Interview With The Survivor

Characters: Shiraamer, Gvarokh, Slade & Simrii
NPC: Chuck & Yipven Toanes
Location: Miishakaal crew lounge
System: Umilikha

1125.10.1 - 04:00
Vlad and Lakir make their way to the lift and head to their rooms on the upper deck. "Sleep good!" The vargr says triumphantly.

Vincent heads to his room via the cargo hold.

Shiraamer finally decides that it's time to go to the crew lounge and get the task over with. Putting on her best smile, she enters the crew lounge and greets her guest.

Her comm is open, enabling Slade down in Engineering and Gvarokh on the Bridge to listen in, "Hello, I'm Shiraamer Siirkasaare, Captain of the Miishakaal. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to greet you personally upon your arrival."

Yipven Toanes The woman, who'd been sitting on the couch with Chuck, now stands, along with Chuck, "Yipven Toanes. Thank you for rescuing me."

The two shake hands.

"Please, have a seat," the captain continues, "Would you care for something to drink?"

Yipven gestures to the bottle of water that Chuck has given her as she returns to her seat.

At this point, Simrii strolls into the crew lounge, nods, and takes a seat across from her.

The captain and Simrii note that Yipven is wearing a tailored vacc suit that fits her snugly. She's thin, with a few small curves, and attractive, despite a lankiness indicative of a childhood spent in a low g environment.

"Cap'n," Chuck says, "Miss Toanes checks out ok medically. If you have further need for me, I'll be in my room catching some sleep before my shift begins."

"Thank you Chuck. Good night," the captain dismisses him.

Chuck leaves via the lift and the captain takes his seat next to Yipven on the couch.

Shiraamer starts, "If you don't mind, I'd like to ask you a few questions to figure out what happened."

"Ok," Yipven's tone implies a "why" but Shiraamer ignores it.

"Where are you from Miss Toanes?"

"Hrun."

"Where were you headed?"

"Ashki."

"And the ship?"

Yipven shrugs, "I don't know. I was just a passenger. I got the impression that the ship went wherever they could find work along the Vilani Main."

"Did the captain have any idea that the ship was in danger?"

"He didn't seem troubled before takeoff, which was the last I saw him."

"If you would, please tell me what happened." The captain makes this request as gentle as she can make it.

Yipven sighs, "We took off from Umilikha Down. I was in my stateroom. Shortly afterwards the captain sounded a red alert and said that we were under attack. He said that he was going to try and out run them. I put on my vacc suit. I've heard all the news reports about pirates raiding ships in the area and I thought that we were in trouble. I thought that we should've turned right around and gone back to the planet." Her tone becomes indignant, "Well, the captain wouldn't hear of it, despite the fact that the pirates were tearing his ship apart. I made a break for the launch but the crew stopped me. Told me that I should go back to my room. I couldn't believe it. 'We're gonna die if the captain keeps this up,' I told them. Some of the other passengers heard me and demanded the same. Alarms were going off all over the ship. I knew this was it. I grabbed an escape ball and went out through an air lock. I wasn't outside of the ship for long when it blew up. Something hit the rescue ball and my head right about then and I blacked out. Next thing I know, I wake up here with that creepy guy putting that nasty smelling stuff underneath my nose."

Shiraamer makes all the necessary gasps of concern, mutters of sympathy at her plight, etc. while listening to her tale.

Gvarokh mutes his comm before he busts up laughing, but with the bridge iris open some of that laughter leaks out to the crew lounge.

Simrii looks up from the book he's reading, "Did they say what or who was attacking you?"

Yipven replies, "The captain said that we were under attack by raiders."

Simrii puts the book down carefully, marking his page with a thin plastic card and closing the book first. Then he gets up and heads to the galley, "Coffee, tea? Anyone?" He asks putting the kettle on to boil.

"You took a fairly big risk getting into a rescue ball and abandoning ship like that, what if the captain had managed to engage the Jump Drive?" He runs his fingers through his 3 1/2 weeks worth of hair and does his best not to watch the kettle, something in the back of his mind tells him no matter how utterly impossible it may be that a watched kettle never boils.

She sighs, "We were way too deep in the gravity well. If he did try to jump he'd either misjump or the jump engines would rupture. I didn't like either one of those possibilities. But it doesn't matter now does it," she says almost defiantly, "The ship was destroyed and I'm alive." Sarcastically she adds, "Guess I was right."

"It's a good thing you did get to that rescue ball. I'm glad that we were headed to the planet and were able to bring you in. I don't suppose you managed to get a look at attacking ship while you were out there did you? I hope they're gone now from the system."

"I did get a good look at them," Yipven says, her voice dropping lower in volume, "While I was attempting to prep the launch to leave, the sensors put a shot of the raiders on the video screen. It was a type T patrol cruiser of all things. I didn't see an ID number or a name but the wings were black with green stripes. And on the left fin there was a large flaming eye." She pauses, letting that sink in. "I don't know if they left the system or not. Like I said, something hit me on the head while I was in the rescue ball."

"A Flaming Eye?" Shiraamer lets surprise and shock enter her voice. "Oh my. It's a good thing we're headed planetside. Now let's get you some rest dear. You've earned it and we'll have you back on land in no time."

Simrii looks up from where he's making his tea, "Mmm..."

Shiraamer says, "I thank you for telling us what you could about your ordeal. You were certainly brave throughout the whole thing. I have a spare stateroom where you can stretch out and lie down while we head towards the planet. If you care to follow me, I'll show you where it is now."

"Yes, I would. Thank you," Yipven replies politely.

Shiraamer stands up with the intention of escorting Yipven to her stateroom.

"I can take her to a room if you want Captain," Simrii takes a sip of his tea, "it's no problem and I'm sure you'll be wanting to tell the authorities about what we found and learned."

"Thank you Simrii."

"This way Miss Toanes," Simrii gestures towards the lift.

Yipven Toanes follows Simrii over to the lift. They ascend to the upper deck.

Simrii Escorts Yipven

Character: Simrii
NPC: Yipven Toanes
Location: Miishakaal upper deck
System: Umilikha

1125.10.1 - 04:20
Putting his book under one arm and holding a mug of tea in his hand Simrii smiles as he ushers Yipven into the lift, "How's your head?" He asks pushing the button to go up.

"It's sore," she replies, "I've got a pretty good lump."

"You know it's through a pretty remarkable series of co-incidences that you're still alive," he opens the door to one of the suites, "you should probably go buy a lotto ticket when we finally touch down."

"Funny," she says humorlessly and enters her room.

1st Watch to 2nd Watch

Characters: Simrii, Gvarokh, Slade, Vincent, Vlad
NPC: Chuck
Location: Miishakaal
System: Umilikha

1125.10.1 - 07:05
Chuck arrives at the Bridge with a cup of coffee to find Gvarokh standing at the controls, "Hey Gvarokh. How'd it go?"

Gvarokh shakes his head, "Quiet. Fortunately. So quiet, I had to stand in so as to not fall asleep. But now that you're here. I can go sleep."

Gvarokh leaves the bridge and heads back to his room. He's asleep before his head hits the pillow.

Meanwhile, in Engineering. A yawning Vincent enters to find Slade nodding off, but catching himself before he actually lets himself fall asleep.

"You're relieved Slade. Anything happen?"

"Nah. Everything's fine. See ya." Slade bugs out of Engineering and heads to his quarters. He falls asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow.

Vlad emerges from his room and stretches. Across the deck is Simrii, sitting on a couch. He's reading a book and drinking tea. Vlad strolls across the passenger lounge and asks, "How is she?"

"Quiet. Hasn't left her room. Haven't heard anything either."

"Good. My turn for watch. Your turn to nap."

Simrii marks his place in his book, grabs his tea, stands and says, "Good night." He then heads down the lift and back to his room.

Arrival at Umilikha Down

Characters: Shiraamer, Vincent, Vlad, Shiraamer
NPC: Chuck
Location: Miishakaal
System: Umilikha

1125.10.1 - 11:00
Second shift went as quietly as the first. Nothing to report. A half hour into the shift, Chuck began the deceleration process. It went flawlessly.

At 10:15, the captain arrived on the bridge, wearing her flight suit, looking somewhat rested. She contacted Umilikha Down to request clearance to land, which they granted. They asked how the search went. Shiraamer informed them that they found one survivor and the flight recorder.

Once the decel burn brought the ship down to safe atmospheric re-entry speeds, she took the helm and began navigating the ship down to the planet's surface.

Conditions were a little bumpy. The planet's blast furnace-like environment generates alot of turbulence in the atmosphere. Even stable regions like the poles are not fun to fly in.

The captain makes it look easy.

"Nice flyin' cap'n," Chuck complements once the ship comes to rest on the landing platform.

"Thanks Chuck."

Low pitched metallic sounds are felt through the ship as the landing platform descends into the subterranean starport. Once at base level, the wall in front of the ship separates and a tugtruck races over and hooks itself up to Miishakaal. The tugtruck then slowly tows the ship off of the landing platform and into the next chamber. The wall behind Miisha closes and then it starts to rain.

"Decontamination," Chuck mumbles.

It's over in less than a minute. The wall in front of Miishakaal open and the ship is towed forward into a large hangar space with berths for 20 ships. A few are occupied.

"Mishakaal, this is Umilikha Down. Welcome to Umilikha."

"Thank you Umilikha Down," the captain replies.

The ship is pushed back into a bay and released from the tug.

"Starport Security will be coming by shortly to retrieve the flight recorder and interview the survivor. Is this ok?"

"Sure."

"Thank you. Will you be in need of any starport services while you're here?"

"Fuel and life support refurbishment please."

"I'll send a team over. Umilikha Down out."

"Did you catch that Vincent?"

"Yes, ma'am," Vincent replies."Vlad?"

"Vlad here captain."

"Would you please inform our guest that her presence is requested by starport security."

"Yes!"

Turning to Chuck, Shiraamer says, "I'm going to retrieve the flight recorder for starport security and meet them at the airlock. You have the bridge."

"Aye, aye cap'n."

Next: A Visit From Starport Security