Mar 13, 2019 5:19 am
Cass blinks. "So put him on the comm."
Chapter IIa: Absolute Disaster
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Mar 13, 2019 5:38 am
Cass grins at Darcy. "Well, if he's asking nicely..." She mutes the comm and says to Darcy, "What if we fly him over to the Potential on one of their runabouts? I know there's a risk of exposing our position. Does the possibility of getting information seem worth it?"
Last edited March 13, 2019 5:42 am
Mar 13, 2019 6:04 am
Darcy thinks for a moment. "I believe he would not be able to tell the inside of the Potential and of the Antarctica apart, at least if we keep him away from Engineering or the Bridge. If he's kept on the runabout in a way that doesn't let him see outside, he shouldn't be able to gain any relevant information."
Mar 13, 2019 6:17 am
"That's my thinking as well." Unmuting the connection to Hortam, Cass says, "Okay, tell him that we'll fly him to our ship. Tell him it's either that, or we put him in the transporter and I'll communicate with whatever's left. Send him over in their runabout, and make sure that he can't see that you're not flying to the Antarctica. I don't want to give away that there's another ship out here."
Ending the connection, she turns to Marbo. "Congratulations, Dr. Zlam - you're about to have a chance to look at a living, intact host for your worm. I'll want you to be present during the interview, just in case. Afterward, you can study him further to get a better understanding of the relationship between host and parasite.
"Darcy, recommendations on where this conversation should take place?"
Ending the connection, she turns to Marbo. "Congratulations, Dr. Zlam - you're about to have a chance to look at a living, intact host for your worm. I'll want you to be present during the interview, just in case. Afterward, you can study him further to get a better understanding of the relationship between host and parasite.
"Darcy, recommendations on where this conversation should take place?"
Mar 13, 2019 6:29 am
Hortam confirms your order and ends the connection.
Darcy replies: "We could use the brig but that's still full of dead pirates. Or we just do it in the cargo hold where he will arrive. No need to let him see more of the ship than necessary."
Darcy replies: "We could use the brig but that's still full of dead pirates. Or we just do it in the cargo hold where he will arrive. No need to let him see more of the ship than necessary."
Mar 13, 2019 6:52 am
Kendall beams back aboard the Potential. She will send a text message to Cass’ communicator:
"Cass, I’ll be in my ship, attempting to decipher this strange language. If you need me, just double-tap your communicator. If you want me to run interference in my ship, tap three times rapidly, then I wait two seconds before tapping twice rapidly.
I hope this plan settles a little bit. If we live past this day, I’ll treat you to a drink.
- Kendall"
"Cass, I’ll be in my ship, attempting to decipher this strange language. If you need me, just double-tap your communicator. If you want me to run interference in my ship, tap three times rapidly, then I wait two seconds before tapping twice rapidly.
I hope this plan settles a little bit. If we live past this day, I’ll treat you to a drink.
- Kendall"
Last edited March 13, 2019 6:53 am
Mar 13, 2019 7:00 am
"Fine, we'll do the interview in the cargo hold. We'll need a security team, along with Dr. Zlam and any medical equipment and personnel he requires. You can rig up a holding cell for the pirate right there in the hold. Where's that data pad we used with the Antarctica before...? Thanks," Cass says as someone hands her the pad. She quickly explains to Captain Tulak everything that's happened since their previous communication and the plan for using the pirate ship's runabout to transport one of the pirates to the Potential. "If you want one of your security crew who are aboard the Potential to observe the interview, they are more than welcome.
"Also, we've picked up signals that indicate that someone has been scanning the system. It's quite possible that we'll be seeing more pirates enter the system soon. We believe we have data that might lead us to our missing away team, as well as a location that could well be the home base for the pirate network. We can wait here for another ship or more to show up, or we could pull up stakes and head to another location. My thinking is that we should find a safe place to regroup, translate as much of the data as we can quickly, and devise a new strategy. I'd like to hear your recommendation."
She hands the pad to Darcy. "Beam this over to the bridge of the Antarctica."
"Also, we've picked up signals that indicate that someone has been scanning the system. It's quite possible that we'll be seeing more pirates enter the system soon. We believe we have data that might lead us to our missing away team, as well as a location that could well be the home base for the pirate network. We can wait here for another ship or more to show up, or we could pull up stakes and head to another location. My thinking is that we should find a safe place to regroup, translate as much of the data as we can quickly, and devise a new strategy. I'd like to hear your recommendation."
She hands the pad to Darcy. "Beam this over to the bridge of the Antarctica."
Mar 13, 2019 7:05 am
HeroAmongMen says:
Kendall beams back aboard the Potential. She will send a text message to Cass’ communicator:"Cass, I’ll be in my ship, attempting to decipher this strange language. If you need me, just double-tap your communicator. If you want me to run interference in my ship, tap three times rapidly, then I wait two seconds before tapping twice rapidly.
I hope this plan settles a little bit. If we live past this day, I’ll treat you to a drink.
- Kendall"
Mar 13, 2019 7:53 am
Cass, you quickly receive a reply from Tulak.
"If we have a location for your missing crew, we should send someone there asap before they get moved again. I trust you to select the best suited team for your interrogation. And let us know if there is anything we can do. My crew is getting anxious just waiting. We're used to being more active in a crisis."
"If we have a location for your missing crew, we should send someone there asap before they get moved again. I trust you to select the best suited team for your interrogation. And let us know if there is anything we can do. My crew is getting anxious just waiting. We're used to being more active in a crisis."
Mar 13, 2019 8:00 am
OOC:
I think Kendall is not sending it over because she is worried it might contain a virus so she's just working on it on her shipHero, correct me if I'm wrong
Mar 13, 2019 8:23 am
OOC:
That’s correct. I don’t want the Potential to suffer computer shutdown due to pirate computer viruses.Mar 13, 2019 8:34 am
OOC:
That's a shame. Moonbeam always complains that everything is going too smoothly. A computer virus could be just the right thing.Give me another Lasers, Hero. Let's see how much you get deciphered
Mar 13, 2019 12:20 pm
It takes you a long time but eventually you're able to crack the code that the pirates' computers use. It appears to be written in a trinary code that corresponds to their clicking language. Using the data from the universal translator, you are able to uncover the following information:
- The location that has been travelled to the most that you have found is an old abandoned Consortium research station that now serves as the Pirate Queen's palace and center of operations.
- You find what appears to be hierarchical charts outlining a simple command structure. The top position is named as "The Queen" with no name given. Other positions are ordered by importance but there are no ranks given, only names. The computer was unable to translate names so they are still given as trinary symbol combinations.
- You see lists of minerals, metals and other resources as well as names. Some of these names you recognize as traders, some regular ones, many black market.
- There don't seem to be any security logs or recordings of positioning on the ship at any point.
- The code they use is not able to interpret non-trinary code, meaning that it would not be able to detect a foreign virus or malware that is introduced into the computer if it is written in your language. However, such a virus would also not be able to influence the workings of this code.
- There are no medical files on the parasites on board this ship but you do notice that the parasites are always referred to as the crew while the hosts are referred to as meatbags, hosts or feeders.
- You find old logs by the real captain and his crew but they end a few weeks ago and the pirates apparently have not kept logs.
- One old file mentions something about "Unstable creatures, shifting their appearance, unsuited for attachment" as well as a location tag of a star system outside of explorer space, far beyond the pirates' main base of operations which is already far from Consortium civilization. There are no further details that relate to your search however
- The location that has been travelled to the most that you have found is an old abandoned Consortium research station that now serves as the Pirate Queen's palace and center of operations.
- You find what appears to be hierarchical charts outlining a simple command structure. The top position is named as "The Queen" with no name given. Other positions are ordered by importance but there are no ranks given, only names. The computer was unable to translate names so they are still given as trinary symbol combinations.
- You see lists of minerals, metals and other resources as well as names. Some of these names you recognize as traders, some regular ones, many black market.
- There don't seem to be any security logs or recordings of positioning on the ship at any point.
- The code they use is not able to interpret non-trinary code, meaning that it would not be able to detect a foreign virus or malware that is introduced into the computer if it is written in your language. However, such a virus would also not be able to influence the workings of this code.
- There are no medical files on the parasites on board this ship but you do notice that the parasites are always referred to as the crew while the hosts are referred to as meatbags, hosts or feeders.
- You find old logs by the real captain and his crew but they end a few weeks ago and the pirates apparently have not kept logs.
- One old file mentions something about "Unstable creatures, shifting their appearance, unsuited for attachment" as well as a location tag of a star system outside of explorer space, far beyond the pirates' main base of operations which is already far from Consortium civilization. There are no further details that relate to your search however
Mar 13, 2019 1:20 pm
bowlofspinach says:
- There don't seem to be any security logs or recordings of positioning on the ship at any point.OOC:
What does this mean? Mar 13, 2019 1:31 pm
OOC:
"- surveillance logs to determine whereabouts of officers of this ship when the gas trap went into effect"was one of the questions Hero asked in a previous post. I just went though and answered them in a row
Mar 13, 2019 1:45 pm
OOC:
Okay, got it. And this information she's uncovered does include the most recent locations the ship has visited?Mar 13, 2019 1:55 pm
OOC:
She already knew about visited locations from her first examination of the computers. There are more locations in the memory of the ship but except for the immediately previous location and the main hideout, the only one that seems relevant is the system in which you have been ambushedload next