Caught Between an Eridani and a Hard Place: Chapter 2: A Rude Awakening

From SSDC, Inc.

Allow the players to describe what they do before bed (meditate, go for a walk, booby-trap the door, mega-glue the Ram Python's head to his pillow, whatever.) All weapons and armor are stored in the ship's lockers (see Chapter 3: The Ship.) Any non-destructive gear is still with the characters, stowed in presses under their beds. It's very possible that the players will come up with enough interesting things to do that they won't get to sleep for a good, long time!

About two hours after the last of the characters does finally drift off to sleep, they receive a very loud, very sudden wake-up call, in the form of a thunderous, shuddering crash which shakes the whole ship. Alarm klaxons begin to blare, and all power, except for the emergency lights, goes off. As the players stumble around in near-darkness, trying to figure out exactly what's going on, the first mate's hoarse voice crackles to life over the ship's intercom. "We've been hit! Everybody who ain't dead, get 'cher butts to the bridge, and I mean yesterday! We might have to depressurize, so I suggest you move it 'less you wanna be sucking vacuum!"

On the bridge, the scene is one of chaotic, frenzied activity. The captain is shouting something at Pax, the chief engineer, who is busy punching up schematics and looking like he's got a massive hangover. Urga is looming in a corner, looking this way and that as if trying to spot the cause of the trouble so he can shoot it. Lukaz and Brick are on the far side of the small bridge, feverishly studying navigation coordinates and kibitzing respectively, the opposite side of the bridge from Urga. When Cully sees the characters, he spins and growls at them.

"What the heck took you so long? Nevermind, here's the situation. For some reason, the engines dropped us out of hyperspace (he glares at Lukaz, who blanches and goes back to work) right next to an asteroid. That asteroid is now lodged in the starboard hull of the ship, just forward of the engine room. We were lucky it didn't hit closer to the crew quarters, or our little pleasure cruise here woulda been cut short real fast. But we still got the problem of a breached hull, coupled with the fact that there's raw vacuum between us and the engines. Any of you yobbos got any experience in deep space repairs?" (he waits for a response, looking marginally less sour if any of the characters do.) "Well, we're all about to get us a little hands-on experience. I'm sure you're just as tickled about that as I am."

Cully pauses and turns to confer with the captain and chief engineer, then turns back and addresses everyone else on the bridge. "Okay, here's the deal: we got three things that need doing. Sterren needs to take somebody back with him to put the main power back online. Somebody else is gonna stay here on the bridge with Lukaz to take sensor readings so we can figure out just where we've been dumped. Not you, Brick," he says, glaring at the cook. "Last time you took sensor readings, you didn't even get the galaxy right! The rest of you yahoos get the fun job of helping inspect the hull for secondary breaches. Two of you come with Urga and yours truly to take a look from the outside, and the others stay in here with the captain and Brick and check from the inside. So who's gonna do what?"

Cully will wait for volunteers. If none are forthcoming, he will assign people to different jobs in an intelligent manner (A Mutzachan will most likely get sent to help fix the engines over a Ram, for example.) It's possible, though unlikely, that the characters will consider mutiny. If they do, they should be allowed to make an Intuition check to realize that killing the crew and leaving themselves stranded on a damaged ship in the middle of nowhere without the skill to repair or pilot it is probably a very bad thing.

Next
Caught Between an Eridani and a Hard Place: Chapter 3: The Ship

Previous
Caught Between an Eridani and a Hard Place: Chapter 1: Player's Intro

Module Home
Caught Between an Eridani and a Hard Place