Turns 8.3 - 8.4 "Mr. Akers' Box & Geneva Day Festivities"
November 2, 2495...02:41:27
"Ummm, Zach? Geneva Day, could it be a bomb? I've got Akers over by
Lift Two and he's got some sorta device sitting next to him..." Alex hoped
that Nola was listening in over the comm device. "Do you roger, Nola?"
"I've got that Alex," Nola called over the comm unit, but Zach didn't
acknowledge him at all. Nola reached forward and hit the down button on
the lift hoping that it hadn't been hotwired. The mechanical systems of the
lift groaned in protest and slowly started to move. She managed to spot a
blur of motion through the cage-like top of the lift-car... presumably
Akers... departing the lift as soon as it started to move.
"Damn," she cursed, a stun grenade clenched in one hand, and in her other,
her pistol aimed at the roof of the car. As the lift came closer, she could\
finally see the electronic 'box' sitting on the floor of the car. The box's
lights were softly blinking, giving the inside a strange kaliedoscopic image.
Akers had left it behind... but why? Did he mean to send it up the lift and
let it explode on the command deck? Or had Nola's actions taken him by
surprise and he simply had been unable to grab the box before he jumped out
of the car?
Behind Nola, at the nearby terminal on the catwalk, Alex continued to
encourage his AI companion to feed them more information. "Cal? Can you get
anything else? Perhaps a situation report on the others down in the cold?"
"Sorry, Alex... there aren't any security cameras in Berthing Compartment
Gamma. The temperature readings are coming back into the normal human
tolerance levels, though. Current environment is at -1 degrees Celsius...
still very cold, but bearable... our friends should no longer be at risk for
frostbite."
"Boy, things are never this complex on board my ships," muttered Alex as
he monitored the comm waves for incoming reports. Cal continued fiddling
about in the system, searching for information on what was going on down
below. "While you're at it, see what you can find out about Geneva Day from
whatever databanks you can access."
Cal responded, "That will take quite some time. The main computer is
spread out across the network of the entire station... and I would have to
sift through every piece of data to check for a reference to Geneva Day. But
I'll be happy to keep going. Check back with me and I'll have an answer for
you. Just watch yourself. This Akers-person seems dangerous."
--------------
Meanwhile, down below:
Dimitrio sprang to life, his cheerless face suddenly lit up as if from
the blue fire of the cutting torch. His surplus energy was vented in yelling
towards the robot, "Hey, hey! Get that thing over here! You ain't gonna warm
anybody with that, ya gonna cut right through 'em. Ain't you got any logic
circuits in place?"
Without waiting for the robot to answer, Dimitrio dropped his tools back
in his kit and walked over to Repo. "Now, I need help with the door, you see?
It's stuck and we need to cut our way through it. So be nice, and give me the
torch over here."
Repo sheepishly backed away from Dimitrio's vented frustrations, obviously
not enjoying a verbal confrontation with those he regards as his rescuers.
"I... I... I'm so sorry. I didn't realize... of course, of course. A stuck
door would be in need of a cutting torch more than frozen people. How silly
of me!" The robot trundled forward to give assistance to the mechanic, looking
back apologetically at Lugwig.
"Yesss, Repo, give Mr. Fontecelli torchy, cuty, hoty thing," Lugwig said,
"Hurry, Mr. Fontecelli. My patientsss cannot wait much longer yesss." Lugwig
continued to monitor the condition of his patients watching for any sudden
changes in their vital signs whether it be for the better or for the worse.
Dimitrio spoke into his comm unit, "Jake, I got problems here. This door
is gonna take longer than anticipated. Someone, probably a combat spec, did
a lousy job in trying to bypass it and ruined it for us, tech types." The
transmission was interrupted by a moment of static, "Jake, if you ain't OK
with that, let me know 'cause I'm starting. Over and out."
"Hey, D? This is Jake. Go ahead," the marine finally replied, "We ain't
goin' nowhere anytime soon, and I..." Jake's words were interrupted as he
spotted some movement down the hall. A figure seemed to roll out of the car
as it began to move. "Oh, good call, Nola!" Jake laughed and fired his rifle
twice. The heavy caliber rounds obviously struck the attacker, spinning the
figure around and dropping him to the floor. "Scratch one hostile," the
marine spoke into his comm-unit for everyone to hear, "Dimitrio? There might
still be another one or two. I'd like you to go ahead and cut through the
door and flank this loon's position. We'll approach him from both sides and
see if he's alone, okay? Doc? How about if you stand still until we give
the sign that it's all over, okay?"
"Mr. Haldig whatssss issss going on? Do you sssee anything?" Lugwig
replied, "Mr. Fontecelli, Haldig I thinkssss we mussst make movey movey now.
By Ch'Kak where Lugwig put talky thing? Get ready to move Repo, we move asss
sssoon asss me thinksss Loonie isss taken care of." Lugwig clearly appearred
to be be stressed out and moving around at an incredible speed, but not going
anywhere.
Dimitrio spoke into his nano while his left eye took a few pictures of
the jammed door, Julia replied,
Dimitrio fished a pair of dark goggles from his toolkit; the ex-grease
monkey lay sprawled on the floor, looking at the area Julia had directed
him toward. He finally directed Repo to the appropriate spots, the robot's
blue flame doing the job. Dimitrio used his left hand to shield his eyes
from starry sparks. Any more communication was drowned out by the noise and
even Julia had a hard time getting to him while he was thus concentrated on
the robot's activities.
Repo set about to the task with a lot of enthuisiasm. He was used to
this kind of work while doing shuttle maintenance work. His torch easily cut
its way through the door's mechanisms to the point that he and Dimitrio could
finally pull the barrier back manually.
The mechanic then stood and lifted his goggles past his head, once again
grabbing the shotgun. He sent Repo over to help out with the doc in any way
possible. "Hey Doc, I'm sendin' you the walkin' tin-can over again. Be
careful with that torch of his 'cause it'll burn a hole in your patients.
How are you coming along with them anyway?"
Lugwig's concentration was broken by Dimitrio's question. The little
T'sa doctor looked up and replied, "Patientsss not doing too good, Mr.
Fontecelli, but me thinksss the Misss Reed hasss been ssstablizzzed. Hurry,
russsh, dasssh, get mean guy, my patientsss sssuffer. Now you, Repo, be
ready to movey patientsss when Missster Haldig givesss the all clear. Now
where did Lugwig put comm unit thing? Hmmmm...not made for Lugwig. How do
I worky? Let'sss sssee...I try to rig ssso T'sssa can usssey." The
reptilian's natural curiosity came into play, and with the skilled claws
of a... surgeon... he began to modify the unit to fit the bony-structure of
his head more efficiently.
Dimitrio once again spoke into his unit, "OK Jake, this door will fall
as soon as I kick it. Tell me what's going on. I wanna go loonie
huntin'... Nola, Nola? Are you still there? What you doin' for fun up
there?"
--------------
Meanwhile, up above...
The lift car came to a stop in front of Nola, and the cage-door swung
open automatically. Inside, the box of electronics flickered quietly.
There was no obvious 'countdown' on the exterior, so it was unclear as to
whether it was truly a bomb. But the device still looked important...
--------------
Meanwhile, in the Grid...
Zach smiled and said, "Hello Officer. I am aware of the curfew, but I
lost the keys to my apartment while I was out and I can't get back in. I
was just back tracking to try and find them so I could get off the street
and comply. Once I find my keys, I'll be off the street. I'm really sorry
about this." Meanwhile, he was trying to manipulate the system to not
trigger their secondary response. He was sure, the police's secondary
responses were a bit more harsh. "I just moved here about a week ago," he
continued smiling, "Could you tell me what this Geneva Day stuff is all
about? My cousins said I would have to experience it to get a full
appreciation of it, but I'm not the patient type."
He continued code manipulation. That was the nice thing about sculpted
systems. If you took the time to play along, the system would have to
react in certain ways to keep the theme. If you didn't play along, it was
easier for the system to react to you and find you. Zach hoped he would
have some success with this. He needed information quite a bit and being
stopped by the security wouldn't help.
The officer behind the wheel answered Zach with a scowl, "Geneva Day?
How the heck should I know? It's something those stupid beauracrats thought
up, I'm sure." He waved a hand in the direction of a distant building, "Fat
slobs. They get all the perks up there. And, here we are, nothing but the
hired guns that protect the streets for them. They don't tell us anything
more than we need to know, you know? But I've got a cousin that works up
there as a guard, and he told me a thing or two about this Geneva crap. He
says it's got something to do with a message that's gonna be delivered. I
guess that'll happen in about an hour or so. I'm not sure whether its good
news or bad that they want to share, though. Don't make no never mind to
me... I still get paid one way or t'other. The strange thing is that it's
got the whole system on standby for it. All activity has been suspended...
all the workers were sent home about a half-hour ago to wait for the
festivities to begin... I'm kind of looking forward to it. Ought to be
quite a surprise given the tight security up there at the big-wig offices."
The man wound down his conversation about Geneva Day and then frowned to
himself, "But still, you say you lost your keys?" In this sculpted world,
Zach knew that was synonymous with a programmer admitting to having lost his
password. "Now that's not a safe thing to do," the officer continued, "You've
probably compromised the security of your apartment complex. And now we'll
have to be on the lookout for interlopers. It's careless people like you that
waste our corporate dollars everyday, citizen! But, hey, you said yourself
that you're new here! Only a week, huh? Well, I guess we can cut you some
slack. But we probably ought to at least check your ID, first. You got a
travel visa on ya somewhere, buddy?"
---------------------------------------------
---------- Turn 8.3 - 8.4 Comments ----------
---------------------------------------------
1. In an effort to answer a few of your questions... OOC: BTW, is the
"bomb" beside Akers hooked up to anything (i.e. a computer terminal)? No, it
is self-contained, measuring roughly 27 inches by 15 inches by 12 inches. It
has several lights and buttons... no obvious powersource (again, appearing to
be self-contained)...and no outward markings as to who might have built it.
2. Comments (always constructive): I think the game is going slow (game
time), we haven't even covered an hour (two?) in all this time (real time). I
don't think it is your fault but maybe we should all try to think of a way to
advance the story somehow. This particular adventure is tailored to move
somewhat slowly. Because of the countdown association, time does matter.
You'll notice that I've included a date/timestamp at the beginning of each
turn. The date has stayed constant... but the time has steadily increased
since the adventure began.
3. A further explanation on Repo's cutting torch seemed necessary to me.
The device is an integral part of Repo... only the fuel container for the
torch is removable. So, Dimitrio was unable to take the item from Repo... but
he was able to guide the robot's actions.
4. Well, it would appear that Paul has gained the distinction of being the
first player to disappear from the game. Let's discontinue using his email
address: kamalotus@cpis.net. I'll also go ahead and take this opportunity to
offer the position of Jake to either of our two lurkers. Either one of you
guys want to speak up for the part?
5. Any other questions? Actions?
-- Neil, DM (
geocities.com/hainphan/rpgs) (
geocities.com/hainphan)