08/01/2015 – Misjump (1)
As the ship jumps, the computer announces “Emergency. Mis-Jump.” The ship begins to warp as it passes through hyperspace and the hull is damaged. One of the marines is caught in a warp effect and is twisted into a dead mush.
Everyone passes out. Drent is vaguely aware of a sinister presence that enters the ship before he goes unconscious.
Disaster
When they come round the Flight Deck is dark. There is extensive damage. Artificial Gravity is not working and they are floating. Some of the consoles are damaged and sparking.
Everyone tries to orientate. Cyrus realises that his cybernetic eye and leg are both not working and he is crippled. Fortunately, he has a magnetic item in his back pack and can use it to move around.
Life Support is not working but there is enough air and heat for now. The talking computer is unresponsive. Mary is unconscious. Tarrant, Kerr and the remaining marine are alive, but the marine has been injured badly. Klein looks like he is dying.
After some discussion, Dirk heads for Engineering. Cyrus for Medic bay and Drent goes to look around for help.
It takes a while for anyone to get anywhere as the gravity is off. Cyrus eventually gets to the medic bay, but while there are fixtures and fitting there, including some interesting medical machines, there are no medical supplies on board. Dirk reaches engineering, but the machinery is unknown to him and many alerts suggest there is a breach in the engine core meaning it is not safe to remain there.
The Brain
Grant is left on the Flight Deck and he begins to hear a child like voice coming from one of the computer speech centres. The voice says it is hurt. Grant does not know what to do.
Some of the others return and they begin to talk with this voice, which seems childish and upset and gives them little information. They start to theorise it is somehow the consciousness of the ship. It talks about “The Brain” and it wants more power, but it does not want to give The Brain any power as it is warm.
After some discussion they realise The Brain is the central computer. They try to access the memory core that they inserted, but the panel seems to have sealed over permanently.
Eventually, they talk this childish voice into giving The Brain more power.
Computer Repairs
The computer centre begins to boot up and after a few minutes, the computer voice reports Primary Computer Core is now functioning. There is wide spread severe damage. Computer links with several parts of the ship are down.
Life Support is not working, but the atmosphere will remain viable for some hours yet.
There is an automatic repair system and it can begin to restore broken systems. They instruct the computer to prioritise Power, Computer Links and then Life Support.
It takes three hours to complete repairs to those systems, during which time the artificial gravity and the lights are repaired. They also realise Klein is dead. Tarrant and Kerr take the marine to the medic bay. Mary is still unconscious. When Cyrus tries to bring her round with smelling salts, she attacks him and then passes out again.
Priorities
They discuss which systems to prioritise next. Dirk realises that the auto navigation program will kick in once the repairs are complete. The controls are still locked out on automatic control. They tell the computer to fix the navigation computers last.
They also realise they have no food or water. Cyrus suggests eating the dead marine to sustain them. The others do not welcome the idea but can see no alternative.
The need to get underway as soon as possible now becomes obvious. They are forced to re-direct the computer to make getting navigation working as the first priority. The combination of systems needed to be repaired and power levels charged will take 48 hours – a long time without food or water!
Sabotage
While waiting for the repairs to complete, Cyrus tries to persuade the computer to repair the ship without engaging the navigation program, but there does not seem to be a way to do this. Whoever wrote the program knew what they were doing.
They decide to explore the ship. Tarrant and Kerr have not returned to the Flight Deck. They find some living quarters and choose rooms.
When they get to the medic bay, they find the injured marine has been killed, looks like strangulation.
They decide to return to the Flight Deck to consider what to do. Mary, Kerr and Tarrant are all elsewhere. They discuss de-compressing parts of the ship to flush out un-wanted intruders. The computer will not do with without internal sensors working – it does not know if crew are in that section.
The computer suddenly reports damage is occurring to the Engines in the engineering section. The damage is increasing. Most likely cause is energy weapon fire.
Grant, Cyrus, Drent and Dirk rush to Engineering. The engines have been shot at and Kerr is lying dead, shot by energy weapon fire. The damage is extensive but mostly superficial. They search Engineering but there is no sign of anyone.
Suddenly Engineering begins to decompress. They rush out and return to the Flight Deck. Mary is there and shoots at Drent, but misses. Drent then guns her down, killing her with a shot in the back. Grant is disappointed as he wanted her alive.
Cannibalism
Cyrus points out that this solves their food and drink problem. He proposes draining Mary’s blood for liquid and eating her. There is some discussion, but everyone agrees to this in the end. Cyrus takes her body away to the crew area to prepare her.
Tarrant reappears. Mary took his gun and he is still wounded, so he ran and hid.
They get some sleep and wake up hungry. Cyrus has drained Mary’s blood and he extracts a bloody watery drink from it. He then cooks up part of her for them to eat, a gruesome affair that everyone else avoids until it is time to eat.
Dirk does not enjoy eating human flesh and starts to feel sick. Cyrus helps him steady his stomach with drugs.
The bodies of the two marines and Klein are flushed out of an airlock.
When the sensors are eventually restored to working order, they are able to determine the ship’s current location. It is about one light year from the Phosos system, in interstellar space. The mis-jump did not take them far.
They realise the ship has some sort of Teleport facility as they heard it mentioned in the list of damaged systems. They ask the computer about it. It reports that Teleport probes are available for launch.
The Journey Resumes
Eventually, sufficient systems have been repaired and power stored for the ship to get underway. The computer suggests a further 12 hour delay to re-calibrate the engines to reduce the likelihood of a mis-jump. Everyone else agrees to this, but not enjoying a diet of human flesh, Grant orders the computer to just resume the program and jump.
The Navigation program is engaged and the ship jumps to an unknown destination.
The crew get some sleep. After a short, 12 hour jump, the ship emerges in an obscure and uninhabited system. It has jumped about 12 Parsecs, a distance beyond the capacity of current technology and in a very short time.
The ship soon jumps again. They appear to be heading back towards the core Seven Systems. Grant wonders if they are heading for Dyvers.
Time Lost
After another 12 hours, the ship jumps into an inhabited system. The computer reports a chrono-synchronisation error. The ship’s internal timer is 387 days behind Galactic Standard Time. It seems the mis-jump caused them to lose over a year.
The ship’s power cells are running low and there is a delay while they are allowed to charge sufficiently to make the next jump. While there are other ships in the system, none of them seem to notice them.
After a couple of hours the ship jumps again. The energy banks are now all very low but all systems are now fully functional.
Arrival At Arkon
Finally, after 10 more hours, the ship jumps out of hyperspace at its destination system – the Arkon system. The ship begins to navigate at sub-light speed towards the planet Derwyn.
Cyrus and Dirk begin to catch up on local news. Things have changed because there are three heavy Battlecruisers in orbit around Derwyn. Zonnos Hunt is dead, after trying to lead the planet Derwyn to independence from Dyvers. Mika Hunt’s location is currently unknown. He is wanted for questioning.
The current CEO of the Derwyn Mining Company is Buzz Kennedy – Grant’s brother!
The computer then announces that the automated navigation is complete. The Liberator is in geo-stationary orbit around the planet Derwyn, over the City of Telcos. A release code is now required to turn over navigation to crew control.
Mystery Message
The Battlecruiser Austerlitz, in orbit around Derwyn, begins to interrogate the Liberator. Identify yourself. What is your purpose here?
Then an incoming message suddenly flashes up on the main display screen, though there is no face. A computer voice tells them they are late. If they want the release code to be allowed to control the ship, they must rescue “me”. He does not know where he is, as they are overdue. However, he is emitting a homing signal. The crew must come to where he is and rescue him in order to gain control of the ship.