Nod 2011/07/15(Fri)21:01 No. 326715 ID: dc2011
File 131078886192.png - (19.94KB , 441x616 , chapter0.png )

>"That isn't paranoia. That's forensics. She knew."

Nod 2011/07/15(Fri)21:01 No. 326716 ID: dc2011
File 131078891757.png - (14.39KB , 441x616 , 0.png )

This isn't paranoia. Nothing insane about being thorough. Insane would be bouncing all the way back to field dynamics with the wrong set of hexa. Insane would be looking for boogeymen between shipping containers.

Mister Pang believes in boogeymen because there are real madmen with real knives hiding in his shadows. Doesn't make his every warning true.

hello.

wat

yo, not sure exactly what we are but, well good news bad news time. bad news we usually show up right before things get "interesting" (often in a oh god oh god were all going to die sort of way) good news is we almost always guide the person who can hear us out safely.

Nod 2011/07/15(Fri)21:17 No. 326723 ID: dc2011
File 131078982477.png - (9.74KB , 441x616 , 01.png )

>>326719
>>326721
Seriously. What am I even doing?

the computer chimes in with warning number sixteen. Even he sounds bored: "Two new low priority proximity alerts in particle tail. Unique radii, azimuths and elevations."

Low priority because they're all apparently matching his speed, they don't register anywhere but magnetics, and nothing within a gigameter is larger than ionized xenon. Either he's swimming in a school of electric ghosts or the sensors are fuzzed.

"Would you like to hear additional contact analysis?"

those are totally electric ghosts dude.

Nod 2011/07/15(Fri)21:31 No. 326730 ID: dc2011
File 131079071469.png - (14.11KB , 441x616 , 02.png )

>>326724
Okay, let's try insane then. I'm making first contact. I'm about to hear the music of the spheres. Mr. Pang's boogeyman is an agent of alien forces about to whisking the whole ship off to some etherial nirvana on the other side of a black hole.

"Would you like to hear additional contact analysis?"

Alternately...

"Ekaatma, yes."

He starts babbling about frequency mathematics again. It's comforting.

Electric ghosts wouldn't be worth waking the captain. Dozens might, but not the first few. It was when switch, camera, and fuse failures started spreading from aft field dynamics that he required human confirmation. Ekaatma woke Tambe. Tambe ordered manual degaussing. Ekaatma woke the engineer. Tambe went back to sleep. Standard protocol.

so.. you just sit here and tell the computer to do things?

Nod 2011/07/15(Fri)21:40 No. 326734 ID: dc2011
File 131079123956.png - (15.28KB , 441x616 , 03.png )

>>326731
I do whatever Tambe tells me.

She told me to degauss field dynamics before we jump. That's something like nine hours. She may be dreaming that I've put on my suit and hopped down there double split wicked. Gosh it's all degaussed by now and I'm a genius.

Instead I've decided to have some sort of charming nervous breakdown and talk to myself.

Maybe it's good for me. Normally these trips are just one long snooze punctuated by meals and exercise.

Nod 2011/07/15(Fri)21:41 No. 326735 ID: dc2011
File 131079127675.png - (20.68KB , 441x616 , 04.png )

Weird as it's feeling, this is just a job. The longship is old, magnetics are wily, and somewhere students are experiencing a simulation of exactly this minor emergency. A pop quiz even, not a final exam.

Sensors are fuzzed. Nothing insane about that. The only thing farther from here than Mister Pang is his boogeyman.

>>326735
Cargo ship. Ship's AI is named Ekaatma.

Double check the sensors.

>>326735
If it's such a waste of time get on that degaussing?