Secrets of the Ancients - Descent, Part 2

As the Alahir raced toward them, the crew deciphered a teleportation system and explored the Ancient ship but found no answers, only more questions.

This chapter is based on Carl and Kay's notes from our August 14, 2022 session. Since we are scattered around the country, we use Discord for voice communications and the Roll20 online virtual tabletop to connect with each other. I used Blender to create the hanger bay illustration.

Continued from: Secrets of the Ancients – Descent, Part 1

Location: Inside the gas giant, Komesh, in the Boughene System, Regina Subsector
Date: 302-1110  

Kipenzi asked Professor Juni Volsang about the creatures in the caves that only she could see. When they were there, the Professor, Kenton Wylde, and Talfryn Stiv saw nothing, and Fig didn’t see any when he took his psy helmet off. She and the other scientists had no idea… maybe some kind of psionic defense? But if so, why only Kipenzi? Not Bay Venshar who started the fight?

2200
Kipenzi raised questions about our reasons for going in, because the Alahir ordered us to stand down. It’ll be just over a day and a half before they get here. We’re already in trouble with these people.

What we know: Capt Gand Holcess spent the last 20 years tracking down a conspiracy with smuggling and using Ancient Tech. He believed Uncle Vlen was involved and thought we were as well. Someone is using Ancient tech and exposed a ship 1.2 km long with a force field, on Alell. It headed to the town Vlen was in for an unknown purpose. That ship came between us and the Alahir; he probably thinks we were responsible for it. He has already found the Eye of Yasterdray and the winged pillar on our ship and probably figured out that we have the scepter of UR as well.

And now we have found an Ancient ship, mostly intact.

The empire, in the person of the Alahir, would have to find us in the gas giant, even then, but we did not feel there was any time to dither about.

We spent the next hour scanning and examining the Ancient ship.

An intermittent force field on the underside of the ship looked inviting for accessing the ship and, by the way, getting out of the gas giant pressure and atmospheric turmoil as well.
Medicus' chemistry knowledge gave us a little insight into the hull. It was a complex blend of fibrous organic materials, carbon, titanium, and some sort of strange quark matter, same as the ship at T’yana; it’s almost impenetrable – but something shredded this ship.

Prof. Volsang noted that the energy field on the upper half keeps the gas giant atmosphere at bay. Sensor readings suggest the area within the energy shield is capable of supporting human life. Gravity, pressure, temperature and atmospheric content are all within human norms. There is a pressure difference of more than 100 atmospheres between the inside and outside of the shield but it shows no strain whatsoever.

Next to the ship we found on T’yana, this is the single most intact Ancient artifact ever discovered – at least, as far as we know. Sam remarked that the secrets on board that ship could be worth a staggering amount of Credits – in finder’s fees alone.

Our experience has told us that most likely an A.I. onboard will have to be reasoned with.

The ship seemed to be holding its position in the gas giant, station keeping. Maybe it is still on a war footing after all of these millennia? Or at the very least, it tells us that the ship is under intelligent control (A.I.).

We could see local life forms dive toward the force field, and the field opens up for them. They would come back out after a few seconds.

We decided to approach the ship and hope it would recognize us as another ship. The question is, “Top or bottom?”

Sam saw some bubbly shapes on the underside that may be docking ports, below the area of the force field. They are outside the force field but sometimes the field snaps down over them. One is 75 meters in radius and has a wall that opens like a clam shell.

Fig determined that our comm would not penetrate the gas giant’s atmosphere with enough power to be detected at the Alahir’s range so we decided to risk using the radio to contact the ship.

Kipenzi attempted to contact the ship, but got no response.

We decided through the bottom it is. Medicus piloted us down through a sudden gust of turbulence and the clamshell door opened up for us.

It looked like a pretty big docking bay inside. We were the only ship in the dock.

The door closed behind us.

The bay pumped in a breathable atmosphere. We got some strange gravity readings; down was going to be the outside edges of the bay. We were going to be walking on the floor, walls and ceiling.

On the wall behind the ship was a large control panel, possibly for the robotic arms scattered around the hanger. They looked like they might be there for handling cargo.

Kipenzi, Sam, and Medicus went over to check out the panel.

Looking at it, there were several buttons and patterns of buttons on the right side of the panel, no labels or colors, just plain buttons. It looked like a pentagonal set of five buttons surrounding a larger central button, and a set of three buttons in a row beneath them.

In the center, to the left of the buttons was a big grey area, just over two meters across.

302-1110  0100
Sam pushed the bottom right button on the pentagon, and then the three on the bottom horizontal row. They clicked into position, but there didn’t seem to be any effect, the robotic arms did not move.

He pushed them again and they popped out. He tried various combinations, but nothing happened until he hit the large button in the center, which created an “annoyed” sound.

Sam pushed the lower right pentagon button and the left button on the bottom row; it made a friendly sound. The middle button and right button on the bottom row all make friendly sounds. Each of the buttons on the bottom row has 3 positions – neutral, in and out.

We labeled the buttons 1 through 6, and A, B, and C for our notes.

 

The large button in the middle of the pentagon seemed to be the activation button for the others. So, what we got was:

6 alone - annoyed sound

2 + A; 2 + B; 2 + C = friendly sounds

Sam started pressing buttons systematically.

Buttons on the bottom row made a more 'friendly' beep.

With a lot of pressing buttons, Sam finally got a ring of lights around the big grey area on the panel and it changed texture. Medicus got an atmosphere contamination light his suit sensor. Pushing the center button again turned off the lights and stopped the gas, and it dispersed.

Further experimentation with the control panel ensued.  The next time the large area behind the panel lit up, Medicus put his head through and saw another room. From our side, looking at the back of the panel, Medicus was not there. Teleporter! Through his button cam we could all see snatches as the shoulder with the cam moved in and out of the panel. We could see some counters across the room, and some iris valves in the floor. The table-like counters were positioned on two opposite sides of each iris valve.

Button experimentation continued after Medicus backed all the way out. We were pretty sure that the ring of light meant “teleport available”.

We discovered many rooms by systematic button pressing, and in one there appeared to be some low berth pods (or some such). There were 36 pods altogether, all were humming and lit except for one that was dark. Kipenzi went all the way through and scanned the dark pod which had a crack in the glass. It appeared to have a Droyne inside, or at least the skeleton of one. Kip came right back to the docking bay after that.

In one room we found what looked like a metal starfish with 29 lights around it. Four lights had holographic tags in a script that we first encountered on Fulacin.

It turned out that we could select multiple button combinations, leading to still more locations.
A systematic exploration of the buttons got us:

•    1 + 6 = bad air; Medicus’s sensor detected contaminated air, i.e., outside atmosphere. There was a whoosh of wind coming from it.

•    1 + 6 = damaged room.

•    2 + 6 = bad air. Just showed the outside of the ship, control panel next to missing room module and the control panel buttons in that room on that side showed the buttons 2,4,5 pushed in, but not 6, the activator button.

•    3 + 6 = bad air.

•    4 + 6 = lights up – no contaminated air this time. Medicus stuck his head through and saw a room with almost Imperial-style iris hatches. The one on left side was damaged, scraped/gouged by something.  They are flanked by table-like counters on two opposite sides. Kipenzi put her button cam through and turned it back to look at what the room looks like where we came through. It’s another control panel and the buttons 2, 4, and 5 are pressed in, but not ‘6’, the activator button.

•    5 + 6 = This time Medicus took his button cam and put his prosthetic arm through, and saw a room with 3 irises; the one on left is open, similar to other room, identical control panel screen and 2, 4, 5 are pushed on other side.

•    1 + 2 + 6 = outside atmosphere detected on sensor. When we put a button cam through, we could see outside the ship with part of a room, a panel surrounded by jagged metal and loose cables – it’s open to the outer atmosphere.

•    1 + 3 + 6 = another wrecked module.

•    1 + 4 + 6 = a big room and life form coming toward control panel towards us. Complex web of equipment, and running near ceiling is a spinneret of black material flowing into another device either destroying it – or maybe manufacturing unit. Creature in here moving directly to us; we shut it down. The creature looked like one of the native gas bag life forms we saw moving through the force field. How did it get in?

•    1 + 5 + 6 = pods that look like low berths. Kip stepped in and looked at the pods. 36 sarcophagi, all but one humming quietly, the quiet one is dark. They are opaque, but translucent. She checked the dark pod, and the lid looked like it was cracked. There were no visible controls. Kip used the x-ray scanner and found a skeleton inside, looked like Droyne, and there is other stuff with it, maybe personal belongings.

•    2 + 3 + 6 = stacks of teleport portals control panels. There is also a metal starfish-looking thing floating in middle of room projecting 29 lights; 4 of the lights have tags in the same script we saw at Fulacin.

(Kip speculates: what if the light tags indicate active portals in real time? Experiment: put a button cam in the room and then turn off our portal and see if one of the lights goes out. Or two lights, if they work in pairs. The creature that came toward us may have been put in that room by a screen portal and wanted out again).

We discover that the order of the button pushing doesn’t affect the outcome: 1 + 2 = 2 + 1, so it drops the number of permutations by an order of magnitude.

We continued:

•    2 + 4 + 6 = 1-meter-tall blue crystal on a hexagonal stand with legs at the six points. 3 legs are broken by what might have been laser fire; the whole thing was 2m in diameter.

•    2 + 5 + 6 = 3 triangular pillars and in middle is a free-floating sphere wrapped with coils like a ball of twine, 2m wide and 3m off deck, some controls on pillars, hex white panel at base of sphere looks like pillars are connected to power system either drawing or providing a lot of power, and iris valve in floor is slightly larger than the sphere.

At this point, Sam decided to go for broke and dialed up 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6. Kipenzi put her button cam through the portal into a square room; it was about a 3m cube with a control panel. The walls were grey like the teleport screens. Kip stepped into the room and stuck her hand through one wall. The button cam showed the top of the ship’s platform. She saw the upper deck inside the force field at the top of a ziggurat. The large brown areas that we saw through the force field looks almost like dirt.
She also saw:

•    A triangular arrangement of pillars with a sphere in the middle, it looked like a larger version of what we found in the 2+5+6 room.

•    A building at far end of surface, not much detail visible at this distance.

•    Something that looked like a fractal tree.

•    An area covered with scrapes/gouges.

•    A pile of loose cables.

The archeologists on the Far Hunter were going bonkers with the amount of information. We tried to keep them contained by reminding them of the danger. It’s easier and faster and safer to investigate the ship this way.

We decided to save the upper deck for later and continued our explorations:

•    3 + 4 + 6 = room with 3 iris hatches, the one on the right was open.

•    3 + 5 + 6 = another 3 iris valves, all closed. There is a vibration, the room is shaking, either gravity is failing or unsecure module, doesn’t feel safe, like it may break loose at any moment.

•    4 + 5 + 6 = 3 iris valves closed and solid, and a laser burn in one counter (the counters are on two opposite sides of each iris valve in all rooms that we have seen so far).

•    1 +2 + 3 + 6 = room echoes with alarming grinding noise, most of capsule is walled away and full of machinery.

•    1 + 2 + 4 + 6 = outside atmosphere, destroyed capsule, torn metal outside of ship.

•    1 + 2 + 5 + 6 = another destroyed capsule, outside air.

•    1 + 3 + 4 + 6 = air in here is toxic, high sulfur content and 30C higher than rest of ship, walls are dusty but empty, at one end is a pile of dust (maybe former life form reduced to dust over time?)

•    1 + 3 + 5 + 6 = damaged room with evidence of fire fight, destroyed equipment of cryptic purpose, on the floor is a black sphere (the type of protective device we’ve seen before. It can only be opened from the inside – nothing can get through including air, light, radio waves).

•    1 + 4 + 5 + 6 = counters and symbols on the walls and the whoosh of wind and lots of vibrations, no iris valves, and warm in here; temp went up by 1 degree as we watched it.

•    2 + 3 + 4 + 6 = sphere - large hole on one side full of wreckage and poison atmosphere.

•    2 + 3 + 5 + 6 = missing capsule, bad air.

•    2 + 4 + 5 + 6 = annoyed sound (we’ve figured out it’s our room number, and wanted to see what would happen if we dialed ourselves).

•    3 + 4 + 5 + 6 = three iris valves, all closed and a creature moving toward us.

•    1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 6 = four robots modeled after Droynes, silver in color, floating motionless in zero G. Kipenzi did not stay in that room very long.

•    1 + 2 + 3 + 5 + 6 = some kind of error code flashes in middle of screen, angry sound.

•    1 + 2 + 4 + 5 + 6 = 5 large blue cubes and 7 medium cubes and 3 small blue cubes, look like storage containers, cubes made of blue substance; the smallest are hand held, the largest are 2 meters in height, and one small metal item on floor looks like gun. Kip picked it up and looked at the cubes. They look like ice, translucent but not cold. There is some shape inside. Kipenzi shined a light on it to see better. The surface where the light shines looked like it’s blistering and then a pseudopod reached to Kipenzi. Kip ran back through control panel and closed it.

•    1 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 = round area looked like a command center, with raised dais, blocky machines around walls and control consoles.

•    2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 = rectangular object with free-floating teleport panel, surrounded by silver spheres with cords with control panel attached to it, and 4 unattached spheres.
 
0600
We worked out that the larger central button is the activate button while the other smaller buttons surrounding it are room numbers to the teleport system.  We haven’t tried any combination of buttons that included the lower three in a row at the bottom, the ones we’ve designated A, B, C.
By this time we had all been up over 24 hours and were getting tired. It was time for a break. Breakfast, showers and sleep were in order. We’ll continue experiments with the lower row of buttons later.

Continued in Secrets of the Ancients - Descent, Part 3


See Also: Dramatis Personæ, Skylark 2, Campaign Starts, The 2nd Adventure, The Chamax Plague, Horde, Shadows, Research Station Gamma, Twilight's Peak, Prison Planet, Leedor on Aramis, First Call at Zilla, Trade War, The Bloodwell, ANNIC NOVA, The Kinunir, Kesser's Return, Justice, Mission to Mithril, Outback, Skylark and the Pit, Last Flight of the Amuar, One Crowded Hour and Secrets of the Ancients.