sanctuaryrpg | Ghost Ship - Arrival [tag Hawk, Sabine, later Jack, Kate, Will, and later Bat'ai, Len]

rememory posting in

It was 0317 when the cargo ship formerly called the Arethusa but now designated QXJldGh1c2E= hailed Sanctuary station. Sanctuary's docking AI transmitted a request for information a fraction of a second later. QXJldGh1c2E= replied with its specs and clamp strength almost instantaneously, but it dithered a full second, an eternity in AI time, on how to number its crew complement. At the end of that interminable second it sent:

Crew in distress. Status uncertain.

Sanctuary's docking AI's response was also delayed almost a half a second as it transmitted the information to the higher-level AIs. At the end of several exchanges it was determined that the docking AI should send:

Hold for confirmation.

QXJldGh1c2E= paced its decks--or at least did the AI equivalent, flitting from one terminal to the next, into first one crew com badge and then another, and back. If it were an emotional being, which it primarily was not, it would call itself worried. In its non-emotional state, it simply expended every fraction of a second seeking data from its chassis and its crew.

After a discussion between the on-duty station personnel, it was decided that QXJldGh1c2E= should dock in one of the older sections of the station, where it would be greeted by the station police in Hazmat gear in case "uncertain" was code for hostile. The docking AI sent the berth assignment to QXJldGh1c2E= which quickly consulted the station schematics. It immediately returned a staccato burst of 0s and 1s expressing a request for confirmation.

Once confirmed, QXJldGh1c2E= maneuvered itself into the berth, with no help from its crew, but kept its docking bay sealed until station personnel arrived. At that point, control of the ship seemed to pass to Sanctuary AIs and station personnel, but QXJldGh1c2E= remained engaged and ready to intervene in their commands if they conflicted with its core priorities.

When requested to, QXJldGh1c2E= politely opened its docking bay and adjusted its interior conditions to Station-set optimums for multiple species. It followed the station personnel in their Hazmat gear through its hundreds of security cameras, recording their lifesigns and facial expressions as they registered the havoc within. To the last genderfluid member of the crew, they were strewn about the ship. Some had appendages turned at unnatural angles. Others were splattered with life fluids, their own or their nearest neighbor's. A few had been ripped apart, most showed exterior trauma, but a very small number didn't appear to have been touched at all. The only thing the bodies had in common was that not a single one survived attempts to revive them.

[OOC: Locked to the people tagged in the subject line. If you missed the plot call and would like your character to investigate during this post, contact Allie. I will be making several TL dividers, to mark the passage of time. Please see them for where to tag in. Ship specs are here.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

rememory

Drawn by the wailing of ghosts, Sabine and Scott had sneaked onto QXJldGh1c2E= in the very early hours of the morning. With ghost sentries (and the assistance of QXJldGh1c2E= itself as it followed their progress with interests), they managed to stay out of sight of the few guards remaining on shift. The homicide investigator, they would find harder to elude.

She would find Sabine and Scott in the Med Room, Sabine apparently speaking to the unmarked deceased on the examining table and Scott watching over her and learning what he could from the ship's computers.

From:

gshawk

Mother-fucking-civilians. She had already chased several of them away from the exterior of the ship. It was like they couldn't properly comprehend that there was an entire ship full of dead people that had docked and something had killed all of them. An infestation or outbreak of something was Sanctuary's worst fear. If something like that got loose in the station those that couldn't leave there would be in for a giant shit storm.

Which is why she wasn't pleased when she found two dumb asses in the Med Room.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing? This is a deity damned crime scene, not lovers-fucking-alley," Hawk spat when she saw them, drawing her gun instantly.

From:

revisor

"Well, you could shoot us," Scott said, without batting an eye, "or you could listen to her." He inclined his head towards Sabine. "Given that she's got the mutant ability to talk to the dead, I would suspect she can probably shed some light on the situation. Which would, by the way, be why we're here."

From:

rememory

At the loud, rude interruption, Sabine apologized to the young androgyne, Pima, with whom she'd been conversing, and whirled to face their unwelcome guest. Her hair whipped out as though it had been caught in a brisk windstorm. Her eyes were black as pitch, irises obscured, and her voice seemed to come from somewhere else entirely when she spoke, "Detective Hawk. If you have questions for Pima, ask them now."

From:

gshawk

"I don't care if you two are the queens of fucking space, this is an open investigation. You think we don't have a guy who can raise the dead waiting at his desk with his thumb up his ass, hoping shit like this happens?" Hawk spat, putting away her gun because she really was so furious right now she might shoot one of them. Fucking piece of shit, cock boils who thought they were special snowflakes and could just do what they want?

"You," she said, turning to the woman she had met in the coffee shop and had mistakenly thought wasn't as dumb as a fucking asteroid. "You tell me what happened here and then I'm booking you both on charges of interfering with a crime scene."

From:

revisor

If there was one thing Scott had learned from his time in the States after the MRA had passed, it was that playing along with authority figures (especially those so absolutely convinced that they were the gods of their personal domains) wasn't a bad strategy, as long as they weren't going to have you on a dissection table or on your knees with a gun to the back of your head as soon as they took you into custody. So he stayed quiet, watching the two women.

From:

rememory

Part of Sabine wanted nothing more than to let these angry spirits rage at Hawk the way they might have been inclined on their own, but a larger part both perversely because fuck Hawk and with self-and-Scott preservation in mind counseled compliance. So first, aloud and formulaically neither of which were necessary, Sabine commanded the spirits, "I abjure you by the holy names of God and his angels to harm none," and then sent /Play along, please. I'd prefer not to go to jail because you asked for my help/--not that it would be the first time.

Then, she allowed her contact with the spirits to fade. The black in her gaze slowly receded and the wind around her died down. When she spoke, it was in her own natural tone and said, "Hello, Hawk. I wasn't invading your crime scene. The spirits dragged me here because they were in pain, and Scott came along to make sure I was safe. Nevertheless, my apologies. All I can tell you is that for reasons none of the spirits can be sure of, the crew turned on itself and slaughtered them to the last person. As I'm here already, I offer my services as a consultant, and beg you--" Her stomach curdled. "--please don't recall these spirits to their dead shells. They're innocent and that is the worst form of punishment."

She doubted it would be effective, but maybe Scott wouldn't get into trouble at least.

From:

gshawk

"You sure as fuck did invade a crime scene. But I'll do what I can to make sure they don't get stuck back in the bodies even temporarily but I'm not letting whatever the hell happened here happen on the station," Hawk said. It was as close to a promise as she would make because if people on Sanctuary started going crazy and murdering the fuck out of each other she wasn't going to avoid something that might help.

"So all we know so far is that for some reason even the dead don't know, people went crazy and started murdering each other? Fuck me," she said, shaking her head. She badly wanted a smoke but seeing as how these two had already compromised the crime scene as it was, she'd just have to suffer without one. "Do they know how quickly it happened? Did it happen all or once or did the madness gradually move through the crew? Who was the first to go crazy and who was the last person to die that wasn't crazy, if anyone avoided it?"

From:

rememory

"No Detective. The spirits I've spoken to so far don't know any more than I've told you." Sabine suppressed a frustrated sigh and summoned her familiars to go investigate what they could without her. If Hawk would just give her time, she could answer all of those questions and more. But she didn't want to piss Hawk off more and get Scott in trouble with her. She could call the spirits to her now that she'd made contact with them. "They're all confused and frightened. That tells me that whatever happened they didn't have time to compare notes."

Edited Date: 2016-07-23 07:02 am (UTC)

From:

revisor

"They might be able to do that now?" Scott murmured quietly, the question forming on instinct because he suspected very strong that Sabine needed more time.

From:

rememory

"It would take time and patience." And probably a notebook to jot down what each said and compare it. "They can't really talk to each other very much now." Her ghosts could, but that was because of their link with her. She couldn't hold them all and play telephone operator. She'd have to do it serially.

And the longer they spent here, the greater the likelihood she'd end up in a cell. It wouldn't be the first time, but since Exodus the idea alone was enough to cause emotional paralysis. Quarantine...had been a nightmare.

From:

gshawk

"Fuck," Hawk said with a sigh, running her fingers through her hair. If ghosts or spirits or whatever were going to stick around then the least they could do was be helpful. Why the hell would you stick around if you didn't at least have some information to share? The fact that they were around AND still confused and frightened wasn't real fucking great either.

"Can you help them settle down so they're not so scared?" she asked.

From:

rememory

That was a right question, one that eased the edge off Sabine's mood, if still doing nothing for her pain. "I can, but it's going to take some time. If I try to force it, they may lose the memories they have of the events."

It wasn't generally her way to explain, but she couldn't see how it could hurt the situation to be a little more forthcoming now that Hawk was being reasonable. "The problem with spirits is that they're mostly emotional imprints. They only remember the things that tie them to the living world--like family or religion, or revenge. The spirits of those who have been murdered sometimes remember their attackers, but to get anything out of them that they didn't know in life, I have to be able to compare their stories to each other and what I can learn from the scene, witnesses, friends and family. At home--" Before Muir, anyone, and she and Shola had been going back to it when she arrived here. "--I did a lot of this sort of thing. It tended to be helpful in a world where it's possible to murder someone from a half a mile away and leave no trace."

From:

gshawk

Hawk didn't think she could sigh anymore but she did, only this time it was a bit more of a relief than anything else. If Sabine could keep everything from going to complete shit in the spirit world then maybe they'd have half a chance of solving this mass murder. She wondered if the spirits even gave a shit about things like that anymore.

"Alright, I can get you access to this place legally as a consultant on a short term basis," Hawk said to Sabine before glancing at the other guy. "You can be her secretary or bodyguard or whatever. If I find out either of you do something like this again though? I will make sure you're in jail where you can't put the rest of us at risk."

From:

revisor

"Let's all hope that this kind of situation doesn't happen often enough for any of us to have to worry about that," Scott said.

From:

rememory

"This kind of thing happens often enough, I'll be in a coma, and you'll have more to worry about than putting us in jail," Sabine replied, only slightly tart, and unusually honest with a stranger.

"They won't stay here for long before they start trying to get home." That was going to be a problem, any way she looked at it. "Is there some kind of database of planets, lifeforms, religions and cultures? I already know I'm going to need it for a few of them."

From:

gshawk

It was good to know that Sabine couldn't do this endlessly but if it came to that Hawk would find some other way to keep the station safe. They were all used to dealing with shit on the fly and scrambling to find the right thing or person that could help.

"Yeah, we can get that for you," Hawk said. It was a huge list of planets and realities that was cross referenced to hell but they did have it. "What happens if they don't get home fast enough?"

From:

rememory

Sabine shot Scott an uneasy look. The last time anything on this scale had happened had been the forest of glass, and before that, Lety. Neither of which had been particularly pleasant experiences.

Sighing, she shrugged at Hawk and bit at her bottom lip. "It depends on how angry they are. But it probably won't be good. Most of them will linger and cause little problems, like flickering lights and misplaced tablets. A few of the stronger ones might actually begin hauntings. A very few might attempt possession of the living. But that balance is based on human spirits, so I don't know. I can make educated guesses when I know more about the species that made up this crew. A manifest that I can cross-reference with that database would help. Also, if you happen to know off the top of your head whether there are any powerful psionic species that regularly visit here, I'll make a point to start with them."

From:

gshawk

"Well you tell them if they have some patience we'll get them off to whatever afterlife they have. If they start any shit though, I will find a way to make them regret it," Hawk said. It wasn't an entirely empty promise either, because with as diverse as the species and technology and magic were that came through here she was sure something could hurt them. But she'd rather not go that route.

"But I'll get you, and them, everything needed to get them home safely. If anyone gives you any shit about any request you let me know and I'll take care of it. And if any of these spirits actually remembers or figures out what the fuck went on here, I want to be the first to know."

From:

rememory

Sabine refrained from observing that if Hawk went after the spirits, it would put Sabine in a very awkward and potentially dangerous-to-Hawk position. It wouldn't help, and she was capable of a surprising amount of tact when it was necessary. Instead, she nodded and said an entirely genuine and polite, "Thank you. I'll make information and pacification my top priorities."

From:

rememory

Word of unusual events spread quickly on a station of this size. By 0900, nearly everyone with an interest knew that a ship had arrived full of the dead. When the older portion of the docking ring grew too crowded to move, station personnel dismissed the looky-loos and restricted the area to official personnel and those few civilian investigators intrepid, persuasive, credentialled or well-known enough to get aboard the ship.

Those who did found the ship in much the same condition that it had arrived. A few of the less battered bodies had been removed to the Med Room aboard ship where resuscitation was attempted, and there was evidence of abandoned efforts at triage on others. When consulted by those who seemed concerned, QXJldGh1c2E= itself would answer what questions it could. The scene provided very little evidence of what had transpired, but several sections of the ship, notably the aft crew quarters and the Stores felt uncomfortably menacing for no apparent reason.

[ooc: feel free to treat this TL as a mini-gathering post for these 4 characters, or to arrange threads amongst yourselves. If you have questions for QXJldGh1c2E= poke me and I'll respond for the ship -- Allie]

From:

scienceleads

Finally something for Kate to get her teeth into. She wasn't law enforcement as such, but she didn't mind helping out when need be, and she knew just how used she was to the unusual. And a ship arriving like the Marie Celeste fell into that category.

She was methodically looking around what was left. Some of the bodies had been removed, but others remained just as they had died. They would be taken away later, but if gave them a starting point, hopefully. Though right now she was missing all of UNIT's equipment. The equipment she had access to here was good, but not quite enough.

From:

wgraham

No one had dispatched Will go investigate the ship, but it hadn't taken long for news of the situation had reached every corner of the station, and some of the details had caught Will's attention.

He wasn't a full officer of the station's police force yet, but he had a badge, so getting into the area wasn't a problem. Thankfully the security forces had largely cleared the general public so it was easy to move around without encountering anyone else for a long time. Twenty minutes in to trying (mostly in vain) to reconstruct what might have happened on this ship, Will stumbled into a woman who seemed to be doing the same thing as he was, eyeing the injuries of the deceased creatures in one of the ship's long corridors.

"Hi," he said softly, just enough volume so she could hear his approach without being spooked. "Will Graham," he added, deciding to get the introductions out of the way early.

From:

scienceleads

"Kate Stewart," she replied, finishing with what she was looking at before turning to face him with a smile. After half an hour looking around, she was no further forward than she had been. "You are here to try and figure out what happened here as well?"

From:

wgraham

Will nodded, moving to stand at Kate's side.

"I am," he answered her question, glancing down the corridors but not able to see much in the low lighting. "I'm an adjunct to the local police force," he explained. "In training to become a detective. I have a lot of experience with law enforcement, profiling and forensics, but not a lot where it comes to aliens."

From:

scienceleads

"Ah that's where my experience comes in," Kate admitted with a smile. "I lead a team who specialise in this kind of thing, so it's not unusual to run across things like this. Well. It's more unusual from a space station, I'll admit that."

From:

rememory

Much later, several million eternities by QXJldGh1c2E='s standards (24 hours by human) later, most of the criminal investigation had been done. While the station would not rule out foul play, there didn't appear to be anyone alive to hold accountable. Some continued to investigate, but the guard was lessened. While the scavengers weren't exactly welcome on QXJldGh1c2E= neither did anyone work especially hard to keep them off.

Those that arrived found odds and ends of value, but QXJldGh1c2E= staunchly protected the most valuable stores and cargos, insisting that the Callahan Combine be paid fair market value for them. Efforts to disable the AI met with massive electrical shocks, and in the end, it relinquished control of Cargo Bay 5, the one the crew called "The Junkyard" to two of the more persistent scavengers, to keep them out of the rest of the system.

[ooc: just Len and Bat'ai, unless the players want them interrupted by Hawk, in which case, ping Brad. If you need QXJldGh1c2E=, ping Allie. You can find bits and bobs in the junkyard, nothing that will break the game or dramatically enrich either character.]

From:

ice_tomeetyou

Gossip seemed to move quickly on the station, and it didn't take long before news of the ship arriving found it's way to Len. Curiouser and curiouser. The thought of dead alien bodies on it? Didn't bother him at all. He'd likely caused worse himself, so they were just part of the scenery in his opinion. He wanted to see what was behind the walls, hidden on that ship. There had to be something.

It was the opportunity Len had been looking for. A chance to salvage, an in with the black market, and gradually his plans could begin to move forward. It would be a slow, cautious process, and he was willing to back off for a while at any point, but he had to start somewhere. It had taken a lot of persistence, but he had access to part of the ship no one else had. He could work on the rest - patience was his thing, after all.

From:

bat_ai

Bat had been fully prepared to bribe a few guards to get onto the ship he'd heard so much about, and was pleasantly surprised when he found only a few around...and those few being so spread out that bribery would be an insult to both parties. Instead, he happily waited until their backs were turned and headed into the hold of the ship.

Like a feast to the famished, the place was crawling with tech and Bat, spanner in hand, set about liberating as much of it as he could. Just the spare parts alone were worth the trip out here.

From:

ice_tomeetyou

Why waste money when you didn't have to? Len was of the same opinion, though it was well worth trying to make sure one or two of the guards were on his side for the future. Not bribes. Just judiciously placed access for one or two of them who could sell it for scrap for more than he'd make in a week.

Len was less impressed with what he could physically strip from the ship, but any knick knacks, anything that could be of scientific interest? Now that was different. He turned the corner, carefully inspecting every inch for hidden areas, but he didn't expect to run into another person. His hand twitched, automatically wanting to reach for his cold gun, but holding back for now. No point in annoying everyone in sight, as tempting as it might be. That could come later. "I see they are letting anyone in now."

From:

bat_ai

"Oh yeah. When I turn up you know they've seriously lowered any standards they might have had," Bat'ai responded, not even looking up to see who had approached him. He wasn't worried because there was no official sound to the guy's voice, he wasn't Hawk, and he was really hard to kill.

Instead, he continued to strip wires from a console and wrap them around a spool.

From:

ice_tomeetyou

"Well that's good to bear in mind for the future," Len said with a grin. At least he knew who to look out for now.

He watched for a moment, seeing just exactly what he was stripping out. "Find much there?" he asked, keeping it a general question.

From:

bat_ai

"Not much that's easily transportable," Bat'ai told him, "but I'm never going to turn down an opportunity to stock up on wires and circuits. You never know what might come in handy when you've got broken tech and people desperate to get it working again."

Moving to the next panel, Bat looked up at the man. "You looking for anything in particular?"

From:

ice_tomeetyou

It was a fair point, and Len was handy enough with wires and the like - product of a shitty childhood where his hands were small enough to get into security systems and shut them down - but he preferred not to. Things he could find easily were more his style. Finding a fence, and moving stuff on that way.

"Not really. Just exploring everything." Because there was always something hidden. He'd found the secret compartment in the Waverider, and was keeping that information for a bad day when he needed it.

From:

bat_ai

Bat wasn't certain what the guy was up to, but he could guess. Starting another spool he looked back over his shoulder. "The quarters are back that way. That'd have the fun toys rather than the functional tech."

With a mighty yank, he pulled another length of wire from the wall unit.

From:

ice_tomeetyou

Oh Len was after everything he could - and he wanted to make sure that this guy didn't find anything first. Though if he was only pulling out wires, he wasn't looking. Good to know.

"What kind of person buys those?" he asked. The info would be useful, especially if he did make a play for the Black Market like he wanted to.

From:

bat_ai

"I don't know that anyone would buy it. I'm not here for things to sell. I'm here to find things that will help me fix the tech that finds its way to my shop now and then."

Bat finished his spool and stared opening random cabinets. "You're looking for what, black market stuff?"

From:

ice_tomeetyou

Well, now. That was more interesting, and Len's mind raced with possibilities. He may be kind of the solo guy where he could, but hey, he was flexible.

"Amongst other things." There was always stuff hidden away, if you knew where to look for it, and it was amazing what could be sold if you knew the right people.