A Science Fiction Text Adventure

> Punch the Wall

"I'm Mary Poppins, Y'all!" - Yondu,2017

>Equip arms. If someone's doctored the food and drink, we're in danger.

Edited by dvorak on Jun 30th 2020 at 8:42:20 AM

Now everyone pat me on the back and tell me how clever I am!

>Retrieve arms from chest

she magnificent my bastard till i complete on her monster

>Read Homestuck 2

Post 4:

> Examine your surroundings

You look around the galley. In addition to the food you found earlier, you find potato chips, a box of various condiments ('Pure Honey', 'Barbecue Sauce', 'Mustard', 'Andorian Jelly'), packets of freeze-dried meals ready to make by adding hot water, and a freezer with some frozen meals. There's a microwave in the corner, an electric kettle, and a sink with dish soap and a sponge. In the sink are four champagne glasses, half full.

> Pick a god and pray

You make a heartfelt prayer to Zanarussi, the Hesperian god of luck. It seems appropriate for some reason you can't quite put your finger on.

> Punch the Wall

You punch the wall. All it does is cause your knuckles to ache.

>Equip arms. If someone's doctored the food and drink, we're in danger. Search for a weapon.

>Retrieve arms from chest

You look for a weapon, but there is none. This is a scientific mission gone wrong, not a military ship. Plus, you seem to remember you read somewhere about psychological studies on small crews in close contact only with each other for a long time and how it leads to tension. Point is, no weapons allowed.

> Look through my crewmate's shit

You search through the rooms of your crewmates, a little more closely than you did earlier. You all have your own personal datapads, which would tell you a whole lot if you could get into them: you can't replicate the biometric signatures of the others and you don't know their passwords. (You can't remember yours, either. Maybe you'll be able to figure a way around that, though). One person has a lot of posters of comic book characters in their room ('Graphic Novels', you remember them clarifying). Another has a violin and a whiteboard with math equations all over it. The third (other than your own) has a wall of potted plants and a desk with drawing materials. It feels homey somehow, and makes you smile. A few drawings are scattered around the room. In a drawer is a drawing of... you? Oh my goodness. Yes, that's definitely you.

>Read Homestuck 2 You have a strong urge to read Homestuck 2 for some reason. Unfortunately, you don't have a physical copy and you can't seem to get into your datapad at the moment. Sorry.

> Did the ship have a science lab? See if there is one, and if so, whether analysing what the hell's up with the fizz is within your skillset.

Yes, you're sure the ship definitely has a science lab somewhere. It's a NASA vessel, after all, not part of the freaking Space Force. Science is why you're out here in the first place. (You know that much, but you still can't remember the specifics of the scientific mission). Beyond the galley, there must be the lab. And the gym... you're aching to get back to that one, you don't want to lose muscle tone, but not right now. You find the door in the back of the galley, then find your way to the lab, taking the bottle of champagne with you.

You ask yourself, do you remember how analyze the champagne? Do you even know, well, anything about chemistry? Actually, you find that you do know chemistry, and you're familiar with the lab setup. You need the computer operational to run the equipment, especially the one you have in mind, though. Now you know your name again. Maybe it will respond to that? Is that your voice code

"Computer, Doctor Ruby Ramirez."

"Hello, Dr. Ramirez", the computer replies, in a familiar sing-song.

"Activate the liquid ion chromotography module"

A machine pops out of the wall. It has a port for a small amount of liquid, and you pipette some of the champagne into the port. It gets injected into the machine. Soon, you have a spectrum which will give you the composition of the champagne, along with the computer's best analysis.

Along with the expected culprits (ethanol— grain alcohol— obviously), you do notice something strange. Traces of silicon, carbon, and metallic compounds, more than natural. Nanotech. Binhanni, probably, but you can't be sure by the composition. You'd need a scanning electron microscope to see the structure at that scale, and even then you're not sure you're up to the job of reverse engineering this stuff.

You realize that your most pressing need at the moment is to find your crewmates. (And why aren't you with them, that's really bugging you). What do you do next to try to find them?

> Call them with your space phone

and the public won't dwell on my transmission cause it wasn't televised.

> Check if the ship has a radio transmitter. Tune in for any signals.

Behind them is darkness full of peril, and in front of them are scheming wolves, apes, tigers, and leopards, waiting to plunder victory.

> Once you get signals, follow them to the nearest room.

"Rarity, are you okay? We gotta get you and your friends outta here soon!"

> Try harder to access your datapad. Anything that seems like it could be your password, you try it.

be nice to benjamin it's not his fault he got beat up by a microbe

>Test your blood to find out if those nanomachines you drank with the wine are going to be a problem.

Now everyone pat me on the back and tell me how clever I am!

Post 5

> Call them with your space phone

Sadly, you don't have a space phone.

You do have a comm system that works within the ship, and now you have been able to access the computer which runs it.

"Computer, Dr. Ramirez. Give me a line to Captain Waverton. Or any other crew member."

"I'm sorry, Dr. Ramirez. I can not establish a connection. They are not on the ship."

> Check if the ship has a radio transmitter. Tune in for any signals.

> Once you get signals, follow them to the nearest room.

"Computer, Dr. Ramirez. Can you detect electromagnetic signals? Radio, microwave, radar. Anything."

"Yes. There are many signals coming from all over the planet. Would you like me to focus on a specific area or frequency?"

You curse, fluently and in several languages. You have no idea which frequencies or area to focus on.

>Test your blood to find out if those nanomachines you drank with the wine are going to be a problem.

You head to where you keep the medical equipment and ask the computer to give your blood a full workup. There are traces of nanomachine in your blood, but apart from that none of your lab values are off. Does that mean anything? Are they just inactive fragments? Are they dormant, and could they wake up later? Would you expect them to be doing anything to your blood, since your symptoms were nervous system related? And what does it mean that your symptoms cleared? (Well, okay, the amnesia is still kinda lingering a bit.) Since you haven't been able to reverse engineer the nanomachines, you still honestly don't know. But you do have one more piece of data now, and data is power. Go you!

> Try harder to access your datapad. Anything that seems like it could be your password, you try it.

You once again try to access your datapad. It beeps on, and a screen flashes: Please state your password aloud. You know it is analyzing your voice pattern to see if it's the same as what it has on file.

What could your password be? Your name, like you use for the ship's computer, might be too easy, but you try it. You try everything you can think of. S'mores. Andorian Jelly. Homestuck 2 (You did have a strange urge to read it not that long ago. Why, you haven't a clue). Every chemical and element you can think of. Every chemical analysis or synthesis method you can think of. The brand name of the champagne you found. Earth. Binhanni. Hesperia.

Hesperia. That's it. You're in!

You are now able to access your datapad. What do you search it for?

>More information about myself. So search my name.

If there's a book you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. Toni Morrison

> Search for the crew manifest, logs, info on the planet you're currently orbiting.

Behind them is darkness full of peril, and in front of them are scheming wolves, apes, tigers, and leopards, waiting to plunder victory.

> Search for a map of the ship.

"Rarity, are you okay? We gotta get you and your friends outta here soon!"

>...Reverse engineer the nanomachines

Well, that’d be jus’ a waste. Why would ya want to deprive the world of such anomaly as yourself?

>Search for any info on the crew. Where they might have gone, who might have taken them.

she magnificent my bastard till i complete on her monster

> Look up information on the mission your ship was on.

be nice to benjamin it's not his fault he got beat up by a microbe

>Start a log. It's The Thing to Do in this kind of situation.

Now everyone pat me on the back and tell me how clever I am!

Post 6

>...Reverse engineer the nanomachines

That could take days at least, even weeks, and you don't think you can afford the delay. You're not confident you can reverse engineer advanced Binhanni nanotech in the first place, at least on your own.

> Search for a map of the ship.

You go to the helm and ask the computer to display a schematic of the ship. At the front of the ship is the helm, followed by a corridor with four adjacent bedrooms, and the mess. At the back of the mess is a doorway leading to the laboratory on one side and a 'sick bay' with a bed and medical supplies and instruments on the other. Then at the back there is a ladder that leads to a level below. On that level is a gym, a cargo bay, and a small shuttle for atmospheric travel.

>More information about myself. So search my name.

On your personal datapad, you search for 'Dr. Ruby Ramirez'. Among everything else that contains your name (a lot), you find a recent version of your resume and curriculum vitae. Your doctorate (from MIT) is in biochemistry, and you focused on xenobiochemistry: the biochemistry of alien living beings. 'Alien' being a relative term, naturally, as you're yourself clearly not completely human, although you're certain you grew up on Earth. Your curriculum vitae lists forty published papers with titles like 'Differences between homo Sapiens and Hesperian physiology on the molecular level'. A recent one discusses differences in the structure of rod and cone equivalents, and what it means for vision. Before joining NASA to take on this mission, you were a researcher and professor at CALTECH.

> Search for the crew manifest, logs, info on the planet you're currently orbiting.

>Search for any info on the crew. Where they might have gone, who might have taken them.

> Look up information on the mission your ship was on.

You look for the crew manifest. Apart from yourself, the crew is:

Captain Jonathan Waverton. Fifteen year NASA veteran. Before that, decorated Navy pilot.

Dr. Lucie St. Pierre. Professor of astrophysics and experimental physics.

Dr. Aaron MacArthur. Theoretical physicist.

According to the log, the planet below is named Binhanni.

On a hunch, you ask for any surveilance footage from just after you were all together. There is footage of you all in the galley drinking champagne. You're all visibly affected, but the others are clutching at their eyes. As if they're blind. You just appear woozy. Then, a shadowy figure enters the frame. It looks more like a smudge on the lens, to be honest. It looks like you shout a warning, but too late. You're hit by a stun gun which also whites out the frame.

According to the log, the Binhanni had invited Earth to 'an exchange of sciences and technology, in hopes of a more friendly feeling between our societies'. You were the Earth's response. Whatever happened, however, does not seem particularly friendly. You remember the entry in your diary about the Binhannis not wanting you here, and the Captain going to get you all killed. According to the log from the days after your diary entry, it was a misunderstanding— a xenophobic terrorist organization sent the message looking like an official Binhanni government message. They didn't want peace with Earth or for Earth to be strengthened by Binhanni knowledge. Now, you're not so sure what to believe.

>Start a log. It's The Thing to Do in this kind of situation.

You record everything you know so far in a file and tag it as your log of the situation. Good. You like being organized. For now, it's a reference for you if you forget something. And if you disappear, well, maybe someone will find it.

So, here's the question: What do you do next?

> Try to make contact with Earth to report what happened to the crew.

and the public won't dwell on my transmission cause it wasn't televised.

> Check if there's a way to send a distress signal back to Earth, preferably without attracting attention from the xenophobic Binhanni.

Behind them is darkness full of peril, and in front of them are scheming wolves, apes, tigers, and leopards, waiting to plunder victory.

> Wonder if you're a Binhanni yourself.

"Rarity, are you okay? We gotta get you and your friends outta here soon!"

>Search the med bay and the lower floors for any useful info you can find.

Edited by Afterwards on Jul 3rd 2020 at 9:29:46 AM

she magnificent my bastard till i complete on her monster

> Wonder how your family is doing. Do they think you're dead?

and the public won't dwell on my transmission cause it wasn't televised.

> Given the very high likelihood by now that the rest of the crew are dead, set up a simple memorial to them.

be nice to benjamin it's not his fault he got beat up by a microbe