Starside

[Recaiden]

[Lost in Space]

"We're quite close by, and receiving the transponder. We should be able to get you out before you lose gravity. Do you have suits or mobile forcefields to allow you to exit the airlock?" The lieutenant might not, since that seems like an obvious risk to keep near the prisoners, but then, he's over there for some reason.

"You said the ship was sabotaged, and there's visible damage to the bridge. We'll need to check for any further dangers before approaching." And it sounds like there's no gravity in the other sections of the ship, which complicates things. "In the mean-time, elaborate on the prisoners." The rescuer ship stirs itself into motion, slowly circling the prison shuttle and taking a closer look at it, especially the blown-out bridge.
Are there any signs of life from those three black-suited figures? They can't have been blown too far away yet.

[Earl of Purple]

Lost in Space

"My armour suit is insulated, but lacks heating. It's also sealed and has mag-boots. It is designed for use in poisonous atmospheres or zero gravity, though it's also rated for short periods of void-work. I'll be fine for ten minutes, maybe more, but after that I'll get a bit chilly. Do you not have a docking-tube?" Because space is cold. Which is one reason why the other three bodies are dead, another being that they didn't have their oxygen masks on and suffocated. They wasn't any warning before they were spaced.

"Five prisoners only. Professor Montgomery Xi, nanorobotics pioneer. Four counts kidnap, slavery, murder. He's been executed twice. It seems he's programmed a nanite swarm to hack into human brains and copy his personality and knowledge over, but details are unknown. The charges are the best the government could do in a hurry. Professor Niarlo Wobobombom, astro-archaeologist. Three counts cultural desecration, one count genocide. He's a male-stage Griolan. He was excavating the asteroid belt that was their home planet when he deliberately restored and activated a planet-to-space missile and launched it at their largest space station, killing approximately sixty per cent of his species. His government refuses to recognise the death penalty, citing 'lessons learnt'. An individual of unknown species and gender going by 'Maroon'. It appeared on the world Cymru Newydd, hunting human children; eight counts murder, seven counts desecrating a corpse. Communicates using a cybernetic device. Execution denied by executive order; the Council don't want to risk war with a species we haven't had diplomatic encounters with yet. Holy Oglokogokogok, a priest-caste Thaotan. Two counts murder, three counts treason, eight counts inciting racial hatred. Tried to spark a holy war between the Human Alliance and the Thaotan Theocracy, then when that failed tried to assassinate the Theocrat so it could force the issue in the election for a replacement. The Theocrat handed it to us, because killing a priest-caste Thaotan is seen as... Not bad luck, exactly, but as an action that would cause divine retribution. Finally, an unknown Xinclex shapeshifter. One count murder, one count desecrating a corpse, one count treason, twelve counts fraud. Killed and replaced Lord Albert Windsor, Duke of New Kent. Only discovered when it failed a genetic test after raising suspicions in the planetary council. The real Duke's bones were discovered in an attic; he'd been dead, apparently, for ten years. Hasn't answered any questions since discovery. Execution impossible, due to a decentralised nervous system and the Xinclex government won't tell us how to kill them."

Griolans destroyed their own homeworld in an apocalyptic war ten thousand years ago; the only survivors were various scientific missions in orbital stations. They're tall and slender from the low gravity of their adopted home, with four arms and manipulator digits on all six limbs. The Thaotan are a caste-based species from a high-gravity world; they also have six limbs, but four are legs. The priests are also the scientist caste, as they're the smartest. Other castes are, in order of decreasing intelligence, builders, farmers, warriors and reproducers. The Xinclex are an isolationist species (although incidents like the one with the Duke cause some suspicions there) from a world of small islands and shallow seas.

[Reinholdt]

[Dyson Sphere]

"Well if we find a cloned monkey version of you on the way back, I'll guess we'll know then." Rein says, taking up firing position.

[Felandria]

[Dark Side of the Moon]

Eventually, the vast crater that they're headed towards comes into view. A few thousand feet deep at the center, and appropriately broad, the pirate hideout is dug into the slopes on the right-hand side, where the glittering lights of the docks and shuttles can be seen. Chevin starts skirting around to the side; they'll want to drop right down on the pirates. Meanwhile, one can clearly see the dark shape of the pirate ship interrupting the stars as it sweeps down to land at its base.

Okay, so once the ship goes down there, we jump?

Or do we go take whoever’s down there out first and ambush them?

[Recaiden]

[Lost in Space]

"No docking tube, no. We only recently got the airlocks. But don't worry. You'll only be outside for moments."
The rescue ship sweeps by the frozen crew, the lower airlock cycles, and a vast skeletal hand reaches out to collect the corpses. They can at least bring them back for some vaguely appropriate Human-Aligned Space style funeral.
The green voice is silent for a while, particularly horrified by several of those crimes. Meanwhile, the Mote gets into position to pick up someone from near the radio-marker.
"We're in position outside the prison block airlock. I'd like to speak with Maroon and the Xinclex, if you can arrange that. If not we'll handle it after picking you up."

[Dark Side of the Moon]

"We won't beat the ship there." Chevin says matter-of-factly. "We jump down right after it lands, while they're distracted unloading and celebrating. Ready?" Shi heads over to the lip of the crater.

[bc56]

Dyson Sphere

The door opens, revealing a short hallway which goes into a T-intersection a short distance away.

[Recaiden]

[Dyson Sphere]

"Their loss if they try."
Yone never did make a good monkey.

She creeps down the hallway and peeks around the corner to the left and then the right.

[Felandria]

[Dark Side of the Moon]

"We won't beat the ship there." Chevin says matter-of-factly. "We jump down right after it lands, while they're distracted unloading and celebrating. Ready?" Shi heads over to the lip of the crater.

Yeah!

You think I should land full size?

[Earl of Purple]

Lost in Space

... Now Simon is wondering what exactly is picking him up. Every vessel he's ever seen has had a docking tube, so people can travel from one ship to another without having to worry about drifting away to die a slow, lonely death. Even if the tubes themselves vary from the Griolan forcefields to the titanium struts and embroidered linen of Thaotan vessels, and every possible point in between. And 'only recently got the airlock'? What kind of spacecraft doesn't have one of those?

"I can for the Xinclex. Not Maroon. Maroon appears to communicate amongst its own kind using a visual language. Its cybernetic device translates its colours and arm-movements into English, and presumably somehow converts English into a format Maroon can understand, by lipreading we think. It's never answered a question from a speaker it couldn't see. I don't have any screens you can transmit to, I'm afraid. Not even one showing a view from outside the vessel." It's called Maroon because that's the colour it flashed when asked what its name was.

[Reinholdt]

[Dyson Sphere]

"Should have brought breadcrumbs." No wonder the probes are lost. Reinholdt advances slowly down the hallway with his back turned so that he can watch where they came from, expecting Yone to yell if something's wrong up ahead. Or he accidentally startles her by bumping into her as he walks backwards.

[Recaiden]

[Lost in Space]

This vessel may not have, strictly speaking, have been meant to travel through outer space. Or to travel at all.
"Put the Xinclex on. Radio-audio only will do, especially for a shapechanger." Looking at it wouldn't necessarily tell you much, after all.
Meanwhile the Mote creeps over to the airlock to at least minimize the distance one will have to travel across the void.

[Dark Side of the Moon]

Chevin shrugs. Subtlety can only take them so far.
Shi gives Fel some space, and then hops over the rim of the crater...
...
...
Crashing heavily down onto the roof of the pirate base. Thankfully shi doesn't break through it.
Up on the roof there's a telescope and radio dish for looking at the sky, a pair of big laser cannons for defending the place should it be necessary, and an airlocked ladder to get inside.
Across the roof there's a drop down to the landing pad where the treasure-laden pirate space-ship sits. There's no air to carry the sound of the landing over to them, but some were looking this way - Chevin is shiny enough to be hard to miss - and a couple space-suited pirates are pointing up at the roof and exclaiming over it.

[bc56]

Dyson Sphere

Around the left, the passage continues for some distance. To the right, the passage also continues, but there is an open door only a few feet down it, to the right. The ground and walls here are covered in vegetation like in the entry passage.

Reinholdt doesn't see any sign of hostility from behind.

[Recaiden]

[Dyson Sphere]

"Heading to my right - there's another overgrown door that- ah! Watch where you're...going...just be careful." Yone amends her instructions as she looks back and sees that Rein is covering their backs. That makes sense, even if he did run into her tail. Hard to be mad.
She peeks through the open door. Open doors are promising.

[Felandria]

[Dark Side of the Moon]

Chevin shrugs. Subtlety can only take them so far.
Shi gives Fel some space, and then hops over the rim of the crater...
...
...
Crashing heavily down onto the roof of the pirate base. Thankfully shi doesn't break through it.
Up on the roof there's a telescope and radio dish for looking at the sky, a pair of big laser cannons for defending the place should it be necessary, and an airlocked ladder to get inside.
Across the roof there's a drop down to the landing pad where the treasure-laden pirate space-ship sits. There's no air to carry the sound of the landing over to them, but some were looking this way - Chevin is shiny enough to be hard to miss - and a couple space-suited pirates are pointing up at the roof and exclaiming over it.

Felandria practically floats down after Chevin, growing a little bigger in order to have enough weight to fall.

As she does, she will try to aim for the same spot Chevin landed, though if trouble occurs before then, she will grow back to her regular size and land on aforementioned trouble.

[Earl of Purple]

Lost in Space

There's a clear plastic-and-aluminium docking tube on the airlock of the crew compartment, but not the prisoner's section. Mote could come back and salvage it later, if they're still looking for parts.

There's a snap and hiss before a new voice starts speaking over the radio. "Hello? Is this thing on? I'm never entirely sure without a screen to watch. I am Lord Albert, Duke of New Kent. Can I help you?" Simon's voice is faint, but can be heard protesting the Xinclex' choice of introduction.

[Reinholdt]

[Dyson Sphere]

"Ah. Oh. Sorry." Reinholdt floats up a little. It's easier to float backwards than to walk anyways and he's much less likely to run into things or people with the better control. Plus it keeps him off the ground so he doesn't get stuck in any vegetation like that one passage.

[bc56]

Dyson Sphere

The open door leads to a deep shaft. Bright light filters down from above, and the vines continue along its walls the entire distance. Periodically, some sort of shadow flits past the light in the ceiling, but it's hard to see what it is against the bright light.

[Recaiden]

[Dyson Sphere]

Yone slinks up to the shaft and looks over the edge. With all the light shining it should be easy to see how far it goes and what's down there.
Hopefully.
She tries to stay in the center of the hall, as away from the vines as is possible.

[Lost in Space]

"My greetings to the Duke. You seem rather unlike the other prisoners contained here - even if you did come into your title unconventionally - and I'd like you to tell me just how you got here." Coming back for the docking tube (and maybe the force-fields, if they can manage to extricate them) is a good idea. It would certainly make future excursions like this go more smoothly. On the other hand, it would hardly match the Mote's aesthetics.

[Pirate Base]

Actually, it does look like there's trouble. One of the laser cannons was already powering up.
Briefly.
Then a falling giantess stomped it to bits.
"Okay, today isn't the day for sneaking."
Chevin is already opening the doorway into the base and waving for Fel to follow hir.

[Earl of Purple]

Lost in Space

"Well, it's simple really. Treason is a capital crime, and that includes fraudulently claiming an official position rightfully belonging to somebody else. The sentence for treason is death, but executing me, like all the others aboard this vessel, is tricky. But here, specifically? How did they know I wasn't who I had been pretending to be? I was bored. I altered my position on a trade deal slightly- in a way that wasn't favourable to my interests. And then when I gave a blood test- to prove I wasn't an impostor- I ensured the DNA they took was that of a hybrid between a chicken and a potato. I've never been tried before. We're supposed to be going to a high-gravity world, with one way down and none up. My good luck put me here, to meet you. I rather think Professor Monty is behind it, with nanite explosives; if so, they're the first of their kind. Although the Griolan specialised in old war-relics, and their military technology was scarily effective. And, besides possibly Maroon, I'd say he will find his incarceration the most unpleasant." Since they've been living on space stations for the last ten thousand years, and their planet was a little smaller than Earth to begin with.

[Recaiden]

Chilling. Lord Albert went from seeming like a happy-go-lucky clown to calmly discussing which of his fellows most likely blew up the crew. Although perhaps if you're so tough that people have no idea how to kill you, a casual disregard for death and danger goes along with whimsy. "Quite a broad interpretation of treason that you have there. That will be all, thank you Duke Windsor." He might not be a mass-murderer, but he's plenty dangerous. Lieutenant, we're ready to bring you aboard. Then we'll adjust position and pick up the prisoners." Maybe not all the prisoners. At the moment, they're running calculations on the feasibility of launching professor Monty into the sun.

[Earl of Purple]

Lost in Space

"Not MY interpretation. It's the human's interpretation." As a shapeshifter, he's an actor. Particularly since, in addition for being a shapeshifter, he's also a con-man.

"Thank you, uh... I don't know your name." Or gender, now I go back and check.

[Recaiden]

He lived as a human for years, that's close enough to tar him with the human brush for these purposes. "That would be Captain Bloom." Name of Bloom, title of captain, that is. And it's a feminine voice. "I hope you would do the same to rescue anyone you came across. The outer hatch is open. I suspect that since you're transporting a ship of aliens I don't need to tell you this, but: don't be alarmed by our crew's appearance." Though they're still entertaining the idea that he's an escaped prisoner himself putting on some sort of trick.

True to what they claimed, the Mote's starboard hatch is open, and someone looking/stepping out into space could see a hulking undead monstrosity (made of the polished skeletons of several different species) holding out some of its spinal columns to help Simon aboard.

[Earl of Purple]

Lost in Space

Yes, a decade at least. Kind of depends on how old he is, though; he did say he wouldn't mind a century or so on a prison planet.

"If we had the facilities, yes we would. The captain would have the final say, though." And it depends on how many need rescuing and how many prisoners are aboard.

When its time to disembark, the Lieutenant puts his helmet on and makes sure his suit's as secure and ready as it can be before opening the airlock and preparing to jump across. It's a pretty nerve-racking situation, honestly, so he's not too focused on the hand he's trying to catch... Until he's grabbed it. Then he screams over his intercom, but he forgot to change channel- the corpses the Mote picked up earlier can hear it, but he's not on the emergency band he was using from the ship.

He's used to aliens, but he's never heard of anything like this. Mostly they ship humans around, or extradite alien criminals back to their homeworlds (Thaotan builders and soldiers are quite common in that regard; Griolans are the least common, except possibly Xinclex, who can apparently change their DNA).

[Recaiden]

For all the lieutenant knows, he mostly ships around Xinclex pretending to be humans.

It so happens that no one hears the screaming from the cargo bay where they stuffed the corpses.

The bone monster (its nametag read 'Russel') gently tugs Simon inside and flips the switches to cycle the airlock, paying no mind to the screaming. Russel has six legs to walk on, four big arms for lifting, plenty of spines (with heads or hands attached) for detail work, and more ribs than anyone really needs.

There's artificial gravity here, oriented normally for the room he's entered. The cabin is very cozy. Nice fluffy carpet, warm lighting. Rounded, they must be near the front of the ship. There's a carpet-free metal-and-plastic strip in the center of the room, running front to back. There are lots of screens displaying what's going on outside the ship, but no actual windows. There are two doors leading further astern and two hatches leading down to a lower deck. Front and center are big gauges reporting the ship's levels of 'Emergency Power' (full), 'Oxygen' (full), and 'Blood' (about 3/4). There are numerous lockers holding gear that the crew might need.

There are two humanoids seated at various consoles near the front, each with some uniform-ish gear but no obvious spacesuits. On the left is a dusky-skinned white-haired half-elven woman who is adjusting some cardan-suspended instrument. On the right is a human man with a shaved head and cables running from the base of his neck into the computer in front of him.
And one who obviously is in a space-suit waiting near the airlock. With the bulk of the suit, Captain Bloom (nametags again!) stands seven feet tall. Through the faceplate one can see a woman's face with golden skin, orange eyes without any whites, and a smile.
"Welcome aboard, Simon." comes her voice over the suit's speaker. "Do you know roughly where your ship is?"

[Earl of Purple]

Lost in Space

He stops screaming pretty quick, he's just never encountered a species that looks like Russel. Or any species that looked as though it was made from the bones of others. "No, I'm afraid not. Just before the explosion, we left quantum space. I felt the vertigo. If we are where we're supposed to be, we're about half an AU from the furthest planet of Sun XY785-Ash, about a month's flight to the planet Purgatory, our destination. The saboutage, though... If they reprogrammed our quantum key, we could be anywhere. Maroon and Holy Oglok are the only two I feel confident saying lack that knowledge." Duke Albert shouldn't have that knowledge, but since he's not the real Duke, it's guesswork as to what he really can do.

[Recaiden]

There's something of a mystery here, behind the disaster. Who blew up the ship? "I suppose you couldn't tell from the prison wing, but you're much closer to the star than that, and to the best of my knowledge we don't have a high-gravity prison-planet here. This place is a sort of quantum attractor that pulls in travelers from across the universe. It's not clear where the prisoners can go." She nods to Russel, who scuttles down through the left hatch to the lower deck. "And any of the other three of them may have diverted you here. I believe the Duke when he says it wasn't him, though."

[Felandria]

[Pirate Base]

Actually, it does look like there's trouble. One of the laser cannons was already powering up.
Briefly.
Then a falling giantess stomped it to bits.
"Okay, today isn't the day for sneaking."
Chevin is already opening the doorway into the base and waving for Fel to follow hir.

After destroying aforementioned laser cannon, Fel will indeed follow Chevin into the base.

[Recaiden]

After destroying aforementioned laser cannon, Fel will indeed follow Chevin into the base.

Inside the base they find (predictably) stairs down from the roof. The hallways will be a little cramped for a full-size Felandria. The stairs come down to a break room where several space pirates had been lounging. Big four-armed beetle-looking guys, one grabs up his laser pistol from the table and shoots it wildly towards the intruders, shouting something at the others. Not much of a chance of anyone getting hit just yet.

[Felandria]

Inside the base they find (predictably) stairs down from the roof. The hallways will be a little cramped for a full-size Felandria. The stairs come down to a break room where several space pirates had been lounging. Big four-armed beetle-looking guys, one grabs up his laser pistol from the table and shoots it wildly towards the intruders, shouting something at the others. Not much of a chance of anyone getting hit just yet.

Felandria will reduce to 6’4” to navigate the hallways, and will fire a couple of Magic Missiles towards the beetles.

[Earl of Purple]

Lost in Space

"We are? That was either really, really lucky, or really, really well-timed. We could have opened our quantum door in the heart of a planet, or moon, or other ship, and that would not have been fun for anyone. Though at least the first two wouldn't last longer than a couple of seconds." Entering another ship would have probably killed everyone quite quickly too, either by fusing them with bulkheads or exposing them to space (or worse, exposing them to the quantum reality they were supposed to be leaving), but there's a theoretical possibility of living long enough to die painfully. "Well... We could just void them. That'd probably kill them all, except the Xinclex. It could enter a state of suspended animation to survive, at least long enough to be picked up by a salvage crew. No, wait. The Griolan's an archaeologist; he probably has some emergency implants to help him in his work, so he'd live a while. And Professor Monty's nanites won't be affected by it." Although Monty's current host would almost certainly die. "I don't trust the Duke. He didn't seem surprised by the explosions. All the others jumped, except Maroon, who is deaf. Also unremittingly creepy."

Simon looks around the control centre, relieved at the other crew's apparent humanity. Well, not that girl there, or not quite. One of the new gene-boosted clones, maybe? He takes off his helmet- a face-concealing black shell with integrated oxygen supply, matching the rest of his bulky black carbon-alloy armour. Underneath, he's a dark-skinned young man, probably under thirty, with green eyes, very short black hair and two shiny sockets in his forehead, currently plugged with rubber.