Is it too late to join this? If not I'll have a go...
Name: Valentina Fiorini
Gender: female
Age: 38
Appearance: Long, flowing, black hair, fashionable, but unique style, drawing heavily on the "hippie" look. Wears round photochrome spectacles which become increasingly tinted purple in reaction to light exposure, therefore her eyes are hidden most of the time, which is probably what she wants because she is fond of using THC extracts recreationally via a vaporiser. Slightly overweight, but not to the point of being unattractive.
Role Onboard: biologist/Director of Agriculture
Biography: Daughter of wealthy Italian architect Salvatore Fiorini, Valentina had limitless potential growing up, but her path led to the study of botany and botanical research and development. She rejected the idea of gene splicing at the DNA level and was part of the research team who developed a recombinant fertilisation process which more closely resembled the process found in nature. Results were very positive, and plants produced by this method were more stable, more likely to bear fruit, and more likely to reproduce successfully without experiencing a genetic breakdown over subsequent generations.
Dr. Fiorini achieved her five minutes of fame when she was able to use the process to produce a recombinant hybrid strain of banana which was resistant to the outbreak of a new strain of black sigatoka, which threatened banana cultivation worldwide. The original plant was grown using hydroponic technology and then cloned successfully, as like all previous Cavandesh-family banana strains they are unable to reproduce, except that the process be repeated and a new strain cultivated in response to some environmental need.
Dr. Fiorini was amongst the first accepted for this project, as her background in agricultural development was considered a vital skill for space colonists to be able to build a viable settlement.
Dr. Fiorini, bored on the long flight, has taken to cultivating strains of marijuana, which she then extracts the desired chemicals from the buds, and produces a very pleasant series of vaporiser fluids, with a wide range of custom flavours. Vaping has almost completely replaced smoking, but she can produce "specimen samples" of plant material, if anyone desires. She is, therefore, somewhat popular amongst those inclined to use such technology either for recreational or for medicinal reasons. She manages to supplement her income very nicely in this way, in addition to being placed permanently on the A-list for nearly all social functions.
Her other hobbies include wine and food, and Dr. Fiorini is an amateur gourmand. She is probably one of the better non-professional chefs on-board, specialising, of course, in Italian cuisine.
Nodding slightly, Matthew glances out towards one of the walls with a slight head tilt before readdressing Micheal. "Well.. Not technically the safest is it.. Its still space.. Theres still so much uncertainty that exists, Especially as to this kind of travel, For all we know, A random event could happen right now and cause a lot of damage. Not to say it will happen though."
(Dr. Fiorini warily accepted. Just be sure to stay away from mary-sue, yeah? Welcome aboard!!)
Kevin was awaiting a reply from the young mechanic when a red light washed over the room, along with three long, shrill sirens. "f**k," Kevin muttered under his breath, though no one would've been able to hear it. After a few moments of blinking crimson, a calm female voice filled the ship. ~Attention all crew members. Attention all crew members. This is not a drill. Red Alert, repeat Red Alert. This is not a drill. Please report to your designated areas. Repeat, please report to your designated area.~
Designated area. For most of the ship, this meant heading to the designated safety chambers designed for personnel not required to handle emergencies. Different alerts meant different crew were assigned to the chambers-green meant a serious mechanical malfunction, and all but mechanics were required to report. Blue meant a personnel issue, during which all but guards would find themselves in the centralized rooms. Red meant the flight crew were required to report immediately to the bridge.
A red alert had never occurred before. During MachSpace, this meant something was obstructing the flight path and required them to leave light speed travel. Now, this couldn't have been some sort of asteroid or anything of the sort. MachSpace was designed to avoid such basic obstructions, no matter how rarely they were encountered. No, a Red Alert in the midst of MachSpace could mean only one thing;
They were being forcibly removed from light speed travel.
Kevin stood and hurried out of the lounge without saying a word to the mechanic. He knew it was rude, but he had a job to do now. On his way through the corridors of the ship, Kevin passed many worried faces. Children scurried about in confusion. On duty guards assisted people in finding their way. The pilot even passed a few bridge crewmen, each heading nervously to their posts. This was the moment many people had waited for- and for some, feared.
They were apparently encountering alien life.
Kevin figured he still had a few minutes to get to the bridge before the ship was completely removed from MachSpace. He was sure the bridge would be chaos-at least until the captain arrived. As he boarded the elevator, Kevin hoped against hope that he could get to his post before whatever they were encountering made the first move.
(The bit about designated areas wasn't quite clear enough. They're basically storm shelters-huge warehouse like rooms with rows of benches where personnel wait through the chaos. Figured it was a good way to get some of the characters together that don't seem to have much to do.)
(We'll be needing a Captain, and since no one else wanted him, I'll do it haha.)
Name: Jacob Davis Gender:Male Age: 62 Appearance: I don't wanna do this...do I haaave to??? Oh wait, this is my forum. Nope! Picture Alec Guinness from Star Wars IV. That's Jacob. Role Onboard: Captain Biography: I don't wanna do this either...this isn't even my main. I feel like a bum. I'll just describe his personality!
Jacob is a stern Captain, often coming off as rude, though never without reason. A shrewd tactician, his mind is always examining situations and looking for the quickest ways to solve problems. Captain Davis can be a good friend, but when he's on the job he is all business. He's made a lot of enemies, but most people can respect his efforts and strong leadership style.
The sirens blaring immediately put Hoxton into his combat mind. He quickly put on his full combat gear, unlocked his weapon case and got his weapon, contacted his commanding officer. He ran down the hallway to where he was instructed to go and was then assigned to a group of 10 other guards, all standing there anxiously and gripping their own weapons firmly. He then received further orders, they were to make sure that all civilians were safe and to then head to the bridge, they would be the only guards there as multiple groups of 10 guards were being assigned to certain areas to stay, it was a moderately good idea, though larger groups would of been better if the ship were to be boarded. Once they were at the flight deck they were to prepare for any conflict, mainly hostile aliens boarding the ship and trying to hijack it or kill everybody. Hoxton kept his weapon on the Stun option, he would not change it to Lethal unless there was a confirmed attack on the ship.
Soon on the squad of guards was done helping the civilians and they took off at a dead sprint towards the bridge, they were supposed to do this kind of stuff in an orderly fashion but that escaped their minds, they were to worried and anxious to not run. As they did they kept serious faces though. "Do not show weakness as a guard!" Hoxton remembered words from his instructor at training. "Any sign of fear while on duty is weakness, YOU HEAR ME? WEAKNESS! Do we want to show the civilians that we are scared of the things we are trained to fight or do? HELL no! We are there to kick some ass and be intimidating while doing it! A little intimidation can help while in a gunfight, anyway." Hoxton then smiled to himself, the training days were the fun days.
Soon they made it to the bridge, Hoxton then made it his job to make sure they were in positions. They were all of the same rank, which is why Hoxton decided to take charge. They were relying on the fact that a man on the headset would tell them what to do, but there were too many groups of guards on the ship to do that. He went to each man and told them where to go, he himself went around and checked in with all the crew members, making a feeble attempt to keep the mood up even in a time of at the least minor panic.
Hearing the alarm Matthew looks around, Although he had been briefed on the various alarms, He didn't really know what could forcibly pull a spacecraft out of MachSpace, Hearing the alarms he was more curious than afraid. In the spirit of observing the event, he turns to Micheal "I'm just going to go.. sit over there..", Pointing at one of the many corners of this flight deck, He just walks over to it and stands there, It was out of the way and wouldn't be in any ones path.
From this position he watches everything, The guards setting up, The pilots getting up on the deck.Still staying out of everyone's path he takes a few notes about he event and the possibility of alien life. Its around this point he remembers a book he had read about MachSpace, And more specifically the part describing being forcibly stopping it, Matthew eventually came to the conclusion that either it's another ship, Or its alien life.. Either way he wanted to be there to see it happen..
Matthew also didn't have any set duties to preform in such a crises, All he had was his small room and books, And of which, He carried his most important, A notebook with him at all times. This also factored into his decision to remain and observe rather than leave for one of the safer rooms.
Dr. Fiorini's place in a Red alert was, of course, the agrarium, where all the plant specimens were kept. She rushed there and began securing them in case of a potential impact. their grow lights were turned off, and the plants were given a reasonably high dosage of water, to simulate a storm. Once the plants were secure, Dr. Fiorini released her aides back to quarters, and stayed to monitor certain specimens which might require attention should something unfortunate occur.
Following every recommended safety precaution, she strapped herself into the appropriate monitoring station after dressing herself in the appropriate safety gear, considering that although all the available safety hatches were now closed, the amount of glass and electrical equipment in the room made it fairly dangerous. Some of the plants would be vital to the colonisation process, and Dr. Fiorini placed their safety above her own.
*The alarm went off in the operating studio. Many attendants looked about, as though waiting for some sort of guidance. *
Probe #5. *Strange said matter-of-factly, his voice competing with the alarm for least pleasant noise in the room. *
"Doctor, shouldn't we- " *a junior attendant said before being cut off by a much louder strange. *
IF we evacuate, this man dies! I do not care what the ship does, I do not leave a patient! None of you will either! Strap him to the table, brace against it and give me the goddamn fifth probe so I can find this splinter! Now!
*The probe rapidly found its way into strange's hand, and as he was inserting it into a small hole in his patient's chest, the sonar emitting tip of the probe searching for acoustic irregularities caused by metal fragments, strange continued talking, though with less volume and force. *
If some bastard officer comes here and tells us to leave, or to try and move this fellow, blame everything on me and say we are temporarily mutinous. We do not lose a patient due to some pilot braking too hard. *Strange trailed off, and his head nurse nodded as she strapped the patient to the table. *
Michael looked over to the pilots, then out to space. A smile danced on his lips, before slowly starting it's turn to glee. Just before his teeth showed however, Matthew said what he was going to do, and then left to sit down. Michael closed his eyes, signed, then sprung into action. He grabbed his stuff, instructing Robert the first Macro pilot to move from the station and to escort Matthew to one of the designated areas, before coming back. Simon, the other macropilot was instructed to stay where he was until Kevin arrived. Michael sat down, placing his items in the glovebox like compartment under the desk, before strapping in and instructing Simon to do the same.
Both men then did their best to stay in Macrospace, with Michael being the better pilot taking the lead. He relayed instructions to Simon, who did his damndest to keep up. For the few minutes he was needed, he would struggle and barely be able to keep up, but he would keep up with all the instructions, even as they came at him quicker and more complex. Simon looked crazy, repeating every instruction given to him, and twisting each nob, pushing every button just in time. When it came to instructions from Michael on how to pilot a ship, you just listened.
Despite being escorted to a designated safe area, Matthew still wanted to see what was going on. So in this spirit he decides to leave the safe area. Although he was stopped by a guard, Matthew somehow manages to convince him to let him head back to his room, It seemed the excuse that you left a bunsen burner running in a lab worked just as well here as it did back on the blue orb we called home.
Matthew heads back to his small cupboard that he worked in, Quickly grabbing a new pen and a second notebook he pauses for a moment to consider the danger of the situation. He then talks to himself, "Do I go find a place to watch.. Or should I head back to the safe area and wait for this to end.. On one side it would be fascinating to see alien life or whatever else could be causing this, But on the other side it could result in trouble with the ships administration.." Eventually deciding to sate his interest over personal safety, Matthew heads back out into the now pretty vacant corridors. He then decided that the best place to figure out what was happening and then to observe would probably be the decks on the front nose of the ship. And so he begins to walk towards this position being wary of the guards that were sure to be patrolling, He didn't want to miss out on learning what was going on after all.
Jacob Davis entered the bridge suddenly, the automatic doors sliding quietly closed behind him as he stepped forward towards his chair, overseeing his command. "At ease, crew, get back to work. We've quite the task ahead of us." Davis took his seat, taking his chin in his hand. Even now, the monitors covering the ship indicated its rapidly reducing speed-though the size of the vessel would prevent any individual from actually feeling the decrease. Well, its size along with its G-Inhibitors.
"Each and every single man on this bridge has trained for this contingency. Man the cannons, but for Christ's sake do not fire unless fired upon. We aren't trying to start a galactic war today." Davis figured that any battle the Journey found itself in-especially one against a force that could pull the ship from MacroSpace-would be a short battle indeed, much less a war. He refrained from saying this to his crew, of course.
In that moment, Head Pilot McElroy entered through the elevator at the other side of the room. "Reporting for duty, Captain," Kevin said, quickly saluting before Davis signaled for him to get to his post. Kevin made it to his seat quickly-signaling for his copilot to give him control of the ship. "Should be out of MacroSpace momentarily, Captain...any idea what-" in that instance, the ship came to a stop. Again, no one could feel it, but anyone who looked at the monitors could see that they were no longer in motion. That is, if any one had been looking at the monitors. But no, in that instance, almost everyone on that bridge had their eyes glued to the viewscreens-and the giant, spherical crimson space station that occupied them.
The station absolutely dwarfed the Journey. Separated in half by a deep trench that flashed with by bright white lights, the station made for an intimidating sight. Davis found himself struggling to determine what that trench was. Was it..a city?
Davis was about to command the communications staff to reach out to the station, but before he could every viewscreen on the bridge turned to static. A deafening screech filled the bridge, so painful was it that even Davis instinctively covered his ears and seemed to shrink away from it. Luckily, the pain did not last long-the static, along with the screech, ended. What replaced them was a slimy, long necked creature that reminded Davis of a snake mixed with a swan. Its purple scales glistened as it spoke without moving its mouth-
"Greetings, strange creatures. I am HurgleBuggleDoopleGruff," the creature seemed to grumble out what must've been a name, but sounded to Davis very much like it was choking, "a representative of the Intergalactic Council of Advanced Species. ICAS. I would like to peacefully invite you to dock your ship in our space station, Huurrgggghhhle." More gurgles. The invitation sounded polite, but also suspiciously more like a demand. "I will personally attend your landing and introduce myself in person to you, Captain." The creature turned its unmoving eyes-five red circles in the center of its triangular face-towards Davis. A shiver went down his spine, though he was pretty sure he covered it well.
"I am eager to meet my first human." The way he said human rhymed with humus.
Hoxton jogged over to the captain, saluting before he started to speak. "Sir, would you like an escort while you meet this strange alien? The men here would be more than happy to make sure you're at least slightly more safe when you meet this unknown species,".
Inside, Hoxton was excited about this encounter, though afraid as well. If the aliens wanted to they could probably blow the Journey into oblivion. He was also thinking about the ICAS, could that mean that there is other intelligent species as well?
Hoxton stood there at attention, like any soldier was trained to do. Waiting for an answer that he hoped would be yes, it would be amazing to see this new alien species face-to-face!
Once Kevin arrived and signaled, Michael gave him control of the ship. Barely any seconds later and the ship stopped. Michael rechecked everything, fearing that something had gone wrong. He could find nothing on the monitors, only that everything read fine. "I see nothing......" He started to say to Kevin, stopping when he saw Kevin wasn't focused on anything but the view screen. He turned and saw the station. He suddenly feared for his past, had they found him?
He watched the message from the creature, mild interest suddenly filling his body. He didn't recognise this creature, and when it said it wanted to meet it's first human, he thought that maybe they don't know him. They didn't know of the Ghost or the crew of the Tarian. He smiled, the Shield was such a crap name for a ship.
After the message he looked at Kevin, then at the captain. "You know Sir, we could see if we can have the ship ready to leave, just in case things go wrong. I'm sure me and Kevin can get us away from here should we need to." He hoped he wouldn't have to leave, but he had a feeling that the ship was locked in place, and he'd need to in order to get away from this station.
Standing on an observation deck, Matthew was shocked to his very core, Instead of a void of space staring back at him, There was a station, dwarfing the ship.. His eyes were drawn to the large central trench with its white lights.
"What the hell do I do.. It looks as if we couldn't even damage it if they.. whoever they are decide to attack.. What can I do, I can't fight, I cant pilot.. I presume something this large couldn't stay unnoticed.. I should try finding someone who'll know how to handle this.. "
As he heads off, towards the bridge in the hopes of formulating a plan (Of what to do right now), Matthew can barely contain his excitement.
"It might be alien life.. Would they follow evolvulution or be something weird and wacky.. I wonder what sort of tech they have.. Must be huge if they're able to affect us in this way.. Come on now Matthew, Don't get ahead of yourself, It might just be another ship of the fleet."
With these thoughts in mind, Matthew starts to jog towards the bridge, No longer attempting to avoid people/guards.
Survival of the plants in the agrarium was considered mission-critical. Although landing on an unplanned inhabited destination was planned for, it was not considered likely. However, as it was happening, Dr. Fiorini followed the recommended steps to minimise the risk to the officially protected specimens on board the ship, which excluded plants kept in quarters by individuals, including Dr. Fiorini's personal herb garden.
The agrarium computer began talking to Dr. Fiorini.
"Red Alert status is active, and ship appears to be planning to make an unscheduled stop on an unknown world. Recommend full hermetic seal of agrarium, entry and exit possible only through decontamination hall entry," reported the computer.
"Affirmative," agreed Dr. Fiorini, "but delay initiation of hermetic lock-down sequence. First, please connect me to the computer in my quarters."
"This is a nonstandard request. Alert status is red. This is not a drill. Please verify your identity to confirm override authority."
An authorisation code and a retinal-scan later, the computer granted her request. Dr. Fiorini set her oven to turn off after her lasagne was finished baking, and tweaked the cycle to water her herb garden. Once lock-down was initiated, Dr. Fiorini would be alone with the plants and a very dull, very bureaucratic computer.
Unknown worlds containing life had a nasty habit of containing diseases, be they virus, spores, or bacteria which were harmful to humans and animals, and perhaps doubly so to plants. Dr. Fiorini herself was perhaps the Earth's best able to adapt the plants to them, but that would take time, cloning, and starting a new plant specimen from a laboratory-developed "seed", which then would be planted and cared for as a natural seed. This, however, would take much time and attention, and would have to be repeated many times based on the number and nature of plants effected. They would also have to avoid being infected until the process were completed (although in actuality, specimen samples were kept in a frozen vault in case of an emergency in which a plant were somehow to be infected, however to use it under almost any circumstances would indicate that Dr. Fiorini had failed in her duties to house the plants away from any contamination until the colony was being established.
She did not plan to do this.
Valentina barely had time to make sure that her dinner wouldn't burn and her plants wouldn't die without her for an unknown amount of time before the computer challenged her again.
"Livestock section of agrarium has initiated independent lock-down sequence. Plant section is expected to do the same. Agrarium lock-down is standard protocol, and is strongly advised. Failure to comply with accepted protocol resulting in damage to plant specimens could constitute dereliction of duty, and must be reported to the bridge. Possible repercussions include court-martial proceedings against individual or individuals responsible."
"Bella scorperta," she muttered before preparing to lock herself in with the plants.
She finished by having the computer in her quarters lock up with full security, meaning only someone with ship-wide authority or herself only could gain entry while she was away. When this was done, she finally gave in o the computer's demand.
"Computer, initiate agrarium lock-down sequence, hermetic seal, and sever of link between agrarium systems from outside systems, in accordance with recommended protocol. Entry and exit permitted only through decontamination hallway and verification scan prior to entry into agrarium. This order remains in effect until ship is back on course, and chance of plant contamination has been verified negligible."
The computer finished sealing off the room. It took agrarium systems offline from the ship's main and other computers. Internal generators began supplying energy to the agrarium's plant section independent of the ship.
A short announcement of this action was made by the ship's computer, "Ship's agrarium has been locked down to prevent possibility of contamination. Agrarium computer and other system links have been severed. Agrarium computer is offline. Entry to agrarium possible only through decontamination hallway. Protocol to remain in effect until ship is back on course, and contamination threat is verified null."