Lhandon_Nilsen Posted November 24 Posted November 24 You know the mission is good when the sims that are produced are absolutely top shelf. This sim is such a thrill. @Jania Nis Quote ((Bullpen, Temporal War High Command, circa 2900)) As Caras and Caras went to work creating an ad-hoc network through their communicators to send a message into the past, Nis and Nis watched in silence. Jania stared at her symbiont’s future host, wishing she knew what to say. How many lives had Nis experienced? What happened to Jania? What challenges would they face? But anything like that seemed off-limits. As for Susru, Jania already knew she hadn't had an easy life, but instead one marked by war and violence. So why make her talk about it? S Nis :: whispering aside: :: I know what you’re thinking. J Nis: We’re sure you do. S Nis: I can’t tell you much about your own future, but don’t trust the Andorian with the broken nose. Of all the useful things Susru could have told her, this was perhaps the least useful. She glanced around, wondering if she’d missed an Andorian in the room with them, but there was none. J Nis: Huh? M Caras: Sir ::looks to Promontory:: would you like to be the one to record the message for the crew? We can then make a copy and try and place it as close as we can to the range of the others. When it gets there, we can then have it send the message to all communicators in its radius. Promontory: Yes. And we need enough of them to be energized so that the lattice will reform across the rest and snap everyone back to our own era, right? Elanoria: (battling off a desire to add more nuance) Yes, in essence. Jania glanced at Susru, who seemed not to be listening. She was staring at the exit doors to the bullpen, her jaw tight. S Nis :: mumbling to herself :: Here we go. :: turning to Jania. :: Give me your scalpel. J Nis: :: But it’s broken … Despite this, she took the scalpel out of the medical kit on her belt. The handle was a polymer resin that looked like ivory, and it had a small inscription on it: -- Let your heart guide your hand. Love, M- -- The blade was obsidian, knapped by Jania herself. The hammerstone had slipped and she’d nearly broken her thumb while making it. But the blade was cracked in half; only a jagged fragment was left embedded in the handle. It had been ruined in her first fight with the cultists, back on the Butler. Susru jerked it from her hand without giving Jania time to contemplate it. As she did, another klaxon alarmed and the room was bathed in emergency lighting. M Caras: What is that? Something worse than a Time quake? Elanoria: It’s security, we’re on lock down… Someone is trying to breach the BullPen. M Caras: Breach us? How? It had to be the cultists out to vaporize them. V Caras: We don’t know what kind of technology that they have, they are from after our time. It could be anything. Our field protects us from most things temporal, as well as energy… Which could mean they are using raw force, or other some technology we’re unaware of. The door burst into a vibrant purple light which let off white sparks. As the door seemed to age in front of them, the whole room filled with the pungent scent of iron oxide. Elanoria: Don’t worry, these doors can last for thousands of years. It will hold… maybe… We have to work fast. Inform your crew. Promontory: (with rising panic) On it! He pressed the indicated button on the modified combadge. Promontory: ==/|\== This is Commander Promontory to any time-displayed Butler crew. We have a solution to get back to our own time, but we need you to find the shards of the time crystal as we reenergize them. Oh, and avoid the Loom Cultists. (beat) Best of luck, Promontory out. ==/|\== Avander nodded, confirming the message should be sent. Caras: Response J Nis: But they can’t send a message back. Whatever energies were affecting the door seemed to speed up. Promontory: One way communication will have to do. (beat) But I trust our crew. They’ll do what they need to. Caras: Response J Nis: Now we need to find the time crystal and charge it. S Nis: We’re about to. The door imploded in a dizzying array of colors. Their attacker from before was back, but now there were two of them. Elanoria: Behind me. Now! She got a shot off, but the cultists had some sort of energy shield blocking the shot. They trained their weapons on Elanoria and fired. It happened so fast, they could barely even see her age and decay—she just became a pile of ash in a moment. The temporal soldiers squared up, activated shielding of their own, and laid down suppressing fire. But none o it made it through the cultists' shield. Jania ducked behind the workbench with Avander, but Susru stayed by her desk. Cultist 1: All we want is the El-Aurian! Promontory: Could use a weapon about now. Caras: Response S Nis: Wait! You don’t need Avander. There’s already a Loom here! One of the cultists ceased firing and glanced at his colleague. Cultist 1: She’s bluffing. We would know. Our sensors… S Nis: Your sensors are calibrated incorrectly. They’re still set for 3200. :: standing from behind the shield :: You have to understand, Nis and I know what’s going to happen. Nis remembers. With her hands raised, she walked toward the cultists. Jania grabbed Susru’s leg, but Susru removed her hand with shaking fingers. S Nis :: whispering :: Don’t try to stop me, or you might succeed. She gritted her teeth and returned her attention to the cultists. S Nis: When you arrived, there were four of you. Now there are only three--soon to be two if you don’t get that sensor adjusted. Of the two cultists, one was clearly more uncertain than the other--but even the more resolute leader frowned at this comment. Cultist 1: There always were only three. The two of us and Remanj. S Nis: Three that you remember. The fourth was devoured just minutes after you arrived, before the first timequake. Cultist 1: Impossible! S Nis: Why? Your presence here causes as much of a paradox as Avander’s. Now you’re just as tasty to the Loom as he is. If I help you calibrate your sensor, you’ll understand. By then, Susru was close to the cultists. The lower-ranking cultist glanced at his leader, then took one hand off the weapon he’d used to kill Elanoria and reached for an instrument on his belt. Susru lowered her hand as if to reach for the instrument. Instead, she produced Jania’s scalpel. Before the cultist could react, Susru jammed the blade into the powerpack on the cultist’s weapon. The leader screamed in rage and grabbed Susru from behind, his arm around her neck. But it was too late. The powerpack on the weapon sparked before exploding. It released a wavering purple energy which spread out over the room, aging everything in its path, the same way the doors had aged. The only thing that stopped it was the shields the temporal soldiers had set up, and even these crackled under the force of the explosion. As with Elanoria, the cultists and Susru aged impossibly fast as Jania watched, eyes wide. But it wasn’t just the living beings that were aging; the trophies on the desks of the temporal soldiers dulled, cracked, and fell before the desks themselves collapsed, and the bulkheads behind them rusted, too. S. Nis :: her voice pained and weak :: Jania, don’t look! Forcing her eyes closed, Jania let out a scream of terror. A moment later, it was quiet, and all that remained was dust--dust and the sliver of the time crystal, sitting where one of the cultists had been. Without a charge, it looked like any other crystal, a quartz with a slight greenish tint. But Jania didn’t see it; she sat on the floor with her hands pressed against her face. Promontory/Caras: Response Before they could do much, though, one of the screws on the rusted bulkhead burst inward, and the lights in the compound flashed red. Computer: Warning: Depressurization event imminent. The remaining temporal soldiers shouted in panic. Promontory/Caras: Response Tags/TBC Ensign Jania Nis Medical Officer USS Octavia E. Butler NCC-82850 O240108JN2 she/her/they/them (character accepts either); he/his (player) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USS Octavia E. Butler – StarBase 118 Star Trek PBEM RPG" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sb118-butler+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. 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