Aberrant: The Long March - Chapter 3: Finding a path

[Mr Fox]

The next morning comes early to the crew. The 5:00am meeting is just finishing up when the Novas begin to enter the dining hall. Smithe has organized the crew into the various job functions and arranged for those crew members to spend a couple days a month cross training for other jobs on board ship incase there is ever need. The crew spends their day in their new jobs getting familiar with their responsibilities and their workspaces.

By the time everyone has arrived breakfast is laid out in the massive quantities that novas like. The crew is pretty impressed with how well they are eating too. Once breakfast ends Lorean appears and tells you that she estimates the journey will take 4 days to travel to the desired timeline. There is nothing to do but settle in and enjoy the ride. The crew spends the time in their new duties and exploring the ship. They are amazed at the entertainment possiblilities aboard ship. In every timeline that you pass through Lorean takes the opportunitiy to scan for new data, optnet, internet, tv, etc. She also moves forward in time a year or two with each jump so that by the third the year is 2014 and she makes the final jump a 10 year hop to 2024. This time she doesn't bother orbiting Saturn, she takes you directly into Earth orbit above what used to be the US. After three hours she reports that this earth has been devistated by a meteor strike that has left almost no survivors. The planet is concealed by a dust cloud in the upper atmosphere. This world is in the grips of a winter that has lasted for nearly 10 years as a result of the dust. The strike hit somewhere in the middle of Kansas leaving North America practically lifeless, though civilization does exist in small pockets in parts of Europe, Asia and Africa.

Lorean's image replaces the holographic images of the devestation. "Many of the resources of the former US are still intact if barren. Fort Knox remains mostly intact from my scans, although it has suffered some structural damage. The Federal Reserve bank vault in NY should be intact as well although it would be harder to reach given the distruction of the city. The San Fransico branch along with most of California was completely destroyed as a result of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions resulting from the meteor strike. In fact most cities along the Ring of Fire no longer exist even as ruins. Those pockets of civilization that do exist are inland and in geologically stable regions."

Lorean continues, "Since there is no technological infrastructure on this earth, I can take us directly to where ever you wish to go without fear of discovery."

[NFVD]

Alejandro had been feeling like the kid who was given the keys to the candy store and overdosed on sugar. But he is beginning to feel the pangs of going cold turkey, in a way.

Seeing the gas giant Saturn has stirred something deep within him and he truly realises just what this new life of travelling through space-time means and entitles.

To prevent his mind from wandering too far he spends most of his free time exercising and practising with his two sharpened replica swords. He has a few chats with other baseline crewmembers but unconsciously finds himself always leading the conversations back to their origins on Earth and their past lives.

When the ship shows the holographic images of the devastated Earth below he begins to feel somewhat sickened and retires to his quarters for a few minutes, until he regains his composure. He returns after a bit; ready to follow whatever orders the Novas have for him.

[Isabel Mendoza]

Isabel arrives late, just after Alejandro returns from his quarters, smelling slightly of oil paints and, surprisingly enough, smiling slightly. She walks up beside Alejandro and just stares into the blasted version of Earth on the screen for a while.

"They haven't brought us to the most beautiful of places, have they?" she says, in SPanish and without looking at him, so that Alejandro isn't quite sure whether she's talking to him or just thinking aloud, "but I guess gold is important to some people."

[Courier]

Steve says,

"Isabel, welcome. Will you be joining us down there?"

[Isabel Mendoza]

Isabel glances at Steve and, if it isn't just a trick of the light, he's sure her lips turned up in a smile briefly. She's certainly been a bit less recluse these last few days, although she still spends most of her time in her room, painting or whatever it is she does with her time.

"I guess so," she says, adjusting the freaky hat that only looks good on her by association, "I don't like to be cooped up in here forever."

Also, getting out is something to do, which keeps me from thinking too much about things, she thought, but she didn't say.

[Omar]

Omar awoke feeling great. In fact, he felt energized. Something happened last night, and he could feel more energy coursing through his body now. After eating, he goes to the obsevation lounge, where Lorien begins to show scenes of an earth where most life has been eradicated by a meteor strike.

"بارك الله سقطوا واعطائهم المرور الى السماء."

Omar mumbled an Arabic prayer to himself as he surveys the holographic images of the destruction. "Armageddon has come to this world. Those who perished are the ones God has taken with him to his kingdom. The survivors must live in hell."

He began to wonder about his hometown in Baghdad, and his family members in Mosul. "I want to pay a visit to Iraq. I want to see what life is like for my family and my home country on this earth."

Omar looks over at Isabel. "If you are coming with us, will you be painting? It might be a good way to memorialize life on earth."

"Alright, now let's go get some gold." Omar cheers.

[Courier]

Steve says,

"Good to have you Isabel. Lorean, we'll do Fort Knox first. While it'd be nice to find some platium, it's not neccessary."

"Everyone, dress warm, work boots, gloves that sort of thing. Break out the dollies, we'll need them. We'll bring the shuttle and load it to do the lifting back to the ship."

"I expect we might have wild animals around, that's why man invented guns. If you know how to use one, bring a rifle or shot gun."

[Andrew Murphy]

A small man enters the observation lounge. Just below normal height he stood maybe 5'6" and his 143 pounds hardly crouded out his frame. He had the earmarks of an Irish heritage, pale skin with light freckles, natural red hair, and eyes of a medium green shade. Despite his slouched appearance his eyes betrayed the intelligence that lay behind them, they swept the room taking everything in an processing it.

The little man walked over to where the others were standing, "Has anybody given any thought to radiation or toxins in the air? I'm not entirely sure what you ... novas? ... can handle but anything you are exposed to could potentially come back to the ship with you and cause problems with the rest of us. "

The man pushed at his nose as though used to forcing glasses to sit properly, when he realized what he had done he gives a wry smile. "I ... I'm Andrew Murphy," he says holding a hand out, "Chemist by trade ... well I used to be a chemist anyways ... but I do have toxicology experience and solid background in other practical sciences ... perhaps we should do an atmospheric analysis before anybody leaves the ship."

[Mr Fox]

Lorean appears to one side of the main hologram, "Very well, Fort Knox it is." The scene changes as the ship warps directly above the former army base. Up close the devastation is profound. There is very little vegetation, and what there is clings mostly in the shadow of what shelter still exists, such as the main building. As Lorean approaches the building you can see that even the squat stone structure has suffered damage and is coated in a layer of ash. The doors do appear to be intact.

"I have scanned the atmosphere and do not detect any hard radiation or other dangerous chemicals, but I cannot scan within the vaults in detail. It might be advisible to take Andrew and a few other men of the crew into the vaults to assist."

[NFVD]

Alejandro turns to Steve and mutters.

"er..Mr Steve, Sir. I've never shot a gun in my life. If it's alright with you I will bring along my blades. I am quite experienced with them, and a rifle is not very useful if something pounces on you..."

Dios! I need to get out of this ship for awhile and feel real ground beneath my feet just for a few hours. What's wrong with me? I feel...like I'm out of oxygen or something.

[Andrew Murphy]

Andrew looks a bit nervous, "Is this safe? Can we determine if there are any people or animals around ... I'm not really used to ... um ... adventures like this."

Andrew gets a heavy jacket for himself and some sturdy leather boots and gloves. "Ok I'm ready, I've got a small kit here in case we have any question about the materials to take. Oh maybe I can get some supplies as well I need a couple of chemicals which were restricted back home to get my expereiments back up to speed.

"Ms. Lorean can you locate some sources of the following chemicals for me please?" Andrew steps over the console and begins to input complex chemical data and structures into the interface. "I need these to continue my advanced polymers work," he continues, "When I got fired I was prohibited from continued research because of the confindentiality agreements I had signed."

[Courier]

Steve says,

“Andrew, welcome aboard. I read your resume, sorry we haven’t had the chance to talk.”

Originally Posted By: Mr Fox

"I have scanned the atmosphere and do not detect any hard radiation or other dangerous chemicals, but I cannot scan within the vaults in detail. It might be advisable to take Andrew and a few other men of the crew into the vaults to assist."

Steve responds,

“Oh, I intend to. We have several radiation detectors and chem scanners with us. This was an army base, while I don’t think they’d put nerve gas or uranium weapons inside the Bullion Depository, there’s no point taking chances.”

“That door Lorean is talking about weighs 25 tons, it might be easier to tear down a wall. There’s an irony here, that place has almost four hundred thousand gold bars. We’re only going to take 1% or so. Speaking of which, I’ve had some thoughts about this “weight in gold business”. That doesn’t seem very fair to the ladies, and as we don’t really want to encourage unhealthy lifestyles, I think we should go with 8 standard gold bars. That’s 3,200 troy ounces or almost 220 pounds. It also spares us the pain of cutting up bars.”

Originally Posted By: NFVD

Alejandro turns to Steve and mutters.

"er..Mr Steve, Sir. I've never shot a gun in my life. If it's alright with you I will bring along my blades. I am quite experienced with them, and a rifle is not very useful if something pounces on you..."

Steve responds,

“Well, if you’ve never fired one, then this isn’t the time to start. You and Andrew can man the detectors. But the thing about blades is you really don’t want to be close to a big cat.”

[Andrew Murphy]

,,

Quote:

“That door Lorean is talking about weighs 25 tons, it might be easier to tear down a wall. There’s an irony here, that place has almost four hundred thousand gold bars. We’re only going to take 1% or so...

Andrew looks a little confused, "Seems a pity to leave the remainder here, gold will surely come in handy wherever we go, won't it? Maybe Omar could just make himself big, we could then easily load all of the gold into the ship and be prepared for any contingency.

"For that matter we should consider locating reserves of other rare elements, if I undstand how Ms. Lorean explained the temporal drives to me we will be highly unlikely to find a world were gold, platinum and palladium are worthless."

Andrew looks a bit awkward, clearly uncomfortable to have rebutted against one of the novas, "I'm just saying, it's always good to be prepared right?"

[Courier]

Steve replies,

"We can come back without the 3 day wait if we need more. Partly this is to find the gold and this timeline because I don’t like having unfunded liabilities, but the rest of it is to give everyone a chance to become familiar with the ship and such. To let us make mistakes without getting anyone killed. My expectation is the Gold won’t be very useful. Mostly it’ll just take up space.”

“If we took all the gold that’d be about 4.5 thousand metric tons of gold. That’s something like 5% of the weight of Lorean herself, and I assume Lorean does have an upper limit for how much she can carry and that it costs her energy to transport things.”

"The idea of storing other rare elements has more merit, but we'll deal with what's in front of us for now."

[Omar]

Quote:

“That door Lorean is talking about weighs 25 tons, it might be easier to tear down a wall. There’s an irony here, that place has almost four hundred thousand gold bars.

Omar looks at Steve. "25 tons huh? I have never tried to lift that much. If it is bolted into the surrounding walls, it will probably be even harder. I suppose I could give it a go."

Quote:

Maybe Omar could just make himself big, we could then easily load all of the gold into the ship and be prepared for any contingency.

"Well Andrew, I was sort of thinking the same thing." Omar says to the inquisitive redhead. "I should have no problem hauling the gold out of there when I'm grown. The question is how much we can transport to the ship at a time."

"Getting our hands on other metals sounds like a good idea too."

Omar looks at the massive door, like it is an ememy to be defeated. "I guess I had better get to safecrackin"

Omar grows once again, and walks towards the door. His massive hands feel for something to grab onto. Once he has a good grip, he will try and yank it from the building.

[Andrew Murphy]

"Of course, I guess I'm just used to the idea of buying in bulk if you will," Andrew replies. Andrew looks Steve up and down, his eyes surveying the other man in the kind of methodical way that makes people think he's a little off kilter.

"Is that the ... what was it called? ... Ewfiber? That you purchased a few days back? What exactly is it? I've noticed that it appears to have limited psychoreactive properties which I find facinating, the idea that you can use you abilities to affect a substance like that ..." he trails off, lost in thought, "Your timeline must be amazing."

[Mr Fox]

Lorean responds, "I don't detect any animals within close range other than rodents. As for transporting the materials, I think that Morgan creating a series of warps as you are ready to load the gold into the cargo holds would be the most efficient method."

Morgan responds to Andrew, "Well, it has it's high points, but it has just as many lows too. Just imagine people with powers like ours working for a government agency that doesn't particularly feel restricted by morals or law. We ran into a group like that before we left. They killed Isabel's family." He says this last bit after making sure that she was not close enough to overhear. "On the other hand the good things were very good, eufiber, cures for cancer and most other diseases, the environment cleaned up to preindustrial levels."

[Courier]

Steve replies,

"Eufiber. And it is pretty interesting stuff. It conducts several different types of energy, The Op-net is built around it, that's what makes it about 700 times as fast as the internet was. Think of it as a living, room temperature super conductor as well as a multi-spectrum LCD. With just a little bit of form control it can look like pretty much any clothing."

"But for novas one of the really spiffy things is it mimics our power signature. For me that doesn't do much, thinking fast doesn't wreck your clothes. But for Omar it means he doesn't go naked every time he changes size. Other novas teleport with it, or don't fry it when they catch fire, etc. It's the ultimate nakedness protector, and it's as tough as kelvar armor."

[Andrew Murphy]

Andrew's eyes grow wide, "That sounds very similar to the compound I have spend the last six years working on! Would it be at all possible to take a small sample of your eufiber for analysis? It's possible I could duplicate it or even determine how to stabilize my own formulation!"

[Courier]

Steve glances at Andrew and wonders if this could be "B" from a different timeline before he erupted... *Doubtful* he decides. Steve says,

"I don't have a problem with that, if we can get Morgan's help. I'm pretty sure Healing will work on it, and that would be a big help."

[Mr Fox]

Lorean lands on the blasted ground as close to the entrance as possible without endangering the building. She lowers the landing ramp and those planning to go into the vault walk out into the air of a world whose very smell is foreign. The dusty burnt smell assaults your nose as you decend the ramp. You apporach the building cautiously but without incident. Despite the visible damage to the stone facade of the Fort the doors prove quite sturdy. Omar grows to his full height and still cannot manage to rip them from their hinges. 25 tons may not be the upper limit of his strength, but with the bars driven deep into the stone surrounding the door it will take considerably more than 25 tons of force to move them.

Morgan opens a warp just beyond the doors to the inside of the building, where you discover from the inside that the doors appear to be in some kind of lockdown mode. Worse than that, lying littered about the room is the evidence of the survivors who were trapped within the building after the meteor strike. You see the decayed remains of several uniformed men who obviously died shortly after the blast probably of dehydration.

As you go deeper into the structure you see some evidence of damage to the building, but nothing that will obstruct your path. Once you get to the vault itself you have the next obstacle. Again Morgan opens a warp to the interior. The air is stale, but lacks the burnt dusty smell of the outside. In small rooms you see piled vast quantities of gold.

[Courier]

Originally Posted By: Mr Fox

...lying littered about the room is the evidence of the survivors who were trapped within the building after the meteor strike. You see the decayed remains of several uniformed men who obviously died shortly after the blast probably of dehydration.

Steve remarks,

"Earthquake damaged the door, so they were trapped. Broke water pipes too, if there are any. No one came to save them because the strike put lots of dust and such into the air, made it impossible to breath, maybe to see too for a few days."

Originally Posted By: Mr Fox

"...Once you get to the vault itself you have the next obstacle. Again Morgan opens a warp to the interior. The air is stale, but lacks the burnt dusty smell of the outside. In small rooms you see piled vast quantities of gold."

Steve beams his flashlight around and everywhere it reflects back gold. He walks up to one of the closer stacks of bars, examines it for a moment, then examines a tag and turns away saying,

“This is coin gold, bars made from melted down gold coins. That’s not good, it’s only about 90% pure, the real stuff is 99%.”

Steve walks up to a different pile where it’s a slightly different shade, examines it, and says,

“OK, good. This is the real deal. We want 400 bars, 8 bars weighs a hair less than 220 lb, so that’s about 11 thousand pounds, or 5.5 tons. Call it two… no, let’s make that three trips with the forklift. So we put 150 bars on two pallets, and 100 plus some coins on the third. Then we warp in the forklift, then warp it back, drop off the load, then back the lift through the same gate.”

Steve locates a pallet and starts stacking.

“Andrew, Alejandro go exploring and see if you can find some bags of gold coins. There should be several types around here somewhere.”

"Everyone, if you start to feel light headed, yell about it. This air doesn't circulate."

EDIT: Fast Tasks On.

[NFVD]

Originally Posted By: Courier

“Andrew, Alejandro go exploring and see if you can find some bags of gold coins. There should be several types around here somewhere.”

"Yes, sir."

Alejandro heads out with his flashlight in a random direction, looking for the aforementioned bags.

[Omar]

Frustrated at not beng able to rip the door away, Omar returns to his normal size. Omar then heads through the warps, and will help Steve stack the pallets. If possible, Omar will play the role of 'human forklift', and carry the pallets to the ship himself, to save time.

(Using Might)

[Isabel Mendoza]

Isabel looks at Alejandro's flashlight with a slightly bemused expression for a moment, then she claps twice, purely for effect, and the whole room lights up in the slightly unnatural shadowless light that the other novas have seen at least once before.

Quote:

Elemental Mastery: Enhance to bring the whole area up to a bright but not uncomfortable level of lighting

[Andrew Murphy]

Andrew looks down at his now pointless flashlight and clicks it off. He goes wandering toward the back of the vault area looking for the small alcoves and rooms which would hold the silver, platinum and palladium ingots. He steps carefully his eyes darting about taking in everything as he probes deeper into the vault.

[Courier]

Steve says,

"Thank you Isabel, that's very helpful."

[NFVD]

Alejandro says:

"Wow!"

He then resumes the search for the gold coin sacks.

[Mr Fox]

Omar plays human-forklift lifting stacks of bars at once and making it look easy. Morgan does his share and lifts the bars one at a time, amazed at how much each gold bar weighs for its size. Steve directs the activity and points out which stacks are the ones we want to take as well as lending a hand on stacking some of the bars himself. Cody, Marcus do their share and Isabel ensures that we all have sufficient light to see by.

Meanwhile the two redshirts go wandering off from the protection of the novas in search of the other metals. The vault turns out to be surprisingly large, in fact since a good bit of it is underground you believe it might actually be larger than the building on the surface. As the two men round another corner into a long hallway with cells on each side they find what they are looking for. The cells, they look like cells with metal bars for doors, lining this hall contain stocks of other metals. About halfway down the hall you spot one door open. Inside the cell there is a man's body lying on the floor half covered in platinum ingots. It is as though the man were trying to bury himself in a platinum cairn. He looks like he died of dehydration. Andrew steps into the room for a closer inspection warning Alejandro to not get too close. It appears that the man has disturbed the pallet of platinum ingots such that it might tip over and fall. Andrew is carefully bending over and checking the mans body for the set of keys that he must have on him considering he was inside this room, when what he feared might happen does. The hugh pile of platinum makes a metallic creaking noise and spills over crushing Andrew flat and finishing the job of burying the vault supervisor. Alejandro can only watch in horror as the massively heavy pile shifts and crashes like a wave over his new comrade.

Strangely, Alejandro feels a strange sensation as his shock and grief wash over him.

Meanwhile in the vault room where the gold moving is going on, Morgan looks up suddendly, "What the frag?", then starts running for the hallway that the two crew members headed off in. Steve and Cody also feel what can only be described as two quantum shockwaves roll over them from the direction the two baselines went.

[Courier]

Steve follows Morgan.

[Andrew Murphy]

"Aww crap" was all Andrew had time to say before the massive pile of precious metal crashed over him like some sort of tidal wave of currency. The crushing wieght drove him down and began to increase steadily as the contents of the room slid into a disorganized mass.

Thoughts, too ephemeral and fleeting, washed over him and as he realized he was about to die the oddest thought came to him This would never have happened to Odo from Star Trek.

Apparently the crushing weight was squeezing his skull because his head began to pound with the kind of intensity that he remembered from being dehydrated during his first marathon. Oddly though his body no longer hurt, in fact other than the intense pounding in his skull he felt fine.

Andrew decided that he would try to wriggle free of the platinum bars and found that while slow going to was easy enough to do so. He finally worked his way out from under the pile and just lay on the floor, his head still pounding.

To outward appearances there Andrew was crushed into puddle of goo, the fact the puddle of goo felt fine other than a splitting headache was something that the nearby observer would never have known.

I should probably get up Andrew thought to himself, Strangely though my legs and arms don't seem to be functioning, probably the bones got crushed. Hopefully Morgan can heal me right as rain. Andrew looked around and wondered why everybody was staring at him with sad looks but not saying anything to him or trying to help him.

[Courier]

It is very rare for the Mega-Witty to seem dumbstruck or shocked. This however is visibly one of those times and it takes Steve a moment to say to the puddle of goo,

"Um... can you talk?"

[SkyLion]

Cody had been quiet for some time. In reality, he had been preoccupied for the last day or so telepathically communing with Lorean and asiimilating information on her capabilities and records.

He had warped in the Cruiser, which now looked like a robotic forklift, loading metal into its own storage bay. It moved on its own, while Cody explored the catacombs, directing it with his mind.

A few moments before the platinum falls, Cody let's out an "oh shit!" and starts running down the hallway. Halfway there, the quantum shockwave hits and it stops him in his tracks for a moment, allowing Morgan and Steve to catch up. "Did you just feel that?!?" Followed quickly by a "My God!"

Rushing in with the others, Cody examines the quantum liquid on the floor. Seeing Courier stunned and asking questions, Cody goes a step further. If that is Andrew and he did just erupt like it felt like, then his signature should have converted Lorean's communication implant.

*Andrew. Its Cody...congratulations, you've just erupted. It's *very* important you stay calm. Focus. Focus on your human form. If you can channel your thoughts effectively, you're less at risk for Backlash, and are less likely to suffer mutation. Are you with me? Focus. Pull yourself together...*

Where was Alejandro?

[NFVD]

Everyone in the platinum room hears a voice coming from above speaking in heavily accented English..

"huh...amigos?...Up here...I'm stuck, help!"

Those gazing up see Alejandro hanging on the cieling by his hands and feet like a gravity defiying toddler. He looks quite distraught.

"I...I think I jumped up here...I just tried to run and help Andrew..I...help?"

[Courier]

Steve says,

"Omar, could you please reach up there and help him down?"

[Omar]

Omar say everyone running, and he immediately stopped what he was doing. He ran after the others to find what he thinks is Andrew, in a liquid state on the floor.

"Omar, could you please reach up there and help him down?"

"Sure, hold on a second". (assuming he can reach the ceiling, he will grab Alejandro..if not, we will raise someone up to grab him. If the ceiling is really high, Omar will grow, then get him.)

[Isabel Mendoza]

Isabel walks quickly rather than runs to the site of the accident, and when she does get there simply looks at the scene with something between preoccupation and curiosity. And then she makes one of the most unhelpful comments you can imagine.

"Oh dear."

[Andrew Murphy]

Quote:

"Um... can you talk?"

Umm can you maybe get somebody to tend to my shattered limbs? Don't just stand there sheesh! Andrew thinks, Oh wait maybe ... That's odd I thought I was speaking out loud ... man my head hurts...

Quote:

Andrew. Its Cody...congratulations, you've just erupted. It's *very* important you stay calm. Focus. Focus on your human form. If you can channel your thoughts effectively, you're less at risk for Backlash, and are less likely to suffer mutation. Are you with me? Focus. Pull yourself together...

Andrew makes a face, which is a marked improvement over the featureless puddle, OK lemme try this ... "OW!!"

[NFVD]

Alejandro thanks Omar for his efforts pulling him down. He speaks fast and his accent worsens somewhat.

"Gracias. I could not get off the cieling, it was like I was stuck there. How on earth did I get there in the first place? I think I jumped or...Oh! Is Andrew ok?"

He looks at the collapsed pile of platinum and notices the "puddle" for the first time. Alejandro then lets out a pretty unhelpful comment of his own.

"Hostia!!!"

[Mr Fox]

Morgan rushes to the puddle and channels as much healing energy as possible into the quantum goo. (4 lethal levels healed) "Wow, I've never seen anyone erupt into an amoeba before. That's gotta be a first." He smiles, "Well if you can reform your face, I suspect you can probably pull yourself together. I'll heal you the rest of the way later, I can only channel so much of my quantum into a person at one time."