Original Archive - IAS Chapter 33

Chapter 33 (Original Archive)

Elizabeth 1/17/2006

Irsa listens and only fidgets a little. The vehicle that Thx-1492 came in sounded the best bet to check out the old excavation site. That much she said.

gammaben 1/19/2006

Percy

"Waaaaaitaminute. I'm no propulsion engineer, but seems like this bucket of bolts would be a lot faster than the little air car. Or am I guessing wrong at the specs for these things? Then again, maybe the air car would use less fuel." Percy thought about it for a minute, and asked his recently dazed new friend and former Warden resident if she were ok.

supreme_arbiter 1/22/2006

turn 2

Irsa listened and only fidgeted a little. The vehicle that THX-1492 had come in sounded the best bet to check out the old excavation site. That much she said.

Nike agreed. Arkady and Bailey went back to the garage to try and refuel the aircar. They listened in with their comm units as the rest of the crew discussed their situation.

"Waaaaaitaminute. I'm no propulsion engineer, but seems like this bucket of bolts would be a lot faster than the little aircar. Or am I guessing wrong at the specs for these things? Then again, maybe the aircar would use less fuel."

"Probably a lot less fuel, and it has very little mass," Bud replied making a sign with his hand like a speeding rocket.

"How will we know how to get there, THX?" Nike asked.

"You will need the GPS coordinates. I have copied them with the map data I uploaded to the lifeboat's computer. The aircar does not possess a GPS device, but I have one installed internally."

"Nike, this vehicle is pretty high tech," Bailey said over the comm. "I've never seen anything like it. It was clearly designed for a human but it's strangely alien. I can't describe it. I've had experience with numerous types of air and land craft before I was frozen, but I've never seen anything like this."

"What kind of fuel does it require?" Nike asked. "Do you think you can refuel it?"

"That's the strangest thing, it uses hydrogen. Our Type VI. large Hydrogen cells fit the fuel receptacles perfectly, two of 'em in total. There were plenty of Type VI's in Engineering. I fueled it up and put an extra four cells in the vehicle's storage. The aircar was designed to seat two, but we might be able to fit three if two people don't mind sharing a seat."

"THX," Nike asked, "Is your vehicle rated for three passengers?"

"Max recommended capacity is 300 kilograms."

"That should be plenty," she replied.

"Hello?" called a tentative voice.

"Hello?" Nike replied.

"What's going on?" Arkady asked over the comm.

A blond haired man stepped into the hallway leading to the cockpit. "I didn't mean to disturb you. The door was open and no one answered my calls."

Nike glanced at the life forms detection monitor. A warning light had been flashing but no one had noticed it. There had only been one life form detected. No one else was lurking outside. "Who are you?" she demanded.

"My name is Drake. I fell from the sky in some sort of escape hatch. I saw your lights across the sand."

end transmission

OOC: Bud made the motion, Irsa seconded it :) All in favour of taking the aircar to the excavation? Who's going to go?

Also, greetings to new character Drake! :D

gglassdr 1/26/2006

THX-1492

THX states "This unit will fly the aircar and crew to the excavation if desired by the crew members."

Elizabeth 1/23/2006

Irsa

"I can read and write the Ancient tongue and read a few of their heiroglyphs. Can I go?" Irsa asks politely, scared curious and excited all at once.

supreme_arbiter 2/4/2006

Nike looked angrily at Bailey. "Keep an eye on that life form sensor, Bailey."

Bailey made a strange salute, "Aye aye, captain." He looked at Bud and rolled his eyes.

"Are there more of you?" Nike asked Drake.

[insert Drake's response here...]

"All right, Irsa, take whatever you think you'll need. You and THX will take the aircar to the excavation. Is there anyone you'd feel comfortable sharing a seat with?"

OOC: is anyone else going? what are you going to take with you?

I'll post a turn 3 next weekend. If anyone needs more time, just let me know.

Elizabeth 2/4/2006

Irsa

"Don't have a preference." Irsa replies and runs to her room to get her weapons and writing pad. The pad made of 12 pieces of parchment tied together on the left side. Irsa also has a vial of ink and a quill pen. Puts the pad and writing implements in her right cheek pouch. And she puts some food in her left cheek pouch. Then she returns to the aircar ready to go. (her cheek pouches bulge a little when she has stuff in them)

mauriciopeal 2/9/2006

Drake

Sorry, guys, I forgot to check my e-mail for a few days.

"Are there more of you?" Nike asked Drake.

I don't think so. Where are we exactly?

supreme_arbiter 2/13/2006

IAS turn 3

Becka awoke from her vision. She was shocked to see several people around her. She had forgotten where she was. "Are you ok," asked the hamster with green feathers flying in front of her.

"Yes. I'm fine Irsa," she smiled, gradually returning to normal. "Really, I am."

Nike watched Becka sit upright. "Shlitzee, will you please have one of your attendants run a med scan on Becka?" Shlitzee nodded and sent the appropriate signals.

[...volunteers are chosen for the trip...]

[...we meet Drake...]

Nike explained everything to Drake while one of Shlitzee's attendant robots arrived and examined Becka. [OOC: Drake, email me if you need a recap of the action thus far] A few minutes later Shlitzee broadcast the results over the comm devices. "Becka has several unknown genes. They are pervasive but not cancerous. I suspect she may have latent mutations from the Warden. Other than that, she's perfectly healthy, as far as humans go."

Nike finished showing Drake their maps and turned to Becka. "Ok Becka, the doctor says you're healthy enough to travel, so go get your things ready. You three will be leaving soon."

Irsa ran to her room. She checked that her bound pad of 12 parchment pieces, vial of ink and quill pen were still in her backpack. She wielded her knives and spears and left her room. She went to the kitchen and put some dried fruits and meats in her cheek pouches. Her cheeks bulged slightly.

Becka went to her room and fretted over the duffle bag in the cabinet. She didn't want anyone to find it. She went through the items in the bag, but only removed the cloth covered book. She closed the bag, shut the cabinet and returned to the supply room. She put on one of the jackets. It was made for someone much larger than she was, but it was comfortable. She found a large pocket inside the jacket. She concealed the book inside it. She also took four bottles of water, two blankets and a medkit.

Nike, Irsa and THX walked into the supply room. Becka silently follwed them into the garage. Nike lowered the cargo door and THX drove the aircar off the ramp. Nike put Becka's water bottles into a small cargo space in the aircar and gave Becka and Irsa two small devices each. The first she said was a communcation device. She explained how they should put it on their heads so they could talk to the crew. The other two items were passcards. Chelydra had configured a card each for Becka and Irsa. "We gave you security clearance. You might need it where you're going."

Percy came running out of the ship's gangplank. He carried with him a very small box. "You might need this too," he said as he gave the box to Irsa. "It's a radiation detector. You can never tell with old dropships."

Percy showed Irsa how to use it. She thanked him and climbed into the cabin behind THX. With much coaxing, Irsa convinced Becka to join her. "Don't forget to keep your lights off until you're far enough away," Nike reminded the robot unecessarily.

THX confirmed his orders and sealed the cabin door. The aircar rose gently into the night sky and flew off toward the east.

Bailey returned to watching the life forms detection monitor while Hephaestus brought in the recycling. Arkady and Bud went into the kitchen and found the coffee Percy had left there. They each made themselves a cup, took some bread and dried meat and went into the recreation room. On the Omega Box they found games, magazines, and several thousand movie titles to choose from. Low and behold, Arkady found 'A Boy and his Dog'. Bud sat down at another of the four Omega stations and browsed the selections while he ate his breakfast.

Meanwhile Nike showed Drake around the lifeboat. She gave him a communication device and a passcard and told him to pick a cabin to make his room.

---------------------------------------------

The aircar sailed through the night sky. A dull humming sound rumbled behind and to either side of them. Irsa watched the electric parade flash and dance on the dashboard. A few of the words, like fuel and temperature, she recognized but many she did not. "What do all those things mean?" she asked.

"The instruments show driver everything needed to safely arrive at destination," THX responded.

"What about that one," Irsa pointed to 'elevation'.

"It measures distance to ground."

Irsa marvelled at the high number. Becka squirmed and tried to get comfortable despite the fact she was sharing the seat. Irsa leaned forward and asked THX about every detail of the ship's instruments.

Soon dawn approached. Both Irsa and Becka curiously watched the sky through the windshield. It was larger than anything either of them had ever seen before. They had each seen an environment deck or two on the Warden. They were enormous, dozens of miles wide and much longer. But this sky had no ceiling. There was no roof. They wondered how plants could grow without sprinklers or lights.

The sky grew brighter and brighter until a sliver of bright light appeared over the horizon. Becka and Irsa leaned forward to see what it was. Becka looked down and saw they were over a large body of water. It was unbelievably large. It was infinite! And they were higher than she had ever imagined in her worst nightmares. She sat back down and closed her eyes tightly. Irsa watched the sun rise curiously until it became a round, bright light. It was brighter than any light she had ever seen before. "What is that?" she asked THX.

"That is Rho1 Cancri A, a yellow-orange main sequence star. 0.95 times the mass of Sol and 1.1 times the diameter of Sol."

The journey lasted several more hours. They travelled fast and saw nothing but ocean until at last a land mass appeared before them. It rose gradually. Soon Irsa could see a range of mountains sheltering a green valley. The flew over the valley and THX descended. Irsa saw a dense jungle. THX flew closer and closer to the ground. This is amazing Becka, you should see it."

"I saw it," Becka responded from behind her hands.

Irsa couldn't see where they were going to land until they were directly over the top of it. Then she became aware of a hole, a few kilometers wide, with an equally high hill to the north of it. THX steered the aircar into the hole and over the ruins. He flew into one of the ruins and landed the vehicle. The cabin opened and Becka got out. They were inside a room made of solid, black rock. There were four other aircars in the room, but nothing else. Becka climbed out of the aircar and followed Irsa through one of the three doorways that led out of the room. They walked up a sloping hill until they stood on top of a large, muddy plateau. In front of them was a large hole. A partially exposed cube of black rock was at the bottom. To their right was another pit with another cube of black rock. A trench led away from it exposing six, smaller black cubes.

THX walked up the slope behind them.

end transmission

OOC: here's a map of the excavation:

The dashed lines indicate earth ramps for walking down into each excavation.

Elizabeth 2/13/2006

Irsa

"Wowza!" said Irsa as she looked around. "Now what do we do?"

supreme_arbiter 2/22/2006

IAS Poll

I wanted to create a new yahoo-group poll, but it's not possible with our present settings. I would have to disallow hidden email addresses to create a poll, and that's something I will *NOT* do.

So, as a work around, please post your response OR email them directly to me at 'supreme_arbiter @ yahoo.com' without the spaces, of course :)

Poll Question:

How often should new IAS turns be posted?
-6 weeks
-1 month
-3 weeks
-2 weeks
-every week
-several times a week
-etc... fill in your own frequency

This is an informal poll. You won't find any polls in this yahoo group and members that have hidden addresses will remain hidden.

Thank you,
p

Elizabeth 2/23/2006

Irsa

I think every 3 weeks would be okay.

gglassdr 2/24/2006

THX-1492

every two weeks

mauriciopeal 2/25/2006

Drake

Twice a week.

Katkin_Kalvin (John) 2/26/2006

Caleb

every two weeks

Agreed, every two weeks is good

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