NationStates Jolt Archive

The science vessel Siegfried sat in geosynch over Eniqcir, docked with the Elevator station, making final preparations and waiting for the crew.

It was a cheap but reliable vessel, constructed entirely out of commercial parts. A Spacer-made ion accelerator engine at the back, the triangular bridge of a modular frieghter at the front, a small hangar for EVA pods and shuttles just behind the bridge, and two large, long, trapezoidal cargo containers from a modular freighter behind that, retrofitted as crew compartments, all connected by tube sections and held together by bits of scaffold. An antenna array sat on top, along the spine made up of the core of a modular freighter, with an airlock further forward. A centrifuge from an Oddessey-class science vessel was stuck on either side just about in the middle.

And, inside, Captain Vigo Crane waited for his pilot/co-pilot to arrive.

.::Transmission to science vessel Siegfried::.
This is Senon Atwat, your physician for the mission. I would like to get on board and look over your equipment andget used to the new enviroment.
I would also like to be allowed to take me medkit with me, as I am not familiar with all of your tools.
.::Transmission end::.

.::Transmission to science vessel Siegfried::.
This is Senon Atwat, your physician for the mission. I would like to get on board and look over your equipment and get used to the new enviroment.
I would also like to be allowed to take me medkit with me, as I am not familiar with all of your tools.
.::Transmission end::.

"This is captain Crane, message recieved and understood. You have permission to come aboard, Dr. Atwat."

"This is Kiira Manaan on final approach to the Siegfried. Please show me where I can dock my vessel."

The correct ID_code is transmitted to the bridge of the Siegfried.

OOC:

*feels left out*

"This is Kiira Manaan on final approach to the Siegfried. Please show me where I can dock my vessel."

The correct ID_code is transmitted to the bridge of the Siegfried.

"Glad to see you, Miss Manaan. I'm opening the ventral hangar door currently, you can place your craft in there. Hopefully, we can get in some time to familiarize you with the Siegfried's systems before everyone else arrives. Crane Out."

(OOC: Well, this has certainly taken off....)

After the bay had repressurized, Vigo met Kiira at the airlock that led into the bridge. Floating through the short connecting hallway, he said "Welcome to Siegfried, your home for the duration of this mission. I'll show you the crew section shortly, but first a look at the bridge."

The bridge was not unlike a slightly oversized version of a U.S. Space Shuttle cockpit. The two chairs were slightly deformed, made to match human neutral position, rather than a normal sitting position.

"I don't know what purpose it serves, but we've got a pretty good view out of the front window, here. Enjoy it while you can, 'cuz there are only two other windows on the ship. On the left, my control panel. On the right, your chair and your control panel." Pointing the the instruments, he said "Lateral radar, vertical radar, VTS, internal comm system, external comm system. Now then, all of the individual systems on this ship have their own dedicated computers, so the bridge computer is very simple, and I like it that way. The first trip to the moon was accomplished with 200 kilobytes of RAM, and if it was good enough for them, it's good enough for me."

"Here, you'll be co-pilot, so you can pretty much relax. In the shuttle, though, you'll be piloting on your own. It's been outfitted with a cyberdeck and all that other high-tech stuff, so you can use it, or your own craft. Any questions so far?"

A little later...

A relatively-small research vessel -- one of the smallest that could be equipped with a spacefolder -- appeared near the edge of Eniqcir space. Like many Ravenspire ships, it had a smooth silver appearance, like molded mercury; unlike many Ravenspire ships, this one was saucer-shaped.

A transmission was sent within seconds of folding in.

Crew members Scarlet Shizura and Natsu Forrester, reporting. Request permission to approach and board.

(OOC: Well, this has certainly taken off....)

After the bay had repressurized, Vigo met Kiira at the airlock that led into the bridge. Floating through the short connecting hallway, he said "Welcome to Siegfried, your home for the duration of this mission. I'll show you the crew section shortly, but first a look at the bridge."

The bridge was not unlike a slightly oversized version of a U.S. Space Shuttle cockpit. The two chairs were slightly deformed, made to match human neutral position, rather than a normal sitting position.

"I don't know what purpose it serves, but we've got a pretty good view out of the front window, here. Enjoy it while you can, 'cuz there are only two other windows on the ship. On the left, my control panel. On the right, your chair and your control panel." Pointing the the instruments, he said "Lateral radar, vertical radar, VTS, internal comm system, external comm system. Now then, all of the individual systems on this ship have their own dedicated computers, so the bridge computer is very simple, and I like it that way. The first trip to the moon was accomplished with 200 kilobytes of RAM, and if it was good enough for them, it's good enough for me."

"Here, you'll be co-pilot, so you can pretty much relax. In the shuttle, though, you'll be piloting on your own. It's been outfitted with a cyberdeck and all that other high-tech stuff, so you can use it, or your own craft. Any questions so far?"

Kiira found most of the systems that Vigo showed her familiar, at least to a certain extinct. The Corporation had trained her to be able to fly most variants of space vessels, after all. When Vigo asked if she had any questions, she thought for a moment and then replied:

"Not really. This looks like a very professional set-up, and I know I can fly this thing. It may be a little bit strange for me to fly in conventional manner again. I've spent the last year on a Corporate Destroyer, with Neural Uplinks to hook me up to the ship itself. I have done numerous simulations to prepare for this assignment, of course, but it will feel a bit odd."

Slowly, she walks up to what will be her chair during the voyage, and takes a seat. Vigo, standing behind her, notices that her thick and long brown hair cannot totally hide the two ports for NU equipment, but decides not to make a remark about it. While her hands are hovering over the various instruments and control pannels, Kiira tilts her head slightly to Vigo's direction:

"Very comfortable chairs. Much better than those things that give you a pain in the back for the entire voyage"

Crew members Scarlet Shizura and Natsu Forrester, reporting. Request permission to approach and board.

After the transmission played through the cockpit, Vigo floated over the console and pressed the external comms button, with a quick nod and "excuse me" to Kiira.

"Captain Vigo Crane here. Permission granted. There's still room in the shuttle bay, I believe, and the dorsal airlock is also clear."

Slowly, she walks up to what will be her chair during the voyage, and takes a seat. Vigo, standing behind her, notices that her thick and long brown hair cannot totally hide the two ports for NU equipment, but decides not to make a remark about it. While her hands are hovering over the various instruments and control pannels, Kiira tilts her head slightly to Vigo's direction:

"Very comfortable chairs. Much better than those things that give you a pain in the back for the entire voyage"

"Glad you think so. They'll be necessary when we do the main engine burn to push us out of orbit. While we wait for the next few people to arrive, I'll show you to the crew compartment."

Vigo floated back into the short connection between shuttle bay and bridge, and then pushed off to float straight up the long tube that connected it to the ship's spine. After moving down what seemed like half the length of the ship, he opened a door in the "floor", and motioned Kiira through. The room it led to was rather large. A table was bolted to the wall opposite the door that she came through, making it the "floor", and giving the room some sense of orientation. There was a series of indentations around the endge and in the middle of the table.

"This is the common room. The door in the middle of the forward wall opens into a sort of prep room, and then to the shuttle bay. There are cabinets along the side walls, mostly holding snack food. The door in the rear wall leads to the sleeping quarters, bathrooms, and galley. And then on to the engine compartment."

"A very practical interior, isn't it? I was wondering if there are any facilities to keep my body in keep shape. I don't want to end up in trouble when I'm not at my best."

While she said this, Kiira looked around the compartment. Her appriciation for the basic, yet efficient design was very obvious. In the Corporation, she was known as one of the captains that pleaded for a more Spartan environment on board of space vessels, and always felt a need to keep her crews used to living under harsh conditions and achieving high performance at the same time.

"A very practical interior, isn't it? I was wondering if there are any facilities to keep my body in shape. I don't want to end up in trouble when I'm not at my best."

"Yes, we do have a gym of sorts. Through the aft door into the sleeping area, and there'll be a door in the floor. Through there you'll find a couple of exercise bikes, with seatbelts to keep you from floating away, some stretchy things that I don't know the name for attached to the wall, you're supposed to pull on them to work out your arms, and s few other peices of equipment. I think we've got a treadmill down there. Once we get 'em switched on, the centrifuges should have enough room for a bit of a jog."

"Very nice. As I said, I like to keep up my shape. If you'll excuse me now, I'll go and familiarize muself some more with the instruments. Could you call me if the rest of the crewmembers arrive?", says Kiira, while turning around and heading back to the cockpit.

"Very nice. As I said, I like to keep up my shape. If you'll excuse me now, I'll go and familiarize muself some more with the instruments. Could you call me if the rest of the crewmembers arrive?", says Kiira, while turning around and heading back to the cockpit.

"If it doesn't come through the external comm system, I'll do that. The engines are off-line right now, so knock yourself out, you don't have to worry about blowin' anything up."

Now, then... I hope everyone else gets here soon. I have to give 'em my pep talk before we leave.

While Kiira was getting her tour, Scarlet and Natsu were approaching the Siegfried. Upon receiving the reply, the Ravenspire ship had launched a smaller, crescent-shaped shuttlecraft, which had taken some time to dock.

The shuttle was a tight fit for two, and they were greatful to disembark. The passenger, a human woman of Asian heritage, was the first to exit, but the pilot, a red-haired woman with the ears and tail of a fox, followed close behind, appearing more at ease.

While Kiira was getting her tour, Scarlet and Natsu were approaching the Siegfried. Upon receiving the reply, the Ravenspire ship had launched a smaller, crescent-shaped shuttlecraft, which had taken some time to dock.

The shuttle was a tight fit for two, and they were greatful to disembark. The passenger, a human woman of Asian heritage, was the first to exit, but the pilot, a red-haired woman with the ears and tail of a fox, followed close behind, appearing more at ease.

Vigo pressed an intercomm button on the wall. "Kiira, a couple more just came in!"

He floated by the airlock just as the second person came through. "Welcome to Siegfried, I'm Captain Crane. Glad to have you aboard. I assume you'll want a bit of a tour of the ship?"

Floating through the ship as fast as she could, Kiira headed back to Vigo and the new arrivals. Meanwhile, she thought about how it would be to travel for a long period without the effect of gravity. From the academy, she remembered to 0-gravity training always had given her a comfortable feeling, as if she was protected by a enveloping kushen of...well....nothing. She couldn't explain it, but she always liked to not be touching anything at all.

"Hi. I'm Kiira Manaan. The pilot."

double post

"Ah! Yes, Kiira, this is Natsu Forrester and Scarlet Shizura, our Geologist and Computer Engineers. Miss, Forrester, Shizura, this is Kiira Manaan. We're still waiting on out chemist, physician, and propulsion engineer.'

A stubby, matte-grey craft approaches. It is HSV-006, easily the speediest ship in the Huginian fleet. Today, she is acting as a courier. As it approaches, it begins to broadcast a simple transmission:

"This is Huginian Space Vessel # 006, requesting permission to appproach and dock. We have with us Dr. Präst, of course."

"Nice to meet you," Scarlet said, grinning. Natsu silently bowed in greeting. "We can wait until the others arrive," the foxgirl continued. "I'm sure you don't want to give the same tour five times."

"Nice to meet you," Scarlet said, grinning. Natsu silently bowed in greeting. "We can wait until the others arrive," the foxgirl continued. "I'm sure you don't want to give the same tour five times."

"Um... yeah. Good point. Well... just, make yourselves comfortable, I guess. At least, as comfortable as one can get in a metal cylindrical hallway." A red light turned on on the intercomm panel on the wall.

"'Scuse me for a moment." Vigo pressed a button, and the light turned green as

"This is Huginian Space Vessel # 006, requesting permission to appproach and dock. We have with us Dr. Präst, of course."

Played through the speaker.

"I see. Well, one more down. I'll just be off to answer that now."

Vigo left the three crewmembers floating in the hallway, and quickly made his way back to the bridge. Upon arriving there, he flicked on the external comm system, and said "Vessel Number zero-zero-six, Captain Vigo Crane speaking. You have permission to approach and dock at the ventral airlock. Repeat, ventral airlock, directly aft of the shuttle bay. I'll meet you there."

Vigo flicked off the external comm once more, and switched over to internal comm. "Kiira, would you mind leading everybody down into the common room for now? I think it's best if we get everybody together in one spot to begin."

He then proceeded out of the bridge, cut across the shuttle bay, into the connection between the crew compartment and the shuttle bay, and down to the ventral airlock.

"Allright ladies, you heard the man!", Kiira said with a smile on her face. Clearly, she thought it quite amusing to guide the two others two a ship were she hardly knew her way around.

Floating off to the common room, the others followed Kiira, looking around the ship with the same curious look that she herself still had on her face.

"Nice and homey," Scarlet remarked. "Well, can't say they didn't warn us. Do you know whether there's artificial gravity? I don't mind either way, but she--" The foxgirl gestures at Natsu, who is walking, as opposed to floating, along the corridor-- "seems to have this weird thing about feet touching the ground, and such."

"I wouldn't know. But it could be they won't turn the gravity generator on until we actually start the voyage. If not, we could fix something with magnetic strips, if we have the time and materials."

The grey craft glides to a halt above (below?) the Sigfried's ventral airlock. Its thrusters burst into action, guiding the ship down and making minute adjustments as the craft lowers itself onto the airlock.

Inside the craft Dr. Präst waits near the airlock, humming to himself.
"lemur, lemur/ hangin from the barstool/ mmmn-mer, mmmn-mer, mmm-mm-mmn-mm-mnn..."
He felt a sudden shudder as the craft hit its mark on the airlock. Now, all he would have to do was wait to go through. Soon, the light marking the airlock as sealed turned to green, and he watched as the door to the airlock opened itself. He pushed off the handrails and through the door, wondering to himself exactly what the rest of the crew was like.

[ooc note: what are Captain Vigo Crane's credentials/qualifications?]

"Our boots have them built in," Natsu said. They were the first words she'd spoken since leaving the shuttle. Her voice was soft, yet confident, and her pronunciation was very precise, like a news anchor's.

"Yep. I never use them unless I have to, though. Weightlessness is kind of fun, don't you think?" The question was addressed to Kiira.

"To me, it is a form of freedom...", Kiira said with a faint sign of emotions in her voice. Once again, she felt incredibly good when not touching a surface, but she didn't understand why.

"This is the common room. Please make yourself comfortable, for as far as that is possible. Oh and by the way, what are your functions on board again? I know Vigo told me, but his accent is just terrible."

"I'm the computer engineer," said Scarlet, who seemed to have elected herself spokesman. "I'm not really sure what one was needed for, except maybe to fix whatever happens to break. Or maybe there's a program the captain needs written while we're underway, or something. Anyway, I get along pretty well with most things electronic. Natsu's the geologist, so I assume she's the one who's going to be doing most of the actual surveying once we get where we're going."

The grey craft glides to a halt above (below?) the Siegfried's ventral airlock. Its thrusters burst into action, guiding the ship down and making minute adjustments as the craft lowers itself onto the airlock.

Inside the craft Dr. Präst waits near the airlock, humming to himself.
"lemur, lemur/ hangin from the barstool/ mmmn-mer, mmmn-mer, mmm-mm-mmn-mm-mnn..."
He felt a sudden shudder as the craft hit its mark on the airlock. Now, all he would have to do was wait to go through. Soon, the light marking the airlock as sealed turned to green, and he watched as the door to the airlock opened itself. He pushed off the handrails and through the door, wondering to himself exactly what the rest of the crew was like.

[ooc note: what are Captain Vigo Crane's credentials/qualifications?]

OOC: Below. Vigo's credentials to be found out soon.
IC:

If Dr. Präst happened to be B5 fan, likely his first thoughts upon entering Siegfried would be along the lines of Egads! Marcus Cole in a flightsuit!

Vigo extended his hand, while aying "Dr. Präst, I presume? Captain Vigo Crane. Pleased to be making your acquaintance. The other crewpersons are waiting in the common room. You wish to meet them, no? Come."

Vigo pushed off, propelling himself up a shaft just large enough to allow through 1 person at a time, and about 9 meters long. At the top, he popped open the hatch into the prep. room between the common room, shuttle bay, and lower section. After reaching down and helping Dr. Präst through as well, he swung open the door to the common room, and floated through.

"Privyat, everybody. Kiira, Scarlet, Natsu, Dr. Präst. Dr. Präst, that's Kiira Manaan, Scarlet Shizura, and Natsu Forrester, Pilot, Computer Engineer, and Geologist, respectively."

"Well. We're still waiting for a couple people, but I think you all are enough to start out with. I, of course, am Captain Vigo Crane. Thus, this is my ship. All mine. The crew compartments are yours, as well as all of the facilities relating to your jobs here, and you may do what you wish there, but the ship as a whole is mine. I am very proud of it. Essentially, what I'm trying to get is, don't do anything that could punch a whole in the outer hull, and other than that you're pretty much free to do as you wish."

"A bit aboot me... Well, I'm 42, I discovered Arcosa, I worked at DS for the galactic exploration program for a while, got degrees in physics and stellar cartography, and, ah... well. Any questions? Some people say I have a Gaelic accent, but others think it's more Slavic. I don't really know."

(bump?)

Kiira smiled faintly. "Vigo, regardless of your accent, I can understand you just fine. And I speak on behalf of all of us, I think, if I say you seem a capable commander for this vessel. I've read your file, and I must say you have quite the credentials. Do you know exactly who we're still waiting for?"


ooc: have you telegrammed the people we're waiting for?

"Well, thank you. We are still waiting on Senon Atwat, and Zavier Berata. That's, uh, physician and propulsion engineer. Well... any other questions while we wait? Dr. Atwat registered a hail some time ago, but hasn't docked yet, and Berata is at Anchor Station, I believe."

Just as he finished speaking, the intercomm switched on. "Zavier is in the building! Hope I haven't been keeping y'all waiting. Anchor Security is raising Hades over something. Meetcha inda commons ay-sap."

OOC: Probably a good idea to remind Diablo. Tg away....

ooc: Damn. Forgot all about this. Sorry.

ic: Senon's shuttle had a bit of an accident with space debry. He might be a good physician. But he's no ace pilot. Since the com was down and he wasn't that far away he decided to take a space walk to the Siegfried.
It took longer then expected. But he soon reached the ship. He was unfamiliar with the design so had no idea were the airlocks were. So he opted to stand in front of the cockpit window, using his magnetic boots.

"Eh....Vigo, you'd better get to the cockpit. There's a man sticking to the windows", said Kiira over the intercom. She had just started studying the manuals that came with the vessel, and was quite surprised to see a grown man hover in to her sight.

Senon waves and shows the Diablo_NL flag patch on his shoulder.

Kiira gives Senon an understanding nod, and gives a series of commands that will open the nearest airlock. After doing so, she writes instructions for Senon on a piece of paper and show it to him. As Senon drifts of towards the entrance, Kiira thinks about the primitive way in which things are done on board of the Siegfried.

Ah well, I haven't had a real challenge or life threatening situation for at least...well...10 days.

Senon goes to the airlock and enters. He waits for the airlock to fully pressurise and then takes off his helmet. Breathing in the stale air of the ship. As soon as the he can leave the airlock he does so promptly. And waits for someone to come by.

(OOC: Looking, looking... Aha. Found an airlock near the bridge.)

"Well. That's unexpected. Be right there."

He floated down the spine towards the cockpit, checked in with Kiira, and made his way to the forward ventral airlock. After flicking on the lights in this rarely-used section, he floated down from "above", head first.

"Hello. Dr. Atwat, I presume? Captain Vigo Crane.If you'll just follow me back to the crew compartment, I think we'll be ready to depart."

Vigo proceeded to lead Senon back up and along the spine of the ship, and past the common room entrance. Instead of going in, however, he continued on towards aft. At the back end, the hallway turned downward, opening into a wide cylindrical room, 30 meters in diameter and 6 meters with an anular divider 3 meters down. The top half was filled with various peices of medical equipment. The lower level contained storage space and three sleeping bags.

"This is the clinic, just so you know where to find it. You can stay here, get to know the place, or just go on back to the main crew section. I've gotta meet up with one more person, and then we'll be off for Harvest."

Zavier left the Anchor Station to enter Siegfried through the port sphere section. He floated right through and past the centrifuge and all the equipment contained therein, through the short connector, and into the port lateral corridor just as Vigo was approaching from the port central rib.

"Privyat, Zavier! Care to make a trip up to the cockpit first, or just head right back to Engineering?"

"Eh, I've seen it all before. If you want me to meet the pilot, I can take care of that later."

"Right. Well. So, how's Finn doing? Arthur?"

"Oh, Arthur's OK. Finally got that implant fixed so he's not making non-sequiters all the time. He seems a bit more violent than he used to, but hey, who wouldn't? Finn's a different story altogether. DF didn't agree with him. Whatever it is that used to be Finn even decided to rename itself, a totally changed personality."

"Eh, knowatchamean. Well, what can you do about it? Good journey, see you at Harvest."

Zavier set off to the engine section, while Vigo floated back up to the bridge.

"All right, Kiira. I think we can leave now." Flicked on the intercomm switch. "Attention, all crewmembers. Please prepare for separation from Anchor station. In other words, hold onto something solid." External comm switch. "Siegfried calling Anchor. Blow the bolts." Internal comm switch. "There. That wasn't so bad, was it? Zav, hit the ion accelerators. Once we're clear of the station, we'll be powering up what I like to call the TARDIS. ETA to Harvest: 6 hours."

(OOC: Anything else that you want your characters to do before then, we can just do a little rewinding for.)

Scarlet raised an eyebrow at the terminology, but she didn't say anything.

(OOC: *bump*)

Kiira buckled up, looked at her collegue and started executing the necessary sequences.

"All systems in the green. Flight plan loaded into the system. Engaging TARDIS"

This better work....

"Zav, confirmation on green-light?"

"All systems nominal. *ahem* Tardis powering up - or should I say down? never figgered that out - within normal parameters."

"Understood. Kiira, get ready for a heckuva view. Go-ahead for BRS, Zav."

"Copy, activating Big Red Switch. Negmat flux nominal, we have warp formation."

For an instant, every star in view stretched into a brilliant blue vertical line, before being swept to the side and out of view, leaving nothing but a dark expanse ahead. Through the side windows in the lateral sphere sections, occasional glimpses of blue streaks could be seen, fading to red as they moved back.

"Absolute velocity holding at 5kph. Relative velocity gone superluminal. ETA Harvest, 3 hours."

"3 hours? Zav, you're gettin' rusty." Internal comm off. Turning to Kiira, Vigo said "he used to be able to pin it down to a few minutes."

"Maybe he's just nervous", she replied. "All of us are a little tensed. Especially the Ravenspire personnel seems quite edgy"

"Perhaps. Don't know what he has to be nervous 'bout, though... Well, for the next three hours, you can sit back and relax."

Approximately three hours later, Zavier came on over the intercomm.

"Attention all crew, we are approaching the disolution point, we will be re-entering normal space within the next five minutes." Doing a darn good imitation of a Southwest Airlines stewardess, he followed up with "Thank you for choosing Bolt-Bucket Spacelines, and we hope you enjoy your stay at Harvest."

Out of the port and bridge windows, the moon Harvest was visible as a ball of pink, orange, and yellow swirls, it's brown-dwarf primary looming in the background.

Well, at least the captain's got a sense of humor, Scarlet thought.

"Ready to survey?" she asked Natsu. Who nodded. A true conversationalist.

"Allright Vigo, we're here. Just plot me a course and I will get us to the desired location"

"Righto." Flipped the intercomm switch. "Scarlet, Natsu, I think you could be useful in the starboard sphere section. Just be careful stepping onto the centrifuge, I'm starting it up at 1/5g. If Zavier did his job right, we should be entering a low enough orbit to do some radar scans through the clouds, see if you can find a good landing spot. for one of the shuttles."

(OOC: Your call on the specific terrain. The big features would be a large ocean [circling the globe? your call], land at both poles, a huge crack in the crust similar to Valles Marineris, and a hot, mineral-rich bowl-shaped sea on the side towards the Brown Dwarf.)

"Right-o," Scarlet said blithely. "Time for some action," she informed Natsu... who was already entering the section. "Hey!"

"It's rather pretty," Natsu commented as the foxgirl followed her into the compartment. She was already seated at one of the consoles. "What scans have I got available?"

Scarlet moved to one of the displays. "Pretty standard sensory suite, plus a few extras."

"Then we'll start with topography, as requested." The human began entering instructions. "Can you get me IR and EM on separate displays?"

"Not a problem. I'm not sure why you'd want EM, though... whoa, that's a lot of water."

"More than on Terra, if the other side of the globe is anything like this," Natsu agreed. Now that she was absorbed with her work, she was more vocal. "We've got big land masses at both poles, and smaller ones scattered... seems like they get more mountainous as they approach the equator. There are indications of volcanism; definitely a 'live' world. Possibly rich in heavy metals, too, but that's mainly a guess at this point. There's a relatively flat area almost directly on the equator; looks like a meteor impact site. More ocean... I think we've found the border of a major tectonic plate. There's a trench down there deeper than a couple of Everests. It looks like the meteor site or the poles are the best spots for a landing, but there are a couple of other places that might do."

"Well, I think it's safe to say that we're probably not moving from our current orbit. So, I'm going to go back and check on Natsu and co." Vigo proceeded to release the straps on his seat and float out, pushing off towards the door and leaving the bridge.

When he got to the starboard sphere section, he carefully lowered himself to the moving floor, stumbling a bit as centrifugal force took over, but managing to catch himself on the back of an unused chair. He quickly walked the arc of the centrifuge to where Natsu and Scarlet were positioned.

"Hello! Lookin' pretty good. Say, I was just going to go see if I could find one of the von Neumann probes with the main comm dish. Thought Scarlet might want to be in on that. Yeah, well, I'd appreciate it if we could get some printouts of the best looking spots for a landing, and we'll get everyone together in the common room at..." he quickly glanced at his watch, "... fourteen-hundred hours. Sound good?"

"Sure. Shouldn't be too hard. You going to be okay here?" Scarlet asked Natsu.

"...where the mineral concentration seems to be-- eh? Oh, fine."

"Landing sites, remember?"

Natsu flushed slightly red, coughing to hide her embarrassment. "Landing. Certainly."

The foxgirl smiled reassuringly (although, exposing rather pointed teeth as it did, it probably wasn't all that reassuring) and followed the captain out, stumbling slightly as she re-entered the zero-g environment.

"Okeydokey. The latest info we have on the von Neumanns says that one of them is checking out some of the other planets of RDS-1427+9, but the second should be at the lagrange point between Harvest and RDS-1427+9d." As they entered the starboard lateral corridor, Vigo pointed up through the central rib connecting it to the ship's spine.

"The dish is up top, as you no doubt noticed while approaching in you'r shuttle, so we're going to have to point it straight up as we cross the lightside. We'll have the best control in the engineering section."

He started off towards aft, hopefully with Scarlet following. Zavier gave a short wave as they entered the engineering section, and then continued studying a flatscreen display with various sliderbars.

Vigo motioned Scarlet towards a second flatscreen connected to one wall via a posable arm, with a dvorak keyboard underneath. It showed a command line prompt. Vigo floated over to a third display, showing crosshairs over a negative image.

"Righto. I'm going to see if I can find the probe and hold it in the crosshairs as we orbit by. What I'll need you to do is send out a repeating ping signal. The second there's any response, yell, and I'll lock the antenna in place. It should respond with a list of options. We want to download all the sensor logs for Harvest, and set it up to recieve new instructions the next time we orbit by. Got it?"

"No problem," Scarlet said breezily. "Oooh, dvorak. Haven't used one of these in a while. Qwerties are more common."

She adjusted the arm to position the screen comfortably for her floating position and began keying commands. "Yeah, this is no problem. Nice setup you've got here. Easy to work with."

A short time passed while they pursued their tasks. Finally, Scarlet said, "Right there! You've got it, cap'n." Another keystroke, and the logs were downloading.

"Sveet."

Lines of text began scrolling across both screens as the data was transferred to the ship's computer.

[code:1:0b36364488]
Body: BDS-1427+4d
Classification: terrestrial.
Equatorial Radius: 3800 km
Average Orbital Distance: 1,121,740 km
Average Surface Gravity: .62g
Average surface Temperature (Dayside): 334K
Average Surface Temperature (Nightside, shadowed): 295K
Average Surface Temperature (Nightside, lighted): 318K
Average Atmospheric Pressure (Sealevel): 1.7bars
Atmospheric Composition:
67.3% carbon dioxide
11.8% nitrogen
9.4% methane
5.7% water vapor
3.4% ammonia
Trace amounts (2.4% total) of sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, argon, helium, neon, hydrogen chloride, and hydrogen fluoride.
Hydrosphere Composition:
60% water
12% ethane
26% varying hydrocarbons
Trace amounts (2% total) of iodine, chlorine, sodium, and flourine.
Lithosphere Composition:
43% oxygen
19% iron
17.5% silicon
13.875% aluminium
6.125% zirconium
Cloud Cover: 92%

Core Composition Unknown, fisionables suspected.
Heavy Gas Torus present.

Possible traces of phosphorus and potassium found near geologically active areas.

High levels of Methane and Ammonia may be indicative of primitive life.[/code:1:0b36364488]

(OOC: Trying to get this going again....)

When the time came, Vigo called out over the intercomm, "Hello, everybody! This is your captain speaking, I'd appreciate it if we could all meet in the common room, we've got some good data and I'd like to see what we can do about a little visit to the surface."

Kiira was enjoying her morning coffee when Vigo's message came through. She had just made herself comfortable, as much as that was possible on the ship, but decided to go to the common room anyway. Getting up, she drank the last few sips of her coffee, and started heading for the common room.

Scarlet joined Kiira a moment later. "We really going planetside already? Guess some of the analysis got done, then."

Zavier floated in upside-down from the crew quarters section, carrying a squeeze-bulb of orange juice from the galley.

"Anybody seen-"

He was cut off by the sound of the dorsal door opening, and Vigo coming through.

"-Vigo. Ah. Good."

"Sorry I was a little slow getting here. I've just been checking out these maps...."

He spread out the printouts against a wall. "This large impact crater looks interesting, but I don't know if we can find a safe landing place anywhere around there. It looks like there are three major land masses, one at each of the poles, and then one sitting on the equator. More of a dense series of islands than a continent, really. Anyway, see that huge canyon? Kinda reminiscent of Valles Marineris, but the surrounding terrain is more Venusian. I've got two landing spots in mind, this island in the sea between the crater-ocean and the northern continent, and then a fairly large island on the other side, near the equator. Any other suggestions?"

*bump*