un: mori

[setpoint]

This morning, I received a message on my communicator from the username m.muller. When I tried to message them back, all I received was an error. I don't recognize her, but maybe someone else will.

[So Mako attaches a video file. There's a woman with frizzy red hair and freckles on screen, looking slightly panicked. "My name is Martina Muller," she says, and her voice is calm and slightly accented. There's a sudden crash behind her, and she cuts herself off with a gasp. "You have to warn the others! There is a traitor on board. Wherever you are, there is a traitor on board, you have to–"

And then the message cuts off.]

It seems like not everyone received it, so it wasn't a network wide broadcast. As far as I can tell, it came from the station, but I don't know where.

I also tried to unlock one of the doors. I've figured out which wires control the locking mechanism, but nothing I did to override or overload them seemed to work. Has anyone else had any luck?

Comments

[setpoint]

[She hesitates for a split second, then shakes his hand.]

My name is Mako. I'm a J-Tech officer and Ranger with the PPDC.

[Not that that matters anymore, but it might be useful for him to know.]

It's nice to meet you.

[donkeyballs]

[He smiles at her warmly, then gives a firm shake, before letting good.]

Mako it is. Good to meet you.

[J-tech....] J-tech refers to those robots you were tellin' me about, right? Jaegers, I think you called them? [He pronounces the word with a hard Jay at the beginning, as if he's mangling the word 'jaguar'. He doesn't know what PPDC means, either, but he assumes it's an acronym for some kind of Earth military unit. Just like he could tell her that he used to fly for the MCRN. It wouldn't mean a hell of a lot, but it put some things in context.

But he didn't fly for Mars, anymore. He flew the Roci, and he flew it for his crew, and anyone they could save. There just wasn't a particular flag they flew under, anymore. (If there ever had been one.)]

[setpoint]

[Mako nods.]

Jaeger. It's a German word. I was an engineer before I was a pilot.

[donkeyballs]

Good, I have a feelin' this bucket of bolts is gonna need as many people as it can get, to figure out how to keep us all alive in it.

I ain't an engineer, but I've been in and out of ship systems all my life, so hopefully we can figure it out, regardless.

[setpoint]

I think we can, as long as we work together.

[Thank the PPDC for that mindset.]

Have you been on a lot of stations like this?

[donkeyballs]

I been on a lot of stations, not sure I can say that they were like this, exactly. Close enough for me to feel weird about what's missin' though.

I'd give my left leg for access to the life support system readouts, right now.

[setpoint]

[Mako tilts her head a bit. That actually brings up a good question.]

What sort of life support systems are there on a station this size?

[donkeyballs]

Everythin' you need to live needs to be supplied by life support. Air, Water, temperature, sewage, recyclin' - you name it.

The ones we're probably most concerned about are air and water - those are the two main systems, and everythin' else feeds into those.

But the food, for example? Those machines that spit it out? They're basically 3d printers, from what I can tell. Which means they need a source for the basic buildin' blocks of the food. Protein. That ain't gonna be endless, either.