ataraxion | VIDEO ▒ 001 ▒ OPEN BROADCAST ░▒▓█▛▟▛▙▚▞▗ ▘

[ There's small click as the feed begins transmitting. Nothing shows up except staticky black, but there are muffled noises in the background that faintly resolve themselves into hurried words—two voices, one male, one female, pitched low. ]

—id this—

—ell is goin—

[ . . . ]

—et’s just … over with.

[ There’s a noise that might either be a sigh or a quick burst of static. ] Fine.
[ Then, a moment of terse silence before the blackness of the video suddenly gives way to reveal two figures. The man—who had been the one holding his hand over the camera—is dressed head-to-toe in black, back straight, expression deadpan and unamused; a closer look reveals a matte black, impressive-looking gun at his side. The woman standing next to him has her hair pulled back into a rough ponytail, faint smudges and oil stains on her forearms and cheeks, with a frown pulling at the corners of her mouth; she’s unarmed, but if looks could kill, you’d all be dead already. If they’re confused as to what the hell’s been happening on the ship over the past few hours, they don’t show it—beyond a shared air of tense frustration, or bone-deep exhaustion.

Their sentiments are clear: what. The fuck. Is going on. ]

This is Captain Dominic Ward of USC vessel Tranquility, en route from Alexandria. Acting Commander and Chief Engineer Devon Resnik also present for shipwide transmission.

Welcome aboard.

As much as we’d love to give you the guided tour—[ is that sarcasm? it’s hard to tell with him ]—we can’t. This ship is big. Bigger than you probably realize. Something happened to the rest of the original crew; we’re not sure how or why, and we couldn’t tell you if we wanted to.

And before you start—no, we don’t know how you got here either. So don’t ask. [ Resnik is completely serious. She pinches the bridge of her nose, clearly unimpressed with these series of events. ] We’re trying to find out. Just... bear with us.

In the meantime, there are a few things you should know. One: we’ve been operating at a state of urgency since all essential and non-essential personnel went missing, and until very recently, we’ve been stretched a little thin. This isn’t a free ride; you’re going to have to pull your weight around here. Two: our next port of call is Tansei Station, if that means anything to you.

[ It doesn’t, does it. Moving on. ]

Three: in case it wasn’t already obvious, you are in space. For those of you who’ve been groundside your whole lives, you’ll acclimate fast enough.

Four: all passengers and crew receive an identification number while onboard this ship. The fact that you have one now demonstrates that you are, in fact, a part of this team, whether you like it or not. They also act as your ID and keycard while onboard, so I’d suggest you don’t try to get rid of it. [ Resnik holds up her arm and pushes up the uniform’s sleeve demonstratively, in case anyone hadn’t noticed their numbers yet—or needed a fresh reminder. You can’t see her particular number, but the black ink is clearly present on her forearm. ] Use them to get into your rooms and traverse the rest of the ship. If an area is sealed off, don’t try to get in. You won’t be able to, and trying to access restricted areas is just going to end up trapping you somewhere you really don’t want to be.

So don’t take any chances. [ You don’t want to get stuck somewhere without access to food or water. Trust her, she’s seen it happen before; on a ship this big, it’s only a matter of time before someone decides he wants to be an idiot and gets hurt because of it. ] Now, the tanks you woke up in—those are gravity couches, and they're meant to help you. The ship travels using a very dangerous type of spacetime technology, so long story short, every time we “jump”, you’ll need to get into a grav couch. You don’t want to find out what happens if you don’t. [ G-forces are such a bitch. ]

Our access to the ship’s mainframe is also pretty touch-and-go at this point, and we don’t know what happened to the Tranquility’s maps—we think they’ve been deleted, along with a lot of other archival data. So it’s important that we know where you are. At all times. We don’t want anybody getting lost or injured.

In other words, if you’re thinking about exploring? Don’t. [ That comms device you’re using to access this broadcast? Easily tracked, as are your tattoos, but... you don’t need to hear that right now, do you? No. The majority of you are probably smart enough to figure that out anyway. ]

You get lost, you call us.

Any other questions?

OOC NOTE ▒ Direct your questions to either Ward or Resnik by placing their name in the subject line, along with the type of return transmission (video, audio, or text). Resnik will answer technical or engineering questions, and Ward will answer just about everything else. (Fair warning: they’ll probably threadjack each other a lot.) 

Comments without a specific name in the subject line will be treated as a question directed to the both of them. (They’ll... still probably threadjack each other a lot.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Oh, perfect. She'd known this question would crop up pretty early on, but it doesn't make answering it any less of a chore. ]

It's called a jump drive. Clarke's drive, if you want to get technical. Folds space and time around it in order to move from one point in the universe to another.

Basically, it creates wormholes.

[ Explaining the physics of the thing isn't going to be a piece of cake, so she's keeping it basic for now. ]

[oh god no why why would you even this is a BAD IDEA. his mouth purses.]

Your ship creates singularities to jump through space and time to get around not only the galaxy, but the universe? [it's clear he doesn't like the sound of this at all.] Did you guys stop to think about the ramifications of that?

You think we came up with this? [ Bish, please. ]

I'm sure the scientists back on Alexandria who put this thing together thought it through, with every possible outcome in mind, but it's not my concern. My concern is keeping this ship running.

[okay, he's clearly getting ahead of himself, but he finds it a little worrisome if they don't know the tech more intimately than that. then again, he might be an over achiever.]

In my experience, jumping through wormholes doesn't always create the best possible outcome. [fucking Nero.] If you're ripping time and space like that on a regular basis, it's possible that somehow we've switched places with your crew. Was the ship damaged before her last jump?

All systems were top form before the last jump. [ And as she failed to mention to the pointy-eared one down there: ] You arrived after our crew went missing, but not immediately. We've been operating this vessel with a skeleton crew for... I'd say about a month, give or take a few days.

[well there goes that theory. unless the crew was taken because of a different jump. but even with his knowledge, it's something he'd have to talk with Spock over and they wouldn't be able to make any inferences without the ship's data. which, surprise surprise, they can't access. he sighs.]

Skeleton crew is a nice way of putting it if it was just the two of you. And it sounds like you've got a number of civilians around here, now. [which is never easy to deal with.]

I'm a commanding officer. I've got background in tactical, piloting, weapons, and engineering. [he's kind of an overachiever.]

I'm sure we'll find something for you to do.

[just stay away from his chair, kirk.]

[boy you best not be belittling him that chair looks mighty tantalizing.]

Tell me where to go. You might be surprised.

[but if you say the brig so help me...]

Edited 2011-12-09 05:01 (UTC)

[don't tempt him.]

You said command, tactical, piloting, weaponry, and engineering?

[he's not calling you a liar. he's just. heavily implying that you're lying.]

I get bored easy.

Clearly.

[so deadpan]

Any preferences?

[yep, Jim can already tell they're going to get along famously. not.]

That depends on whether we're going to be busting into a firefight anytime soon.

[ Ugh, headache. Stop it, boys. ]

Just pick one, and we'll reassign as necessary.

[... HI MOM]

We're not anticipating any trouble any time soon.

[calling this region "populated space" is sort of an insult to populated space.]

[okay fine whatever.]

I can help in engineering or with trying to dig your data out of the system. [not that he's going to mention he's a hacker] Whatever you have less of with everyone reporting.

As of right now, you'd be more useful working with the data mining team.

Alright. [something in Jim sharpens. it's the promise of a challenge, and it sparks in the ice blue of his eyes.] Just tell me where to access the ship's mainframe and the IDs of who I'm working with.

[ She pings a locating in engineering at him, and the ID numbers of those who have expressed interest. ] Let me know if you manage to tap into anything.

[ She doesn't say good luck; it's implied. ]

Yes, sir.

[which would be the end of it- but before he goes to cut the connection he pauses.]

By the way. What's the current stardate?

[ Totally unruffled by sir, but stardate... Resnik raises an eyebrow. ]

You mean year?

We're unclear on that right now. [ Since this last jump, the clocks haven't been reading things correctly. ] We'll know when we reach Tansei.

[huh. he'd thought the clocks were acting strange.]

I'll let you guys know if I find anything.

Kirk out.

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