Bulkhead 237 - Deck 1 - Port - Station Mare Tranquilis
This compartment is about the size of a medium freighter's cargo bay, with four plain walls, ventilation ducts running overhead, and simple track lighting forming pools of illumination. The center of the compartment is occupied by a transparent plassteel cylinder about ten meters in diameter.
Inside the broad plassteel cylinder, which extends up to the vaulted ceiling and through the deck of this compartment, a giant chandelier of crystals that arc with greenish energy hangs from above. Spread evenly across five points along the radius of the circle are what look like gyroscopes atop an interconnected series of six gears. As the gyroscopes spin, bolts of greenish energy dart across the circle between them. A thick conduit extends from the chandelier into the ceiling, and reappears to travel along the ceiling and the wall to where a console has been bolted into the floor. There is a worktable next to the console.
There's enough latent static electricity in this room to make hairs stand on end.
At a console along one wall is an old Hekayti in a simple robe, making adjustments.
The big array in the middle of the room crackles now and again with energy which arcs in a blue or greenish tint.
"This is Virg Urti ... Ur ... this is Virg," Mack explains, gesturing to the Hekayti who's at work here. "He can answer any questions you might have before we get started."
Virg looks up and smiles beatifically at the congregation that has arrived. His eyes are a little unfocused.
Naoi ignores the fine halo of hair around her head as it responds to the stactic electricity. "You are confident, Sir Virg, that this device will have success? How do you choose where it is you wish to go or is it simply randomized?"
"Professor Urtigorgramlatoveil!" Dement calls to the Hekayti with a wave.
Volidana blinks entire aura turning bright purple and remaining that way for a long beat, for a moment her eyes take on a far away look as though she has mentally gone somewhere else. a long white finger extend to point up at the green crystals hanging within the cylynder "What are those and where did you get them?
"Hello, Dee," Virg says. He nods. "Good to see you again." The Hekayti looks up from his work and clasps his hands. "The crystals are foci for the energy at play here, much the same as you would see in directing a laser or a pulse blast," he says, in accented Standard. "I am confident the device will do what we want it to today, which is to prove that we are thinking along the right line." He smiles. "Thanks in part to Dee, we are able today to demonstrate, I hope, a mathematical understanding of movement in dimensions other than the four we know so well -- not applied as we do in certain types of faster-than-light travel, which moves us through an additional dimension as a means of traveling between two points in our own, but to convey matter in a stable fashion from one space-time to another. I will today push a small collection of nuclei from this universe to another one; we should, through the instrumentation here, be able to pick up residue coming back across that connection that spectroscopy will indicate came from somewhere other than here."
Virg, an old Hekayti, is explaining the sciencey, highly energized apparatus that dominates the center of this room.
Lucius is just about finished his cigarette at this point. He approaches a nearby garbage can and extinguishes the cherry on it, then chucks the butt inside. He looks mildly disturbed at the whole experiment chamber - but that's probably because he's a luddite. He grabs onto his sling, holding tightly. He, like the others, watches closely to the Hekayti scientist.
Naoi nods, perhaps at Virg's explanation, or simply the passion in which he delivers it. "I am eager to see if your work has come to fruition." One hand drops to her swordhilt, a common posture of readiness assumed. "When and how do we began?"
Virg claps his hands. "Now!" He says, and walks over towards the instrumentation again.
With fanfare, Virg adjusts a dial on the console. The lights dim again, and the static electricity in the room becomes even more palpable. Short hairs stand on end.
Griss slips in the back while Virg is in the middle of his explanation, and quietly moves to join the others in the audience. He keeps the hand with the red bracelet in his pocket, and uses his other hand to adjust his shades so as to get a clear look.
Volidana hms "you are attempting to open a stable rift with no... Vrig's action cuts her off nicly and she draws a breath and holds it
Naoi hisses as well, a sharp intake of air as the internalized pressure rises alongside the fine hairs of her arms.
Dement sniffs.
Anshera skitters up behind Dement, the child reaching out for his hand again so she can tug on it to get his attention, "What's going on?" She inquires, looking past to Virg, "One does not understand." She doesn't seem to notice the increase in static electricity.
As Virg manipulates dials and levers, a tiny blue point of light forms in the middle of the bell-jar-esque cylinder at the center of the room.
"Yes!" Virg exclaims, switching into fast-paced and highly scientific Hek -- something about excited nuclei.
There is a white flash of light that strikes the room like lightning, and the blue point of light becomes bigger. Jagged edges form. The blue point becomes a vertical line of energy about a foot long.
"Uh-oh. That doesn't look good." Lucius mumbles to himself. He doesn't make any moves, though.
MacNamara touches a finger to his ear. "Ah, aha," Mack says. He nods. "Do it." He turns to the group and smiles a tight smile. "Fascinating, isn't it?"
Naoi is forced a step back by this sudden influx of energy, one arm rising to shield her eye and face as she stares at the widening rift with something between Lucius' concern, and wide-eyed fascination.
Griss intakes his breath with a sharp hiss, and distances himself from the back of the crowd. Anyone actually looking at the Grimlahdi could be forgiven for thinking he's getting ready to dive out the door in the chance something explodes.
Volidana is staring at this point. One might notice that her right and only remaining hand is clenched into a tight fist as she watches. Likewise her teeth are clenched but necessity has caused her at least to exhale
Virg's eyebrows raise. "It worked!" he says, jabbing an excited claw at the console in front of him. "The reading confirm! There are particles in there from another place and time!" His voice trails off. "But. There shouldn't be that /many/. Hm." He reaches to turn down the dial. The lights flicker and brighten again. The rift appears to become less bright, and perhaps a little smaller.
MacNamara relaxes visibly. "Phew!" He says. "That was close." He turns to give those assembled a shit-eating grin. "Exciting, huh?"
"Ew." Dement says, pulling his hand away from Anshera and frowning down at her, "Pay attention," he mutters, "I'm not here to talk to you." his attention is only split, however, away from those rifts.
Naoi lowers her arm once she seems confident that things are under control, placing a hand against her heart and allowing herself a relieved sigh. "Incredible."
Lucius is not relieved. He mumbles to himself, "Godsdamned technology and all its pox ridden sisters."
As the rift appears to wind down, something emerges from that point of blue light at its center. Is that ... is that a claw?
Volidana relaxes just slightly.for about a milisecond "Vol's dark" she mutters and one need not be vollistan to infer the woman has cursed
Virg frowns. He's looking at the controls. "That's not right," he says.
"There should be fewer particles now, not more."
"Uh," says Mack. "Guys?" He just points.
Naoi's head snaps back up at Virg's commentary, and then focuses on the claw, her sword suddenly free of its sheath. "Can you 'close' it, Virg?"
"You are cruel." Anshera snorts to Dee, swiping lightly at his leg with her claws - for a scratch at best, if they even get through his clothing - before she turns to patter back to Naoi. Then there's all this trouble and scientific talk that means just about nothing to her, the child giving Naoi's hand a tug, "One told you he was cruel." She points out, then, "What is the problem?"
Lucius pulls his rifle off of his back and cocks it, chambering a round. He keeps it lowered to the ground. "I fucking hate myself right now." He says.
"I did!" Virg exclaims to Naoi. "At least, I thought I did!"
The claw, however, has other ideas. It pushes its way further into the chamber from wherever it's coming from. The claw becomes two claws, then two more facing the other way. The rift widens as if the claws were literally pulling it open. The lights flicker and dim again; one of the crystals above the assembly explodes, the plassteel case it's in absorbing the blast but sending shards darting noisily inside the case.
The claws are attached to monstrous scaly red hands. The hands are each easily the size of Anshera's torso.
"How odd." Dement fields lowly, and now that Anshera has left him alone he meanders, with what's either a severe lack of perspective on the situation or a front of casuality, towards the Hekayti. "Could it be possible we had underestimated the exponential energy that would be required to forcibly seal this?" the question is fairly low and in the scientist's native language, Dee not turning his gaze away from the rift.
Griss has backed up against the wall, but seems to be keeping a cold-blooded calm. Be leans to glance out the door and into the hall, checking that there's a clear line of retreat if anything gets through the portal.
You pemit "It looks clear. The corridor is long, and there are manually-dogged hatchways at regular intervals. There are also grates securing access to what will clearly someday be a hoverlift system, but as of now are just a warren of empty tunnels." to Griss.
Naoi steps forward to shield Anshera from the beast slowly pulling itself out of the void, her one eye showing quite a bit of white. "I think that would just be the start of it. Stay back, Anshera. I do not think it comes in peace, but I am not comfortable seeking to press aggression lest I am sure it is hostile."
Volidana looks toward the exit to the room "We may want to leave and seal the room off. I don't think that chamber was built for whatever in Vol's name that is
Lucius nods at Volidana. "Yep, prolly an idea. Mac? Your call, buddy." He keeps his weapon aimed lower than the claws, but is ready to raise it at a moment's notice. His ice blue eyes are fixed on the point.
"Yes," says Virg. "It is possible." He manipulates some controls on the dial at Dee's suggestion.
The rift is limned with crackling blue energy, a blue that becomes brighter and more intense as Virg manipulates the dial. Inside the rift is pitch black, then: A pair of orange eyes. As Virg increases the pressure, it looks like the rift is getting smaller, but through it juts an angry, skeletal, red-skinned face: With pitted cheekbones, two rows of long fanged teeth on its upper and lower jaw, no nose, and four forward-facing horns, this demonic creature roars in anger.
But it's not alone. A smaller greenish creature, with skin that seems to be melting off its six spindly clawed limbs and its pointy-eared, doglike snout as it moves, squeezes past. It is now almost halfway through the rift; the arms of another critter reach for the rift's edges and push.
One of the lights overhead explodes, and all of hte lights go out, casting the room momentarily in darkness save for the glow from Virg's console and the demonic rift.
"Yes," Mack says, nodding. "It's not safe. Get them to one of the bulkheads and seal the hatch behind you." He gestures to Naoi, Anshera, Volidana et al, including the knot of people who came to watch this experiment fail so spectacularly. Those folks are not handling this nearly as well as the hardy Outversers who are present.
Griss doesn't need to be told twice. In fact, he probably didn't even need to be told once. By the time Mack's finished talking, the tip of the Grimlahdi's tail has dissapeared into the hallway. With the lights out, he reaches up and slips off his shades, tucking them away inside his coat. From another pocket he pulls out a black cylinder that just fits in the palm of his hand.
Volidana likewise glows, a purplish form consciously brightening in an effort to find the exit and direct others there, hurrying as fast as feet will carry
"Potentially, you have started a reaction to transfer matter, and one that will keep the rift open for as long as the reactive process is ongoing." Dement's mumbling is taking a little pace now, and he's backed against one of the control consoles to find that there is no more space behind him. He fumbles at his waist, tapping the belt torch with a stammered hand.
"FUCK! I left my NVGs in my pack!" Lucius says, frowning deeply. A finger lifts up to activate the night vision option on his scope but.. this only gives him a narrow portal to look through. He lifts the rifle. "Go, go, go! Get the fuck out!" He yells at everyone else. "Gimme the okay to shoot, Mac!"
Anshera doesn't seem much to want to stay back, and she makes to slip past Naoi and head towards the emerging creature.
Nao is retreating slowly, hand on her hilt, as the creatures advance. At least until Anshera slips past her, and toward the creatures, drawing a strangled curse from the priest as she desperately attempts to grab hold of the recently reborn's arm and drag her away from her reckless goal.
The first smallish creature stumbles all the way out of the rift, shaking slime in several directions as it looks around. It hisses at Volidana through the plassteel that separates it from her, and when she runs, it tries to run after her. THUD! It slams against the plassteel barrier. THUD! It tries again.
The second smallish creature gets out of the rift too, now, and leaps over its compatriot to attempt the same thing with no success.
Other creatures start to slink through: Now something that looks like a black-furred lemur with two glowing blue stripes on its fur and shining black eyes, which pads off to one side and just sits, watching Virg. Now a monkey-like creature with wings and three talons each on its four limbs, scratching against the plassteel up near the ceiling.
That big guy pushes his shoulders through the rift even as it closes down below, cutting off any more than the eight or so critters that have made it through so far.
"It is working," says Virg, "but the -- something is too strong! It's keeping the rift open somehow!" Virg says this as if puzzled by it; it's clear he has yet to realize that there literally IS SOMETHING holding the rift open. With enormous claws.
Mack shakes his head. "Protect Virg and Dee," he says. "If the plassteel barrier breaks, then you are cleared to fire." He looks around to make sure the others have made their way clear of the room.
Volidana stands just on the other side of the door now watching while the others exit. She attempts to mentally gauge the presence of any emerging psis are present so that communication might prove possible
Lucius decides screaming is a good idea at this time. He aims it at the two scientists. "Either shut that thing off or get the FUCK out of here!"
You paged Griss with 'Departing, you find Kronk sitting on the floor in the airlock, and a hoverloader rammed into the airlock's inner hatch door - inner meaning the one going back to the rest of the station. It's sealed shut, y'see. Kronk is on his commlink.'
"Bloody hell! You're not going to figure it out with a spectroscope! LOOK AT THAT THING!" Dement sobs, as the beast continues to successfully navigate the portal, "We uh, we uh, oh - you've lost one of the crystal amplifiers - you had a icosahedron before but now it's lopsided... Could you cut it down to a tetrahedron - use the spare ones to amplify their neighbours? If we don't lose anything else, we could try the same procedure before, push that /thing/ back so we can close the -" the engineer looks across to Mack for a moment as Lucius, "Professor?!"
You pemit "There is a psion here, among the creatures that came through or are coming through the rift. But it's too confusing at present to tell which one is which." to Volidana.
A miss for Naoi, as 'Shera scoots fearlessly closer to the big guy, speaking to in it some fey tongue. From the tone it seems like she's fronting that she's happy to be friends with the big scary thing, or maybe trying to be soothing and keep it calm. Hard to tell.
Griss's tail swishes behind him as he stalks down the hallway, making for the door they came in through. The Grimlahdi's neck spines are raised in alarm, and he tries to keep to the shadows as best he can with only the emergency lighting on.
"I can't do it alone!" Virg says to Dee, looking quite distressed. "I need your help. I, I -- oh, Grandfather, I am so sorry!" He just now saw the creature trying to make it through the rift. 'All right," he says to Dee, tension in his voice. "A tetrahedron. You seem to understand the geometry. Verify that it is correct and I will handle the power dynamics." To Mack and those assembled, he says, "We just need a little more time!"
The lemur-lookin' guy in the corner, the calm, quiet one, with the black fur and two glowing blue stripes on its cheeks? It blinks at Volidana, then at Anshera. Then it looks intently at the plassteel, where its more enthusiastic colleagues are slamming themselves against it repeatedly.
CRACK. A spiderweb forms in the plassteel. The drippy, slimy demons slam themselves against it once more, in concert. The spiderweb grows a little larger.
The big demon guy has one arm all the way through and is trying to pull his other arm free.
If he can hear Anshera talking to him in all this din, he makes no sign.
"Lucius," Mack says, licking his lips. "I think you might get to shoot your gun after all ..."
You pemit "In the airlock hatch, Kronk is just pulling himself to his feet. He walks over to where the hoverloader Umishi was using has been slammed into the airlock's inner hatch, which is now shot. He examines the hoverloader, kicks it experimentally. The hatch is shut tight; whatever may have made it out of the rift since Griss left, looks like he's stuck in here with it for the time being." to Griss.
Volidana likewise makes effort at communication projecting general greeting hello!
Naoi steps forward quickly, advancing on the plassteel barrier. Once she is near, she begans to draw her psionic energy to herself, and then forcing it hopefully past the tangible wall and began to swell the temperature within the improvised oven to painful or even lethal levels.
"GET THE FUCK OUT NOW!" Lucius says. "They're gonna burst it!" The Martian takes up a position near the door, leaving enough room for people to escape. "Move, move!"
Griss hisses as he tries the door to no avail, and turns to scan the hall behind him as if to verify that he's alone. He flicks his tongue, tasting the air, and then begins retracing his steps towards the experimental chamber.
"Okay!" Dement nods across to Virg, "The primary array should be-OHNO..." he's distracted by the shatter web now growing on the glass with a predictable goal, and for a moment he stares in silence. Of course, it had been previously noted that Dement's brain and his body were often considerably detached from each other, and his body has the apparent survival instinct important for a situation like this. The engineer, or his arms at least, spin and bring up displays on the console he's stood against, he brings up the array controls for the crystal amplifiers and, using the simple control system, sets them reflecting into each other in the shape of a tetrahedron as he suggested, with the spares contributing superficially. The engineer's expression seems to have found an off switch, and he retains the pale, shocked expression as though the wind changed while holding it.
You pemit "Aside from Kronk -- who isn't doing much of anything -- Griss is in fact alone." to Griss.
"GET THE FUCK OUT NOW!" Lucius says. "They're gonna burst it!" The Martian takes up a position near the door, leaving enough room for people to escape. "Move, move!"
Giving a faint smile to the big guy trying to get through, 'Shera moves to get much closer than's good for anyone's health and even reaches to pat at the creature's giant hand. She speaks again to the creature, or tries at least, as she chooses to do it telepathically ~You seem rather like fun, you know~
The lemur look-alike blinks owlishly at Volidana, then at Anshera. They both receive a cool feeling of greeting easily identifiable as coming from it, not unlike what Kastaprulyi's greeting may have felt like -- if Kas was a sociopath.
The slime that the two creatures have left on the plassteel as they attempt to break it becomes more slick as condensation joins their secretions, the temperature and humidity having gone up inside that plassteel cage.
THUD! THUD! CRACK! The plassteel shatters under the force of the creatures' repeated attacks. One manages to thrust a clawed hand through an opening in the plassteel and grab some on the way back, pulling the hole they've opened a little wider. The other one starts to kick at the plassteel; its spider-webbed expanse bows outward. It will shortly cease to be a barrier and start to be gravel.
The big demon, like a maintenance worker pulling himself out of a manhole, pulls himself free of the rift to the waist. He roars his defiance at Dement and Virg -- just as the engineers' work shuts the rift despite his armored carapace, severing his body at the waist. Howling in rage and anger, he starts to claw his way towards the nearly destroyed plassteel barrier.
The flying monkeylike creature at the top of the cage flies down, though, smelling blood, and starts tearing at the demonlike creature's wounded midsection.
"Get ready," Mack says uneasily. He steps back to the door, putting Lucius between him and the creatures, and himself between the creatures and Volidana.
Damn the rules of engagement. They don't apply anymore now that the barrier has been shattered. So, then, Lucius does what any good gunslinger in his situation would do - he fires off a burst of lethal 6.5mm bullets at the creatures. They didn't look happy anyways.
MacNamara speaks on his commlink in hushed tones.
Volidana shivers at the psionic touch but endeavors to answer with a feeling of gentleness
Being somewhat of a sociopath herself, Anshera finds nothing disturbing about the greeting feeling she recieves. In fact, she titters with absolute delight, clapping her hands lightly and looking back towards Naoi, "They're rather cute!" She exclaims towards the Fastheldian and the others.
Griss sidles up to the door of the laboratory, pressing his back to the wall, and leans around to look through and gauge the situation inside. His body is tense, and he extends the blade of the knife he's been concealing in his palm - just in case.
The feeling of gentleness is responded to with a sensation of intense hunger, only from Volidana's perspective it must be the feeling of someone who is hungered for, more precisely.
Volidana endeavors to shut her mind tight drawing into herself as if preparing for attack
Dement turns back to view the broken panelling, standing with the Hekayti scientist and keeping as low a profile as he can.
Naoi continues to retreats from the cage, broken shard of plassteel in her palm. "Anshera, that is perhaps the least safe place you could be right now..."
"Oh, do you think they shan't be friends with One?" Anshera inquires a bit dissapointedly to Naoi, the child only scooting back a little bit. Then, to one of the critters, assuming it goes through, ~One should rather like to play with you, you know~
"The rift has closed!" Says Virg, over the sound of shattering plassteel as the case comes down. "There will be no more --" he begins. And then the gunfire continues, striking one of the two slimy creatures in the head and felling it. The other one, though, perhaps sensing weakness, lunges straight for Virg. The old bull can't move nearly quick enough as the creature, amazingly fast, crosses the entire distance in a single leap and lands with its foreclaws on Virg's shoulders. Tilting its neck to avoid impaling itself on Virg's horns, the creature takes a chunk out of the side of the Hekayti's head, getting some gore on Dement in the process.
The other critters seem to be hanging back, waiting. One is content to gnaw on the red demon, cut off at the waist, as it slowly dies, howling in pain.
The lemur-like creature stares at Anshera now.
You pemit "~Come to me,~ the lemur-creature sends to Anshera, cocking its head at the girl." to Anshera.
Rises up so he's fully standing now. "Peeling back after this burst, then we're sealing the fucking room! Get out NOW!" Lucius fires a burst at the thingie who just ate some Hekayan head, then does as he says - he pulls back out of the room.
Volidana obediently retreats further from the exits. Her attempts at nicities having been staunchily rejected
"Oh." Dement says, as he's almost completely cleared by the creature now attached to the Hek he was standing next to. Blood sprays the engineer in the face, leaving him looking like a measles patient. He blinks, a hand raising to dab at the blood on his cheek. "Urr." he manages, and he takes a step back, keeping his gaze on the monster next to him. He bumps into one of the consoles, tripping backwards onto his arse.
Naoi is quick to assist him though, slipping arms under Dement's to help him back on his feet so they may retreat from the press of alien lifeforms. "Come, Scholar."
~No no, you should come to me because they're going to seal the room. One does not wish to be sealed in here, but she still wishes to play~ Anshera tells the creature, giving it a toothy little smile before she turns and patters after Naoi and Dement.
The lemur-like creature watches ANshera go without further comment, as the humanoids are allowed to make their escape while the critters feed on the kills they already have.