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

<<--------------------------------------~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 5 - Telling All

“So you are telling me that you ‘possibly’ let this marauding group of killers have access to our route, manifest, crew status and names of our passengers?   And you did this for some 20 kilos of Metal Residue?”  The Captain said in a very cold tone.  “Yes Sir, Ma’am, I mean no Ma’am .. I mean .. it wasn't like that, Sir.”  I whispered looking down at the decking between her feet.  “Speak up crewman and look at me when you talk to me” The Captains cold voice got even icier.  “Explain” she followed after a very short pause.

 

I could feel myself turning solid crimson as I looked up at her face and told her everything that happened again, with the exception of telling all the delightful details of the feel good physical part.  She stood and looked at me as she started to turn saying “Stay right there” pointing at the deck, then left her ready room.  I felt like I would be sick and even though I was trembling inside I locked my arms at my side standing at Attention waiting for whatever would come next.

The Captain was gone for almost 15 minutes and when she returned the First Officer, the Senior Engineer and the Head of Security were with her.  The First Officer is an older man that speaks softly and always seems to be very calm.  He stood beside the Captain with his arms behind his back looking at me very carefully.  The Head of Security came through the door and moved to the right and immediately stood at Attention then slowly seemed to relax into something that resembled a very tense At Ease posture.  The Senior Engineer was the last to enter and I noticed something under his arm that looked familiar, my makeshift terminal.  In his other hand was the bag I got on Athena Space Station to make bringing the Metal Residue back a little less difficult.

The First Officer held out his hand and said “Crewman your card please”.  I pulled it from my hip pocket and handed it to him with shaking hands.  I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes as I knew for certain they were about to put me out an airlock.  He looked at me with no emotion on his face.  As the First Officer crossed the room to the conference table the Senior Engineer sat the bag obviously containing my things on the long table beside the ancient display I had cobbled together.

The Captain sat down at head of the table and asked her Officers to sit, as well.  Then she turned to face me and said “OK crewman from the beginning tell us exactly how you came to meet this terrorist”.  I stood there at Attention trying to hold back my tears but as I began to tell them how it all happened I could feel the tears start to flow down my cheeks.  When I got to the part where Mitch shook my hand and introduced himself, the First Officer asked me “Crewman how long have you been in this region of Space?”  I answered “3 months .. almost, Sir”.  He then said “Proceed”.  I went on telling them about the whole thing and how when I got back to the ship I tried between shifts to find him on all the people registries I could connect to.  Then the Senior Engineer interrupted me and asked “On this piece of scrap?”  I nodded my head.  

The Captain said “Speak up crewman answer the Engineers question”.  “Yes Sir on that.  It came out of …” I tried to say.  But he cut me off and said “I know what it came out of.  So, you got it to work did you?”  I blinked my eyes and more tears poured down my cheeks.  “Yes Sir” I said meekly.  The old Engineer grunted and waved his hand at me to go on.  I told them about finding the broken helmet and stripping out the comm unit so I could talk to the terminal.  And that I ran all my searches again and again but finally gave up on the registries and tried something else, after it finally dawned on me that his name probably wasn't Mitch Lander.  

The Captain asked me what kind of search I did to eventually discover his identity.  I described what I did and the old Engineer started to almost smile.  He looked up at me and said “That was a pretty interesting approach .. a lot like burning the haystack to find the needle.  Must have taken a while to execute on this old piece of junk.”  “Yes Sir it took a while” I sniffed and tried to look straight ahead to avoid his piercing stare.  “Go on then” He said.

 

I told them about the 10,000 or so images I looked through one by one until I found him.  And that I found everything I could on him and his mates as soon as I figured out who he was and that he had more than likely used me to get information and that when I had recovered from the shock of what I had done I ran to Command as fast as I could run. 

The Security Officer stopped me and asked in his deep baritone voice “Crewman, have you been in contact with this individual since you've returned to the ship?”  “No sir” I said, quickly, my eyes widening somewhat more than usual.  “I couldn't find a way to do that Sir ..  and .. and after I found out who he and his mates are I ..” I closed my mouth and visibly shuddered at the thought of my punishment being even harsher if I had talked with him.  The First Officer asked “What did you find out about him and his mates, as you say?”  I pointed to the terminal and said “I wrote a short synopsis of what I found in my journal Sir.”  “Show me” the First Officer and the Security Officer got up and stood behind the old Engineer.  I walked around the table and picked up the scavenged headset and told the terminal to display the last entry of my journal.

The First Officer read my short synopsis out loud.  When he finished he turned to the Captain and said “Missing a few details but fairly accurate”.  The Security Officer nodded and went to stand by the door again.  The Captain stared at me with her cold blue eyes and reached for the comm unit on the table and said “Quartermaster to my ready room”.  “Aye Sir” was his quick reply.

In the meanwhile the First Officer scanned my card on a console near the conference table that displayed my ratings on a big screen on the wall.  The old Engineer looked up from the ancient terminal and nodded when he looked at my ratings.  

“Been busy looks like” the old Engineer said with a grunt.  His face was turned away from me so I’m not certain he was pleased or not with ratings that were presented.

The door opened and the Quartermaster entered the room at a brisk walk.  “At your service Captain” He said with an unusual flourish, unusual for him anyways.   The Captain turned in her chair and asked him to have a seat.  As he sat down his eyes scanned the room and finally landed on me.  He didn't say anything but I knew he was thinking the same as everyone else in the room. Throw her out the nearest airlock and be rid of the troublesome little idiot.

The Captain turned toward the Quartermaster and asked him “Does this crewman have anything in the ship stores at the moment.  The Quartermaster looked from her to me and answered “A few RK-5 welders, Sir, as near as I can remember”  “Would you be so kind as to give me an exact number Quartermaster?” the Captain asked politely.  The Quartermaster took out his pad and flipped through a few screens and asked me “Crewman Wasp is your name right?”  “Yes Sir” I answered swallowing a huge lump in my throat.  He fiddled with his pad for a few seconds and said “The crewman has 20 full TT RK-5s in stores and has withdrawn 3 within the last 8 hours.

The Captain turn back to me and said “Crewman, I know where you got the residue to make these RK’s but I don’t know where you got the other materials and I would especially like to know where you got the blueprint.”  I looked at the Captain and said in a shaking voice “I got the materials from a reseller on Arkadia on our last supply drop I paid for the materials with the ped I got for working on the refit  .. and the blueprint was a gift .. I .. I think.”  “Go ahead and tell her where it came from lass” said the old Engineer. 

Through tear blurred vision I saw the old Engineer sit back and cross his arms over his rather large tummy.  “I found the blueprint in a Limited Blueprint Book that was left between the containers I bunk behind.  The name in the back of the book is the Senior Engineers name, Sir” I croaked out almost choking on the last part.  I saw the First Officer cover his mouth as if he were about to cough but in his eyes I saw a small smile forming.  The Captain looked at her Senior Engineer without revealing her thoughts.  Then she turned to me and said “Crewman what do you think I should do with you?”

I was at a loss what to say.  I opened my mouth and all that came out was a little squeaking gasp followed by a weeping “Please.. don’t throw me .. out the airlock .. Ma’am .. please please please”.  Then I just sort of folded up and I scrunched down into the smallest possible form I could make sobbing into my arms that hugged my face to my knees.  In about 2 seconds I felt a large hand on my shoulder.  Looking down through my arms I saw the shiny boots the Head of Security wears.

“Stand up crewman” I heard the Captain say.  The Head of Security lifted me up and turned me to face the Captain.  He let go of me and I stood there hugging my chest tightly.  I’m sure I looked a mess.  She looked straight at me and said “I’m not going to throw you out of an airlock, crewman” She turned her gaze from the Senior Engineer and the Head of Security and continued “I will, however, restrict your time planet-side for short while and you will be issued a full TT RK-20 that you will keep in your locker in the NOW likely event we will be attacked by pirates”.

Then she turned to the Quartermaster and said “Please make sure she has proper access to the replacement RK-20s as needed, assign her a locker and change her quarters to the female berthing amidships.”  To the First Officer she said “Make note of her rank and promotion in the ships log as Qualified Crewman Rank 10 this date and time.”  Finally she turned to the Security Officer and said “Would you please escort the crewman to her quarters and help her with her belongings, except that” she pointed to the ancient terminal. To no one in particular she said “Someone get her a pad for god’s sake”.

 

Then she stood and in her command voice said “Dismissed”.

Go to--> Chapter 6- Rumors

<<--------------------------------------~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 4 - Welders

Just got back from visiting the Quartermaster, he has to be the grumpiest person I have ever met.  Anyhow, I dropped off the pallet with my welders on it.  He went on and on and on about how many of these things he already had.  Not my problem, part of the deal is that if you provide your own equipment the Fleet will store it for you and not charge when you take one out.  Of course they can sell your things but you get your asking price added to your card.  Pretty cool arrangement, except for dealing with mister-too-busy-to-mess-with-you-right-now Quartermaster.

Making the RK-5 welders wasn't as big of a deal as I thought it would be.  I had enough on my card from the work I did on the space station to buy the materials to make them plus the huge score of metal residue I got from the fabulous Mr. Mitch Lander, which was actually a quadruple plus.  Anyways, to make the welders all you do is go to the manufacturing terminal, scan the blueprint, stick your materials in (including the residue), shut the lid and select the quantity you want.  I calculated that the amount of residue I had would make 23 perfect welders so I selected that amount and away it went.  When the process was complete I had 23 RK-5’s stacked on a pallet ready for shipment.  And I didn't even get my hands dirty.

Now, I’m waiting to go on shift and I have some time to squat on the floor in front of my makeshift terminal / pad and do some serious research.  I’m thinking of trying to learn to make mining amps.  These are neat little gizmos that you poke into the socket on the side of your Seeker that do wonders to improve the performance of said Seeker.  I need to know more about these gizmos and what materials I’m going to have to scrounge up to make them.  We make enough stops during the week I should be able to find a sampling of the things I will need.

OK I got sidetracked.  I just spent like 18 minutes looking for Mitch in all the people registries in the known universe.  Odd that I didn't find him listed anywhere.  Maybe he is just a low profile sort of guy but he didn't seem that way really.  Oh well I still have a smile on my face from that chance encounter.  And yes I know I’m sounding like a stalker.  Oh well got to get to work.

Several hours later

Gah I have a headache, we had a passenger that was so out of line everyone on the ship wanted to grab him and stuff him out an airlock.  Not worth repeating the conversations but he was some self-important ass that thought his fare got him complete control of the ship.  I was in between jobs and offered to show him around the ship.  Mistake, he never listened to me or paid attention to where he was and always tried to take the lead and ended up not even close to where he wanted to go.  I tried to be patient and polite and I suppose I should have been more forgiving because he acted like someone that had never been in space before, maybe.  No actually he was just a flat out ass.  Glad he is gone.

Later even

I just choked down a couple slices of Caroot.  Tastes a lot like eating paper or paper mixed with dirt.  I might have lost a few kilos on this diet.  So, I’m thinking I might start hitting the crew mess every couple days just to, well, eat something that might be beneficial to my health.  In the meanwhile I’m still trying to find more information on the Nutrio bars.  Not a lot out there about this other than you can make them from any of the fruit veggie melon plants found on the known worlds.  Surely they have more nutritional content than plain old Caroot or (holding nose) Haimoros for gods sake.

  

At any rate my card is finally showing a positive and the crew mess sure smells good when I pass by.  I can thank the Captain for the improved status of my card.  She is generous with her bonus pay which is super nice.  But she can be a taskmaster though she has had us doing drills jumping from station to station improving our efficiency.  At first it was a pain in the bottom.  I felt like such a fumble butt trying to get were ordered at first then it all started to fall into place.  Now I can jump up from a sound sleep and be on station in seconds.  And I have been promoted to Apprentice 2^nd Class.  Is that awesome or what?  Working on the Fleet ships has to be the coolest gig going, after you get the hang of it and I’m liking it a lot.  OK back to the grind.

Late evening

I spent the last 30 minutes stripping a comm unit out of an old helmet I found to rig up a way to talk to my terminal.  Trying to type on the worn out terminals over used surface is maddening.  Now that it sort of understands me I’m going try my searches again.

OK I can’t let this can’t-find-you-anywhere-Mitch-thing go.  Turning up stalker settings to the highest level and redoing all my searches.  Still nothing.  OK what the heck.  People just don’t .. wait maybe that wasn't his name.  Scrunching eyes closed tightly palms on the side of my head.  Idiot.

So what if?  (an intricate series of syntactically unambiguous commands) .. This search is taking forever.  OK, so, describing a person to an ancient terminal maybe isn't the best thing to do, but it’s not getting overheated or anything and it’s not locked up .. yet. 

20 minutes later. OK finally some results.  Hmmm .. there are a lot of hunky guys out there with sandy blond hair about 2 meters tall, physically fit, size large feet, handsome in a rugged heart breaking kind of way.  10,000 plus images to flip through, this is going take a while for me to sort out. 

Crap, all I wanted to do was send him a message telling him I really enjoyed the time we had together.  But this mystery man has me baffled.  Hmmm .. some of the images are really bad.  I have like 30 that could be him.  If I could just see an image of him up close like a nose to nose view. 

Frak

This is him.  

His name wasn't Mitch Lander at all.  He just told me that for some reason.  He could have told me his name and I wouldn't have cared or known the difference.  Lisbeth, stupid stupid Lisbeth.  I suddenly feel kind of sick like.  Yes this is him, still not a lot of details but more than I had. Obviously, there will be no way to contact him, even if I wanted to now and I do / did / do.  How does a guy as self-assured and so good at feel good physical stuff end up in a religious cult?  Well if I ever see you again Mr. Wastelander Tracker Mitchell I will tell you a thing or two.

Saving images and redoing the search for Wastelander Tracker Mitchell.  Holi moli these Wastelanders are harsh people, especially that Reverend guy.  They are pirates and all round bad people seems like. On top of being religious fanatics, cult like in all the evil meanness that they can do.

Wastelanders search results synopsis

They robbed the bank in Port Atlantis, the one in Twin Peaks and in New Oxford. Then harassed people at the Sweat Camp with vehicles and tried to blow up the Oil Rig near Ahsi.  There is even video.  And then some General that really wanted them bad sent out a call to the citizens to help with an ambush that obviously didn't work so well.  Lot of people got caught in the cross fire, sounds like it was a mess and they got away again.  But got caught and went to prison but crap they broke out of prison and stole a bunch of vehicles and went on a shooting spree.  I guess there is still a bounty contract out on them all.  Part of that news blurb is corrupted can’t read it all.

Gosh there is even a wanted poster.  Hmmm who is that chick standing so close to Mitch. She isn't very pretty.  Not his type I can tell.

Thinking back over the time he and I were together.  Nothing really alerted me that he was anything other than a great looking sensitive guy.  Nothing really ummm other than his pad .. crap what have I done.  I put my password for the commercial route the Bismarck takes on his pad.  I know he closed it I saw him or I think I did. Oh crap.. oh crap .. oh crap .. The Captain will kill me and throw me in a black-hole or something I just know it. 

I jump up and squeeze out of my secluded berth and run as fast as I can towards the Command Center.

Go to--> Chapter 5 - Telling All


<<--------------------------------------~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.