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S3: Valorous; Aurora Class Transport Vessel
Topic Started: Dec 13 2014, 04:29 AM (14,333 Views)
Tojoyama
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Cap'n
AFRICA CHAMBERLAIN

"I sent you the files I could find. Might be a techie could conjure more out of the CORTEX."
Africa said to Samantha. Chamberlain didn't have the accent of the rim, but she'd been around enough docks and ships to know the lingo. 'conjure', she liked that word.

She seemed to have a mind focused on the engine, which most Captain's would certainly appreciate. Yet being siblings, this Captain seemed to want more from her, confidant and first mate, someone to bounce ideas off of. Samantha just didn't seem all that interested. A wrench in her hand and something to fix, or work on so it won't beed to be fixed.

"Captain. My boyfriend Monte is very good at these strategic and tactical sorts of things. How about we bring him in. He's a good one to figure how to play things, short term and long." Neither of the three of them seemed able to figure a direction.

Monte may not have one to go, but he'd be certain to know the one's to avoid.

'wait. did I just say boyfriend?'
Sonya Gulliver Description
Africa Chamberlain Description
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CaptainNickHunter
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Mudder
Nick rolled his eyes at Samantha’s hurried entry.

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"What's this meeting about? I've got a few crates full of parts I'd like to go work on and install. Still haven't set up my tool bench either, so, as soon as I could get to that, that'd be great."


"You're the mechanic and first officer of this ship. I would like you to act like a first officer and weigh in our situation. Is that so much to ask of a delay before you go tinker with the garbage disposal in the sink?" He shook his head.

"Give me your thoughts, what do you think? Is he worth keeping around?"

Quote:
 
"Captain. My boyfriend Monte is very good at these strategic and tactical sorts of things. How about we bring him in. He's a good one to figure how to play things, short term and long."


Nick nodded, outwardly, and inside shrugged. Boyfriend. Well. That meant something. His charm was wasted. He pressed the comm panel on his desk.

"Monte if you could join us in my cabin, I'd appreciate it." He leaned forward. This was an interesting situation. Definitely more complicated than at first blush.

"In the meantime, what is your assessment? Is he dangerous? Err, rather, is it dangerous?" He was surprised at himself at applying a gender to this robot.
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MacTrom
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Harbormaster
Quote:
 
"Monte if you could join us in my cabin, I'd appreciate it." He leaned forward. This was an interesting situation. Definitely more complicated than at first blush.


Monte looked over at the intercom on the bulkhead and smirked. Then he looked at the suite door that he had positioned himself at, pondered the potential enemy beyond it and shifted the shotgun back onto his shoulder, slinging it. Shuffling his feet momentarily, he headed off to the captain's quarters.

Knocking twice, he opened the door and stepped in. "Aye, as requested. The prisoner... robot? is secure in its cabin. No hostile intent that he ... it has shown so far."



Posted Image
But my heart is not weary, it's light and it's free I've got nothing but affection for all those who sailed with me
Stick with me baby, stick with me anyhow. Things should start to get interestin' right about now

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SamanthaHunter
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Reavers Love Slave
Sam rolled her eyes at what the captain had to say to her. The thing was, mechanic or first officer, Nick was lucky to have her, and when she needed to be each, she would be perfectly capable of switching in and out of the jobs. Sam leaned back, picking dirt out of her nails.

She just sighed as Nick referred to Guild as an it, and as Africa let it slip that Monte was her boyfriend. Good for her, since finding a sweet guy you were willing to give your heart to was not an easy challenge. Sam could use a boyfriend, hell, Sam could use a hook up. Sam didn't even care. That did, of course, sprout the worry of walking into some PDA, but hey, she'd deal with it. She had delt with enough of it in the past years.

"Look, Guild is nothing special, or at least, nothing evil. We know what his plan is, what his primary function is, to protect and serve on the Exodus on their journey from Earth-that-was. So, so long as we do not present any concern or any threat to him, I think we will be absolutely fine. Now, I think we should all be as nice as we can be to the robot, and keep him happy. We do that, he won't be a problem, but the minute we all start acting like hun dan, he's going to get suspicious and feel threatened," Sam explained.

If this thing was dangerous, why would he be placed on a spaceship full of innocent passengers? They wouldn't. Also, it might be nice to have an extra set of hands around the ship, especially hands that never need a break or get tired," Sam then stopped talking and finally shut her mouth.
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Tojoyama
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Cap'n
AFRICA CHAMBERLAIN

Monte was there now. He and Samantha offered their opinions.
While her own instincts not to trust a machination that was designed to look, act, and be perceived as human, or human-like, seem almost blasphemous; she admitted that their logical conclusions did mirror own own.

Her own logical conclusions. She didn't trust the machine, but then wasn't trust a human to human emotion. Machines are not trusted or not trusted. They are relied on, or not.
Africa would have to watch herself as she related to this robot. The deception of its appearance was powerful.

"It does make sense that it would not have been placed on an Ark if it was not reliable. Despite the omission in the data were were able to gather. I think we should present it with the facts and request its programming parameters given them."

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CaptainNickHunter
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Mudder
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"...I think we should present it with the facts and request its programming parameters given them."


Nick nodded. That sounded like a good plan. There wasn’t much else they could do. Still, he worried.

"Okay, so, we tell Guild about the error, offer him departure at Ariel, and all else. What happens if some kind of dangerous programming flips on?"

He turned his head to his sister.

"Sam, I need you to find a way to disable him if something goes wrong. Do you think you can manage?" He stood up and put the pads of his fingers on the wood of his desk.

"Before we approach him, I want an emergency plan in place, in the meantime," he said, crossing the room to the ladder that hung on the wall near the foot of his bed, he placed his boot on the bottom rung.

"In the meantime, I'll accelerate our course to Ariel. Sam, find me when you have a solution. Dismissed."

He climbed the ladder through the hatch onto the bridge. It was one of the elements of Valorous he loved, that one could walk up the staircase to the bridge, or climb up through the ladder hatch to his quarters at the bow. He sat down and pushed the throttle ahead. No sense in wasting time now.
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Tojoyama
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Cap'n
AFRICA CHAMBERLAIN

The Captain headed up to the bridge.

Africa thought briefly about the solution that the Captain had asked for.
"any kind of small EMP device?" she said, thinking aloud. She really had little knowledge of such contrivances. Still, she offered what she could.

She looked between Samantha and Monte, Africa needed to clear her mind, focus on the way: the true way, the Lord's way, her way... their way. Africa moved close to Monte and kissed him.

"I'll be on the cargo deck First Mate." she waited to be dismissed.

Her intention was to go through some martial forms, mediate, and pray. There was much that had happened, she needed to explore the edges and the extremes, find a balance if one existed. Open up to the verse and it's creator. Where was this path taking her? How was her heart and soul to travel it and direct the forks and decisions to come?
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MacTrom
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Harbormaster
Monte accepted the kiss, and stared off into the distance.

"I could rig up an EMP easy enough. What's your thoughts on that? A failsafe? Maybe a collar with a timer... has to be reset every 12 hours from behind? Then, if he did something to the crew, he would be signing his own death." His eyes glaze over as he considers options.


Posted Image
But my heart is not weary, it's light and it's free I've got nothing but affection for all those who sailed with me
Stick with me baby, stick with me anyhow. Things should start to get interestin' right about now

Posted ImagePosted ImagePosted ImagePosted Image

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PMD14
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Lighthouse Keeper

Sitting at the controls of the hulking ship, blackness of the intimidating kind stretching off in all directions, Hunter found himself with a few moments of peace. Time enough, at least, to process just what kind of tomfoolery was happening on board his ship. Guild was clearly a problem, one to be taken cautiously, and there was still precious cargo waiting to be unloaded. All being accounted for, though, the place was fast feeling like home; the people on board, family.

As his mind wandered there came a small beeping from the console. Not a sequence, or even a few beeps. Just the one. Dim, accompanied by a split second flash of light. Then it was gone. The small light that had lit was labelled ‘proximity’, yet no data came up on the consoles of anything in the vicinity of
Valorous. Usually, were that light to ignite, it’d stay on for some time until whatever the ship was coming up on passed them. It had a wide birth… it wasn’t often that something would just skim along the outskirts, especially so quickly.

The Captain sat for a moment, wondering if there had been a beep at all.
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Waelon Blake | Jimmy Chamberlain | Eli Harmon
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CaptainNickHunter
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Mudder
Nick sat staring through the glass as the stars passed by. This was where he was most at ease, most relaxed, alone on the bridge, with only the console, the ship and the stars. It made him feel at home, alone with the rattle-y metal of the bulkheads, with the worn seat cover. Up there alone he felt like the ship was an extension of him, a continuance of his body, like a length beyond his hands, organic.

Yet within his organic body, there was a foreign object, a pathogen. Something unknown and as yet unpredictable. He wasn't yet sure what to do with it, but having it on board gave him an uneasy feeling, a nervousness. He didn't like the thought of it, it made him disquieted. He felt the yolk rumble under his hands for a moment, but he clenched and the tremor passed.

He kicked his feet up on the dash, his holsters bumped against the metal of the seat as he did, his hands behind his head, and contemplated his next move. Something had to be done, and he had just the idea.

A light lit on the console for a moment, a second, a brief flash of orange, the a proximity light. Nick took his feet off the console and looked down. Had there been a beep? Nick visually scanned outside the window into the black and performed a quick area scan.

"...the damnedest thing..." he muttered as he began a local area scan.
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Lighthouse Keeper

CaptainNickHunter
Mar 6 2015, 01:40 AM
"...the damnedest thing..." he muttered as he began a local area scan.
A quick scan of the local area seemed to bring up nothing out of the norm. No odd frequencies, no heat signatures, no registered movement. It was silent and still out there.

The robot... synthetic... cyborg... thing.... had taken the calm command from Sam and seemingly remained in the room she had directed it to. Knowing that he was on board, yet out of sight, gave the mechanic an odd feeling than ran a subtle shiver down her spine. The vessel felt quieter, more empty, once he was locked away.
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SamanthaHunter
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Reavers Love Slave
Sam crouched by the engine, installing one of the new, nonessential parts. She couldn't stop thinking about Guild, why it was here, why they were the ones to recieve him, what he'd do, how he'd do it. She knew in her heart that it was wrong to lock him up, but she understood why that was what the captain ordered. To be fair, they didn't know how safe he'd be, and they didn't know anything about him.

Still, something was eerily wrong with keeping him locked away. Maybe it was her complete care for all things alive and not, or maybe it was just the new adventures, or flying with her brother again, but something seemed off, weird. And she didn't like it.

Either way, she was in charge of keeping this bird in the air. She'd have to do just that, and Sam knew she'd feel better as soon as she could get herself lost in her work. Being lost in her work was the best way to be. She glanced at her clock. Only a few more hours until dinner, and then the ship wouldn't feel so quiet. There would be a lot of noise then.

Sam turned on some music to tone out her mind, as the guitar strings plucked along with a deep voiced singer. She needed to lose herself in his voice. She needed to focus, finish what she was doing, and she had to stop worrying about how quiet and werid the ship felt.
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CaptainNickHunter
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Mudder
The idea of this thing on his ship, unknown and possibly dangerous spooked him. He had to do something. Acknowledging that the sensors read clear, he jumped up, locked in the autopilot, they were still a ways away from Ariel, at least another few days, and he headed down into the cargo bay.

There, he began emptied three of his supply crates of their materials, food, medical supplies, and emergency rations, and made a neat pile by the shuttlebay door, rebolted their lids on, and with much effort, dragged the three empty crates into the airlock. Next, he placed the rivet gun atop the boxes, and moved back to the airlock control panel. He closed the doors to the airlock partway, leaving it just wide enough for a man to slide through on his side. Leaving things just so, Nick turned and headed back up the stairs to Guild's door. He knocked three times.

"Guild, this is the Captain, I've got a job for you. We've got some updated navigation charts in the cargo bay, but I'm not sure which crates they're in. Would you mind going through a couple of boxes with me?"
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MacTrom
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Harbormaster
Monte stood in the stateroom with Africa. He shook his head in confusion.

"This robot thing. What do you think it means? Is it possible someone slipped it in while we were loading? I'm sure I had a clear view of everything coming on board. My job, you know. Security. If someone could get a crate that size on board, who knows what else could have been stashed. We could be sitting on a bomb. Intruders. It just doesnt make sense to me."

He was obviously struggling with the situation, and looking for Africa to convince him he hadn't made some grave mistake.



Posted Image
But my heart is not weary, it's light and it's free I've got nothing but affection for all those who sailed with me
Stick with me baby, stick with me anyhow. Things should start to get interestin' right about now

Posted ImagePosted ImagePosted ImagePosted Image

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Lighthouse Keeper

CaptainNickHunter
Mar 7 2015, 01:00 AM
"Guild, this is the Captain, I've got a job for you. We've got some updated navigation charts in the cargo bay, but I'm not sure which crates they're in. Would you mind going through a couple of boxes with me?"
The synthetic came forth, standing unsettlingly close to the Captain, and calmly looked up and down the narrow hall as if expecting someone else to be present. Once he seemed to process that they were alone, the 'man' took a long pause and started straight at the captain, eyes blinking once as his face showed absolutely no signs of expression. After a moment: "Yes, sir. Of course. I'll serve as I can." His voice was calm, quiet, and just formal enough for one to guess that maybe it was electronic.

He motioned down the hal, toward the bay, politely nodding his head. "After you, Captain Hunter."
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CaptainNickHunter
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Mudder
Down the steps to the cargo hold they went and arrived at the inner airlock door.

"Right on in there, if you please," Nick said, sweeping, his arm grandiosely as he pointed through the gap in the inner airlock doors.

"In there, you'll find the rivet gun and some crates. I'm not sure which one the updated maps are in, but each box has thirty or forty rivets to remove to open it." He stood back as Guild entered the airlock between the closed doors.

"I'm going to make a cargo manifest while you do that. Give a shout when you find them!" He said cheerfully. He moved to the airlock control panel and picked up a scratched clipboard.
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CaptainNickHunter
Mar 9 2015, 01:44 AM
"In there, you'll find the rivet gun and some crates. I'm not sure which one the updated maps are in, but each box has thirty or forty rivets to remove to open it." He stood back as Guild entered the airlock between the closed doors.

"I'm going to make a cargo manifest while you do that. Give a shout when you find them!"
Guild nodded and agreed to the work, as if it were nothing but the daily grind for him, and started about sifting through the crates. Once he had moved beyond the airlock doors, the noise of his shuffling and even the rivet gun seemed to be quietened.

As Nick moved away to the controls and began working over them, a strange feeling came over him. The type of shiver or intuition one gets when they are being watched. He turned slowly to find Guild back within the ship, only moments after he'd entered the airlock. He was only a dozen or so feet away, crouched down and mulling over a small crate, as if trying to figure out how to open it.

The crate.

The one they'd taken on board days earlier. The cargo they were tasked to deliver.

As the Captain turned, Guild looked up to him. He stared at the man, eyes cold and glistening with artificial light. A short moment passed.

"Captain? Is this one not to be sorted through, too?"
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CaptainNickHunter
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Mudder
Nick turned about quickly to see Guild there, standing above the crate of cargo they were transporting to Ariel. He froze for a moment, his eyes staring at the machine, so humanlike and yet so alien.

Quote:
 
"Captain? Is this one not to be sorted through, too?"


Nick nodded to himself. He had to play it cool. He affixed a smile to his face and shook his head. When he spoke, it was polite and clear, authoritative, captain-like, assertive and yet still friendly.

"No, Guild, that isn't. Those are some private belongings of mine. Please do not open that crate. The navigational charts are in one of those three."

He pointed back through the narrow opening between the airlock doors.

"Please open those boxes and find the charts, as efficiently as you can, please."

It wasn't a request. It was an order. Hopefully the computer before him could obey a simple command.
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The synthetic eyed the Captain, almost looking like a confused animal, before release its grip on the rate and slowly rising to his feet. He started, unblinking, as if fully processing the situation.
Captain Hunter
 
"No, Guild, that isn't. Those are some private belongings of mine. Please do not open that crate. The navigational charts are in one of those three."
He looked from Nick to the crate, then to the gap in the cargo doors. Back to the Captain.

Guild nodded. Guild smiled.

"Yes, Captain. Understood." He took one more glance down at the crate at his feet before he moved. When he did, however, it wasn't toward the open door...



Throughout the ship, the peace of the engine room, which Sam had been enjoying, and the conversation between Monte and Africa was suddenly torn apart, interrupted by a loud crashing from the cargo bay that echoed throughout the vessel as Captain Hunter was tackled, full force, into a pile of crates on one side of the room.
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Mudder
Nick scrambled out from under Guild, and around the boxes. The robot was a tad bit lighter than a normal man, leaner, likely added to his speed. Nick retreated back some distance, wheezed, the breath knocked from his lungs. He wiped a trail of blood from under his nose and shook his head. He squared his stance. The blood was pounding in his ears then. All of the sympathy he had for the robot he was mercilessly killing evaporated in that moment.

Guild was doing the same across the cargo bay, preparing to make a run at him again. Nick drew his revolver from his left holster and took aim.

For a second, a doubt crossed his mind. Was a robot's central processing unit in it's head like a person? Did it matter? He didn't have time to think, he was coming towards him now, closer. Nick took aim at those shimmery weird, uncannily human eyes, and pulled the trigger.

The flash from the end of his revolver shattered the stillness of the air four times. CRACK, CRACK, CRACK, CRACK, the sound igniting something in him long thought buried. Like the spark of violence caught the keg of gunpowder sealed and forgotten for years. He smiled for a moment as he did it, his hands unshaking, his eyes unblinking. He stared down the barrel of his gun and prepared to return fire. He was back.
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