video; @nines - 7/19 & UPDATED 7/20

[twoaffirmations]

This is 9S.

[The video feed starts, showing a familiar looking android in a very unfamiliar location. It's the hangar bay, with two ships seated behind him. He's smiling brighter than he has in awhile, obviously feeling pretty good about himself after such a major breakthrough.]

As of last night, Haruto and I have unlocked the hangar doors. There's two large ships that look usable, but they need a command code in order to even get the doors open.

There's also four of these vehicles...? [9S points the camera at a set of rovers, and then pans over to show off the surface probes.] And a dozen of these weird things.

[Sorry, he really has no idea what they're called. He's not an astronaut.]

Anyway, it shouldn't take long to break the code for the ships, but I'm betting everything else needs a code too. They sure had this place locked up tight.... It's probably for the best if we keep all the equipment in the hanger bay for now. I don't think we'll be getting any replacement parts.

~~~~~~

[VOICE] @nines

[A day passes, and there's another post by 9S on the network.]

This is 9S again.

I've cracked the first command code for one of the ships. It took longer than I expected, so any help is appreciated. There's still a long way to go.

[Then, a bit more off the cuff.] Um... We also might want to figure out if anyone can even fly these things? Yeeaah...

[He won't mention the voice he swears he heard after unlocking the ship. A woman's voice chiding him, "Do you even know how to fly these things?"]

[ ooc: I won't be making a log for the unlocking specifically, but this post can be used to have characters offer help and segue into action (or simply do it off screen). Mods said it will take 10 days for the codes on the ship and crawlers to all be unlocked. Feel free to threadjack, etc. ]

Comments

[twoaffirmations]

But...there's gravity in here? Wouldn't that...?

[9S is not well educated on any of the finer details of human anatomy, let alone what being in space does to the body.]

[marineris]

[Poor 9S. Humans are weird.]

Spin gravity, sure. That'll never compare to a real planet. Even those of us who were born in a gravity well have to keep up resistance training on a station like this, or our muscles will atrophy. There isn't as much force for a human body to work against up here.

[twoaffirmations]

Well we have a gym, right? Then there's no problem? The humans who were born on a space station would have had those too.

[Could those humans really not return to Earth? What about the ones back home, on the Moon? There's a distinct, nagging feeling in his black box.]

The probes can probably give us a reading on the gravity...

[marineris]

Yeah, but that's different. When you're growing, the damage done to your bones can be irreversible. It's not a matter of maintaining bone density and muscle strength at that point—trying to prepare to set foot on a planet would be like trying to build off of a foundation that's not even there. Does that make sense?

[twoaffirmations]

So there's really nothing we can do...? It's not like we're going to abandon the station, but being stuck up here...

[9S sounds crestfallen, like all the hope had been drained right out of him. Leaving even a few humans behind made him feel like he'd failed.]

[marineris]

I don't know. There are drugs that can help, but I'm guessing there isn't a stash of those on this station.

[twoaffirmations]

[There's a long silence, nothing but ambient noise to indicate that 9S is still on the line.]

...What about humans stationed on a Moon base? Would they have the same complications?

[marineris]

Maybe. It would depend on the moon, I guess, and how good the medical care is. I'm not sure.

[twoaffirmations]

[Clawing for just a shred of hope, 9S presses on.]

Let's say it's Earth's Moon. What then?

[marineris]

Where I'm from, Luna has top notch medical care. It's an important diplomatic location, and people go back and forth between it and Earth all the time.

[twoaffirmations]

... [The circumstances are completely different from the Moon and the Earth he knows back home. It doesn't give him much hope, but there's nothing else he can ask. Then, as if he never mentioned it at all, 9S backtracks.]

So what kind of medicine are we looking for? We recently got access to the medbay.

[marineris]

[The slight shift catches her off guard.]

Uh... It might not have the same name here. Back home, the bone density enhancer we used is called Osteo-X. Usually anti-nausea meds, too—hard to keep your lunch down when you're not used to looking up at a sky.

[twoaffirmations]

Right...okay. I'll let Alucard know. [There's not much of a point in him looking himself. 9S just wasn't versed in this sort of thing.]

If anyone can find it, I'm sure he can.