video; offering courses in space familiarization: the action lady academy of 968 AE

[nukeit]

[ She's not a public speaker on her best days, and this wasn't one of those. Her talk with Fry has kept her thinking, enough that when she wakes up out of the nightmares covered in sweat, she pushes the ache in her chest away with thoughts of something to do, something to work toward.

Fry had relegated her to doing this anyway. Schedules in space were different than on a world generating its own night-day cycles and perpetuating natural circadian rhythms. She's freshly showered, hair starting to dry in a tight, curling mess. The camera comes on as she's right up close to the eye. Stepping back, she gives a little perspective. It's a vid-phone. A conference call to anyone out there listening. ]

For those I haven't met, I'm Ellen Ripley. Carolyn Fry and I are offering to help people acclimatize and familiarize with operating full-time here in space. What we've got working here isn't an exact match for what we're used to, but it's close enough to help show the ropes to people who don't know and who want to get an idea. Call it a crash course in space-readiness training, without the option to fail out and stay down on Terra Firma.

That said, what are some of the questions you have on your mind relating to surviving in space? Or about the technology we've seen here so far. Knowing what questions you'd like answered helps us all out in the long run.

[ She reaches out, pausing. ]

Anyone with experience willing to work with us on this, get in touch. We can use you.

[ Vid over. Time to see what bites back. ]

Comments

[nukeit]

If you can guarantee their body chemistry isn't going to cause irreversible damage to your ship. Even if you can't, it's a step ahead of using projectile weaponry.

i am only slightly sorry for all these threadjacks

[cutsofftheirlimbs]

I'm actually curious as a man of space myself when medieval weaponry would come in handy during an attack, because that's definitely not the experience I had.

[WHOOPS CURIOSITY GETTING THE BEST OF HIM.]

never be sorry!

[nukeit]

When whatever you're facing has concentrated acid for blood, and at that point, a flamethrower and an airlock is more effective than anything else you've got. Point being yes, sometimes it's appropriate, and bringing whatever sum of experience everyone has here to the table keeps people thinking creatively and not jumping the gun to something that doesn't need to breach the hull to be damaging.

[cutsofftheirlimbs]

Believe me, I've had my share of hull breaches that weren't caused by me, and they weren't pretty. What I have might take a leg off someone if used right, but it's not big enough to blow a hole in the ship.

But acid blood - that's a new one. What I'm used to is monstrosities that are about 90% warped muscle and bone structure waiting to kill to add to their ranks.

[nukeit]

It's not hull breaches I'm primarily worried about, though the state of the ship in any of the difficult to impossible to navigate sections doesn't give me great thoughts on how structurally sound this place is as a whole.

It was new to us, too. How'd you end up facing off with those sort of uglies?

[cutsofftheirlimbs]

Like I said - I cut off their limbs. Took some power tools- [He holds up his trusty Plasma Cutter for her to see.] messed with them a bit so they were easier to use for combat, and you'd be surprised how much they help.

[nukeit]

Creative thinking. [ Which is good; she takes note of what he shows her. ] Though I was wondering where your aliens came from.

[cutsofftheirlimbs]

Alien artifact found ages ago, replicated by crazy cultists using knowledge ingrained into human psyche, buried on a planet where it couldn't do any harm and then found again by the unlucky saps of a ship just like this.

And that's the short version.

[nukeit]

Sounds like a regular pleasure cruise. How many made it out?

[cutsofftheirlimbs]

Including myself?

One.

[Welp.]

[nukeit]

Starting to sound like a too familiar story. That's exactly what we don't want happening here.

[cutsofftheirlimbs]

I think I pitched making a club for people like us a while back. I wasn't expecting it to gain traction.

But yeah, that's why I purged the science lab. This isn't happening again while I'm here.

[nukeit]

To the best of our ability. Any word on how quarantine procedures were running all of the last month?