Deep Space Mission (IC)

[Samantha Arrow]

You wake up to nearly complete darkness, the only lighting coming from small lights that have localized battery power. You are cold, and wet from stasis gel. You are floating freely, the power loss must have been extreme for the grav plating to be offline. You can smell death, but you can also hear breathing of other individuals - you remember the stasis room had many chambers with other beings in them. They were probably auto-dumped when all power went offline.

Sam woke up gasping in fear, something was terribly wrong. She struggled to stand up and found the gravity was off. She whimpered a little, hardly able to see in the deep darkness. Her other senses were no help, she smelled death, could hear strange noises in the distance, and her body was still nub from stasis gel and the cold. After her canine eyes adjusted to the dark as best they could she was at least able to figure out which way was up and righted herself.

[redtail]

There was always something about stasis that chilled you deeper than flesh, deeper than bone… It was hard enough to get used to that, let alone waking up functionally blind.
In a normal situation, there would be light, there would be doctors waiting to check your vitals, wrap you up in towels to blot the clingy, tingling gel from your body, living things waiting to ensure your well-being. And if you wanted to curl up in a little ball and cry until your brain thawed out, it was okay.
But this was different. Wrong.
Terribly wrong.

The creature attempted to blink his eyes, thinking this would clear the fog.
There were no eyes to blink.
Do I have eyes? Did I have eyes? Who and what am I, even?

A trembling, gel-slick talon rose from the stasis tube, pressing against the curve of his beak.

My face… I have a face. A beak… Right. I… I'm not a bird, that's right, only… Only part…
Phelan.
Phe.
I'm Phe, that's what my name is. Thank the Gods, that much at least.

The talon moved up, brushing a heavily scarred cere, over stiff, bony tissue, plastic… Cold, rock-hard plastic.
A mask?
No mask. The talons wrapped around the protrusion, giving it a tug.
His entire head came with.
What is this!? Why can't I see!?
A panicked panting sound, fear.
"H-Hello! Somebody! Is anybody there!?"
His voice sounded murky, subdued.
Clearing the gel from his tall, protruding ears cleared this up.
Before long, the creature had finished exploring his own head and face, and begun cleaning the gel from the device that appeared to comprised the entire top half of the front of his skull.
A small, round, flat spot. When he touched it, there was some white. in his vision. He fought to clean the spot off, leaving himself with a blurred, grainy black-and-white image with a bright spot directly in the center.

Then these are my eyes… Something must have happened, I don't think I remember my eyes always being like this…
I need to clean my face. I can't imagine this should be all I can see…

The instinctive reaction was to squint. Even with no eyelids.
The entire room lit up brilliant green in razor-sharp detail for a split second, then dissolved in a grainy mess, then blackness.
"Gonna… Be sick… The hell was that…?"

When the grainy, blurred black-and-white image return, the creature drifted out of his tank.

[Kitsune]

Richard slowly woke up, confused and disoriented. And upside-down in the middle of the room.

What is a stasis tube doing above me? Am I floating? How am I still away from the metal?

He reached up to rub his head and think, only to cringe slightly as he felt the stasis gel smear. The substance wasn't magnetic, and very very cold. Figuring that it was acting as a barrier of sorts to prevent him from magnetically connecting to any of the metal he would normally stay near, the little tiger started trying to wipe as much as he could off his arms at least.

Next problem to resolve before thinking of anything else: How do I get back to the floor?

[Crusadra]

Tyler awakens with a start, he looks around everything black...
He feel a little sore... cold... and fairly senseless.

His thoughts:
-Oh... dear merciful god... why does this remind me of... of... doesn't really remind me of anything... now... where am I? Hell? Perhaps... no... Hell would be worse... this isn't a cold cell in hell... this is... a... stasis tube? Guh..."

He'd slowly wiggle and shift a bit,
-All limbs seem functional... can't breathe through my nose properly, probably clogged with that... gooey crap... jaws intact... same with the teeth and tongue... can't hear much... 'cept my heart beat, still alive. Now... I'm a male... Coyo-Maxie? Oh... Coyotous Maximus... I think I'm... twenty years of age... part of a something detail... guard? Yeah... guard detail... for what again? Guh... I'm forgetting something and freakin' numbers keep ringing... well that may be my name... SH10151... very fitting.- He'd sigh before popping his neck.

[Samantha Arrow]

Sam yelped a little in fright as she heard someone speak. "Damn you scared me. I'm here." She said, as she floated over to where she heard the voice. "I figured out which way is up, I'll right you." She figured she needed to tell him before she touched him. She grabbed him softly and lightly shifted him till he was upright. "Not that it helps much, still can't see much."

[Kitsune]

Richard flinched at the sudden contact, but didn't struggle as he was righted. "Thanks. I didn't hear anyone else nearby, sorry for scaring you." He looked around, seeing very little in the near-perfect darkness. "I thought there were backup power supplies hooked up to areas like this? Why aren't they activating? Can you see anyone else moving around?" He was hoping to catch something moving in front of the emergency lights.

[redtail]

Other voices. Comprehensible ones.
They sounded like they were in the same situation. Confused, afraid.

"Hey! Hey, guys! I-- I can kinda... Kinda see a little."

A gentle shove sends the creature pinwheeling out of the cylinder, eventually to catch himself and arrest his spin on the floor. Or ceiling. Or... Wall.
It was hard to tell.
There was a clear waver to the creature's voice, as though he was attempting to prevent himself from crying.
"Oh, Gods, I'm... I'm *so* glad I'm not alone in here... Do we... Do we have any idea what happened to the ship?"

It was relatively difficult navigating with an already underpowered visual sensor, especially one that was fouled-up with stasis gel, but he gathered that it was better than being totally blind, as he gathered was likely the situation for anyone else onboard.
"Are there any dry clothes, or maybe towels around?"

[Crusadra]

Tyler ear perks to the voices... he'd get up and looks over before giving an 'Ehm!'
"It is indeed nice that I am not alone as well..." He doesnt move.

He blows his nose and pick his ears a bit before breathing in, -Better... I can breathe... and hear better. Hmm... are these others trustworthy? Time will tell.- He then stands and goes to Phelan.

"Here... let me help you. I'm SH10151, Guard detail... or was anyways."
-There seems to be... 3? Sounds about right... hope we have an engineer...-
He then would attempt to help Phelan.

[Samantha Arrow]

[I actually was righting redtail's character not Kitsunes, but it doesn't matter really]

"One thing at a time." Sam said to the person who was worrying about what happened. "Someone said they can kinda see? Do you see where computer station is in this room? I might be able to get a localized power battery running to get the lights on in here..." She ran her paws down her sides, and found she was only in her underwear. "It might not be such a good thing though, they only left us in underwear in stasis..." She could tell by the voices the other few were males, quite embarrassing for her.

[redtail]

"Thanks for the hand, you're a sweetheart, Ma'am."
THe tone in his voice sounds genuinely appreciative. Maybe excessively so.
The brief physical contact seems to help calm his nerves in an extreme degree, at any rate. He nods briefly, then the thought crosses his mind that maybe he's the only one who can see at all, even as crude as his vision is at the moment.
"Speaking of batteries... I... I think if I can get hold of a portable power-tool supply or even a hardsuit fuel cell, I... I think I can see... normally. Lemme look around for a sec. I've got literally no peripheral vision, it's like looking through a toilet paper roll right now."

The gryphon gently shoves himself off of the floor, adding a gentle twist to his launch to re-orient himself to a wall before looking around. He spends a few moments grunting, cursing softly to himself... The barely-audible sound of various components inside his imaging device beginning to un-seize after what could have been years of mechanical atrophy helping to punctuate his displeasure.
"This might take a sec. I'm... I think that... My eyes aren't natural. They're covered in this gel funk and I can only see a few feet in front of me."

The sound of the creature rebounding off of the walls, occasionally mis-judging a distance and landing crookedly with a soft sound of discomfort.

"OW! I... I found it. With my head. It's where I am. I can't see for crap. I really need a towel or something.

[Samantha Arrow]

She followed the sound of his voice, "I think I can do it by touch memory..." She came in contact with the computer station. She moved along the edges till she got to the spot she wanted to be. "Hmmm..." She bent over and pulled off a panel, messing with the innards of the computer. Now even the small lights that had been on went dark in the room, but after a minute or so of her fumbling around, the computer stations panels and displays lit up. "There."

She stood back up and used the computer for a while. "Got it." Dull red lighting filled the room from lights in the ceiling. All present were anthros that their animal derivative has low light vision though - so it was enough. "Only coming from a local battery, but it will do to find the necessities."

She blushed and covered herself up as she moved to some lockers lined up on the wall. Opening the locker labeled 'Female Engineering Uniform'. Inside was a blue jumpsuit-uniform. Inside the other lockers would be the same, just different colors, and modifications for body type and shape.

Sam got dressed up in her uniform, "Better than being in underwear at least." Figuring she'd show her nerdy side, she explained "If your memory isn't coming back so well: These uniforms do offer a bit more than just protecting your modesty, they some metal threading in them to prevent low level cuts and tears , and they are also sprayed with refracting spray which can cut down damage from minor plasma burning." Basically not much more than normal accidents that might occur on a ship - someone coming at you with intent to kill won't be held back much by it.

Also in the locker was the minimum equipment package for personnel. In Sam's their was a repair kit, in security lockers there were low-output plasma pistols, science lockers had a multi-scanner. "I suppose since we can tell something bad happened we can take items for other classes..." Sam picked up one of each item, there was enough there for them all to do the same.

[Kitsune]

Richard had just managed to feel the satisfying magnetic pull telling him he had gripped onto a surface when the lights came on. He looked around at the rest of his current "companions" as he glided towards the lockers. He looks through them for a minute before finally finding a single science suit for his small body. "Well, this is certainly a start. I don't suppose you got any intel on the ship's status while you were on the computer? I don't know about the rest of you, but I hate not knowing what's going on."

He stuck to the wall as he looked around in his green jumpsuit. He had no idea who the rest of them were, or what they could do. A nightmare for anyone who's job is intelligence and information. "My name's Richard, by the way. And I don't think it's a good idea to wander the ship alone, so why don't we all try to stick together?" He knew he would need to find some of his medication soon, but he wasn't about to let that bit of info out just yet.

[redtail]

It took Phelan a few minutes of groping around to find his way to the cabinets. THe dull red light was close enough to his optical range that there was plenty of spectral bleed, giving him light to see by. It was still hideously blurry because of the gel, though.

Another engineering jumpsuit out of the locker. Even mostly naked, the creature's first priority was cleaning off his face. What was left of it, anyway. The resulting image was a good bit clearer, but still lacked resolution and its range was mostly dependent on the ambient lights. Rudimentary at best, but a welcome relief nonetheless.

THe creature slipped into the jumpsuit, shifting it around on his body and grunting softly to himself for a few minutes as he settled his feathers into place.

"I'm... I'm Phelan. Phe. I prefer Phe. I'm a hull-monkey... I... I do microgravity EVA repair and maintenance. I... I can fix pretty much anything that hasn't got many computers in it... I think we should stick together too. I swear I won't be a drag. Especially... Especially if we can find me a battery."

THe creature collects his extras, then begins to scour the room for a battery, fuel cell, or something sufficient to power his eyes.

[Samantha Arrow]

"No, but I can look now..." Sam said to the question if she saw anything about what happened to the ship. "Oh, my name is Samantha Arrow - Main Systems Engineer."

She moved back to the computer station and did her thing, she frowned. "Which does help much here since main systems are down. I only can get information on this room, I need at least emergency power running to learn more about ship-wide information."

Sam walked back to one of the security lockers and took out another plasma pistol, she took it to the computer station and opened up her repair kit and dissembled the gun. Then she brought some part to Phe, "Will either of these work? One is the plasma ammo cartridge and this is the recharging assembly."

[Crusadra]

Tyler had gotten his equipment from the locker and was dressed in a blue and black uniform with golden circles on its front over the heart, and on each shoulder, and in the circles with block black letters stated, "Security". With the uniform was a wrist brace that covered his left forearm, a standard projector shield and the other was a blaster which he'd holster onto his right thigh.

He'd watch and observe the rest, seemingly forgotten... he'd chuckle a bit shaking his head amused by them. -I guess this is good... I can operate in peace while they bustle about...- He observes their current room eying every detail before observing the bunch at work.

[redtail]

Phelan nods vigorously, bowing his head once in a pathetic display of appreciation. He takes the components, panting softly and looking... Something between anxious and enthused.
His own items in his personal locker had been of... Limited immediate value. There were two battery packs that were long discharged, a microfiber towel in a plastic bag, a bandanna, a pair of light-duty Kevlar and Nomex blend work gloves good for precious little more than protecting one's hands from torch burns or sheet-metal cuts... Interface cables to hook his imaging hardware up to computers or EVA suits' HUD systems... And a small flashlight with a black cap over the end, a bit of cheap insurance he'd always kept around should his illuminator become damaged. He'd kept the towel in a pocket, the bandanna in another, donned the gloves pocketed the cables, disdainfully leaving the dead flashlight and dead batteries behind.
"Plasma... Plasma plasma plasma plasma... Let's see..."

THe gryphon's head tips to the side a bit, his optical unit chattering softly as its finer focus controls begin to warm up after Gods-only-knew how long of a period of disuse.
"I never really worked on weapons... But all plasma is, is a state of matter where ions have become charged enough that the distinction between atoms is... Nonexistent. Tremendous electrical energy. I... Mmmmfff..."
The creature wedges himself up against a bulkhead, examining the power pack and the recharger unit.
"One's the ion source, probably crystallized hydrogen or helium inside of a heavy-duty carbon, or... Maybe diamond shell, if I had to guess, with an electromagnetic valve... The other's the power source."
The creature can be seen to turn the ammunition cell over in his talons dozens of times over.
"Most likely voltage, you can get current from voltage. Less efficient to get voltage from current... Buffer... I need a buffer... Or a really big resistor... No, transformer."

He begins to disassemble the recharger, picking it apart and sorting out electrical components. Before long, he seems to have totally disassembled and then re-assembled the device, having apparently stripped a wire coil inside apart to bind the thing back together. He inserts the plasma magazine into one end, wobbling it around to ensure a proper seat.
"I haven't got a clue if this will work. I'm almost literally flying blind here. Up close it's better, but I still can't read color codes. Well... Nothing ventured..."

He holds the makeshift power supply up in front of his "eyes", giving it one last once-over, then moving it around to the back of his head, to the metallic port flanked on all sides by heavily scarred, featherless flesh.
"...Nothing gaAAAAIIIIIINGGG--"
Quickly, he withdraws the device from the socket, whimpering and shivering for a moment. A shy grin spreads across his features.
"That's the first time I've *literally* shorted-out my own brain. I think I smell... Eggs."
He pushes himself off again, beginning to carefully disassemble his crude power supply as he drifts towards Sam's repair kit. Once there, he grabs a roll of insulator tape, tears off a few inches, then carefully wraps several of the components before closing the device again, taping it shut and plugging it back in again. It looks terribly awkward, but he seems tangibly relieved.
"Miz Arrow? I owe you at *least* one. I don't know how long this thing's gonna last though, and I'm... I'm afraid to use anything other than visual band. I seem to remember there are some unusual things I can do with a proper sixteen-amp, twelve-volt battery pack. They keep the good hydrogen ones in hull access. I'll... I'll pocket this thing for now. Antsy as I feel with only upper-infrared, it doesn't eat up power we might need later. Where to? Reactor, engines, bridge? Communications?"

[Samantha Arrow]

[Want to note these lockers weren't our things - they were just standard crew packages. But none of you took anything too OP though so I guess it's ok.]

Watched what she now figured to be a cyborg do his thing with what he was offered. The way he spoke of technology she guessed he wasn't a citizen of the Lightfire Union. Wasn't her business where he came from though.

Sam looked around the room more carefully, then spoke again. "As you know we're all special in some sort of way - on a Lightfirean science vessel. I've got to say I have de-stasis sickness - I can't remember what I'm special for." As for the question of what now, "We need emergency power back online. To find out what's going on and get the necessities back online: life support, environmental controls, main computer, internal sensors, and grav plating."

[Kitsune]

"If I remember the layout right... This ship is structured into several isolated sections, isn't it? Both to keep people from wandering completely freely and in case one of the dangerous projects gets out of hand." Richard pushed off the wall to land on the floor, standing and walking normally to the computer as everyone else floated in the gravity-less environment. "Samantha, right? Do you remember which section we're in? What we have access to makes a difference for where we should go first."

[Samantha Arrow]

Sam nods, "True they are separated, but as soon as a problem happens the random jump happens. After that no point to quarantine anymore..."

She moves back to the computer terminal, and opens a static map picture of the ship. "We are on bio-engineering deck, a subsection of the medical deck. To be specific we are in the intelligent species room."

[Crusadra]

He sighs, -This is going to be fun... on a sci-vessel with no detailed instructions and with a bunch of egg-heads, not a single one of them into medical? I think my nightmare is getting interesting.- He pushes off and floats slowly towards them, looking to Sam, "How do we get to the bridge and how do we get to this ships power plants?" -This sounds grim... personally I like having the cards all spread out and showing, not covered and hidden.- "As your security detail I agree... we stay together. I guess I was put with you bunch for a reason, this is why and I will be dramed if I don't get my objective completed." He eyes them all a bit before looking back to Sam...

[Samantha Arrow]

"In my opinion the bridge is the last place we want to go. If the incident that happened was an external attack, that would have been the target - it might not even be there... Main engineering is the same story... The emergency power generators are one deck below this one, just a utility deck."

[redtail]

Phelan offers up a soft chirping sound in interjection.
"I think I'd have to agree, but for different reasons. See, the emergency generators being one deck below us makes them... Closer. And if I recall properly, further from the hull. If... If the ship was attacked or damaged, then... I would think the last thing we'd want to do would be to pass through more of the ship. You know... At least until we've determined the status of the vessel's hull... I was trained for this sort of thing, but I can't for the life of me remember a single detail of the ship's construction. I can't even begin to tell you how useless that makes me feel. But... If we can get to the generators, I'll make it up, I swear it."

The creature seems slightly frustrated with himself, glancing about the room.
"Sam, you said this was the bio-engineering deck, and that quarantines would sort of be a joke right now. If, ah... If you remember... WHat other kinds of things were on this deck...? I hate to make implications about our government, but... I'd rather not trip into a flesh-eating virus, if it's all the same to you."

[redtail]

((Hey... uh...

((bump...?

[Samantha Arrow]

[I was waiting for other player to post]

[Kitsune]

((I don't have anything to add at this point.))

[Crusadra]

Tyler rolls his eyes, "I swear... look..." He'd look back to them, "You tell me where, you set a course and we'll head that way, but if we sit hear with our thumbs up our bums, then we are rather useless, hmm?"

He looks a bit tired at the moment, -I swear... their... just... eggheads! Nothing else to them! If I don't get this done then this bunch will drive me insane!-

He stare at them from his position... mainly at Sam since she more then likely knew what she was doing.

[Samantha Arrow]

Sam shook her head, "I can't remember... I do know that there is a repair shaft access port right in this hallway though. So if something bad is on this deck we won't have to stay here long..." She glanced over at everyone in the room, seeing Tyler staring at her - she didn't assume it was because he thought that she knew what he was doing, but the fact she was the only female - who knows how long the boys had been in stasis. She blushed a bit, "Shall we get moving?"