Chapter 9 – Escape To What

“It’s an inspection tool and the other one is a low power laser cutter” I said through clenched teeth.  “What does a twerpy looking little girl like you have any business doing with stuff like this?”  His sneer made my teeth hurt.  I tried to unclench my jaw but I couldn't.  “I work on the Fleet ships as a repairer they are part of my tool kit” I really tried to stay calm but looking at the contents of my pouch in a pile next to the revive station made me really want to do bad things to this jerk but as in most situations like this the biggest and meanest usually wins out.  “What’s the TT of this?”  He asked holding up one of the items I liberated from Thinkers odd assortment of modified electronic components.  “I have no idea” my jaw was actually starting to hurt.  He held his hand gun pointed at my chest as he dug through the pile on the floor.  Then he held up a pair of my underpants and stuffed them in his pocket.  All I could think of was .. gah that was my last pair.

 

“Are you going to give my stuff back?”  I asked trying to appeal to any shred of kindness he might have. “Hah .. not likely dumb-ass and by the way what did you do with the miner guy that usually flies that Sleipnir, kill him and steal his ride?”  He looked at me over the barrel of his gun as he knelt there pushing the rest of my belongings around with my inspection tool.  “No I didn't kill him .. I .. I just borrowed his Sleipnir” I said suddenly feeling really terrible about not waiting longer.  “Hmmm .. so OK if you are a repairer on one them big ships where is your repair tool and wires?”  He said standing up kicking my pouch to the side.  Then he added “I think you are a liar and a thief .. I doubt they would let someone as scrawny looking as you work with them welders”.  “Well I do, no matter what you think and can I please have my tools back at least?”  I pleaded.  “Sorry loser these are going in the TT soon as I get back to my home planet, they look like useless junk to me” he opened his own bag and dropped my tools and the components inside.  Zipping the bag shut he turned and hastily boarded his Quad.  All I could do is stand there and fume.  I was beyond crying he had taken everything I owned away in his stupid pack.

As the engines of his Quad started I looked at the charred pile of junk sitting nearby on the deck.  It was of course the Sleipnir I had ‘borrowed’.  The Quad lifted and left the Space Station.  I was alone and really pissed off.  I did a full turn looking at the sad state the station was in then walked up the ramp leading to where the canteen should be.  After trying the door I saw that the external environmental controls were all red indicating an unsafe condition.  Below the indicator lights there was a generic message scrolling across the display stating that the atmospheric controls were off line and to please submit a support ticket.  I could see across the platform to the blast door leading the habitation part of the Station and its controls were also glowing red.  On the way back down to the teleporter I took note of the odd assortment of stuff scattered all across the hanger deck.

When I got to the teleporter I saw that the platform and one of the risers had been damaged and not repaired.  Revive turned out to be the only active terminal available since the Trade Terminal and Repair Terminal had 10 cm holes blasted through them in several places.

I walked around the immense hanger deck of the seemingly abandoned Space Station.  As I walked around I began to piece together what had happened.  There had obviously been a serious battle fairly recently.  Among the debris of depleted weapons and scattered shards of armor were bits of robot clutter.

A couple hours later

After making the full circuit of the hanger deck I sat down on the edge of the teleporter looking at the portal.  What were the chances of someone helpful showing up before I became a space fossil?  I pulled my pad out and tried to access the local net.  There was a lot of corrupted data but on occasion some useful screen would open.  One thing that did open was the schematics for the teleporter.  I couldn't access the spares inventory for the station but I have had these things apart in the recent past, I just wish I had my inspection tool.  I feel my jaw muscles tightening up again thinking about that jerk telling me what he was going to do with it.  OK think Lisbeth what can you do with what you have?

An awfully long time later

I had the panel off the damaged teleport riser in a few seconds and stood there wondering what could be wrong with it other than being badly misaligned.  I put my shoulder under the riser and tried to push it back in place.  There was no way I could move something that weighs 300 kg.  So I figured I could maybe just align it electronically as it sat cocked to one side and leaning towards the center of the platform.

 

I started with the teleport diagnostic routines.  At first they seemed to be working then at some point in the start cycle the display dropped out and the system went dormant.  Alignment wouldn't cause that so most likely some of components have become knocked loose or damaged.  I powered the riser down and removed the components one by one reinserting them assuring they were seated properly.  This got it a little further along but it was still not passing all the internal self-checks.  I cycled the other two risers and they came online just fine.  After swapping the components out of the damaged riser into one of the working risers I had an idea what needed to be replaced but had no immediate idea where to get the parts.  I look around and my eyes fell on the revive station.  I was a little bit torn about robbing parts out of it to fix the teleport but there didn't seem to be many other options available.  Only problem was the components aren't exactly the same.  Close but the phasing is handled differently in the sequencing logic.  I needed some way to adapt the Advanced Processor from the Revive Stations to the Triphased Intelligence Module in the Teleporter.  Then I remembered some of the weird things Thinker was doing with robot parts and I still had several hundred terabytes of data stored on my pad from the experiments he had me monitor.  All I had to do it sift through enough of it to find a work around.

Several hours later

20 or so Droka heads later I had my adapter working and the teleport riser was humming like it’s supposed to.  I looked over my shoulder at the revive terminal and hoped I wouldn't need it any time soon.  One final teleport test and I decided I’m going for it.  I pushed the torso of a Droka onto the platform and checked the riser alignments one last time.  All green.  I manually operated the teleport and it disappeared.  The good thing about this type of tech is it either works or it doesn't.  Sure it can send you to the wrong location at times but you do actually end up someplace or you are still standing there, one or the other.

As I stood on the teleporter platform I thought briefly that the next person that comes along will wonder why there is a robot head tied to the teleport riser with a leather belt.  The Space Station disappeared in a slightly distorted shimmer of blue and I materialized in a very small space with a pile of robot parts all around me.  I had expected to see the cargo area of the privateer that showed on the teleport roster as having safe entry but this is something so unlike that I wasn’t sure what to think initially.  There was a teleport pad under my feet but like a one person sized version.  ‘OK where the heck am I?’ I thought.  Lighting was subdued and the ship appeared to be in a standby state.  I looked for controls and found slide type controls for everything.  No buttons or switches.  Sorta robot like in …

My thoughts went from oh my god what kind of ship am I in to the realization that OK don’t make a lot of noise the metal heads are probably just in standby.  I leaned into the hatchway connecting this tiny booth to the rest of the ship and found myself looking into the only other compartment on the ship.  At first thought, I was sure this thing was like an escape capsule but I couldn't imagine robots having those. 

There were 4 seats all empty.  Between them was a beacon generator in its receptacle.  Then I recalled one of the few conversations I had with Stalker, he told me in as few words as possible where he got the beacon generator that he used to call the Robot Dropship.  He got it from what he called a Drone Scout Ship.  These are small and fast but easily damaged ships according to Stalker.  I’m not sure if he chased it down or captured it by some other means but he had his beacon. 

I squeezed into the narrow confines of the pilot seat and looked at the controls.  Not too different from a human ship except there is no window to look out of.  I studied the beacon generator for a few minutes and decide it was in a simple socket and pulled it free and tossed it aside as I really didn't need a Drop Ship showing up at the moment.  The controls were all slide like indention's in the console so I put my finger in one and moved it forward.  Nothing seemed to happen, and then all of a sudden the bulk head in front of me became transparent.  I could see the stars and nebula all around.  I gently lifted my finger out of the slot and tried another.  There were no labels to tell what did what so it was a matter of trying all of the slide slots in reach to see what they did.  

Many mistakes later

Within an hour I had figured out which slots to keep my fingers out of and could almost control the ship with some degree of efficiency.  I moved the Scout Ship away from the Station as quickly as possible.  I had no idea where I was headed.  I found the setting that kept the ship slightly below the galactic plane and pushed the speed slider forward to near maximum.  There was no sensation of movement, no vibration like warp just a feeling of really moving fast.

Odd symbols filled the display.  Some of it looked like trajectory calculations but were difficult to follow.  I stuck out my finger to touch one of the objects on the display and it zoomed in towards me.  I sat back fast and held onto the sides of the pilot’s chair.  The sensation of speed was alarming but it was only an illusion.  The object I pointed at came into focus over the control panel.  It looked like the moon sized asteroid the Wastelanders used as a loot stash but from an odd angle.  Next to the object was a scrolling display of robot gibberish that I had no clue how to interpret.  That was until the display zoomed back out and showed a trajectory as a dotted line that ended about 1/3 the distance to the asteroid.  OK so not enough fuel to get there.

So where can I get to, I thought as I started selecting objects from the display and repeating the process again and again.  After trying all the objects I could reach there ended up being 3 places I could get to easily with fuel to spare.  One was where I had just escaped from the second was like a space station but looked like something a robot would make so maybe not a good choice.  The third was another remote Space Station.  The display seemed to understand that was my selected destination changing the arc of the ships trajectory while modifying the speed to get there as quickly as the current amount of fuel allowed.

All I could do is sit there and listen to my empty tummy rumble and complain as we streaked forward.

Chapter 10 coming soon

<<--------------------------------------~O~-------------------------------------->>

Disclaimer Part

None of the characters in this story / role play are real in the sense that this all takes place in a virtual world.  None of the events depicted are real, come on its in space on a huge Mothership.  Really?

The real parts are as follows:

The environment in which I do my role play is a game called Entropia Universe.  Which is made by Swedish company called MindArk.  MindArk has not authorized me to speak for them in any way nor do I intend to.  But I will tell you it is a very fun game and it truly is what you make it.

Entropia Universe is a free to play game with a real cash economy.  Here is a link to Entropia Universe 

Planet Calypso

The Motherships do exist in the game and are owned and operated by individuals.  The fleets of ships that Wasp works on are all part of the Entropia Fleet Alliance.  These folks are pros at getting you across space in an efficient timely manner.  They offer routine scheduled flights every day of the week. 

Here is a link to the EFA Website –  Entropia Fleet Alliance

Oh and when you aren't reading my blogger or even when you are listen in on  Atlas Haven Radio <-- click here for link.

Chapter 8 - Robots

Ok I've been setting on the landing foot of this stupid Sleipnir for the last 2 hours.  Whoever owns it doesn't seem to be in a hurry to get back.  I’ll give them a little more time, plus I really want to get off of this planet.  Crap might as well up date my journal while I wait.

23 Days Ago

Thinker has to be the most brilliant of all the Evil “capital E” mad scientist wizards out there.  His Über complicated plan which by the way I only understand maybe 1/10 of, is so out there I don’t even know where to start describing it.  My part in this insane deal was to take robots apart and scrounge up all the best parts that didn't have damage and match them with other parts from other robots that are by no means compatible.  Not compatible because despite preconceptions these metal monstrosities are as different individually as any two human people.  I always thought they were extruded by some big robot extruder somewhere and they were like cookies, one the same as the next, not so.  I did a quick calculation on how many mostly mutilated robots it would take to get enough of a sample to even consider this possible and came up with a pretty large number.  Then he showed me his busted robot stash.  Huge doesn't describe it.  I have no idea how long he has been collecting these stupid things but they would fill the hanger deck of any Mothership 3 meters deep.

And they are not all drones either.  There are robots of all shape sizes and descriptions are included.  Luckily he helped me upgrade my pulsed quanta inspection tool with some awesome off the shelf never been used parts.  Top of the line stuff not just random try this it might work variety.  So I did what I could do to scan and catalog and tear out and measure and sort to find a complete set of 98% compatible robotic devices.  Thinker said he projected the best we could hope for was like 96% but we got lucky I guess.

When I asked him what the parts I had been digging out of some untold number of robot corpses were for he leaned back and reflected for a moment.  I was sure he was thinking of someway to dumb it down so I would understand but finally he said “Camouflage”.  OK .. I thought that doesn't seem like a very good description and said “So .. you are going to use these parts to make yourself look like a robot ..” “Not exactly” he replied leaning forward on his tall stool.  “The short version is the metal heads have some tech that I want and the only way to get it is to get close to them”.  I thought about that and said “well from the looks of the robot junk yard that hasn't been a problem so far”  I stared at him crossing my arms and tilting my head to the side indicating to him that this was a lame answer.  He leaned more forward elbows on the bench top fingers tips together and said “they have a piece of tech that generates a hologram with mass”.  “They what?”  I responded.  “Yeah .. it’s what I call a Holographic Matter Emitter” he answered looking pleased with himself.  I was at a loss to even partially understand the repercussions of that.  So he added “problem is the emitter is cleverly hidden and if you destroy the ‘solid’ hologram the matter stream disintegrates and does not reconstruct.  Thus making the emitter invisible or rather undetectable and I want this emitter tech”

8 Day Ago

“Lisbeth come here for a sec” Thinker said in his off handed I’m thinking about something else but this might be important too sort of way.  I asked “What do you need?”  He said “What implant do you have?”  “Implant?” I responded.  “Yeah for mindforce which one do you have?” He asked.  “Implant??” I asked again.  He focused on me fully and said “You don’t have an implant?”  I just stood there wondering what the heck he was talking about.  He turned quickly and said “follow me”

OK that was strange I thought as I took off after him and his long legged strides.  Soon we were at the shelves containing all sorts of tools and odd looking devices.  “Here hold this” He said abruptly.  He handed me a big Y shaped tool that had two handles on it.  Then he dug through a box of egg shaped devices and finally found the one he was looking for.  He handed it to me and said “put this in the insertion tool.  Just there.” He pointed to a small egg shaped opening at the junction of the arms of the Y.

I did as he asked and said “what exactly is this thing?”  “It’s an implant insertion tool.  Just activate it and the device puts the implant in your head between the Temporal lobes of your brain allowing you to use the latent abilities you were born with”.  He said looking at me with mild interest.  “In my brain” I replied as I started to put the tool back on the shelf.  He stopped my hand and said “Just grip the handles and give them a twist”.  I looked at him with some serious suspicion and said “In my brain, inside of my head brain?”  “Yes yes .. just twist the handles”  He replied.  I could tell he was becoming annoyed with me but I let the device hang at my knees and looked him in the eye and said “So .. why would I want to put this thing in my head? “ He spent about 15 minutes explaining what mindforce is and how this implant channels that energy with the help of a multitude of different types of chips that allow an individual to do marvelous things. 

He seemed pretty sure that this was important and became quite insistent.  I asked one final question much to his annoyance.  I asked “well does it hurt to stick something that big in your brain?”  He didn't answer he just grabbed the Y and moved it up positioning it in front of my face.  He lowered his face toward me and cocked his mad scientist eyebrow and I twisted the handles.

It hurt a lot.

3 days ago

I was standing there between Mitch and Raven.  The Reverend ‘Insane Guy to the max’ was talking.  “It should be a quick in and out but given the heightened sense of paranoia the bone heads at CDF are pretending to show it might take a little longer”.  He continued “I’ll drop us as close to the Space Station as possible and allow 10 seconds for you to teleport over to the Station and do whatever necessary to get control of the teleporter and get to the planet’s surface. On your signal I’ll send over the crate of Gen 10 Jam Raiders, no one else should be getting off the station for some good amount of time after they deploy”.  Raven was her usual twitchy self and growled “10 seconds .. sure you can’t get the crate to the pad faster?”  “That should be an adequate amount of time” the Reverend answered, ignoring her sarcasm.  Then he looked at Mitch and said “You sure this little girl is up for this?”  Mitch replied “No problem I have gone over the drill with her enough to know she understands the time constraints”  “Good enough then” The Reverend answered.
  
About then Stalker walked down the ramp of the Privateer and stood there in all his stoic killer like quietness.  Stalker is the quiet type that has like one mission in life and that is to make things dead around him.  He was kinda handy though while I was digging in the robot pile.  He was good at heaving things out of the way so I could see what was underneath.  He said maybe 10 words the whole time we were sifting the piles.  Mostly just he just grunted and looked bored which caused me to talk enough for both of us.  Gotta say he kinda creeps me out some.  The Reverend looked up and said “We good to go?”  Stalker nodded and turned back to the ship and disappeared inside.
  
About 6 hours later we dropped out of warp within 10 meters of the Calypso Space Station.  On cue we all teleported at the same instant and arrived less than 2 steps from the teleporter.  Mitch took my hand and we materialized on the planet’s surface.  As the shimmering around me cleared Stalker already had the beacon armed and was calling in the robot Dropship.  Within a few minutes I saw it coming down through the clouds to stop right above us.  The ramp descended and we entered.  Robot ships have some amazing speed or maybe it’s a stasis thing but seemingly in no time at all we were being auto teleported into robot central.  I shrugged my shoulders to shift the weight of the backpack Thinker had put together for this excursion.  My part in this insane attack was to not get killed and find the emitter.  I stayed right behind Mitch and Raven.  Stalker was on point and was laying waste to everything in front of us.  Raven and Mitch did their part picking off random stray drones.  Each level we went up the robots became thicker and higher levels of generation.  Our progress didn't slow much until we got to the upper levels.  Then Raven and Mitch lagged back some protecting me more than attacking.  Finally when we got to the top level Mitch said “OK Lisbeth showtime turn it on”  I slapped the pad like device wrapped around my forearm and felt the mechanism on my back come to life.

Mitch and Raven took off at a run ahead of me catching up with Stalker.  There were maybe a dozen of the holographic robots in the vicinity.  These things are tough and obviously hard to hit.  Each of the Wastelanders was in a battle having at minimum 2 of the things wailing away at them.  I could see though my UI that they were all taking damage at a terrifying rate.  I held back for a few moments then remembered the drills from the past day or so and headed forward quickly.  I had the scanner out that Thinker had made for this occasion and was desperately trying to get any kind of reading.  As soon as I thought I saw a pattern developing the matter stream would dissipate and the hologram would fold in and disappear.  When there were only 2 holograms left I watched the Wastelanders take turns stepping in front and take huge amounts of damage.  Mitch was the first to fall from a critical hit.  Then Stalker went down but took one of the remaining Holographic Warlocks with him.  That left Raven and me and the last Warlock.  She took damage over and over again.  She looked to the side and said “find the damn thing you little bitch move your ass” I stood beside her and scanned the area and saw a shimmering dot in the ceiling.  “Got it” I shouted and saw Raven fall to her knees beside me.  I isolated the signal and tried to highlight the device.  When I was sure I had a good lock on it I turned to her as quickly as I could.  I moved my arms like Thinker had shown me to activate the healing chip so the mind force energies would flow from me to her.  She shook her head and pushed at the flooring with her left hand her light sword flaring back to life.  Again and again I poured my weak mind force into her until she was standing and once again attacking the Hologram.  “Are you sure you have it” she said through gritted teeth.  “Got it .. yes yes yes .. I have it .. kill the damn thing” was my reply still wind milling my arms healing her.

Then it was dissolving.  I heard Mitch running toward us his light sword hissing though the air closely followed by Stalker.  They stopped next to Raven and looked around.  “Did we get it?”  Mitch asked.  I pointed the scanner at the ceiling and said “Yep there it is .. all we have to do is dig it out”

Sometime later

I sat in the back of the Privateer and held the emitter on my lap.  I must have dozed off because when I awoke Thinker was patting me on the head and pulling the emitter from my grasp.  He didn't say anything he just smiled from ear to ear.
  
One day ago

Thinker and I were left alone again and he was hooking all kinds of stuff to the console he had installed the emitter into so I just wandered away.  I opened my pad and found the location of the Falx Sword and headed there as quickly as I could.  I found it and a bunch of other either too big to carry or too deadly looking to want to be near swords.  I left the compound and flipped on my pad and dialed to radar mode.

Nothing but static.  Crap.

OK vehicles what are the choices.  I looked at the one seat transport that I had traveled here in the back of and climbed in to the cockpit.  It started and away I went careening off boulders and trees and everything else in my path.  Finally I had some distance between me and the compound and stopped to see where I was.  Yeah like that makes sense .. middle of stinking nowhere.  After I had driven for hours the vehicle stopped.  I looked at the dials and gauges the only one in red was fuel.  Double crap.

4 or 5 hours ago

So I walk.  I drug the long sword behind me and finally decided that it was too much trouble to deal with and left it on a stone ledge.  As I climbed over the stone I saw a Sleipnir parked in a small clearing.  I ran towards it hands in the air shouting.  No one was around.  So I did a quick inspection of the VTOL and decided the person that owns it really doesn't know how to maintain vehicles.  

I have been sitting here for almost 4 hours and no sign of the owner.  I have already looked for an RK on board but only found a half meter of rusted welding wire.  The cargo bin had a few odd bits of ore that I have decided I will leave here in a neat pile.  I’m really not sure the thruster has more than two or three lifts left in it but I need to get out of here.  The armored flight suit is really big.  Like the person that owns it might be a little rotund.  Huge actually.  So I have used two big leather belts that held his worn out looking mining equipment to bunch it up so I can at least move around without dragging most of it behind me.

The star shaped crack in the wind screen is a concern but I’ll chance it.  I push the throttle forward and pull back on the controls and up I go, black smoke bellowing out of the motors in a thickening cloud below me as I ascend.

Chapter 9 - Escape To What

<<--------------------------------------~O~-------------------------------------->>

Disclaimer Part

None of the characters in this story / role play are real in the sense that this all takes place in a virtual world.  None of the events depicted are real, come on its in space on a huge Mothership.  Really?

The real parts are as follows:

The environment in which I do my role play is a game called Entropia Universe.  Which is made by Swedish company called MindArk.  MindArk has not authorized me to speak for them in any way nor do I intend to.  But I will tell you it is a very fun game and it truly is what you make it.

Entropia Universe is a free to play game with a real cash economy.  Here is a link to Entropia Universe 

Planet Calypso

The Motherships do exist in the game and are owned and operated by individuals.  The fleets of ships that Wasp works on are all part of the Entropia Fleet Alliance.  These folks are pros at getting you across space in an efficient timely manner.  They offer routine scheduled flights every day of the week. 

Here is a link to the EFA Website –  Entropia Fleet Alliance

Oh and when you aren't reading my blogger or even when you are listen in on  Atlas Haven Radio <-- click here for link.

Chapter 7 - Cargo

“Yes I can fix it” I said as I looked at the two Wastelanders towering over me.  I moved my inspection tool over the control system of the Revive Station paying close attention to the little hologram hovering above the display.  The energy weapon the Drones had used to disable the major power systems in the Mothership didn't do physical damage but disrupted all the electropositive circuitry throughout the ship.  I don’t really know how they targeted those specific components but it was very effective.  I knew the parts needed to fix the Revive Station were in the spare parts cabinets located in the Engineering Section just across the deck from Medical.

I pointed across the deck to Engineering with my homemade pulsed quanta generalized inspection tool and said “I need to go over there and see if I can find stuff to do the repairs.”  Mitch stepped aside I lowered my head not daring to look at him and walked quickly over to Engineering.  I opened my pad and did a quick search for the location of the electropositive components.  Luckily, I found the proper processor, modulator, comm component and the security module that matched the set in the Revive Station right where they were supposed to be.  Taking the parts I headed back to Medical.  It was pretty creepy stepping over the dead bodies of my crew mates.  I tried not to think about it and opened the panel on the riser next to Revive.  With little effort the components were replaced and I was about to power the unit back on when the woman with Mitch put her hand over mine and said, “Not just yet.  They still have some time before death is permanent.”  I looked at her wide eyed then to Mitch feeling more than just a little confused.  Mitch dug into his bag and produced a triphased transmitter that looked like it had been modified with some not quite standard components. “Attach this between the electropositive communication component and the electropositive security module” he said.  I took the oddly configured component and did as he instructed.

“OK can I turn it on now?”  I asked.  The woman took a small handheld device from her belt and did something to the display.  She looked at the control system and said “Now turn it on”.  I touched the control that would bring Revive back online but it stayed dormant.  I started to open the panel to inspect my work but woman held up the device and said “I can finish the startup sequence with this”.  She turned to Mitch and said “How are we doing for time?”  Mitch took a quick glance at a display attached to the armor on his left forearm then said “The Drones have the containers loaded and are standing by.” “I’ll power them off on the way” said the woman as she turned briskly on her heel and headed aft, back the way she and Mitch had entered.

Mitch turned to me and said, “Do you have armor?”  I shook my head negative.  He paused for a moment looking over my head towards Engineering.  Then he put his hand on my shoulder and guided me out of Medical in the direction the woman had taken.  When we got to the view port that overlooks the hanger deck I noticed a new opening had been cut through the bulkhead.  Mitch put his arm around me and jumped down 20 some meters to the hanger deck.  When we landed he sat me down gently.  I looked around and there was a Vega Class Privateer that just barely fit inside the hanger.  Standing idle at the rear of the ship was a cluster of Drones.  The woman was already close to them with her light sword activated.  She took one or two swipes at each Drone sending metal parts off in all directions. 

“We don’t have time to find you a suit and a set of space attachments so I’m afraid you will have to ride with the cargo.”  Mitch said.  I looked up at him and blinked my eyes and stammered out “What ..wait a  .. I .. I .. don’t want to go with .. with .. you!” I turned to head back up the ramp but he put his hand on my shoulder and steered me to the cargo door on the Privateer.  The woman was just coming back down the ramp and saw us approaching.  She was just about to press the exterior contact that closed up the compartment when we got to the ship.  “Hold a sec Raven” Mitch said calmly.  The woman turned and looked from me to Mitch and shook her head.  Mitch led me up the short ramp into the ship’s cargo area and scanned the containers secured to the deck.  All of the containers were equipped with climate controls.  As he opened the container closest to the cargo door I noticed the shimmer of a person headed for revive across the deck from the ship, then two more shimmers further aft. 

After Mitch had made some adjustments to the controls on the container he opened the access way and pushed me inside.  “Stay calm” He told me patting the access panel “and don’t try to open this or we will have a problem.  More specifically you will have a problem.”  Then he followed with “This should take a little less than an hour”.  As he turned to leave I said in a shaky voice “This is kidnapping you know.”  He didn't look back or even pause as the access way into the container closed.

 

There I was locked inside an utterly dark shipping container.  I stood there for a few moments in total disbelief as the darkness seemed to soak into my every pore.  I closed my eyes tightly and tried not to cry or scream or just explode.  After a few moments of hugging myself tightly and sniffling, I pulled  the modified laser cutting tool out of my back pocket and thumbed the power on.  The laser flickered for a few moments then steadied into a wide cone of greenish blue light.  The pallets and boxes around me were neatly arranged and I found a spot to sit down between to large plastic crates that fitted into the locking grooves in the floor.  As soon as I was wedged between the crates I felt the ship move and seconds later felt the familiar vibrations associated with warp flight. 

I squatted there with my chin supported by my palms my elbows locked between my knees and vibrated with the rest of the cargo.  I tried to think of how I could possibly get away from these maniacs.  But all my schemes would eventually be checked off as stupid or as ineffective as wishing I could fly.  I felt so totally out of my element and alone.  Why the heck would he kidnap me for goodness sake?  That didn't make any sense at all.  I continued to run through all that had happened during the last several hours, in my throbbing head.  And I was dirty from crawling through the innards of the ship and I stunk like something terrible.

The warp flight seemed to take a lot longer than the routine flights I am used to or maybe it was the fact that I was in the container but when the shaking finally stopped I knew we were out of warp.  I didn't move though as that seemed pointless.  He would either let me out eventually or not.  I hoped that my worst case fears were not true, that he was taking the only witness to their crime to some remote place to dispose of her desiccated body.  I thought desiccated because I was all of a sudden very thirsty which I added to my increasing mental list of immediate miseries.  I don’t actually know how long I was in the container before I felt a slight sensation telling me we had landed somewhere.

Since the containers are pretty much air tight and sound proof I couldn't tell what was going outside of the confines of my dark prison but after what seemed like forever I felt the container moving.  It was obviously on some kind of gravatic lift being moved down the ramp of the privateer.  I tried like he said to ‘stay calm’ but I was really anxious about what was going to happen next.

When the access way of the container was finally opened I got up blinking my eyes at that sudden harsh glare of light pouring through the opening.  I saw that his silhouette appeared to be reaching for me.  I put up my hands to fend him off which I knew would be futile but instead felt a plastic bottle.  “Drink” was all he said as he turned and walked away from the container.  I opened the bottle and gulped down several mouthfuls of water.  After attaching the lanyard on bottle to my pouch I walked out of the container my hands shielding my eyes from the blinding lights around the staging area.  I looked around and thought ‘staging area of what’. 

We were in a gigantic cave.  I heard the thrum of powerful engines behind me, turning quickly I just caught a glimpse of the privateer disappearing around a bend in the cavern.  My first thought was ‘great they have left me here’.  The cavern seemed to stretch out for kilometers in all directions there wasn’t much to gauge scale by but it was enormous.  When I looked up the ceiling appeared to be covered with what looked like fog.  There were raised platforms on both sides of the staging area.  Off in the distance through the haze I could see several quads parked side by side.  The size of the place was overwhelming.

As I completed a full 360 degree turn taking in the cavern I spotted Mitch and that Raven woman by some peculiar looking terminals.  I didn't know what else to do so I walked over to join them.   On the way I tried to count the number of containers stacked around but quickly lost track and just shook my head at the wonder of it all.  I knew these guys were criminals but gosh if all this is loot they are mega big time pirates.  When I got close enough to see what they were doing I noticed the name Villre Star stenciled on side of the unit powering the terminals.  That name was familiar in some way but I couldn't place it at the moment.  I stood a little distance from the Wastelanders not wanting to seem as anxious as I actually was.  Eventually they finished and Mitch motioned for me to follow him. 

We entered a small building near the quads and he went to a set of lockers opening them one after another.  When he found what he was looking for he pointed at the open locker and said “Get suited up we will be in the quad for over 5 hours”.  Then he turned and walked out of the building.  I just stood there for a few moments letting absolute emotional shock at what was happening take hold of me.  I eventually and honestly quite unaware that I had done so began to numbly put on the several sizes too large armored flight suit.

 

6 hours later

A little over 5 hours after leaving the small moon sized asteroid we landed in a secluded spot on a planet.  I pulled off the flight suit and left it under the wing of the quad then opened my pad but there was no signal to be had just the local apps active warning.  While Mitch and his partner in crime loaded the single seat vehicles with the small containers from the storage of the quads I looked around for anything familiar.  The place we landed didn't have the faintest trace of familiarity, which was odd because when one lands on any of the known planets they tell you where to land as directed by customs authorities, census takers and all that.  This place was definitely off the grid.

When they were finished Mitch waved me over to his vehicle.  I stood there glaring up at him with the most menacing stare I could manage.  He just smiled that wish-he-would-stop-it crooked smirky smile of his and offered me his hand.  When I refused to take it he picked me up and shoved me in the stowage of the vehicle.

Several hours later

I ache all over from being bounced around in a metal box attached to the back of a really noisy vehicle.  I probably have bruises on my bottom as well.  The ride was like he tried to hit every large rock and hole in the ground he passed on the trip from where we landed to where ever it was we were going.

When we finally stopped after what felt like hours, I sat in the relative quiet of the vehicle storage area for a few long moments.  When the door finally opened there he stood long leather coat and all.  I frowned at him and said for about the 10^th time “This is kidnapping you know”.  He just chuckled and stuck out his hand to help me out of the vehicle storage.  I didn't take it and hopped down to the ground on my own.  A quick look around and it was apparent we were in an even more out of the way place.  Pretty landscape and all that, the buildings looked old, not like worn out old but ancient.

Behind us the other vehicle ground to a stop.  The hatch opened and a tall fierce looking woman climbed down.  This was actually the first time I had seen Raven without her armored flight suit.  When she turned her long leather coat opened to reveal a thin muscular frame.  At her right hip was a large hand gun in its holster.  On her left I could see the hilt of her light sword sticking out of its carbon nano tube scabbard.  She was attractive but she had a hardness about her that sent a chill down my spine.  After she had retrieved her bag from the cockpit of the vehicle she walked toward us.  Her face was unreadable but I saw a hint of a smile at the edge of her mouth.  Her hair was different than it was on the wanted poster.  In that image it was like close cropped blond fuzz, now it’s long and black. As she approached she tied her hair back into a tight ponytail but a few unruly wisps poked out here and there.

“I was just on with Stalker and the Reverend they took out 2 Infiltrators near 796 / 759 and scuttled the Privateer in the Dropship debris field. Now are in a Quad headed this way, eta 8 hours.”  She stated.  Then she tilted her head slightly in my direction and said “And, Tracker, explain to me again why we brought this puny with us”.  “There is a reason for everything, Raven.  Come let’s get these Mechanomatrix Adapter Units to Thinker.”  He chuckled, his now annoying laugh, lifting his overly large flight bag.  They both turned and headed for the large structure we had stopped in front of.

I stood there for a few moments looking around.  OK, so in the middle of god knows where with no idea how to get back to where I was.  Options:  Stand here.   Run.  Go inside.  While running seemed like the right thing to do at the time I knew from previous excursions to new planets that the local flora and fauna are typically not friendly to, as Raven put it, punys like me.  I watched the two Wastelanders walking away, their long strides carrying them quickly towards the entrance of the building.  I tightened the strap on my small pouch and hurried after them.  Running was still an option but I needed more information before attempting that.

Mad Scientist - Wastelander Thinker Barrett

Thinker was in a lab like room with tons of sophisticated equipment surrounding him.  In the center of the room were 2 large tables pushed together to form a very large work bench.  Scattered over the entire work surface were parts of robots.  Several of the big pieces looked like Drone Coordinators or maybe Drone Communicators I had seen in pictures someplace but I couldn't really tell for sure since they were more or less in a pile in the center of the work area.  Around the sides were cleared off spots with exotic looking electronic equipment attached by triphased wires and connectors to smaller robot parts.

Mitch sat his bag down and brought out several devices I had never seen before.  Thinker, an older guy with a grey crew cut, took the devices and said “Ahhh .. here we go.  Did you guys have any trouble?”  “No worked just like you said it would” replied Mitch.  “The other loot stashed in the Mine? Don’t guess there was much interesting in that lot was there?” Thinker asked quickly following with “And who is this miniature person?”  I decided right then I didn't like him very much.  Mitch turned to see me standing there looking irritated.  He said “This grumpy looking miniature, as you call her, is Lisbeth”.  “Hmmmm .. well this is truly out of the ordinary Tracker.  What exactly is her purpose for being here?”  Thinker asked looking me up and down like he would an empty robot carcass.  Raven stifled a giggle and said “Think I have asked him that myself.  So why did we bring this thing with us?”  She turned away from me with an arched eyebrow and frowned at Mitch.  “Well obviously she is your new assistant Thinker” Mitch beamed. 

I stood there shaking my head wondering what bombshell would drop next.  Thinker looked me up and down again this time with maybe a thousandth of a gram more interest.  He leaned back and said “Does she have any skills?”  Mitch turned to me and said “Give him your inspection tool”.  I opened my pouch and pulled my inspection tool out of its special pocket and handed it to Thinker.  He rolled the device in his finger tips and moved the magnifier from his forehead to cover his right eye.  He studied the inspection tool with his trained eye.  Then he laid it on the bench and started taking it apart.  All I could do is stand there and watch as he dissected the thing that took me almost a year to scrounge parts for.  When he had it apart he nodded his head and grunted.  He put it back together with dexterity that I didn't think possible with hands as large as his.  When it was back together he turned it on and moved it over one of the robot heads on his bench. “You made this?” He asked still looking at the holographic diagram of the inside of the robot head floating above the tool.  I nodded my head affirmative.  He turned to me handing back my inspection tool and said “Did you think about using an advanced VisioMem instead of that old standard VisioMem?”  I shrugged and said “Sure I thought about it but you don’t find those in the junk people toss out”.  “Clever adaption of standard holo module though what did you get the intensity amplifier out of?”  I couldn't help myself suddenly I was leaning on his bench babbling about what all the parts came out of and how many basic filters I had physically shredded to get the density required construct the standard matrix that confines the quanta. 

As we talked he showed me the beginnings of a project he called “Shoving it up their metal hind sides”.

When I looked around Mitch and that woman Raven were gone.  I don’t know how many hours passed as I watched Thinker work and listen to him talk about tech that was light years ahead of my comprehension.  Occasionally though I did get it and got a glimpse into the mind of a true evil electromechanical mad scientist genius wizard.  Finally he said “Lisbeth you catch on quickly, clever girl”.  I looked at him and said “Well I have been taking things apart more and more or less putting them back together successfully since I can remember”.  He laughed and said “What do your mates call you?  I know everyone has a nickname of some kind or the other.”  “Most folks call me Wasp” I grinned in response to his question.  He laughed and said “Let me see your pad for a second”.  I handed it to him expecting him to tear it apart as well but he just sat it down on the bench and laid his pad beside it.  He pushed them together and spoke a command to his pad and both lit up and went through a routine I had never seen on my pad.  When my pad finally caught up with his and the word sync was displayed on both he handed mine back to me.  “Now you can find stuff we might need to get this mess turned into something to raise a little hell with in Robotville.” He said with a soft laugh.

Several hours later

My butt is dragging the floor behind me.  I don’t think I can keep my eyes open for another second but still Thinker is going like the madman he obviously is.  Don’t these people sleep?  I sat at the bench and yawned with my whole body.  Thinker noticed and said “You must still be on a 24 hour cycle. Need to get some sleep?”  I nodded and he got up and led me down a corridor to a small room with a tidily made bed and a refresher that opened onto a courtyard.  He waved his hand at the bed and said “You can bunk here Wasp, I’ll carry on for a few more hours.   When you get up come back to the lab and we'll find something to eat.”  I nodded and went to the bed.

But before I went to sleep I started working on a plan for escape.  OK what will you need to get the heck away from these crazy people?  The first thing that came to mind was a weapon.  I looked at my pad for location of weapons in the compound.  There were literally hundreds of weapons of all sorts none of which I had the skill to use.  Some I even doubted I could even manage to lift.  

I did a quick scan of my professional levels and told my pad to locate a weapon suitable for my current skill level.  

As it did the search of all the items Thinker had given me access to I looked at my attributes.  Fudge I am a puny compared to these guys.

Finally the pad sighed and opened a screen that was a little bit confusing to start with as it looked like museum inventory.  So this place was an old castle or something once upon a time.  The only weapon, even in the old junk down in the cellar, that I could use was a long curved blade called a Falx and I almost didn't have the skills for it.  There was a club like thing but it was longer than I am tall so that one didn't count.

OK so all I have to do is get to the cellar and find this Falx thing and sneak out unnoticed.  “How hard could that be” I sighed looking at the chronometer on my pad.  “Close Journal” I moaned and muttered under my breath “Gahh .. 36 hours” and my eyes closed on their own.

Chapter 8 - Robots

<<--------------------------------------~O~-------------------------------------->>

Disclaimer Part

None of the characters in this story / role play are real in the sense that this all takes place in a virtual world.  None of the events depicted are real, come on its in space on a huge Mothership.  Really?

The real parts are as follows:

The environment in which I do my role play is a game called Entropia Universe.  Which is made by Swedish company called MindArk.  MindArk has not authorized me to speak for them in any way nor do I intend to.  But I will tell you it is a very fun game and it truly is what you make it.

Entropia Universe is a free to play game with a real cash economy.  Here is a link to Entropia Universe 

Planet Calypso

The Motherships do exist in the game and are owned and operated by individuals.  The fleets of ships that Wasp works on are all part of the Entropia Fleet Alliance.  These folks are pros at getting you across space in an efficient timely manner.  They offer routine scheduled flights every day of the week. 

Here is a link to the EFA Website –  Entropia Fleet Alliance

Oh and when you aren't reading my blogger or even when you are listen in on  Atlas Haven Radio <-- click here for link.

Chapter 6 - Rumors

“It was used as pet food” my new bunk mate told me.  “Pet food?” I questioned, arching my eyebrows.  “Yep, it had some enzyme in it that made the big things docile after they had been trained” she continued.  “What do you mean I've never seen a pet monster?” I asked.  “They were pretty common before the last big robot war, the one that made the huge crater where the Capital City on Calypso used to be, afterwards there were some whacked out genetic mutations going on with everything, even people and one of the mutations caused the creatures that had been or could have been trained before to not accept it anymore.”  She explained.  “So it’s not for people then?”  I asked kind of wide eyed, thinking that I almost had figured out how to make the stupid Nutrio Bars.  “No silly that would be like probably the worst thing possible to eat ..” she said making a gagging sound at the end.  I let it drop vowing to myself to never ever under any circumstances to eat any of the native vegetable fruit melon things again.

The conversation changed to stuff going on around the ship, gossip, rumors that sort of thing.  And eventually one of my bunk mates asked me if I was better now.  They had all been present in the female quarters when I showed up weeks ago.  I was still pretty much a mess when I was delivered there with all my belongings.  “You seemed really upset and distraught the day you moved in” she said with more than a little curiosity in her voice.  “Yeah .. we didn't want to get into your business right off but we have all been curious about what actually happened” added the Propulsion Specialist.  The Gunners Mate wasn't as tactful as the other two just asked “Is it true you were caught banging some well-known pirate guy that has a bounty on him on all the known worlds”?

They were all leaning forward now in a conspiratorial like way and scooting closer so we wouldn't have to talk at normal levels.  They really wanted to know the details, I could tell by the look in their eyes.  “Well” I sighed “It wasn't so much I got caught .. it’s that I told the Senior Officers about it”. “You .. what???” they all said at once.  “Yeah it’s kind of a big mess” I said biting my lower lip.  “I don’t believe it, Lisbeth, you seem so so so .. “ the Propulsion Specialist stammered searching for the right word.  “Naïve” said the Gunners Mate leaning back crossing her arms having found the right word for our mate.  I sat there nodding my head.  I had to agree with her on that point.  “And you told the Brass about the whole thing” asked the girl from the Engineering team.  They all got up from the table between our bunks, two of them dragging chairs and the third sitting down on the end of my bunk facing me.  Now we were really close together.  “So .. “ started the Propulsion specialist. “Details, Lisbeth, details, tell us what you did to get drug up before the Senior Officers ..” said the Engineer.  “Every juicy bit of it“ the Gunners Mate added.  They all leaned in even closer eyes wide and ready for me to spill it all.

I sighed again and looked at each of their expectant faces and started “Well it was a chance encounter that started out on the hanger deck at Athena Station.  I fixed his ship for him and he bought me dinner and we ended up in my quarters.  But please don’t get me wrong I don’t do stuff like that ever and I didn't tell the ‘Brass’ all the steamy parts.  But I will tell you this, he truly has to be the most beautiful man I have ever met and he is big all over, huge hands, size very large feet and his … “.  9 or 10 minutes later when I finished they were all siting there wide eyed open mouthed and maybe a little astonished at the amount of detail I put into the description of the whole night long experience.  After I had finished and was leaning back against the bulkhead the Gunners Mate grinned and said “Well .. maybe not that naïve” and we all laughed hysterically for a few minutes.

Not everything is perfect though.  I have been getting some unwanted attention from a few of the crew.  Like rude comments and suggestions that aren't so pleasant, at least not to me.  Sometimes people can be so crude especially if the rumors are flying ahead of you like crazy.  I heard one retelling of my Athena encounter that left me stunned.  Seems I was the moll of a whole gang of pirates, a sort of the pass around girl, and despite my seeming innocent personality am responsible for multitudes of misdeeds and possible murders. The story got pretty gruesome sexually and made me blush thinking that anyone would believe I was that kind of girl even for a microsecond.  I assured the person that retold me this version of the story that there was absolutely no truth to this at all.  Not sure she believed me though.  As we parted company she looked me up and down very suspiciously.  Or was that with jealousy?

But the one type of incident that repeated itself more than a few times typically came from some of the more loathsome males that heard what they wanted to hear in the rumors and confronted me about doing something special for them.  One time two guys blocked the gangway while I was on my way forward and were very insistent that if I was the type of girl that would do it anytime, why would hesitate to do them at that moment.  I must have turned a serious shade of red and when I tried to push between them to get on with my work one of them grabbed my arm and tried to stop me.  My magnetically chargeable steel toed boots are pretty tough and seriously hard, as he found out when I kicked him in the shin with all my 40 kilos behind it.  He let go and I went on to my duty station.  Anyways I hope this all dies down quickly and the rumor mill sets its sights on someone else.

All Hands Alert just went off gotta run …

Just another group of wanna be pirate types hitting us as we moved from the sphere of the planet towards the space station.  No serious damage and the gunners got some real practice.  They are becoming quite good actually if the rumors about that are correct.  I talk to my bunk mate that is one of the Gunners a lot she thinks the team is improving as a whole not just gunnery.  The way she puts it if they get the ship in the right place and respond to calls and propulsion works at its toppest efficiency being a gunner is easy.

Hours Later

I finally figured out the mining amps and located a blueprint for one of the easier to make versions.  Now I have 2 blueprints in my book and have been collecting materials for these things for the last couple of weeks.  I hope to be able to give them a go next time I have some time planet side.  And yes that Captain has finally agreed to let me off the cargo loader when we are on a planet.  I do love exploring new places and have had the chance to see quite a few interesting sites.  I need a quick snack before going back on duty.

My pad says it is 36 hours later but my internal clock says it has been at least a week.  Must sleep but I need to do a journal entry of the last day or so while still sorta fresh in my mind. 

All seemed well like any other normally scheduled run with everyone at station waiting in Standby.  Then we dropped out mid warp with a huge slam that made the whole ship ring like an enormous bell.  I was helping out in propulsion and we all just looked at one another.  There was no damage then all of a sudden the lights went out.  The normal red glow of propulsion dimmed to a dull grey from the flickering emergency lights.   

The Engineering Officer in charge told everyone to be quiet and activated the comms, but there was no answer from Command.  He tried the other stations and nothing.  Comms were obviously down throughout the whole ship.  The Officer turned to the crew at hand and said “Maintain your stations I’ll be right back”.  No one responded as he jumped over the railing and disappeared around the propulsion intermix console.  

A couple minutes later he was back.  He pointed at me and one of the other repair crew and said “You two with me”.  “Aye Sir” we replied in unison and headed off at a run behind the Engineering Officer.  When we got to the blast doors leading up to the Reactor he stopped and pointed at the mechanism that drives the door.  He said “Here and here”.  The other repair tech aimed his RK at the two points on the mechanism the engineer indicated but nothing happened, it wasn't damaged just not being powered.  Then we moved over to the hatchway that leads to the inter ship televator.  The lack of power had caused both doorways leading to the platform to slide open partway.  So the 3 of us leaned on the down part of the doors and forced them into their pockets. 

The televator was dark and the usual sound wasn't coming from the floor.  Just the tiny emergency halogen lamps on either side of the door way were on, barely illuminating the platform.   “Looks like we are stuck here for the moment” the Engineer mumbled aloud.  I could see him smoothing his hair like he did when in deep thought.  He looked around the compartment and motioned the other crewman to follow him.  He said “Give me a boost up so I can open this ceiling panel”.  The crewman made a stirrup with his interlocked fingers and the Engineering Officer stepped up and undid the latches and let the panel open downward.   Then the Engineering Officer pulled himself up into the void above the ceiling.  He looked back down and said “Wait right here” to the crewman and to me he said “Wasp go get my tool kit on the aft scaffold of the inner discharge port”.  I dashed away the back side of the Propulsion unit and found his kit strapped to the scaffold with a wide leather belt.  I pulled it free and ran as fast as I could to the televator platform.

When I got back to the televator the Engineering Officer was gone and I stood next to the other crewman looking up at the ceiling.  A few minutes later the Engineer returned and leaned out of the opening in the ceiling so we could see him.  He said “I think we can get to Command Deck from here if we had a light of some kind.  If not we will have to feel our way.  Give me a minute to see if I can get around the inertial confinement tubes without falling down the shaft.”

 

He was gone for about 5 minutes and returned.  He leaned out of the panel again and said “I can get around them but not much further” he paused a moment and said “Wasp are you claustrophobic?” “No Sir .. I mean I don’t think so” I replied looking up at his worried face.  “Crewman lift her up to me” he said and I stepped into the crewman’s hands and he pushed me up towards the Engineering Officers outstretched hand.  I handed him his tool kit when it was stashed behind him he pulled me up into the ceiling.  It is usually pretty dark in this area anyways but now it was pitch black.  We scooted back from the lighted rectangle above the televator and Engineering Officer spoke softly to me as he rummaged in his kit.

 

When he found what he was looking for he said “I’m about to show you something that you will never do again nor will you tell anyone I showed you this.”  I sat quietly paying attention to what he was doing.  He held his low power laser cutting tool between us and twisted the projector housing off the business end and pulled the feedback coupling and the power regulator out gently.  He looked up to make sure I was watching and pulled the feedback coupling out of the power regulator he flipped the feedback coupling around 180 degrees and reinserted the reconfigured parts back into the cutter.  He laid the cutter down and took a pointed tool from his kit and pressed the focus lens out of the projector housing and reattached the projector housing to the cutter.  “OK” he whispered “when you turn it on in this configuration make sure the power control is set to minimum”.  He showed me the proper sitting and then pointed to cutting tool away from us turned it on.  “Notice when you turn it on the laser will be a bit erratic for a moment then will flare into wide low intensity beam, pretty dim actually but you should be able to see well enough with it.”  “Yes Sir” I said nodding my head. “And Wasp don’t move the lever much off minimum power or we will have a nice finger sized hole through everything between it and outside and the cutter will likely melt in your hand.” He said with a smile and continued “Seriously though leave it on minimum power and you should be able to see just fine. Ready”?  I nodded my head and crawled across the pipes and conduits after him. As we crawled forward the Engineering Officer told me what he wanted me to try to do when I got to the third confinement tube raceway.

At last I squirmed my way through the maze of cables going through the innards of the ship and was hanging beside the third set of inertial confinement tubes.  This set of tubes route power to the guns on the Command Deck and pass through the aft part of the crew quarters near the Medical Section.  I stopped and listened carefully for any sound.  Quiet as a tomb.  OK just at the end of the crawl way past the big Power Regulator he said there would be an access panel that allows routing high energy cable connections to the engineering section for whatever reason.  Watch out for the big coiled cables .. they should have covers over the ends but check before crawling over them he had cautioned.  OK .. looks good big covers on the terminations of the cables.  The panel is just here.  Pull the lever on either side and it will slide open.  The panel slid to the side and I poked my head into the Engineering Section.  Dark.  I played the laser across the floor and pulled myself through.  When I got in I sat there for a few second before pulling the inside lever to close the access way.

Looking around the room at all the apparatus in various stages of disassembly I noted the door was securely closed.  I started to get up and give it a shove to see if it would open when an oddly shaped red lighted profile passed in front of the window.  I sat there quietly and thumbed to switch to power the laser cutter off.  The odd shaped shadow turned away from the door and walked towards the crew mess area.  I held my breath as it took the form of a Robot Drone.  I scooted back and thought about opening the access way and getting out of there but I couldn't move.  I didn't even dare blink.  There were a few more shadows passing the door and I inched myself away from the wall scooting on my butt to the table in the center of the room.

I peeked around the leg of the table at the knee joints of another Drone standing in front of the door.  There was a loud thump and I about jumped out of my skin but the door didn't budge.  The Engineering Officer told me that if power was off this particular door would be really hard to open but I could use the laser cutter on one click up from minimum to cut through the latching relay that secures it.  I was hoping the Drone didn't know that.  Then it turned and walked towards the televator.  I didn't know what to do I just knelt there wanting to be somewhere else.  Then I looked through the window at the medical section where the revive platform sits with the entire med center surrounding it.  There were bodies everywhere but mostly piled up on the revive pad.  No one was moving and no one was reviving.  This was disturbing in so many ways.  Did the Robots disable the revive and then kill everyone.  That wouldn't be right if the bodies were all over the stupid thing.  OK OK OK .. so maybe they killed everyone and kept killing them on the revive platform until they got the revive disabled.  This is not good.  As I knelt there trying to figure out how to get out of this mess alive a brilliant flash filled the area blinding me for a few seconds.  Then another and another, the robots were moving towards aft firing back at the flashes.

I couldn't hear a sound other than one stray blast that hit the door jamb by Engineering reminding me to keep my head down.  Then there were 2 people with light blades walking into the Drones chopping them to shreds.  Both were wearing glistening black armor with a full set of open space attachments.  The whirling blades made quick work of the Drones and the blades were turned off.  The smaller of the two shrugged off their pack and dumped the contents on the floor and quickly spread it into two piles.  The larger person picked up what I saw to be a pressure patch for fixing hull breaches.  Large hull breaches.  They split up and obviously went to work fixing the access way the robots had used to enter the ship.  I don’t know why but I knelt there not moving. I wanted to stand up and clap but somehow I got a feeling I best remain unseen.  In about 10 minutes the couple reappeared and went to the environmental control panel outside of Medical and made some adjustments.  I noticed the blinking red light inside Engineering next to the door turn from red to yellow then flickered to steady green.  When it turned green the door to Engineering slid open.

The two people turned to see what that meant.  The shorter one turned back towards Medical and started clearing bodies off of the revive platform.  The larger one walked towards Engineering with hand gun drawn.  I grabbed the edge of the table and pulled myself up. As I stood I raised my hands over my head and closed my eyes.  Nothing happened.  When I dared take a peek the large person was standing there with hands on hips head back like they were laughing inside of their helmet.  I lowered my hands slowly pushing the laser cutter in my hip pocket.

When I looked up at the face plate of his helmet I gasped out loud and took a step backwards.  It was Mitch.

Go to--> Chapter 7 - Cargo

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Disclaimer Part

None of the characters in this story / role play are real in the sense that this all takes place in a virtual world.  None of the events depicted are real, come on its in space on a huge Mothership.  Really?

The real parts are as follows:

The environment in which I do my role play is a game called Entropia Universe.  Which is made by Swedish company called MindArk.  MindArk has not authorized me to speak for them in any way nor do I intend to.  But I will tell you it is a very fun game and it truly is what you make it.

Entropia Universe is a free to play game with a real cash economy.

Here is a link to Entropia Universe - Planet Calypso

The Motherships do exist in the game and are owned and operated by individuals.  The fleets of ships that Wasp works on are all part of the Entropia Fleet Alliance.  These folks are pros at getting you across space in an efficient timely manner.  They offer routine scheduled flights every day of the week. 

Here is a link to the EFA Website –  Entropia Fleet Alliance 

Oh and when you aren't reading my blogger or even when you are listen in on  Atlas Haven Radio <-- click here for link.