002. text.

[regulatingpressure]

Got two things to ask and one thing to offer. I'll try to make it short and sweet.


QUESTION 1: What destroyed or depopulated your version of Earth? Nukes, asteroids, zombies? If nothing did yet, what took the closest shot so far?

Same question if you're not from Earth - just swap out Earth for wherever you came from.

I'm not compiling a spreadsheet or anything. I guess it's just something I've wondered.


QUESTION 2: What are we even doing here? What's our destination? The purpose of the voyage? Who sent us, and why us? Maybe I missed something and by all means point me there if I did, but in less than a day, this ship sucks up more resources than the Ark could spare for a month.

I've been here for over a month now and I'm the first person I've seen ask anything like this so far. I want to think it's because we were up to our airholes in highly invasive nanotechnology. Or - like I said, maybe I missed the big 'who, what, where, and why' memo.


OFFER: I'm bored off my rocks, if you haven't picked up on that yet. I was a zero-G mech back on the Ark, and if that's not enough, I helped fix the thing that saved your asses pre-Jump. I can repair, rebuild, or build from scrap just about anything you can think of. So somebody give me a job before I start opening panels and improving whatever the hell's inside.

[ is she serious? she very well could be, so throw her a bone here, yeah? ]

Comments

[regulatingpressure]

1. Just a heads-up, nuclear fallout's kind of a bitch.

2. I thought at least there'd be some kind of pattern.

3. You creeps just crawl right out of the woodwork. ha. I'm Raven.

[ in case he can't tell, 1 and 3 are varying levels of sass. ]

[technologist]

Based on professional research I'd guess "kind of a bitch" is something of an understatement.

Fitz. Very nice to meet you, though I think we might've brushed shoulders while cursing at the nanite machines last month.

And sorry to drop the numbers, this is a bit of a mess now, but I'd say the only pattern I've seen is the strangely high genius and superhuman percentages in the ship's population, but it's difficult to get an accurate assessment of that one without a very invasive poll.

[ Not that very invasive polls aren't A Thing, here. ]

[regulatingpressure]

You're right, that name does ring a bell. Sorry about that, that whole week's kind of a blur. [ she was pretty fucked up thanks to the nanites, and being dizzy as all hell was the least of her problems. ]

So if I'm not superhuman does that make me a genius? [ this has her grinning, but not because of the potential compliment to her intelligence. more because this could easily be a game. like 'what do you think about that guy, genius or superhuman?'

she'll bring it up with jasper. ]

[technologist]

Well I'm not a superhuman and I'm a genius, so there's one for your statistics. I'd say "zero-G mech" possibly qualifies unless that's the equivalent of a car mechanic where you're from

[regulatingpressure]

It's not. I'm kind of awesome.

[technologist]

Said like a true genius.

[ who needs modesty am i rite ]

[regulatingpressure]

[ her nahori window's at 100% boastful tbh ]

I think I found me a new best friend.

[technologist]

[ Look it isn't arrogant if it's true ok ]

Don't get too ahead of yourself, let's see if you remember my name first next time.

[regulatingpressure]

[ exactly!! ]

Wow, such little faith in the genius.

[technologist]

Look, there's advanced scientific theory and then there's names. One's much more difficult than the other.

[ Names. Names are more difficult. ]

So are you still all mutatey?

[ Geniuses are allowed to make up words. ]

[regulatingpressure]

Can still see through some of my skin, but I stopped looking like a life-sized musculature model about a week post-jump.

What about you?

[technologist]

Great, actually, though I think I cheated a bit. My symptoms were fairly mild yet by the time we got the machines running.

Have you gotten any intriguing job offers?

[regulatingpressure]

Aside from Engineering, Flight Crew, and Communications?

Slim pickings.

[technologist]

Not surprising, really. Has anyone talked to you about the hallways? We're always looking for ways to map them, though it's a bit of a headache at this point.

[ Because he's totally a genius but Tony Stark is like a Genius and hadn't figured it out, so. ]

[regulatingpressure]

What happens to unmanned bots?

[technologist]

Absolutely nothing. It's the data that's the problem. A few teams mapped the hallways with tech a few months back, but by the time a second wave of teams went out, the data was completely useless.

So basically the mapping itself isn't the problem, more the changes to the environment. I've been working on upgrading a few of the roombas to send them off on their own, but I doubt they'll have better luck. The only real fix is predicting the environmental changes, but again: no real pattern.

[regulatingpressure]

How close has anyone been to reaching the center?

[technologist]

Difficult to say without an accurate map.

[ There's a slight delay. Not because it's taking him long to dig this up, just trying to decide if paraphrasing would do the trick. Probably not. ]

Commander Shepard and one of her teammates got the closest. Something about a white door, but nobody's been to it since. I'll send along a link to her last transmission.

[ waves hands at ]

[regulatingpressure]

Wouldn't be hard to randomize the inner schematics. Mapping's a waste of time - if there's no pattern now, a pattern isn't going to magically show up.

I mean if you want to keep mapping don't let me stop you. You've been here longer than I have.

[ after a few seconds comes another question: ]

Is there anything out there? Besides the white door. Other distinct rooms/wings/whatever.
If so, are they just as random? Or do they hang around certain areas, even if not the exact same place?

[technologist]

Couldn't tell you. Just that it changes, and not in ways that make any sense.

[ Approaching territory he'd rather not get into, here, but: ]

Before Shepard sent that message, some of us got lost in the hallways. The rooms started to change into things we knew, familiar places. Lots of them with familiar people and things, as well, but usually the deadly kind.

So random, yeah. Located wherever they'd like to be. The teams said it'd felt a bit like going downhill as they were moving out, pressure on their eardrums, but that's the only consistency.

[regulatingpressure]

Did the rooms change or did your perception of the rooms change?

[ sorry, fitz - when she's got her mind set on something, she's like a dog on a steak. ]

And by moving out do you mean moving in? In toward the center. Or moving out like coming back?

[technologist]

It was real.

[ Definitely felt real. He gets her point, but the defensiveness is hard to kick. ]

Out as in out into the ship. Like I said, difficult to say if they actually got anywhere near the centre.

[regulatingpressure]

Hey - you asked me to help, so I am.

[ rightful defensiveness, maybe it is. doesn't mean raven's the incredibly sensitive sort either way though. ]

If we can find a way to fight whatever the hallways do to people, we can take steps toward getting in deeper.

I can work on that. Gonna need to do a lot of research first, but it's not like I'm going anywhere fast.

[technologist]

I thought the same thing, actually, but it's easier said than done. Been having a difficult time getting a consistent list of symptoms for recon members to sort out what exactly the impact of the hallways is.

Might be worth checking in with medical.

[regulatingpressure]

I'll add that to the list. [ half-teasing. she really is working her way through the departments here.

after a pause: ]

The way I see it, whoever's on the other end of those hallways knows how to keep us busy with mapping and precautions, and the only real option is to find a way to at least partially neutralize the effects and make a brave, stupid charge full-speed-ahead. Cross your fingers, hope at least one of us makes it.

Not that I'm planning on doing that anytime soon. I'm just looking at logistics.