<> <> <> (their love is so prohibited by law) (It woulda been okay, but Red Boston buckled. :|) (If this city's a'rockin') <> * Tomas walks through the door with a banana slug slung over his shoulder and heads toward the galley, waving to those in the lounge as he passes. * Hestia has been avoiding the city this whole time and staying on the ship. Why? Because she's a paranoid crazy. She is actually looking over the rim of a cup of coffee when the (literal) ding happens. (... banana slug.) (It doesn't taste like banana :\) (I KNOW) (This one tastes like purple =D) (Thank god for nanopaste in the fridge) (pfah! I wouldn't allow such an offense to taste in my galley!) (Luckily 5 other people co-own that galley.) (I mislabeled it as Io Truffles) (Nobody respects my art.) (Someone needs to inform the scientists of the ding!) (I'll be right back. Still panicking a little.) <> * Tomas comms ~Will somebody answer that ding already? I'm in here CREATING!~ (But I don't want to do all the talking :( ) * Hestia idly starts looking over the data. Why? Because she went through hell to get it. * Amadeus is still in labs! Labs are awesome. (This is the stuff we smuggled from Sleythin?) * Zeke is in the lab as well! And he does not deliver the blistering ice-burn Tomas deserves. Instead he carefully places down the last sample he was working on and heads out of the room. ~The analysis is complete,~ he comms. (Yes, it is, Tomas) Sweet. * Kyle goes to answer the ding! <> (De-science that for me, I'm on cold meds.) (Twin paradox need not apply.) (That's not de-science, that's re-science.) (You know when you look at the stars, you see light that's really old, right?) (Yes.) (Well, measurements of planetary conditions SHOULD work the same way. If you were measuring on sleythin you'd see the ancient conditions on other planets, if you saw the planets at all.) (Aha.) * Hestia tilts her head a little. She'd find that odd, but these are the people who invented bodysliding. (So this kind of measuring is 1) breaking or bending the speed of light 2) STUPIDLY VALUABLE) (Okay. I'm back. I have some tequila. I'm calming down.) (Take your time, Dre) * Zeke clonks into the room, observes Hestia reading data. "Was it worth the credits?" <> Possibly. It will depend on if the answer to a followup question is in here, somewhere. (Any suggestion of how they pulled that off?) <> * Hestia frowns, visibly, at the word 'temporal'. * Tomas returns from the kitchen with a plate full of what looks like disks of fried corn mush, but with a weird glint, "What've we got, T?" * Zeke looks over the data. "That is... strangely correlated data." Is that their initial planetary observations? Somehow, yes. (ok. The Beavis and Butthead thing is ridiculously awesome.) * Amadeus comes walking out from lab area, looking at a datapad (and jacked into it, by the way). (AMADEUS IS HIT BY A LLAMA) (Awesome.) * Zeke mms and says, "It... explains the concept of the Messengers well, if they could observe but not affect in a meaningful way." * Hestia drums her fingers on the top of her datapad. "I mean, this is good stuff to have anyway. Can get a jump on new places to go. But they named their technique for getting this stuff and I don't like it. * Lexi wanders over to where Hestia is and looks over her shoulder. "So what do we do now?" * Amadeus looks up at the talking and pushes his glasses up his nose. <> * Lexi picks it up. "Lexi." * Zeke looks to Lexi, but can't answer. Phone! * Tomas slurps a slug disk and eyes Lexi, waiting to hear what this phone call is about and uh where this phone came from. (Breastspace. It's the only place to keep them.) Dude, What's wrong with how they got their info? * Hestia mouths the word 'temporal' at Kyle. Paranoia! * Lexi speaks into the phone. "Yeah. Like I always wanna hang out. But I may have to do some lame work thing. What'd you have in mind?" * Lexi widens her eyes. "Whoooa schwaaaaay! Hm... let me see what's going on here and I'll give you a call back, alright?" * Lexi nods. "Right on." She hangs up the phone and looks up to Tia. "So do we have anything pressing right now?" * Kyle thinks about that. Huh, temporal. Yay timefuckery. He looks over at Lexi who's on teh phone. * Lexi is actually no longer on the phone. * Zeke speaks up, now that the phone is off, "This level of information would allow us to choose our targets more effectively." A moment, then, "Is there a correlation between the planets we have visited and the information on this list?" You'd have to ask the list. All this is, is a translation of a data set. (That wasn't a response to Lexi, was it?) (Er, no, to Zeke.) * Hestia tilts her head at Lexi. "Not really? I guess." * Lexi nods. "Hm... does anyone want to go and do shots off a sleythin? That was Agnes" She says that as if EVERYONE must know who that is. "She wants to go chill at some schway bar." * Zeke looks very perplexed. ...sorry, my brain stopped working after 'shots off a sleythin'. She said something? I'm sure some shots off a sleythin could get it working again. It's like your lips are moving but all I hear is barking. <> * Lexi raises an eyebrow. "Yes I would see someone about-" Answers it. "Yes?" * Zeke still looks perplexed. "I feel I have missed a joke." * Lexi sighs. "You're going to tell me I have to do that work thing now and ruin my fun, aren't you?" * Kyle thumbs-up to Lexi. "I'm totally game for that." * Lexi nods. "Yeah. Okay... Yeah we're all here." * Amadeus shakes his head. * Lexi grumbles. "I guess not." She goes and activates the screen and turns to the rest of the people. "Preston's on." * Hestia crosses her legs in the chair and leans back. "Must be Pre--" And then she's interrupted by confirmation of that fact. (CLOSE THE DATA.) * Amadeus takes a big breath through his nose and lets it out as he turns to the screen. * Tomas slurps another slug disk and turns from the phone to the screen, "yo" <> "Good afternoon, crew! How's everything going? Did you have a nice Clarity Day?" * Zeke Does Not Answer. * Kyle has quit (Ping timeout) (KYLE HATE CLARITY DAY) * Lexi shrugs. "There was a significant lack of clarity." (That's a double entendre if I ever wrote one) (Triple entendre, maybe.) * Hestia was already closing her files when it became clear the boss was on the line. Paranoia! (Yaaaay!) "Yes, well, that's how it goes these days. You ready for an assignment? This one's high priority." * Amadeus flicks his eyes, then removes the cable from the back of his neck. "Any word on what's been decided determining the Deukti?" "Ah, yes. Them." * Hestia does the ole o_- because that comment deserved it. <> "Truth be told, nobody can decide anything one way or the other. Mars can't suffer through another hostile species, you see? And so even if we just warned the chainjumpers, everyone would know eventually, and then, panic." <> "It'd be nice to have it all out there, but nobody can even agree on if they are any more than the remnant on that planet." * Lexi shrugs. " "So what do we do?" It's going to be even more nightmare PR when someone stumbles on them and gets blown to bits, Preston. "We go earn some credits while the stuffed shirts are arguing, is what. Before they tell us chainjumping's banned altogether." ("Do you mean... the prophecy?" "The Christopher Walken movie?" "Not that, the other prophecy!") * Amadeus presses his fingers to his forehead, because he so feels a headache coming on. (MORE WORK FOR AMA.) * Syzix (zegond@c-24-15-245-98.hsd1.il.comcast.net) has joined #ATC <> "I'd let it be known if it were my call, but it's not. I only know what I know because they ignore us little people when they start arguing." (Oookay, I got disconnected and didn't realize until, like, 10 seconds ago) (Yay ping timeout lag) * Syzix is now known as Kyle * Zeke tilts his head, nods slowly, and says, "I do not want to lose the opportunity." "So the target is Groombridge 1618 IV. 16 light years away, a smallish planet around an orange dwarf. Part of the Ursa Major constellation, actually." "Standard modus operandi. Land, explore, pillage, return with bountiful spoils of science and resources." * Hestia shrugs. "Better than sitting around here doing nothing, anyway." More or less. * Lexi shrugs. "Alright. Hang on I have to make a phone call." She goes and dials Agnes' number. Sure thing boss. "Hopefully they have it settled by the time you get back." We can only hope. * Amadeus shakes his head and heads for the map room. * Tomas shrugs and heads to the galley to stow his cleaned dish. * Hestia twirls her pad in her fingers for a moment, then trucks after Amadeus into the map room! She has... things to look up. * Zeke sticks with Hestia. He's got that question to get answered. ""See you then, gang." <> * Hestia talks as she walks. "Groombridge 1618 IV, huh. Wonder what that translates to. I guess we'll really see if this was worth the cash or not." * Lexi puts the phone to her ear and waits for Agnes to pick up. She sighs. * Zeke says, "I am interested in the correlation, given the... mysteriousness surrounding our circumstance." The politics, maybe. (I assume you are looking it up?) * Lexi sighs. "No... I have to go do the chain jumping thing." She shrugs. "When I get back, though... "She grins. "On the bright side I get to pilot this schway ship at crazy fast speeds... that's always fun." * Lexi laughs. "It would be just like old times. I'm sure the guys wouldn't mind." * Lexi nods. "Yeah. Have fun! I'll call when I get back on the planet!" * Lexi hangs up. (The planet? I think so.) * Hestia proceeds to correlate sleythin map data with stellar charts for their destination! * Kyle yawns and sits down at his console, tapping a few buttons then turns around all swively-like. "So what've we got?" <> Well that's boring. (Yes and no.) (It's boring to Tia!) (It is boring in the sense that it isn't a Duekti planet, or possessing of some unique mentioned trait.) Minerals mean profit for our patrons. And there were living samples at the time. I like money, but money's only good for what it can get you. (It is NOT boring in that yet again you are sent to a planet which is, unlike the extreme majority of planets, not barren and lifeless.) (See: needing to do that correlation.) (Time to blast off? Does everyone have their booties?) (BOOTY CHECK) (I never leave home without it) (Has it really taken us 2 hours to get to this point?) (YES) (Which is why I said it's time to take off!) (And then some. I'm ready whenever.) (BOOTY!) < >(+>) (*turns on Fate Breaker for Cham*) (I STAB) * Zeke looks to HEstia and asks, as he grabs onto a handhold, "Can you check if we have only been to planets that are in the other registry?" * Hestia presumably can and does so. It's... a database, if it's not searchable by the near future, humanity is in trouble. (It's CSV. Sorry, you're boned) (I destroy the universe, then.) (I misparsed that as SCV) <> <> (which was?) (orly) (EARTH HA HA HA) (EARTH MUTHAFUCKAS!) <> <> (*tries desperately to remember what was the deal there and fails*) (Bugs.) (We were supposed to take the guy there, we did, there were bugs, we left quickly.) * Hestia holoemits the sleythipedia entry for that planet, also showing the weak point of the Death Star. "Now that is interesting." * Amadeus blinks at the entry. "Howso?" * Tomas joins the others in the maproom and listens intently. <> (*flashes the EZ Pass*) Remember the suit with no first name? We take him out to the planet, drag him home? That was it. * Zeke had already grabbed on. It's good for the soul. "So we have been to no planets that are not in the registry, and all of them are accurate." (Er, no, that's not true at all, is it? isn't this entry proof?) (I'm sorry, I'm having a hard time understanding Cham's geek dialect tonight for some reason.) (Cham said it was in the registry as barren.) (And the rest were all in the registry as !barren.) Huh. Weird. (Then... okay, that discovery was meaningless, then, wasn't it?) (so either the bugs were put there after or they wanted people to think the planet uninteresting.) (Unfortunately. I was _hoping_ to hit an exception.) * Amadeus leans forward and reads more of the entry. "There doesn't seem much worthwhile there, according to the entry - that's what youre getting at, then." Though in theory, Preston and company shouldn't even have access to this. (But it's still interesting that we've only hit 'good' planets.) Well, the sleythin know that, but our erstwhile employers don't. (Have we? I thought we FF'd past the boring ones.) * Amadeus nods. Though, I have to wonder... what are the odds that we'd find so *many* non-barren planets. In a row, even. (We haven't hit any full on barren ones.) (There's been no time.) ((Except for Bugland.)) Extremely poor. Yeah. * Hestia smirks and sets the pad down, putting a hand in the air. "Must be the prophecy." I could crunch some numbers, but yeah. You're looking at higher than winning the uberbucks lotto. (Sorry, uberbux) (creds) (Bux is retro.) Ugh, this job's turning me into a conspiracy nut. Maybe I need to retire early... though Preston seems to think it's going to be done FOR us. (It's totally retro) * Zeke looks to Hestia, then Amadeus, then says, "It is possible to use this data without having access to the Sleythin files." 'course, the odds are totally in favor of that. orly? (Fuck you!) (:D) (ORBITAL COW FOR YOU) (I can answer this if nobody else has it.) * Hestia raises an eyebrow at Zeke. * Amadeus stares at Zeke. (THEM OUF) (well enlighten us, considering what we went through to get it) They have access to the to technology cited in the Slyethin data files. * Hestia raises the other eyebrow. "'Temporal doppler', whatever that is? That doesn't seem likely, all things considered." Then they have the Sleythin data, and sent us to a Bug planet on... 'accident'. * Zeke is deadpanning all of this. Wow, and I thought *I* was paranoid. If they were using the Sleythin data, why bother sending us to a barren planet? (Are you saying we got cement engine blocks?) * Zeke replies, "That is why I believe it slightly more likely they have the technology themselves." ("Youse is gonna sleep with the psychadelic fishy fruits." "You believe what is called what?") As otherwise, there would be no reason to send us there. * Tomas nods in agreement, "It makes sense." Well, except total ignorance, don't you think? I mean, I can buy that our employers who tell us nothing about anything ever are trying to kill us but that seems... awfully convoluted. * Zeke shakes his head. "I do not mean they are trying to kill us. I mean that they knew there was something on that planet, but did not know what." <> ("Now me, I'd sabotage the engi--" *KABOOM*) While the Sleythin data indicates there is nothing. This increases the likelyhood of them having the technology. Or excellent scouts. * Hestia sighs. "So what you're saying is, believe in ridiculous, outrageous good luck, or believe that our employers have access to time-displacing technology and are now trying to kill us off." You are not much fun at parties, suit boy, FYI. (But he does some sweet party tricks) * Zeke shakes his head. "I do not believe they are trying to kill us off." It needn't be anything as fancy as what the Sleythin apparently had. Just something able to detect lifesigns. I am not completely certain why they sent us to the planet with the Bugs, but if they had the Sleythin data only, they would not have. I don't want anybody to have technology that fucks around with time, thank you, not even the damn boring lizards. The thought makes my head hurt. Note also that the bug planet was the only one they sent an escort too. They could have both. Possible. * Kyle whistles. "You got a point, if they wanted to kill us off they coulda given us a bad ship." * Tomas snrks. (We got planet sign! Who's on the scanner?) (I nominate Amadeus) (Amadeus seconded) (Have there been many reports of other teams finding alien species? Not necessarily advanced species.) (We saw living things (plants, animals) in the first session.) (But not that many.) (Anything compared to the samples we've found?) (ie does it seem that we're getting mucho primo destinations?) * Hestia sighs and looks back at her pad. "Doppler effect... it's got something to do with waveform movement, right?" (Consider that the Indi Epsilon bar had examples of most if not all of the stuff found to date in it when you went there. You have fucking quadrupled the data.) Typically, that's how a doppler effect works. (We pretty much bent the bell curve over and uséd not lube.) (Yup.) (Preston employs other teams or just us?) (You don't know that.) (CLASSIFIED.) (Are Ard and Dre still actually with us?) (I'm here. Sorry. Slightly distracted) (Ditto.) (Sorry, I'm distracted enough that trying to fake SCIENCE! when I really know nothing is very hard.) (There's a planet though.) (Yeah, figuring out that doppler thing is a total impossible. @_@) (Oh! Now I have scrolled up and seen that.) * Amadeus scans the planet thing, sure. * Lexi pulls the ship a bit closer to the planet to get a better look. (Actually there's a wikipedia entry that someone with physics background could understand, but which I see as Pretty Colors, Also Todd Is Dumb) (Yes, that's where I am all the time! :D) (Next time, I play a liberal arts major.) (Hey. What goes MOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo?) (MONAY!) (An Indy Cow!) <> (*stabs Tomas*) (Courtesy of my fourth grade self.) (Ain't no place to raise a kid. In fact, it's cold as hell. ) (That's it, you're ALL fired.) * Amadeus scans and reports: "Temperature above freezing, but not by much. Carbon-based life... some mineral deposits as well. I'm willing to bet we're here for the last." * Amadeus tries to get a better read on those mineral deposits. <> (Going to wrap up before too long, have to drive home) (Where are you now?) So we've done underwater, tropical, fine-until-roasted-by-flare-activity... I suppose ice was bound to happen sooner or later. * Lexi pulls the ship in for a landing! (My place.) <>