Dissension IC

[Brome Teks]

Lock On Biological Endeavors Testing facility 01 drifts through the cold of interstellar space. On board, thousands of animals, hundreds of thousands of tons of plant life, and many, many sleeping passengers drift through, unaware of the course the ship has planned. The ship is now several months outside of the latest star system it’s been aiming for in it’s cosmic journey. However, none of you know that, yet…

The following is the relevant parts of the event log with respect to the passengers in sleeping compartment 01-388DF87 (You guys)

0.00 minutes

File eventLog = new File(log_01-388DF87.data);

eventLog.println(minutes + “: All subjects in hibernation. Begin log keeping.”);

1.23 minutes: Sedatives administered. Beginning flow of hibernation drugs. Calibration information found. Optimizing flow for each subject.

2.00 minutes: Flow optimized. Commencing long term recycling systems and sealing hibernation tubes. Humidity: Optimal. Atmosphere: Optimal. Temperature: Optimal. Pressure: Optimal. Flow: Optimal. Begin long term recording.

<<Numerous entries omitted for this post>>

26794084.25 minutes: Error: Unable to access genomes_01-388DF87.data . Unable to store new record. Hard drive corrupted. Switching to Direct Genome Gathering repair mode.

<<Numerous entries omitted>>

27290888.34 minutes: Warning, unauthorized activity detected in hibernation drug recycling system. Cause unknown. Data corruption detected in security files. Flow remains optimal.

<<Numerous entries omitted>>

462885408.66 minutes: Warning: 14% of power core safeguards damaged. Remaining safeguards show no signs of deterioration.

<<Numerous entries omitted>>

1098241289.48 minutes: CRITICAL SYSTEM ALERT: Fire detected in 01-388DF87 main power buses A-C. WARNING: fire is spreading to other systems. Fire suppression systems engaging.

1098241292.52 minutes: Fire extinguished. CRITICAL SYSTEM ALERT: 01-388DF87 main bus A undervolt. 01-388DF87 main bus B undervolt. 01-388DF87 main bus C undervolt.

1098241292.86 minutes: CRITICAL SYSTEM ALERT: 01-388DF87 Hibernation support systems failing. Flow: No reading. Humidity: sub optimal. Temperature: sub-optimal. Atmosphere: Within acceptable bounds. Pressure: Within acceptable bounds. WARNING: Hibernation conditions failing. ++EMERGENCY++: Subject life functions falling out of acceptable ranges. Commencing emergency wake-up procedures. Automatic medical systems engaged. Administering wake-up stimulants.

1098241295.67 minutes: Administration of wake up stimulants successful. Subjects life functions moving to acceptable ranges. Hibernation chambers moving to standard wake-up positions. Unsealing Hibernation chambers in 5 seconds.


(to spare everyone breaking out their calculators, that’s 0, 50, 51, 880, and 2089 years. )

+====================+

Everyone in hibernation compartment 01-388DF87 would feel as if they were coming out of a deep, timeless sleep. Your heads would be feeling incredibly groggy. That’s to be expected when you’ve been asleep for over 2 millennia. If you tried to think in this groggy state, it would be extremely fuzzy. You couldn’t even remember getting into the hibernation chambers. Or anything in the weeks leading up to it, for that matter.

While in this groggy state, you feel the surface you’re on shift down so that instead of being mostly upright, you were now lying on your backs. As you slowly open your eyes, you see that you’re in tubes of some kind. Just as you begin to feel like you might have enough energy to sit up, (That would be the wake-up stimulants), the tubes open above you. Before you can get up, a scanner of some kind quickly scans over each of you in succession. It states your name, then “No genome data found,” before moving onto the next person and doing the same.

The other people in the sleeping chamber begin to stir. Not ten seconds later, you all hear a person make an exclamation. It almost seems as though he’s having a bit of trouble pronouncing syllables that require the heavy use of lips. However, you all can clearly make out what the fellow is saying.

“WHERE THE FUCK ARE MY THUMBS?!?”

[Dusty]

I had always been a deep sleeper. So when the scanner announced my name my first reaction was the mumble something incoherent before attempting to roll over on my side in the pod. Apparently the pods weren't designed for use on your side because the immediate sensation was one of cramps across my back. Groggily I bring my hands up to rub my eyes.

To my surprise two extremely hard bits of plastic fell out. My contacts. "Wha-?" I said groggily. Blinking, a few times I noticed my vision didn't appear any worse. At least not to the near-sighted extent that I normally experience without my aids. Christ they feel like water bottle plastic. I must have been out for awhile, I thought as I attempted to sit up.

Any further thoughts were scattered like leaves when the person next to me exclaimed, "Where the **** are my thumbs!?" Not quite understanding what he meant I instinctively looked at my hands. It was quite clear I was in a similar boat as he was. Not only were my hands covered a soft layer of fur, my little fingers had vanished as well. The rest of my fingers seemed mostly intact if a bit shorter and wider then they had been. The skin on my palm seemed to have dried out, leaving a rough texture similar to that of an animal's paw.

My heart rate started to rise as I examined the rest of my arm. It too was covered in the same fur, no skin was exposed. As far as I could tell it extended all the way up to my chest. This.... This can't be right, I muttered to myself, my tail twitching with anxiety. My tail? Slowly my mind became aware of the alien appendage that had grown from my elongated spine. When I concentrated on it I found I could exert control over it but when I didn't it seemed to move on its own.

"What in god's name happened here?" I wondered allowed.

[SliceOfDog]

Professor Mitchell had remained lying down and was in the process of slowly flexing his extremities when he heard the scream. His hands automatically shot outwards and grasped the sides of his tube, bracing his body as if catching himself falling, although his eyes remained closed. As he heard more yells, he quickly rubbed his fingers together and wiggled his toes, and finding no problem with them, he forced his breathing to slow down, trying to slow his beating heart. He had been told that it was possible, albeit unlikely, for sleepers to be woken to find a medical emergency. All it took was one pipe to break, or one chemical to leak. Fortunately such a thing hadn't appeared to have happened to him, so he forced himself to think about his medical training (Not extensive, but hopefully enough to maintain life until the medical teams had woken and organised themselves) and think calmly and logically.

Taking another deep breath, he pushed himself upwards and glanced across to where the sound came from, pulling a muscle in his neck and groaning, rubbing it. "Put pressure on the wound," he yelled in the general direction of the yell "and try not to panic. It's quite possible to reattach thumbs, just focus on stopping the bleeding. The medical teams will be here soon"

He rose out of the tube and fumbled towards the door. He pressed a switch, opening a panel to first aid supplies, and quickly but clumsily grabbed some bandages and painkiller. He hadn't yet seen the other passengers, or noticed any of his own 'changes'.

[Nelle Kozera]

Alertness came back like a freight train; she had been overly sensitive to stasis stims before going into the stasis chambers. But she wondered why the techs….where were the techs…? She bolted up right hitting her head of off chamber tube before just before it openned, she groaning as she watched the tube open she jumpped out of the tube landing on up right. They gave way almost instantly, those around the room could hear a soft thud on the metal floor. She growled…

“What the fuck did I just growl…?!” The thought blotted across her mind like lightning leaving a nice little scar where ever it went. She heard someone scream.

“WHERE THE FUCK ARE MY THUMBS?!?”

She instantly looked at her hands and sighed, they were normal aside from the glowing blue fur. All thoughts in her mind stopped dead, the next sound that was heard was blood freezing scream that sounded like it was from the lungs of a harpy, under this scream lower growl. After sustaining this for fourty plus seconds she stopped and promptly blacked out.

Five seconds later she came back to awareness, the world faded back in a lot faster than it she would have liked. “Shit…shit…shit…shit…shit….” She felt her face, it was fuzzy, and pointed. “What the fuck is this shit?! I NEED A GOD DAMN MIRROR…” She began looking franticly around the room for a surface, anything that could be reflective. She found a surface that reflective. “Oh my god….” She screamed again though only for about ten seconds before looking at herself again, “Wait maybe I’m not the only one…” Though that was all she could do before falling into a corner and hugged herself. Rocking back and forth, “It’s just a dream…just a dream…” After this she broke off into Russian repeating a phrase over and over....

[Daryn]

Sean slowly and blearily starts to come back to reality. "God damn, that was a hell of a party..." he thinks to himself, recalling the wild night of drinking and partying that he had done on the station before somehow ending up in this glass tube. He shakes his head, trying to clear it, and finding that the wake up drugs are doing quite an effective job of getting his senses back online.

Then he hears that loud exclamation from another tube. He tries to get up out of the tube and lands with a clack of taloned feet on metal. He stops, blinking, "Uh..." he looks at his hands, covered with black feathers and partly formed wings. He looks himself over and notices the feathers covering his body. He touches his face and finds a hooked beak. It's at this point that he looks around the stasis chamber and notices for the first time that he's seeing a LOT better than he ever had. He is able to pick out details that he never could before. Slowly, he turns and looks for a mirror to look at himself at. The glass tube does a rather good job of that in a pinch.

He stares at himself, stunned, shocked, but yet... he has to admit, he is rather fond of the change. "I wonder what else this new body has to offer?"

He opens the locker next to his tube and spots his clothes, a simple white t-shirt and blue jeans and sneakers. He puts them on, but avoids the sneakers, realizing that there's no way his feet will fit on this now.

[Buzzwolf]

"Nyaaah..." She groaned as the computer pestered her to wake up "Fivmerminutes..." she got out as she batted a hand at the scanner. The computer, probably couldn't have cared less if she actually got up or not, and moved on to the next stasis pod, but alas, as was her curse, she was awake, and there was no more rest to be had for her. she groaned again as she just lay there, not wanting to get up, until she heard someone in one of the nearby pods yell something about 'missing his thumbs' Must still be asleep she thought no one 'loses' their thumbs in stasis...wait...Stasis pods? when'd we...how.....what...? She rubbed her face groggily, noting the slight scratching as her, appearantly too long nails dragged softly across her face. She made a mental note that she would need to find a pair of nailclippers before the day was over....and why did her hands feel so soft? like she was wearing a pair of furred gloves..."Oiii...." She grabbed the sides of her head, feeling the clawtips again as she got a headache trying to remember how she'd ended up where she was.

She suddenly sat bolt upright as she felt something twitch under her...annnnnnd immediately went right back down as she nearly blacked out, again, holding her head with the furred gloves "Nyaaaah...too fast..." this time she groggily rolled a little on her side to prop herself up with an elbow to start, not noticing the softer feel between herself and the bed of the stasis cell. She pushed herself groggily into a sitting position, this time keeping a hand on the edge of the cell. She heard someone, someone else this time, talking to themselves, 'what in gods name happened here?' they'd asked, obviously to no one in particular, and her thinking the voice was asking about the stasis

"We were in stasis..." She responded stating the obvious for one she thought had never been in stasis before, eyes still half closed as she spoke. "Same shit that always happens when...well...whatever the fuck it is that went wrong happens..." She didn't have a clue "All I care about right now, is that this place better have a hot shower, and some coffee...then I'll start caring about what happened to the station" she fingered around the side of the stasis cell for the control panel, and tapped two switches, one making the side of the cell fall away, the other bringing up a voice control "Computer, Showers" a light lit up on the floor to guide her to the Stasis room showers. She gingerly hopped down, keeping a tight grip on the stasis cell till she could keep her feet under her without falling flat on her face, never realizing it was because of her new feet. She staggered toward the door, still yawning every now and then, and followed the lights out, her tail swishing lightly back and forth behind her, helping her maintain her balance on her new feet.

Completely Naked.

Her clothes had been stored somewhere before her entry into stasis to prevent irritation while under. She walked into a door as the sensors failed to register that there was someone standing there. a series of muttered curses and she slapped the doors control panel and it hissed open just as a scream tore through the room. her ears folded back against her head at the sound "Fer christs sake! it is too god damned early for this!" she turned to exit, and walked into the door again, having taken too long to go through after hitting the switch. she hit the panel, much more violently this time, with string of muttered curses and slipped into the equalivant of a locker room, and immediately headed for the showers, her claws clicking softly on the metal floor.

The water came on with a crack and a his, with a bit of rusty spittle before the filters kicked in and it cleared up, and she stepped in with a sigh and let the water pour over her head. she simply stood there, letting the water rush across her body a few minutes before she noticed it...

Wet Dog

Who the hell had a dog on the station?! and was giving them a bath now of all times?! she stuck her head out from behind the shower curtain, sniffing the air. God. the smell was everywhere! where was that damn dog?! she slipped out, leaving the water running behind her.

the air around was all steamy and there was a layer of moisture on everything now. movement suddenly caught her eye from one of the mirriors and she practically jumped "Who's there?!" no response. the fogged over mirrors made it impossible to tell who was in there "'ello?" crept toward the mirrors, her ears twitching, listening for the sounds of anyone in the next room. utter silence. she stepped into the room, her toes clicking on the tile caught her off guard and she jumped again, but before she was able to look down and see feet that weren't hers, she saw teh movement in the mirror again from her stumbling back at the sound of her claws. she stopped. it wasn't someone else in here...that was, her refelection? no...that couldn't be right...she padded up to the mirror and wiped it with her fur gloved hand and found the eyes of a wolf staring back at her. her eyes. she rubbed more of the fog off the mirror, revealing more of 'her' face. no no no...she had to be dreaming...no, the water felt too real for that...someone hacked the rear display behind the mirrors to mess with her...yeah, that had to be...it? she suddenly noticed the muzzle attached to the front of her face. she gingerly reached up, the gloved hand hesitating as it came close, then it touched it and pulled away as though scorching hot. then it fell on it and she knew it was for real.

She Screamed.

She screamed bloody murder, and scrambled backward, away from the creature in the mirror, maybe she could get away from reality. she kept screaming and screaming, even as she ran into the shower curtain and fell backward into the still running shower and pulled it down around her. She sat there screaming in the corner of the shower with the curtain wrapped around her and the water pouring down on her head till she found herslf out of breath, and just sat there, in total disbelief panting...with the water still pouring down on the shower curtain on her head...

she would noooot be needing that coffee now...

[Slate]

Not a thing. Not a blasted thing could K.T. remember, and his head was pounding. "Must'ave been one hell of a party." he said to himself. "Or not..." he added noticing he was in a stasis tube. As he stood up, he began to notice things... differently. His tube, and the ones around him had an odd tone of blue to them, while various other things seemed to glow slightly, some more brightly than others.

When he began hearing screams, his (slightly less than intense) training began to take over. Haphazardly he scrambled to his nearby footlocker. He would worry about uniform once there was organization in regards to whatever situation was at hand, at least in the short term, so his stasis clothes would suffice for now. He grabbed an earbud-telecom and tried to put it in position. Failing the first time, he felt his ear, or rather the lack there of. "You've gotta be kidding me..." He thought. He didn't care how ruckus the party was, someone took his ear, and they were going to pay. He navigated the earbud into the small hole on the side of his head, and switched it to channel 7, the normal security channel.

Next he stood up, and closed his eyes as he keyed in a code, the motions for which he had memorized long ago. It was strange though, even with his eyes closed he was still able to make out faintly glowing lines of orange and red that made up the console. Once keyed in, he opened his eyes as two small doors opened vertically revealing it's contents. An RS-771 rifle, colloquially known as a 'sonic rifle'. It was developed specifically for pacification of targets without potential for collateral damage. In short, it projects a high decibel sound at a target in order to disorient and effectively disable without causing harm. Unlike directed energy or projectile weapons which can cause bodily harm or (arguably) more importantly damage the station.

"Everybody remain calm, you are coming out of stasis." he yelled as he turned around. "You.... you......" He looked around and immediately noticed things were amiss. Some people looked normal, others, well others didn't look like people at all, but everyone had a slight orange glow about them to him.
"Wha-What are you!?" he yelled, aiming his weapon, switching between animal-like targets, still not fully realizing his own changes.

((I tried to think of a weapon that could be used by security personnel on board a space station or space ship that could be used without killing people or damaging components. Then I remembered the LRAD, and thought it was pefect. For those that don't know: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Range_Acoustic_Device ))

[SliceOfDog]

Mitchell turned, arms full of medical supplies, and was confronted by K.T. waving a rifle at the people coming out of stasis. His mouth dropped open and the supplies fell from his hands, crashing onto the floor. For a moment he said nothing, just staring in amazement at the lizard-like creature before him, but tried to rally his thoughts and form a cohesive sentence. With screams and swearing in the background, he began and choked on a silent sentence several times, before breathing "Please... we mean no harm." He tapped his own chest, with his other hand held hesitantly in the air.
"We're a race from a far away planet, we call ourselves human be-"
He stopped.
He tapped his chest again, then, with a shaking hand, scratched it, feeling... fur. He looked down, wide-eyed, to see the soft, white fur covering about half of his body. Silently, but with urgent horror, he began clawing at the edges, below his neck and along his right ribs, as if in an attempt to peel the stuff from his body. He stumbled backwards, K.T. completely forgotten, and let out a single, high-pitched cry. Landing hard against the wall, he slid down it and sat in a form of upright fetal position, furiously rubbing along his arms and legs with increasing fervour.

[Dusty]

The sudden ear splitting screams of panic broke me out of my self-exploring stupor. The full realization of what was going on still hadn't quite hit me yet. However, when I noticed the lizard-like creature at the end of the room holding a sonic rifle the whole situation became a lot more real in my mind.

My own metamorphosis temporarily forgotten, I stood slowly with my palms out in the universal message of I come in peace so please don't shoot! "Hey buddy, just calm down. Look, we're all kinda messed up right now. The worst thing you can do is panic. Trust me, I think we'd both have problems if the ladies started screaming again," I said is a forced joking voice. I was trying to ignore the new addition to my field of view, namely the short muzzle that extended below my eyes. I really hope the cosmetic surgery for this is covered by my medical plan.

[Brome Teks]

Tambria: The showers would take a moment to come online, but when they did a small weak force field covered the entrance to the shower stall for privacy, obscuring any light passing through. Mirrors could be found in the shower or restroom

Mitchell: The medical supply cabinet hisses as it breaks it’s 2000 year old vacuum seal, revealing perfectly intact medical supplies.

K.T.: The locker next to your tube opens at your command, allowing you to retrieve your supplies and any clothes inside.

Sean: Same as above

[[OOCly: A Map of the compartment is now provided. ]]

Spoiler

You guys can assume they're more colorful and detailed, I just wanted a quick reference map. =P

The door at the entrance to the compartment is sealed and will not respond yet.

The table at the mess has some flip-up touch screens for users. Due to a lack of genetic data, anyone who tries to log on will have to set a password for their account.

The showers are now able to be used, thanks to Tambria activating the first one and getting the pumps moving again.

The medical supplies were vacuum sealed for freshness, said seal was broken by Mitchell.

There are 12 tube cubicles, each tube is able to be used as a bed as well. On the side is a vacuum sealed locker, anyone who put stuff in will find it perfectly preserved.

+===========+

Description over time for some actions.

A couple of the occupants of the other cubicles peek out at the commotion outside but quickly duck back in when they see K.T. with his weapon out. The rest of them remain in their cubicles, and you all can hear expressions of disbelief and shock coming from inside.

If anyone goes to look at the guy who screamed out earlier about his missing thumbs, when they enter his cubicle, they would find a large anthropomorphic silver fox sitting up looking in disbelief at himself. The hibernation was not kind to him. He looks almost more like a large version of the fox than a human, but his head is shaped slightly differently, luckily his brain cavity wasn't affected. As for why he was shouting out earlier, if anyone looked at his hands, they would see that the fellow instead of hands now has a pair of paws almost identical in shape to a regular fox's. His thumbs are still there, they're just dew claws now, and he has no real fingers to speak of.

<<More descriptions of NPCs will be added in later posts or possibly added into the Airlock cycle thread at a later time.>>

[Daryn]

I do a quick look around the chamber again, then decide that after 2000 years it would probably be a good idea to get a good shower. While he is still reeling from the fact that he is now an anthropomorphic hak, he can't help but think that maybe this was the best thing that could've happened to him. Other folks in the chamber don't seem to be looking at it that way though.

He checks his supplies in the locker, then walks to the showers and proceeds to clean up the 2000 years of crud that inevitably builds up. He pauses at the door and looks back, "You know, I think there was a movie that went just like this..." he shrugs, then walks into the shower room.

[Nelle Kozera]

As Cierra was rocking in the corner, some deep part of her mind kicked on, training long forgotten came rushing back to her in massive shards assembling themselves in a haphazard manor. Pilot…isolation…stress…. It took about three minutes for her to assemble all these pieces but she came to one conclusion, going ape shit over the event wasn’t going to help her. She tried to take a deep breath and only began to dry heave before getting herself back under control. She was going to have to get used to the body she was in first, she needed to ignore the fact that she was changed and merely lock away how she was changed, she needed to take inventory.

#1: Deep breathing is not the same as in the old body.

That much she figured out almost immediately, because of this she spent a few seconds getting used to the new nose and air ways, that combined with the new sensitivity of the nose, though she assumed that was because of the stasis chamber.

#2: Knees are not the same.

Looking down she saw that she has had her knees rearranged and this was possibly the strangest thing that she saw for the moment. She figured that balance would be the most awkward. Holding on to the wall of the cubical as she stood. Standing was about what she could muster until she could the balance just right. Thinking about this, she realized that putting clothes on would only complicate things. At least clothes that had long leggings…

#3: She was glowing.

She really had no idea what to make of this little tid bit at the moment but filed it away, might prove useful later.

#4: She had claws

She looked at them for a while, they looked terribly sharp for something that she had never used or had even seen before. Looking at them closely she realized they covered in thousands of tiny little pits, she didn’t know what they were but she was sure that she would have missed them if she wasn’t looking at her claws so closely.

#5 She was covered in fur

She thought that this was rather convenient really; while it would mean some added maintenance it would help to keep her warm…she hopped. The fact that it was glowing didn’t surprise her at this point.

#6 She needed of a shower…badly.

This took precedence over everything else; luckily her cubical was on the end near the showers so she took the opportunity to head that way she only had to pass on set of stasis chambers before she was in that area. Anyone looking in that direction would see a stark naked glowing neon blue anthropomorphic wolf walking slowly and haphazardly towards the showers.

She almost fell a few times on the way there, but Ooce she got there she walked in waiting for the show before just sitting on the floor of the shower, letting the water wash over her. She liked it, it felt good…if odd on her fur covered body…

[Slate]

"Human? You're a talking rabbit!" He said, as though he was accusing him of something heinous. "I'm human!" his voiced was raised slightly simultaneously hitting his chest quickly with his left hand before putting it back on the rifle.

"Stay BACK!" He yelled, switching his aim to the feline-esque creature that had addressed him. "You're animals. Glowing, talking animals!" K.T. exclaimed, his calm obviously starting to break down. He began to sidestep towards the door, doing his best to keep at least a few feet of distance from another body. "I'm gonna get to the bottom of this. Do NOT even think about following me!" he yelled as he tried to open the door. Failing, he turned back around to make sure no one was trying to get him.

(Edited to coincide with not being able to open the door C: )

[Brome Teks]

*The door out actually does not open. Instead, an automated voice says, "User not recognized. Please log in to use facility functions."

The only place to do so is at the table in the mess, which has flip-out touch screens. Consult the map in my previous post.

[Dusty]

User not recognized? Well I can't blame it, I don't even recognize myself, I thought as I calmly approached the panicked guard. It was at this point I realized that I was still undressed from my time in the stasis pod. The absurdity of the situation was just too much. I struggled, and failed, to let loose a little bit a laugh.

"Listen buddy. I'm a naked lion man, standing between a rabbit person and a lizard with a sonic gun. I think the least our worries are each other. Now just put down the gun. We've all got the same problem, and shooting ourselves is just going to put us all out again."

[Slate]

"Lizard!? What..." it was at this point he finally started to notice subtleties he had been over looking. His hands in particular, even though they had been in front of him most of this time, he overlooked the black claws, and the scales atop his thumbs and fingers, mostly because the colors weren't too far off his original skin pigment.

He lowered the weapon, put his back against the door and slid against it until he was sitting, his thick reptilian tail coming from behind and resting to his side. "The hell!?" he said, touching it apprehensively. He rubbed it a few times, an odd sensation that he had never felt before having never had a tail. He brought his legs in close so that his feet were right in front of him. They definitely weren't human. He placed a hand on the bottom of his right foot. K.T. could feel his hand with his foot and vice-versa. It was his, but the odd thing about it was the toes were slightly longer, and there was one more off to the side of his foot. It was strange, but for now he would have to get used to it.

He also didn't notice his snout. It didn't extend too far out in front of him, at least as far as he could tell, but what he could see didn't seem to glow orange, or have the blue tint. But figuring this out would have to wait. He stood back up, and looked at the lion.

"I... I apologize for losing my head there. My name is K.T., station security." he explained, introducing himself properly.

[Dusty]

Now that the situation had relaxed I let my breath loose. "Nice to meet you KT. I'm Dusty. I was a part of damage control/repair team theta-2. Now we've got a lot of confused people down here. The best thing we can do as crew members is remain calm," I said in as assertive voice as I could muster. I was startled when my voice almost sounded like a growl.

"Now I'm going to get dressed. Then I suggest we try finding every one we can so we can figure this out. Also try to help the guy who has no thumbs.". With that I calmly moved back to my cubicle, hit the door button, then sank to the ground as all the stress I had released. The position I was sitting in wasn't very comfortable however, my tail had folded up between my legs and it almost felt like I was stretching one of my more important limbs.

With a sigh I resolved myself to maintaining the calmness I had been. Showing, if the collapsed nervEd of everyone else proved anything it was that stability was at a premium.

[SliceOfDog]

((For the record, Mitchell only has rabbit fur and a tail. His head, hands and feet are still completely human, skin and all))

After a few moments, Mitchell scrambled over to his locker and desperately pulled it open. The first thing he pulled on, with an air of clumsy desperation, was his white shirt, which he hastily and with shaking hands buttoned up. Then he pulled on his brown suit trousers (completely ignoring underpants) and set about flattening his hair with a shiver running through his body that had nothing to do with cold.
He rubbed his face, then his hands, and then continued to dress himself, with shoes, a belt and a watch. He hesitated for a moment with his glasses, and then folded them up and placed them in his shirt pocket. He patted himself down, brushing his arm and then rubbing his hands together, and then his face. Then, without facing the group, he spoke in a hoarse voice
"Dusty is right. We must remain calm. I'm sure a medical team is on their way here very soon, and we will know more when they get here. As the... most human of us all I propose I be the one to speak to them on our behalf." He rubbed his face once more, as if to satisfy to himself that it was still skin.

[Brome Teks]

(( I hope Buzz posts soon, but his character is somewhat isolated from most of you and I want to keep this going. ))

As the people in the Hibernation compartment are talking and busy not trying to freak out, a computerized voice plays over the speakers in the room.

“Hello hibernators of compartment 01-388DF87. Due to an equipment malfunction, you have been awakened prematurely from your stasis. The L.O.B.E. Staff apologizes for the inconvenience and preserved rations are being sent to your compartment in 3...2...1...” There’s a series of thunks from the counter in the mess as packages of food, designed to be preserved for millennia are dropped in from a tube on the ceiling.

A moment later, the voice comes back up. “The AI responsible for reassigning hibernation tubes is taking slightly longer than normal to access. Please remain in your Hibernation compartments and await further instructions.”

After a few more minutes, the voice says, “Error, Unable to connect to AI network. To diagnose the problem, please log on to a console and go to control panel/ network settings.”

“Wait, wait,” comes the voice of the fellow who lost his thumbs earlier. From inside his cubicle, there’s a thud as he tries to climb off his tube and winds up tripping and falling on the floor. “…Ow.” There’s a shuffling sound, followed by a frustrated growl. “Can someone please help me get my locker open? I’m a network engineer and may be able to help fix this problem, but I want my pants first.”

The other people besides the player characters start filtering out of their tubes. Taking stock, there are 5 of them besides the thumbless network engineer. The first appears almost completely human, but his eyes seem slightly off-color. The second one also looks human, but he now sports cat ears and a nice tail to go with it. The third one appears to have gained feathers not dissimilar to those of a blue-jay, including a beak, clawed feet and hands, and tail feathers, but his arms seem to have avoided turning into wings. The fourth appears to have been a woman who became an anthropomorphic duck-billed platypus, tail, bill, and all. She looks somewhat unhappy. The fifth and final one bears a lot of resemblance to a kangaroo now, but the body still seems to have a lot of human shape. The head, feet, and tail are the most prominently kangaroo.

These other inhabitants look around, confused, scared, and worried.

[Daryn]

When I get into the shower room and finally get to soak under some hot water for a while, it starts to really set in as to how dramatic the changes to his body are. Things just seem sharper to me now. I have to admit, that these strange genetic mutations are rather appealing to me, and after fidgeting around in the shower while washing, I am finding that it's getting easier to move around comfortably.

I turn off the water and grab one of the towels nearby, after wrapping it around my waist I walk back into the stasis chamber room, looking quite a bit more refreshed and a lot less shocked than he did going in. He catches the tail end of the engineer's last comment, "Err, pants? Did I walk in on something I wasn't supposed to?"

I spot the food packages on the counter and shrug. "You know, even the thought of eating 2000 year old food can't really dissuade me at this point. I don't know about the rest of you people, but stasis has given me a hell of a case of the munchies."

I head over to my locker first and get dressed, then go and inspect the food packages to see what's been provided.

[Dusty]

The vague scent of processed and preserved food reached my nose right as I was trying to wrestle my tail into a make shift hole in the back of my pants. The combination of preservatives and plastic left a rather acrid and not very appetizing smell in my nose. Odd, I never really smelled that before, I thought as my my nose wrinkled in disgust.

The time that I had spent alone had let me better work out what exactly had happened to me. My overall body was fairly intact, but covered in a soft layer of fur. It was lighter on my chest while fading to a darker reddish brown on my back. The most striking change was of course my face. Really I could barely tell the human in it, and the changes to my mouth made talking slightly weird. My hair had been replaced with what I could only describe as Mane. It was black and wrapped all the way around my head and down to my chest where it ended in an almost widow's peak like fashion.

The new hair had made getting but shirt on a chore but still managed. Looking in my locker I saw the top half of my service uniform and decided against trying to wrestle that over my already uncomfortable shirt. It was pretty clear human cloths were not designed for fur.

After making myself half way decent I stepped out into the common area. A hawk like man was busy inspecting the food that had been delivered. "Did I miss anything? Also that food stinks."

[Slate]

K.T. Made his way to the mess, as he figured that's where everyone would be congregating in the moments to pass. Oddly enough though, he didn't seem all that hungry. He slung the sonic rifle around his shoulder, and made his way towards Dusty and the hawk man. While actually seeing the changes physically still seemed a bit unnerving to him, he was getting accustomed to it. Same thing for the orange glow everything seemed to have, but at this point he figured it had to do with the reptilian DNA that was now incorporated into his being. Knowing this he assumed it was infrared he could now perceive. To him, this was probably the coolest change he went through. Even on the ground, he could see footsteps of those who were not wearing shoes. Ones that led from the showers were particularly bright.

"My name's K.T., Station Security. As weird as it might sound, it's kind of nice seeing another non-mammal." he said, introducing himself to the hawk.

[Daryn]

I look over at the Lizard, Komodo, or whatever he is. He can't quite tell offhand, he was never really big on reptiles. Either way, he turns to look at the newcomer, "Well hello. My name's Sean. I was in a rock band that was playing on the station leading up to the ... whatever it was that happened to us ..." he shrugs and extends a wing/hand to the lizard. "I wonder if I can still play guitar after all these years." he wonders out load.

[SliceOfDog]

Mitchell took a deep breath, and then addressed the group while avoiding looking at them all, instead settling for staring at the floor.

"Calm down everyone," he said, a statement significantly undermined when his voice cracked nervously, but he cleared his throat and continued, gaining a semblance of confidence "the... the medical teams should be with us shortly, and I'm sure any... ah... complications we appear to be facing will be resolved if we simply remain calm and give it time. Though there do appear to have been some problems experienced while we were in stasis, everything essential does appear to still be working. We have access to food, showers, our lockers, and hopefully in a very short period of time the terminals as well. It appears that the..." he swallowed, and closed his eyes, then indicated to the thumbless fox "gentleman over there has the appropriate skills we need, so if anyone can wait for food I would suggest you help him access his locker. In the mean time, I suggest we gather around the mess table and take stock of everyone. It is important in these early stages that we stick together and work as a team.
My name is Dr Mitchell, and I am an anim- ... I'm a behavioural psychologist"

[Nelle Kozera]

Cierra had been in the shower long enough, “Well it’s time for me to get dressed…” She said to herself getting out of the shower to dry herself off with a towel. After getting the first one totally soaked she resorted to a second towel to wrap around her midsection. Now far more steady on her footing she walked back into the stasis area. Those looking her way would see the faint neon blue glow from her fur with the glow from her nose, lips, and paw pads being a bit brighter. See seemed eerily at ease with herself as she walked though she would misjudge her steps with her new legs and stumble a bit every now and then. Walking back to her Cubical she changed and noticed something immediately. He former pants were not going to work with her new leg structure. "Huh..." There was only one thing to do.

A loud RIIIIIIIIIPPPPP! Tore through the air as she removed the majority of her leggings turning her former work pants into improvised shorts, a moment later she would walk back into the main hallway looking towards the network engineer. “Jesus guys don’t everyone jump at once to help the poor thumbless bastard…you guys are dicks.” She said this after hearing behavioral psychologist speak. She walked over to the guy with no thumbs. “Alright does yours thing have a combination or is does it just open like mine…” She attempted to open the locker… The area of the cubical had a faint blue glow…

[Brome Teks]

The fox nods, "It should just open. My name is Mark Peterson." He seems to be having trouble pronouncing his Ps. He just looks back at his paws. "My god, how am I going to be able to do anything when I have freaking paws?" After his locker is opened, he asks Cierra to make similar modifications to his pants to accommodate his digitigrade legs and long, floofy tail.

The food packages each contain a few moist towelettes a sealed coffee packet and a block of some sort of food product. The coffee is quite strong after being in preservation for so long, and the food products are by no means delicious, but they're edible and packed with calories and nutrients. If you had to live on just them, they'd be a balanced diet.

The computer terminals, if accessed, would have printed out, "User data not found. Please enter your user name and enter a new password to log on."

[Slate]

Getting back to the task at hand, K.T. went to a vacant terminal. Being a finger short made some of the words a bit of a challenge to type out for him. Luckily it only really applied to keys he would have used his pinkies for. As his current fingers were also slightly larger as a result, he would 'fat finger' a few keys here and there resulting in more than a few frustrated exhales through his nostrils.

He kept his password simple, not wanting to have to think too hard what it was. This was mostly because he wasn't sure what other effects being in stasis had on his cognitive abilities.

Hoping it would get him through the door, his next objective would be to get to the nearest barracks to change into a proper uniform and get himself properly equipped.

"Alright, I'm heading out. If anyone wants to come with, feel free. I can also be reached on channel 7 of the coms." He explained, shouldering his weapon.

(fun fact, I actually did type all this, excluding this section, without the use of my pinkies just to see how hard it would actually be. It was surprisingly difficult.)

[Dusty]

"Thank god for science," I muttered as I chewed on the gel like nutrient patty. Out of the package it had the consistency of gummy candy, only it would much tougher to chew. "I think the stabilizer in this out ran its shelf date," I said between fits of frantic chewing. As I tried to stomach my less then ideal meal I watched the security guard moved towards the console. He seemed to be having issues typing without pinkies, but he apparently managed to type in his information.

"Alright, I'm heading out. If anyone wants to come with, feel free. I can also be reached on channel 7 of the coms." He explained, shouldering his weapon.

"I'll go with you, maybe we can find a emergency cutter kit. Who knows some of the doors may be jammed."

[Daryn]

I shrug then and head to the termnal and start to fill in my login info. I take a few moments to think of what a good password might be, once that's done I head to the mess table and take a package of food for myself. It's a little difficult to get open, then I use my hooked beak and it comes open quite easily. "Hm, well I guess this does have some advantages, other than just looking really awesome and such." he grins, then looks around, noting that most of the folks here aren't comfortable with the change as of yet.

"Sorry." he says, "It's just I would've signed up for this kind of genetic changing anyway..."

[Nelle Kozera]

Cierra looked at that Pants that she had removed from the locker. She used a sharp edge on the locker to modify the pants into a pair of shorts. She was just wearing hers a little low to accommodate her tail. “Just wear it a little low you’ll be fine. Sure it has the look of the early twenty first century but it’ll be fine. Also if it gets us out of here faster I can assist with the Repairs for now.” She tried to smiled at him and really ended up just showing him a row of rather sharp teeth in an oddly friendly manor.


After she was finished adjusting his clothes she introduced herself. “My name is Cierra Zissler, I’m a intrasystem pilot, or at least I was…” After she was done she walked out of the cubical to find some food that she had heard about earlier. When she got there she brutally ripped open a pack with her teeth. Though somehow leaving the contents more or less untouched, she began gnawing on the block of food. After downing a bit she stuck out her tongue. “Buhhh…That’s Naraly…. I have found tastier food at the bottom of ore elevators on Triton.” Having said that she took another bite, she was damn hungry after all, this food was better than no food. After a moment she drank some of the coffee. “Its black…and bitter…mmm the way coffee should be…” She drank some more before noticing the others.


Looking at the others she seemed amused, “Well it looks like I got a little more fucked up then you guys did…da hell happened to you….it stop half way through?” She pointed at Mitchell whom she was staring at, she was curious as to why he was more human than the rest of them. From her methods of speech it easy to tell that she was from the outer mining settlements of the solar system, or at least had spent a lot of her life out there…