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Cracks mar the surface of this room’s western wall. A constant thrum of power is audible within the area, clearly emanating from an immense engine embedded into the northern wall. A standalone module sits opposite the only entrance to the room, but the thick cable that should connect it to the humming engine is irrevocably split. Three rectangular stacks of batteries fill the southern end of the engine room.
This room was damaged because of the asteroid collision that affected the Cargo Hold. The resulting power surges caused additional damage to the Drift engine and ruptured several power cells. A control module opposite the door is dark, and a heavy cable connecting it to the engine enclosure is irrevocably blown apart.
The engine enclosure in the forward section of the room is missing its front panel, and a maze of crisscrossing wires connect to various terminals; once the crew’s engineer deemed the engine useless for travel, she patched what she could and diverted remaining power to the ship’s life support systems, the force field in the Cargo Hold, and most of the ship’s internal doors.
South of the control module, several dead, brick-sized starship batteries are stacked on metal shelves. The topmost row is hooked up to an exposed power terminal labeled “Mess” with a black marker. Another power terminal is labeled “Bridge.”
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Tamerriv laughs (an odd "tinny" sound to non-Shirren minds) telepathically.
Thorax here, torso there. But front is still front, and back is still back. And I am glad to have you at mine.
Tamerriv attempts to open the door, baton ready.
She moves into the room cautiously.
We should not, I think, modify any of the power settings just yet. If the unfortunate former android is trapped via force field, we want her kept that way. But I wonder if the Drift engine can be patched up just enough to get us into the Drift...
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As Tamerriv looks at the mess of wires the lights go out for a few seconds. When they come back on, the ship lurches throwing the Shirren towards the jury rigged battery connections. While pulling herself free she touches a short and takes electricity damage.
After this close encounter with the patched wiring, you can tell that there just isn't enough power to make the jump even if the drive were operable.
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Rez walks into the engine room alongside Tamerriv and Darilian. He surveys the sorry state of the engine compartment, then whistles through his front teeth. "Maybe it's a good thing we can't take a trip to the unknown in a half-wrecked bucket whose Drift engine's bein' held together by nothing but spare wires and good intentions?"
He looks around, then responds to Tamerriv. "I think we double back. The logs mentioned a training room? Kasathas love their martial rituals, perhaps there's something there?"
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who has taken damage from any attack made by a significant
enemy (see page 242) at any point after your last turn ended.
That ally regains a number of Stamina Points (up to his
maximum) equal to twice your envoy level + your Charisma
modifier; at 15th level, this increases to three times your envoy
level + your Charisma modifier. Once an ally has benefited
from your inspiring boost, that ally can’t gain the benefits of
your inspiring boost again until he takes a 10-minute rest to
recover Stamina Points.
At 6th level, you can spend 1 Resolve Point to add your
envoy level to the number of Stamina Points regained.
"Yeah, lets not mess with any of those wires right now."
Moxie does take a look at the batteries that are stacked up before heading out to see if they are still functional.
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Rez patters over and peers around the beefy solarian. "Well, big guy... looks like we found the potty training room..." Rez can't help but snicker, but enjoys the cutting of the current tension.
Looking up at Darilian, Rez gives him a knowing glance, then uses his keen vision to scour the room for any clues.
"I'm thinking the training room might be back the way we didn't check, over port-side."
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The training room is unlikely to be forward. I suspect it is the port aft quadrant.
As Tamerriv moves to the door she specified, the trail of blood begins to disturb her.
But I suspect we may find more than we expect behind this door.
She examines the door and listens carefully for any movement inside.
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Yuta steps carefully over the trail of blood, trying not to disturb it or come into contact with it himself. He has no particular interest in the sanitation room, so he follows Tamerriv back to the room with the blood trail. "More than we expect? I do not know what I expect to find in there." He holds very still and inspects the door for any further clue as to what happened.
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A single door opens into this open space. Unlike rest of the ship, there is no lighting in this room. Just inside the doorway, the entry floor is caked with blood, and several batons and shuriken are scattered throughout the room. A simple sparring mat covers much of the center floor. An alcove along the eastern edge houses a weapon rack filled several kinds of batons and a dozen fine shuriken. A four-armed metal robot stands in the southwestern corner of the chamber, with its indicator light softly pulsing in the darkeness of the room.
Tamerriv can make out that one of the shurikens is lodged in something mounted on the ceiling.
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Holding the mote up for some light, shows that the shuriken is lodged in some type of holoprojector. It looks like it would record and replay sparring sessions for crew to study.
While holding up the mote, the indicator lights on the robot in the back corner change color. Causing the shadows in the room to shift.
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"A holoprojector, huh. And it looks like there's sufficient power to activate that robot," Darilian says. "I can only imagine what's it's seen."
He hesitates at the door. "I hope there are some force batons in here. But with my luck this robot will mistake me for a mop and try to wipe the floor with me. You guys ready to try?"
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I would prefer to disable power to this room in case that robot correctly identifies us as intruders to the ship, but with the state of the engine room I don't think that's possible right now.
I will challenge you to a round of mountain-sky-laser for the honor of going in first.
I am ready when you are.
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“This must be Blue Sky-101,” Yuta realizes. It’s disappointing that it’s not an android, but a robot that still retains some of its function is also good. Just then it speaks, and Yuta holds out one arm to stop Tamerriv from continuing forward. “Hold on, it thinks we’re here to duel. Let me see if I can get it to stop.” He spares a thought of gratitude for the kasatha clients he worked with on Absalom Station, and then switches his processing to speak the kasathan language.
“Hold, we are not ready to duel. What are the parameters for your duelling program?”
I hope it doesn’t need a code word, he thinks anxiously while he waits to see if it will respond.
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The training robot responds:
Standing down from training routine. Battery low
Taking a little more time to survey the room you able to locate the following among the equipment:
Idaran force training baton, 10 carbonedge shuriken, 8 tactical batons, 4 cestus battlegloves, and 2 serums of enhancement (commando).
There is the broken holoprojector and the deactivated robot as well.
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"Ah, I know how you feel," Yuta expresses sympathy, feeling a certain kinship with the mechanical being. "Its battery is drained," he explains to the others. Leaving the searching of the room to the rest of them, he goes to inspect the robot.
"I would like to bring Blue Sky-101 with us, if we can. Particularly if we do not expect the Society to send anyone to this ship after we are done. It would be unfortunate to leave it for random junkers to find someday."
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Rez surveys the training weapons items in the room, and ponders about their potential foe. "Hey guys... you mentioned this... thing we're stuck in here with? It's incorporeal, right? Like a ghost? I don't think my bullets or knife's going to do much against it."
He picks up the kasathan force baton and practices a few strikes with it. Hmm... a little more cumbersome than my own baton, but I could certainly get used to it.
"You guys okay with me grabbing one of these? At least I can prove useful if we end up tangling with that... thing."
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Yuta sees that the battery pack attached to the robot is similar to the ones currently jury rigged in the engine room. There is still some power left in it.
Looking the training robot more closely you find what appears to be a serial number on the back of its head. Looking at the random set of characters you are not sure how you get "Blue Sky" or "101" out of it. The model is a "Kvohi Fabrication Training Mount Elite."
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"You may be correct. Either the crew chose a name for this robot that is not logical, or my assumption was incorrect. Until we can find out from the robot's own programming, I will refrain from referring to it by name." He nods to acknowledge Moxie's instruction to bring the robot into the hallway, but then his eye catches on the shuriken that Tamerriv had pointed out earlier.
"Before we leave, I would like to check this holoprojector. It might have recorded what took place in this room." He looks up at the ceiling to determine whether it can be made to function, in spite of the shuriken lodged into it.
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Yuta plays with the projector a bit, it looks like it should be fixable, but it currently stumps her. However, working Mavrik the two of you get the projector to play what is last recorded.
It replays a crew member’s brief fight with the driftdead Yotto. The holovid of the skirmish is grainy, and it cuts out periodically before ending when the living crew member throws a shuriken that passes through the driftdead and hits the projector.
Having the video replay confirms what you deduced from the logs about what happened to Yotto.
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Mavrik assists Yuta with the holoprojector but after seeing the video is not so sure he likes what he saw.
"Oh please do take it, Rez. Getting close to something like that is not good for anyone's health. One of these rooms is going to have our missing android and that thing we all wish would stay missing." he adds
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Yuta is sad to watch a recording of what they already knew had happened, even as low-quality as it is. But when it has completed, he matter-of-factly says, "Right, no new information. I am ready to proceed."
He looks around to see that everyone has claimed the items that will be most useful to them. "I also know some magic that will work against the Drift Dead," he says suddenly, as he realizes that he did not mention it before. "Together with these force training weapons, I believe we stand a chance."
He attempts to get the robot out into the hallway before moving on to the next room to search.
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The northern wall of this chamber is so forcibly compacted to the south that the chamber extends only about ten feet from the door. Several person-sized crates are fused into the distorted hull, obviously melted by extreme heat. Space is visible from between several gaps in the northern wall, accented by the occasional shimmer of a force field.
While examinig the damage Darilian notices a pattern of android fluids and alien blood spatter along the edges of one of the force field–protected holes into space—this area was where the unfortunate Blue Sky-101 and something else were sucked out into space. One of the fused sets of containers houses a macabre set of limbs: the right arm and leg of who can deduce to be Blue Sky-101
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Darilian considers the possibility of an android surviving such an ordeal, then floating into outer space. He shivers.
"I'm not sure, but it looks like Blue Sky met their end trying to purge the ship of the creature. Let's hope their efforts aren't in vain. Come on, let's check back in the latrines and the mess hall. We still need some way to open that door."
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While walking back from the Cargo hold area to the fore of the ship, the power spikes again, and another turret by the airlock appears from the ceiling and opens fire.
The bullet hits Moxie
After the initial shot, you can hear the turret still trying to fire but it is out of ammo.
The Lavatory is lit much like the rest of the ship, and while inside lights a maintain a soft glow. You notice the occasional flickering in rest of the ship does not seem to affect this room.
The door to the mess and to the fore of the ship isn't locked, but seems to require power to open. From what you have seen, the battery pack currently connected