This Ship, Our Home

The bridge was empty and the crew had long since gone to bed. Lights shown from the fixtures at the intersection of the wall and the floor, bathing the world in a cold dim blue. Lights blinked on the terminals arranged around the bridge, and the Main screen showed stars lazily hanging in their patches of space. Aleah was comfortable, and alone.

The Kitchen and Commons rooms, too were deserted, and basked in blue. Aleah checked her internal chronometer; 6:58 AM. The Fabber units began to warm, and then to glow. Particles of light coalesced into cups, bowls and plates. Soon to follow, liquid filled the cups, steaming hot, and food began to appear on the plates.

In the Commons Room, Kitchen, and Bridge the lights began to rise. Though still a cool blue, somewhat brighter than before coming to full brightness. The chronometer internally clicked, time to wake the Captain.

The Captain's Quarters were messy, littered with accumulated junk and trophies and things the Captain did not wish to be rid of.. Clothes were everywhere, Aleah almost sighed. The Captain had a large deluxe bed. At its side a nightstand and a large gourd leaning against it. In the disheveled bed, lay Kuyatt, the Laughing Fox's erstwhile Captain. The blue lights came on in a low glow as Aleah spoke."The time is 7 AM, Captain, it is time to awake."

Kuyat waved a hand dismissively, as the low intensity lights began to rise in brightness. "I must insist you..." Kuyat covered his head. Red lights began to flash, as the ship's warning klaxon began began to blare. "Time to get up.”

Kuyat sat up quickly, eyes wide and jumped out of bed, as the sirens began to quiet down. “I have the night shift reports ready." Aleah said with an indifferent tone. Kuyat squinted as he looked about, and rubbed his eyes, Aleah added a sarcastic, "Captain."

The night shift report began as Kuyat wandered about his room getting dressed and ready for the day, until Aleah said something that caught his attention. "... At 4:30:21 AM, I detected the wreckage of a craft nearby. My scanners show that we can likely salvage and sell a good portion of it." Kuyat raised an eyebrow, and a voice sounded behind him.

The black fox was sitting on Kuyat's bed looking intently at him with her glowing crimson eyes. "It is time to report to the bridge."

----

OOS: alright, the new RP has begun, it is early morning and the crew should probably be just waking up. Unless you were up already. The sirens blaring were only inside the Captain's Quarters.

Breakfast is ready in the Kitchen as is the coffee (or juice, or milk). Pretty much take your pick. Aleah prepares meals as requested the previous days, so pretty much go with whatever you would want.

No one serves nightshift, as Aleah wants that time to herself.

Kuyat had got up and after rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, muttering about not getting any sleep. He was loking for a claen shirt and not generally listening to her, but when he heard about the wreakage he was fully awake then. He turned around when he heard the noise and looked at her, his eyes narrowing.

He saw her and folded his arms over his chest. She was telling what to do now, he thought. He shook his head, but did as she ordered. "You could have woke me up when you saw the bloody wreak, woman," Kuyat complained, getting his coffee and then heading for the bridge. "I would have rather had that. I mean I like my sleep, but have far have we gone from it?"

Kuyat then took a sip from his coffee and he made a face. "Bleh, this coffee is a bit strong, woman. Make it sweeter next time, eh?"

He walked into the Bridge and sat into his chair.

Nikki rolled up and compressed the yoga mat and stashed it back over her bunk
The storage shelve was built directly into the wall of her quarters, just as the bunk was. She glanced at the computer interface at her desk, 6:47 and no notifications. Not that the last part surprised her. Aleah would steer the ship through a blackhole in order to avoid a swarm of pirates with the fabled Bloodhorn at its lead and not think it necessary to inform the crew during the night watch.

She stepped into the adjoining bath area and into the shower. The cold water tickled down her dark fur as she rubbed the sweat from her morning routine out with the last of her soap. It was an exotic nonfabricated soap made from some sweet giant algae from Makara. Makara, she had read about it, seen holograms, but had yet to make it to that ocean world. It was on her list of places to visit, and its great leviathans on her list of creatures to see without getting eaten by.

Nikki finished rinsing, turned off the water, and stepped out. She dried herself with her preferred microfiber towel that would be ready to use again as soon as she placed it back on its rack. She grabbed her tool bag and datapad and exited into the comfortable blue hallway. The maglev was directly on her left, and she took it to the 1 deck.

It was 6:59, and no one else was around as she made her way to the mess hall and to the thoughtfully prepared breakfast that awaited her. A creamy cheese pastry with sweet, but strong coffee.

“Ouch.” Nikki said as she slurped to much hot coffee. She looked at the data pad, and it just turned to 7:00. Nikki sighed, she was early by a full 3 minutes that Aleah planned on letting the food cool.

She punched a button on the datapad to pull up the report for the nightshift while her food cooled.

Will’s quarters
07:00 hours and the alarm on his watch went off. Will turned around in his bed, trying to sleep further, then a 5 minutes later the alarm on his desk went off. The last one is to force him to get out of bed, which always has worked, since he went in service for the Department.

Getting up, he stretched like a dog, first the front legs, then the back legs and worked off his morning practice of 20 sit-ups, followed by 20 push-ups. Then a lovely shower. After that he dressed up in his military clothing and the time would be properly 07:45 hours, which was that his breakfast is ready in the kitchen. Just before Will left his quarters on deck 1 he took the datapad from his desk, placed it a pocket on his trousers and turned left and headed straight to the group room with kitchen section on the left side where he could take his morning breakfast from the Fabber. If you are wondering what Will’s breakfast is, it is Bacon and Eggs with coffee.
He took his plate, went to the nearest table, sat down, pulled out the datapad from his pocked and placed it on the table. While eating he read the report from his off-duties till 07:30 hours.

Upon the wreckage

It was quiet now, save for the gentle cracke of loose hanging wires. THe bodies of the crew and passengers lay scattered acroos the ship. Ally was exahsted as she sat cramped inside a reinforced conduit in the engine room. As flexible as she was, she'd been hiding there since just after 02:37 am, when the ship was attacked. Her joints were throbbing and parts of her extrimities were so numb she wondered if they'd falled off. Hot wires and fuses dug into her back and sides, the fur on her cheeks matted from silent tears of both pain and fear. As uncomfortable as the hiding spot was, she was thankful for the reinforced casing, for surely it was the only thing that had saved her from her attackers detecting her vitals. THe only problem now was she couldn't reopen it from the inside, and everyone else was dead. Her head felt heavy now. She tried to focus on anything to keep awake, even the awful scent of her own singed fur. But it was useless... the blackness overtook her and she slipped into unconsciousness.

As Kuyat sat down, the mainscreen shifted and shown a broken husk of a ship. Scoured and burnt, it had had a gaping hole in its engine section.

"I apologise for not waking you, Kuyat, but you know I enjoy my solitude." Her voice intoned calmly. "But, to answer your question, we are actually on an approach vector right now."

The Holo-Projector began to glow, and a3 dimensiaonal representation of the broken ship, cast in a flickering green, appeared. The Mainscreen itself began to show numbers, including ship speed and distance from the wreck.

"We should arrive within the next hour." "From this distance, my scanners detect that several sections of the ship have been sealed off and retain atmosphere. I detect no lifesigns, but it is difficult to tell at this distance."

Kuyat sifted in his chair taking another drink of his overly bitter drink.

"What are your orders Captain?"

----
OOS: All right, guys, looking good.

By the way, who is up for an away mission?

OOC: Always up for an away trip. Just make sure not to wear red! also, I changed some things about Nikki on her profile.

IC:

"A crash site." Nikki murmored to herself. She reread the report again and then set her datapad to stream real time data from the ship. "I guess we are going to pay a visit." She continued muttering under her breath and scrolled down. No sign of distress signals or life.

She loved away missions, but didn't like the idea of a crash site. She stared straight ahead for a moment before shaking her head clear. If salvaging was the plan, she would be sent.

She looked down her plate of half eaten food. She forced herself to finish it, washed her dishes and slipped into the bridge to her work station. The time was 7:40.

"Good morning Captain, Aleah." She said softly, looking at the 3 dimensional model. "When are we going aboard?

"As soon as we get there," Kuyat answered somewhat aloof. He was thinking. He finished off his coffee and looked at the bottom of the mug. "When we get there, scan agian for life signs and then we start collecting the stuff...."

He stood up and looked up like he was looking for Aleah, "Can I Have some more coffee?

Kuyat then looked at Nikki and raised an eyebrow. "You want to go and check it out in an hour?"

Will read the report and saw that it started with not much interesting, until he came to the time of: 04:30:21, the sensors detected a wreckage of a craft nearby. The scanners show that it can be salvaged and a good portion of it can be sold. For life signs it is hard to tell as they are too far away. Also in it is says that Aleah changed the heading of the ship to intercept the wreck.

Will pushed on a button for a 3d view for the object, he looked at it, but couldn’t place it anywhere. Even with his knowledge of ships. This one is unknown, even if it was some sort of escape pod. Ach well, perhaps there is something in the database of the ships computer that knows where it is from.

He looked at his watch and saw that it is almost against 08:00 hours. Time to report on the bridge, or he could get some problems with the captain or the AI. Finished with his dinner he placed the datapad in his pocked, stood up and took the place to the Fabber, placed it on there, then pushed on a button, the remains of his food de-materialized and headed to the bridge.

The doors slide open and he saw the wreck on the main viewscreen with the ships speed and the distance to the target. “Good morning Captain, Aleah and Nikki." He said with a nod to them in a friendly voice before taking the helm and switching it to manual control.

"You want to go and check it out in an hour?" The captain asked, one scaly eyebrow raised.

Nikki caught her breath. "Of course. I need to go in case there is anything, ummm, delicate we can salvage." She turned back to her terminal and started arranging a series of complex scans. "I'm just sort of worried about the bodies, and wraiths." She added nervously.

The bridge door opened and Will Rik entered the bridge. “Good morning Captain, Aleah and Nikki." He said.

Nikki glanced up long enough to see the retriever make his way towards his station. "Morning." She called, hoping her last comment would be dropped.

"The fabbers are primed, Kuyat." The doors of the bridge slid open, and Aleah shifted to a somewhat more pleasant tone. "Good morning Nikki."

Nikki entered the bridge and took her place at the Comms station. When she voiced her concerns of wraiths, Aleah intoned, "The likelihood of wraiths is quite low... however, if you are so inclined, I believe there are still a few Metaphysic Reactors in hte Armory. If you take them, be sure to keep them away from Kuyat."

Will opened the door and spoke his welcomes to the Captain, Aleah and Nikki, before taking his station at the pilot's chair. He casually flicked over to manual control.

"Morning." Aleah returned to the Pilot. "Captain we should decide who is going on this away mission. As you know, I do not require anyone to stay aboard. If there was something on the wreck it would be to your benefit to travel in a group."

---

OOS:

Ok, guys. sorry about the hiccup in my posting. If we have a consunsus, I can shorthand (skip) to the wrecked ship. Will do so after the next set of replies. Post yay or nay in your posts.

"Morning you guys," Kuyat responded as he walked over to the fabbers unit and put the mug into it. It was his thing to use the same cup for the entire day, "Coffee please, Aleah?"

The coffee came out and he picked it up when it was finished. His mind quickly came to a decsion, as he turned around. He smiled at everyone and nodded once. "I'm thinking that we should go," Kuyat said. "And we're going to do this as we always do. But Nikki, if you take one of them tech weapons, I'll be in the back, behind you. "

The power abored the wrecked ship flickered on and off, life support still active but who knew for how long. Slipping in and out of consciousness, Ally tried to call out for help, but her throat was dry and her mind weakened to the point that she knew not if she was actually crying out, or just dreaming she it.



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OOS:
Am totally up for skipping to the ship thing, but then again I'm sort of biast. heh

OOC:Go for it. Nikki would probably take one of the weapons, and her droid whom I haven't introduced. I'll get to that, but for the record it is a shoulder dragon designed to help explore small unsafe places.

IC:

"I'm not that bad of a shot." Nikki muttered while she punched in some final instructions and double checked her protocol. "Aleah, I've got a sensor scan programmed from when the ship gets in range. It should give us a good idea for where anything interesting might be on the ship, and it should give us a map of where any holes are sensors can't penetrate are." She turned to a different panel at her station. "Still haven't detected any emergency broadcasts, whatever it was got them fast."

((Fine by me to skip ahead in time of arrival. For all that space flying seems so slow in this universe, then it is in Star Trek ))

Overhearing the conversations, he knew that he would join the party. As Aleah liked to have the ship only for herself, without others walking around and controlling the ship. Will pushed in a few commands to make a split screen of his viewer, with on the top a 3d dimensional rotating view of the wreck and its details on the right side of what is known to it. While having on the under screen on the flight heading.

As he was studying the model, he noticed that the engineering section was missing. He pushed in a few commands to make a reconstruction of that missing section from the ship, only that was not really an easy task for the computer as they are still to far away from it.

As Will heard what Nikki just said "Still haven't detected any emergency broadcasts, whatever it was got them fast." He turned around with his chair, to face the others and said “Or perhaps their broadcasting got scrambled, so that no one could pick it up. I know this type of attack from my days at the Department. Only I doubt that this was a Department attack, it seems sooner a pirate attack, as this wreck here is missing its engineering section.” He paused for a bit, before continuing. “I would like to check out their logs when we are boarding the ship, sir.”

---Some time laster---

The Laughing Fox swooped near the wrecked freighter. It slowed, before coming to a halt near the airlock. The ship was scorched and marked, and the midsection of the ship was crumpled, with a massive hole. The crew had already gathered in the Cargo Bay, and were preparing to board.

"My scans are still not able to pick up any life signs. However, Captain, you should note that many freighters like this have Dead Zones, where scans cannot penetrate." There was a light tone, and the airlock warning lights flashed. "The artificial gravity appears to be running. Although life support is offline, there is an aparrant breathable atmosphere. It is very thin, suggesting that there is a small leak somewhere in the sealed section."

The iris formed airlock of the Laughing Fox opened slowly, the magnetic field still in place, while a docking tube extended to the airlock of the battered ship.

"Please, use the utmost caution... all of you."

----

OOS:

Ye gawds, sorry. Busy week, coupled with an utter lack of motivation...

Anyway, you'll need a way to open the airlock. It would not be functional. Anybody bring a plasma torch?

Also, I'll leave it up to you, whther you are wearing pressure/space suits or not. It is probably a wise idea. No telling what could be on there.

"Yeah, Yeah. I know, woman," Kuyat said waving her off. He was more than eager to see if the ship was empty so he could claim the ship as his, so he could sell it and whatever else.

He had his gourd with him, with the red sand in it. It had cost him alot of money the second time around, as Steven wanted money for making it. Kuyat brought the sand, from the gourd to his hand, ready for any attacks. Kuyat knew that this sand would make any living mortal feel like they were burning.

The sand formed into a ball that floated in his hand and Kuyat smiled as he saw the docking tube extend towards the damaged ship.

You know there might be someone on that ship.

Shut up, Kuyat thought, pushing the thought out of his mind. He wased to focus on what he was to do and be ready to protect his crew.

The sounds of a ship locking with hers snapped Ally back to reality. The air was thin, she could barely breathe, especially in her cramped hiding spot. She was shaking now, terrified that the attackers had returned for her. Her thinking was illogical, why would they have returned? All she could think was they came to kill her. After a moment, hot tears burned her tired eyes as she made a decision. She started squirming and thrashing the best she could, then screaming with her dry, cracked voice. She had decided being murdered was better then slowly wasting away in her cramped hiding spot that had become a sealed torture room.

All her squirming was only making things worse as she dug her back deeper into the fuses and hott wires wrapped around her limbs, but she cared not, she just wanted out.

Nikki gritted her teeth as she watched the tube extend. There had been to much interference for her sensor scan to work, which meant they still didn't have a working map of the interior of the ship or any idea where sensory dead zones would be.

She stood behind the others, her dragon shaped recovery droid perched on top of the rolling salvage cart she had spent the last 30 minutes preparing. The droid cocked its head her and chirped expectantly.

"No orders yet." She answered, then she swallowed hard. "Dang, I forgot the meta-reactor.

"No time for that now." Kuyat called out. Nikki turned and saw the tunnel attach to the wrecked ships airlock.

She nodded and put her environment helmet on, clicking it into place before she carefully stepped to the airlock door. "We'll need to cut it." She said, through her suit's microphone. "Alfie, your turn." She stepped back from the door.

The droid chirped dutifully before launching itself from its perch and attaching to the airlock door with a hum of vibro technology. It scambered over the door once, before settling over a spot at the bottom of the door.

Blue plasma erupted from the dragon's mouth slicing into the door. The dragon slowly walked backwards and up the door for several feet before it carefully started moving to the side and finally back down. It took it several minutes to finish tracing a large rectangle in the middle of the door.

The dragon hoped off of the door and analyzed its work. It chirped happily, and then launched itself at the middle of the cut rectangle, knocking the neatly cut section into the ship.

"People with guns first." Nikki muttered, moving back to collect the cart.

Kuyat looked at Will and narrowed his eyes. He had a point, in checking the logs, Kuyat thought, It would help them out more often than not. "Okay do that, then let me know of any suprises, if there are any."

“Aye sir, I will do that.” Will replied and waited till the computer is finished with finding a match. After a little while it found one for the missing engineering section, it came clear to him that this was an old type of freighter, even the internal components could have been upgraded, but the weapons and shielding grid is not easy. So this freighter was an easy prey….

An hour later he was standing in his Department pressure suit. The one had on when flying his space fighter, only Will had removed or covered up the Department- unit signs with something else to make, so you can’t tell that he is from the Department. Further he carries a special blaster, with two settings on it. One for stunning, which is directed from his Psionic ability, the other one for killing. And if you have guessed it, Will has it on the stun setting.

Will watched how the droid worked for making a hole in the hull of the ship. When he was finished and heard the muttering from Nikki, that people with guns would go first, he putted on his helmet, locked it and stepped through the airlock from the Laughing Fox to the wreck of a freighter. Inside he saw only darkness with perhaps some light flicker here and there, but that was it. He switched on a switch on his blaster and there came a light small bundle from it. Moving further into the ship, he said “Clear.” When he came to an intersection.

Kuyat put on his helmet and followed them as they walked ahead. His sand floated around him as he wanted his hands ready for the attack also. He kept an watch behind him for anything, as he never liked suprises in these kind of situations. He had trianed himself for this after he came to the ship and started salvaging ships. He saw Will leading them and sent his sand forward as Will was nearing the intersection, to protect him if needed.

When Will said that it was clear, Kuyat pulled his sand back as he didn't want any problems. His ears picked up a sound that was very faint, and reasoning told him that the chances were high that it might be a human. He made his way ahead of the other two and hurried towards the sound. It was like him to be reckless, but that was him and there was no changing that. He stopped at a certian spot and crouched, listening. He the pointed. "What's here?" He asked looking at the two.

She was sure she was hearing the sounds of people aboard the ship now. I couldn't be a hallucination. Using that last of her energy she thrashed and screamed as loud as she could before fading back out of consciecness.

"Not sure." Nikki answered, pushing some buttons on her datapad. "I think it is some sort of conduit between the main deck and the where the engine room had been, but we didn't get a read of it from Fox." Nikki knelt next to the Captain and fiddled with some wires.

"Thunk." Echoed from the inside of the conduit, making Nikki jump.

"Uh, I think someone is in there." She said, connecting more dead wires together trying to open the conduit.

On the moment that the captain heard something, he went ahead of them without thinking of his own safety, so Will ran after him to give him cover-fire if it is needed. Looking at the conduit where Kuyat pointed at, he shrugged for not knowing what is behind it.

While Nikki started to work on the dead wires to open the conduit, Will stand watch.

Hearing also the thunk echo on the other side, he readied his blaser with the light on it, to look around as soon as Nikki succeeded in opening the conduit.

The quick sound of running feet comes up behind the group as Gattik the squirrel engineer literally skids to a halt behind them. Half of his very large cup of coffee goes careening out of its place and splashes on Kuyat. "Ooooh! Did you guys find anything? New gizmos? Stuffs? Things I can tinker with? what? oh sorry; bad coffee. Coffee never stays still...like me." He speaks confidently at the crew, skittering around the area very energetically looking at every tiny thing of interest and things that most would not even consider to be of interest. "Stuff, stuff everywhere. Some can be used. Some not. Bad dreaming last night. Didn't wake up till... two minutes ago." He glances around taking stock of the situation now. "No baddies to zap zap? Bang? No flashy explosions? Aww."