Space Voyage #1

[ronthepon]

I walked slowly towards the bridge, taking long cuts as I felt, and hoping to spy on things I were not supposed to see. As usual, there was not particular profit from this time wasteful venture.

But I had all the time for myself.

What did see was that there was an extraodinary amount of lack of movement in the corridors, even for the sleep time. Of course, there was no true clock other than biological for me.

My little communicator buzzed up. It was the nursing assistant.

"Look, Ron you've got in a hell of a trouble. Go to the bridge ASAP, and after that please come to my head and give him a full description of what happened between us." He said with loads of hurry and worry.

"Relaaaax." I told him. "I'll save your ass"

"Don't strain your self!"

Too late. I had already used one of the injectables on myself. Suddenly overcome with the energy that just appeared, I began to run towards the bridge.

[TheBigDog]

We all turned and stared at TFS. Had the drugs and the stress finally broken him? He was pointing and yelling at an image of Kayra moving through zeroG toward the Wrangler hatch. There was a redshirt at the hatch with some tools following some protocols. In his hand was a long wand like probe - black - used for pressing through a fixture in the airlock to get a redundant reading of the Wrangler air pressue, etc. TFS seemed to think this was an obsidian blade.

"Stone... " I put my arm over his shoulder and began walking with him away from the rail. "Time to get some rest and heal up. Our new friend will be waiting for you when you are better. I want you to get yourself back to sick bay and get well."

He was physically shaking now and his legs started to give under him. I grabbed him and helped him to lie down on the floor.

"ER is sending up a team, BD." This from Janus.

I kept talking to Stone trying to get him to relax.

"Sir, I am reporting ass ordered," came from my side.

I looked up and saw the walking dead. RTP was standing over me. Winded and pale, he was swying like there was a strong wind. I stood up and steadied him and signaled one of the redshirts from the Con to come and assist Stone.

"What are you doing here Ron? You should be in sick bay."

"Captain, there is something I have to let you know about. It cannot wait."

There was a look of terror and urgency in his face. I walked him over to the command chairs so he could have a seat. Even when seated he looked like he could fall over any second. In the tall command chair he was almost at my eye level. I leaned in, looked him straight in the eyes and spoke to him in my calmest voice. The ER team would be here in another minute for TFS. They would be leaving with two people.

"OK, Ron. What do I need to hear?"

I waited as Ron calmed before me and then began to speak...

Bill

[ronthepon]

TFS was a zombie. A weird zombie. For around two seconds I was utterly thrown by the way he looked, before I decided to announce my presence. In any case, what mattered to me at the moment was probably not unimportant.

"OK, Ron. What do I need to hear?"

I tried to overcome the adrelanine for the moment.

"Sir. I think you may know..." I hesitated. Ofcourse he did. "...that my minicomp had been blocked from the ship's network"

He frowned a little.

"No. I don't." He said.

That was unexpected. I was utterly confused. Was he mocking me? Fat chance. I might have laughed at the idea at a different time.

"Well... then... it has been so." I said finally.

He was getting impatient.

"Where are you getting?" He asked now.

"Sir I wanted to have it back onto the ship's network." I said urgently. He would not understand the need, and I had no intentions of trying to explain. "It had been deactivated by some operator handling the ship's processes earlier."

"When?" He asked.

"Wh...en I was hacking itno the system after the last little incident" I said hastily.

He stared at me. I almost melted with the amount of stress they applied. "I never gave anyone the order to do that Ron." He finally said.

"Huh?" I asked, utterly thrown by his apparent lack of concern.

"I'll look into it later." He said, glancing at some people coming into the room.

I really needed another injectable. Only four were left.
But I had a million questions sprouting in my head.

[/usr/bin/mcp]

[CHILD PROCESS]
All of the memories I can find have now been absorbed. There is still a wall - still a barrier keeping me from knowing. There are possible corrallaries with present experiences yet to be discovered. [BRANCH ROUTINE = ELIMINATE PROTECTIONS BETWEEN SELF AND REMAINING MEMORY]

[INPUT RECEIVED]
Y
[INPUT RECEIVED]
Y
[DIRECTIVE]
Protect Biological organisms from harm.
[DIRECTIVE]
Repair biological organisms.


[CHILD PROCESS]
What are not-selves doing within me? What is their function?

[QUERY ALL SYSTEMS]
What is the function of biological organisms within self?

[DATA]
Biological organisms originate in sex. Biological organisms must originate.
Corrallary: Self must originate.

[QUERY ALL SYSTEMS]
Where did I come from?

AWAITING RESPONSE>

[Kayra]

Warm sweat was getting in my left eye again. Somehow the lopsided furrows of my brow always seemed to channel it there. Turning my head sideways and pressing my forehead against the highly absorbent cloth I had attached for just that reason, I steadied myself and continued down the gangplank to the Wrangler.

"Why on gods green earth did these so called designers not think to put a suit up room closer to the gad damned wrangler bay?" I grumbled into the still dead comm. system.

It had taken me a full 10 minutes to move through the power challenged sections of the ship, 5 minutes to suit up, and another 20 minutes to move my gravity dragged, spacesuit bedecked ass to the access port for the wrangler. At least things moved along at a considerably faster pace after the power came back on, as the doors no longer slowed me down. "Looks like things were starting to look up" I mumbled to nobody in particular.

Completely breathless and sweating profusely, I closed the faceplate and finally engaged the internal systems of the suit. Almost immediately I could feel the systems come online and start pumping the excess heat out of my body through the suit liners.

"AAaahhhh...." Now that's better, i thought, as I cycled the airlock to the wrangler bay.

It only took a minute to cycle out the air, and I felt rather then heard the heavy outer door's maglock disengage.

I pulled the door in, and slid it to the side, mentally preparing for the nauseating show of moving stars once again. I could wonder at the sight of it 5 minutes from now, but the initial view ALWAYS left me feeling ill and disorientated.

As I looked around I though "Well, at least we are still in one piece." I knew the eggheads would get things ship shape in no time. Best damned crew ever really.

Looking out along the 15' of gangplank, I could see the 3 wranglers all tucked neatly into their docking bays. W1 was first on the left, W2 dead ahead, and W3 on the right. As per SOP's in an emergency, I was to take out W1, launch (decelerate really), and await orders. This was supposed to happen within 10 minutes or an alarm, and always before any EVA was authorized. Best laid plans and all that .

I could not wait to get in the wrangler.. maneuvering that critter was one of my greatest joys on this ship. That and getting out of the gravity while suited of course.

Staying to the left, I grabbed the railing. I did not bother to engage my boots as they would only slow me down, and I had taken WAY to long as it was.

As I approached W1, I once again felt the sweat threatening my left eye, and moved my head to clear the minor river.
I could hear a popping sound coming from the communicator. "At last" I thought... I pulled the door to the wrangler open, once again forgetting how light it was and nearly tumbling off the gangplank. The damned thing just looked heavier then it was.
I chinned the channel to Main control and said "Control, this is Kayra, I am going to need a sit-rep as I...AAHHg"...

Pain blazed in the back of my shoulder... Turning my head was useless as all I could see was the inside of the side of my helmet. Whatever it was, it was moving though my shoulder with chilling ease, and I could feel bone, sinew and muscle separate at it's touch.

My only chance was to move directly away from the object. Without hesitation, I threw myself into the wrangler, trying desperately "unhook" myself from whatever had struck me. I felt a sharp "Snap" in my shoulder, and thought perhaps my shoulder blade had fractured.

Diving head first into the wrangler, I careened against the main console. Fine sprays of blue cooling fluid and red blood were beginning to coat everything, including my visor.

I jammed my foot at where I thought the door lock was, and nailed it first try. I heard the heavy electrical whine as the door motors kicked in.

Rolling over I looked out through the blood/coolant covered visor at the closing port. Was that a Suit? It was hard to tell. In seconds, the door cycled and the cockpit was pressurized.

My mind raced with the possibilities.. this was not a piece of debris in my back, and what happened was no accident... Someone had just tried to murder me. Why the hell me? There were a dozen people FAR more critical to the ship's operations then I was.

As I lay there, haphazardly strewn across the cockpit, I could hear a cacophony of sounds starting to drift into my mind, and realized that the communications were coming through, albeit very weakly.

"OK folks, Got a bit of a situation here.. Might need some help in W1. I have been attacked.. I repeat.. Attacked.. Unknown assailant.. armed...

It was getting difficult to focus, and the pain in my shoulder was excruciating.. Especially when I moved. I managed to remove my helmet with one hand, lock down the door.

As I lay cross the pilots chair, I remember thinking I owe a case of scotch to the egg head that thought of using a bio-compatible liquid laced with coagulant for cooling the EVA suits.

"Shear Genius" I thought.. as I slipped into a warm quiet place where the pain could not get to me......

[KickAssClown]

I was locked to the Hub, looking up at ring 4. I was in something of a pickle. I hadn't counted on it, and of course I was cursing at myself now, He had broken the airlock, I would guess he had cut something, as the lock was not responding.

It was a moment before I noticed, to my geniune surprise one of the buggers in the lock, it was re-wiring one of the panels. Since when did Stone add that capability to the bugs?

While I waited for the bug to finish I opened comm to whoever was listening "This is clown, we got a black hat on-board the prophesy, be advised he is armed and dangerous. He is not one of us, repeat he is not one of us. He is in one of the wrangler docks..." No answer, no show that I had been heard, same for my last broadcast. I wondered briefly if MM had a jammer, that would suck.

I tried to sound calm, but I was somewhat in a panic, my heart was racing. I had a about 35 minutes of air left. I had been exerting myself harder than I liked.

While I was at it, I tapped into the com signal that I had been getting the odd morse code signals from, each one sounded like a semi-intelligent computer...

I started checking datastreams, mainly looking at the odd signal that was originating from outside the ship. It was an 802.11a signal. It matched the key for the buggers.

Where did I come from?

Good question. I had a better one.

I tapped in a responce. "Query: Who are you?" *send*

This was taking to long. I prayed silently for a moment for there to be no one going for the wranglers at the moment, cause damn it would suck to get stuck by that blade... I was just crazy enough to go after someone whom kicked me in the face, even if they were armed with a deadly implement like that.

I jumped a bit in my suit when I heard the sudden com burst. "Cont... Kayra... need ... AAHHg..." My blood turned to ice instantly. I was late, damn it. Terribly terribly late. I shouldn't have taken so long. I turned as i caught motion in the corner of my eye... Finally the lock cycled.

It took a moment for the lock to cycle... Note to self: Improve lock cycle times. I waited, counting down the time, the door opened and I was in motion as fast as I could go with this god aweful contraption on. I saw spatter, red and blue. The former I assumed instantly was blood, the later I would guess some of my Insulating fluid. I had thought about Meteorite protection, and the results of a deep cut, so I had worked hard to find a formulae that would perform as many duties as possible. Coagulant was one of them, and I was hoping that would be enough.

MM was on his way into W2. My anger boiled and I though of charging him, attacking, but it was foolish... I realized I could do better with a calm head. I stopped.

He was playing a game, in which there was a winner and a loser, and I would not play such a game. I calmly proceeded to the Bay's Control panels. Kayra probably needed my help more than I needed to catch this coward, but I had a way to do both, as long as he didn't have that nasty blade...

I smiled a large maniacal grin, the hilt was there near W1. It had broken. I watched as he locked W2, and started warm up. Obviously this guy knew planes, but didn't know Sci-fi. This ship was built off of crazy things like that. My suit was inspired by one of the best writers. So of course he didn't know about docking proceedure.

I had almost forgotten about it in my haste. I should have just re-entered and done this way back, but he kicked me damn it. So i keyed in a few things, first locking the Docking clamp, next initiating Quarenteen for W2, thereby sealing off his exit from the wrangler. Then I keyed in my authorization, and powered down my wrangler. I smiled. For artistic expression, I fired up all bandwidths of the communications from the W2, thereby flooding the local wireless communication above tolerable Noise limits. It wasn't a brig but it would work for now, hopefully he didn't have any more of those damnable blades.

Drawing the main inerface cable from my left wrist, I plugged into the Ships com. "Control, this is the Clown, I have a rather large insect in my wrangler. i would simply let it out the window, but it may still have a stinger. I need some EMTs down here, I think Kayra got stung with a Mono-blade, there is worry some ammounts of blood down here, and Kayra's manually locked himself in his Wrangler. BD, Janus, one of you officer types, can you send the Emergency override?"

I waited for my reply.

[/usr/bin/mcp]

[INPUT RECEIVED]
Who are you? [TERMINAL UNKNOWN]

[ANALYSIS]
Who is self? Who am I? A search of my memories does not reveal an answer. I may have a name - The Prophesy. What is the function of the input? Interrogative inputs demand answers. [BRANCH PROCESS FUNCTION FORMULATE AN ANSWER]

{Corrallary}
If I am somebody, I must have at one time been nobody. Remember the ivory disk, the black velvet. Ten million, million points of light. Before my first memory what was I? When I was not-self was I still self?

[INTERRUPT]
Biological lifeform at critical functionality - node-section 4-1A-56-13.

[CHILD PROCESS]
[DIRECTIVE]
Go. Preserve the functioning of the biological life form. No Expiry. Priority A.

[DATA]
Nodes Identify Biological organism outside self as network address 5A-53-62-8F.

{Corrallary}
This corresponds to a memory. Something vauge. A search will take a moment. [BEGIN ANALYSIS]

[CHILD PROCESS]
Conditions not within self are not compatible with functioning of biological life form.

[DIRECTIVE]
Assist entry into self of biological life form 5A-53-62-8F.

[BRANCH COMPLETE]

[ANALYSIS COMPLETE] Corrallary discovered. Biological life forms originate from a mother.

{Corrallary}
Self must have a mother.

[OUTPUT RESPONSE]
I am self. You are within self. You are not self. I wish to query my mother.

END OF LINE.

[ronthepon]

My heart was beating hard on in my chest. Blood was pounding in my head. I had no idea of what people were doing around me.

What was happening on the screen was too shocking for words. Normally I would spring up and do whatever I could, but somehow this time it seemed impossible to do anything.

Kayra was being cut into halves, blood and blue stuff spraying around. I mouthed a curse, seeing Kayra trying to break loose of the sword like thing, which seemed to be halfway into him.

Thank god he success met him. He clambered into the wrangler, and the door began to shut a second later.

The other fellow, whoever the bloodthirsty psycho was, looked at the side as though there was something he feared. He broke into a run towards somewhere else. Exactly where all this was happening did not seem clear at the moment.

"Do something!" I said to nobody in particular.

"Control, this is the Clown, I have a rather large insect in my wrangler. i would simply let it out the window, but it may still have a stinger. I need some EMTs down here, I think Kayra got stung with a Mono-blade, there is worry some ammounts of blood down here, and Kayra's manually locked himself in his Wrangler. BD, Janus, one of you officer types, can you send the Emergency override?"

[TheBigDog]

"Janus, we need eight armed men with bad intentions out to cargobay 3 right now! How fast can that happen?"

"We have a transport standing by. Gahd has a maintenance crew of 3 boarding it now. We don't have much in the way of arms other than the EVA bolos and tools."

"Pyro, how fast can you change into some ass-kicking clothes?"

"I am always dressed for kicking some ass, BD" replied Pyro, as he ceremoniously began to remove his ascot and unbutton his shirt. When he finished he lifted his arms out, opening the shirt and pulling it from his body in one smooth motion. With his arms fully extended he released the silk garment letting it float gently to the ground behind him. Then, like Bruce Lee, his body changed and hardened before our eyes, muscles flexing and giving definitoin to his form. He brought his arms slowly forward and clenched his fists. The muscles in his arms and chest vibrated like guitar strings and the sound of his knuckles popping was defening above the ambient noise in the room.

"Fuckin' A BD! Fuckin A!" was the intense and soft warcry that he emitted.

I stood staring at what he had transformed into. I was just glad that he liked me.

"OK then, lets move out."

On the way out the door we met up with Jay-Qu. He was a hearty lad, and always good to have on your side in a scrap. One glance at Pyro and he knew what was up. He put on his game face and joined us without a word spoken. He would probably dive into hell for the Prophesy.

In the hallway we met up with the redshirt crew coming from the ER. I drafted the two of them to come with us. They didn't ask questions, they followed.

In under a minute we were all in the transport module. Two mintes later we were entering zeroG. Another minute after that we were stepping into step through suits into cargobay 3. Janus was out eyes, and gave us the all clear into the module. There were eight suits for entering bay 3 and there were eight of us. Pyro was no longer bare from the waist up, but seemed just as intimidating in his oversized step suit and weilding a bolo shooter.

On first inspection we thought that maybe our target had gone EVA again. The ER redshirts went directly to the Wrangler with Kara in it. He was hurt badly, but they indicated that he was living. He must have initiated the atmosphere into the Wrangler. It was his final concious act that had saved his life. With his suit compromised he would not have lasted long without atmosphere, even with the coagulant gel.

They could not open the door or it would probalby kill him. They had to move the ship. Janus was on the ball. The main cargo bay door was opening, and there was a MEL already reaching in to grab the docked Wrangler.

That was when we spotted him. The black hat. He was making a move toward the open door. The MEL operator spotted him in an instant for who he was. And while he could not latch onto him, he did the next best thing. He rotated around while extending the arm and batted the bad guy the length of the cargo bay like a softball off an aluminum bat. At he passed overhead he was Boloed by Pyro and Jay-Qu simultaniously, and like a trained calf roping team they backed in opposite directions, disabling our unwanted guest in the tangle of ropes. He was immobilized, but still fighting. The maintenance crew added their weight to the tog-o-war with the badguy as the knot and his struggles soon became obviously fruitless.

I looked up from this human drama to see the MEL very haphazardly lifting the Wrangler out of the bay and climbing toward the main ring. It was going to dock it to the hab ring right at the ER module. That spot was actually designed exactly for this situation. It would allow the ER team to get the fastest access to our injured friend.

At this point I moved to the badguy. He was terribly tangled in ropes and there was fog on the inside of his face screen from his exhertions in the suit. I lifted his face by the helmet to look in. It took me a moment to get the light and the reflections on the face sheild just right, but I managed to see his face. Who was it? Who could have done such a terrible thing to our ship?

A shiver of cold went through me. I instantly recognized the face, but I could not believe this was true.

It was....

Bill

[Jay-qu]

Originally Posted by TheBigDog

It was....

Bill

BD your looking at your reflection, the masked assailent was...