Chapter 7: The Game

[Nohiki]

Previously: Deciding to leave the dangerous water planet, the crew took their two ships to orbit to decide what to do next.

Testing: Shared characters, virtual world (dreamworld, what have you)
Limitations: Relaxed powerplaying rule. Control of other's characters is allowed, mainly in inactivity.
Goal: To see if sharing characters prevents RP stalls.

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Ariaka was in the cockpit, having the ship pointed towards the planet's surface. She was watching the place they were upon just a moment ago, now being wasted by a hurricane. No wonder there weren't many trees there, just grassy plants.

No one else joined her yet and she savored the moment of silence before calling everyone (on board that is) to the engineering room. Simply because it was bigger. Unlike the Croatoan's bridge, the cockpit of the smaller craft could barely accommodate four people, as it was meant for two.

"Here's what we have." She said, waving her hand. A holo projection appeared in the middle of the room. It was a star map, with three targets highlighted. Here are the three systems marked as having potential for habitable worlds. The closest one is entering a red dwarf phase though, so it would be very hot and anyone there is doomed to go extinct in few thousands years. This one..." she enlarged another star, "Is Sol like, but it only vibrates slightly, suggesting very low number of planets. If there is one in the habitlable zone I can't tell, our equipment is not strong enough. the third one..." she saod and a big question mark appeared in the projection, "Is giving off some strange readings. Might suggest advanced civilization, or, much more likely, equipment failure." Ariaka noted realistically.

[Kauria]

"Wasting our time checking out an equipment failure still sounds like a better idea than getting punched into those rocks," Rucha offered. "I say we go see for ourselves." She tapped her fingers on her forearm. "Funny how we're looking to go towards civilization instead of away from it now."

[Nohiki]

"I'm hoping people of this galaxy, if there are any, don't shoot others on sight." Ariaka said bitterly. "But I can agree with being careful. After all I can drop us outside of the system for a short range scan to be certain." She noted, highlighting a course on the map. "It should take an hour long jump. Feel free to have a look 'round the ship to see what we have to work with." she nodded.

With that she left for the cockpit. Sitting down, she moved to the controls. Since getting the new shell and the touch sense, she started to like doing things with her hands. Inputing the coordinates, she connected with the ship's computer to speed up the calculations. In two minutes they were done and they entered hyperspace. Just as they entered, her cat jumped on her lap. Smiling, she slumped in the chair to allow it to lie on her stomach, petting it.

After just half an hour of FTL travel, the ship suddenly dropped out of hyperspace in the middle of nowhere. She thought the drive had failed, but there were no alarms going off. "I didn't do that..." she said for herself and started checking the systems. Switching the intercom on, she connected to engineering: "Lee? Did you do that?"

[Zetherus]

Tal'set slowly floated up to the allied craft hailing it from his comms, "Well that escalated quickly. The whole planet tried to wash me and my ship away," he halted his ship horizontal to the Croatoan research vessel before continuing, "So, have you very few found a good start on our search yet?" he asked sarcastically.

[Midnightmoon]

"Uh, it shouldn't have done that." Lee replied, confused. He had made sure that he was working on something that wouldn't mess with the hyper drive, he was certain, "Maybe it was something i did earlier." "-but i doubt it." He added to himself. "Hold on." He cantered down the platform to the hyper generator and found it inactive but untouched, just as he'd left it. Then he chose a line that brought him back in the general direction he he'd been working from and followed the wires. "Can't be the hardline connections... Maaybeee..." He mumbled to himself, the line to the bridge still open. Reaching out for his bag, he dragged it over and crouched down, opening the zipper fully. He'd been putting off going through it since he'd gotten the thing. A growing part of him didn't know why he did that since it contained important tools he'd need, but a small part of him in the back of his mind still shrunk away from the bags contents. Lee flicked his ears in uneasy dismissal and carefully dug in. Nudging aside a narrow wrapped bundle in black durable cloth he pulled out a second pair of goggles but these had wider lenses that would cover half his face when he put them on. Digiviewer it said on the side. Bringing out the cords that came with it he set to connecting the Data Pad to his goggle earbuds and the new goggles and plugged in another cord from the Digiviewer to the console he was working on. Setting his worn goggles up on his forehead he commented to Ariaka as he flicked the Digiviewer into their place, "Hmm, ever get that sense of deja-vu?" And hit the activation button on his Data Pad.

His sight pixelated and then grew clearer as the resolution increased. "And we're in. Lets see what else is crossing the connections..."

[Kauria]

"Well?" Rucha chimed in on the comm. "What's the verdict? Don't keep us in suspense forever or Tal might have another heart attack." She pulled away from the porthole, having confirmed that there was, in fact, nothing outside. As usual.
"Tell me straight. Do we need to start panicking yet?"

[Nohiki]

"If you panic I'll slap you." Ariaka grinned, her hands flying over the keyboard, eyes ticking bethween three screens. "We're not where we are, but we movend in correct direction, which means navigation systems are fine. We dropped out early. But the diagnostic of the FTL engine gives green, meaning the problem is probably somewhere between the two." she explained her findings. "I'll go in and see what's up." she announced, engaging the interface.

Her shell slumped in the chair. "I'm in." she told Lee, her program travelling to the navigation unit to confirm her earlier findings.

[Midnightmoon]

"Great, two minds are better then one, especially when one has the capability of a super computer." Lee called back, then started to browse the "digital library". "Now, i may be a bit rusty in here... lets try something simple..." He tapped at his mental wrist where his data pad would be in real life. His claws pulsed in digital pixelation as he activated something and then reached up, drifted down and then tapped again on the virtual book shelf. An oval window appeared and he looked at the wires and code. Scratching his head he tried to find any fault. There was a noise to his right like a pile of stones and dirt being thrown into water. "Now that sounds off." He thought to himself with a scowl. Closing the window he pressed a button on the inside of his hand with his offset thumb and slunk down he "hall".

[Nohiki]

Ariaka looked around. Taking an interest in Lee's equipment, she copied the software and was surprised at how it made the computer system into visual world. "Why didn'T I think of that?" She said for herself, turning to wht appeared as a datapad in her hand. She quickly found the local equivalent of GPS and noticed she was currently still inside her own shell. Withdrawng back to her own mind, she opened a channel to therest of the ship. In a blink of an eye, an elevator appeared in front of her. She went to systematically explore all the computers where the problem could be.

OOC: Option - Would anyone like to bring in a new character, pretty much without restrictions? You only have to only explain how he came to be in the stasis pod on the ship. (Looking at you, Morty )

[Midnightmoon]

Claws prepped and at the ready Lee came to a shallow bend in the hall. He heard the sprinkled plopps again as he continued and only truely noticed the door along the inside wall when the noise occured and the door shivered in time. Positioning himself infront of the door he brought his arm up to striking position at his shoulder before tapping the door open with his free hand. He tensed as it opened.

[Nohiki]

Everzthing was fine. Navigation was fine. Hyperdrive was fine. Life support was fine. It didn't make sense. On a hunch, Ariaka decided to check the other systems too, just in case. to say what she found startled her would be an understatement. There was a malfunctioning stasis pod demanding immediate atention - because someone was in it. "Lee? Get a gun and meet me here." she sent over a map, disconnected from the system and made her way carefully to the pod.

[Kauria]

"Speaking as someone who already has a gun, I'm feeling a little left out," Rucha said in a tone of mock injury, pulling up the map on her portable. "See you guys there."

[Morty]

When Setiri awoke, it was in a panic. Half her lungs were filled with fluid and a dozen small tubes were tangled around her body, restricting her movements. She was in a stasis pod of some kind; somehow, some of the breathing lines hooked into her abdomen had come loose, and she was drowning in the green mineral soup of the cryogenic cylinder. She managed to wrench one hand free and grasp the emergency release lever-- it wouldn't budge. There was no one in the room outside. She threw herself against the walls of the pod in desperation, the frantic thump of her fist against the glass slowly beginning to fade.

[Nohiki]

It was apparent from the hall that the pod was indeed out of order. It wasn't until Ariaka reached the room she noticed jsut how much. It was full of scorch marks, parts of it were missing, and the frame itself was twisted. No wonder the ship thought to let them know, the person inside must be in danger...
*THUMP*
Oh, right! Ariaka took a running jump and slammed her fist against the transparent front of the pod. Taken aback by her new strength momentarily, she snapped out of it as the pod remained intact with only a blue blurry flash, being designed to survive in open space. Reaching in the back, she torn the power source away. The force field gave way and Ariaka forced the door open.

[Midnightmoon]

Lee was confronted by... himself?! "Power down, Le-hila, friend. There's no need for that." He nodded to Lee's prepped data claws. Though the figure was in a relaxed almost lazy standing position he appeared to hold more veiled danger then Lee's own battle ready stance. Lee himself just stared for a moment, ears perked foreword, then blinked, "What in the deaps..." He turned to the left and tried to figure out what the apparition was. "I'm not an apparition, i'm your other half. Well technically your original half, and i'd even go so far as to say the better half." When he started to stalk forward in slow lopes Lee slinked backwards in retreat. "I'll admit that I'm not exactly sure how you got yourself into this state, but it would seam after your little data retrieval back on the Croatoan things started to shake back into place." There was a hard glint in his eyes that Lee was sure he didn't like. "W-what?" He hit the opposing wall, but the other continued, "You read the files, you should remember... Hmm, but i guess i can speed things up to the way things were." The advancing Lee reached out. Acting quickly Lee placed his hand over the data pad at his wrist and then yanked on the wires that came into resolution. His vision blinked out like someone yanked power from the vid screen and Lee scrambled to get the Digiviewer off his head. When he'd free'd his head he fought to get his goggles back into place in the blinding light. "Why fight your inner demons when it's easier to be on the same side. Once upon a time we never had this problem." Lee found himself thinking but knew it didn't pop up on it's own. Leaving his gear where it lay with only his Data pad and laser cutter in hand Lee abandoned the engine room to seek out where Ariaka had instructed him to meet up with her. He'd deal with the unpleasant past later.

When he arrived Ariaka already had a good opening for the individual in the pod to get out. Hurrying forward he he made to help the other form out. Seeing all all the liquid spilling over the floor Lee guessed this ones experience wasn't as far off as his own had been.