slippedhalo
author, medium, witch
- Joined
- May 11, 2006
- Posts
- 16,007
OOC: I'm cooking up an ensemble sci fi thread needing several characters. PM me with character ideas. We'll begin when each writer has at least one main character and perhaps a minor character to control. We'll also be allowed occasional NPC's, non player characters who can be controlled by any of us, within reason and character perameters, to push the plot along from time to time. I am looking for writers who will stay with and add to the story. Not every moment has to lead to sex. Some characters have thoughts, emotions, personalities and sexual tension and flirtation in build up can take a long time but are so much more interesting to read and write.
The Plot
IC:
Year: 2353
Genetically modified to survive in a new environment they're expected to adapt to, science and engineering ships have been dispatched to Terra Beta, a planetoid in a "nearby" solar system through "The Hungry Caterpillar" wormhole, approximately eighty-nine light years from Earth. Earth has been sending out teams to terraform Terra Beta so it will become a new home for humankind for over a decade now and the project is in its final stages. Construction crews are now being mmodified and sent on engineer ships to build comfortable community centers and dwellings on the new home world. Cryogenic suspension and timing travel to utilize the wormhole has kept travel time down to twenty-seven months per trip (no returns) with the cryogenics leaving most crews to arrive at Terra Beta as young as they were when they'd left Earth. The modifications to allow for adapting to atmospheres with less oxygen than earth and slightly lighter gravity have meant that once someone is sent to Beta they won't survive on Earth ever again so they might as well make Beta work out. The human population on Beta is nearing three thousand. All, humans working together to create a better world for their future families. Back on earth a stark difference between the rich and the poor have left a working class with poorer health, so not passing the physical health exams required for the chance to put your name in the lottery to decide who will be put into the resettlement ships at the end of the year...and weeding out the poor and "unfit" from the "fit" has also sometimes been rigged through blackmail and bribery...the usual greed and politics. Still, with the planet's population at seven and a half billion and climbing even despite the fertility problems of the elite, something must be done. A new home must be created quickly.
The U.S.S. Hawking
It is a smaller Science and Engineering vessel from the Canadexican Alliance with a complement of sixty, mostly Engineers, Mechanics, Technicians, and Scientists. Captain Daniel Thornbush is the C.O. and has already made similar runs to the wormhole and back to supply other ships. This is his last one, set to go through the wormhole and bring these important humans to their new life on TerraBeta where he'll retire with honors.
But, something goes wrong.
Not only does the wormhole hold onto the ship instead of pushing it out the other side as it had hundreds of ships before The Hawling, it holds it for ten seconds too long, nearly crushing the ship, definitely damaging whole sections, killing those unlucky enough to be cryogenically frozen in the wrong places at the wrong time.
He awakens prematurely to the sound of the ship's automated system sounding an alarm. Commander Sam LaRoma, just six feet from his own pod, he could see his first officer's pod was crushed along with the body inside. The ship had erected a forcefield through the sections damaged,an eerily blue glow suffusing the air in grids, showing where the damage was, where the walls were basically useless to protect them from space.
Thornbush looked around the command section of cryo as he climbed out of his pod, dictating to his command log aloud, yelling over the ship's alarms, taking stock of what had occurred. They'd never made it to the other solar system where Beta waited. For the first time in over a century the wormhole had done something they had not predicted. It spat them out some place the ship's sensors did not recognize and could not measure, distance wise, how far from Earth or Terra Beta they were now left drifting as the hole collapsed, leaving them alone in a strange place, disconnected from anything familiar.
No one in this room had survived...wait...one...He pressed the override code on the keypad to enable her awakening and warming just before ducking for cover as the compromised ceiling collapsed, killing him.
Lt. Commander Alexandra (Alex) Rivers sat up, wide eyed, taking in the scene
"Holy shit!" She breathed. She listened to the Captain's log as she tried digging him out from the wreckage only to discover he was beyond saving. "Computer!" She called out, assuming that she was now probably in command and should start acting that way.
"Yes, Lt. Commander Rivers" said the computer voice interface politely.
"How many people are alive on board and where are they?" She asked.
Soon a hologram schematic of the ship layout showed her both damaged areas in blue and living humans marked by red dots. She tried not to think about the white dots...there were only eleven others alive and they were spread out all over. The nearest she could see was moving from sickbay to the corridor. She headed that way.
OOC: (Rivers can be an NPC or someone who creates a good profile in PM can maybe take her on. I intend to write a former Spiritual Leader trained as a Nurse. Her name Sister Mary Grace, or Mary Rowan, her common name. She's taken a med kit and is crawling on a sore knee out of sickbay to find others.)
The Plot
IC:
Year: 2353
Genetically modified to survive in a new environment they're expected to adapt to, science and engineering ships have been dispatched to Terra Beta, a planetoid in a "nearby" solar system through "The Hungry Caterpillar" wormhole, approximately eighty-nine light years from Earth. Earth has been sending out teams to terraform Terra Beta so it will become a new home for humankind for over a decade now and the project is in its final stages. Construction crews are now being mmodified and sent on engineer ships to build comfortable community centers and dwellings on the new home world. Cryogenic suspension and timing travel to utilize the wormhole has kept travel time down to twenty-seven months per trip (no returns) with the cryogenics leaving most crews to arrive at Terra Beta as young as they were when they'd left Earth. The modifications to allow for adapting to atmospheres with less oxygen than earth and slightly lighter gravity have meant that once someone is sent to Beta they won't survive on Earth ever again so they might as well make Beta work out. The human population on Beta is nearing three thousand. All, humans working together to create a better world for their future families. Back on earth a stark difference between the rich and the poor have left a working class with poorer health, so not passing the physical health exams required for the chance to put your name in the lottery to decide who will be put into the resettlement ships at the end of the year...and weeding out the poor and "unfit" from the "fit" has also sometimes been rigged through blackmail and bribery...the usual greed and politics. Still, with the planet's population at seven and a half billion and climbing even despite the fertility problems of the elite, something must be done. A new home must be created quickly.
The U.S.S. Hawking
It is a smaller Science and Engineering vessel from the Canadexican Alliance with a complement of sixty, mostly Engineers, Mechanics, Technicians, and Scientists. Captain Daniel Thornbush is the C.O. and has already made similar runs to the wormhole and back to supply other ships. This is his last one, set to go through the wormhole and bring these important humans to their new life on TerraBeta where he'll retire with honors.
But, something goes wrong.
Not only does the wormhole hold onto the ship instead of pushing it out the other side as it had hundreds of ships before The Hawling, it holds it for ten seconds too long, nearly crushing the ship, definitely damaging whole sections, killing those unlucky enough to be cryogenically frozen in the wrong places at the wrong time.
He awakens prematurely to the sound of the ship's automated system sounding an alarm. Commander Sam LaRoma, just six feet from his own pod, he could see his first officer's pod was crushed along with the body inside. The ship had erected a forcefield through the sections damaged,an eerily blue glow suffusing the air in grids, showing where the damage was, where the walls were basically useless to protect them from space.
Thornbush looked around the command section of cryo as he climbed out of his pod, dictating to his command log aloud, yelling over the ship's alarms, taking stock of what had occurred. They'd never made it to the other solar system where Beta waited. For the first time in over a century the wormhole had done something they had not predicted. It spat them out some place the ship's sensors did not recognize and could not measure, distance wise, how far from Earth or Terra Beta they were now left drifting as the hole collapsed, leaving them alone in a strange place, disconnected from anything familiar.
No one in this room had survived...wait...one...He pressed the override code on the keypad to enable her awakening and warming just before ducking for cover as the compromised ceiling collapsed, killing him.
Lt. Commander Alexandra (Alex) Rivers sat up, wide eyed, taking in the scene
"Holy shit!" She breathed. She listened to the Captain's log as she tried digging him out from the wreckage only to discover he was beyond saving. "Computer!" She called out, assuming that she was now probably in command and should start acting that way.
"Yes, Lt. Commander Rivers" said the computer voice interface politely.
"How many people are alive on board and where are they?" She asked.
Soon a hologram schematic of the ship layout showed her both damaged areas in blue and living humans marked by red dots. She tried not to think about the white dots...there were only eleven others alive and they were spread out all over. The nearest she could see was moving from sickbay to the corridor. She headed that way.
OOC: (Rivers can be an NPC or someone who creates a good profile in PM can maybe take her on. I intend to write a former Spiritual Leader trained as a Nurse. Her name Sister Mary Grace, or Mary Rowan, her common name. She's taken a med kit and is crawling on a sore knee out of sickbay to find others.)
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