Posted by Commander Jonathan McKnight (Executive Officer) in Main Sim - Mess Hall - Chat With Elm

Posted by Ensign Elemirre Serinde (Engineer) in Main Sim - Mess Hall - Chat With Elm

Posted by Vice Admiral CockRoach (GM) in Main Sim - Mess Hall - Chat With Elm
[snip]

She chewed on her lower lip only because her hands were full to chew on a nail. The revelation came crashing down on her. They, the Greyhound helped save the world from these .. Serpents .. but in turn at least in part caused this war and devastation below. She quickly tapped out a message [o] Captain. El here in the Galley with Elm. Greyhound is one of ours - future. At least in part - we caused this war. [c]

• El, Eng

Elm seemed to consider the question of length. “..About 150 revolutions of our planet as it travels through the stars was when the first Greyhound Saviors uplifted us and enlarged our minds to greater heights and expanded our livelihoods across our planet.” She said, indicating at least 150 or so years of passing.

GM CockRoach

Okay, that is a ways back in time there. Not exactly rummaging back to Roman times but that would on Earth equivalence put them to the turn of the millennium practically. And boy would that have changed a lot then. Elm was making them out to being a lot more benevolent than it looked from up at this height at the burning world below. How much did they .. interfere? “And these serpents. When did they come? Apart from the stars do you know where they may have come from?” A thought came to her. “Did the Greyhound crew leave any .. logs? Documents?” Which would likely now be holy writ to them. Her almost religious fervor of speaking was making her uncomfortable. El didn’t feel very ‘saviourish’ in any way.
- El, Eng

Elm seemed to consider the question, “..The Holy Texts we learned in school with history say the Serpents came 13 revolutions after the Greyhound Saviors first came to us and uplifted us from the dark ages we were in. Their battle against the Serpents was only 3 daily revolutions. As for where they came from um....” Elm shook her head, “..As far as I know the Saviors never mentioned this, at least it was not ever taught in our schools. As for logs, or documentation the Holy Texts speak of these often but since the Great Split between north and south 20 revolutions ago and....” Elm glanced to the window where the planet burned, “..and the past few days now, I am uncertain if any digital records still exist outside protected bunkers, even paperbacks would be likely to contain only what we learned in school.” She said looking back to El.

GM CockRoach

El strove to fathom that. Okay, they were thrust backward in time .. somehow, and came across this planet and .. stayed? Why? Star positions and the like would tell them that they were in the past and that Earth was not yet in space. But why not return to Earth, albeit in the past, and help? Earth needed help then too. What might that have done to the past that El knew? She didn’t know that. Did they not want to mess with that possible future and instead focus on this world to help them? Did they know anything about the threat in the area? Did they leave behind any log back ups? And a three day battle? That must have been some dreamy epic battle! She glanced down at her device. No reply yet from the Captain.

“They, this Captain Boyo, must have been some person to have devoted all those years .. revolutions .. to your people. But this was long ago. You had mentioned something I think, another battle not a week ago with these Serpents?” Again she glanced out into space. “Were there any drawings of these Serpents?” So they came before the Serpents had arrived to enslave them. Did the Greyhound have advance information about them? So many questions but maybe .. “Did the Greyhound people have a .. base where they operated from?” She imagined that would be a museum noted landmark now.
- El, Eng

Elm nodded a bit. “..Yes I ran into people similar dressed but not the same as you. They saved my mother and I south of Bos’ton from a group of roving raiders. They tried to dress like we do but they were not too good at it. Their heaven bound ship was damaged and stranded like the Great Greyhound was but not as badly I think from what they told me. They needed some kind of mineral for their heaven bound ship to fix it to return to their home. They left for one of the still active military bunkers underneath the Grey Greyhound Mall city complex. They left my mother and I not far from where you found us as they said they could not take us with them as it would violate their um…” She paused seeming to think on the words used. “..Ah their Prime Directive of non-interference with uh primitive people like us.” she explained.

‘Another one!?’ El thought to herself. ‘What is this, time central? Where ‘they’ out of time too?’ “I hope we did better,” she murmured quietly relating to the dressing, but her mind was spinning along other roads. Some mineral. “I wonder what that mineral was,” she asked, “and what stranded them.” She frowned. ‘Stranded seems habit forming for around these parts,’ she thought. “Prime Directive?” El repeated. What was that? On first blush that wasn’t a bad idea, but at the same time she rebelled to that thought in that it felt too restricting. Was this another future thing? How much more future?

”..As for drawings of the devil spawn Serpents? I’m not sure of any drawings like that showing what they looked like. Maybe someone higher up in either of the military arms could answer that. Though it is said in whispers that in the aftermath of the battle in the heavens by the Great Greyhound pieces of both sides fell to the earth and were scavenged by the Greyhound crew that remained with us, many such artifacts though were secreted away from prying eyes and/or lost when the Great Split happened. When that happened most of the new MACARM and EMS forces took what little was left in the public eye it was said into research and development bunkers on both sides of the planet..” She explained.

Inwardly she shrugged. It was a shot. How did these Serpents travel in this space when it seemed like all of their ships were damaged? Looking out in space she pondered .. were they perhaps from another planet in the system here? That wouldn’t take a lot of travel from one planet to another. “It was a thought. Girl’s curiosity.”

”..As for a base? Mmmm, our teachings say an outpost was made on our northern shores north of Bos’ton, but that was one of the first sites struck by nuclear fire after the MACARMs invaded a few weeks ago. Those that came a short time ago, went to the Mall because they found the material they wanted there, and I guess the EMS military remains were regrouping there for how to counter the MACARM invasion and attacks. I don’t know what they do or did there but after the strangers went in there was a great blinding flash all over the sky line and the skies changed again, the invasion paused from the MACARM for a few days until they resumed not long before you showed up. So it’s clearly divine providence that brought you to us!” She said ending with a dreamy look to her face and a smile.

GM CockRoach

Was that what messed them up in that spatial distortion? That this other future ship did that? What did it do for these people though? She thought that the other team was in that area and if there was any kind of oddity for energy readings they would make a beeline for it. Perhaps there should have been a disclaimer to them of expecting to meet up with many different humans from different times in different dress. Providence. It seemed less providence and more like some kind of spider web in space where their ships seemed to be like metal flies. “There is another team that is investigating things. Maybe they will find out more.” She peered at Elm then outside. Was that other ship still around? What did it look like? What mineral were they looking for? That seemed odd to consider a ‘mineral’ rather than an alloy or something to fix the ship with. She would love love love! To have a look around one of those ships.

But what could be done here? If they were remnants of the other crew and the military and science arms being on different national groups could they bring them together somehow as a kind of ‘hey, we’re back, stand down, this is not the way to act’. “You’re helping us understand a lot, Elm,” she said. The pieces were coming together but the solution was still dangling out there just out of reach.
- El, Eng

Elm just sighed rubbing her arms, “..I am just a civilian no one special..” She said.

GM CockRoach

El knew she had a sense of purpose about her but she also knew that there were limits on herself. This whole situation was hard. On all of them. Every one was a problem bigger than themselves - a common thing. “And I’m just an ensign who is a glorified grease monkey in the machine shop and work on the engines.” Even though she said that, as she got to saying ‘the engines’ she said it affectionately, wistfully. “Everyone in the end is the same. Small to the universe, but every one unique and special,” she said to her, reaching out to place her hand on Elm’s shoulder in a sign of support.
El, Eng

“That they are Ensign,” Jonathan said stepping out of the private dining room into the general Mess Hall. “And without all of our unique abilities, we would never be able to keep this ship running. It’s that uniqueness that keeps us running.”

Cmdr. McKnight - XO

El jerked, not realizing that she had been coiled up tight and probably looked like a startled cat, and emitted a short, if guarded, curse in Cantonese, more directed at herself being so jittery and surprised than anything. How much of the conversation had been overheard? How badly had she botched it all? She had found out a lot, though in not hearing anything back from the Captain and her message she could only assume that the Captain had found that out already. After all there was still a team below and that brave soldier present on board. Was the Commander here to tell her that they should be elsewhere? “Commander, this is Elm,” she said after recovering, though her heart still raced. “Elm, this is Commander McKnight. He is second under the Captain.” She paused. “Elm was hungry. Food is scarce on the planet so I brought her here.” It wasn’t much, here, with it being the middle of the night, and the fare being hot dogs likely left over from dinner. El, hungry too, was not complaining about the fare. “Did you .. need something, sir?” she asked.
- El, Eng