004 | video

[suddenlycaptain]

[ Carolyn is sitting in her room instead of lurking around the shuttle bay for once. The reason why should be clear after a few minutes, when an orange tabby pokes his head out from behind her before plopping himself on her lap. Carolyn honestly just looks like she has no idea what to do for a moment before reaching to scratch him behind the ears, speaking to the camera as she does. ]

Some of you might recognize this cat as Jones, who belongs to Ellen Ripley. For those of you who knew her, it appears that she's gone home. I'll be looking after him for her.

[ Still petting the cat, she clears her throat. ]

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Carolyn Fry. On the Tranquility I'm part of the flight crew, but back home I was a pilot and captain of a merchant ship -- a spaceship. As a result, I've been helping people out with basic skills to work on in space. Last month we held a training session on health, fitness, nutrition, shuttle procedures, and basic evacuation. In the case that either myself or Ripley vanished and to keep a copy for anyone who wasn't able to make it or wasn't on the ship, we recorded the session.

[ A link pops up, opening an area on the network that contains a brief description of the session and a link to the video. ]

I'll be posting the videos of future sessions in this spot, if everyone would like to keep an eye on it and update their information posts, that sort of thing. If you have any questions, about this or anything else, feel free to ask.

[ locked to 005 » 075 ]
I need a drink. You in?

[ locked to FLIGHT CREW ]
We should all get together.

Comments

[suddenlycaptain]

I don't know. [ It's fairly obvious that not knowing is extremely frustrating for her. ] No one here knows the course we're on, except for maybe Ward and Resnik, and they're not talking. The bridge is off-limits, too.

[blindleads]

[Sigh. That would be a problem.]

There's got to be a way to gain access.

[suddenlycaptain]

Provided enough distraction, or if you ask really nicely. I've spoken to someone who was able to get on -- he said it's a mess.

[blindleads]

I can understand restricting access, but a mess? The bridge should be one of the priorities for repair. If the engine room is the heart of a ship, the bridge is its brain.

[suddenlycaptain]

I know. None of this makes sense, and it definitely doesn't inspire any trust in the two people who know this universe -- not that anyone really trusts them anyway.

[blindleads]

I don't know...these logs paint a bit of a sympathetic picture. There might be circumstances we just don't know yet.

[suddenlycaptain]

[ She snorts. ] The last person who discovered something -- who discovered these, as a matter of fact -- got locked in a room during a jump afterward, after talking to Ward and Resnik. He died. We don't have proof they did it, but I'd say it's suspicious enough.

[blindleads]

[Yeah, there's no arguing that.]

That...must have been a mess. I'm sorry to hear that.

Has there been very many casualties since whatever phenomena has been bringing people here started occurring?

[suddenlycaptain]

More than five, less than ten. People disappear though, and we're not sure what happens when they do.

[blindleads]

In a deep-space mission, missing in action can be just as bad.

[He's had to come to grips with that one all too well.]

Others who failed to make it to the medical bay for a jump, maybe?

[suddenlycaptain]

By our count, there have only been two who've missed a jump. The missing tend to have any messages sent to their communicators bounce back instead of go through, and people who miss the jump... well, there are remains left behind.

[blindleads]

Which implies they're somewhere outside the effective communications range, or stuck somewhere the signal's being interfered with. ...If there's anything left.

[suddenlycaptain]

If you go far enough in the ship and get lost, the communicators don't work as well, but messages still seem to go through.

[ She shakes her head. ] I don't know. Either way, some of them come back and say they were back home, others come back and don't remember being here to begin with, and some don't come back at all.

[blindleads]

[Blowing out another slow breath, and mirroring that headshake.]

I don't know about you, but that's getting to be way too many unknown variables for me to puzzle out.

[suddenlycaptain]

That tends to be how things go around here. The more we find out, the more questions we have.

[blindleads]

[Heh.]

You put it that way, captain, and it sounds like we should keep going until the universe runs out of questions to put to us.

[suddenlycaptain]

We might not get much choice there. But running out of questions would be a nice change.

[blindleads]

Well, I'm Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge, Enterprise chief engineer. If there's any way I can help run the number of those questions down, just let me know.

[suddenlycaptain]

We can always use people down in engineering, or helping out with fixing up the shuttles. Keeping everything working and everyone safe tends to be our biggest priority, for obvious reasons. Other than asking around, if you haven't read the info packet that's been put together, it's a good place to start.

[blindleads]

Any packets other than the training session you distributed?

[suddenlycaptain]

[ And another ping: info. ]

That one's a good place to start.

[blindleads]

[Another chuckle when the packet's received.]

At this rate, I'm going to feel like a cadet back at the Academy.

[suddenlycaptain]

[ There's a slight laugh of her own. ]

Don't worry. Actually knowing how things work in space puts you a bit ahead of the class.

[blindleads]

A refresher course might do me some good, anyway. Besides, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of these systems have developed a lot differently than I'm used to.

[suddenlycaptain]

My first month here, I took a look at every department I could, just to see the differences. A lot of things translate between universes well enough though, and if not, there should be someone around willing to give a few tips.