19/02/2020 - The Pocket Dimension (4)

You’re in Danger

Vlen tells Grant that they are in danger. The ship they have is a relic from long ago and the being who created it is extremely dangerous, responsible for the genocide of most of his own race. They need to leave the ship immediately and let him dispose of it. Del does not react well to Vlen and they soon clash, with Del laughing at Vlen and interrupting him, telling him they have a legal right to the Ship. Vlen loses patience and tells him to shut up and that he will have to destroy the Ship if they do not hand it over. He is disappointed with Grant that he associates with such idiots.

They continue to cross-question Vlen and he admits that he works for the Ancients and that they have existed in secret for millennia. He is their agent and they cannot allow the advanced technology of that Ship to become available to the wider galactic community. It would upset the balance.

They also should not have the Liberator. He tells them the Liberator was disposed of previously and he does not know where this new one came from. Del and Drent suggests that he does not have the right to have a monopoly on advanced technology. Vlen ignores them.

Faking his Death

Vlen also admits that he had to fake his own death because Federation agents were closing in on him. Which was stupid, because he is a friend of the Federation. He cloned his body and uploaded his memories into the new body. He was on the trail of the Ancient Ship they found, but did not think they would be able to find it first.

Eventually the conversation reaches an impasse. The Travellers do not trust Vlen and are clearly not going to accent to his request to power down the Ship and hand it over. Vlen says he is disappointed. He tried to help them but they would not listen.

Cyrus detects that the small funnel-shaped ship is powering up its weapon systems and has deployed some sort of shield.

Chase

Del has worked out that the Ancient ship has locked onto the location of the trans-dimensional gateway. He decides to tell the Ship to head that way.

Vlen makes one final communication trying to persuade them to change their mind, but when Grant refuses he cuts off communication.

Drent tries to get the Ancient Ship to raise its shields, but they do not seem to be working. He realises that the energy field around the ship that was keeping in the atmosphere was not a defence shield at all and was just to maintain the atmosphere.

The trans-dimensional gateway is about one light-year from the Boughene system and it will take 30 mins for the Ancient Ship to reach it using its warp drive. The cone-shaped ship that Vlen was in is pursuing them but has not opened fire.

Getting Orac Back

During the journey, they contact Dirk and have him put Orac’s key back in. Orac tells them that the computer systems of the Ship were infected with a virus and he was put in extreme danger being exposed to it. They must not put him in such danger again. For now, the computer system of the Ship is inactive, but should it activate again, Dirk will need to remove his key again.

Del asks Orac what will happen when they cross a trans-dimensional gateway. Orac only has theory on such things. There could be another dimension or a sub or pocket dimension. He insists that they pass through the gateway so that he is able to fully investigate the phenomenon.

Trans-Dimensional Gateway

The Travellers continue to speculate about what will happen and Del realises the Ship has gone into auto-pilot, following protocol for the approach to the gateway.

The Ship suddenly drops out of warp, transmits it access code and passes through the gateway. The ship pursuing them drops out of warp behind them, but is not able to follow them through the gateway.

They all have a very odd feeling when they pass through the gateway. The Ship emerges into space. They scan the area but there is nothing nearby. A few light years away is a solar system and the Ship accelerates back into warp and begins to head towards it. There are two other solar systems a parsec away in different directions from this solar system, but that is all that is in the pocket dimension. Cyrus wonders if this is where the three missing solar systems that they saw in the Map Room went.

Orac tells them that Dirk has passed out. Cyrus heads back to the Teleportal room and teleports using the probe there back onto the Liberator, after asking a reluctant Orac to delay his investigation of the new dimension to operate the teleport. Cyrus is able to revive Dirk and gives him something to eat. Dirk catches up with events on the Ancient Ship.

The Ship is on auto-pilot and it will take over an hour to get to the solar system they are heading towards. Orac continues to absorb as much information as he can from Liberator’s scanners.

Landing on the Planet

An hour later, the Ancient Ship is approaching an Earth-like planet in the habitable zone of the star. The surface of the planet seems to be segmented into different zones, one of which is covered by an enormous dome. Some of the spheres on the under-side of the ship begin to detach and head down to the surface of the planet on their own.

The main part of the ship descends onto some sort of enormous space port and lands, with most systems powering down. The remaining Travellers on the Ancient Ship decide to return to Liberator and met up with Cyrus and Dirk.

The sensors report that they are landed on a huge, empty space port, beyond which appears to be the derelict wreckage of spaceships, like some sort of junkyard.

Zen then reports that some small robots appears to be flying towards the ship at high speed, there purpose unknown. The Travellers decide to engage the Force Wall and the robots are blocked from reaching the Liberator. They continue to try to approach for a while, then seem to lose interest and head for the Ancient Ship, starting work at cutting up the hull of that ship into sections.

Heading Outside

The Travellers decide it is time to explore. They create a new floating robot drone to carry Oracs’ relay. Dirk wants to stay on the Liberator, he is just concerned that they may forget about him. Del determines through Orac that maintaining the thrust to keep Liberator from the surface of the Ancient Ship, the Auto-Repair and the Force Wall will eventually drain Liberator’s power systems.

They experiment with landing Liberator and determine that the Ancient Ship’s systems are no long trying to absorb the Liberator. They also instruct Zen to power down the Auto-Repair systems to a level low enough that the Force Wall can be sustained continuously, which he does.

They then leave the Liberator, teleporting back to the Ancient Ship Teleportal room and returning to the Bridge, but all the systems have gone off line. When they return to the Teleportal room, the teleport system then powers down too.

They head outside, where Drent suggests having Liberator head into orbit, away from the robots, so it can deactivate the Force Wall and repair itself at full speed, which Dirk does.

The Spaceport

They explore the spaceport on foot. It is daytime and the sun is shining in the sky but the sky glows a strange colour too. They pass the flying robots that are busy slowly cutting up the hull of the Ancient Ship.

They proceed into the spaceport, passing through an airlock corridor that scans them and allows them entry. Inside in a large empty but well-maintained lounge area and they proceed further into the building through the next airlock. While passing through the second corridor airlock, beams from the ceiling scan all their electronic technology and begin to power off their weapons, but they rush through to avoid them all being disabled.

They pass through a smaller, inner lounge and head into the third airlock corridor. This one scans them and shows up images of various landscapes and buildings, but seems to reject them all and the inner doors of the airlock do not open.

They are frustrated for several minutes, not able to go forward or back Then the inner doors open and one of the flying robots heads in, apparently intend on carrying out a scan of these Travellers at very close range. The step round the robot and through the open doors.

The Meadow

The very inner area contains a large Teleportal with three buttons, allowing for 8 possible co-ordinates. They decide to randomly dial up location 001 and pass through.

They emerge in a meadow with cut grass. Not far away is a small octagonal building. They decide the landscape is so nice and the air perfect for humans that they can take their helmets off and breathe fresh air.

When they do so, small strange metal bugs fly over and land on them, piecing them with small needles, causing them to bleed. Each has this happen to them then the bugs fly away to the small octagonal building. They swiftly put their helmets back on.

They head towards the octagonal building and find inside stairs heading down into darkness. Lights flicker on when they descend and they find rows of odd pod-like things that suggest organic cloning booths. They are lots of them with tubes feeding into them. They are all empty.

They explore further and find a computer area, with a humanoid figure inside. It is not human. It is similar but could not pass as a normal human but some kind of hybrid or mutation. He appears to be male and elderly, wearing a robe and carrying a staff.

High Priest of the Maker

The figure talks in a strange language until he adjusts an ear piece and is able to speak in their language. He welcomes them as servants of the Maker, Angels. His name is Shedin and he is the High Priest of the Maker. He is there on his own to commune with the Maker and gain understanding.

He tells them this is where his people, the Ilimdaki, come from and there are around 50,000 of them. The cloning facility has not operated for many generations, but stories are passed down. He tells them the bugs take samples and now they all been sampled their DNA will be in the system. He asks them if they are able to explain the purpose of the Maker, as his people do not now know what to do to please him.

As he does so, Shedin absentmindedly examines some of the electronic equipment Cyrus is carrying. He tells Cyrus that his energy weapon is powered down - why he doesn’t fix it? Cyrus asks if he can do it, which he does while still chatting. He takes apart the power pack and starts re-charging it from the power systems of the cloning computer, suggesting a high level of technical knowledge.

Head for the Wall

He seems to intuitively understand technology and he is confused that the Travellers do not share his understanding. He says even children of his people are able to do so and they must be mentally retarded somehow. Del tries to tell him about minds focused in different ways, but he does not understand. Like a bird who does not understand why they cannot fly.

He tells them the main danger here are the Hunters, intelligent and vicious killers who would slaughter all his people if they could. His people have built a big wall to keep them out. If the Travellers want to meet his people, they will have to head to the wall and gain access.

They first get Shedin to power up all their weapons again, which he easily does for them. Then they leave him and head towards the wall which they can vaguely make out some miles distant.

End of Episode One