Chapter Two: A Whole Old World

[Akirapryde]

It was in those words that suddenly made Alice feel very foolish. And this was clearly written across her face. She suddenly felt like a mindless groupie instead of the highly intelligent woman she was. She opened her mouth a few times to speak but the words simply didn't come out. Finally she managed to gather up enough thought to fill that gap of silence.

"look I understand looking back on it, your right it doesn't sound right. But when you were in the middle of it all, it was very overwhelming. The Arc was not designed to be a major part of the Collector or our project. Professor Angsoft told us it was an after thought. A service to the future of humanity. It was a massive time capsule to cover all aspects of human evolution from the fall of the Star League through the modern time. Everything our future generations needed to best understand the mistakes that were made along the way to where we were."

There was passion in her voice as she spoke of the Arc. Whatever it's true intentions were, Alice Underwood clearly bought the idea of it being only a time capsule. (OOC: those who made the rolls for perception will know that she is being completely honest to the best of her ability. Eric, you will also know that there is a level of devotion in her mannerisms that makes her acceptance of the facts harder)

"I know it sounds crazy, but you have to understand that we were all driven by the idea that we could unlock the very secrets of the universe. Each new experiment took us closer to this goal. It didn't take long before we had scientists from all over wanting to join the cause. But only a few were allowed to join Professor Angsoft held a high standard on who was allowed to join. Even higher were those that were part of his inner most circle. I wasn't invited in to this circle, but they were the ones that carried out Professor Angsoft's orders."

[aipsylon]

"That adds up Adrian, the group was exclusive and information distribution was very need to know. Alice just might not have known about it. This would make her story to us about what happened convincing in the aftermath. She goes back with us, knows that the task force is a lie, and what their research is about. The topic of research has a decent chance of causing a catastrophic failure if destabilized. An excellent person to wrap up loose ends."

Eric nodded to the others. Reaching his hand into one of his pockets and taking another and setting it on one of the beds. "We are confined tho this level, but still need to get a look at the stars to confirm. Adrian, Suki you take the left, try every door any that are open or unlocked and don't look restricted. Jake, Captain, take the right, same method. None of you do anything that will be construed as breaching the orders we were given. Alice and I will be doing something as well, but I'd like the four of you to have deniability on that front. We'll meet back here in say an hour?" He glanced at everyone checking their faces, listening to what they said as well as their words.

[Akirapryde]

Alice glanced over at Eric with a bit of concern in her eyes, "um deniability?" she said with her concern in her voice. The conversation was a bit harder than she had anticipated which was the reason why she didn't want to engage in it in the first place.

She turned to Adrian, "what the Captain said" she said softly. "About Phoenix rising, I remember what he is talking about. We were leaving my room on the station. Professor Paternoster, one of Professor Angsoft's most trust, told me 'its wonderful Alice. Its Phoenix, Phoenix is rising.' When I asked her to clarify, she only told me that there wasn't time. She said something about a raiding ship and that we had to get to the Ark. Professor Paternoster made it clear that there was a sense of urgency."

[Aria Blackthorn]

Suki felt around a few moments before she was sure she had hold of Adrian's arm, "okay I have my partner." She leaned over and giggled as she spoke, "you are Adrian right?"

[aipsylon]

"I'll explain one they have left." Erik gave her a friendly smile he meant to be reassuring. As he left the way out of the room.

[Ice Hellion]

With irony in his voice

Right, the blind and the crippled. We are a winning team.

With a serious tone

What is a non locked door? And what are we looking for?

[Akirapryde]

Alice glanced around the room as the others started to gather up their things. she looked over at Jake and Adrian, "you need to make sure that when you are plotting your stars, try to find Sol and another star constellation. It would really be helpful if you use the same star constellations. Search for Orion, or more specifically Rigel. I will need to know the distance between these stars and their azimuth from your vantage points. I will also need to know where on the ship you took your readings from. This will be useful in finding our heading. I will be able to use all of this information to calculate our relative relationship within the Inner Sphere and our course."

She allowed her scientific mind to take over as she stopped fidgeting with her ring. In stead her mind starting to form the calculations that were needed to answer that million C-Bill question. She drew in a beep death as she walked over to Eric and waited for the rest to leave.

[Ice Hellion]

A silly question but how are we supposed to measure the distance and the azimuth?

[aipsylon]

"It does not need to be specific things in the galaxy have huge distances to move, but they also move very quickly, Alice, can you make a map of what the stars should look like if we are where the computer told us we are, and highlight what they need to look for to confirm we are at that time." Alice was a scientist, Erik was military just what you need to know, not the extra information. "Make sure it is something easy to pick out." As for what a non locked door is I have confidence that you will arrive at the conclusion that it is either a door that is unlocked or does not have a lock."

[Akirapryde]

Alice stood there for a moment thinking about Eric's request before speaking, "no I can't produce any maps. We need raw data that wont be compromised by what could be part of the trick. We need this data to be as pure and free from tainting as possible." On that note she turned and searched the room.

She walked over to a glass medical cabinet and opened it. She searched the cabinet tossing boxes of medical supplies down on to the table below the cabinet. She pulled out a package of medical tubing, a box of gauze, and a surgical knife. A short search of the table allowed her to discover a marker. She opened up the box and laid out a number of gauze side by side. She pulled the tubing and cut it to length of the entire line of the gauze. Next she mark the tubing for each gauze. This gave her a tubing cut to length and marked like a ruler. She repeated the steps for a second tube.

She took both tubes to Eric, "Each of these are marked at five centimeters. This should give us a very good means to making accurate measurements. Its not prefect, but it will be more than enough for me to get the calculations."

She turned to Adrian, "but we still need to know if the ship is doing what we were told. We need those charts that the ship has in its navigational system."

She turned to Eric and waited for feedback on her idea.