Futuristic Transsolar

[Dragongal]

Adira saluted back, then looked Lydia over. She certainly seemed to match the file Adira had read. This girl seemed about her age, the file had said she was only a year younger than her. "Biochemist, aren't you? I'm Captain Rik, this is Commander Woods, he's in charge of defense. You have a problem, just find either of us." This was the first time Adira had seen the girl in person. Woods probably had to run scans or check her for contraband or something, but that wasn't exactly Adira's place to tell Woods how to do his job. Well, actually, it kind of was, but she had more respect for him than that.

 

[BookWyrm]

Woods turned around, taking note of both Saami and Lydia, though he only nodded in return to the INANEs salute. Even though he wasn't as glaringly abusive of the INANEs as Marshall, Woods still had yet to a reason to respect him either. His eyes found their way back to Lydia as he pulled up his tablet. "Nothing to worry about, just scanning you and your things for contraband, explosives, or any illegal materials." Within seconds the scan was complete and void of any red flags as it pulled up her file. Vince scanned over the details, taking note of the several instances where she had been involved with the Outliners. "You've done volunteer work with the Outliners?" It was posed more as a question rather than a statement. Obviously she had, but he wanted to know more. He couldn't quite place her face just yet, but he thought he had seen her before.

 

[Spazzycat101]

Lydia grinned slightly at Captain Adira mentioning the addressing of issues. She hoped it wouldn't become one, but already she could think of someone in particular who absolutely had the potential. Quickly though, as if to distract from that thought, she nodded in response to Woods' question, taking a moment wonder how best to explain her work so that she might not seem like some amateur part-timer.


'I work primarily with the Space Division, though a laboratory simply ends up liquefying me-- Metaphorically,' Luckily, she remembered at just the right moment that it was all too possible that a person or some part of one could actually liquefy when working with the things that the Division did. In fact, she remembered that one case a year or so ago... That person still had an artificial hand.





'So I do more of the testing, seeing how things fare in combat if there is any to be found. That's just with theoretical weaponry, though.' She especially enjoyed testing the effects-- physical and psychological-- Of better-known chemicals on lesser-known species. Now, it did make her wince whenever she thought of some odd creature writhing in a cage, at least until she reminded herself that they typically didn't use cages. If it could be helped, they also tested tissue samples in the stead of testing the thing as a whole. Well, she preferred to do so, anyway.


'And now, I hope I'll be finding something new. Perhaps some new species of something! That's always something to look forward to.'


With that, Lydia folded her hands behind her back and gave a smile, the kind one gave when not wanting to appear abnormally grim or toneless.

 

[BookWyrm]

Woods did recall several instances where they had been assigned as security for scientists from Space Division to do "field work". He was curious though, Lydia seemed awful young to be on the field teams even as a volunteer. "Interesting. Did you perhaps ever work alongside any SIAD operatives?" Woods was purposeful in saying Operatives. There weren't really enough of them to be broken into teams to begin with, and besides that the whole of SIAD operated under one roof. Command would just send out certain operatives for whatever missions came available.

 

[Dragongal]

This seemed like Woods' area of interest more than Adira's, and it did seem to interest him for certain. "We'll be finding new things, I promise you that much. This isn't exactly my first exploratory run." Something about this lass seemed artificial, but Adira couldn't put her finger on it. Was it her smile, the tone of her voice? She didn't trust this girl, not entirely, though Adira hid that.

 

[Spazzycat101]

Lydia's smile changed only slightly, becoming much less forced as Adira mentioned that their efforts toward discovery would more than likely not be fruitless. She had been warned multiple times, 'Don't be disappointed if you don't find anything!', By her colleagues, who all knew very well how much wasted effort put her off. When she opened her mouth to address the Commander's question, she found that she had little idea. She had heard the term mentioned before, but only vaguely. When she did join one of The Outliners' missions, she was treated more or less like a tag-along, and she honestly never gave much attention to the ranking of whom she was working with. She saved her energy for recording the effects of the experimental tools, not for memorizing which rank was above which. She more often than not had just played it safe by trying to keep out of the way of most people and keeping on the neutral or good side of those who had important-sounding titles and organization acronyms preceding their names.


It was only after a few lengthy moments that Lydia remembered that she was supposed to maybe answer the question....


'I... I was never very invested in meeting the others there... Often, they were little more than short volunteer-only missions, and otherwise I was too busy recording what did what to what...'


That was about the best she could do in trying not to insult anyone, but braced herself anyway to be reprimanded for not knowing who in the world she was working with. She did have basic knowledge of ranks, such as that the captain essentially overruled all else, but otherwise she was in unsure territory.

 

[BookWyrm]

Woods nodded, seeming to be actually happy with her answer. "Well we did our best to keep ourselves rather black so to speak, so I hold no strikes against you for that." As he smiled his face seemed to change from the serious, if not commanding look, to being relaxed and casual. Woods had learned some time ago that when dealing with people other than SIAD and the Outliners you had to be appealing and polite if you expected to get anywhere with others. "You seemed familiar is all. Who knows, I may have been pulling security for you once before. Once you've seen so many faces they sometimes blend in your memory."

 

[Spazzycat101]

'Very true!--' Lydia could just barely stop herself from going on yet again. Woods' last phrase reminded her of a study done long long ago, in a galaxy that honestly wasn't very far away. She had done extensive research to dig up the tests and what they had yielded, though for no reason other than coping with boredom (which also related to both that and another few experiments she had discovered). The girl had yearned to expand upon the ancient experiments, but had realized that she alone would hardly be able to do so, nor would she have been able to distract a following of people who, bluntly, were intelligent enough for the job from the work they already were occupied with.


Very quickly and very suddenly, Lydia found that she was beginning to run out of things to say. Unless, of course, the captain and commander wished to hear about some of the newest and most... Experimental of the advanced chemical weaponry that the biochemist enjoyed learning-- and jabbering-- so much about.


Though they probably wouldn't, she had to remind herself.


Therefore, she simply gave an awkward nod to try to do something to combat the silence that had begun to descend. After a moment,


'I believe I heard something about having to be put into stasis?' She hesitated before the word 'stasis,' though the pause was so brief it is not even deserving of an ellipse. Lydia was understandably just as unnerved by the thought of artificial sleep as anyone else might be.

 

[Dragongal]

Adira nodded. "Just about all of your department is in stasis already. Commander Woods and I will be the last to go into stasis." Adira said it casually to let Lydia know there was nothing to worry about, same as the rest of the crew. But she didn't like the idea of it. There was a chance that one could dream while in stasis, even if for only a short portion of the time. But that short time was enough to make Adira hate the idea of stasis. She glanced at Woods, then back to her tablet. How many more did they have to wait for? She sent out a message to all of the crew telling them to finish whatever they were doing and report to their stasis pods.

 

[Anaxial]

Marshall had evolved from flipping his cigar case idly, to twiddling the cigar in his hands by the time Adira had messaged him. He glanced at the message, scoffed, and secured the cigar into the breast pocket of his oil stained shirt. Pushing himself off the wall, Marshall did a final security check through the cargo bay making sure that all their equipment was properly secured for the jump and t they didn't have any unwelcome stowaways.


It didn't take long for Marshall to finish the sweep and close up the cargo bay, the ship was airtight now. He grew his armor a gentle pat on the arm and a sorrowful nod before he left the cargo bay and reported to his stasis pod.


"Entering pod now, see you on the other side." He sent the message to Adira and Woods as he opened the pod, climbed inside and wriggled around to get comfortable. There he waited, he kept his pod open and leaned forward outside of the pod, biding his time.


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


For Anu, the process was strange and he felt uncomfortable being frozen, especially with most of his body being composed of a liquid. All, when he was ordered by the Captain via Dr. Chrice Jones... well he was never one to disobey orders.


Still, when Chrice entered the medical bay, Anu seemed to be fixing a small khaki plate, no larger than a belt buckle into the corner of the room. When she entered and ordered him to report to his pod, he smiled and tapped Chrice on the forehead.


"Oh, of course 01-.. I mean; Doctor Chrice Jones. I will get my ass into the my pod in five minutes! "He repeated with glee. Anu tapped a blue finger against the floating khaki plate and a pale blue light lit up on its face. "This will be quite the experience, don't you think Doctor Chrice Jones?" He allowed her, squeezing her shoulder nervously before he walked out of the medical bay and set up another floating plate in the hallway as he made his way to his N'thagn sized stasis pod.

 

[InsanEleven]

Saami had been standing by during the whole conversation, and as he wasn't talked to or asked anything he didn't do much. But that didn't mean he wasn't listening, that he wasn't forming an idea of who this new member of the medical crew was. She seemed the type that liked guinea pigs, the type that would somewhere along the line use him as a guinea pig, probably cooperating with Anu on that one. He was used to scientists poking around, but he didn't like it that much as usually it were the same things they were poking for. It did show she was curious though, and that was a good thing for a scientist.

 

[Spazzycat101]

Well, Adira's words had certainly given Lydia the feel that she was quite the latecomer. Rarely did she ever fall into such a streak of rather annoying obstacles and occurrences. Mentally slapping herself for not seeing such a thing coming, she gave a quick and somewhat anxious nod that would hopefully make up for her awkward wordlessness. In all honesty, she was both nervous and excited about being put in an artificial mental suspension, but she did realize she probably wouldn't be able to study the effects of it while she was in stasis. Hmph.


With a quick and awkward apology for having been delayed so much in arriving, she paused to rack her memories for any possible military formality prior to dismissing oneself. She felt sure there was something, but stumbled in recalling anything. Finally, she simply bowed her head before scurrying off to the biochemistry department. On her way, she was wondering about that INANES. Very obviously, he had to be some kind of physical anomaly. Though she had not once been allowed to study the artificial people, whether it be formally or informally, she had certainly seen a few. He acted very similarly to the others that were used for different roles, obviously, but Lydia was very aware that one alteration is simply a blaring siren for other potential 'mistakes', for regrettable lack of a better term in mind. Still, there were occurances in which there was little mistake but of the small kind.


Once she arrived in the room, she found a stasis pod open and ready for an occupant. Seeing the thing gave her a kind of ominous, inferior feel, but still she deposited the case containing her suit neatly in the corner of the room. Standing right in front of the contraption only magnified that odd feel exponentially, though with reluctance she entered the thing and let it shut her inside, though it gave her a hint of something much more final and permanent than a simple little stasis pod. Perhaps it was that prior to that, she was free (at least physically) to still walk from such an irreversible mission? She was unsure, and then next time she would have the opportunity to wonder about it, they would already have left the planet.

 

[Dragongal]

Adira looked at her tablet, then to Woods. "Seems we're the only ones who need to get into stasis pods." She glanced to Saami. "Once you're in position, I guess that will make it my turn." She trusted Saami to get them to their place. Despite what Anu said, she knew she could trust him not to do anything just to hurt the people aboard. Sure, some of the crew didn't like him, but he didn't seem the type for revenge. He was obviously good at his job too, and since he was an INANES he could process anything faster than a human. Of course, no matter what, there was the risk that none of them would ever wake up, but it seemed very small.

 

[BookWyrm]

The muscles in Vince's jaw and neck visibly tensed at the thought of stasis. But he remembered what Adira had promised him, so at least he had something to look forward too. "There wouldn't happen to be anything, I don't know, anything else I could take or have that would help with the stasis?" He didn't feel so bad about asking her now that everyone else was out cold. It was strange feeling like he could confide in someone else. Was this what truly trusting someone was like? He had trusted his SIAD brothers, but that was different. None of them had really been close to each other outside of being operationally effective. Hell, most Outliners acted more like INANEs even if they were human. "I know its probably useless to ask, seeing as how sedatives don't really work on me." He sighed heavily, scratching the back of his head as he opened up his stasis pod. At least it was next to the Captain's.

 

[InsanEleven]

Saami nodded to the captain once the captain decided to glance over to him.


"I will make sure we arrive at our destination Ma'am. Your earlier order will be uphold. After I made a securing round to see if everyone is in stasis I will launch and warp the ship." Soon he'd be alone, both for launch and for warp, which would be exciting to say the least. If everything went alright they would wake up on the other side perfectly fine in one piece, maybe a little bit groggy from stasis. That would be mild compared to his though, last time he warped, even for a short distance he had ended up with bruises, and he doubted this would be much different. Perhaps they all were so nervous for stasis because they never had actually felt what it was like to do the warp. Either way he saluted both Woods and the Captain, and then went on his way to make sure there were no missing bodies walking around the ship.

 

[Dragongal]

Adira nodded to Saami and put her tablet in her jacket pocket. Once he was gone, she nodded to Vince. "See you soon." With that she climbed into her pod, taking a deep breath to calm herself before closing it.

 

[InsanEleven]

3487/11/29 19:55:00


Saami had finished his rounds of checking on the pods, and made sure everything was in place and in working order. Everyone was secured, and there were no loose items that could damage anything. After that he had gone to the bridge and secured himself in the launch room, strapped in and fired up the systems.


"Saami to command, every stasis pod is checked and secure. Standing by for launch countdown."


His vision systems pulled up the information that was relayed to him from the outside, and he saw and felt the ship being loosened from the magnetic fields keeping her in place. Slowly the roofs opened, and on the display in front of him the view on the bridge was simulated, revealing a spectacular view of the night sky. A night sky they would soon be in.


"Command to Saami, prepare for launch in 10,-"


This was it, the countdown had started, and immediately he switched the required buttons. First the anti gravity generators outside released the ship from any forces the planet might enforce on them, and had the ship first being hovering through magnetic fields, it was now weightless. 7. He fired up the first engine systems, warming them up for the real launch, and several smaller correctional engines launched to stabilise his position keeping the ship perfectly upright. 4. Opening the power lines so the engines would be ready to go full throttle, a lot more systems were put in place, including shutting down the interior gravity and regulating the air pressure to make sure the ship wouldn't expand like a balloon once in a vacuum. 1.


Launch. Immediately he pulled the giant red handle in front of him.


Instantly the engines fired up, leaving a giant cloud of dust moved up by the plasma engines. The force had him pressed down in his chair, and within a matter of seconds the base was miles below him. Like a reverse shooting star they moved up, and were off of the planet so soon that even if the friction of the air heated up the ship, it couldn't get into a decent temperature before a vacuum had cooled it down again.


When he passed the moon of the colony a mere moments later he shut down the engines, the speed already being so fast it would soon become impossible to go any faster even with the engines on full power. He released a few buttons, and the gravity was stabilised, the pressure put back to normal and the power was relayed back to the internal systems. This was the easy part, once he reached the end of the solar system in a few hours he'd get onto the real fun part of having to do the warp.


3487/11/29 23:55:00


Saami passed the time checking if all the communications and video systems worked without too much delay or bugs. They would be vital to the mission, and as he had four hours to spend counting down to the warp he might as well do something useful that wasn't calculations. Just before the warp he shut all communications down to make sure they wouldn't somehow get out of sync during the warp.


"Well, here we go... happy birthday to me I suppose."


When he made his preparations he couldn't help but have slightly shaky hands, but there was none to see it, so he didn't mind too much. He was nervous yes, not because he didn't trust in his calculations, more because he wasn't sure what was on the other side, or if he would make it there.


"Please don't die here, I really really want to hit twenty you know..." Funny how he was talking to himself hovering his finger above a tiny blue button to start the procedure. That was definitely out of place for him, shouldn't make a habit of that. But hey, if he had to do it this was the best time of all. Slowly he pressed the button, closing his eyes and preparing for whatever hell he'd be in the next few moments.


It wasn't nice, not in the slightest, and it wasn't even the actual warp that was the worst. The intubation was so, so awful, which sounded weird from someone who had been sitting intubated in a pod for five years, but he couldn't remember anything from that time. Now this he would remember though, and it was awful to have to consciously stop fighting the urge to breathe while a machine did it for him. Good thing he only had a few switches left to touch.


Once he hit the last one it was like everything physical was tied back to that one place he had left while the ship was already there, like his atoms all wanted to stay behind. The only thing keeping him together were the warp shields, and he wasn't more grateful that he had tested them rigorously. Though he knew exactly what to do, it was hard not to panic, even for someone who had been mastering keeping his calm his whole life. At the same time he had to stop breathing, endure the pain of being pulled through dimensions and keep an eye out for the warp shields. It only lasted a dozen seconds, but it could've been hours, and he could feel the bruises grow on his back.


Never in his life had he been so glad to see endless dark space stretch out before him. His body and the ship finally seemed to agree on what place they were going to be, and nothing was destroyed. Quietly he laid back for a few minutes, tired just from twelve seconds of controlling a warp. Could've been worse, even if his back hurt and his lungs still disagreed with whatever had just violated them.


Trying not to show his pain or relief too much, he put the automatic pilot back on and went over to the captain's pod. Releasing her by pressing a few buttons.


"The ship is on autopilot Miss Adira... if you need me for anything you can come get me in medical." He grimaced while talking, his throat and lungs slightly worse for wear than he had thought. A few hours in a medical pod would fix most of it, but for now it wasn't very comfortable and even if the warp was successful it had definitely left a mark on his mental state.

 

[Dragongal]

Only a few minutes into stasis, and Adira had started having another nightmare. She struggled against her restraints, refusing to stay still like she was ordered to. She didn’t owe these people anything, despite what they liked to think. And she knew that, and made sure to let them know she thought that at every available moment. The place smelled of cheap rubbing alcohol and rust. Her heart rate only increased as she was told to calm down. She struggled harder as the cold, blunt knife started cutting into her skin.


And then the dream mercifully faded back into the darkness of stasis. This only seemed to last a short time before she woke up gasping, Saami having let her out. I fucking hate stasis. She shook her head, climbing out of the pod with a heavy sigh, her legs feeling a bit weak, more from the dream than the short stasis. "Well... thank you. I hope medical goes well for you. I'm going to let Woods out like I promised him." She took the moment to stretch a bit, before pressing the buttons to release Woods from the stasis pod next to hers.





@BookWyrm

 

[BookWyrm]

Had he been dreaming? No, there was no way it was a dream. He had been awake the whole time as usual, but things had been weird. He'd seen things, heard voices in and around the pod. Movement on the other side of his eyelids, shadows and figures. When he felt something stab into his skin his eyes had opened to find himself staring up into a cracked visor, blood sprayed all about his helmet. He heard something raspy, only realizing that it was his breathing. Pain erupted in his chest before he coughed out more blood. A lung had collapsed, punctured by something. Why couldn't he feel his right arm? Better yet, why the fuck was he so cold? He felt weak and cold and wet. Suddenly the voices returned and his helmet was removed before something shined a bright light into his eyes. He remembered pain and screaming as something plunged into his chest, but he could breath. He watched as blood shot out from a tube as it drained his lung. As his vision cleared he looked over to his right. His arm was no where to be seen. All that he could make out was the pool of blood that he lay in. It was his blood.


Woods closed his eyes, banishing the hallucinations to the best of his ability before building the courage to open them again. He looked around his pod, thankful to be back inside it, though he suddenly found himself met by a familiar face. Adira had kept her promise. As the pod opened Woods fell out, catching himself in a low crouch before standing up and cracking his neck. He took a deep breath and sighed contentedly. "Thank God that's over." Due to his enhancements his body was only mildly affected by the stasis, though this time he had managed to dream. Or well, it was more or less a recurring nightmare.

 

[InsanEleven]

Saami made his way over to the medical department, struggling more and more with the pain in his back as he went along. The adrenaline of the moment had kept him upright during his brief conversation with the captain but now he started to get shaky. His feet didn't stay quite in rhythm anymore as each step resonated through his back. When he took off his jacket and shirt and looked in the mirror he saw why exactly. The whole of his back was covered in red-purple bruises growing worst at his shoulder blades. It wasn't a pretty sight, and it certainly wasn't a pretty feeling.


The medical bay was build in some sort of a circle, and in the centre there were medical pods in a laid down fashion. Something to do with keeping the flow of blood even; it was just easier for a heart to work while laying down. He folded his jacket and shirt neatly and put them besides a pod for later, then stepped in and laid down, slightly uncomfortable as it pressed on his back. It didn't last long though, as the pod disabled gravity once the hatch was closed, and he became weightless so nothing in his body was actually touching anything. This allowed the machine to reach everything. A mechanical arm placed a needle inside of him and sedated him, though due to his enhancements not quite quick enough for him to not notice the oxygen mask placed over his face as the pod filled with a sterile, disinfectant gas. At least he wouldn't feel his back for a few hours and be able to sleep off the stress of the warp. Still, he had quite enough of being strapped in after this.

 

[Dragongal]

"Agreed," Adira sighed as she pulled out her tablet, looking over the ship status. Seemed Woods hadn't had much fun in stasis either. At least she wasn't alone in that bit of fun. "Good news, nothing's wrong with anything, and we're perfectly on course. So, we have a couple of day's leisure time." Adira pocketed her tablet, then said, "Best find a way to burn time. I'm probably going to just read and swing by the holograph chamber a few times, personally. Got any plans?"

 

[BookWyrm]

Woods had closed his eyes, rubbing his neck as he listened to Adira give the sitrep. For a few moments his face bore the expression of pain as he tried to shake the lingering nightmares from his mind. When he opened his eyes again he thought back over if he had planned anything. "I'll log some time in at the range, probably work out some stress in the gym, but otherwise my schedule is free. Did you have something in mind?" Woods was surprised at how casually he had asked the question. Maybe it was the fact that Adira actually treated him as a human instead of a weapon. "I mean....not that I.....I meant not like that....not that that is a bad thing......." He sighed as he scratched the back of his head. It was a tell of his, something he did when he was nervous, and obviously he was nervous about coming off in a bad way to the Captain. "Sorry....Had a bad stasis. Might be a little off for a bit."

 

[Dragongal]

Seeing his pain, Adira looked at him with concern, then he started tripping over his words. Adira laughed with him, hoping to show him that it was okay. She understood that, but had gotten used to quickly hiding bad nights and bad stasis trips years ago. Otherwise she'd probably been kicked off the ships she'd hitch-hiked on, and that was no good. "I can understand that. I had nothing planned for certain. Really I'll probably end up playing banjo in my room more than anything. Of course, if you want to do a holograph run together, I have no opposition," she said as nonchalantly as ever.

 

[BookWyrm]

Woods nodded. "I wouldn't mind that actually." He managed to smile, though it felt false to him. "To be honest I don't really have much to do. We never had a lot of down time back in the team. When we weren't on missions we were training. When we weren't training they usually kept us sedated, so I didn't have time to really explore anything."

 

[Dragongal]

Adira cocked her head to the side. She could understand this far more than she'd ever let him know. "Why would they keep you sedated?" Adira shook her head a bit. "Well, I guess we'll just have to have you try some things and see what you're interested in." He was part of her crew now, so saying "we" was applicable. Some captains wouldn't think so, but Adira was not like other Captains.