Starside

[Reinholdt]

[Dyson Sphere]

Reinholdt remains on rear guard alert. Two people trying to peer into the same shaft just makes things crowded and difficult. Though he'll probably try to find out what that shadow is eventually.

[Recaiden]

[Pirate Base]

Does she have a few pre-set sizes to change into, or are those just familiar heights?
Anyway, one of the three pirate-bugs collapses from the magic missiles crashing into them. Maybe they're not that tough, maybe it was just a bad day for him. Chevin jumps over the edge, slowly falling down towards one of the remaining pirates. The third one shoots hir point-blank with his own laser pistol.
At which point the laser bounces off, striking the pirate in one of his off-arms, eliciting a pained screech.

[Lost in Space]

"Space is mostly empty. I don't know how your quantum drives work, but I'd bet expect exiting at random would almost always put you in the middle of nowhere," supposes the captain.
The not-quite-human woman looks over to keep an eye on Simon. She's just waiting at the moment anyway. Her name is evidently 'Anais'.
"Those holes in your head do anything, or just look pretty?"
"You'll want to head through the starboard hatch, up the ladder, and to the back. There's space for passengers there. I'm going over along with Russel to arrange the collection of prisoners. You had reasons to avoid killing them all, and some of those reasons still stand. We need some way to contain or dispose of the nanites, and if the Griolan really has learned his lesson..." Shrugging in a helpless manner, the captain heads into the airlock to cross over to the prison ship, just the reverse of what Simon did.

[Earl of Purple]

Lost in Space

"All planetary bodies have gravitic fields. The permutations of that gravity is magnified in the quantum reality of the quantum drive, meaning when we return to realspace any nearby gravity- or the recent passage of nearby gravity- will pull the gate to the heart of the gravity field. Utilising the quantum drive to move a ship from one reality should never happen within a solar system." Which probably makes no sense to anyone with a better understanding of physics than I do.

Simon reaches up and taps one of the plugs in his head. "This one interfaces with my sensory system, allowing me to plug into various systems to use technological aids. Scopes, helmets, ship cameras, anything with wetware compatibility. This one is for limbs. Arms, mostly, but together they enable me to pilot a powered frame or exo-suit." He doesn't really understand how it all works, because unlike the quantum drive, powered frames and exo-suits are primarily military technology and the operation is therefore secret. Simon then does as he's bid, heading to passenger's quarters.

There's a small guard station just inside the airlock. Presumably where Simon was stationed, and hence how he was able to survive when nobody else did. The guard station has a gene-locked weapons locker, though currently it's empty- the Xinclex can change its DNA, and Professor Montgomery could simply hijack somebody whose DNA is on file. There's actually a small screen, despite what Simon said, but it's self-contained and has a memory stick-like device plugged into its only port; currently it's paused, part way through a historical drama about the first Martian colony.

Beyond that small room is the prisoner's quarters. There's twenty cells, though only five are active, with shimmering force-fields projected over their opening. The five are bunched near the airlock, and are watching the newcomers intently. Professor Montgomery's personality (and nanite swarm) resides in a young woman in her mid twenties, wearing an orange jumpsuit. She has thick, curly black hair, pale skin and deep blue eyes; she's pretty, but it's quite a planned pretty- whoever she was, she's had plastic surgery, or perhaps her genes were tweaked before she was born.
Opposite is Maroon, a pallid, slimy-looking squid-like creature with two large, pure black eyes and a large number of tentacles dangling beneath; Maroon floats, its slowly-pulsing mantle filled with lighter-than-air gasses. A metallic grill is set beneath Maroon's eyes.
Next to Maroon is Duke Albert, a dapper man apparently in his seventies, with sun-tanned skin, green eyes and long grey dreadlocks; rather than a jumpsuit, he wears a posh, rather archaic red velvet coat and matching pantaloons, with shiny brass buckles on black imitation-leather shoes.
Opposite the Duke (and therefore next to Professor Monty) is Professor Niarlo, standing three and a half metres tall, he stoops to avoid hitting the ceiling. His four arms are long and thin, with six fingers, including a thumb. There's a thumb on his feet, too, furthest from his big toe, and he wears an orange one-piece sleeveless garment. His skin is a dark red, his large head completely hairless and dominated by a pair of large purple eyes. Standing outside his cell is a Griolan grav-frame, a bare-bones powered frame that straps to his limbs to help support his weight and boost his strength, counteracting the debilitating effect of human-standard gravity on a creature adapted to far less.
Next to Professor Niarlo is Holy Oglokogokogok, with a bulky, squat frame supported by four stout legs each ending in a pair of heavy hooves. An additional pair of limbs, located in the middle of the Thaotan's body, serve as arms, ending in four-fingered hands; the two middle fingers, partially adapted into hooves, are thick and strong, whilst the outer ones serve as a pair of thumbs. Its skin is dull green, covered in small scales and tufts of yellow fur, and wearing an orange robe-like garment. Holy Oglokogokogok's head is wide, flat, and vaguely crocodilian, though the teeth are varied like a mammal's and the small, red eyes are located just beneath the jaw; and the head rises from a central pillar of flesh, rather than residing at one end.

The cells are bare, consisting solely of a human-scale bed, toilet and privacy screen, with a small handheld tablet computer for personal entertainment- except Maroon doesn't use any of it, and so its cell looks like it hasn't been used; Monty isn't trusted with a tablet, even one without wifi, and has a stack of real books printed on paper; and Oglok has ripped all the bedding off its bunk to create a crude-looking nest.

[Recaiden]

Even so, the explanation goes right over the Captain's head. Perhaps the pilot or engineer understood it.
"Oh, yeah, pretty lucky."

The location of the passenger quarters are as advertised, although Simon can easily tell that they don't get a lot of use. The place is dusty and barely furnished, with plain rough cloth furniture and unfinished flooring. But it beats dying in a prison break.

Russel squirms into the prison quarter first, in case of ambush. Since there isn't one, Bloom comes in behind it.

How easy is it to dump an individual prison cell into space? It doesn't look like that's a built-in feature, simply that if the place lost power they'd all eventually die. However, if it's pretty straightforward, Holy Oglokogokogok gets to die immediately. No talking, no hesitation - okay, a moment of hesitation - and then whoosh! Press the button or throw the switch and let him suffocate/explode/freeze/whatever it is that kills his species first in outer space. Managing that, the captain would laugh nervously for a moment.

Regardless of whether that's possible, she'll move on to the Duke.
"I hear your people can survive in a vacuum for quite a while. Given that, I think we're just going to tie you to the outside of the ship until it's time to land. Sound good?" If he answers affirmatively, Bloom will start bringing down his force-field. Russel stands ready to bite his arms off if he tries anything untoward.

[bc56]

Dyson Sphere

The shaft is pretty deep. Not so far that you can't see the bottom, but deep enough that falling would cause serious injury. The vines might be climbable, if you have a good grip.

[Felandria]

[Pirate Base]

Does she have a few pre-set sizes to change into, or are those just familiar heights?
Anyway, one of the three pirate-bugs collapses from the magic missiles crashing into them. Maybe they're not that tough, maybe it was just a bad day for him. Chevin jumps over the edge, slowly falling down towards one of the remaining pirates. The third one shoots hir point-blank with his own laser pistol.
At which point the laser bounces off, striking the pirate in one of his off-arms, eliciting a pained screech.

Felandria follows Chevin off the edge and fires another Magic Missile at the other buggy.

Fortunately for that one pirate, there should be a spare hook around here somewhere.

[Recaiden]

[Dyson Sphere]

Yone laments that she still hasn't figured out how to fly. It's such an embarrassment, and it really does get in her way at times like this.
But that's fine, it's all fine. She conjures up a length of chain and hooks it to the ceiling, with which she can slide down to the bottom of the shaft (along with the cadets, who also have not displayed any ability to hover) at a safe speed.

[Pirate Base]

A second burst of magic missiles brings down the other buggy.
Chevin punches the burnt-pirate in the mandibles, and he collapses with a crunch.
"You think he's going to work his way up to, say, captain and become a recurring villain?"
Shi asks, before heading across the break room towards a single flight of stairs that lead down and deeper into the crater wall.
"Next on the agenda is springing the prisoners; they should be this way."

Felandria might hear footsteps of more pirates hurrying towards the commotion from more-or-less behind them, a door that comes out underneath the stairwell.

[Reinholdt]

[Dyson Sphere]

It's easy Yone! All you need to do is have a genetic mishap with the denizens of an enchanted forest. And survive. That last part can be tricky. Bring a friend.

Rein figures it'll take a little while for Yone and the cadets climb down safely, so Reinholdt sneaks into the shaft and floats up to investigate the shadow flitting across the light. Have to check these things. Might be the probe after all, stuck on a ceiling fan.

[bc56]

Dyson Sphere

As Reinholdt floats toward the shadow, he may be able to see that it is not unlike a bird in shape. It doesn't seem to notice him yet, he's too far away.

Yone and the cadets are able to safely climb partway down the shaft.

[Recaiden]

Is there something stopping them from going all the way down the shaft? Because that's where she's going to go.

[Earl of Purple]

Lost in Space

It's pretty easy, and Holy Oglokogokogok is flushed into space. The forcefield is apparently voidproof- at least, voidproof enough to watch the Thaotan drift off and wave his limbs desperately. He's well insulated; his homeworld's pretty cold, but he's used to quite a lot of air due to the heavier gravity and he's quick to suffocate.

"That's good for me. Well, I suppose. How long are you planning on keeping me out there? A year, two? Ten? And how about FTL travel? Will I be safe outside when you use your quantum drive, or some alternative?" The Duke doesn't want to get shredded by warped space/time, however the warp is produced.

[Recaiden]

The captain hadn't killed anyone in cold blood before. It was surprisingly easy. She had expected to be guilty, conflicted. Well. Guess Oglok did have it coming. "No, no. More like a month? If you're as hard to kill as I hear you are, Jumping with you outside the hull won't hurt. You might get a few new holes punched in you, but that's not a big deal. ... If that is a big deal, speak up. We do want to return you alive." Thus, the Duke can be escorted through the prison and exit with Russel, so he can be chained to one of the folded spars on the stern of the ship.

[Earl of Purple]

Lost in Space

"A month's fine. More than fine. Easy peasy. Holes I can live with, too. Unless they're holes in space-time. You have no idea how hard it is to think when your brain is scattered throughout a body possessing multiple time zones. Or when your left splanch is telling you it's so far away it's on the right, that gets weird quick, and makes me feel distinctly uncomfortable." It's hard to tell how serious he's being, though their decentralised nervous system is one of the things preventing easy execution, so the bit about it scattered throughout his body is probably true.

[Recaiden]

"I don't think the Engine works that way. No holes in space. You're a tough people, huh?" Not that they know what a splanch is; it might well get lost. "Enjoy the trip." He really doesn't seem worth killing, but she'd like him to talk less. Seems like he's up to something. She'll get him outside and secured as soon as she can.

[Felandria]

[Pirate Base]

A second burst of magic missiles brings down the other buggy.
Chevin punches the burnt-pirate in the mandibles, and he collapses with a crunch.
"You think he's going to work his way up to, say, captain and become a recurring villain?"
Shi asks, before heading across the break room towards a single flight of stairs that lead down and deeper into the crater wall.
"Next on the agenda is springing the prisoners; they should be this way."

Felandria might hear footsteps of more pirates hurrying towards the commotion from more-or-less behind them, a door that comes out underneath the stairwell.

Yeah, but he won’t show back up for a while, cause then it’ll be a surprise.

Fel follows Chevin towards the stairs, looking behind her so she can see the bad guys coming.

[Reinholdt]

[Dyson Sphere]

Oooh, a bird? He's not the biggest fan, but if Reinholdt catches and kills it, he can bring it to Yone as a gift. She'll be hella impressed with him then. Reinholdt flies closer to get in there to see what's what and plan his method of attack.

[bc56]

Dyson Sphere

As Reinholdt approaches the bird, it spots him and shrieks, diving at him. Its plumage is white, and its grey beak is shot through with veins of purple. It's cries alert two similar birds higher up in the shaft, and they too dive toward the cat.

Yone and the cadets are now about 2/3 of the way down the shaft.

[Recaiden]

[Dyson Sphere]

Oh, that's what took them so long. They'd gotten ahead of Reinholdt's narrative.
Alas, there's nothing (safe) to do to help him now. They're better off continuing to the bottom rather than trying to deal with angry birds while suspended perilously in midair.
Good luck up there, Rein.

Imagine how impressive getting all three birds will be, though.

[Pirate Base]

Chevin will like that. Shi hasn't had anything like a nemesis since that little witch woman disappeared in Skyside.
Watching behind them, Felandria will see a pair of bad guys entering the break room where the wounded pirates are, and a cleaning robot whirring across the floor, oblivious to the chaos. Looks like they're clear for the moment.

Down the stairs, in front of the vault-like prison door, Chevin is standing with a nervous smile on hir face.
"Seems I left my cut-anything knife at home. Anything you can do to open this quick? Without bringing the whole place down on us?"

[Earl of Purple]

Lost in Space

Before he leaves his cell, he changes. Thick scales erupt from across his body, even the clothes- they weren't real, just part of his disguise. His eyes are visible behind scales just as thick as the rest, but simply transparent; they also don't change. He walks out the cell, possibly before the force-field is turned off; the shocking energy simply dissipating and streaming around his thick scales. "Shapeshifting comes with some advantages. The ability to rearrange internal organs is just one of them."

Nobody really knows what a splanch is; I only know it as an organ possessed by many aliens in the multiverse of Irregular Webcomic!.

[Recaiden]

Well, that certainly shows something. Walking out of his cell like the field isn't even there. I suppose prison was just going to be an unusual vacation to him, with an escape once that became as boring as participating in the aristocracy. "I can imagine; we work with a shapeshifter pretty regularly, actually. Reaching tall shelves, talking to spiders...it must be great. But now, why did you even bother staying in prison?"
Does he need a reason?
Bloom and Russel will try to escort him down the hallway, past the documentary, and out the airlock, where Russel can tie him (not that it would hold him if wanted to detach himself) securely to the ship. They can presume based on his questions that he at least doesn't want to be marooned in the depths of space.

[Earl of Purple]

Lost in Space

"Where would I go? I leave the cell, somebody reports it to the captain, the captain reports it to his boss, and the next thing you know the ship's been invaded by a battalion of war-robots with search-and-destroy orders for anything with DNA. I can't rewrite my DNA to something that doesn't have DNA, and they'd dismantle the ship looking for me. The only way to avoid that is to either jump ship before the robots arrive or replace the captain so he doesn't tell anyone who might get worried enough about me meddling in their politics to send war-robots." He'll aid in the endeavour to be tied to the ship, even growing micro-hooks (like on a gecko's foot) on all surfaces touching the ship to ensure a firm grip.

Of course he doesn't want to be marooned in space. Space will kill him, eventually. And until it does, it'd be very boring.

[Recaiden]

So there is a way to kill him off. Supposedly. The captain shrugs. Jumping ship before the robots arrive seems like the obvious move to her. But it's the Duke who's the master criminal, and he's discarding the possibility out of hand.

Back in the prison ship, the captain approaches Professor Niarlo's cell.
"A few questions, professor. Did you sabotage this ship? Why did you commit the crime you were imprisoned for? You see, you aren't exactly our problem, but it might be quite irresponsible to handle you carelessly."

[Earl of Purple]

Lost in Space

The main problem is, jump ship to where? The one the robots came from? Space is big, and he can't guarantee a pick up before space kills him.

"No, I didn't sabotage the ship. I didn't need to. Some of my students are waiting in the vessel's projected path with a device to pull craft like this from the quantum realm before they are ready. They would have rescued me and Maroon. The Duke, too. We couldn't have stopped him coming along, and the Xinclex are handy. Gene-engineered assassins that rebelled and wiped out their creators. I found a partial record of their creator's visit to Lost Griola, and I'm pretty sure it mentions Xinclex. The human we'd have killed. They can't figure it out, but I did. The Thaotan you killed... I'm not sure about. I didn't commit the crime I was sentenced to. I did, but I didn't intend to. I was going to blow up the moon that the humans were mining. We're an armed pacifist society, and the humans' wanted our weaponry to reverse engineer it and make it theirs. I'd have killed hundreds to save billions. Human history has more blood in it than ours did before we destroyed Lost Griola. I thought I'd reprogrammed the targeting array. I didn't want to kill three million Griolans, a hundred and fifteen Thaotan and fifty three humans. And I think the Xinclex ambassador isn't the same one as before, but it's hard to tell. The scary thing is, we've upgraded our forcefield technology since that missile was built. The only people in known space whose weapons are powerful enough to puncture our shields are us, it seems. Even though we haven't developed any new weaponry in five thousand years, and forcefields are always getting tweaked." The hull of one of their latest space stations is actually crafted from force fields, making it a very disconcerting place to visit. Professor Niarlo's voice is high-pitched and sounds like whistles. He waves his hands as he speaks, sometimes balancing on one leg to motion with a foot as well.

[Reinholdt]

[Dyson Sphere]

He'll have to keep imagining. There wasn't supposed to be three and they're way more aggressive than Reinholdt is. Definitely no probes up here. Whatever the plan was, it's no longer on the table.

The plan is now to fall. Just stop flying and fall. He doesn't plan on hitting the bottom, intending to start flying again near the last second. But even if that fails, supposedly cats always land on their feet. Might land on a cadet by accident though. Still, falling is fast and that's the best way to avoid crazy diving bird creatures.

[bc56]

Dyson Sphere

Reinholdt falls. The birds keep pace, but are no longer gaining on him as he plummets toward the ground. In the meantime, Yone and the cadets have made it to the ground. Cadet Friin is readying hair rifle, but he can't get a clear shot at the birds.

[Felandria]

[Pirate Base]

Chevin will like that. Shi hasn't had anything like a nemesis since that little witch woman disappeared in Skyside.
Watching behind them, Felandria will see a pair of bad guys entering the break room where the wounded pirates are, and a cleaning robot whirring across the floor, oblivious to the chaos. Looks like they're clear for the moment.

Down the stairs, in front of the vault-like prison door, Chevin is standing with a nervous smile on hir face.
"Seems I left my cut-anything knife at home. Anything you can do to open this quick? Without bringing the whole place down on us?"

Felandria casts a Knock spell which should hopefully open the door, unless these pirates know magic.

[Recaiden]

[Dyson Sphere]

The obvious thing to do is to take the multi-barrelled alien gun and try to pick off one of the birds.
Which is obviously a terrible idea since Reinholdt is in the way and besides, she has no idea how it shoots.

Instead Yone materializes a net, and as soon as Rein has fallen far enough, tosses it up past him so as to entangle and catch one of the birds.

[Lost in Space]

See, the Duke could have been like the professor, and had a getaway ship ready after jumping this one.

Bloom notes with some surprise that the casualty count means there are only a few million Griolans left. And with near-impenetrable shields, it's probably a good thing for the rest of that world that they are pacifists. Sadly, the nuances of the Griolan's gestures are lost on the captain.
"Given what we know about humans, you probably ended up killing millions to save billions. And your own courts didn't want you to die, so it looks like we're springing you from your prison. Although you did destroy your homeworld yourselves, as Griolans, didn't you? That's a remarkable lack of caution. But before any of that, tell me why you would rescue Maroon?" She glances across the hall at the child-murdering cyber-squid.

[Pirate Base]

If they do know magic, it isn't very strong, and the door clicks open and rolls back into its slot in the wall (hinges would be far too much of a weakness). The prison is dismal and dark and primitive, carved right into the moon-rock. Very clean though. Don't want to store your delicious prisoners in unsanitary conditions.

The prison branches out to five different hallways, each with a hatch down to a cell underneath. But before they deal with that, there's the matter of the pirate jailer, a particularly fierce-looking bug alien with one eye covered by an eye-patch and a ring of keys hooked to his suit. Just now he's turning to look at the door, thinking that besides him only the captain has access to the jail, and this must be a delivery of new prisoners or some such thing. Imagine his surprise!

[Earl of Purple]

Lost in Space

Professor Niarlo has a circle of colleagues, acquaintances and students who know his true motivation and are willing to support him. The Duke of New Kent had a group of aristocratic friends, political flunkies and loyal servants... But none of them knew he was a Xinclex, and all are unwilling to associate with the entity accused of murdering him and taking his place- even if they never actually knew the real Duke.

"Millions to save tens of billions. Our population was still recovering, and now I've given us a new disaster to recover from. I'd save Maroon for several reasons. One, its natural flotation is fascinating and I wish to study it. Secondly, its ability to float would be severely curtailed on a high-gravity world, and it would suffer from it. Third, I do not recognise the craftsmanship of its cybernetic, yet do not believe it was crafted by Maroon's own kind. I believe Maroon's species would have difficulty developing fire, and all dependent technology, such as metallurgy." Technically, a child-eating cybersquid. "It was not a lack of caution. It was a mixture of two things- an inability by our leaders to believe just how potent our weaponry was, and a long-standing feud between the two most powerful continents. My government will not kill me because we did not kill even the military raiders who sought to seize by force what others needed to survive."

[Recaiden]

Simon never specified what Maroon was doing with the children's corpses.

"You are curious to a fault, I see. But that is your problem. Come on out and get strapped into your frame."

No sympathy for the people he killed, only looking forward to how the tragedy can be used. No concern for Maroon's victims, only for Maroon suffering in confinement. Really no observable remorse or regret or concern about the past at all. It seems like madness to her. But he won't reoffend.

Once Russel returns from securing the Duke, Bloom lowers the force-field to Niarlo's cell.

[Earl of Purple]

Lost in Space

Maroon has seven counts of 'desecrating a corpse', combined with 'hunting human children'; was intended to suggest Maroon was eating them.

Professor Niarlo climbs into his frame and straps himself in. The brief moment he's outside his cell's lower gravity and before he's properly wearing his frame seem very uncomfortable for the lanky alien. Once he's appropriately attired for the human-standard gravity well, he stretches and paces briefly to reacquaint himself with the device. It includes gloves and boots, providing extra power to his fingers and toes so he can better hold small things. He doesn't need a space-suit for the short distance between the two vessels; he can hold his breath for fifteen minutes, the lack of gravity is more comfortable than one g, and his prison uniform has internal heating elements to prevent him from freezing.