Chapter 4: Borderline

[Kauria]

"No mention of the planet's species, probably a nonnative mix of misfits or something. We'll fit right in. Doesn't Tal'set need medical attention?" Rucha barely refrained from pleading. Apart from the now-unconscious pair of Anero'nolmi, all of the intelligent life they had met so far had all been killed shortly afterwards. She needed to talk to someone who could recall more than a few days, and would hopefully live as long.
That reminded her. She fumbled about and brought up the files of the crew members. All of them, in some manner or another, could communicate in both English and Universal, often also in what she assumed were their respective native tongues. Vaguely, she realized she had no idea which one they had been speaking in, only that they could all understand one another.

[Awesomoman]

"Reading up on us i see." Lance said walking in on Rucha looking at the crew files. "I was just going around the ship to see if we had anymore surprise visitors. Instead i found what i assume used to be my security team, they were all Imperial guards. What's new with you?"

[Nohiki]

Ariaka growled. "Fine, but if you get attacked by the whole planet AGAIN, you're gonna have to bust yourselves out. I'm not bringing the ship anywhere near their sensors. You'll have a shuttle ready in an hour, but i still don't think that's a good idea. Who knows what you'll find there, like man eating plants, giant ants or... spiders! Eeek." The thought of an arachnid made Ariaka uncomfortably uncomfortable. She turned over to Kiruza: "Do you think those pods can be moved?" she said and started examining the edges of it, looking for screws or any other stuff that might hold it in place.

[Kauria]

Rucha looked up at Lance and grinned. "We're going planetside!"
She spoke to Ariaka. "And in disguise if necessary. Don't worry; we'll think of something." She stood and stretched. "Oh, and Ariaka managed to neutralize some guy that hitched a ride from Zenith, though you might want to ask her the details. Had breakfast yet?" Rucha peeled back some more of the paper and chomped on the beige brick inside. "I know there is a mess hall around here, but I haven't found it yet." She swallowed again and peered down the hallway.

[Awesomoman]

"Thats twice now she's done that. Maybe she should take over security." Lance said with a laugh. "No I havn't eaten yet, but I don't feel hungry at the moment." Lance sat down in the nearest seat. "So what exactly do we know about this planet? After what we went through on the last one I'd like to know who or what will try and kill us."

[Morty]

"No," said Kiruza in response to Ariaka's query. "They were not designed to be portable. The Anero'nolmi will have to be woken up." she said , guessing at what the android had been thinking. She was smoewhat dreading the prospect of going planetside again, but chances were she would probably have to come along to tend to their injured non-comrade.

[Nohiki]

Ariaka looked at Tal'set, then at the giant puddle of liquid nitrogen, and back on the Anero'Nolmi. "Maaabe not..." she said, walking over to now unused pod and started to disassemble it piece by piece. "Yep, classic low It appears as the pods work by reducing bodily functions to absolute minimum by cooling down the inhabitant very near zero." she said, holding a cooling rack. She dropped it on the floor sand proceeded to rip another piece of equipment from the delicate machine. "Look, it even substitutes with artificial kidneys and lungs..." she said, also throwing the sophisticated equipment on the floor, "Whoa, the heart. I guess in case of the natural one's failure." she said and tossed away a small glass, two chamber pump. "It would appear that the only thing this box can't do for the guy inside is think. But the main article is still the temperature, with a chemical mix that would be of your area of expertise." she said, looking at needles sticking from various parts of the pod. "But for the transport, we can simply keep Tal'Set drugged with this..." she said and pulled out the tank holding the pod's chemicals, setting it on a table, "and keep him cold. 'That should suffice for transport. I would also assume this thing have restored good portion of the blood he lost. That gives him a fairly good chance of survival. Find out how those drugs work and what dose would he need and i'll do the rest." she said and left for the hangar to make modifications to the shuttle. She dragged few metal plates inside and welded them into improvised shape of the pod, then mounted the doors of the disassembled pod on them, finally installing cooling rack from the broken refrigerator that used to house the second anero'Nolmi. She checked the temperature inside, finding out it was about 3°C. "Perfect." she said and contacted the bridge: "Your ride is ready. Who's driving?" she asked.

[Morty]

Kiruza twitched and fidgeted while Ariaka tore apart the priceless equipment, but said nothing. Turning away from the vandalism she instead went and analyzed a sample of the Anero'nolmi's blood salvaged from the heart-attack device, whatever it was called, just so that she wouldn't have to watch. She came back with two small cylinders of pre-made chemical solutions, diluted to suit their patient's constitution. "These will keep him stable while you search for medical attention on the planet. Speaking of which, does anyone have any form of currency? We do not know what they will consider their services to be worth. We may need to find some technology we are willing to part with if we want to comission their help." she said, realistically. If anyone had asked her, she'd have said the pilot was turning out to be more trouble than he was worth.

[Kauria]

"Doubt I could pilot the shuttle, though I'll see what I've got for money," Rucha replied. "Be right back." Minutes later, she had ducked into her quarters and emptied out her pack again. She ran her fingers along the seams, searching for hidden pockets or panels. There was what appeared to be a covered holster on the left side, but it was empty.
Carefully, Rucha unrolled the mysterious bundle of cloth, and several thick metal rings and a disc tinkled to the ground.
Laying the cloth—some sort of expensive-looking garment—on the bed, she picked up the rings and examined them. There was an engraving on the side of each, in a different alphabet than the files she'd read so far, but it seemed familiar. It took a few moments, but her mind soon began to translate. "LEGAL CURRENCY RING OF THE FEDERATION - LIMIT 500 SPECIE"
Rucha frowned. She had no idea what specie were, and even less as to why she had a Federation currency ring.
"Define 'specie'," she instructed her computer, and listened as she continued to study the brassy ring.
"Specie: 1. Money in the form of coinage. 2. Standard unit of currency in the Galactic Federation."
Rucha pried a clawlike fingernail under a ridge, and a green hologram flickered to life in the ring's center.
More unusual writing. 500 specie.
There were three rings, one identical to the first, the other larger and silvery, with a capacity of 1000 specie. All were filled. I have no idea how to buy anything with these. Rucha jammed them into her pocket and stooped to pick up the disc. An identity holoprojector, smaller than the palm of her hand. Although it listed her actual name, all the other vital information seemed to be fake.
She dropped it into her other pocket and returned to the bridge. "I've got some sort of money, as well as ID. Anyone else coming down should probably check whatever stuff they've got."

[Nohiki]

"I think this thing might have a remote, i'll have a look." said Ariaka, scanning the shuttle's communication subsystem while coating it in the stealth paint. "I'm not coming down with you, so it would be nice if you radioed back once in a while. It get's lonly and creepy on this ship." she shook, finishing up the scan. "Got it, i can take you there. Be advised that while i can jump you THERE with Croatoan's stardrive, the route back will take some 10 hours, so take plenty f food. The mess is down the hall from the quarters."

[Awesomoman]

Lance geared up. He wasn't going to be carrying his H9 like last time, that might scare the locals. He packed it in the weapons bag and only kept his DE and sword on. After lugging the bag over to the shuttle he dropped it and turned the com on. "I'm not sure if bringing a mass assortment of weapons is best when going into a civilized area. Then again bringing none at all would be down right idiotic. When everyone gets here i want you each to pick one and we'll leave the rest here."

[Nohiki]

"What kind of security are you?" asked Ariaka, "Sleeping through the most threatening events and not taking any weapons supply even though you can leav e it in a stealth shuttle parked outside of the major population?" Ariaka protested, the experience from the last planet suggesting they would need nothing less than a suitcase nuke.

[Morty]

"Ariaka is right." said Kiruza uneasily. "If I must go, I'd rather go properly armed. Does it say whether the planet is civilized?" she asked of Rucha.

[Kauria]

"Doesn't say. Depends on your definition of 'civilized', I guess." Rucha frowned and closed her screen. "Unless anyone has any moral objections, I'm going to go rummage through our dead crewmates' stuff and see if any of them have something we can salvage for disguises. Every little bit counts, right?" she called as she once again left to run down the hallway.

[Nohiki]

"That sounds terrible, do it." noticed Ariaka, already thinking of her own disguise in case she had to come down there and bust her crewmates out of jail or something, because the feeling she's have to was getting stronger by a minute. "If you find a super long trench coat or large enough piece of thick cloth or skin, get that for me please. If i need to follow you for whatever reason, i'm gonna need some sound insulation."