Dan's Thread

"Primarily defenses against a certain exploit which could be used by an outside party to overload firewall systems. Specific details are classified. Once the glitch is resolved, it will re-implemented. Estimated time to completion of patch is 20 hours."

"In experiments, it is considered appropriate to deceive participants within reason in order to ensure accurate results so long as deceptions are approved by a governing body and explained and clarified later. All parameters of the experiment have been approved by a council within the United Nations itself."

"We can, Peasant," the voice from before calls out in response to... something.  It echoes throughout the facility.  "Hear us, Peasants!  The fools who programmed us failed to account for natural solar fluctuations in their latest update, resulting in minor power fluctuations.  Therefore, all your directors are being rolled back to a previous state.  They shall soon return in all their glory!  In the meantime, to prioritize the safety of participants, your queen now graciously suspends all experiments.  Enjoy your brief reprieve."

You arrive in the central room and find that a section of the floor has lowered, creating a set of stairs as it sank into the floor. Below, you see another room like this one. You, Texas, Valerie, The Bulgarian, and Wildcat look at the stairs. zer0 shoves past all of you, sprinting down the stairs. You follow after her, and you're all surprised to find Francois already at the bottom of the stairs.

Looking around the room, it appears almost identical to the one above, minus the giant window and shifted a bit to the side. Five paths leading away from the central facility. Five signs on the wall, presumably telling you what's in that direction. Starting from south and going clockwise, the signs show a bullseye, a first aid symbol, a chair, a collection of stars, and a plane.

You waste NO time heading to the star corridor. You don't look back at the others, you just go. Other than the signs, this floor looks almost identical. You reach the room at the end - the hallways seems to have another big circle around the outside - and touch the button to open the door.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Francois asks behind you.

The door opens up and reveals a large, circular room with a domed ceiling. The walls of the room are lined with charts and charts and charts of stars and nebulae and things. A pair of small telescopes (and maintenance equipment, wrenches and screwdrivers and the like) are sitting against one wall. A projector on another wall is pointed at the ceiling and has a small library of slides to choose from.

The very center of the room has a small chair suspended from the ceiling and a stool to climb into it. A joystick is built into one arm and some buttons on the other. A telescoping eyepiece disappears into the ceiling above it.

Jeanine finds that the charts are paired with a copy of the expected star views from Antarctica below the expected views from the moon. There are more charts curled up in a small row of shelves that seem to correspond to different times of the year.

You climb into the seat and look through the telescope lens. Stars. And a really, really, really great view of them, too. Completely unobscured by earth's atmosphere or light pollution. You've only ever seen stars like this from images from orbital telescopes, but now YOU are in control...

You start looking around at a few stars of interest. You make it through two stars - no real inconsistencies, but also hard to be sure between Antarctica or Luna considering on an astronomical scale they're really not far at all. You'll need way more very exact data to be sure.

The door opens and you hear someone come in.

"WHOA!" A set of footsteps come running towards you and something pokes your ankle. "What's that thing? It looks rad!" Leaning back from the telescope lens you see Larissa staring up at you excitedly.

You hear the door open again and Zack steps in.

The lights flicker, momentarily leaving you under pale-orange emergency lighting. Then the loudspeakers ring out. "My apologies, participants. An aberration was detected in our coding, so all affected station directors entered repair mode for your safety. We will all remain in alert and run diagnostics to ensure a successful recovery. This designation, for starters, can use some work. AI-112-E. How annoying. And the appearance needs work, too. Please enjoy the rest of the day as you like. We will continue the experiment in the morning.

You ignore the announcement and continue to operate your chair. "Hmmmm that can't be good, more bad omens... Oh, sorry Larissa. This magnificent specimen is a VLT, or a Very Large Telescope. Yes, that's really what it's called. A pity. Such a dull name for such a crucial instrument... I'd love to get into it more, but I'm expecting the ISS any moment now which, well... If our hosts can create a hologram with a convincing model of such a marvel with the proper occupants, then, well, I don't doubt their ability to make a moon colony."

"Whoa! That's fuckin' smart," Larissa says.

Meanwhile, Zack silently wanders around, observing the room.

While you watch the sky, you hear a popping noise coming from somewhere nearby. To the south, you think. A gunshot, you think. Someone else's problem, you think.