WELCOME TO THE A.S.PRAEDA
Who: Everyone!
When: Day 1, as you wake up.
Where: starting at 2-B Cryo-chambers to different sections of the ship.
What: Welcome to the Pradeda
Rating: PG to PG-13, presumably.
Warnings: To be added as things go along.
You wake up somewhere unfamiliar ( Read more... )
When: Day 1, as you wake up.
Where: starting at 2-B Cryo-chambers to different sections of the ship.
What: Welcome to the Pradeda
Rating: PG to PG-13, presumably.
Warnings: To be added as things go along.
You wake up somewhere unfamiliar ( Read more... )
She felt her heart start to pound in her chest and was trying to calm herself down and assess the situation, but in that moment the liquid started to drain out. It seemed that she was being released from whatever pod she was being kept in.
Once the fluid was gone, the pod opened and Martha tumbled out, hitting the floor with a yelp. Her first thought was that it was cold as hell; her second was that she was barely clothed and she was reminded of that time when she was cloned and outfitted in something like this. It was a bit sad, how she could relate her current situation to past ones.
That did mean that she knew what to do, though. If only should could move -- her limbs weren't cooperating, likely because she'd been sedated while stuck in that pod. Forcing out a sigh, she glanced around the hallway and then saw another figure a distance away, also seated on the floor and covered in green sludge.
"Are you all right?" she asked first and foremost, holding back a shiver. Blimey, it really was freezing in here. The lack of clothing didn't help. But the girl she was talking to looked awfully young, and Martha's first instinct was always to check on others.
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How did you get here? wasn't a useful question. The woman had just emerged from a similar chamber, which meant she was just as unininformed as Rose herself.
"This isn't exactly where I expected to be." She looked around, but the contents of the room hadn't changed. Computer readouts, tubing, a distinct absence of ticking clocks, countdowns, or Skaian iconography.
"In fact, I'm not sure I remember falling asleep in the first place. Do you?"
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She was getting ahead of herself, though. Martha used one of the nearby pods to pull herself to her feet, but she felt very wobbly. She hoped this wore off before long -- she needed to get steady on her feet so that they could find someplace warmer and start puzzling through their situation.
As the girl drew closer, Martha looked her over, but it seemed that other than being covered in the alien liquid, she was fine, as she'd said. "I remember going to sleep, yeah..." She trailed off for a moment, remembering how she'd curled up with Tom after the end of that very long day. Normally she got to relax in some sort of normalcy for at least a few days before things went mad again, but not this time.
Not that there was much point in complaining. Martha was more concerned with who was behind this and how many others had been involved. There were certainly a lot of pods in this corridor. "We should look for an exit. Oh, and--" She paused and glanced back, smiling at the girl. "I'm Martha Jones."
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Twilight couldn't see much through the thick liquid, only enough to tell that she was inside some small space. She kicked and flailed, trying to hit the barrier of whatever she was in, but to no avail; the liquid was too thick to move easily in. Oh no. She was really starting to shake now. She was trapped. She was trapped and she couldn't get out. Why? Where was she? Who put her here? Where were her friends? Where was-
As if in response to her rising panic, there was a flowing, squelching sound beneath her as the liquid began to drain. Even with the mask on, Twilight drew in a deep breath of air once her head was above it all. The mask came off with a short burst of telekinetic magic, while the rest of the liquid drained. A sigh of relief. With the liquid gone, Twilight now had half a mind to conjure up a door in the wall in front of her, but thankfully, she didn't need to. The wall opened on its own, allowing her to step out into a cold, dimly lit room.
Twilight shivered all over, the clopping of her hooves echoing through the metal chamber. Her coat was soaked - not good in these temperatures. Her legs felt almost ready to collapse underneath her. Just how long had she been out for?
She could see two shapes moving in her blurred vision. Bigger than her. Who were they?
"Uhh. Hello?" she asked, blinking and rubbing at her eyes with one hoof as she strained to get a clearer look at the two. "Can either of you- ahh!"
Twilight did fall then, landing right on her wet tail. What were they? She had never seen animals like this before.
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"Rose Lalonde. I hope you don't mind that I" -- won't offer to shake your hand, circumstances being what they are, she began to say.
Then a purple unicorn, also covered in green goop, ran in and toppled over in the middle of their conversation. Was it talking? It didn't look like a kernelsprite. She'd have added that high-tech labs and fantasy talking horses didn't really go together, but the makers of the game of the year hadn't agreed. Granted, it had earned that title more by virtue of obliterating any competition and having spawned the universe that created it in the first place, so it wasn't really a fair fight.
"Did you say something?"
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This Rose Lalonde clearly had nothing to do with any of that, and yet it did cause her to dwell on the memory for a moment even if she was currently in some unknown place covered in gunk speaking with a stranger.
But, as the pattern usually went, it got stranger. When she heard a noise behind her, Martha was quick to spin around -- her body wasn't ready for the swift movement, however, and her legs almost gave out on her right then and there. She wrapped her arms around the pod she'd been leaning on to regain her balance.
She was staring at a purple horse -- pony? -- that apparently understood human speech and could respond to it. That, or there was a translation system in place. Was the horse an alien? Martha could actually believe that, and yet she still thought this was one of the more bizarre things she'd come across. Somehow, the Face of Boe (and who that might just be) wasn't as unbelievable as a talking purple pony.
"You got brought here too?" she asked, because the creature was clearly sentient and in the same boat as them. Martha would get used to it eventually; she always did.
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"I hope this doesn't sound rude of me but... what are you two? And have you ever seen a place like this before?" she asked, tilting her head at the girls (at least, she assumed they were girls by those voices).
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You know. Those people that ride on your back and make nuisances of themselves.. That sounded a lot kinkier that it should be. Maybe she'd just keep that thought to herself.
"I've never been here before, but I'm familiar with the type. An abandoned laboratory, littered with the fallen husks of failed new creations. We few, chosen to survive the devastation, must continue the work. Or slaughter its monstrous creation. Something like that. As to where we are?" She really had been out of it if she hadn't done this sooner.
Rose reached up a hand -- and into her sylladex. Everything she'd had in it was in place, though there were no signs of anything she or the Viceroy had been carrying in a more primitive fashion. Her crystal ball was nestled safe in the velvet folds of her mind, and she plucked it out like picking an apple from tree with most exotic fruit. To the other two, it merely materialized in her open palm. And immediately started getting smeared with green, sticky goop. That wouldn't do. No, not at all. Nothing to be done about it now, but as soon as she found a bathroom, it was getting a good cleaning.
She concentrated on the idea of seeing whatever was outside. The darkness in it's murky depths sharpened into a sea of black, dotted with points of light. "We appear to be in space. Maybe an asteroid." There'd been plenty of those to go around. The view swung around to reveal a spaceship, battered and broken. "Or not."
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When Rose answered the pony's question, Martha nodded along with her. "One hundred percent." Although as the young girl went on to describe their situation, Martha watched her with some uncertainty on her face. Now she knew what the Doctor had meant when he'd said that she watched too many films.
Some of those guesses probably weren't so far off, though, and the only way that they were going to find out for certain was if they made their way out of here. Martha suppressed another shiver and then had her third (or fourth) shock of the day (or night) when she realized that Rose was suddenly holding a crystal ball. Where had that come from?
There wasn't really any way she could be entirely human if she was able to pull things out of thin air like that; Martha doubted she'd been hiding the ball somewhere in her gown. She frowned and stared and then listened to her explanations. "Well," she cut in, "we may as well go see for ourselves, yeah?" She slowly let go of the pod she'd been holding onto and then let out a sigh of relief and when she realized her legs could support her own weight.
And so she started down the hall in hopes of finding an exit, squeezing past the pony somewhat awkwardly. "Come on."
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Note to self: research more into outside lands at some point.
"Well I'm a unicorn pony, from Equestria," she answered the both of them as frankly as she could, wondering if either would recognize the place name. "And my name is Twilight Sparkle."
As the smaller of the human girls went on about abandoned laboratories and monstrous creations, she gazed around at the pods, wondering how much of her babbling was wild fancy, and how much was close to the reality of it. Eventually, her gaze came back around to the older girl, and their eyes met. It took Twilight a few moments to realize she was staring. She jumped slightly, finally getting back to her feet. "Ah! I'm sorry," she said, shaking her head. "I don't mean to stare. This is just all so strange&mdash"
And then the word "space" caused her ears to perk up.
"Wait, what?" she sputtered, suddenly noticing the random crystal ball as well now. "What do you mean 'or not'? How did you even get that idea in the first place? Are you using some kind of magic with that thing?" Twilight had no issue with the appearance of the ball itself; she had tons of experience with materializing objects out of thin air. It was the way in which the girl claimed to be using it that made her think Bwuuuhh? As far as she knew, using crystal balls was just some kind of fortune telling mumbo jumbo, not real magic. But, as Pinkie Pie had proven before, there were still some things about magic that even Twilight didn't know, so... She really didn't know where that put them right now, even.
It was easier just to follow the older girl at that. "Okay, yeah. You're right, the best thing to do is just... Just explore as much as we can. The more information we can find in here, the better," she agreed, following behind and forcing herself to breathe steadily despite the cold. She could figure this out. All she had to do was approach this like any other problem, and she would be fine. Hopefully.
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"We're on a spaceship. A half-broken one, by the looks of it." Rose followed along. Her legs were still a little wobbly, so she tried something new. Rather than profligate outpourings of magic lifting her off her feet, she summoned just a trickle. Enough to cut the weight on her feet to something she could manage with reasonable grace.
"I'm well aware of how absurd this all sounds, talking about crystal balls and magic. But it works." Rose was not the kind of person to look a gift horse in the mouth, albeit not for the usual reason. Any imperfection, any flaw, would render the gift useless as a weapon of aggressive affection. Maplehoof had been perfect in every aspect -- snow white coat, big brown eyes, flowing mane. In a word, adorable. And thus an utter sign of Rose's weakness.
The unicorn in front of her was, green slime and all, possibly cuter. Especially since she could talk, and mentioned magic with the tones of a seasoned pro. Rose would have to be on her guard.
The next room held a number of chairs around a glowing information terminal, with more screens down at eye level. "This looks promising." The top line proclaimed this to be the Aura Star Pradeda, a name resounding with the same nonsensical gravitas as Prospit, Derse, and Skaia. Hmm.
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It wasn't long before she was getting stared at, though, and she honestly didn't take much offense. Martha couldn't count the number of times that she'd gaped at aliens. She was used to it now, maybe, but she hadn't always been. She quietly shook her head to let Twilight know that it was fine.
What was the most surprising about this was not where she was or that she'd been brought here, but that the people she was with were willing to talk about magic so freely. First of all, it likely wasn't magic; there was always a scientific explanation for these things. Even paradoxes had a science to them. She could understand Twilight knowing about magic considering her appearance, but a normal teenaged girl acting as if she could see things through her crystal ball was, she'd admit, a bit bizarre.
Either way, she'd know if that crystal ball was the real thing when they explored further. Martha's face lit up when they moved into the next room and she saw a console of sorts. The circular structure of the room reminded her of the TARDIS, though the similarities ended there. Martha took a place next to Rose and started reading what she could.
"You're right. This is a spaceship." It had all the feel of one, but Martha didn't like to jump to conclusions. "Does that mean the crew brought us here? What for?" She was mainly asking herself; she knew the others had no more information than she did. At least they could get through this together.
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The three of them passed through the round door into a warmer room, thank goodness. The temperature wasn't the thing that caused Twilight's eyes to become saucers and her jaw to drop, however. "Oh wow..."
In the middle of the large, round room sat a strangely beautiful array of blue-green lights and displays, all circling around a central pillar with glowing hexagon shapes surrounding it. She had never seen anything like it before. Was this some kind of magic too? It didn't look like any kind she knew, but it also didn't look a lot like the machines she knew either, save for there being wires everywhere.
Twilight circled the displays, trying to read them. She too saw the name of the ship, as well as several other unfamiliar terms, including "Adoprisa". It was hard to take it all in at once, though; the most she could really do to start was to stare in absolute awe. "I don't know," she answered Martha, unable to look away from the screens. "Until about five minutes ago, I had no idea anyone could even go to space - other than the Mare in the Moon, I mean. This is all new to me."
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Twilight was levitating slime off. Rose wasn't sure she wanted to try, that, especially since she didn't have the luxury of a built-in fur coat.
"No one can. We're all dead, and this is merely the antechamber to a land where unwashed souls scream eternally." She smirked. "It's just space. There isn't any air out there, so don't open doors without seeing what is on the other side." She rattled off both sarcasm and caution automatically, her attention riveted by the monitors.
Rose started poking the controls, leaving green fingerprints. She wasn't the first one to do so; nor, by the looks of the cryo-chamber, the last. A few presses got both directions to proceed to medical bay for post-revival check-up, and a large blinking note that the medical bay was under lockdown.
A few more pokes, and she was looking at a map of the ship. The crystal ball had showed the exterior reality; the map showed what had once been, if not a grand ship, a functioning one.
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Either way, it seemed that wherever the pony was from, space travel wasn't yet possible. She was going to have to be a quick study, then, since Martha was getting the feeling that they had a hard task ahead of them.
It was made rather obvious by the map that Rose eventually brought up. She didn't think that the girl's teasing about them being dead was very clever, but most children her age thought themselves much funnier than they actually were. She'd grow out of in a few years, and Martha had more important things to address than the girl's manner.
"Most doors that lead outside of the ship should be deadlocked and marked with warnings," she piped up. She wasn't going to mention that she'd once hidden in an escape pod and then had someone jettison her out toward a sun. It had been a tense situation.
Not that this one wasn't, if the ship was damaged. "So we were either brought here to die with this ship or... they expect us to fix it," she remarked. Martha knew about a lot of things, but engineering and mechanics weren't exactly included. She sighed and took note of the two other doors they could try, moving toward the one at her left.
"We should probably keep moving, see if there's anyone else around." Or someone with answers. They could scan the computer systems all they wanted, but they weren't going to be able to tell them everything.
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Twilight forced herself to focus, studying the map as closely as she could. She wasn't used to reading blueprint-type maps, but it couldn't be that much different than following any other type of map. Indeed, it didn't take long for her to grasp that the ship had three levels, and that they were on the second one right now. It didn't help her concentration to hear Martha suggest that maybe they had been brought to die with the ship (ulp), but somehow, she managed. "Here's hoping it's the latter," Twilight offered somewhat weakly. "If it's between fixing out of this world technology and being completely and utterly doomed, I think I could learn to fix the technology pretty quick."
She almost protested when Martha suggested they move on. There was obviously so much more that this station could tell them. Still, she knew that the other girl was probably right. The more ground they covered with their own eyes, the stronger a sense they could have of what they had to work with. Twilight made a mental note to come back to this room later, though.
The next room was less a room and more a hall. There were a few potential paths here, too. Twilight looked back, hoping she could remember the way back later. "Well, which way from here?" she asked, peering around at the doors and the flat screens that dotted the walls at varying intervals.
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