Chapter Two: A Whole Old World

[CarcerKango]

Jake's brow furrowed as he tried to recount his thoughts about the apparent deception. "There's no way we could've ended up backwards in time," he muttered. "Read a book about that, it doesn't work. Forwards, yeah, with relativity and stuff. But backwards is impossible. This is all a trick of some sort, but for the life of me I cannot figure out how to prove it." He looked around, appraising the party's reactions, hoping he wasn't sounding paranoid.

[Ice Hellion]

Shaking his head in disbelief, Adrian couldn't believe what he had just heard.

Before speaking, he looked around them and began to whisper,

What are you saying? We moved in time?

[Aria Blackthorn]

Suki's eyes widen with surprise to what Jake said. She leaned in close and whispered, "Nova Cats?" she said under her breath. "I heard stories of their kind. Mutant Cyborg Aliens from beyond known space. I heard that they had weapons so powerful that they could destroy entire solar systems." she paused a moment thinking, "oh and they ate their own babies."

She looked around out of instinct despite still seeing nothing. Being blind was something that Suki was going to have to get used to. “They conquer every world that they came to” she added in a whisper.

[Akirapryde]

Alice listened carefully as Jake spoke, then Adrien. She looked around at the people who set at the table around her, “I know it sounds crazy. Something that was told to me just before we left the station. That Phoenix was raising. It didn’t make sense to me at the time. But as the events played out in the Medical Bay, I got me thinking. What if this was part of their doing?” she said speaking of the scientist that worked on the station. “Think about it. Suki is what fifteen? Sixteen?” She turned to Suki and spoke calmly and quietly, “Suki, in what year, were you born in?”

[Aria Blackthorn]

Suki pressed her lips together as she blew air between them. The effect made her look like a young girl, “time travel” she said with a huff. She then added, “that’s all science fiction.”

When Alice asked Suki for her birthday Suki laughed, “well it’s not hard to figure out. The year is 3131, and I am fifteen. So that means I was born in 3116.” There was a smirk on her face as she leaned back folding her arms together.

OOC I talked with Akirapryde. He said that anyone who wants to check if I am lying has to use the dice roller. A perception check with a +4 to your base target will prove I am telling the truth.

[Ice Hellion]

Looking at Suki in disbelief

Mutant Cyborg eating babies? Where does that come from?

Adrian looks all around before adding

Did you check their computers? They seem no state of the art for today.

Pausing

This ship might be older than it looks.

[Aria Blackthorn]

Suki blinked at Adrian focusing on his voice. In the blackness of her vision, she almost could imagine his face. She imagined his face with soft features and kind eyes. She couldn't help but smile as she pictured his face in her mind. "Um you forgot alien" she said softly. "Mutant cyborg aliens, who eat their own babies." There was a smug smile on her face, "didn't know we knew about them all the way out where I am from?"

Suki smiled as she looked Adrien in the eyes. "Captain Horthon and his crew were the only source of information off world." She leaned back and thought for a moment. She started to speak as she scratched her head, "okay the only source before Comstar came to our world. Before I was born, Captain Horthon and his brave crew would run the trade routes between worlds within our system and to the few colony worlds nearby. When they would return, they would bring the latest news from all around. I don't know when it happened. But sometime before I was born, Captain Horthon's ship vanished without a trace. He left our system and never returned."

[Kunanaki]

The Stranger was not awake. Well, to be fair it was doubtful that Awake was the right word. The Stranger was currently alive and whole and mentally dead. At least to any trained medical eye. The body was not yet decaying as it were, but where was the will to live?

In a tiny ember internally, beyond the ghostly whispers of reality, lay the spark of him. It was currently centered in a tiny thought bubble that would not die. An image of a necklace that contained a stogie stored inside of a .50 caliber hallowed and hollowed round. There was a debt to be paid for such a thing. The price of failure could be the nascent ember of future success. After all, Mistakes were only mistakes if you learned nothing from them.

A shaky hand lifted up to grasp at throat, choking and coughing. It was quiet here. There had been noises not that long ago. The mind was blurred and stuttering. Sparks of information was bubbling up, filling the mind. A hand snaking to face, to the stubble that was growing upon the lines of a strangers chin. Calloused hands rubbing weather beaten flesh. Whoever he was, he was not a Soft man. That was good information. The strength in the limbs faltered, lack of proper meals in the stomach making a showing. A low growl bubbled from the throat and chest. Pushing aside comforts and seeking to remove any impediments to him sitting up properly, the Stranger had Awoken.

[Ice Hellion]

Looking directly into Suki's eyes, Adrian didn't blink.

Captain Horton? ComStar? Let me tell you that your intel sources don't seem 100% objective.

Without a pause, he looked at the others.

Intel is power. What do we have?

[Akirapryde]

In the Medical Bay. As Thorchan started to stir, both the nurse and the doctor spotted the movement. Both rose from their desks and rushed over to Thorchan’s bed side. The doctor spoke with a thick accent, “be calm. Your mind suffered great trauma. You had a hard battle and your body will take some time to recover.” He motioned for the nurse to pass him his stethoscope, “there was a few moments where we thought we lost you. We are glad to see you awake but you are not out of danger.” The doctor started to take Thorchan vitals as the nurse moved to the other side of Thorchan’s bed.

She smiled as rested a hand on Thorchan’s shoulder, “I am sure once the doctor finds you stable, you can join your friends. I think they went down to the lounge. Would you like me to go ask them to return to your side?”

---

Back in the lounge, Alice looked around before her eyes found Adrian, “There is some kind of power struggle between the military and the civilian leadership on this ship.” She paused and thought, “I haven’t seen who could be this civilian leadership could be. But they are in direct conflict with the military leadership.”