Play@YSDC

Astrophysics Lab - Styx Base, Pluto
0600 GMT - Tuesday, August 9, 2112

1st Lieutenant Hu Xiang was preparing his latest experiment while Major Natalia Orlova looked on with interest. Xiang looked forward to impressing the chief scientist with his brilliance. The large particle accelerator buried beneath the base that he had designed was finally ready, and he hoped to find some way of breaking the light speed barrier, perhaps by finding and isolating the theoretical particles known as tachyons that could travel faster than light - if such things existed. Everything was prepared for its first test, a simple matter of racing some protons around the track.

"Khorosho," said Natalia, a word which Xiang knew meant "good" in Russian. "Let's see what this accelerator can do."

OOC,[b]Xiang[/b], please roll Physics.

OOC,Not a good way to start the session off. Hopefully that was his comfort level on this experiment? Don't want to blow up the base before a creepy crawly gets the chance to. [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3179459/]Physics roll - 71% (1d100=80)[/url]

With Major Orlova standing so close, it could be counted as surprising that her enthusiasm is not rubbing off on Hu. "Bu, not quite yet."

OOC,Don't worry, it will take more than a few stray protons to destroy the base. ;)

When Xiang completed his checks, Major Orlova gave him the order to start up the accelerator, which he did. Unfortunately, the protons collided with the wall of the accelerator instead of speeding around the track as they are supposed to do.

"What could have gone wrong?" wondered Major Orlova aloud, checking the readings. After a few minutes, she nodded to herself. "Ah, here is the problem. You need to reverse the polarity. The electromagnets must have a positive charge to repulse the protons and keep them from colliding with the wall. Right now they have a negative charge."

Hu hangs his head at the simple overlook. His thoughts are kept to himself in this matter. Told you so has never been acceptable terms in his mind, but they fought for verbalization at this point in time. He hurries himself to go about reversing the polarity in the tube. (I assume this is done through the system rather than needing a physical swap.)

OOC,Correct.

Hu Xiang reversed the polarity and attempted to restart the accelerator. This time it functioned as expected. The protons zipped around the track at high speed without colliding with the walls.

Major Orlova nodded, checking the readings. "All parameters are normal," she said.

Xiang nods. "Hopefully that will be the only hiccup we experience," he says as he continues to watch the readings.

Both Lt. Hu and Major Orlova continued to monitor the experiment, which ran smoothly. The major nodded again. "Excellent," she said. "All systems are functioning properly. Later we can run some more interesting experiments. It will take a great deal of power to get subatomic particles up to near-light speeds. Trying to breach the light speed barrier would require an infinite amount of power, unless we can come up with a breakthrough."

Xiang nods. "I would blame Einstein for pointing out this limitation, but that would be pointlessly killing a courier. Besides, nothing is set in science. Rules are to be broken. And where better to break them then here?"

"Indeed," said Major Orlova. "I think wormholes may prove to be the key to traveling faster than light."

Before she could continue this thought, an alarm began to ring. "Attention!" shouted a voice from an unseen speaker. "Security breach in Tertiary Storage!"

The alert cut off Xiang's own train of thought. "Ta ma de, what the hell can that be? At least there are at least four airlocks between that and us." The second part, he more mutters beneath his breath.

"Yes," said Major Orlova, "Styx Base was deliberately designed that way. Each of the seven modules has a self-contained atmosphere, as do the tunnels between them. If any module's hull integrity is compromised, it will only affect that module and not any of the others. Whatever is going on, I'm sure that Lieutenant Colonel Bruce and his security team can handle it."

A message from Private Sofia Torres comes in on the radio: "Lt. Hu, I have lost visual on the tertiary storage. Before I did so, I saw one of the male intruders put something in his boot. It could be a knife or other weapon. And on the box they brought with them had the word Police on it. I'll keep trying to regain visual."

Hu turns to reply to the message. "Send the last recorded video to the monitor in the lab," he instructs. Probably best he sees what's happening for himself. "Police box? Here? Must be mistaken," he mutters after the com cuts.

Major Orlova opened up another channel. "Security, this is Major Orlova," she said. "Be advised that Private Torres reported that she was watching Tertiary Storage on the monitor when she saw the younger male intruder place what may be a knife in his boot."

"Yes sir," Private Sofia Torres replied to Lt. Hu. Shortly afterwards, the video footage he requested arrived, along with another message from her. ""Lt. Hu, you need to look at this footage right away, you are not going to believe this."

OOC,[b]Xiang[/b], please roll Spot Hidden if you watch the footage.

Spot Hidden,He's definitely looking at the vid, but the screen resolution must be off... yeah, yeah... [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3191243/]Target is 30% for spot hidden while looking at the video (1d100=76)[/url]

Hu turns his attention to the video feed.

OOC,You can see the video all right. The roll was just to see if you noticed certain details on it. You didn't. ;)

Major Orlova watched over Lt. Hu's shoulder as he played the video. At first it just showed the deserted storage room, but then a tall blue box somehow faded into existence. It almost seemed like a transmat capsule, but transmats had such limited range that they could never hope to reach Pluto from anywhere else in the solar system - at least not with existing technology. Doors set into the blue box opened, and four strangers emerged. The box looked barely big enough to hold them all. They were an older man, a younger man, a young woman, and a teenage girl, and they all wore unusual clothing. They began talking, though with no audio on the security cameras he couldn't tell what they were saying. The older man approached the door leading out of the storage room and did something to the lockplate, though Xiang couldn't see what. The door slid open and the four of them peered out into the corridor. That was something else that should have been impossible. The lockplate next to every door on Styx Base was keyed to read the crew's implants to determine if they were authorized to enter. If you didn't have authorization, the door was not supposed to open.

The young man started to head off into the corridor, but the others said something to him and he returned. The others stood or sat around the blue box. Then the image went black and stayed that way for a while. Eventually, a burst of light illuminated them and made it possible to see again. Private MacCrimmon was standing in the open doorway and shining has flashlight at the intruders. The younger man scrabbled desperately at the doors of the box while the others got down on the ground and raised their hands in surrender. Then the young man stopped and turned around. Sergeant Kohl and Private Silver entered behind MacCrimmon, and they began handcuffing the strangers. At that point, the lights in the storage module came back on.

"This is Lt. Colonel Bruce," said the security chief's voice from the public address system. "The intruders are in custody, and nobody is injured. You may stand down from alert and resume your normal duties."

Hu watched the vid, and scratched his head, wondering how such a thing could be possible. Lt. Colonel Bruce's status update shook him from his thoughts. "Good," he said. "More time to figure out this collider."

"It seems to be working properly now," said Major Orlova. "It will still be here later. Right now, I am more interested in that mysterious blue box. If that was the intruders' means of conveyance, analyzing it might give us the breakthrough we need."

"Lt. Hu," said the voice of Private Sofia Torres on the communicator, "have you had a chance to view the first couple minutes of the video I sent? I'd like permission to study the police box."

At Orlova's suggestion, Hu's brain starts working away. "Yes... something such as that would require a good deal of power, and for something so small and for the signature not to be detected it would be just another good thing, possibly a way to shield it on a..." Private Torres' message came. "Yes, yes, have a look. I may just join you shortly." Kill com. "Major? Shall we?"

"We had better get permission first," said Major Orlova. She opened up a channel. "Colonel Patel," she said. "I am requesting permission for Lt. Hu, Private Torres, and I to examine the intruders' vessel. Private Bond should come too. His engineering knowledge may be useful."

After a few moments, the colonel replied: "Permission granted, Major. It's still in Tertiary Storage."

"Thank you." She opened another channel. "Lt. Barrett, this is Major Orlova. Please send Private Bond to join us in Tertiary Storage to examine the intruders' craft." Then she closed communicatons. "Okay, let's go."

"Lt. Hu," said Private Torres on the comm as they were about to leave, "I'd like to get Private Bond to help out if he can. I may need him to help me get into this thing."

"Private, this is Major Orlova," replied the chief scientist. "We're one step ahead of you. I've already ordered Private Bond to join us."

Hu motions the to the door, feigning chivalry. "Ladies first, Major."

Major Orlova chuckled and led the way out into the corridor.

OOC,[b]Xiang[/b] is moving to the thread linked below.

The Blue Enigma