Dragnix.Net

Erin was busy with the plants now. She figured that Raf would straighten everything out soon. So she occupied herself with the plants. Erin took inventory. Not only were the plants there for oxygen, some were there to provide a bit of food too. But some of the trees were dying, and others were accidentally cross-bred by the computer. Erin was going to have her hands full for a while. A few of her instruments were in the atrium. She could start collecting samples. She would have to wait to get back to the lab to run the tests.
Erin was examining a fruit tree when she heard Raf over the intercom. She walked over to the computer. The camera wasn't working, but the mike and the monitor were. She could see Raf, but he couldn't see her. Luckily, he could at least hear her. Unfortunately, the connection was bad.
"Yeh,. . .here." Her sentences were butchered bad the lousy reception. "It's not loo-. . .in here. . . .20% is damage. . .fruit trees a-. . .cross-bred. . .need to get to the lab. . ." She rambled on, hoping he could understand her.
"Can you open. . .-or?"

"No...ooking goo...here either....can't ope...door.....ecompre..ion in..twenty....minute.....you ha...fertilizer? Methan.... could .............flammable .........blow ......door? Las....resort .....thinkin .....get bac.... to you." The computer was using radio as a backup. Apparently something had made tatters of the communication cords over the years. Of course, the lead shielding was interfering. It would be better if they weren't so close. The signal didn't have the space to maneuver so it had more walls to have to penetrate. He opened a channel to the medical ward computer and was surprised to see the girl with the baby in her arms from before. "Eh? Luna right? You have any smelling salts there? The mechanic is out of it and the computer is about to jettison both our oxygen and botanist."

"No, why would I have smelling salts?" Luna broke off the useless stasis chamber link and found the one for the Atrium doors. She scanned through. "Soo... the computer thinks there is excess pressure in Atrium. That should be simple to fix if i can just remember how." She went to check the code. There! She quickly correced the code, saved the program, and ran it again. "Fixed." Raf gave her a look like 'How did you do that?' "While my main speciality is Genetics, I've also been trained how to work the computer system for emergencys like this. They're pretty similar, both deal with code, so physics was included. I've been given rudimentry pilot training. This was for real emergencys like the one we have now where half the crew seems to be dead or otherwise incapacited, so I only know the basics."

OOC: Dragonrider, you need to stick to one story. In one of your other posts, you said that Luna couldn't even get the stasis chambers opened. How is she supposed to know the override code for the atrium? I would think that that would be Erin's or Raf's or a technician field of knowledge. Each of our characters were trained in specifics fields. I'm not trying to sound mean, but you're chaacter can't know everything. Correct me, Jish, if I'm wrong.

IC: "What?!" Erin shouted as she tried to put together Raf's blurbs.
"Decompression?!" She figured it out as the vents began to creak open.
"Oh, crap! Not good!" Erin checked the monitor, trying to remember how to override the system. She couldn't find the controls that she needed! That panel must be one of the busted ones. Erin's computer suddenly started going berserk as if someone from the other side was trying to do the override. but the door was still closed and the vents continued to open. She needed to find an oxygen mask.

OOC: Jish PMed me about it, yeah I know. But the stasis chamber thing was a network failure.

IC: That failing, Luna tryed waking up Ember. "Smelling salts," she said under her breath. "Know where would I get smelling salts from..." She spotted the computer storage area. It was worth a try. She searched through them and found a packet of chrystels. It might work. She opened the packet and put them near Embers nose.

Ember coughed and awoke. Something that smelt horrible was right under nose. her eyes started to water.
"What is that smell??" she rasped

"I don't know" Luna said. "I found them in the computer storage area. Right know there's more important stuff. The computers going haywire, I've tried to do something but I don't know that much about it. It thinks the Atrium has to much pressure in it and it's going to vent our botanist and oxygen into space."

Ember stood.
"Oh joy," she muttered, "probably some sort of bugged- up program. I'll see what I can do." she hurried over to the computer Luna was speaking of. She acsessed the program that was being used at that time. She scrolled through, scanning the program.
"that's weird. all this seems to still have the old program that they used to changed to change the clocks to a more efficient system. Unfortuenetly the program seems to have confused the computers," she accsessed the main database, then cursed. "The ship seems to been having somewhat of a zig-zag course through space. The ship is falling apart!" she quickly went to the page that showed the statistics for the atruim. Ember cursed again, the oxygen level was dropping quickly, so she typed in the command to close the vent, but got an error signal. She began to sweat, the atruim was losing oxygen faster! she hurried around, trying every command she knew, but nothing was working. Finally, she tried the emergency overide code, which she did not like to use, because it permanently deleted a lot of the program and some of the computer memory. Luckily it worked and the vents closed. Ember sighed in relief, and said over the intercom, "You ok in there?"

Rafaelle let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. They weren't going to lose the battle after all. "Good job, you just saved us, for now at least." After a few seconds without a response from the intercom he clicked it again after Ember. "Erin? Do you read?"[/i]

Erin searched the room, looking for an oxygen mask as the vents continued to open. Unfortunately, hurrying didn't help her cause. As the oxygen levels continued to drop, Erin became light-headed. Her breaths were getting deeper but less effective. She stumbled as she made her way from one cabinet to another. The room began to spin. She manage to make her way back over to the monitor but couldn't make out the words and images on the screen.
"Damn it. . .," she gasp, slamming her fist weakly on the screen. She stumbled back over to the plants and fell against a tree. If she was going to die, then she was going to be with her beloved plants. She sank to the floor. Sight blurry, lungs aching for oxygen, she coughed and gasp for air. Erin clung to the tree as if it would save her. She heard a creak and a thud in the distance as the vents slammed shut. And a voice called to her over the intercom. But she was too far away to answer. She tried to stand up, but once erect, the room spun, and her world became dark. She slumped to the ground, unconcious against her tree.

Ember started to worry.
"We are not getting an answer," she said in a worried tone, "Something's wrong!" she went back to the computer, the oxygen level was not dropping, but it was still low. Ember tried to find the program to open the door, when she realized her fears. The door-opening program was one of the things deleted in the emergency override! She dashed over to raf and said "The program to open the door was deleted! We have around 2 options. We either Bash open the door, or go to the master computer. I would suggest we bash open the door, because it would take too long to get to the master computer, and if she is injured, we need to get in quickly."

With a thunderclap the ship suddenly shook violently, pitching most everyone to the floor. Red flashes appeared on several of the screens of the computer. Raf stumbled up to them, scanning. "Seems we are skimming an asteroid field, don't worry no hull breaches, yet." Even as he spoke a thin wisp of distortion appeared as a wall between him and the doors. Realizing what happened he quickly typed in a deactivation code and the forcefield fell. "Well the air sealants still work. And they just gave me an idea." He brought up the diagram again and then the door into the atrium and activated the forcefield. Nothing happened, and his heart fell. The shield must be on the other side. He thought, but thankfully after a few seconds the shield flickered on their side of the door. Striding purposefully toward it, he pulled small knife from his pocket. He probed the side until the knife was almost bent from the pressure and marked the wall with a scratch. He shut the shield down, smiling. "All right, so the force field is about 3-5 inches from the door, plenty of room for a couple blocks of C-4. So..." He looked over to the pneumatic tube at the computer end of the room, wondering if it still worked, or if any engineers made it and were checking on the explosives. He hoped so.

Erin was thrown from her position when the ship shook. The shock was enough to bring her back to consciousness. She was now face down on the ground a few feet away from her tree. She weakly rolled over on her back. Something wet was on the sleeve of her shirt and in her hair. Erin slowly lifted a hand to it to see what it was. It was blood! She must have hit her head when she fell. She could see it on the floor now. She had to stop the bleeding somehow.
"Help me. . .," she cried softly, hoping someone could hear. "Help. . ." Erin had nothing nearby that she could use. So, she used the only thing she could think of: her shirt. Being too weak to tear it, she slowly took it off. (Right now, being seen in her undergarments was the least of her worries.) She managed to somehow wrap it around her head. Her hands wouldn't cooperate enough for her to tie a knot, so she laid down on her left side, the side that was wounded. Erin hoped the pressure between her head and the floor would be enough to stop the bleeding.
With one more small cry for help, she drifted back into unconsciousness. . .

An eerie cry sounded between the static of the connection to the atrium. "We don't have much time." He closed the connection, bringing up the storage facilities. The screen showed a kid dragging his sweaty fingers across the inventory logs. "Hello?" At his voice, the boy nearly dropped the electronic pad, wide eyes glancing to and fro, giving the impression that he wasn't supposed to be there. "Over here, the computer. Jhosin." He had a nametag, as most of the lower classes did. "What are looking for?"

He stammered. "T-there's a v-virus. The Q-qua-quartermaster had it. It's all over his sk-skin, a-and the c-computer didn't re-re-release him. I c-can't find any antiviral m-meds in here." His breath plumed in front of him. The heaters had shut down in that section.

"Is he still in the stasis tank?" Jhosin nodded. "Then leave him for now. I need you to find something urgently. We need C-4, four blocks and an igniter. Use the pneumatic tubes, on gentle setting, we don't need any undue explosions." He nodded again. "And get a coat on for goodness's sake. We've lost enough people already."

A few minutes later a pop sounded as the C-4 made it's entrance. "Thank God."

"What's C-4 doing on this Ship?" Luna asked. "These people who built this thing are crazy. I hope they died in a horrible accident or something."

She rushed over the the computer to speak to Jhosin. "I need some reports. Who's dead, what they died of, that sort of thing. It might be scrambled genetics, the best case scenario, or a contagious mutant virus. The worst case scenario."

"Well, C-4 is a bit more stable over the long-term than dynamite, and might be needed in the colonization of the Planet. There isn't an excess amount, and it is in cold storage to further prevent any possible mishap." Raf applied the explosives and put up the shield. "This should merely loosen the door. Hopefully."

***

"W-welling is wo-wo-working on it." Gradually Jhosin's stammering died down as his shivering and newfound coat warmed him. "H-he's Secretary of the People, for p-petitions and stuff you know? A-anyway, he put himself in ch-charge of counting c-casualties." Jhosin nearly dropped the inventory pad again as a loud crack and shout was heard from off screen. "S-something's wrong. I-I have to go." He dashed away from the computer, the shouting growing louder.

The blast was muffled by the shield, but would have been quite loud otherwise. All that was heard on their end was an odd echo from the metal around them resounding with the hidden sound.

OOC: I apologize for my absence of late, mostly from this Rp. I hope we can pick up where we left off. I don't like posting twice in a row but I guess I can make an exception.

Rafaelle smiled, lowering the magnetic storm that was the forcefield. The door fell at the lightest touch, and the boy-pilot winced. But his fear that she was behind the door as it fell vanished as he saw her, perched against the tree like an angel in simple slumber. His heart skipped a beat.

Was he too late? Did she already leave this world? As he rushed to her side images flashed in his head. The crew blaming him for all the deaths on his ship, Erin being the straw that broke the camel's back. Mutiny, a fiery crash, nothing.

Thump.

Thump.

It was useless, all he could hear was his own heartbeat beating against his ears, not her chest. Then he heard it, a ragged gasp. He breathed a sigh of relief, raising his head and nodding it toward the other two. Yes, she lived. Two rather distracted looking kids appeared around the doorway.

"Are you the pilot?" asked the larger of the two, a full head taller than the other and solidly built. His brownish-blond hair seemed to keep getting in his eyes as he walked over, but he didn't seem to mind. The lesser of the two was freckled, thin and had hair down to her shoulders the color of rotting carrots, in a large contrast to her shockingly bluish-white eyes. Both of their name-tags read "Adventurer" along with "Nickel" and "Winter" respectively.

"Yes I'm the pilot, and now in command." He stood. "If you could, I'd like you to get this young lady a stretcher, and tear some nanoids out of some emptied pods down the hallway. Mix them with water and let her get a good taste. They should make their way to her head and lungs more quickly that way and get some oxygen flowing." The two nodded and opened up a panel in the side of the ship, containing a snap-together hospital-grade stretcher and went about their business.

Dit-Dah-Dah---Dit...

Suddenly, the computer started beeping and words flashed on the screen as the Morse code was translated. There was no onboard telegraph device which could only mean one thing. "Help!" Rafaelle rushed to the screen, watching with weight gathering on his shoulders as the omen was foretold.

We are sorry, survivors of Earth. This message is to inform you of your current co-ordinates and predicament. You have, by the time this message is automatically sent to you and received, reached the planet Cleo. Unfortunately it has been reduced to the asteroid belt that you no doubt detected on your sensors. About half a century after you had left on your journey we detected the beam. A beam that destroyed the planet you were to land on. Truly we apologize for this troubling news, but we have no way of bringing you back. You have no contract to land on any other planet to colonize it, but as we cannot reprimand you from so far away in both time and space, if you choose to live, it is your choice to take that chance. We are sorry, survivors of Earth...

"Sorry!? They don't know the definition!" He slammed his fist against the console, bloodying it. "All this is their fault! The equipment, the planet, everything!" He bowed his head, all but defeated. This isn't what was supposed to happen. The computer told him so specifically of his future. Landing a scrapped ship on a non-existent planet wasn't part of it. Nothing added up!

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed that Erin was taken care of, an empty glass and a sack of what looked like gray sand sat next to her on a side tray of the clothed table. Both her and the adventurers were in the bridge now, even though the botanist was still unconscious, she looked healthier--less pale. Winter looked like she was holding back tears, and Nick's eyes were no doubt downcast under all that hair.

Ooc: Yeah, it'd be great if we could get this back on track. I finally made a breakthrough on the future on the planet, but we need to get there first. And yes, you heard me right, there is a planet to get to.

Everything was black to Erin. She was floating in a great void of nothingness. She could hear voices, but couldn't understand them. Where were they coming from? Who were they? She felt a coolness in her throat like she had drank something, but she couldn't remember the action. More voices. A crawling sensation started in her stomach and spread rapidly to her lungs and head. What was happening to her? Something was inside her! She could feel it. Inside the void, she started to struggle, to fight the crawly things. To everyone else on the ship, Erin remained motionless.
No! Get out!, she screamed inside of her head as the nanoids, the crawly things, invaded more of her body. She could feel her wounds healing but at the same time, a sickening feeling was washing over her. She trashed and fought inside the void, trying to rid herself of these mini invaders.
To everyone else, Erin laid peacefully on the stretcher. But slowly, her eyebrows started to twitch, furrowing.
"Help," came the almost silent whisper. "No. . .get out. . .get it out. . ." Her cries were barely audible. Her eyebrows continued to twitch and her eyelids began to flutter, but her eyes never opened.

Luna spun round "Gotta go, somethings up," she said to Jhosin. "What was the message about?" she asked Raf. "All I caught was something about a beam."

"Our planet is gone, and no one is coming for us." Rafaelle said through gritted teeth. He did his best to loosen up. These weren't the leader-like qualities that he was supposed to be displaying. Nothing else is doing what it's supposed to be doing... That negative part of his mind said, and he tended to agree.

"The planet's gone? Is there anywhere else we can land?" Luna said, as the mission organizers had not deemed it neccersary to equip her with any knowledge about the system other than that there's a planet they were supposed to land on. "Surely there's somewhere else we can colinize in this system."

Leon felt himself floating, inveloped in cool wet darkness. It seemed like it had been centuries since he'd last opened his eyes. Oddy enough the darkness comforted him, and he would have continued to drift lifelessly if it weren't for the strange prickly feeling he began to feel in the back of his eye lids. It was the feeling he only felt when there was a great need for him to pull out of his little world away from everything, and deal with the curent realty.

Slowly he peeled his eyes opened, then quickly closed them again at the sting of the simbiotic fluid that surounded him. His blank mind filled with the memories he'd not needed in his confinment. After remembering why he was there and exactly where he was to start with Leon calmly but quickly pulled the release beside him, and layed perfectly still while the fluid drained around him.

After all the fluid was disposed of, Leon slowly sat up and removed the life suport, and IVs from his arms. Then after gathing up his sences he plucked the cloths desinated to his chamber, and slipped them over his slim figure. With a hefty sigh He begain to fummble though the darkness of the room searching for his medical equipment. When it was nowhere to be found a twing of worry began to tickle the back of his neck. How much time had really passed before He'd finaly awakened from stasis?

He know for sure it had been longer than the time his cell had been programed to open. For precaution he was suposed to be the first to emerge beside the captain to make sure everone else came out of stasis properly. He knew this wasn't the case because he could see the other cells had already been opened after examining the other rooms on the ship, not to mentune there where several tecnical proublems that seemed to line the ship's halls as he went checking cell after cell.

What he saw wasn't very comforting, half of the ships ocupaints were either missing or dead. The others were still in stasis or would be dead very soon. After searching coridor after coridor he'd lost hope of finding any consious survivers and began to head for the bridge hoping to ask the computer what had happned. Even though he dreaded confronting the computers built in personalty. He knew she was just a simulative program made to make the motherboard seem more human, but Her oviouse coldness creeped him out none the less.

Still a bit lost in his thoughts Leon almost missed the group huddled in the the Bridge. As he headed in he looked over the group, and at the woman on a streacher. Although they were slight, and couldn't be detected by the untrained eye, the young woman seemed to be having short rhythmic spasims. He could also see she'd suffered from some sort of head trama.

How have you treated the injuries of this woman? He questioned the others while still eyeing his soon to be patient.

OOC: She's on a stretcher, and we are in the bridge. Doesn't make much difference though.

The program had only briefly described the planets in the system. Not much info had been needed but for Cleo, because that was the one they were supposed to inhabit and traverse. If his memory served, Dia was a planet that had a livable temperature, if a little on the cool side, but had no water or much oxygen to speak of. This information was available to nearly all the crew through the virtual library back in the program, none of them were required to look it up during their training, however. Before he could voice any of this though, a new voice appeared from the doorway asking about Erin.

"Who--" He turned around, and took a few seconds to register the caduceus next to his name on the name-tag. "I thought--" Raf composed himself. "I heard that you were confirmed dead doctor. It's good--no, great to know that you're not." His thoughts and eyes turned to the botanist on the table. "Well, we didn't have any real medics on hand, especially with all this chaos aboard the ship. We gave her some nanoids in water, but that's all we could do without proper training." He scratched the back of his head a little nervously. "I know it's against regulation, as we're supposed to strengthen our immune systems and not become reliant on technology, but with everything that's happened..."

Ooc: Oops! sorry about that! thats what I get for being too haisty with the reading. It's been fixed, I think. just deleated a couple of words, and ta-da! all better now! hope I'm not steaching it too far to say there's a first -aid laying around somewhere, if not just tell me and I'll change it.

Ic:

Leon quickly took in what he'd been told and walked over to the streacher.
Most of her wounds had already healed well enough that the nanoids would no longer be needed. He quickly looked around to see for himself exactlly what they'd been useing, and let out a breath of relief when he saw the basic first aid. Without missing a beat he pulled a device out of the kit that was used to call nanoids out of patients. It was often used with observation nanoides, and in the rare event that a person's body rejected them. It was manditory in most modern first-aid.

Leon turned the device on and gently placed the tip under the botanist's tounge. After a moment the device begain to change color from a light almost clear blue, to a dark grayish blue. When he was sure all the nanoids had been drawn out of her system he handed the device to Winter.
Dispose of this, it should be virtuly usesless now. As for your means of teatment I fully undestand. This is not the situation we expected to incounter. What you did was what you had to do, addabit. Hmm, that's strange, she was twitching before, now shes stopped completly. I know it's an obsurd thought,but I think she was having a bad reaction to the nanoids. Thankfully they still did their job.

Leon didn't look up from his task as he spoke, he checked her vitals and made sure her wounds were healed properly. After he was done he took a deep breath and sunk to the floor.
She is going to be fine just as long as she doesn't push it. His mind was pondering over what the pilot told him about the computer thinking he was dead. How many others were still trapped in their tanks presumed dead?

"I'm glad." He wondered whether he should somehow get the doc to get a look at his hand. It hadn't gotten any better, nor worse. Raf decided against it. He had a job to do. "Leon, I know you will want to get to your patients as soon as possible, but I think you should be here to hear the situation." Preempting any objection, he continued quickly. "It won't take long, and I'm not sure how much of a help it will be, but you can use one of the computer's side terminals to talk people through medical procedures afterward. I think it would be much more effective than wandering blindly through the ship treating the people one at a time."

He turned towards the mechanic. "Ember, do you think we could access the computer program's history files without relinquishing control?"