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

[tranquiliorem.livejournal.com]

[ 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.)

Comments

( ACTION )

[tranquiliorem.livejournal.com]

[Half an hour later on the dot, Ward and Resnik arrive in the passenger lounge, two heavy black binders under their arms. Ward isn't wearing the actual crew uniform--strictly speaking--but his sleeves are long and everything is a scarily uniform shade of black, and you'd be forgiven for thinking it was the jumpsuit from far away.

Ward just nods at Capa and the other two with him, who were presumably the botanist and engineer. (No points for guessing which was which, apparently.)]

Are we ready?

( ACTION )

[flares.livejournal.com]

[ Capa doesn't bother introducing Corazon or Mace. They could introduce themselves, it's not his responsibility, and if it was, he wouldn't want it. (He's not a leader or good with social graces and they're not here to make friends anyway.)

So all he does is nod and stick his hands in his pockets, shoulders slumping a bit like a teenage boy as he glances once at the binder and then at Corazon and Mace in quick succession. ]

( ACTION )

[archimedeia.livejournal.com]

[ Resnik, whose uniform is pushed up around the elbows (and not nearly so immaculate as Ward's), hands one of the binders to the man she'd been speaking with—Capa, he said his name was—the physicist. This particular binder contains all the relevant information about the SCI department positions onboard the Tranquility, beginning with agriculture and ending with the medbay systems and medical procedure; mostly, it goes on about the maintenance and operation of some of the interfaces, but he should be satisfied with the infodump. It's a lot to go through, but considering their professions, Capa and Corazon should be just fine. ]

( ACTION )

[antifroze.livejournal.com]

[ Mace watches the exchange, eyes flicking to the binder under Ward's arm. That must be the operations primer. He's willing to wait in order to get it, but he's less willing to keep standing around. ]

We're ready.

( ACTION )

[harvestsol.livejournal.com]

[ Seeing as everyone here seems to be some form of socially handicapped, Corazon takes the opportunity to make this less awkward and actually introduce herself like normal person. She extends a hand towards Ward (or Resnik, whoever, their general direction). ]

Corazon, botanist on board the Icarus II. Just 'Cory' is fine.

[ She's just as patient for her binder. Yes, they're in a rush, but it seems like they'll be stuck for the time being. Best to let those in charge explain before hammering them with questions. ] Yes, we're ready. I hear you have an oxygen garden that needs looking after.

( ACTION )

[tranquiliorem.livejournal.com]

[It takes Ward a second—he is career military and how does civilian?—but he manages to shift the binder under his arm and shake Cory's hand with a slight nod.]

Cory, then.

We'll be taking you to the gardens first, and Resnik can show your engineer the rest of the way after that.

[There's a bank of identical lifts on the far wall, and Ward heads for one almost directly in the middle labeled with a dark green stripe on the door. The lifts are... actually prime questioning locations, since everyone is trapped in the same location for upwards of twenty minutes. Thankfully, there's no elevator music.]

( ACTION )

[flares.livejournal.com]

[ Capa follows last, behind the others, though he pauses to note the stripe on the door just before they slide open to let its passengers inside. The binder in his hand isn't cumbersome, but satisfying in weight. He's eager, of course, to find a moment to begin to pour through its contents but there are other answers, the kind that cannot be documented. What Ward and Reznik are, for one, and their particular take on the situation. ]

A ship this size, [ Capa says, his hand on the doorframe as he crosses the threshold onto the lift. ] Meant for colonization. I imagine there are levels of security and authorization in order to access certain parts of it. The likelihood of a civilian wandering onto an engineering deck otherwise— [ Capa shakes his head. ]