NationStates Jolt Archive

'There are an unlimited number of possibilities in the universe. If one can navigate through possibilities at a single point then the time it takes to traverse space can be greatly reduced.'

So stated the introduction to any who would pilot through singularity and in singularity is where Moria, Foster and Micaya are now. Moria ran one computation after another until finally normal space seemed to explode and she emerged from singularity. Immediatly she began plotting star patterns and trying to compare known patterns to what she was seeing.

"Where are we?" Foster asked from the crash couch, still looking a little green after going through the third singularity jump in less than twenty-four hours.

"I'm trying to confirm that now, it may take some time."

"In other words", Micaya said, "you have no idea."

"I know we're not where we were, so that's one less place to look and we're not where we were before that, so I've narrowed the search by two."

Foster grinned at Micaya who grinned back at him but turned and changed to a stern look at Moria, "You seem to forget your addressing a General."

"I...I was only joking."

Finally General Micaya Quester-Benn couldn't keep a straight face and Moria giggled. "I thought you were SERIOUS."

"BAH, if you can't laugh at yourself then you'll go hopelessly insane before too long."

"Nothing on passive scans, going to active scanning", Moria announced, "lets hope we find something or are closer to home than I think we are, fuel is fast becoming a commodity more precious than anything else in universe."

Time meant nothing in the coccoon.

Life meant nothing in his restless slumber.

The past was as meaningless as the future when your eyes were shut.

The small cylinder continued it's free-fall journey into neverwhere, floating on the tides of the galaxy, avoiding gravity wells and meteor storms with unnatural ease. It was virtually formless, and had no markings.

It was less than 12 meters from the ship that had just appeared.

The cylinder decided to awaken its occupant, in case an opportunity presented itself. The seed must be spread.

"I'm picking up a small cylindrical object, possibly a life pod about 12 meters off port, we must have barely missed it coming out of singularity", Moria informed them.

"I'll get suited up and bring it in", Foster replied, heading for the suit locker.

"Is that wise?" Micaya asked, "we're in dire enough straights as it is. Lost, low on fuel and now this."

"At least we aren't being shot at again", Moria replied.

"Central worlds charter doesn't change because it's inconvenient. We render aid when and where we can", Foster reminded them.

"Yeah okay", Micaya said walking to a side panel in the main cabin. She open the panel and took out a needler. Stenciled along the barrel is "This is my idea of Diplomacy". She reached down, unzippering her pantleg and touched the cybernetic leg at the pressure point. A panel in the leg opened and she deposited the needler in the rack that slipped out then pressed the point and the panel closed. "Just in case", she said.

Foster shook his head, picked up his helmet and headed down toward the hold and Moria manuevered over the cylinder. He reached the cargo hold, closed the pressure door and emptied the bay of atmosphere then tethered himself to racks. "Open the bay doors, please, Moria."

The doors opened and Foster used the manuevering thrusters in the suit to get to the pod. Once he reached it, he looked it over.

The pod itself was a smooth cylinder, with no obvious seams or entrance points. It was a very solid mass, and the composition of metals would defy even the most advanced scanners. It was, for all intents and purposes, a large ingot of unidentified material.

The pod reacted to being handled by increasing the restoration phase, and accelerating the seed to maturity and awareness. Inside the pod, the dreams of the innocent gave way to the nightmare of the real. The sleeper stirred, eyelids beginning to flutter. It was almost time for the Awakening.

"I'm not so sure it's a life pod. No seams, no entrance points. It's smooth, but aside from that I can't say much more", Foster said.

"Can you get it inside?" Moria asked.

"Would that be wise?" Micaya cut in. "We're low on fuel and lost, should we take on the extra mass?"

"She has a point, Moria, it's an oddity, but I see no evidence of it being a life pod. We've done our job and investigated, perhaps it's best left so we don't have the extra weight."

"The composition of the metals is unknown also. We might be able to get it back to the SSS-900-C", Moria told them.

"I thought we were lost", Foster said.

"I'm trying to work backward on the singularity jumps."

"But we don't have enough to go all the way back", Foster said, "Even if you can backtrack your jumps."

"We wouldn't have to, only the last one. In the last location we encounterd the Kolnari Pirates. We KNOW they operate near Central Worlds. If I can backtrack the ONE jump then we should be able to send out a signal, or I may even be able to identify where we are and see about making station or planetfall for fuel."

"Alright", Foster said, "We bring it in the bay, but be ready to dump it if we need to, keep up scans and see if we can locate another ship or signal in the meantime. Continue your calculations to see if you can get us back to some point near central as well." Foster attached a magnetic from his suit and begin pulling himself up into the bay. The magnet wasn't extremely strong but in the weightlessness of space it didn't need to be. He got it into the bay and Moria repressurized the hold. Foster went back toward the main cabin and put his suit away.

"Any luck on getting us back?" he asked.

"Not yet", she sighed, "there are thousands of calculations in a singularity jump, I'm still working on it."

Foster nodded, "Well, there's nothing else for it. Mic? I'm afraid that the time has come. I'll just have to beat you at a game of Tri-Chess."

"In your dreams", Micaya said and activated the holo-board.

The pod had done its work, and the seed grew quickly. The perfect configuration was chosen based on the biological data radiating from the humanoids on the ship. Sensing that releasing the seed now, in this airless hold, would be detrimental to the well-being of the mission, the pod simply waited until the seed had fully sprouted. It then reconfigured itself so that the next time it would be scanned, a heat-source would be detected within it, where none could be seen before. When that was complete, the pod sent a simple message across the communications data-stream of the ship.

"Help me."

Moria picked up the faint signal as she sent out signals, trying to find an answer here and continuing her calculations for a reverse jump. She scanned the pod in the bay holding the pod.

"Foster, General? I've got a heat signature from the pod and there's a low power com open."

"Help me." She played over the speakers.

Foster and Micaya jumped up and ran for the bay. "Repressurize and heat up the bay", Foster said and waited by the door to the bay as Moria began the slow process, not wanting to damage the pod.

As the temperature shifted and the hold began to pressurize, the pod crafted a small release latch, nothing more than a small bump on the smooth exterior of it's shell. Psychology was important: they must believe the latch was always there, just easily missed on the first inspection. That task completed, it considered the seed it carried.

It was perfect in every way. This configuration was male, and designed to be a carbon copy of whatever species it was bonded with, in this case, homo sapiens. The seed had a specific role, and that was to record every experience it encountered in it's lifetime. Once the seed had expired, either through natural or unnatural causes, the memories were gathered and passed on the the central repository, to be sorted and analyzed at a later date.

The pod cared nothing for what happened after it fulfilled it's duty. Once the seed had left, to begin it's life amongst the humanoids, the pods job was complete, and it would cease to exist.

The Awakening was nearly complete.

As soon as the bay was pressurized Micaya and Foster made thier way in. Micaya stayed back, ready to pull the needler if need be as Foster looked over the pod. He noticed a small bump on it. "I don't remember that being there", Moria said.

"We could have missed it under the circumstances out there."

"I'll have the sleep gas ready", Moria replied.

Foster nodded and then pressed on the bump as Micaya stood ready.

It was a chance thing, meeting another this far out... The small craft looked more like some thrown ninja weapon than a one-man starship...

Smooth, curved lines formed something that resembled a crescent, but only vaguely. A pair of plasma cannons where affixed on either side of the cockpit, in the 220-330 kilowatt range. A rack of three proton missiles awaited within each 'wing'. The pilot was an interesting individual, a Dark Argonian by the name of Kelstar Nightfang, a member of the Deathwraith assassin's guild. The craft he piloted was no longer in production, and never would be. Driddain, the country that had originally fielded the VCI 'Mako', had disbanded severak years earlier, leaving behind a wealth of advanced technology & resources. One of these trinkets was Kelstar's current vehicle, the other was the location of a top-secret space station where such craft where being developed.

Protected by a cloaking device, one would not know it was there, if one ever ventured out this far into the frigid expanses of the universe. The crew of the station, now the Deathwraith Central HQ, seemed to have missed the small vessel... They didn't fully understand the sensors yet. The station was only half-staffed. Kelstar's small strike team had cleared it of Driddish personnel two months ago, he was surprised the other craft's sensors hadn't detected the biological ash they'd released into the void...

He had a choice: Hail the ship & have the station bring it in, destroy it, or attempt to jump to hyperspace before they noticed him...

OOC: Too far-fetched?

"Foster", Moria said, "we have a ship heading our way. It's armed, but so far doesn't seem hostile."

"I'll head up to the main cabin", Micaya said, "you work on the pod, but be ready to strap in. Moria? Open standard hail, I'm on my way up."

Moria opened a broad band channel, "This is Moria, central worlds vessel. We are on a peaceful mission of exploration and are unarmed. I repeat, we are unarmed." She was already making the calculations for a singularity jump. The last two jump points she had reached were both hostile and she was beginning to think that she had big bullseye for everyone she met.

Kelstar grunted in disappointment as the woman's voice drifted over the comm...

"Dammit, now I must bring them in... They will surely send other to investigate my presence here..."

Kel keyed in a response channel...

"This is Kelstar Nightfang, of the Killshot... Power down all non-essential systems & prepare to be tractored aboard Station RADF13. Otherwise, I will need to destroy your ship. You may have compromised our operational security..."

With the flick of a few switches, he had the plasma cannons powered up. The proton missiles where expensive, and he'd prefer not to use them... But operational security was paramount for his organization. He keyed a single missile into his port launch tube, and began the lock-on sequence...

"Comply & you will not be harmed... A simple debrief is needed, then we can send you on your way..."

In addition to being one of the top-dollar assassins in the INTERPOL computer banks, Kelstar was also a top-dollar liar...

'My tin plated ass', Moria thought.

Space seemed to explode between the incoming fighter and the FM-935 as Moria opened a singularity point. "STRAP IN", Moria warned over the intercom as she dove into singularity. All the possibilities of the universe converged at the one point and she dove through, strings of mathematical possibilities being reviewed and rejected, searching for the point she needed.

Kelstar triggered the proton missile, sending a flash of yellow light in after the ship...

"Interesting... Kelstar to Control, track the ship... They may know we're here, and might send in the party-crashers..."

Moria surfed through the multiple possibilites within the realm of singularity, quickly losing the missle as she slipped through ever changing possibilities. Only the most advanced AI could hope to navigate through, or a pilot trained for singularity navigation. The station would get a brief reading on her destination, parsecs away.

Normal space seemed to explode again as Moria came out of singularity. Her fuel telltales were be a constant annoyance and she shut them down. She began plotting star patterns as she looked in on Foster to find him unconscious with blood pooling beneath his head in one corner of the cargo bay.

"GENERAL. Foster is injured in the cargo bay."

Micaya leaped from the crash couch and bolted for the cargo bay. She threw open the door and eyed the pod as she made her way to Foster.

'Great Gue', Moria thought to herself, 'is there ANYONE around who isn't going to shoot at me?'

The voice of Daniels, Kelstar's computer expert, crackled over the comm...

"Boss, we've got the ship registered a long ways off... If we move quickly, we might be able to intercept them. Should I dispatch some back-up?"

Kelstar keyed the comm twice, the signal for an affirmative. Seemingly out of space itself, a pair of craft identical to Kelstar's dropped into formation. Their lightspeed drives would allow them to get closer to the escaping ship, but it would take them a bit longer... Their prey had a much more advanced transportation system than their craft, which they believed where top-of-the-line combat ships... Stars turned to white lines as the drives kicked in...

Micaya picked up Foster and carried him back to medical.

While Moria scanned him she shut down the overrides on the singularity drive. The overrides were put in place in order to prevent a ship from enter singularity with insufficient fuel. 'The way things are going now there's not much difference', she thought, 'Ghu but isn't there SOMEONE friendly out here?'

"He has a concussion. He needs a doctor. All I can do is keep him stable for now but if his brain starts to swell..."

"You have cold sleep drugs I assume", Micaya said. It was more of a statement than a question. Every BB ship carried them, just in case.

"I do but he would need a med facility to wake him."

"If he dies then a med facility won't even be able to wake him. Administer the drugs if the need arises, I'll take responsibility", Micaya said. The last part was said quietly. Foster and the General had some sort of past between them, Moria just didn't know what it was.

"I've shut down the overrides, we can enter singularity if we need to."

"Can we get out again?" Micaya asked.

"I can time it so that we come out just as the fuel runs out. But then we'll be dead in space."

Micaya nodded, "Isn't there SOMEONE friendly out here?" she asked, mirroring Moria's thoughts. She left medical and went up into the galley to grab some coffee. Opening the cup she sniffed it as the heat seal broke and quickly warmed up the rich brew. Walking to the pilot's couch she looked over at Moria, "Any familiar patterns?"

"Still gathering information", she said.

Micaya nodded as she sat down on the couch and started drinking the coffee.