About 30 minutes after breakfast, your first morning out, your
intercom comes to life:
"All hands muster on the main rec deck. All hands to the main rec
deck. Morning muster will be held in 10 minutes."
Around you you can hear the sounds of others also preparing for the
morning ritual. "Wonder how they'll like if I show up half shaved."
and "The way I'm feeling right now, they'll be lucky if they see me
by noon." and so forth. Nevertheless, you know inside that this is
important, so you find it somewhere within you to go there, if only
to get your morning coffee.
- ---------------------------------------------
You have all gathered in the main recreation area of the Alcyon,
except for a very few of you in critical positions that must be
occupied at all times. The rec deck is not as large as you would like
for a gathering of this many people. It is shoulder-to-shoulder
bodies. In the time-honored military tradition, you have grouped
into your respective teams, and your command tem rep has taken
roll.
In turn, each of the command team reps walks to Admiral Ger and
quitely reports departmental status and body count. He then returns
to his team.
Admiral Ger rises to address you. In the case of those on station,
the image is holo-projected at your position. He speaks:
Good morning, fellow travellers. We have now embarked on an epic-making
journey. We are travelling into the unknown. What we might discover
there, no one knows. However, we know there are dangers. We are all
individually prepared to face them. Now we must accept the challenge
of facing the unknown and its dangers as a team. Our best chances lie
with working together.
I have a few announcements to make this morning.
First: Many of you have not reported in. Please contact your command
team rep (drop them some E-mail) right away, and let them know you are
present! Command team reps are:
Engineering: Johann Abuko
Transport: Etienne de Mer
Security: Lazer Farouk
Med/bio: Christian van der Merwe
Phys. sci: Karl Morser
Soc sci: Dave Sokuku
Generalists: Ralf
[If you can't reach yours, or if I'm wrong - fire up the GM!]
=============
Second: To date, only nine people have reported for their physicals.
We need to get this done.
=============
Third: We have some preliminary results of our continuing evaluation of
those R-alpha tapes they showed us. In a nutshell, we've determined:
there is roughly 1-g at the surface,
whatever power is used must come from solar collectors somewhere
(rather than artificially produced),
light gases (like Hydrogen) are extremely rare in R-alpha's
atmosphere,
the outside surface of the ring is a hardened, recently (in
cosmic terms) repaired, alloy,
there is weather, but we're unsure of the overall air mass flow,
there are CO2 (imagine a subscript) concentrations - suggesting
animal life or open fires -- likewise small methane concentrations
indicating herbivores,
definitely artificial - no indication why it has been missed before.
We'll be continuing discussion of what we know during the jump. Your
comments are welcome, but please remember that right now we want to
stick to facts; we can speculate later.
=============
Fourth: I have been approached by several people about being on the
"first" team to the surface, or to organize the away teams. Here,
several parsecs from our destination, I have ideas for 14 jobs. Highly
dangerous jobs ar marked with a *, and may not be taken by command crew.
Some of these jobs will require full teams, others just one or two people.
Mission duration is highly variable, but they will be initiated in the
order given below. These are all subject to changes based on new data.
Job 1: Probe Controller:
Desingate a course for the probe inside the ring and collect data.
Job 2: System survey:
Examine the solar system for objects not directly associated with
R-Alpha.
Job 3: Exterior surface ananysis: *
Match velocity with "underside", walls, and wall-tops, and gather
data.
Job 4: Initial flyby: *
Attempt to match velocities with r-Alpha, and take an atmosphere
sample. Subject to probe data analysis.
Job 5: Surface mapping: *
Fly-by of entire surface, using high-speed visual equipment,
generate a rough map of the surface. Depending on conditions and
equipment capability, this my be a retrograde maneuver.
Job 6: Auxilary sturture analysis:
If such structure exists (day/night cycling, solar energy
collection, system defenses), investigate by close flyby (possible
landing), and collect data.
Job 7: Initial landing:
Choosing an un-interesting spot on the surface. Match velocities,
discharge grav test vehicle?, and land shuttle? Test out various
pieces of equipment. Frist surface mission.
Job 8: Satellite placement:
Launch satellites, or affix them to the tops of the wall at
the appropriate points in relation to the base camp.
Job 9: Base camp set-up:
Land, and set-up the base camp.
Job 10-14: Site Alpha/Beta/Chi/Delta/Epsilon investigation:
Based on previous surveys, visit the four-five most interesting
spots via shuttle or grav transportation.
Remember the atmosphere is presumably rotating at the same speed as the
surface. When a shuttle enters the atmosphere, it should be able to use the
air to keep it in place... ie fly through the air.
Also, We still need a few people to help create a ring simulation for
R-alpha landing practice. If done right, you guys could also
use the simulation to pre-test some of your theories about how
this ring is built, what gravity it has, and so forth. Notify
Eneri de Aith if you're up for this.
Any suggestions for new/overlooked jobs, contact me. Volunteers for various
jobs, see your team leader, and cc myself.
=============
Fifth: More than a few of you have indicated a serious dislike of having
your weapons locked away in a major armory. No one, other than
our security team, has objected to anyone carrying weapons. There
have been rumors of a few hot tempers as we settle in, and even
death threats. No one has acted on them. Please continue to
demonstrate this self-restraint.
A more pressing concern is just how lethal some of your sidearms
can be to the integrity of your ship. Some of you are packing
heavy artillery. I don't expect anyone, with the exception of
security, to worry about fighting those kinds of duels. This is
supposed to be a PEACEFUL mission of exploration and discovery.
Here is a compromise proposal that I hope will cool everyone off -
and it's OFFICIAL. For everyone except security personnel:
[Actually Richard is usurping just about everyone here and hopes
he doesn't alienate too many of you - now you know where to aim
your flamethrowers.]
All ranged weapons, other than your issue stun pistol, are to be
locked up. You can either turn them in to security, or you can
*lock* them in your personal effects locker. You can keep ONE
loaded magazine for each weapon in your locker. In the locker,
not in the weapon...
You can keep your personal blades and point-blank-only (like laser
sword or force blade) energy weapons on your person. High energy
tools, like torches or gas chromatographs, are the responsibility
of the various team leaders. Keep an eye on them and make sure they
don't get used for sabotage or whatever.
==========
Sixth: Everyone should engage in the various training excercises we
have available, while we are underway. Physical conditioning is on the
Corondor Talisman every morning and every evening. Personal weapons
practice and zero-G drills are also on the Talisman; arrange times
with Lazer Farouk or Thule Jonson.
Sensor operations, navigation, and piloting excercises are on the Paladin
every morning at 08:30. Everyone with any skill at all in these areas
is needed. [Write the GM for details, if you don't have them already.]
The Paladin't computers are being largely turned over to scientific
programming for the duration of the jump. See Alexander Nayduz, Karl
Morser, and Dr. Werner, to schedule time.
=============================
{non-speaking activity insert:
Those of you in the rec room notice the tell-tales on psi shields
occassionally start to flicker. If you are psi, you might notice
someone "touch" your automatic (internal) shield if you are not
using [wearing it switched off doesn't count :-)] a shield helmet.
[roll 2D6, int or less to notice flickering]
[Any psi-trained character who wishes to be available for psi
contact with "like-minded" individuals, contact the GM. I am
compiling a list for those who volunteer this information.
- -- yes even the one who did the above stunt. You know who you are,
but I accidentally lost the note I scribbled your name on. ]
}
Well. That's about it for today. As you can see we all have a lot
to do. There is something special about being the first to go in.
There is also something special about doing the job really well.
Let's do both.
Carry On.
-Admiral Ger.
======================
With this the admiral turns and leaves the rec deck. He heads in
the general direction of the Alcyon's bridge.