Four's Story

The first thing Four became aware of was cramp, his back felt like it hadn't been stretched in years, the second was that he was staring through a transparent panel. He tried to order his thoughts, to remember how he ended up in a pod of some kind but his brain was sluggish, slow to respond. He didn't like that not one bit and focussed on clearing his mind of the fog that seemed to be residing there. After a few moments he felt more alert and awake but things had not become any clearer to him and he a felt the first hint of anxiety. The transparent panel took that moment to move and he realised it had opened, he sucked in a large lungful of air and stepped out of the pod only staggering slightly. He took a moment to orient himself and be sure he wasn't going to fall over and then looked around the room. His anxiety grew as he realised that it wasn't familiar to him, any more than the pod was and there was more, the more he tried to remember the more he realised that he couldn't remember anything. Not even his own name.

Focus! He told himself fiercely and spent a few minutes stretching and checking himself over for any sign of physical injury. He found none and other than his memory issues seemed to be in good health. His next immediate thought was that he needed to find a weapon, he had no idea why that was his first instinct or if he even knew how to use one but that's what his instincts were telling him. He seemed to be in a hangar bay of some kind for he could see some form of fighter craft resting in the centre of the room, for a brief moment he considered getting in it and flying away but he dismissed the notion as foolish. He had no idea how to pilot one (at least he didn't know if he could) and knew nothing about where they were. Flying out into unknown space would just be plain suicide.

There was nothing in here for him to use as a weapon and his feet took him towards the exit, hardly knowing what he was doing or how he knew it, he unlocked the door and exited the hangar bay. The corridor he ended up in was dark except for various lights flashing at intervals. He saw no one else and wondered where everyone could be, it was after all logical to assume he wasn't alone on board. He chuckled to himself, That would certainly turn things from bad to worse wouldn't it
His instincts were telling him to go left and he followed them staying close to the wall until he reached what he assumed was his destination. He paused when he reached the weapon lockers, not questioning how he knew what they were, and breathed deeply feeling more out of breath than he expected.

He woke with a gasping of breath, a sharp inhalation as a hissing alerted him to some sort of mechanical movement and compressed air released itself. The pressure in his lungs equalized almost instantaneously and he blinked slowly against the lights to take in his surroundings. There were others in the room, and he looked down as he took a step to take himself out of the pod and into the room.

Thoughts began swirling in his mind like a smoke, something intangible and when he tried to reach for them, they dissipated into the air. What was his name? What was he doing here? Where was here to begin with?

When he attempted to speak, his voice croaked, as if unaccustomed to being used. Muscles stretched in his throat as he cleared it before he tried again. ❝Dammae.❞ He shook his head, looking around once more, eyes scanning over all the equipment in the room. He wanted to say they brought back some memories for him, but he couldn't even give himself that comfort.

Were there others? He didn't know, couldn't recall. He couldn't stay in that empty room for much longer though. With another shake of his head, he headed out the room and towards the other side of the ship.

Six

She was perhaps the luckiest member on board at the moment. As the life support continued to fail and the air was being used up by the newly awakened crew members, Six slept in a comatose like state. Meaning she was using far less oxygen consumption than the rest. However, her luck ran out when she gasped awake taking in the stale air in the stasis pod. Freaked out but having been in worse situations, Six looked around the small space touching the glass that separated her from the ship. Her hand jerked away when it slid open. Okay, now we're gettin' somewhere. Sitting up, she took in the empty room save for a pod similar to her own. Crawling out and landing hard on the floor, Six stood on disused legs. Wonderful... She walked over to the other stasis pod and inspected in. It appeared to have been freshly vacated yet no one else was around.

Biting her lip, she started towards the stairs. Something was off. The air feels stale, like in the pod... Almost thin. Her bare feet softly padded up the stairs recognizing nothing about the ship she was on. She would question that later, but right now she needed to know what was happening. She heard voices and was about to head towards them when she went the opposite way. She let her feet take her to the engine room where nothing was working properly. She stared at the mess realizing she knew nothing about it, but having a desire to tinker. She wandered over to the computer, reading the screen that told her that basically the ship was dead in the water. Life support was at minimum and failing. The engines were not turning. Fighter bays were on lock down. There were six signs of life, all congregated in one place except herself.

Pressing a button on the wall she spoke, "Does, um anyone know anythin' about engines? Ours isn't working' and I could use some help since I don't technically know anythin' about them. We also need someone to work on life support... It isn't workin'. Thanks!" She signed off and turned towards the heart of the ship. "Whelp, my hands are itching to touch you better listen to them. What's the worst that can happen? I screw up and we die. Looks like it'll happen anyway if we don't get you started." She walked over and squatted. "Talk to me beautiful."

The display near six changes to read "Anything for you. Good... It appears my clock is off, standby... Good morning. Ship is on emergency tertiary power. Please switch to secondary backup power to run system diagnostic. WARNING Due to failing life support crew will be rendered unconscious within one hour. Power failure in all other systems within half an hour."

The displays on the bridge change to a flashing red screen then read, " WARNING Due to failing life support crew will be rendered unconscious within one hour. Power failure in all other systems within half an hour."

Four finds: 1 MAC Revolver loaded with 6 spare rounds, 4 HAR 2s each loaded with two spare mags, 1 Grenade Launcher with 2 of ever ammo type, and 8 SIPs fully charged in their chargers.

"Shit. One hour is not a lot of time," One felt a cold tendril of fear unfold inside her, but externally she simply furrowed her brow, "The CO2 poisoning will be a problem well before we pass out, not to mention delirium. This computer shows six people."

She traced her fingers along the display. Six souls, needing six rounds of nacent injections to help them recover from stasis, six vitapacks to equalize their blood sugar, some way to oxygenate their blood, and maybe after all of this was over six shots of whiskey. Would you carry whiskey into space? She couldn't think of a better use of a cargo hold.

One picked up the com handset and dialed into the hanger, "To the man who just came out of Pod 4: This is the Bridge. We're in a fair amount of trouble, so however shit you may be feeling, you have an assignment. In the fighter jet next to you there should be forced respirators. Center console of the cockpit, they'll look similar to doctor's masks. Grab as many as they have and then report to the Bridge. We need any information you can give us."

She hung up the com and caught Three's steady expression. The amnesia was a low priority but they suddenly had a little time to kill waiting for Four and Six.

"We've only been out of stasis five minutes, we can't rule out transient global. But really, my money is on those stasis pods. They should never be used without one conscious crew member to monitor, there's too many variables to trust to automation. A drop in the gas levels or too much of the anesthetic cocktail and you could kill a person. Or traumatize them."

Four paused in his cataloguing of the weapons in the locker, as he felt dizziness overwhelm him, and pressed his hands to the wall to steady himself. After a moment it passed and he straightened breathing as evenly as he could. The voices over the comm system had indicated that there was trouble with the life support system and unless fixed it would only get worse. Knowing all he could do was focus on the task at hand, the only thing he knew how to do it seemed, he returned to the locker. He had just pulled out what he knew, somehow, was a grenade launcher when the comm came to life again.

To the man who just came out of Pod 4: This is the Bridge. We're in a fair amount of trouble, so however shit you may be feeling, you have an assignment. In the fighter jet next to you there should be forced respirators. Center console of the cockpit, they'll look similar to doctor's masks. Grab as many as they have and then report to the Bridge. We need any information you can give us.

The woman sounded reasonably calm despite the situation but Four could hear the undercurrent of tension in her tone, so the shit really was hitting the fan then. Oddly enough he did not feel as panicked as he thought he ought to be. If anything his mind sharpened and he felt more alert. Mentally filing it away for thought later he turned back the way he had come leaving the weapons where they were for the moment. It took him short work to return to the hangar bay now that he knew the corridor and he headed purposefully towards the craft sitting silent in the centre. After some effort and examination he managed to get into the craft and find the masks the woman had mentioned. After searching the cockpit he found two of the respirators and after some experimentation had removed them.

Back at the weapons locker he placed the masks with the pile of weapons and continued on down the corridor reaching a door identical to the one he had unlocked after just waking up. He entered the appropriate information to unlock the door and he saw another hangar bay. He figured he must have known about it without remembering, amnesia really was a confusing pain in the ass. He managed to get two more masks from the craft and returned to the weapons locker with them and a large sack he had found. He loaded the weapons and the masks into it and hefted it onto his shoulder. Though he hadn't been slow in gathering the equipment he had begun feeling more out of breath and he realised that the oxygen was clearly running out fast. Taking a deep breath he began the walk to the bridge.

The trek there felt like it had taken him eons and when he finally reached it he was breathing heavily and unsteady on his feet. He dropped the bag to his feet and focussed on his breathing.

A male voice is heard over the ships PA system, "Secondary system diagnostic complete. Short range sensors and communication online. Internal sensors now full operational. Upper command deck power fully restored. Life support... still inoperable. Emergency protocol in effect, routing life support from escape pods to primary rooms. Sealing off all non-essential areas, and routing all power to care systems. Starting prestart up checks for main engines." Doors start to close off the dining room, then the bunks, then the galley. The doors to the fighter bay lockdown tighter then what they had been.

Three's search is no good as the cargo manifest is missing, deleted or other wise inaccessible.

The male voice is heard in engineering, "It appears as if some one has tampered with life support system, I am unable to correct it. Other then that miss, I appear to be ok. Though it seems that some one has reset me to my default setting. I know because they missed my tertiary systems and some of my added programing. I believe whom ever did this was unaware or incapable of those systems. I am programed still to respond to you and one other under emergency protocol, untill you lift the protocol or until main power and life support are restored. May I be of any further assistance?'

Every Light and panel from starboard to port flick off then back on. To the whole ship, "ALERT!! Ship has just been scanned. Diverting power to main sensor grid. Starting long rang scan.... Scan complete, restoring power. Scan shows a ship of unknown make on intercept course. Baring three six zero mark zero nine zero. Time to intercept at current speed, thirty minutes. Scan also shows three fleets on courses ETA one hour baring one three five mark zero four five. Baring one eight zero mark one five five. And Baring two two zero mark zero nine nine. First fleet is a Trade Union Carrier with a four cruiser and two frigate escort. Second fleet is a Federation dreadnought with a four frigate and two cruiser escort. The last fleet is an Imperial Capital class cruiser with a two cruiser and four frigate escort."

To engineering, "Displaying location of an open access hatch in the med bay. Sorry but I can not tell what they did but you should be able to do a bypass of the primary environmental controls from there. And I have given you about half an hour as long as you remain with in the primary locations. Sadly I was able to draw air from the reaming areas of the ship, you will only have about ten minutes to make the repairs, if you go alone."

Three scarcely reacted as every screen suddenly burst to life, signaling that they'd regained power. He also barely reacted to near-simultaneous alarm which blared warning the crew that the ship had been scanned. What did seemingly give the man pause was the notification of an unidentified ship and a further three fleets (which Three assumed belonged to three different galactic governments) on an intercept course. By all rights, Three shouldn't really mind the fact that they might actually get assistance from one of the incoming ships. Yet there was something about this situation that filled the man's mind with a sort of primal dread. For some reason, Three trusted his gut on this. It helped him so far, hadn't it?

"Computer, send out the following hail, text only, to the unidentified ship and the lead ship of the three fleets: You have been detected on an intercept course with our vessel. Please identify your allegiance and intent. End hail and send. Next, do we have FTL yet? I'd like you to plot a course to the nearest unaligned planet with a ground- or space-based spaceport. I'd like you ready to jump to FTL at a moment's notice, just in case we don't like the way their responses sound." He nodded to One, figuring she'd support that decision.

At the oddly familiar sound of a bag filled with weapons being dropped onto the deck, he spun around to see a tall blonde man setting down respirators and a bag of weapons. He allowed himself a small grin. "Thanks a lot, man! I don't know who you are, but you helped immensely. Could I trouble you for one more quick run? Take three of these respirators - one for yourself and two for those working to restore life support and engines - to engineering? We'll share this last one, if we need it."

While he was speaking, Three had unzipped the bag and done a quick inventory of the weapons and ammunition within. He grabbed one of the SIPs and the MAC Revolver with the spare reload from the bag and shoved them in the back waistband of his pants. He wanted to grab at least one more of the SIPs, but stopped himself. He had purposefully bypassed grabbing the more powerful assault rifles for the pistols... to him, it just felt right. These should be sufficient, for now, Three thought to himself, also without knowing why. "Just in case," Three said with a small smile to One.

As three finishes talking to four, everyone can feel as life support kicks on and cycles the air. Over the PA, "Life support now at one hundred percent. Main engine diagnostic interrupted. Engine now activated. Main thrusters online. Long range sensors online. Communication antenna online. Communication transmitter destroyed. Weapons damaged, unable to fire due to external damage. Hyperdrive removed. Receiving hail from the three fleets. Recommend all crew report to dinning room before making next move. Playing first message: 'This is the Federation Dreadnaught Andromeda to the Botany Bay. Come about, make your heading one eight zero mark one five zero and we will cover you.' Message repeats, playing second message: 'This is the Imperial Cruiser Hope to the Botany Bay. Come about, make your heading two two zero mark zero nine zero and we will cover you.' Again message repeats, playing last message: 'This is the Trade Union Carrier Balaclava to the Botany Bay. Come about and rendevu with us, we have a hanger waiting and we will carry you out of here.' Text only message coming from a small ship hiding in the wake of the dreadnaught. Message reads, Bay, do not trust the fleets, I will show you the way to the light house and safe harbor. Make your heading zero five zero mark zero one zero. Let me guild you home. Message ends."

As the life support kicked on full blast, Three found himself greedily sucking in a fresh breath of air. "Actually, belay that, man. It appears we have our life support back, for now. Remind me to thank whoever is responsible," Three said to the blonde man standing by the weapons bag. Three took a moment to savor the air as he listened to the bad news: no transmissions - only receiving, no weapons, and no existing hyperdrive. No hyperdrive at all? How the hell did we get all the way out here without a drive?

Three glanced over to One and Four as the messages from the fleets rolled in, followed by the one by the unknown lone ship. He sighed and shook his head. "Well, if this is all about to go tits up and we're boarded, I like our odds against a single ship. Agreed? Besides, my gut tells me that I, personally, don't trust or want anything to do with those government types. Big trade corporations included. But we can all discuss the next course of action in the dining room."

As he gave One and Four an expectant look, Three absently set his left hand on the MAC revolver's familiar-feeling grip. It was not a threatening motion, but one of personal reassurance. He didn't know why, but the action was more than a little calming.

As he waited for One and Four to respond to Ship's request to discuss matters in the dining room, Three heard a fourth, more feminine voice from near the entrance to the rapidly filling bridge. He released the grip on the MAC revolver as he flicked his dark brown gaze over toward the doorway. The amnesiac man mentally registered the young woman leaning against the nearby wall. Three turned his head toward her, then followed the action by squaring his shoulders to more fully face the current object of his attention. His first thought was that she looked vaguely familiar... which didn't count for much at the moment, considering A) he'd noted the same feeling with everyone he'd met since waking up and B) he still didn't know her identity.

Three gave the woman a slight shrug of the shoulders, indicating a potentially nebulous response. "Hello. Eh, I can try to update you as to what is currently happening. Based on the looks on your faces, I'm going out on a limb to guess you both woke up in a pod with no memory, right? Us, too," said Three, motioning between One and himself. "Before you ask: no, we don't know how or why. We both have some working theories in play, but hers are sounding more plausible," said Three as he began to walk toward her, the bridge entrance, and the Com panel. "For the rest, you should follow me. I'll fill you in when we get to the dining room."

Three pressed and held down the call button on the Com panel for ship-wide announcement. "Attention, uh...other ship people? On the Ship's recommendation - that sounds weird to say out loud - let's meet in the dining room as soon as possible to exchange information and discuss our next move. The dining room is on the main level at the bow, er, front of the ship. We need to move quickly. We have an estimated time-table of about twenty minutes to get all of this settled. I'll understand if you don't come, but don't be mad if we make a decision that you might not agree with and you didn't show to say your piece." He released the call button and began to walk to the designated room, with or without the other three inhabitants of the bridge.

One grabbed the respirators and a rifle as they headed down the hallway. It felt strange in her hands but they'd traded in one bad scenario for another. She nodded at Four, "Thanks, you brought more than we could have asked for. Seems like a lot of weapons for your average ship."

The dining room was less than ten minutes walk, and One surveyed the others as they came in. Her, Three, and Four from the Bridge. Two, who looked like she'd been in stasis the longest. And based on the accent she'd heard over the com, Five and Six had been in the engine room. Six looked pale and unfocused as Five helped her to her seat, and One sat beside her and switched on one of the respirators.

"Here, this will help your blood equalize," she turned to the rest of the table, a table built for far more people than were present, "So. Is this the entire crew?"

Six

Laying back for a moment and sucking in the fresh air, Six smiled to herself. "Thanks Ship for everythin'." She slowly got up and found herself still a little woozy from the lack of oxygen moments earlier. Her head looked up when a voice over the com system requested that everyone meet in the dining hall. Tapping her finger on her leg, Six decided she did want to know what was going on. As far as she could tell she was a crew member meaning she had a right to know and vote on what was going to happen from now on. Walking back to the engine room she smiled at the accented man. "Awesome job. I'm headin' to the dinnin' hall to check put what's happenin'." She turned and slowly made her way to what felt like the way to the dinning room. At some point the man came up and helped her to the the meeting because suddenly she wasn't feeling too great. I woke up wrong, too much adrenaline in such a short amount of time without the proper wake up procedure. As she walked she took slow deliberate breathes to try and keep whatever content was in her stomach from erupting out. She smiled weakly at the accented man when he helped her sit. "Thanks." She rested her head in her hands as one of the other women started talking. She turned her face to look at One and took the respirator. "Thanks." Hopefully it would help because this feeling sucked.

Three was the first to enter the dining room and stood quietly aside as One helped look after the other crew as they arrived. As soon as the last person entered, he began to speak again in response to Four's comment. "I actually have a response to that: until we know more, we go by our waking order," he began indicating around the room the order. Three started on One and, of course, ended on Six. "One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six. Got that order off of a file I noticed in the computer logs. So, unless our Ship AI knows our identity and would like to tell us, I suggest we go by that," he gave a moment to allow the AI to answer, if it would, then moved on to pressing matters. "First, the good news: thanks to the apparent expertise of Five and Six (Six especially, so I'm told), the failing life support situation has been resolved. Power was restored after the Ship's artificial intelligence fully brought the engines online. We have thrusters and can receive communications."

Three paused for a moment and gave a quick look over the group, in part for dramatic effect. "Now for the bad news: the ship is still fucked up. We have no outgoing communications, our weapons are damaged and non-functioning, and we don't have FTL capability. As in, there is no drive. At all. On top of all of that, we have incoming. Three fleets: Federation, Imperial, and Trade Union... for whatever that means. We have no way of knowing if they're hostile, but my gut tells me not to trust them. I don't know why. The ray of light is that there's a lone ship broadcasting text-only to us covertly from their shadows and will intercept a full half hour before the fleets. The message is: "Bay, do not trust the fleets, I will show you the way to the lighthouse and safe harbor. Make your heading zero five zero mark zero one zero. Let me guide you home." My gut doesn't tell me anything about this, negative or positive, so I say it's our best shot right now. That's my vote. Everyone for? Everyone against?"

Over the ships PA, "Overriding helm control. Engaging sub-light engines, making my heading zero five zero mark zero one zero at full impulse." The ships thrusters engage as they turn toward their new heading.

About half an hour later, over the PA, "The ship of unknown make has altered course and is now on a pursuit course. The fleets have altered their course to intercept them. The unknown ship that sent the text only message has emerged from the fleet and is haling. Patching it through to the dinning room." A mans voice comes over the com, "Well its good to see we will finally have the Bay rejoining us. Hope you still got a good helmsmen because were we are going your going to need one. Since you left we've had to move, so we found one of the most dangerous hideouts we could. The gravity is a little messed up in the area thanks to CorSec but as long as you follow my path you should be fine. And don't worry we left your hanger just the way you like it. Ok like I said just follow me and we should be fine." the ship AI comes over the com, "Recommend some one aid me at the helm, and all hands to station just in case."

(Sorry would add more but don't want to take to much control of everyone.)

Two nodded once at the other's replies and quietly followed them down to the dinning room. It wasn't much of a walk, but considering the group had only just woken up from what was possibly hyper sleep, it certainly wasn't the best walk. Upon arrival she noted the others in the room, and soon more came to join. Then the man began speaking again. Glad that someone was at least taking control, Two nodded at him again as he told her number. "I vote for. What else do we have to loose?" sh emumbled, almost jumping as the ship spoke to them.

Three nodded silently, mentally noting all who agreed, who disagreed (if any), and who stayed silent. Just as he cleared his throat in anticipation of speaking up to give the instruction to the ship, the ship leapt into action first and announced it had set and engaged for the coordinates as established by the unknown ship. After hearing the audio that he assumed was from the unknown ship, Three felt slightly better about the decision he'd pushed to the crew. It seemed that they were known by the unknown ship and they appeared to have friendly, if not entirely lawful, relations, as signified by the fleets and the mention of some kind of security force called "CorSec". He didn't know why he knew that last bit, though.

"Well, count me out. I don't know what all I do and don't know, but I do know that I don't trust my hands to a helm. Anybody else think they might be a fair shake with the stick? Sounds to me like we might need it. If all else fails, maybe our AI will be sufficient? Three glanced around at the crew and offered them a small, but hopeful grin. "Now, if anyone needs me, I'm going to go search the bunks to see if there might be any clue as to our identities before we meet our mysterious friends. Can't have them thinking we don't remember them, can we? That'd just be rude," said the man as he stepped toward the exit of the dining room, making a heading for the bunks.

Six

Force equals the gravity of mass one times mass two over the radius squared.

Level One depends on two assumptions: First the universe is infinite or virtually so, and two within this infinite universe every possible configuration of particles in a Hubb volume takes place multiple times.

"Anything is possible, you only need to think of a way to make it so."

Acceleration is equal to the change in velocity divided by time.

Velocity is equal to the square root of two times acceleration of gravity times the height of the falling object.

In vacuum space, two objects fall at the same rate.

Increase surface area increases friction.

Average acceleration of an object is equal to the change in velocity over the change in time.

If a universe is mathematically possible than it has equal possibility of existing, even if the laws of nature is different than our own.

"Playing God is dangerous..."

Four plus four is eight, which is the same as four times two.

Reaching another Level One is virtually impossible.

"I am going to go fix the communication problem. I will meet whoever is piloting the ship in the bridge." Six rubbed her head as facts spoke in her mind. It was a little startling, she felt kind of crazy and yet the repetitiveness felt soothing as if it was a subconscious calming technique. She made her way up the stairs to where the bridge was and began pressing buttons until communications appeared. She looked through the recording of what the ship had said about the communication problem. The antenna is okay, but the transmitter has been destroyed. If I'm correct that will mean we will have to get a new one. "Ship? Can you tell me more about the communication transmitter?"