Author Topic: Gothic Space Horror (Read 27485 times)

Scrasamax · « **Reply #125 on:** September 13, 2004, 10:39:40 PM »

The hiss of the injector stung for a second, and Micky felt her body involuntarily going limp. There were some pilots who would smuggle sedatives from the med lockers to knock themselves out after geeking up on stim. The practice was illegal per say, but it was strongly frowned upon. After more than 48 hours conscious, even the best pilot started making stupid and pointless mistakes. Most were motivated by the pay, but a good captain wouldnt let a pilot run for more than 8 to 12 hours at the most and even then there would be breaks.

She barely felt herself being slipped into the gee-tube, and didnt even feel the fluid as it filled the tank. By the time she was pulled into the locked position, she was deep asleep.

MoonHunter · « **Reply #126 on:** September 14, 2004, 08:42:56 AM »

Tagget followed the Captain in. Neither looked particularly happy about this enforced nap they were about to take. Tagget rubbed in his perpetual 3 day stubble (had this man not heard of facial hair treatments?) as he surveyed the tubes. He walked over to one and sat on it, waiting for the medic to hypo him. While not excited by the prospect of enforced sleep, it sure the hell beated getting crushed to a bloody smear by high G excelleration. He was tough enough to survive it, but that would mean time in the medlab after.

After watching the medic putter around for a few moments. He heaved his huge bulk upright. He gave his customary grunt, assuming that would explain everything.

"Where are you going?"

Without turning to face the medic, "I have to leak. I'm not going to be in puddle of cheap beer for a few hours. I'm a real guy. I'll be back so fast, you will never know I was gone."

With that he went to the facilities.

Scrasamax · « **Reply #127 on:** September 14, 2004, 11:42:46 AM »

Lt. Marney gave a shrug as she administered the next sedative to ships would be chaplain. The man had said little since coming aboard, but he did seem the introspective type and more than a few sailors were corncerned about the safety of the drugs used and the helpless feelings that the gee-tubes often generated. The irony was that off all the things aboard a space ship, being put under for high-gee maneuvers was vastly safer than the maneuvers themselves.

The tube closed, filled with fluid and pulled itself erect in a hydraulic hiss. She checked the rest of the room for anything that had been left out. All of the used hypos were gone down a chute, to an incinerator deeper in the ship, probably fed from the fusion core.

"Captain?" she said, gesturing to one of the open tanks. Captain Stern picked up one of the injectors, and looked between the two medics and the bank of suspended crewmen.

"I will go last, Lt." he said. "The helmsman should be done setting the computers for launch and will be here momentarily." Marney gave Hue a very slight nod of the head. He was close to the tray of remaining hypos.

Luke Lavin · « **Reply #128 on:** September 14, 2004, 05:16:52 PM »

Hue moved like a wraith after Marney's nod. He used the hypo stilll in his palm and came up behind the Captain and jabbed the hype in the captain's rear and emptied it into him. All the hypos were pre-filled with the proper amounts. Before the Captain could so much as yelp his words slurred and his vision blurred and he blacked out.

Hue caught and gently put him into the gee-tube. He couldn't help but smiling. He waited for Tagget to get back from the pisser then there was him and the Lt left.

ScorpionJinx · « **Reply #129 on:** September 16, 2004, 03:40:37 PM »

Inside the Gee-tube everything was peaceful and floaty. It was a sort of nice sensation. Though the waking part was sometimes disorienting.

Scrasamax · « **Reply #130 on:** September 17, 2004, 08:42:48 AM »

**Ignition Sequence Activate in 15 Minutes**

A metallic voice rang over the intercomm, the synthetic voice of the computer, the prerecorded voice flat and monotone. Lt. Marney finished up the last minute preping. Tagget was hustled briskly into his tube, and then Hue into his. The hypodermic made a satisfying pop-hiss sound as it administered the measured dose of sedative. It was apparent that Tagget disliked the juice and that Hue was an old hand at it.

Marney laid down in her tube, and slipped the oxy-mask over her face. Her breathig became suddenly very loud as she keyed the tank from the inside. The small panel, no more than four buttons* glowed softly as she hit the fill button. Liquid sloshed into the tank and she could feel a pang of anxiety, that primal fear of drowning. The fear was short lived as the liquid completely filled the tank. She hit the raise button and the tank was pulled up into place.

The metallic voice droned again, but the sound was muffled. She ignored it and placed the hypo against the inside of her arm and discharged the device. She had an unpleasant feeling of urinating on herself as the drug washed through her body.

*Engine Heaters online...ignition in five minutes

*Ion Drivers online...ignition in one minute

*5...4...3...2...1...Primary ignition

The engines came to life, spewing a giant cloud of highly ionized hydrogen and helium behind the ship. The superstructure groaned as the engines increased in power output. The groaning sound, sometimes called space whales could be heard even in the tanks...some people in gee-tanks said they dreamed of the ocean, of the great whales, even those who had never seen a whale.

The computer corrected course and the Ballard dipped closer to Jupiterr, accelerating as gravity pulled the ship downwards. At the critical moment, Bally fired the maneuvering jets again and the ship screamed no more than a few hundred miles above the cloud bands of the giant. Inertia battled with gravity, and won. The Ballard swung out past the giant having gained a tremendous amount of speed in the process.

At the preprogramed time, the engines ramped back down to 8 gees. The tanks held, and the control systems were green as the ship primned itself for the long burn, with the hard burn behind it. Some time later, the engines powered down, and the reactor dropped down to a respectable pace. The ship continued at one standard Gee accleration. It would arrive at its coordinated in two days.

The sedatives began to wear off, the occupants of the tanks stirring, sluggish from the drugs, and the pressure from the high power moves executed by the ship.

*Drain - Lower - Raise - Fill

Luke Lavin · « **Reply #131 on:** September 17, 2004, 05:37:55 PM »

It was like waking up from a uncomfortable nightmare that Hue awoke, his eyes bolted open and he almost banged his against the pipe if the gelantious fluid hadn't slowed his motion. As the built in sensors detected his accelerated heart rate from waking up the fluid slowly drained out the the pipe unloaded itself so Hue could climb out.

When he finally got out of the tube, it looked like he was the first one up, he stretched and his back and neck cracked bringing a comfortable flow of relief. He toweled off the remaining blobs of gelitan, he grabbed the crate his clothes and changed back into them. With everything snuggly fitting again he scribbled a short note and taped it on th bulkhead. It simply read,
"Pick up breakfast in the galley."

Hue proceeded to the ships galley, he wasn't a grand cook but he knew what to do, four years of college living taught you how to fix a good meal or you ended up on a diet of pre-packaged food. Not that Hue didn't like PP food, he just had a penchant for a home cooked meal. With one g of gravity he could at least make a decent breakfast without bothering with zero-g food.

All long range ships came stocked with food that could be cooked in zero-g and in one-g. One-g cooking was decidely more dangerous but Hue felt the rewards far out wayed the risk. With a deliberate pace, Hue was able to cook up a dozen fried eggs, a pound of bacon, a score of slices of toast, along with pancakes and french toast and fruit for the vegetarians.

Ria Hawk · « **Reply #132 on:** September 18, 2004, 02:34:06 PM »

Pockets came out of the sedative. It was a decidedly unpleasant sensation. Once out of the tube and back in her clothes, she leaned against a table for a moment. She didn't know if it was the drugs or the pressure, but she always came out of those tubes feeling nauseous. She saw the note taped up, and grimaced. She'd be ravenous later, but right now, food was the last thing she wanted. She made her way to engineering. "Hey, baby. You okay?" Everything looked fine, but she methodically started running checks anyway.

Scrasamax · « **Reply #133 on:** September 18, 2004, 03:56:46 PM »

The data from the burn was good. The engines had performed at nearly 92% efficiency, impressive for an older ship. There were new ships coming out of the yards that didnt run as tight. The reactor did fine as well, the power hiccup seeming to have vanished.

A sensor record showed that the main power coupling from the reactor to engine number two had come close to overheating. The thermals still read the coupling at 220 degrees.

*****

"Gods feet!" Captain Stern complained as he unhooked himself from the electrodes in the tube. He felt horrid, he could blame the sedatives, or the maneuver, or he could blame the whiskey. He dressed into his standard officers uniform and made his way to the mess. Too much whiskey and not enough food made him feel ravenous. He entered the mess and helped himself to some of the food that Hue had prepared.

CaptainPenguin · « **Reply #134 on:** September 18, 2004, 07:16:41 PM »

Ao's face twisted, and he once again bent over the bowl of the toilet, dry heaving long after his stomach was empty. He rose, stopped, his rebelling stomach urging him to return, went to the shower and hosed himself off in a single chilly blast.
Suitably cleaned, Ao put on a new pair of clothing and staggered into the hallway. He knew it- he knew it. He had known those tubes wouldn't be good for him.
The smell of breakfast inspired only nausea, now. He headed in the opposite direction, towards engineering

ScorpionJinx · « **Reply #135 on:** September 20, 2004, 09:20:00 AM »

After disengaging from the gee-tube and getting cleaned up and dressed, Micky made her way to the mess. She grabbed herself a plate. She took two fried eggs and few slices of bacon and rolled them up in pancakes. Which she wolfed down. After wards she helped her self to a smll portion of fruit. Once done, she disposed of her dishes and washed her face and hands. She smiled to Hue. "Breakfast...very very good." She gave him a thumbs up as she headed out the door. She made her way to the bridge and to her chair. Strapping back in. Going through the basic diagnostic checks first, once she was satifoed with the resulst, she leaned back in her seat and did a prelim- censor sweep of the area. Micky wanted to know if there was anything out there they should be aware of.

Scrasamax · « **Reply #136 on:** September 20, 2004, 10:41:54 AM »

Micky was struck by how empty the scanners were. Even in the seemingly empty space near Earth there were hundred of blips that would be sorted out by the computer. So many would be cataloged as known hits, satelites and ships and shuttles in transit. There was also the ever present space debris, bolts, flakes of metal, small ceramic tiles. The usual junk that looked like static on the screen when the sensitivty was turned up to high.

The screen was black, and she had to double check to make sure the sensors were online. All sensors were on. The thermals were pegged out into the blue section, no heat out here, no peaks on the gieger counters. This was dead space. There was only the barely perceptible hiss of solar static, and the faint EM signature of Uranus.

The captain made his way to the bridge and sat in his chair, looking much more composed. "Any sign of the Celeste?" he asked.

Luke Lavin · « **Reply #137 on:** September 20, 2004, 08:55:36 PM »

Hue grabbed himself a plate of eggs and bacon with a couple of slice sof toast, he took his time eating the breakfast. Wolfing it down just spoiled the effect of eating yout own toils. After he was finished with the meal no one else seemed to be showing up so he put most of the food in the the galley case then cleaned up and headed to his quarters.

Scrasamax · « **Reply #138 on:** September 22, 2004, 10:57:21 AM »

Captain Stern ordered the helmsman to bring the ship around the far side of the planet. The Celeste might have been in orbit, the planet masking her signature.

"We will aerobrake through the upper atmosphere to bleed off some of our speed." the captain said. Physically the maneuver was similar to the slingshot around Jupiter, but had the exact opposite effect. After twenty minutes, the ship began to vibrate as it intersected the uppermost layers of the Uranian atmosphere. The vibration increased until it began to rattle the ship, but after no more than six minutes, the vibration slacked off, and then stopped completely. The Ballard has shed most of her speed without resorting to a counter-burn to deccelerate.

"There she is!" the captain exclaimed as a clear, and unmistakable blip appeared on the sensors. A few buttons brought the blip into focus with two of the hull mounted optical scanners. The center screen realligned from a prosaic view of the blue-green bulk of Uranus to the serene profile of the Celeste.

The ship was completely dark. No plasma exhaust from a running fusion reactor, no shipboard lights, nothing at all. The thermal scans showed her as only three degrees warmer than ambient space. It was cold enough inside the ship to kill by hypothermia almost instantly. If there were survivors aboard they were likely suited...but they would have a thermal signature with the rest of the ship this cold. Visual inspection showed no damage to the outer hull, and there was no register of atmospheric hemmorage. She still was uncompromised, undamaged...seemingly.

Shadoweagle · « **Reply #139 on:** September 22, 2004, 09:51:03 PM »

Plies had come out of the tube with very little side effects, it seemed - barring perhaps, him bieng slightly grumpier. Either way, he made his way to the mess and grabbed a couple of apples before heading directly to the engineering bay, munching on one.

he entered the bay, not surprised pockets was already in there - she seemed even more enthusiastic about the ship than himself - almost obsessive. Whilst finishing his first apple, he back-checked all the systems which Pockets had gone through just earlier, nodding faintly at the sign that everything appeared to be running well.

Luke Lavin · « **Reply #140 on:** September 22, 2004, 11:18:12 PM »

Hue went through a series of easy exercesises in his quarters and was just doing a last push up he floated away from the deck plate, he muttered a curse, and snagged the cot achored to the floor, and pulled himself on to the cot.

Moving quickly he strapped him bag and put away the floating items. He toweled off beads of sweat and changed into a spacer's jumpsuit. Then careful he lifted down the corridors, about a couple minutes later he arrived on the bridge, "Hey what-"

Not many things still took Hue's breath but the ship on the main viewer was a work of beauty. Yeah they'd all seen the holos, but holos were polygons of light. Nothing could capture the beauty of real the thing. One thing Hue noticed was the everything was dark, no running lights, no drive flare. Hue gazed another moment then snapped back to the moment, "Guess I'll get my gear ready, and report to the launch bay."

Scrasamax · « **Reply #141 on:** September 23, 2004, 07:14:38 AM »

"Good man," The captain said, "I want to assemble a boarding party to see what we can find aboard that ship. I want to know why her lights are off, if we may be in danger." He jabbed the intercomm button with a bony finger, the light next to the engineering bay flickered green.

"One engineer report to the shuttle bay, Celeste looks dead in the water, and may need an engine restart." he clicked the link off and sat back into his chair. He was too old to go galavanting off in a space suit again, armed with a plasma cutter or the other tools of rescue and salvage. The voice of caution niggled the back of his mind.

"Chaplain, report to the shuttlebay as well." He clicked the intercomm again, ", Hue, Tagget, Ao (misspronounced Aey-OH), report to the Shuttlebay for rescue salvae operations."

Luke Lavin · « **Reply #142 on:** September 23, 2004, 08:46:07 AM »

Hue nodded then went to his quarters and chagned into a suit of tight fitting warming cloth that helped with an EV suit. He grabbed his bag of field surgery tools, the same bag that carried his weapons. At the launch bay he went into a locker room and put on a light suit that would protect against the vaccum, heat, and extreme cold. He grabbed a set of magnetic boots that could be swtiched on and off.

Hue waited by the shuttle for the rest with bags in both hands. One held both pistols, the Sunjet had a reqenerating power system while the DX-2 had power packs for ammunition, Hue had three power packs in the bag with the two pistols, it also had some other gear. A power saw incase he had to hack into to something to get to somebody, and a combat knife. These were all in a small dark green bag that was rough and could not be ripped by just a stray metal piece.

The other bag held medical gear, stimulants and sedatives, an assortment of disinfectants, and common powerful medicines. Things for blood poisoning, infections, and cures for ailments that were common on ship mishaps. He also had a set for emeergancy surgery in case that was needed, but only basic tools. Bandages, splints, and pressure bandages. He also had emergancy seals for torn suits. The bag was larger than the green bag and black with a red cross on it. It was made of similiar material to the other bag.

Ria Hawk · « **Reply #143 on:** September 23, 2004, 04:55:30 PM »

Pockets glanced over at Pliers, whom she frankly suspected was double-checking everything. The Bally would be safe with him, and she REALLY wanted to get a look at the Celeste. "I'll go."
She careened down the hall, after briefly stopping in her untenated room to change clothes. Then she went to the shuttle bay, and nearly took Hue off his feet as she skidded in. She was also lugging a substantial tool case. She had everything she should need to get the engines up and running, and probably fix anything else she figured might be wrong with it. She briefly debated using the power suit, but decided to go with the lighter one. If, for some reason, she needed to go outside to fix something, she could come back for the other.

CaptainPenguin · « **Reply #144 on:** September 23, 2004, 09:59:47 PM »

Ao stumbled as he entered the shuttlebay, and fell flat on his face.
"Saw that coming," he said, as he rose. "This is going to be a bad day."

Luke Lavin · « **Reply #145 on:** September 24, 2004, 12:58:43 AM »

Hue grunted as he got back up, "You better not do that on the Celeste or there's a good chance we can all end up dead." Hue said giving Pockets a dark look.

MoonHunter · « **Reply #146 on:** September 25, 2004, 07:00:28 AM »

Tagget had been checking his gear after puttering around. He could never eat after being in the tube. Made him want to puke. So he spent the time "productively". Cacheing and procurring.

Grutting, he hefted his bag (with the few additional supplies he had procured in his puttering) and stowed it in his shuttle.

He shambled over to the V-suit rack.

Contemplating the helmet in his hand, "I fricking hate space."

***

A while later, when the others were arriving, he was squeezing his bulk into his ship. He vaguely noted the blackflow who fell. The clicking of safety (minimal) and the umbilicals (important) were heard. Soon his helmet was lit up by the glow of the indicator lights.

*click* [[Shuttle III to Momma Ship. Shuttle III to Momma Ship Dispatch. Three is online. Preflight complete. Awaiting release instructions. Over.]]

Scrasamax · « **Reply #147 on:** September 25, 2004, 07:28:24 AM »

*click* Momma ship to Shuttle 3, launch bay is clear, doors will open in thirty seconds. *click*

Outside of the shuttles, air pumps rapidly drew as much air out of the caverous bay as possible. Only a miminal amount of gas would escape the ship as the large bay doors opened. Warning klazons blazed silently as the doors parted. There was no sudden whoosh, or loud thud as they opened, only the silence of space as the massive doors, each twelve tons of hydraulically mounted steel slid open.

There was darkness, a great and terrible oppressive night. Even the stars seemed dimmed as the small shuttle departed from the Ballard. Against the titanic bulk of Uranus, the ship, all 350 meters of her seemed insignifigant, her running lights brazenly futile on the dark side of the gas giant. For the first time, the crewmembers saw the Celeste with their own eyes. Not polygraph depections, or holovids from ship cameras.

Almost a kilometer long, she was massive, her drive engines each dwarfing the Ballard. With engines like that, she was surely fast. The sensors registered the nearest airlock of the ship that the shuttle would be able to access via the docking collar. They would be able to clamp onto the Celeste and simply knock, via computer, and be let into her.

ScorpionJinx · « **Reply #148 on:** September 25, 2004, 01:57:41 PM »

Micky stared at the image of the Celeste showing on her view screen. She let out a low short whistle. "She's a beauty."
Micky leaned back in her seat and watched the info reading out on her screen, just to the right of the image of the Celeste.
"What do you think Captain? That ship looks dead in the water."

Scrasamax · « **Reply #149 on:** September 25, 2004, 03:10:59 PM »

"She does look dead in the water, but I am hoping that there are survivors in life boats that werent launched, or are in safe holds in the interior of the ship. I wont give up hope!" the captain said. On the holovid, Shuttle three pirouetted gracefully to bring her docking collar flush with the access collar on the Celeste.