt. Also we need to take care of Mad Dogs killers."

“Unknown,” Bils said. “It may be possible but until you attempt to interface with and use the equipment, I cannot say.”

I will take nausea for the endurance bump

I will take the forward of the two staterooms right off of the lounge

So noted.

[terrymixon]

”Ooh, good questions Arkar. Roscoe, Bills, Metz: would it be possible to create patterns of all the parts the ship WG or maintenance and create the bots sufficient to do our own?

I suppose I’m the closest thing to a psi expert. Never trained anyone. I suppose I could try teaching how I was taught. Metz, might have some insight as well.

Perhaps always keeping the ship at roads with the holo on, might we be able to fool people about the size and shape? I suppose we’d have to be consistent everywhere we went and never pull into a dock.

Spitballing here.”

As far as psionic training, no, Walt cannot. He has a few level 0 skills and that’s it. You’ll need someone more skilled for structured training.

[terrymixon]

Walt-
”Then maybe we trade this site for freedom and go leave the sector for a while? There’s lots of cool places out there.”

“Doable, I’m sure,” Roscoe said, “but Madam Treegsrden isn’t stupid and she knows this ship better than anyone. A glance will tell her it’s twice as big as when she owned it. If we want to keep her from impounding it—and us—we’ll have to convinced her the ultimate payoff is more than what she is losing. We can downplay what we have, but she will want to see this base before anything else and I’m willing to wager she will want us there with her. The base is worth it, but we will have to convince her to turn a blind eye to us.

“As for running, I like the Imperium. I don’t want to burn out bridges if we don’t have to. We need to admit to having some things, but not so much that she can’t justify turning a blind eye.”

“I believe I was imprecise,” Bilis said. “The ship can change shape now, inside as well as out. It can also shrink though the weight would not change. It can reconfigure itself to look exactly as Madam Treegarden expects. Even the drives and power plants.

“The Ancients used three basic building materials for most things. Inert, formable, and malleable. Inert is whatever shape it is made from then on. Formable has some ability to change along preprogrammed lines. Like the table you found for eating could make a bowl and extrude utensils. Malleable can freely change form while retaining capability. This ship can become a silver ovoid of Ancients design. It can be the ship you see now. It can shrink as well, though the cargo aboard would make that problematic unless we move some of it to this supposed new storage space.

“As that is aboard this ship, and we do not know what is on the other side, I recommend a reconnaissance as soon as practical. Perhaps even before exploring the base further, although the engineering robots discovered a little more to the base that has not been explored. It’s on the same level as the bay where the ship currently sits, so we should at least look inside it.”

I added a prompt for potential character action after I posted this, so I’m replying to it so someone can make a decision and “press the button.”

[Thumper]

Growler looks around the table and says, “What the Hell. I’ll go give this teleporting television a look. Roscoe, can we put some droids toward the effort?”

He’d try seeing through the teleporter with Clairvoyance, not knowing how it works in teleport.he’d also try telekinetically carrying a scrap of metal through and back again.

Putting a stick in and out. A rope. A camera (bug) recording on an the stick…

[Tiglath]

Garvin introduces himself to Bilis " 'Ullo treacle, Garvin. Sorry you 'ad to undergo a "mind ride" like the rest of us. You know if you really want to 'ave a body there's goin' to be a way because... perhaps I'm still retainin' some humanity 'ere because I find this scary... because we are a "new pantheon". Broadly you clone Roscoe then... er... swap 'eads. Metz would explain it better. Our powers are apparently as limitless as they are... ruddy terrifyin'. Practicalities fist though if we're goin' explorin' "through the wardrobe", eh?" He empties a carry all containing all his glove weapons "Right, all these and the disintegrator - put 'em all together into one glove weapon. Triple the ampage on the stun damage. Then I want you to make a micro monotasked fabricator: all it does is reforge mono edged throwin' knives. I want it to be as near as small as a knife's sheath as you can make it". He shrugs "Or simply make knives so thin that I can throw and carry plenty. Then do a pair so I can wear 'em like this rig". He demonstrates his twin throwing knife "shoulder holster" holding paired throwing knives echeloned over his left ribs. He grins "Maybe "runnin' out of knives" is the first mundane problem the newly ascended can fix?"

As an afterthought he adds "Oh an' give it all the ability to be invisible if not undetectable while yer on".

(OOC: Just a catch up on the last request. Combo all the options (now with neural jack control interface) plus the monoblade/edge option then add the disintegrator and dip it in the "chameleon hull" sauce to finish. Pop in the oven at Gas Mark five for a nanosecond and serve when golden brown/invisible

More than happy to dig all the references out again but given the current level of kit we have the option seems very much a "mere bagatelle").

[ateno]

"With all the advantages we have and it sounds like we don't have to do annual maintenance again, I think we should gather what we can and cover our tracks with the other two we started out chasing, hell they might be here already while we were rolling around in the bunk."

Arkar

[terrymixon]

Garvin introduces himself to Bilis " 'Ullo treacle, Garvin. Sorry you 'ad to undergo a "mind ride" like the rest of us. You know if you really want to 'ave a body there's goin' to be a way because... perhaps I'm still retainin' some humanity 'ere because I find this scary... because we are a "new pantheon". Broadly you clone Roscoe then... er... swap 'eads. Metz would explain it better. Our powers are apparently as limitless as they are... ruddy terrifyin'. Practicalities fist though if we're goin' explorin' "through the wardrobe", eh?" He empties a carry all containing all his glove weapons "Right, all these and the disintegrator - put 'em all together into one glove weapon. Triple the ampage on the stun damage. Then I want you to make a micro monotasked fabricator: all it does is reforge mono edged throwin' knives. I want it to be as near as small as a knife's sheath as you can make it". He shrugs "Or simply make knives so thin that I can throw and carry plenty. Then do a pair so I can wear 'em like this rig". He demonstrates his twin throwing knife "shoulder holster" holding paired throwing knives echeloned over his left ribs. He grins "Maybe "runnin' out of knives" is the first mundane problem the newly ascended can fix?"

As an afterthought he adds "Oh an' give it all the ability to be invisible if not undetectable while yer on".

"I will be pleased to make this for you." Less than a minute later, it is ready for pickup in Metz's lab.

(OOC: Just a catch up on the last request. Combo all the options (now with neural jack control interface) plus the monoblade/edge option then add the disintegrator and dip it in the "chameleon hull" sauce to finish. Pop in the oven at Gas Mark five for a nanosecond and serve when golden brown/invisible

More than happy to dig all the references out again but given the current level of kit we have the option seems very much a "mere bagatelle").

Write it up a little cleaner and I'll add it to your character sheet because I'll forget everything.

[terrymixon]

"With all the advantages we have and it sounds like we don't have to do annual maintenance again, I think we should gather what we can and cover our tracks with the other two we started out chasing, hell they might be here already while we were rolling around in the bunk."

Arkar

"The odds of them sneaking past the destroyer escort are significantly worse than they were for us," Roscoe said. "While little is truly impossible, I don't believe they could have talked a freighter captain to risk getting his ship impounded for this. I suspect they went directly to Aki. They may or may not still be there if they were enroute to a different destination."

[terrymixon]

Growler looks around the table and says, “What the Hell. I’ll go give this teleporting television a look. Roscoe, can we put some droids toward the effort?”

"Of course. I will have spybots standing by."

He’d try seeing through the teleporter with Clairvoyance, not knowing how it works in teleport.he’d also try telekinetically carrying a scrap of metal through and back again.

Putting a stick in and out. A rope. A camera (bug) recording on an the stick…

As you can see through an active teleportal and can fly spybots in to look around, you don't really need a stick and a rope.

Anyone present in the packed cargo bay will want to be in vacc suits for this as no one knows the conditions on the other side for sure. Roscoe insists because simply because one teleportal held the air in from the vacuum doesn't mean you should count on that when exploring something new.

To get to the teleportal, some of the cargo has to be moved a bit. This is where some tools salvaged from one of the base's teleportal rooms comes in handy. The devices have two handles at the top of an impossibly fragile looking--but very strong--frame which ends in a short projection. Gripping the handles activates a grav support field and causes the base plate to extend to any distance up to 3.6 meters.

These are, essentially, gravitic wheelbarrow/forklifts. The base plate will raise and lower once the controls are figured out, enabling heavy objects to be carried with relative ease. However, whilst the grav field lifts, the object carried still has inertia. Control can be tricky, and a certain amount of physical strength is required. You all have that covered.

One was brought aboard by the engineering droids and copies made. They will allow you to rearrange the stacks enough to get access to the teleportal.

Roscoe looks back over the cargo toward the engineering area. "This is a lot of cargo space. More than I had suspected. The drives and power plants take up a ridiculously small area. I can't imagine how it works at all, much less allows this ship to outrun and outfight a warship."

"There is no powerplant," Bilis said. "There is a teleportal that brings in power and fuel for the drives. It does not work in jumpspace--just as this one will not--but the teleportal retains more than enough power for the ship while in jump. It's a battery, too, I suppose. It isn't like the ship will require vast power while in jump. While out of jump, it is a limitless source of energy and fuel."

"I suppose it works or they wouldn't use it," he said with a shrug. "It looks like approximately 520 tons of cargo space. I can't imagine how that being thought I would need more."

"You had mentioned you wanted more cargo space on the previous iteration of this ship, so I passed that along. What the being did to address that concern was outside the scope of me trying to get this ship the way you would want."

"No argument, Bilis. Thank you."

When the cargo is moved enough and everyone is ready, Walt "presses the button" and the teleportal shimmers for a moment and then opens into a dark space. Moments later, overhead lights come on revealing a vast--and I mean VAST--circular chamber. It is empty of contents and seems to have a teleportal to the right and on the far side. A large door is on the left. All are equidistant from one another.

The spybots will head in, though that seems unnecessary as you can see every meter of the vast chamber. Roscoe will step inside. "There is atmosphere and temperature sufficient to support us. It reads as habitable. I have difficulty believing this is on the moon, and I believe it will far exceed any need for cargo space I might dream up. I would need to measure the chamber more precisely, but I believe it could hold in excess of 30,000 tons of cargo. I believe this might be in the encyclopedia under overkill. Depending on where the other teleportals go, and what is on the other side of that door, this is going to be an interesting addition to our options."

Trust me when I say there are little red bits for teleportals on the north, south, and east side of the circle and a large white door on the west side.

Go see it and the updated ship deck plans at:

viewtopic.php?p=709222#p709222

You might need to hit CNRL+F5 to force a refresh.

[joertexas]

The spybots will head in, though that seems unnecessary as you can see every meter of the vast chamber. Roscoe will step inside. "There is atmosphere and temperature sufficient to support us. It reads as habitable. I have difficulty believing this is on the moon, and I believe it will far exceed any need for cargo space I might dream up. I would need to measure the chamber more precisely, but I believe it could hold in excess of 30,000 tons of cargo. I believe this might be in the encyclopedia under overkill. Depending on where the other teleportals go, and what is on the other side of that door, this is going to be an interesting addition to our options."

Jaelah whistles softly. "Okay, so how would we get to this space if we're not aboard the ship, or do we not have to worry about that?"

[ateno]

"The odds of them sneaking past the destroyer escort are significantly worse than they were for us," Roscoe said. "While little is truly impossible, I don't believe they could have talked a freighter captain to risk getting his ship impounded for this. I suspect they went directly to Aki. They may or may not still be there if they were enroute to a different destination."

"Well when the gear heads and snipes get done with their new playtoys, that should be first priority."

So if I catch this right, we are modifying into ancients, we have a high tl fabber that will make what we want, huge storage, and no idea of our jump capacity. We are burnt with the imperium, no matter how nice or generous we are. WE need to cover our tracks and skedaddle.

Arkar

[terrymixon]

The spybots will head in, though that seems unnecessary as you can see every meter of the vast chamber. Roscoe will step inside. "There is atmosphere and temperature sufficient to support us. It reads as habitable. I have difficulty believing this is on the moon, and I believe it will far exceed any need for cargo space I might dream up. I would need to measure the chamber more precisely, but I believe it could hold in excess of 30,000 tons of cargo. I believe this might be in the encyclopedia under overkill. Depending on where the other teleportals go, and what is on the other side of that door, this is going to be an interesting addition to our options."

Jaelah whistles softly. "Okay, so how would we get to this space if we're not aboard the ship, or do we not have to worry about that?"

“The teleportals are created as a matched pair,” Bilis said. “The being said that they were perhaps the greatest creation of the Ancients as distance is not a factor once the pair is operational, though the halves have to be physically taken where you want to go the first time.”

Roscoe nodded. “That explains the location of the derelict asteroid linked to the base. I thought my estimates of its location were wrong, but perhaps not. The star locations seemed to indicate that it was several thousand parsecs on the other side of the Solomani Rim. And I went there in an instant. Can we make our own teleportals, Bilis?”

“I cannot, as I do not know how they are created linked. It may be possible to do so if we find a linked pair together, though I believe that might not work as multiple gates wanting to use the same settings would likely cause problems or make them all fail to work.”

[Thumper]

Walt lets out a “oh my gosh” whistle. He activates the intercom and plays “Smuggler’s Blues” by the Eagles.Yes, 80s rock is eternal and of universal appeal. I’m still convinced that when humans travel the stars, they will listen to Classic Rock and watch Classic Comedy.

He steps in to join Roscoe and walks first to the door while examining the smugglers hold from the inside. Looking around to see if there’s any objection. If none, then he opens it.