IC-Ep 2-The Mystery Deepens(Sofia Torres/George Bond)

[Mr. Handy]

Astrophysics Lab - Styx Base, Pluto
0655 GMT - Tuesday, August 9, 2112

Major Natalia Orlova, Private George Bond, and Private Sofia Torres pushed the gravcart carrying the strange blue box into the astrophysics lab. Once inside, they set it upright at the science chief's direction. "Good," said Major Orlova. "Both of you, please operate the scanner. Let's try to see what's inside this vessel."

OOC,[b]Sofia[/b], please roll Electronics.

[BenTheRat]

Sofia gets behind the scanners console and touches the controls hidden under the console. Each button lighting up as the heat of her fingers excites the instruments, double checking her finger prints to verify she is an authorized user. "alright you blue bitty, show me what you got." After a few seconds and some whirring noises an image is displayed up on the monitor in front of her. "Major you have got to come look at this."

[Mr. Handy]

Sofia scanned the blue box. According to the scanner, the exterior was made of ordinary wood. Yet when she tried to scan its interior, she came up empty. Nothing seemed to be able to penetrate it.

"How is this possible?" Major Orlova asked as she examined the scan results, though she seemed to be talking to herself. "This capsule must be shielded somehow. We must have the key from the prisoners to access it."

[BenTheRat]

"I've rechecked all the settings we should have a clear view of the box. I don't know what's wrong. Do you want me to run the diagnostic on the system?" Sofia said rechecking all her settings.

[Mr. Handy]

"There's probably nothing wrong with them," said Major Orlova, "but it wouldn't hurt to check."

[BenTheRat]

"No problem sir. " Sofia asks George to help her move the box out of the scanner, and puts in the test device that came with the system. She then ran a series of diagnostics. After a few minutes, "System checks out 100% sir. Whatever that box is made of, we can't scan it with our equipment."

[Mr. Handy]

George scratched his head. "We've tried everything we can, ma'am," he said. "I don't think we're getting in without that key."

"It must be shielded, like I said," said Natalia. "I would like to have a word with the prisoners about their craft. Whatever technology is behind it, it could be the answer to all of our hopes. You are both free to do as you wish now." The chief scientist opened the door to her lab and headed out into the corridor beyond.

[BenTheRat]

"Very well sir." A very disappointed Sophia, puts away the gear and powers down the scanner to standby mode. Gathers up her tools and gives the blue box a few choice words under her breath as she passes it by. She heads back to her computer lab.

She then got on the com, "Lt. Hu, this is Private Torres. Have you made it back with the Demeter yet? Do you need me to go download her logs as well?"

[Mr. Handy]

George packed up his tools as well and headed back towards the geology lab.

Sofia got no response. Apparently, Lt. Hu had not yet returned. The personal communicators that every member of the crew carried did not have the range to reach someone who was off the base.

[William]

George's brain churns as he wonders what that...thing could be. As he walks to the geology lab, George radios Sofia via his personal communicator. "Hey, Sofia, you back in the comp lab? You might wanna look somethin' up. I reckon that box at least looks like something from Earth. I mean, it seemed to have glass on it, and wood, right? Even if I couldn't figure out how to get through 'em, those windows still looked like glass. Maybe it's worth takin' a look in the archives? Let me know if you find anything, over." Eager to find out, "I sure hope it isn't something to do with anti-Unification, then we'd have a whole new kind of mess out here."

George continues to head to the geology lab, curious to see if Edward has made any headway on that rock.

[BenTheRat]

"George, just got back. Lt Hu is still out of range, so yea let me see what I can find." Sofia responds.

ooc,if I run a search for the box through the historical database, do I get a match. Do I need to roll a computer check? Is it possible the box shows up in a top-secret govt. file as belonging to the Dr. I know a lot of the newer episodes assume the top of the English govt knows about the doctor.

[BenTheRat]

Did anything show up with the image search?

[Mr. Handy]

George returned to the geology lab, but Lt. Edward Barrett wasn't there.

OOC,[b]Sofia[/b], you'll need to roll Library Use to search for the box in the archives. Even if you fail, you may still find something. This search will take some time.

[BenTheRat]

Sofia cranks up her old Pentium computer to do the search with obviously.

It takes a while but not too long before she finds something at least.

Library Use,[url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3251580/]Library Use target = 70 (1d100=26)[/url]

[William]

George is surprised that Barrett is no longer there. He (Barrett) didn't want to leave to check out the intruders, so whatever it was that pulled him away from his work must have been pretty interesting.... At a crossroads for the time being George waits to hear if Orlova manages to round up a key, or Barrett returns, or Sofia finds anything interesting.

[Mr. Handy]

Sofia ran the search, which took a while only because of the sheer volume of human knowledge stored in the archives. In spite of the optical computer's high speed, it still took a while to return results.

Sofia Torres,[b]Sofia[/b] found one hit on her search rather quickly. According to the archives, the object was identified as a British police telephone box from the middle of the 20th century. In the years before police were issued portable radios, these police boxes served as remote communications terminals. Each one contained enough equipment that it could be used as a miniature police station by constables. It also had a telephone available for public use to contact the police in the event of an emergency. What such an antique was doing here on Pluto was a mystery. Then more hits began to trickle in. Objects similar to this one had been sighted at diverse times and places throughout history. A strange blue "caravan" described much like this one had been given to Kublai Khan by the noted explorer Marco Polo, for example. An object like this also had a disturbing tendency to show up during alien attacks. There was one spotted in Antarctica in 1986, during an attempt by the Cybermen to destroy the Earth, and again on the Earth's moon in 2070 during another Cyberman attack. There was also a sketch of it in Leonardo da Vinci's writings.

George continued to wait, but nobody had contacted him yet.

[BenTheRat]

Sofia read through the different search results with surprise, but then not really as much as she thought she should have been.

"George, your not going to believe what I found."

[William]

"I don't know. With some of the stuff that's been goin' on today I might be willin' to believe more than normal. So what've you got?"

[BenTheRat]

"Its this blue box. It appears all throughout history. Usually when a big conflict is going on. Especially during an alien attack. And considering what just happened..." Sofia trails off a bit there.

[William]

"Wait, has something happened? I was with Barrett earlier, and he said he had found a rock formation that looked like it had been made by intelligent life. Now he's out of the lab. And that announcement about us not being alone. We aren't in for an attack, I hope. If there is a strong correlation, like you say..... The higher in command should probably know about this. I'll track down Barrett and let him know. If he wants to go out to look at those rocks things might get dangerous.

George hails Edward Barrett and waits for a response.