middleofsomewhere | Race Against Time: Mission Start

Race Against Time: Mission Start

Preparation

Four days after the newest passengers join the train everyone’s SCA glows with the colours of the void. A message for the mission to come.

There’s a few hours as usual to get prepared before there is an announcement. "Arrival to System #16125 imminent. Prepare for exit from Void. All passengers are to wear their Safety Control Apparatus."

A shudder as the train jerks to the side and judders. "We have arrived on Space Station Delta in system #16125. Passengers should note that due to the adverse conditions of the planet evactuation protocol should not be relied on."

Arrival

With that the doors hiss open into artificial lighting. As passengers step off the train they will find themselves in a vast room of stark metal. A hangar of a ship, the train looks strange next to a move conventional shuttle craft.

Footsteps sound, heavy on the metal floor. Three people approach. A man flanked by two women take in the group silently.

“Voidtreckers. Thank you so much for heeding our call.” The man speaks. “I am professor Jori. I am the lead scientist here. This is officer Mira, head of security and captain Quin. I believe you have some information already and time is short but we have arranged a short induction and basic training for you. A lot of the equipment we use is strange even for us and we know… nothing of your origin world. We will be taking the shuttle down to the planets surface and our base there. If you would follow us to the shuttle we will do our best to answer any questions on the way.”

He pauses and looks around. “I will warn you, the planet is very unstable and not a safe place to be. Even though we are deeply grateful for your assistance we do not wish to take anyone who does not wish to go. If anyone wishes to remain here and help with the technical side of things they may.”

It is just large enough for everyone, though it is a bit of a squeeze and those who are tall, large or spider will find it an uncomfortable ride.

It is a relatively short journey, the craft is small and fast. It has no windows and passengers are strapped into their seats, but apart from a couple of dicey moments the journey is smooth, allowing Jori and Mira to answer questions. Quin is busy piloting.

They arrive at a large camp, except most of the actual buildings are underground. Jori leads them down through tunnels to a surprisingly well lit room where there are a group of people waiting them.

“This is our main rest area, you are welcome to use it as a base whilst you are helping us. There are sleeping compartments at the far end, feel free to use any not in use. Food will be served here too, it is very basic I’m afraid. We have an open radio channel you will have access to for use in emergencies.” Jori explained. “I will pass you along to those who have agreed to give you a quick training course in our equipment and the specifics of the tasks we need assistance with.”

Basic Training: Red

“Those assisting with the clearing of space debris please come this way.” Quin called, before turning and leaving the hall quickly. She led the way up out of the compound to a large transport bay where there were a series of small fighter craft.

“These were donated very kindly by the Gubita people and are the best craft for the job, they can take a hit. A few hits actually and their beams practically obliterate space debris to harmless levels. Problem is,” She grinned, “Gubita have four arms and so they cannot be piloted by someone with two. Luckily they are just big enough to fit two. One person needs to do the actual piloting while the other controls the guns.”

She led them over to the open cockpit of one so she could explain the different controls. She spoke as briskly as she had walked and seemed to assume they all had at least a basic understanding of fighter craft, though she was open for questions if anyone got confused.

“Feel free to test them out. Once your ready then the sky is yours. There’s a group already up there, but they could do with being relieved. Radio is on the left.”

Basic Training: Purple

“Those willing to evacuate villages please come with me.” A young man gestures anyone over and begins leading them out of the main room.

“We estimate about fifty villages, though in reality they are glorified bunkers underground that house groups of people. Some we are in regular contact with and they are ready to evacuate once transport turns up. Others are less… They don’t want to leave their homes and believe that as the world didn’t end last time it won’t this time either.”

He shrugged, “Our aim is to leave no one behind, do what you must.”

He enters a bay that contains some strange looking transport. Best described as glass bubbles. Each has a front bubble, or carriage, with a control panel and then two spheres attached. Each sphere had a ladder leading up to it’s centre and a bench around the side, with thick straps. Metal legs kept the transport up off the ground.. “This is what is left of the public transport system here. But they are our best way of moving groups. Each pod holds ten people. We don’t recommend pulling more than two pods per engine, as it is harder to dodge falling rocks. They travel about fifteen feet from the ground at their highest.”

He took them over to show them how they worked. If they checked they would find the whereabouts of the villages on their maps and their guide was happy to point them out. “Once you have a full load bring them back here and we can shuttle them to the station.”

Basic Training: Orange

“If you come this way I will give you the rundown on lindusi and how to catch them.” Jori gathered any science types to his side and led them into a side room. There were chairs around a few desks and Jiro gestured for them to sit before turning on a hologram projector at one end.

Large lizard-like creatures are shown prowling around forests, or skittering up mountain sides. “This is the only planet in the system where we have found lindusi. It is an umbrella term for many sub species of creatures but they are all reptilian creatures that don’t just survive in this environment but seem to thrive here. They are predators, preying on each other as well as other creatures.” He grinned as the images moved through different creatures, some small, some very large.

“We have transporter ships read, we just need help rounding the creatures up. You will be given a restraining device.” He help up an object that looked a bit like a yoyo. “You attach the strap to your wrist and throw the device towards the creature.”

One of the scientists stepped forward and Jori threw the yoyo at him, It stuck where it landed and there were three short beeps. “It will detect their heartbeat and their size and create a harness for them.” It did indeed do that, straps sprang out of the cylinder and wrapped around the scientist, restraining him whilst leaving him able to walk. “

We do not recommend trying to restrain a creature more than half your size unless you are unnaturally strong. Larger creatures can be lured into the transporters directly. You will each receive a tranquilliser gun in case things become dangerous but we ask that you only use those in emergencies.”

One of the scientists began handing out the restraining devices. “Please have a practice with the restrainers. They are completely painless so practising on each other is fine. If anyone has any questions now is the time to ask.”

Basic Training: Blue

Mira gathers up anyone left and takes them off to a large training room before handing them a glove with a small disk in the centre. “Shields. Very easy to use, just clench your fist to activate the shield and throw your fist in the direction you need to protect. They will fly out up to ten feet so can be used to block falling rocks. They don’t last long, thirty seconds at best but they will save you from a rock rain or stop a charging lindusi.”

She looked around. “Your job is easy, don’t let the scientists die. They won’t let us actually shoot lindusi, even the ones that try to eat them, so tranq guns have to do.”

She went over to a basket full of small hard balls. “Have a practice with these, make sure you can all activate the shield before you leave. Good luck, I’ll be out there too so just yell on the radio if you need me.”

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Curufn sits down beside Little One. "Pull the straps diagonally around your shoulders and snap them into the slots at the sides of your seat, down low. Like this." He demonstrates with his own harness. "Get it?"

She nodded slowly, watching him carefully as he showed her what to do and then pulled on the straps, bringing them over her shoulders and snapped them into the slots until they clicked. "Do this be being right?"

She felt tied in. She couldn't move very much. So she figured she had done it right but it was best to check, especially since Curufin seemed to know what he was doing!

"Looks right!" replied Curufin.

He then snapped himself in. He felt the same way as Little One did -- tied in, tied down. He didn't like it much, but he recognized the need for safety belts in a flying vehicle.

"So, are you looking forward to the mission?"

"I do be thinking so. I did be reading everything and I do be thinking we will be able to be destroying this space debris. It did be saying they would be giving us equipment."

She's struggling to imagine what equipment they would need. Swords maybe?

"Ah, yes, you're on Red Team. So's my dad. You're going up in one of those fighters craft? I wonder what kind of equipment they will be giving you. I hope it is powerful enough to destroy a meteor, because I hear there are things of that sort falling out of space onto this world. If you're going up, you be careful up there!"

But he figured that whoever she was teaming up with would look after her.

"I will be being very careful." She's a little worried but she won't show it. She can go up in a fighter craft and destroy space debris and meteors. She can do anything.

"Yes he do be being on red team too and your brothers do be being as well. You do be being the only one in your family who do no be being red."

She wondered why. She has no idea if the colours even mean anything but it is an interesting thing.

As Curufin had told Conan, adults often did not understand how intelligent children were. He thought it was possible that Little One could accomplish a great deal for this mission, if she were given a chance.

"Yes, my dad and my brothers are on Red Team. It is a little odd that I was assigned to Orange, but I'm not complaining. I like my teammates, and they and I work well together."

He smiles at her. "But it's too bad I don't have you for a teammate. That would have been nice."

Edited 2019-11-18 04:32 (UTC)

"It would be being?" It's only half a question. She thinks having Curufin on her team wouldn't be a bad thing. He's smart and capable even if he did defy his gods. There are plenty of strange and worrying people on this train. She can work with him.

"I do be being sure you will be being good at catching these lindusi."

"It would be very nice," he repeats, with certainty. He'd have no trouble working with her, either! And it's true he defied his gods, but then, the gods shouldn't always get their way. It gives them an unrealistic idea of their own place in the universe. No being is always right, no matter how powerful. Besides, if he met any of those gods here or anywhere else, he'd try to reconcile with them.

"I hope so!" he says, with a laugh. "These lindusi can't be any trickier than Orcs or hill trolls, and I was quite used to fighting those kinds of beings in my own world. Agility counted for a lot. So I think I can catch these dinosaurs and not get eaten myself." Chuckle.

She tilted her head at the unfamiliar words. She sometimes felt she needed a book that told her what all the strange words people used meant, so she didn't sound as stupid. But as no such book existed she just had to ask instead.

"What do an orc be being? And a dinosaur?"

It might be possible for such a dictionary to exist. If the train's shop could produce blank books, it would be possible for people to write descriptions and stories of their own worlds, not to mention dictionaries of terms!

"An Orc is a rather monstrous-looking creature that can think and talk, and clearly has self-awareness. We don't know for sure how they came into being, but our gods believe that they were made by Melkor, the Lucifer of our world. They serve him for as long as they live. I fought them for almost six hundred years. Dinosaurs are large lizards that used to exist on earth -- actually, on many earths -- but on most, they apparently went extinct long before there were human beings. They left their bones in some of the deep layers of earth, or sometimes in the folded layers of mountains or hills. At least, that is what I have been told. These creatures never existed in my world. But I have been to a few other worlds, and in one, there was a shabby old library with some science books. That's where I found out about dinosaurs. Other citizens of that world confirmed it."

Edited 2019-11-20 06:08 (UTC)

A monster that could think and talk. Interesting. Monsters in her world couldn't talk but she had met many strange creatures since leaving. She has no idea what a Melkor is, Curufin mentions a Lucifer as a comparison but she doesn't know what one of those is either.

That he was so old isn't exactly a surprise, but it is impressive.

Large lizards who left the bones folded in the earth sounded as improbable as a city with lights so bright they blocked out the stars. Different worlds were strange.

"You do be knowing a lot of things." She hoped that if she lived for six hundred years she would too. It wasn't likely that she would. Not even priestess' lived quite that long and she had no magic.

"Thank you. I have had a long lifetime, and I strive to make sense of my experiences. Sometimes that just means collecting knowledge and thinking about it, and sometimes that means thinking very deeply about my own actions and those of others."

He'd have agreed with her that different worlds often had strange differences.

"How long have you lived?" he asked, curiously. "Does you world have monsters, or even just large beasts that can be hazardous to encounter?"

"I did be living for eleven years." No where near six hundred. But old enough, she sure had learned enough in the last couple of months to feel like a life time.

"It do be having monsters. Lots of them though they do no be really going into the cities. They do be being dangerous if you can no be fighting."

She had never actually seen a living monster. But she would, if she went back to her world. A big if. She was very far away from home.

"I hope your eleven years have been happy ones," he wished her. He certainly could understand the feeling that a few months of intense experience are a whole lifetime. It had happened to him when he left the land of the gods for Middle-earth, and then again both times he journeyed to worlds other than his own.

"Monsters in the countryside but no monsters in the cities. I guess that means you stayed in the city, or you'd be telling me monster-fighting stories!"

That was the feeling Curufin had about Little One -- that she was very far from home. But she was a brave young person, and an intelligent one, and he respected her endeavors to adapt to the VoidTrecker life.

"I did be living in a city yes." She nodded, "So I do be having no monster fighting stories." Not of her own anyways. Kant had told her a few and Taiwin had told her a few more, grisly ones at least. "I would have been leaving soon but I did be ending up on the train instead."

Now she had seen a few places outside of her city, strange places that those back home could only dream of. Even if she went back no one would believe her.

"Where would you have been leaving to go?" he asks. "Would you have gone to live or visit somewhere outside of the city?"

"I would be going to the temple. They did be telling me but then I did be being on the platform." She shrugs, "The temple do be being a place where priests and priestesses do be training but I do no be having magic so I would be training as a Warrior to be protecting them."

The shuttle shook and her eyes flickered around. They seemed to be in no danger though.

"Aha, you were being sent away to school to learn a profession! A temple school. You were going to be a warrior? Did you like that idea?"

He hadn't known that she had a bent for fighting, but then, it's hard for an adult to really see what a child might be interested in or have a talent for. Or maybe it was a case of if you can't be one thing, then you have to be another.

When the shuttle is jarred, Curufin gives Little One a reassuring look. He doesn't sense any mechanical failure occurring, and he thinks it is probably only a little turbulence from the planet's atmosphere.

"I did always be wanting to be being a warrior, they do be being very strong and they do be being very good protectors." She wasn't sure how she felt about being sent away, considering everything. But it was alright, she was here instead of there so she didn't have to examine those feelings or think about what it would mean to leave everything she knew and go to the cold mountains where honey was a luxury.

"It will be being a lot of hard work though." If they ever got back. If she wasn't killed for going missing, she doubted anyone was going to believe she had been kidnapped by a train.

"It's true that it's hard work to learn to be a warrior. But I've always thought it was worth it. I can't imagine not being one. If you're interested in learning some fighting skills, I'm sure there are people on the VoidTrecker who would be happy to teach you. I certainly would. All we'd have to do is set up some time for weapons training, and a place."

That would be a sorry state of affairs, if Little One were executed for going missing, even if her story sounded unbelievable!

"You do be being a warrior?" Like his brothers and father, it's not too surprising though she has to remember that warriors are fighters in all worlds, but not all worlds seem to have Warriors like hers.

"Mister Stark did be teaching me a bit but I do be wanting to be learning more."

"I've been a warrior for all the years of my existence," he answers. "And I spent hundreds of years teaching others, so I ought to be a fairly competent instructor. But it's good that Tony is teaching you. I don't know much about his world, but I do know that whatever he does, he does well. I'd be happy to help, too. What kind of fighting skills do you want to acquire? Any particular techniques or weapons that you'd like to learn?"

"He do be being good." In every way. It was annoying. But still she couldn't help but like him. Even more annoying.

"I do be wanting to be fighting better with a dagger and maybe a sword."

She had tried to pick up Kant's sword once and could barely lift it. But she was much bigger now than she had been then!

Little One probably wasn't the only one on this train who found Tony annoying at times. But these days, Curufin was a lot more inclined to be amused than to be annoyed, and besides liking the man and having respect for his knowledge and his skill at organizing, amusement was Curufin's main reaction to him.

"My father and I have a sword and a couple of daggers from the planet where we fought the goblins and wolves. We can use them for practice eventually. We should start with wooden swords and daggers so you can learn all the moves without risking injury. But you said, 'fighting better with a dagger'? That means you already have some skills?"

Race Against Time: Mission Start

Arrival

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

Good place to end?

yup!

(no subject)