Secrets of the Ancients - Descent, Part 3

The crew makes contact with the Ancient ship’s AI and prepares to turn the ship over to Gand Holcess, Capitan of the Alahir, when things go very wrong.

This chapter is based on Carl and Kay's notes from our September 11, 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.

Continued from: Secrets of the Ancients – Descent, Part 2

Location: Inside the gas giant, Komesh, in the Boughene System, Regina Subsector
Date: 303-1110  

1400
EVERONE’S UP AT SECOND BREAKFAST.

The agenda for the day was experimentation with the controls and the rooms, plus getting the two life form 'thingies' that we found out of the ship (or at least to a more neutral space).

Medicus and Kipenzi went out to the control panel while everyone else waited safely(er) on the Star Hunter watching through the button cams. Kipenzi’s idea was to have her go into a damaged room open to the gas giant’s atmosphere, then dial up a room with a life form in it and lure it into the outside room. She also thought maybe the starfish thing with lights in room 2-3 may indicate which rooms have active control panels.

She opened the teleport panel to room 2-3 and put a button cam in it to record changes in the lights. The transmission cut out when the panel closed and the button cam went to record mode.  At least we learned that the teleport cuts off radio waves as well as sight.

Kipenzi stepped into room 1 and tethered herself to a stable object, there was no need to drift off unexpectedly. 

Next she dialed room 1 - 4 and stuck her head through; no creature but a lot of machine sounds. Kipenzi noticed that something was manufacturing square tubes of webbing material on a conveyor belt and then reeling them in at the other end and destroying them with a disintegrator beam. It looked like they might be hull patches and seemed to be using a great deal of power in a loop of Create-Convey-Annihilate.

Presumably the resources were being recovered and reused somehow, or the ship would have run out long and long ago.  Kipenzi found a control panel and tried to figure out how to turn the process off. She was successful after some minutes of puzzling it out. She turned off the manufacturing processor and then the disintegrator.

We could not find the creatures in the rooms where we left them when we first experimented with the teleport console. How were they getting around in the ship?

1430
Kipenzi opened the portal to the metal starfish room and checked on the button cam. As we suspected, the device was related to the teleport controls. The lights changed when the teleports were used, but the small data tags didn’t.

Every piece of data is... a piece of data. Possibly some actual information may be discovered, but for now we were gathering data.

None of the ones we opened were the ones with tags. The tags are unique with symbols to each one, 3 lines of text altogether and some text is the same; one line is the same on all of them. We got our scientists to work on deciphering the text. Too bad we didn’t have the Skylark’s database; it would have come in handy.

It was 30 hours from the arrival of the Alahir and we talked about what to do when that happened.

Fig suggested leaving the researchers in a separate vehicle to be picked up by the Alahir.

The Alahir can’t see us in the gas giant and would not be able to find us without the K-Band scanner. Kipenzi argued for giving the Ancient ship to the Alahir along with the researchers, who can verify we were on their side and not the bad guys and, BTW Bay Vensharr is in our low berth, too. We can’t get a better bargaining position of strength than this. If we run again, we do look guilty. Sam agreed that we’ll be running for the rest of our lives if we do that.

We talked of turning over the ship to the Alahir, along with all we learned, as a peace offering and a hope for them recognizing that we are not bad guys.  The scientists we rescued would help and vouch for us too.  Downside, the ancient artifacts that Alahir found on the Skylark pretty much lock us in as looters/smugglers... Decisions...

1500
Kipenzi and Medicus went to room 1-3-4-5, the one we had tagged as a control room, to try to contact the ship’s AI (or whatever the proper term for something this Ancient and mysterious). Stepping onto the dais lit up the consoles in the room. Some of the control panels looked like the teleport control buttons.
Since some of our history indicates that Ancient ships can be telepathic, Kip took off her anti-psi helmet for this work.

When they stepped off the dais, all the lights on the control panels went out. Pressing buttons is always a good thing we do, and one test of buttons resulted in a Droyne voice speaking.  Dr. Volstang said it sounded like a prerecorded message, but no one could understand it.

Medicus stood at the leftmost panel from the entrance. There were 3 buttons and an activate button. He pressed the left one + activate and found that he’s standing on a grassy savannah under orange clouds with ruins in the background and a couple of trees nearby. He saw his shadow on the grass with a ghost of the control panel in the same relative position.

He said, “hello?”

Kip responds with “hello”. Kipenzi can see him standing on the dais where he was before; apparently this was a telepathic effect. Medicus depressed the button and it stopped, and he was back in the control room.



After pressing the middle button: he was in a cave with stalactites and ruins in the distance.

Right button: Medicus was standing in a desert on Yori  (He knew because we have been there, and research in our past referenced the area). He saw an archeologist digging there; she looked up and pointed a sensor probe at Medicus and the scene dissolved in static. It’s telepathic, but the archeologist saw us.

Interestingly, the button cams did NOT see the scenes that Medicus did.

Left & Middle buttons at the same time: He was in total darkness underwater with lots of pressure.

Left & Right buttons: floating in deep space with a portal like on the ship floating in space.

Both Medicus and Kipenzi try together, and Medicus can see Kipenzi but is transparent on the savannah, next to stone ruins. They come back and the next combination sent them to outer space. They had Sam come from the ship and he used his astrogation knowledge to figure out the space is in Regina subsector, about a parsec from Shionthy.

There are no known planets there.

He tried the Middle and Right buttons and suddenly they got weird static followed by an identical dais without the control panels.

Then a voice spoke from the darkness.

“This is Vlen Backett, you are in danger, and the ship is under attack by an AI. Get to the bridge and bring the ship up and get out before you are destroyed. My allies are on the way. The bridge should be through one of the iris valves, there should be a platform with a walkway in a spherical chamber where you can control the ship.”

WOWZA, Uncle Vlen is OK! He actually communicated with them, so they probably were in a communications center.

“Spherical chamber with a platform in the middle”.   This did not ring any bells; a more serious search for the bridge was in order.  We started looking at the rooms with Iris Valves.

We went through our list of rooms with iris valves: 4; 5; 2-5 power room; 3-4; 3-5; 4-5 laser burns; 3-4-5.

Kipenzi, Medicus & Sam (wearing his psy helmet) go through to room 2-5. 2 hatches- one in floor and one in ceiling that looked different - flatter or hidden. It didn’t open so they moved on and checked several more rooms.

In one room there was an iris valve with an impressive glyph next to it. We checked with our researchers and they didn’t recognize it. After a short delay, it opened on its own.

Unlike the other rooms we had visited, the walls of this one was covered in thousands of glowing symbols that scrolled and shifted around. In the center was a sort of chair or perch; a holographic field of rippling colors hangs over the chair. The hologram changed to project a geometric symbol in the air above their heads and a voice spoke in a strange language.

We finally found the bridge!

Medicus found a small device when he sat on the perch. It was a small hand-sized ovoid, with one side that felt sticky. When he picked it up, the floating display changed to show a stick figure holding the device to its head and pressing a control stud on the end. Maybe a tutorial of some sort, fortunately visual rather than written.

He followed the instructions and communications suddenly got way better as the voice’s language changed to Galanglic. It apparently scanned the language centers in his brain and learned our language.

The voice said:

“Severe damage has been sustained to all systems. My auto-repair units are unable to fully rectify the damage. My shipmind has been compromised by a hostile intelligence. As per emergency protocols, I am ceding command to the surviving crew. You are requested to guide the ship to Home. Please select from the following options – maintain position or move to a higher orbit.”

We tell it to go higher. Kip asks “Is it about to explode?”

The AI says no.

Medicus asks: “are we in danger?”

It told us that the enemy AI is still opening doors, letting life forms in to attack us. The ship told us that the rogue AI has been trying to get us for a while and it has been thwarting the attempts and trying to help us.  Good to be in contact now.

We asked if it was safe to continue exploration, and it said “Maybe”.  We stood down from any wandering about, so the ship AI could focus on defending itself against the AI.

Kip asked it “Where is Home?”

It brought up an Ancient map showing the area around Regina subsector with 3 more stars near the center of the subsector.

Sam said, “We want to move the ship, we want to take you to a place for repairs.”

The AI detected an approaching ship, turns out it is the Alahir. About 25 hours out from us now.

Once above the atmosphere, the Alahir tried to contact us:

“This is the Imperial vessel, Alahir, and you are in violation of our space. Identify yourselves immediately.”

The Ancient ship gave us some options – open fire, initiate evasive action or initiate

Jump.

When we responded to their hail, the Alahir recognized Sam’s voice. “Is that Sam Penny?”

Sam replied, “Yes. We want to hand over this ship. We’re not the enemy.”

The Alahir was receptive. They offered us a pardon and great reward for the Ancient ship. They are impressed by the size. We warn them that the AI is fighting an enemy AI for control of the ship; it’s also damaged, and we can’t guarantee the Alahir’s safety in near future.

The Captain of the Alahir said that it is good that our side found it, this ship can destabilize the balance of power between the Imperium and Zhodani.

Fig patches a live broadcast from the Far Hunter to the Bridge to the Alahir and got the researchers on the line.  They tell the Alahir that we rescued them and they are here of their own free will, and this ship is the discovery of a lifetime. We also add we have Bay Vensharr in low berth and he’s responsible for the attack on the researchers’ site on Beck’s World.

Speaking with Captain Holcess, he also promised us a pardon when we offered the ship to the Imperium and convinced him that we were not part of the conspiracy that he was investigating.

We ask the AI what we can do to help the ship. AI has been going to sleep to take the enemy AI off-line. It periodically shuts down.

The enemy was Seven, one of “grandfather’s children”.

The enemy is Seven...????  This could explain the serpent in the shape of a seven on one of the bulkheads on Beck’s World.

Kip asks if ‘grandfather’ is Yasterdray. The AI corrects the pronunciation: it’s YASKOYDRAY.  This was an evacuation ship, a freighter-type transport. The evacuees all died out after 15 generations. The top of the superstructure had been modified for crops – that was the dirt we saw on the surface. The 36 low berths hold the officers or leaders, they are still alive. But getting them out would be dangerous for them.

Captain Holcess was happy to learn about the survivors, too.

304-1110  1100
As the Alahir approached, another ship jumped in, well inside the 100 planetary diameter limit.

It was a pearly white cone, looking something like a narwhal’s horn. As it approaches, it spins and long tendrils unfurl. Spikes sprout from along the ship’s flanks. White spots orbit around the ship, waxing and waning.

The Alahir turned towards this new threat, but a single pulse from a weapons turret utterly destroyed the Imperial ship.

The AI said, “Hostile vessel! Tactical guidance required!”

The AI says it can’t hurt the incoming ship. This ship is a damaged freighter; the other ship is like an Ancient destroyer.

A moment later, it announced “Incoming audio transmission” and a familiar voice filled the air.

“Listen, it’s Uncle Vlen. Don’t mind how, you’ve got to trust me. I need you to disable the computer system on that 300,000-year-old rust bucket you’re flying. If you’ve got a weapon that can damage it, then just blow a chunk out of the wall. Otherwise, see if you can turn it off or order it to stand down, before it drags you off somewhere.”

Vlen talks to Fig and tells him, “The Ancients are still around – some of them, anyway. I’ve worked for Seven for a very long time. They don’t want to interfere with Humaniti but they want to keep an eye on us, so they use human agents. When I... when the previous version of me died, they were able to copy my memories into a new cloned body. I’m still your Uncle Vlen. It’s still me.”

When Fig asked for video, he agreed. The sight was a hideous one – slabs of freshly cloned flesh over a synthetic skeleton that was still growing. Every part of the body, even the exposed brain, was laced with alien circuitry.

The ship said it was 'going home'.  Sam asked for a starmap with alternate systems and got a few.  He asked it to jump to Pixie, as we delayed Uncle Vlen. At this point, we just couldn’t trust Vlen, we felt he had lied to us.

The other ship started to send out probes, or fighters, or something. 

The AI said it’s jumping, and we agreed. Waving goodbye, we jumped, presumably for Pixie.

311-1110   0651
We were in jump a week and arrived at parsec 2206 in Regina Subsector near a teleport disk. This one was 128 times larger than the ones on board. Not quite Pixie, but it is where we went.

The Ancient ship approached the disk and…

Continued in Otherworld, Part 1.

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 and One Crowded Hour and Secrets of the Ancients.