Chapter Two: A Whole Old World

[Akirapryde]

Alice listened to the conversation and nodded. She spoke softly, "listen, secret missions aside. There is something more troubling going on. Has anyone noticed that there are some things that are um just wrong?"

She paused a moment, "listen the Draconis Combine did get involved in Lyran Alliance affairs and even deployed peacekeepers to a number of Lyran worlds but that within the region of space known as the Lyons Thumb. New Earth wasn't part of that region of space. So why is this ship here. Its like things just aren't right."

"Also, Adrian you mentioned LAMs? What about them?"

She turned and looked to Eric, "I know that my own understanding of Lyran history might be off. Maybe you could shed some light on the matter."

She also turned to Jake and spoke, "listen, I think if we are to survive this, we can't be silent. If you have something to add. Please speak."

She smiled and added with a bit of laughter in her voice, "that is unless you want our only voices to be our resident paranoid programmer and a blind teenager."

[Ice Hellion]

Looking offended

I am not paranoiac. I am cautious and I have my reasons.

Opening his noteputer and showing an ad

I am no specialist and history or 'Mechs were never my majors but a LAM performing on Tukayyid? Does this ring a bell with anyone?

[Aria Blackthorn]

Suki nodded, "so we are on some secret family mission?"

She paused a moment than added, "the passenger you are speaking able. From what I could hear from her argument with her aunt. Um, the older lady is her aunt. So the younger woman is on her way to see her mother or home or something to that effect." Suki sighed, "sorry, but the dialect of Japanese they speak is so different from the language that is spoken on my world. I can get general concepts but it takes a bit for me to put the entire meanings together."

She paused again before adding, "I heard all the stories of Tukayyid. It was required reading for me. It was a glorious battle from what I read. But I don't know what a LAM is. Is that a special kind of weapon or something?"

[Ice Hellion]

I sometimes wonder about ComStar education system. From what I read, a LAM is a 'Mech that can transform into a Fighter and vice-versa.

[CarcerKango]

"Well," Jake said, after a moment. "I know, or at least think, that we haven't time-traveled or anything. But for the life of me I can't figure out how it's a trick. Can't find a weak point, can't find a crack in the facade." He went silent again, brow furrowed.

[Aria Blackthorn]

Suki mimicked with a frown on her face, "I sometimes wonder about ComStar education system." She stuck out her tongue. "I have you know, I learned more in a year traveling with Comstar than I did, the entire time I was on my home planet. Precentor Karimi was a stickler about history. He personally taught me to read and write."

Suki leaned back in her chair as she fell silent. After a moment she leaned forward once more and turned to her left and spoke to Jake, "I have an idea that will answer this question. I recall that jumpships, dropships and fighters all navigate using the stars. I even had a bit of a lesson on how to use an old navigation device from Precentor Karimi."

She blinked as she scanned the table, "my idea is this. If we can get a reading of the ship's current navigation. Use a window somewhere to take our own readings and confirm the two off of a navigation device. We should be able to tell where we really are and more importantly if we are in our current time."

She blinked again, "so what do you think?"

[CarcerKango]

Jake, being an aerojock, nodded confirmation of Suki's statement. "Didn't think of that. Sounds good," he said, flashing a brief smile, not that Suki would know. "Only problem is, where do we get a navigation device?" He drummed his fingers on the table. "For a navigation reading of this ship, we'd probably need to go to the bridge, too. Or get into the computer terminals again. I don't know if we'll be able to create another distraction or not long enough. I have a feeling that one shot's all we get as far as that goes. Adrian, did you happen to get a reading from the nav systems?"

[Ice Hellion]

Laughing

Calm down my ComStar groupie, I am sure you learned a lot. What do you plan to be?

Looking at everyone

This seems like a great idea Suki. If I can get in the navigation system, I should be able to download their star maps. We need to find a way to check if it is the real one. Then we just need to find our noteputer, the one used to work on our Dropship and with Alice's help, we could compare them and see if they match and if not, calculate the difference in time between them.

[Ice Hellion]

[OoC]
I won't be online in the next days but Adrian will try to hack the system from Medbay. The distraction could be computer made (fire alarm or such).

[Akirapryde]

Alice thought about the plan and nodded, "Its a good plan. The math wouldn't be hard to calculate once we have the data. Adrian and I could get the data from the dropship's navigation system." She paused for a moment then added, "this is a carrier right?" she said softly, "if we can get to the flight deck, we could use one of the navigation systems on the fighters to get the independent readings."

She paused again, "I don't know how to use the flight systems of a fighter. But I can do the calculations of the final data to get our results." She turned to Jake, "do you think that you and Suki could get to the flight deck and take the readings?"