Chapter 2: Starry, Starry Night

Now with the headband on, the female-sounding voice continues, Holmes' heart racing.

“Would you like to apply or remove the template? Please say 'apply' or 'remove'"

Holmes struggles with the decision, not knowing which he should do. He considers saying "Cancel, you infernal machine!" or "End session!", but croaks out "Apply", acquiescing to the machine's demands.

There is a pause. Holmes can hear the gentle whirring of the machine. The pause continues.

“Template detected, application canceled. Would you like to apply or remove the template? Please say 'apply' or 'remove'."

The Doctor's brain swirls with conflicting thoughts. it seems like it detects the "template" within me already.....this is not who I am supposed to be dammit
"Remove template you infernal machine."

The word 'remove' triggers the machine, just as the word 'apply' had. There is a pause.

"Removing template, please stand by."

A sound grows inside of Holmes' head.

"Focusing ultrasound projectors, removing chemical substrate."

The words have no meaning to Holmes, but the sound grows, painfully. In what seems like an endless progression, the voice intones about 'temporal lobe, regions 1 through 12', 'occipital lobe, regions 1 through 17', pausing with each region number while the machine does its work.
Holmes becomes vaguely aware, maybe somewhere around pre-frontal cortex region 11, that his friends have entered the room. The procedure continues, as their presence fades from his consciousness.

Hunter watches as the machine continues it's enumeration of gods know what and as his friend Henry loses consciousness. He rushes to his side, asseses to strange head band, not wanting to touch it, he follows the run of cables with his eyes. Sees, where they enter a box and 3 discs laying next to it. As he examines the machine, looking for it's power button, He picks one up. Samar's face, printed on the disc, stops him in his tracks.

Nearly half an hour passes, with the occasional interruption from the disembodied female voice telling anyone who will listen that such-and-such part of the brain is having the template removed from region 1 through whatever. With some finality, the voice announces "Procedure complete, neural pathways restored."

A noticeably groggy Holmes, his head listing to one side, squints to see his companions. He seems to look them up and down, his eyes growing wider.

"Did I get drunk at a costume party?"

Confused...

"What do you mean Henry?"

"Why are you? Why am I dressed like this? You know what, never mind. So many memories are trying to flood back, but it's too much, all at once. It'll be too hard to explain. I can tell you I recognize this place. The best, easiest thing I can do is help you through the same process. So. Who wants to go next?'
Dr. Holmes pulls the headstrap off his head and vacates the chair. Hunter steps forward and sits in the chair. Dr. Holmes removes his disc from the device. Helps strap Hunter into the chair. He sits down in the other, pulls Samar's disc from the pile, makes sure Hunter can see the picture on the disc, and fiegns putting it in the machine. He stops his hand halfway and gives Hunter a wink.
"Oops. Don't want to make that mistake now do we."
He places Hunter's disc in and waits for the machine to do its thing.

"Wilhundt Varyu, please sit in the chair."

Hunter takes his place, securing the headband as he does so. In moments, the process of restoring Hunter's brain is under way. Uncomfortable, disorienting, and occasionally painful -- but by the time he's feeling well enough to get out of the chair, the memories are flooding back. This strange space station looks familiar, and he regains an understanding of the equipment around him, and its purpose.

And with that understanding, his memories of Dorset begin to fade.

"Why am I wearing this piece of crap cloak?"

He looks at his friends, looks back at himself, Remembers the sentencing and why they were on this station, looks at his wrists, expecting bindings, looks around for guards, see's the dead body on the floor, the single precise blaster hole in his back.

"What happened to him? We are alone?"

He looks at Henry, who shrugs, but points to Samar and Weigel. "This machine applied a memory block on us, which I've just removed from you after testing the machine on myself first.
Samar tells me that we've just escaped from Exeter where we were living and working in a town called Dorset. I haven't a recollection of that myself, recalling nothing after being strapped into this helmet until now, but Weigel confirms the truth of the tale."

Hunter stands, straightens the long duster he is wearing and feels the holstered pistol.  Drawing it, he is at first confused that he would arm himself with such a crude weapon, but as he examines it, he recognizes his own workmanship in it's mods, primitive as it might be.

Well, perhaps this will make a good bar tale later.  But last time we were here, we weren't exactly free.  I'm going to go explore this place, find out exactly where we are in this system, and what we can do to change that. I'd prefer not to go back to Brabus if we don't have to.

Dr. Holmes finds no trouble as he assists Samar and Fritz, though Fritz balked at being put in the chair. In the end he gave in, fidgeting and cursing the entire time. It's been a while since his last drink, but from Samar and Holmes' vantage point, hard to tell.
_________________________________________________

Wilhundt's declaration about exploring this place leads to him looking all about, and finding three new exits from the lab. One hatch in the floor beckons, as do two doors at the far end of the lab.

Hunter, decides to forgo the hatch for now in favor of the two doors. He wants to find the bridge, but not knowing which to pick, he decides to go through the left door.

Going through the left door, Hunter finds a couple of things. First, he finds what are obviously crew quarters. Six beds and footlockers, a few pictures secured to the walls, and a pair of equipment lockers adorn the simple, gray room. One door leads off the other end.

Second, he finds that the station is beginning to taper. He had seen hints of that in the diagrams on the engineering computers.

Third, a tiny version of the head is here. Not very luxurious, but for just-woken-up-potty-emergencies, it will do the trick.

Leaving a more detailed search for later, Hunter continues through the next door.

Wilhundt appears to have reached 'peak station', as the walls are converging to a point overhead. Three seats are positioned next to each other, backs to the floor in what must be a launch position. A person in those seats would have a clear view of the computer screens and flight instruments -- primitive by Wilhundt's standards, but workable.

This is the bridge that Hunter has been looking for. He spends some time here, examining the various screens and instrumentation, familiarizing himself with the controls. Is there instrumentation and screens capable of showing the system they are in and their position in it. Is there communications gear. Are there screens to show status and health of the various ships systems? One thing he thinks he knows. Looking at these protective seats, and thinking on the low gravity aboard, this is not going to be a highly maneuverable craft to fly. They might move it from it's current location, but they will probably need to find more appropriate and safer transport from this station to any planetary surface. When finished exploring the bridge, he goes back to the lab to explore through the right door.

Wilhundt studies all the switches and toggles available from the pilot's(?) seat. He finds the comms, he finds booster controls, he finds maneuvering thrusters, fuel read-outs, guidance system, navigation, and attitude read-outs, sensors, hatch controls, water management system and fire suppression, artificial atmosphere, artificial gravity...everything he'd expect to find, with the possible exception of weapon systems. This is clearly the business end of flying the spacecraft. There is so much data to process, it will have to wait until ship exploration is complete.

Wilhundt returns to the lab just as Dr. Holmes is helping Weigel up from the chair. "Find anything of intrest Hunter?" Dr. Holmes asks. As Wilhundt tells them what he saw in the next two rooms, Dr. Holmes fidgets with the disc with his picture on it. Spinning it around between his fingers. As Wilhundt finishes explaining what he saw, Dr Holmes suddenly stops the spinning disc, and breaks it in two. He drops the pieces to the floor as he stands, grinding them beneath his heel as he turns to the right door. "Well, let's discover what lies behind door number two, and then find a way to get the hell out of here."

Hunter recalls seeing another airlock exiting the 2nd workshop, and eager to see if there is a 2nd hanger and perhaps a more useful shuttle eyes the hatch in the lab floor, but follows Henry towards the unexplored door.  

"Ah, Henry, I believe we will find the ships stores through that doorway, I believe I will leave you to explore that.  Before backtracking to the lab, I had discovered another airlock in the lower section of the ship.  I'm going to continue my explorations below. Perhaps there is a second hangar and a more suitable shuttle docked there.

With that, Hunter approaches the hatch, and lowers himself down through the floor, wondering at what point will the low gravity from the lab shift perspective on him as he travels both down and up towards the floor below/above him.

Hunter appears to be getting the hang of Socrates' weak but disconcerting gravity. He recalls seeing the artwork of an ancient artist (Eibach? Mescher? Maybe Escher? The name eludes him...) whose work depicted gravity turned on its head. He imagines himself as one of these Mescheresque creatures exiting a staircase, finding himself upside down.

In any event, he finds himself upside down in a room similarly sized as the lab he just left, but instead of computers, he finds industrial machinery. He's heard of such equipment on ships like this before, equipment used for pulverizing raw ore and separating its components. It's not a large operation by any means, but it's apparent that the crew had been involved in some small bit of ore mining. Hoods and vacuum hoses are testament to the dust such work creates, and the need to keep the dust from clogging Socrates' own air filtration system.

As Hunter roams the room, he recalls a conversation he and Samar had ' with Mr. Da...?, Mr. Rav...? who doesn't really matter I guess.' while on the surface of Exeter. They had at one time been supplying ore off world, but that had mysteriously stopped. With a bit of research, and if so inclined, they may be able to restart that and make some funds selling the refined ores.  If not profitable, why would they outfit the station with the equipment after all.

Satisfied for now, he looks for the exits, finds the lone door leading aft and mives into the next compartment.

Dr. Holmes enters what should be the store room. He takes a quick scan of the room and sees shelves well stocked with food and powdered drink. Looks like enough for an extended stay on the station. Two large suitcases catch his eye. He walks over and pulls them from the shalves and lays them on the floor. Opening them up to see their contents. A familiar symbol painted on the lids of each has him hopefull for what he will find inside. What he discovers is a very well put together medical field kit. Bandages, sutures, surgical tools, antibiotics, defibrillator, I.V. bags, burn treatment salves and bandages, and more. He goes through them both carefully. Cataloging everything in his mind. Then carefully closes the cases, making sure they are latched securely and puts them back on the shelf. Whatever this place is, whomever runs it, they have at least planned for any emergency. Dr. Holmes marks the cases in his mind for a must get item in case they have to leave quickly. Henry then moves on to inform the others of what he found.

Wilhundt, impatient to see what might be waiting beyond the airlock, practically hammers the airlock buttons. With a soft *swish*, the airlock door opens to a second bay. Instead of a plain cylinder like the one the group had arrived in, he sees:

Hunter whistles to himself. 'not a model I've seen before, let's see what shes got going on though' walking up to the craft, he circles her once, running a hand along her lines as if caressing a womans thighs, guaging her readiness to recieve him.

Weigel stands behind Hunter, watching as Hunter carresses the starship. He says nothing, for a moment, wondering how long he can stand there, until Hunter realizes his pressence.

Is this one of 'dem times three's a crowd? Ya need some more alone time wit' her?

Weigel walks around the ship.

When ya t'ink we'll be on our way? Got any idea where we go'n?

"No, you're fine.  To answer your questions, from the looks of things, it's been some time since anyone has visited this station. I've not seen anything yet that tells me how long it has been since our minds were altered, but the fact that there is a dead body in the lab and the discs to reset us laying on the table next to it? I think we were the last ones here. Us, and whomever did this to us.  As for when will we leave here? Maybe a few days? Maybe longer? Depends on what shape the food stores are in. Did you check that with Henry?  As for where, well, We need to evaluate the capabilities of this shuttle, but I doubt it can do a spike drill. That means we gather intel on the system we are in, figure out how to make some credits, and then work out how we will get out of this system.

You should accompany me inside. We may end up finding a use for your particular skill set.

Hunter manipulates the hatch controls and enters the ship, wondering if she will be capable enough to warrant naming.

Before entering, Wilhundt takes particular note of two things -- painted on the ship's flank is the name "Santell Wanderer" and its identifier, S-21107. To Wilhundt, at least, this is a sign of civilization. The call number indicates to him that the ship comes from a place where ships are common and regulated. This poses its own set of potential issues, but compared to the issue of being stranded on a space station, issues with the local DSV (Department of Space Vehicles) seem rather mild by comparison.

Pushing those thoughts from his mind, he turns the handle to open the ship's hatch. Opening smoothly, the hinged hatch lowers to the ground, a compact set of stairs built-in. He ducks and turns slightly to get his frame through the narrow hatchway. Intuitively, he knows Santell Wanderer is going to be cramped.

The little stairway leads up and towards the aft portion of the ship. A narrow turn-around at the top of the small stairs acts as a hub of sorts. One narrow passage goes to the rear of the ship, one goes left, one goes right, and one goes to the ship's nose. Wilhundt heads forward along the narrow walkway, and in just a few meters, finds himself in a small space, a cabin for five. Two pairs of bunks have been folded up against the wall, and one bed is folded down, the bedding unkempt.

Hunter isn't looking for the crew quarters but notes it as a good sign that there are bunks. Means the Santell Wanderer is meant to be lived on, at least for short periods of time, though probably not several months or years, he certainly wouldn't want to spend that long cooped up in here, but several weeks would be tolerable.

Weigel! just a bit of crew quarters this way, 1 bed slept in, perhaps by our deceased fellow. You may want to look for loot, but otherwise nothing to see this way. I'm going to head aft next.

Right! T’at’s what I’m good at. Keep an eye out for anyt’ing good. I’m on me way up!

Weigel scuttles over to the ladder. He looks up, climbs the ladder. Ain’t so bad is she?

Weigel browses, not taking in too much, just the lay of the land, She looks space worthy.

He makes his way to the bunk area, I could sleep here. Nice firm.

Weigel begins to snoop and search in the bedroom.

Just as Fritz comes to the conclusion that the cabin area is pretty bare, he turns to call to Wilhundt with the disappointing news. He looks up and through the cabin door, and spots a recessed button next to the metal walkway. He steps from the cabin and presses the button.

Overhead, a hatch slides open, and a thin-but-sturdy ladder drops to the deck.

Hey, Hunt, t'ere's a ladda 'ere. I'm go'n up. You com'n?

Weigel ascends the ladder without waiting, to see what he can see in the hatch above.

Baffled that he had missed something as large as a ladder, Hunter peers up through the hatch as Weigel climbs to investigate what lies above.

Fritz deftly climbs up the ladder and through the hatch, to find himself inside the cockpit of Santell Wanderer. The room is not large by any stretch of the imagination, but there is seating space for five without being cramped. A faceted canopy of darkened glass provides a clear view forward and overhead. Six chairs dominate the space. Five of them seem to be locked in a forward-looking position, where the most central and rearward has swiveled, giving Fritz a clear view of the empty seat.

The chair seems reasonably luxurious for a small ship, with comfortable-looking padding, a large headrest, and what appear to be adjustable armrests. The four other seats look to be identical.

One chair sits forward of the others, front and center. The current view from this seat is simply the docking bay of Station Socrates, but Fritz imagines the view of the stars will be quite expansive frpm here. This seat is tucked snugly amid a console that partially wraps around the chair, covered with controls, buttons, and read-outs.

The other seats each have a small console that appears to pivot into place.

Fritz has no idea whether she's space-worthy or not, but she certainly does look the business.

Samar feels that she has forgotten far more than she has remembered - but such is life, is it not?

She watched Weigel return to himself, and then he followed Hunter "down" the hatch. Dr. Holmes searched what Hunter referred to as the store room, and then followed the others.

So now Samar has watched her companions step over and around the corpse a number of times, and presumably left it here for her to deal with. Then again, the corpse is not going to present any unexpected obstacles, is it? Is it not more important to search their surroundings to better understand their next move...?

She wishes she remembered who the corpse was. Friend or foe? Captor or companion? She wishes it did not bother her. "It does not seem to bother them."

Doing her best not to unsettle the corpse (and stir up its stink), Samar takes it to the original hangar and leaves it there, out of the way, against a wall. She then returns to the lab and considers throttling the mind-altering machine.

Instead, Samar enters where Hunter told Dr. Holmes the crew quarters were.

"Going through the left door, Hunter finds a couple of things. First, he finds what are obviously crew quarters. Six beds and footlockers, a few pictures secured to the walls, and a pair of equipment lockers adorn the simple, gray room. One door leads off the other end."

Samar searches the crew quarters, trying to find out more about who these people were. Who was she to them? She analyzes the pictures on the wall. She opens all the footlockers and equipment lockers. Samar is looking for clothes for herself, but also clues as to the identities of who used to call this orbiting station/ship home.

Mrs. Wynne left her child in the custody of her family to murder the man who murdered her husband. She was not charged with a crime, for who would convict her?

And then, she served time for a crime she did not commit. "Coincidence?"

After searching the crew quarters, Samar joined the rotting corpse in the small hangar to practice the military exercises her father had taught her and contemplate everything she had and had not learned in the crew quarters. She sensed there was a fight coming, and she was going to be ready. "There is always a fight coming."

Samar feels particularly strong, after having removed the corpse. Perhaps low gravity has its advantages, at least in the corpse-moving department. In any case, she takes some satisfaction knowing that the station no longer has a corpse randomly sprawled, and if nothing else, it is now resting in what might be considered a disposal area. It was worth it, for the occasional overpowering blast of rot-stench.

She occasionally stops and listens for hints of her companions making their way through the station, but all seems normal. No one is yelling in a panicked tone, no gunshots clang through the metal interior, so all seems under control. Her visit to the crew quarters proved interesting, and clues from pictures would indicate that this was a small mining team from Brabus. Pictures show them on asteroids, hamming it up for the camera as they blasted chunks of minerals from the surface.

She spends some time rummaging through the footlockers, eventually settling on the equipment lockers. One contains six vacc suits in good condition, the other contains clamps, ropes, spikes, lapms, and bags.

Dr Holmes follows Wilhu...Hunters direction to see what he may have discovered. He curses under his breath as the gravity flip flops, and his stomach follows suit. Dammit, space is nothing but death and disease, he grumbles to himself. Eventually, he finds his way to the hanger and sees the shuttle. Knowing this is their way off this rat trap, he immediately turns around and heads back to the storeroom. He pulls the two medical cases off the shelf and carries them out to the hatch that leads to the hangar level and sets them there. He then heads back to the store room, starts grabbing some of the food packs, and carries them to the hatch as well. He makes several trips until he has a nice pile by the hatch. He then starts shoving the food packs through the hatch, leaving the medical cases until he has help to maneuver them through the hatch. Dr. Holmes heads down/up confounded...son of a....i hate this.... grabs up an armful of food packs and starts carrying them off to the shuttle.

Hunter enters the bridge of the Wanderer and mentally evaluates the seating arrangement. He is drawn instinctively to the forward most station.

Weigel, check that ring of consoles, lets see what we can discover about this ship. I believe this front station will likely be the pilots station so I will examine that one. How do you feel about us starting this thing up and giving the systems a once over?

Aye, I'll run a full diagnostic, see what she's got and what she needs. We'll see if she's worthy.

Weigel says, as he sets at one of the consoles and begins a checklist for running a system diagnostic.

Hunter sits down at what he has presumed to be the pilots station and begins to familiarize himself with the various switches and displays he sees there.

Hunter looks over all the controls before touching anything, knowing how tricky startup sequences can be. Luckily, some of the toggles are labeled, enough to give him a sense of what he's dealing with. The reference to 'plasma ignition' assures him that Santell Wanderer is just that -- a ship made to travel Santell, but not beyond. If the group wants to get out of Santell, this won't be the ship to do the job. It certainly does appear to be capable of moving rapidly throughout Santell system, however, and Wilhundt wonders if this ship will be the best tool for the short-term future.

His confidence grows with each passing minute at the controls. He starts with non-flight control systems, and flips a promising-looking switch. //This is your pilot speaking...// Wilhundt's voice rings throughout the ship. He's found the comms, and takes a moment to identify internal, ship-to-ship, and system broadcast communications.

The process of elimination narrows his search substantially, and before long, he has a good grasp of the controls. One rocker switch looks particularly appealing, and when Wilhundt hits it, the ship lights come to life, and the control panel illuminates fully. This is all he needs, and he begins pulling up critical data:
Current System Power: 0%
Fuel: 52%
System Health Self-Check....0%....25%....50%.....75%.....Complete.
System Health: 100%
Engine Management: Online
Navigation: Online
Current System Time: 04:22:37:03:16:3302

The last piece of data strikes Hunter hard. Exhaustion begins to kick in, as he realizes the group has been up nearly all night. But the gut punch comes when he sees the date, 3302. The group had entered Santell in 3299, just over two years ago.

Dr. Holmes, having made another series of trips from his pile of food packs and drink to the shuttle, eventually has all the foodstuffs piled inside the shuttle door. right. I'll find a place for those later
Dr. Holmes heads back up to the other level and searches around until he finds Mrs. Wy.....Samar.
"Hey uhh. So Hunter found a shuttle on the next level down. There's another hangar there. I've already moved some food supplies to it, but I've found a couple of cases of medical supplies I want to take as well. Could you help me maneuver then down the hatch, please? I don't want to damage them, trying to do it myself. Personally I'd like to get off this station as soon as possible. Oh, by the way, did you happen to move the body? Because I didn't see it in the lab room, and I'd prefer it didn't get up and walk off on its own.

2 years...it's been over 2 years. That news hits Hunter hard, and he doesn't realize that he's voiced his thought out loud until Weigel asks "Wat's that you say?"

" Oh, Sorry, It's been just over 2 years since we entered the Santell system. A lot can change in 2 years. The conflict on Brabus could be over, our target could be dead or gone off planet, heck, Brabus coulda nuked themselves and they're all gone. It does look like this will be a fine ship for our immediate needs, but it isn't going to get us out of this system. No spike drive. What systems are you seeing controls for back there?"

Wilhundt's study of the ship's systems doesn't end there. He pulls up the navigation console's main screen, and lo and behold, Santell system is plain to see.

Several bodies appear on the screen, with their apparent orbits. Exeter and Brabus appear as the only habitable planets. He drills down by mass, planets first, then moons, then asteroids, etc. No moons in the system appear to be habitable, nothing in Santell's asteroid belt. At the next level of detail, he finds two useful pieces of data. First, Station Socrates is listed as a refueling station -- and the system's only refueling station. Second, there is a remote research station, Tabor 7, orbiting a moon of the 5th planet.

He turns to get a better look at Wanderer's drive controls.

_________________________________________________________

Frit's experience differs slightly from Wilhundt's, as he runs diagnostics on the computer systems. He's not surprised that the systems confirm the general good health of the computing core, so there's not much to see along the electronic/communications front. Fritz isn't much for engineering, but figures that he could probably spot obvious anomalies. Oddly, he can't seem to find engineering details from this station, but during his search, he does find two folders in the system's file structure: System Logs, and Command Logs.

Samar completes a cycle of her family's kata-rosary-song training ('katavaya'), without drawing her knives. The movement and music, though rusty, restores her to herself. She finds her body to be in relatively good shape. Not strong but not weak.

Then she stands in meditation. . .listening to herself, to the ship, to the emptiness. She hears footsteps, and hears the doctor speak to her.

No one survives without a family. Without a crew. Everything depends on itself and everything else.

"Hey, Doc. The body is behind you against the wall there, out of the way - I just got tired of stepping over it.

"I will help you with the med kits, sure. I checked out the crew quarters - good vacc suits. There is some mining gear as well - who knows what we will need with rope or not. But some good bags for supplies.

"And the miners' credit chips - so some credits might come in handy. I have those here."

Samar shows Doctor Holmes the dozen credit chips she dug out of the miners' drawers.

"The crew quarters also had some spare clothes. And each of the crewmembers had a tablet computer. Maybe the technophiles will want to have a look at those.

"Do you want to spar real quick? Or should we keep moving?"

Weigel sits at his console. He finds a system log and a command log.

Two years ya' say? Lot can 'appen in two years. I got command and system logs. Le's see if t'ey can tell me ant'ing about t'ese two years.

Weigel opens both System and Command logs searching for intel on the Wanderer, the ship in which the Wanderer is setting, and the planetary system they occupy.

That sounds promising.

Hunter continues familiarizing himself with the controls, in the process, he makes sure he checks the power status occasionally, hoping to see it climbing off of 0%.

Hunter looks at the power levels, waiting for them to climb, before realizing that the power read-outs are associated with engine/thruster controls. He hasn't started the ship yet, so the 0% read-out makes more sense to him now.

-------------------------------------------

In the meantime, Weigel skims the log files. What he sees shakes him, somewhat. Unanswered calls for assistance -- lots of them, mostly from the surface of Brabus. Status reports of heavily damaged installations. An almost relentless barrage of reports, panicked broadcasts meant for anyone who would listen, about incoming missiles and missile impacts. Those logs end a little over two years ago.

Two years ago a war on Brabus. T'ey were call'n for help. Ain't no one answer, seems. Heavy damage, lots a missiles. Whatchu think hunt, check for survivors? See if t'ere's any salvage worth taken. Two years, t'ough

Weigel flows through the distress calls, not looking for anything recent.

Ain't heard nothing since the last mention of incoming missiles.