Author Topic: Mind in a Can [Dragonsong] (Read 2600 times)

Daglobster · « **on:** November 11, 2019, 08:27:10 pm »

High over Edanith, the OS-47 Pumping Station floated, shining metal contrasted by the planet's rusty red and green spots.. It was a vaguely cigar shaped station, with two bays with automated fuel umbilicals mounted on the side. A squat ridge that ran along the top served as the top of the crew area while the bottom bulged with internal fuel tanks. The station was large enough to be crewed by about six (with automated support).

It also looked a little run-down, and well... it was off the regular grid, but that just made it more discreet! Discretion that had to have been valued by somebody, because soon enough there was a ship closing in. A small scout vessel, crew no more than ten, slipped in from the void and made for a quick docking procedure.

"Excellent," said Dr. Dawaski, standing in the vessel's cockpit and viewing the incoming station. Dawaski was a russet-haired dwarf with olive-colored skin, notably aged even for one of his kind. he wore a sturdy spacer's jumpsuit with a zipped-tight jacket with the words "Star Gazers" emblazoned on the back.

"While you're at it, get a message out to our buyer on Edanith. Tell him the expedition was a success and we've got his package and more, so he better get his fat wallet ready," he said, and returned to the crew compartment of the Blue Comet, which was the only other room save for the two bunk cabins tht gave the ship it's distinctive " T " Shape. The other members of the Archeoxenological expedition were mulling about, collecting data on what appeared to be a swirling black mass contained in a giant, man-sized crystal, held suspended by electromagnets. The room held other curiosities, old-earth artifacts and the like. Some old and some truly ancient.

Dawaski approached Dav, the scientist currently monitoring the apparatus, and was about to speak when the ship lurched just a bit as it docked with the station.

"How is it?"

"Stable, Dr. Dawaski. Activity levels have been steadily dropping ever since we took it away from Aedolis. A few more days like this and I'd definitely clear it as inactive," he said, and Dawaski smiled.

"Excellent. Nothing could go wrong now."

DragonSong · « **Reply #1 on:** November 13, 2019, 09:25:52 am »

"Docking port B is open for incoming ships, Captain."

Lynn looked up from what she was doing--which happened to be a bit of embroidery work on the black jacket she typically wore--and sat up straighter in the pilot's chair to look through the Wild Rose's viewport.

"Gotcha, Rosie. Thanks."

"Yes, Captain."

Lynn smirked to herself as she guided her ship in toward one of the two bays on the fuel station, flying the machine as easily as if she'd been doing it all her life. Which, considering how long that really was, would have been quite impressive, she supposed.

Captain. Ship AIs were just programmed to refer to their pilots that way, but she couldn't help being a little bit pleased by it. She'd spent some time as a real captain, back in the day, a ship captain; she liked the sea alright, but had ultimately decided a life on it wasn't really for her. This, though? The open vastness of space, distant glitters of stars and planets she wouldn't have even dreamed of reaching as a girl?

She could spend millennia sailing this.

The Wild Rose docked at the second bay and Lynn waited a few moments for the pressure to equalize before she moved to the external doors and scanned her iris so the ship would let her out. She practically bounced down the landing stairs, looking around at the station curiously.

It was just a fueling station, but it was somewhere she'd never been, and that was exciting in and of itself, as far as she was concerned.

Daglobster · « **Reply #2 on:** November 27, 2019, 12:50:48 pm »

Fueling ships and cleaning engines wasn't exactly a lightning-fast process, so OS-47 had several amenities on-board, even if the place was meant for shady vessels that needed a refuel away from the official channels and watchful eyes. One of the few living crew manned a canteen in the common area and there were the kinds of things one could usually find in a more traditional fueling station. A collection of seats around holo-viewing terminals, a communications bay, even a couple of automated dispensers that sold things like scented CO2 filters and other less conventional merchandise such as mild narcotics or whatever other convenient item someone looking for a shady refuel could need.

Coming in from the other fueling bay, Dawaski and his beautiful elven assistant came walking in, alongside a decent number of the Star Gazer's crew. It had been a long, stressful trip to and from Adela and while the Old World ruins they pilfered through weren't exactly open for the public to explore, they were clear now and at this point, nobody could stop them.

"Yes, yes sir. Total success," he said to himself, holding a finger up to an earpiece.

"The artifacts are in the hold, of course. As soon as we get planetside we can transfer the containers..."

He breezed past Lynn, and his assistant gave Lynn a momentary glance of acknowledgement before following Dawaski to the station's canteen.

The other crew were just looking to stretch their legs for a moment, all except for Dav, who hesitated and even looked back towards the boarding tube. There was a thin film of sweat on his face and brow, as if something was severely bothering him. Still, he did his best to calm down, even buying himself a pack of cigarettes to try and calm his shaking hands, even if he'd never smoked before.

As he lit up, he glanced around the room, searching for something that wasn't really there, and shook his head one more time. The rest of the crew didn't seem to notice his plight, instead talking amongst themselves or kicking back while the ship refueled.

He couldn't stop thinking about what they had contained back there. Even when he did, the thoughts always managed to worm their way back in...

DragonSong · « **Reply #3 on:** November 27, 2019, 01:11:15 pm »

Lynn spared the elven woman a quick nod and a smile, but she didn't exactly seem like she was interested in stopping to chat--and honestly Lynn wasn't either. She really just needed the quick refuel before she was on her way again.

Well, maybe she'd grab a bite herself. Shady places like this usually had the supplies she needed to make her own "fuel" in the Rose's on-board kitchen. Which was really more of a lab, when she used it...

The spacer suddenly paused, nostrils flaring suddenly before she screwed her nose up in distaste. Sweat. Fear. Tobacco. And...something else? Something she couldn't quite identify.

What the hells?

She knew her curiosity was really gonna get the best of her one of these days, but... She couldn't seem to stop herself from following the scent toward a stranger who seemed to be fumbling with a lighter and a cigarette. Yeah. Definitely the source of that smell.

"Hey there." Lynn flashed him a smile--not quite showing her teeth--and cocked her head at him in a way that she hoped conveyed friendly curiosity. "You alright, ser? Y'seem a bit out of sorts."

Daglobster · « **Reply #4 on:** January 19, 2020, 12:09:24 am »

"Huh? Oh..." Dav murmured, and he took a breath to steady himself as this... strangely attractive woman suddenly came to speak with him. He wasn't expecting anybody to really come up to him, and he nodded his head after composing himself.

"Just a bad case of Space. Void flight's never been kind to me," he said, although the hesitation to meet her eyes said that something remained hidden. Of curiosity were his eyes, which were bloodshot and wild, and his pupils couldn't quite sit still. It was like he was constantly on alert.

"Makes me sweat, makes me disoriented. Y'know, every day stuff." He combed his hair back with his fingers and took a drag. Finally, he focused on her. Actually, it was pretty easy to pay attention to her, now that his eyes had met hers.

"Shouldn't have taken this job..."

DragonSong · « **Reply #5 on:** January 19, 2020, 08:40:49 am »

Lynn smiled, the expression soft and reassuring, and her eyes seemed to glimmer with some sort of inner light for just a moment. Not magic, not quite, but something very close.

"I think you may be in the wrong line of work then, friend," she chuckled kindly, cocking her head and raising one eyebrow as she gestured at the fuel station around them. "What job is that exactly that's got you so out of sorts, serrah?"

It was a carefully calculated question, though it may not seem so initially. Something was on this station. Something weird. And she'd smelled a hint of it around this man; which meant knowingly or not, he was either involved, or...

Or being hunted.

Easy there. Been a long time since you've met another Hunter. They may not exist in this world. The universe she'd woken to was wide and new and strange. She had no idea if anything like her--or worse than her--even existed anymore...but she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something dark and dangerous lurking around the corners of this place.

Daglobster · « **Reply #6 on:** January 28, 2020, 07:32:28 pm »

"Well, it certainly pays right," Dav said, and something about her managed to calm him a little, especially when he met those eyes of hers. His eyebrows rose a smidge and he found himself chuckling a little when she referred to him as "serrah".

It was like something out of a video game, one of those that took place in the older times.

"Not much of a serrah either, I'm just a stasis tech. Job pays through the nose though. These guys are all big-wig xenologists and archaeologists. Real educated types," he continued. Now that he had someone to talk to and a few drags of cigarettes in his lungs he seemed to improve a little bit.

"Can't talk about much else, though. These kind of things are privately funded, so they like to keep it private, y'know?

He took another puff and pushed off the wall.

"What about you? You're a bit too pretty to just be fueling up at dives like this, what're you up to?"

His communicator started beeping, but he dismissed it with a press of a button so he could keep talking to this friendly stranger.

DragonSong · « **Reply #7 on:** January 29, 2020, 12:19:56 pm »

"Me?" She grinned, though again without showing more than the barest flash of her teeth. "Oh, I'm not all that interesting, I assure you. Just sort of...wandering. Been cooped up for a while and I figured I'd see as much of the galaxy as I could manage once I got out."

Her tone was light, easy, eyes still warm and friendly, not betraying for even a moment just how closely she was listening. How she dissected each word he said, or how her senses were still on high alert, waiting. Almost predatory.

But the dwarf wasn't her prey, nor did she really intent for anyone else on the station to be. It was more like a wolf walking into another pack's territory--simultaneously and conversely both bold and wary of what she might encounter.

Her eyes flickered down to the communicator and she cocked her head. "You don't need to get that?"

Daglobster · « **Reply #8 on:** January 29, 2020, 11:25:28 pm »

Perhaps that feeling Lynn had was more than just a hunch. Even now, somewhere on the docked science vessel, there was a containment unit that held a large, ebony crystal. A void made solid, contained within a magnetic and vacuum sealed containment tank.

Hopelessly, the other stasis tech tried to dial the communicator again, but something had gone wrong. There was a moment right as the ship was turned off to refuel, a lapse in the full containment. A... tendril of invasive intellect had managed to slip through. Slowly building, slowly coming back to consciousness.

It had driven Dav away by making him anxious, and now his fellow technician found her very senses assaulted. Struggling with unseen sensations, she stifled a scream in her mouth just ss her body siezed. She struggled as her limbs started to move against her will, dragged by false visions and puppetry. No time to play with the food.

“If it's really urgent, they’ll radio in again,” he said, shrugging.

“I’m gonna see what kinda food they serve here. Wouldn’t mind you joining,” he continued, unwittingly falling into her vampiric charm, just a little.

“Ain’t too fancy, but I’d love to hear about what you’ve seen out there. ‘Side, I’m payin.”

DragonSong · « **Reply #9 on:** January 30, 2020, 08:41:51 pm »

"Oh. Ah..."

Oh dear. Mortal food. She could eat it, but it usually made her a little sick...

But she just smiled and inclined her head politely--a slightly archaic gesture, but one she couldn't seem to break the habit of. "I would be honored. But I'm perfectly capable of paying my own way--it's enough to have some pleasant conversation. Rare out here in the void," she chuckled lightly.

Internally, she was still on high alert, senses keyed in to that strange otherness that permeated the station.

Daglobster · « **Reply #10 on:** February 03, 2020, 10:14:21 pm »

"Huh. Well, come along anyways," Dav said, and eagerly put some more distance between him and the ship. He couldn't go back, he didn't want to go back. Why... why was that?

Why was he so mortally petrified about returning to the ship? He had to maintain the stasis pod! If the field wasn't adjusted every hour, the field could degrade, and, and...

Either way, he was hungry!

He shook his head, suddenly aware that he'd started browsing the spacer food in a near-trance as the world had started to fall away. Surely, he couldn't have been exposed. He frowned and started picking out some kind of fruit flavored packs of metanutrients.

"So what about you, then? You don't strike me as the average freighter pilot."

The helpless technician couldn't help but stumble and place her hands against something for support. The crystal was a cold, but... welcoming surface. It felt like the warmth of her very mother emanated from the crystal and she managed to stem her tears a little as she embraced it, held it tightly. She relaxed, and the swirling black mass within neared her until it was able to snake tendrils out and lay them against her temples. She sighed in ecstasy as she started to forget her education, her family, interests, then her childhood, life experiences...

...The thing inside took everything, and she silently suffocated against the crystal, having forgotten how to breathe. A series of hair-thin cracks appeared on the crystal.

So close to being free, Kruz'Iik could almost taste it!

DragonSong · « **Reply #11 on:** February 04, 2020, 01:25:13 pm »

"Master Dav?"

Muscling passed some three or four decades of social mannerism conditioning, Lynn reached out to touch his shoulder lightly, a small frown drawn between her brows. "Is...something bothering you?"

Could he sense it to? Not the way she did, a predator accidentally encroaching on another's territory, but... If he could sense it at all, that did not bode well.

Daglobster · « **Reply #12 on:** February 04, 2020, 02:10:28 pm »

Finally, the lifeless tech hit the floor, and the black mass inside the crystal started to swell. The need to survive potentially endless millenia in hibernation had left Kruz'Iik in an almost embryonic state. But now, form was returning. Memories sparking back into activity. Psychic waves started to come more strongly as the crystal's cracks spread out and widened. Two baleful red eyes formed inside and the containment unit started to spark as he focused all of his malice into buckling the inner workings.

"No, no, it's just been a stressful dig. Mr. Dawaski can get pretty insistent when things don't go to schedule. I just need some pretty company and a stiff drink," Dav said, still hell-bent on avoiding anything that might make him remember.

What was he trying to forget?

It seemed he didn't need to wonder for long, because those first waves of his escape washed through the station. Nobody really noticed except for Dav, already sensitive and receptive to Kruz'Iik's emanations, who suddenly froze like a hare that smelled a wolf. And also perhaps Lynn, who'd proven sensitive enough to feel his presence, even when he was contained.

DragonSong · « **Reply #13 on:** February 09, 2020, 03:51:02 pm »

"Mister Dav?"

Lynn stopped when he did, staring at him for a moment before her eyes darted to their surroundings, instinctively searching every shadow. "Something's wrong."

It wasn't a question, though the way she glanced down at her companion was almost curious more than anything else. "What is it? What are you feeling?"

Because she knew it was something. If even her own senses weren't heightened enough to really pick up on any specifics when Dav clearly could, then something else was going on here.

Daglobster · « **Reply #14 on:** February 23, 2020, 07:35:05 pm »

"Something's wrong?" he said, and suddenly the memory kindled in him and once again his expression turned fearful. Suddenly very tense. "I think I know, Lynn... I... I remember what's wrong," he said, but trailed off with a light murmur.

Suddenly, the waves of psychic presence ceased and a pair of boots running on the metal tiles suddenly became audible, as if someone was sprinting down the hallway that led from the Star Gazer’s docking port.

"Dav! Dammit, Dav where are you!" said a woman's voice, and Serina, his fellow stasis tech, came running out into the station from the docking tube. She was young, with doe-ish eyes and concerned tilt to her eyebrows, but she was one of the sharper members of the Star Gazer's crew.

"Serina? he muttered, and broke away from Lynn to approach her. He had a look of relief on his face.

"I was trying to ring you, you need to come loo--"

The station rumbled, and the doors to the docking tubes slammed shut as the automated sealing systems kicked in. From the windows of the station, a flash of dark energy could be seen surging through the vessel's windows. The station went to emergency lighting as fixed lights sparked and some even blew out. Serina yelped and grabbed onto Dav as the station rocked.

DragonSong · « **Reply #15 on:** February 25, 2020, 01:58:20 pm »

"Yes, wrong. I--"

Before she could say anything else the other tech was approaching, looking rather nervous, and Lynn felt that otherness suddenly seem to retreat. She tensed, her eyes flickering around as Dav moved toward his coworker.

No hunter just abandoned their prey, not like that. That was...

Her eyes widened. Ambush.

"Mister Dav, ma'am--!"

Before she could shout a warning, the whole station seemed to vibrate. She hissed as the lighting darkened, then flickered on again. She caught just the barest flash of the darkness behind the windows, and her eyes widened further.

She'd never seen anything like that before.

In a flash--far too quickly for someone ostensibly human to move--Lynn was beside the two techs, a hand on each of their shoulders to urge them forward. "You two need to get out of here, move!"

Daglobster · « **Reply #16 on:** March 05, 2020, 09:47:12 pm »

Indeed, it seemed an ambush was in order. As the ship writhed in its docking clamps and the station shuddered, Serina seemed to collapse almost to her knees and Dav nearly fell himself trying to keep her upright. The Star Gazer's crew started clamoring towards the window to see what was happening even as the fueling station's skeleton crew started to scramble about to get things in order.

Lynn got Serina and Dav up to their feet and the two clutched each other as Lynn ushered them to safety. Dav spotted the entrance to the maintenance corridors and took the lead as he dashed his way across the station's main room.

Suddenly, he bumped into a terrified Dawaski, who clutched at his jumpsuit.

"Waitwait where are you going? Take me with you, I don't want to die in this can!" he said desperately, and like any good employee Dav scooped up Dawaski as well and the four of them all made a break for it, even as something caused one of the ceiling vent covers to pop off and come falling down, scattering crew and scientists alike.

DragonSong · « **Reply #17 on:** March 06, 2020, 06:51:17 am »

Saving another life was all well and good, but they needed to move!

“Get to my ship,” Lynn’s snapped out, pointing them in the direction of her docked craft once they’d scooped up their third passenger. “Go, now!”

She whirled to face the windows, eyes narrowing as she searched the dark. What’s out there?

She glanced back at the technicians and their boss, then around again. Her eyes closed as she drew in a breath, trying to focus on the feeling that had shivered up her spine when she first sensed the thing.

What are you?

Daglobster · « **Reply #18 on:** March 06, 2020, 01:37:31 pm »

To be hunted by a Mindshifter meant that your emotions and perceptions could no longer be trusted. They could masquerade themselves as loved ones, lure you closer by manipulating your senses, or simply disable you by making your brain think your legs didn’t work.

One thing any surviving victim of a Mindshifter attack could tell you was that you should never, under any circumstance, try to make mental contact with one or even address it in your mind. All a Mindshifter needs is a single crack to worm its way in, the barest figment of acknowledgement.

As if to answer her thoughts, a voice boomed into her mind, seemingly rattling the station with its power. Of course, there wasn’t really a booming voice that shook the station, it was all in Lynn’s head.

“I’m closer than you think,” said the voice, sounding pleased with itself.

While Dav couldn’t hear the words being spoken, the feedback of the creature’s mental exertion caused him to collapse, and Serina and Dawaski had to haul him the last few feet and into the airlock.

DragonSong · « **Reply #19 on:** March 06, 2020, 08:49:03 pm »

"Oh, absolutely fucking not."

Lynn threw up her mental walls--she had no idea what this thing was, but she knew enough now to understand that it's main form of attack seemed to stem out psychically. While she wasn't immune to its effects by any means, she was hardly unpracticed in psychic defenses. She'd had to be.

"If we speak, we speak plain, creature," the spacer called out into the blackness, turning in a slow circle as her eyes narrowed, searching the dark. Behind her back, she motioned for the other three to move, go, faster!