Matt says, “That’s odd, I get nothing from the bot. It should give some sort of signal. And the lights won’t go on in this section…”
Hamilton asks, “So we don’t know Where the bot is? And how are we supposed to find it in the dark?”
Matt and Aldo both look at Hamilton. Aldo pulls out…a flashlight.
Matt says, “ There was a power loss in one of the container units. The bot was checking it out and then it too went out. I checked the circuit at the junction, and the whole thing is dead. That’s when I called you guys. I just fix the critters. I don’t mess with the big stuff.”
lol
a flashlight! yeah I should have thought to bring one of those
“ok. Good! do you know Which container it was?”
Matt continues, “It wasn’t just one. It was a cascade failure. Started at the end and worked its way down to here.”
“What was that?”
“What?”
“Didn’t you hear that?”
‘Listen! Do you smell something?’
“What? You smell with your ears?”
"Quiet!"
As the three of you cautiously move down the corridor, you find the robot. Think R2D2 Stopped in the middle of the way. on close examination, it has two scorch marks on the front.
Aldo says, “Oh joy. First mate is on his way down.”
“Why is He coming down here? Oh well I guess we have to behaive. Let’s wait for him so he doesn’t get lost.”
“Did you hear that?”
“I heard it again. It sounded like…”
“Like what? a horrible Frankincense Monster coming to to devour us?”
The first mate has arrived and is visible in the corridor intersection.
“MONSTER!”
“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH”
"CALM DOWN!!!"
“meow”
“Did you hear that?”
“uh….what the hell would a cat be doing down here?”
“Beats the hell outta me. “
“Hey! This is Mr. Creek. I’ve got a man above and below at the junctions at the end of the corridor.”
“Thith ith Glick. One of the containers is carrying animals for tranthport to a zoo. They are thupposed to be in sthathis. However, Kutli tells me one is mithing. It themes it managed to wake up and escape. It’s a Zap Cat. A small one and probably won’t kill you but be careful anyway.”
“ok. let’s keep looking for it.”
Eventually, you see it. It looks like a good size house cat. A bit bigger than say, KD, patrick’s old cat. It has the same kind of markings but its darker. Almost purple. And it has two tentacles on its shoulder. (got the idea from a displacer beast mini. if it hits you with both, you’ll be in for a shock… LOL) But its just rubbing its back against something.
“Don’t let it touch you with the tentacles!”
I shoot it
remember My first three shots are tranquilizers = one in the chamber and two in the gun
MEROOOOOOWWWWWWWW!!”
Not a happy cat…
kitty cat is going night night.
Yup. it You have to get some insulated gloves and stuff. But you manage to get it back into its cryo sleep cube. The ship’s doctor examines the cube and comments, “It wasn’t programed correctly. Or someone set it to deliberately open. This was no accident.”
“ so Who would ant us to come all the way down Here and why?
Me thinks something is Rotten in the state of Denmark!”
“who would have been all alone while we were putting the ‘cat to sleep?”
“or rather, what did they hope this thing would do? There is a lot of damage to the electrical system in that area…”
“what else is down here? what would someone Want down here?”
Aldo says, “Dude, you know the specs. Just electrical and power and all that. We should check and make sure the zap cat didn’t mess things up too badly. That’s probably the reason the systems failed, the cat got into something.”
Hamilton replies, “then let’s check the systems.”
“the electrical & power are just for This section right?"
Aldo adds, "Mostly yes. Some things get routed through here but most of the connections are to the containers and such.”
“ok. let’s check the systems and see what isn’t working.”
Ramon and Matt are electricians and can repair whatever needs repairing. The robot will have to wait. Fortunately, you’re in jump space so no need to actively monitor the MDrives.
Hamilton, you know enough about ship systems to help them. Lex is going to have to watch everything on his own. The first mate will help him out by monitoring stuff from the bridge.
I ask the captain and first mate if I can speak to them
“Certainly. Any time.”
Hamilton asks, “power went down on deck 5 and a zap cat got out frying some systems.
We took care of the cat and put it back in it’s cage but it burnt out a few connections.
I wanted to know if the cargo will be ok. What IS our cargo anyway?”
The first mate says,”That’s part of why I came down there. And why I woke up some of the other crew to watch the other hatches. We have a military cargo. It’s a small unit and their equipment. They are all in cold sleep. No one is supposed to know about it. But they are going from one base to another. It was just happenstance we ended up with them. Their ride to the next system had a mechanical issue so they ended up with us. And that wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t been injured. So, it was good luck for them. Not so much for you.”
The captain adds,” We don’t know who or what they are. It’s not our business. The only thing that is is that, they are traveling on a military voucher. And that’s all I need to know. “
Hamilton adds, “I think who they are and what they are is the reason for the investigation.”
“It could very well be, someone does not want them to get to wherever they are going.”
Hamilton replies, “That is EXACTLY what I was thinking.”
The first mate continues, “Well, we have four more days of transit. We could put everyone on an extra half shift. Increase ship patrol. But the Doctor seems to think the container with the cat was loaded with that program already set.”
“How would the doctor know that? sorry if I’m being idiotic…”
It’s a low passage berth or cryosleep tube. One of the main reasons he is on the ship is to deal with them.
“do you think we should talk to the doctor about the…people in cryosleep/low passage?”
“Talk to him about what? He’s inspected them all. The circuits are all good. So the tubes are functioning properly.”
Hamilton continues questioning with, “do you know the doctor well? What if he is a part of whatever is going on?”
The Captain answers with, “He’s been with the company for 6 years now. On this ship for 2. He’s pretty legit.”
“does he have an assistant? or is there someone who has come on the ship recently, other than myself?”
“Nope. He pretty much handles it all on his own. I recall one of the crewmen is a paramedic. But otherwise, he is it for medical. Um, yeah, in as much as all this started not long after you came aboard, we kind of had our suspicious about you…”
“i’m sure you are.”
“Go get some sleep.”
The rest of the trip is uneventful
