Caught Between an Eridani and a Hard Place: Chapter 5: The Rock

From SSDC, Inc.

So why is all of this happening? Well, the asteroid, which struck the Lady's Kiss isn't an ordinary asteroid. It's actually a sentient lifeform, a very rare one never before encountered by the Alliance. Members of this species communicate and propel themselves through space by manipulating an electromagnetic field, which they generate internally. This particular specimen was drifting its merry way through a relatively deserted neck of space when its electromagnetic field came in contact with the edge of the ship's collision protection screen. The two energy fields reacted strangely, pulling the asteroid into the ship and holding it there. As long as the rock remains, the ship is incapable of generating a hyperfield (the field only extends to a fraction of an inch beyond the ship, and having something protruding beyond this space could have disastrous results.) In other words, both the Lady's Kiss and its unwilling visitor are stuck here.

The rock, being no fool, realized its plight, Studying the field it now found itself trapped in, it managed to roughly pinpoint the source. It also discovered several other intelligent presences in the immediate vicinity of the field, and reasonably concluded that they must have something to do with it. Thus, it decided to attempt to make contact, and get the beings (the crew and PCs) to lower the field so that it could get free. Dimly sensing which of the presences were most knowledgeable about the vessel, it began to target them first (which is why all of the NPCs are affected before the PCs.)

Unfortunately, this simple plan was made more difficult by the very alien nature of the asteroid. It discovered that its normal method of communication (transmitting small electromagnetic pulses) proved largely ineffective; the humanoids simply couldn't understand it. The only portion of their minds simple enough for the asteroid to puzzle out was the brainstem. Therefore, it began trying to get them to shut down the engines the only way it could: stimulating their most basic fight-or-flight instincts, and providing them with a target: the engines.

Characters will be able to interact with the asteroid in a variety of ways. Anyone who sits down and actually thinks about what the bursts of confused noise they keep hearing are is entitled to an IQ check at a -20 to realize it's some form of attempt at communication. Any Chatilian will sense an alien presence on board the ship, if he or she checks. An IQ check at a -50 allows the Chatilian to establish communication with the asteroid; failure on this check indicates that the Chatilian loses from 1-4 points of IQ permanently, and is knocked unconscious for 10-40 minutes. If communication is established, the asteroid will attempt to explain the situation (use a stream-of-consciousness approach, to emphasize the alien nature of the rock's consciousness: something like "What are you curiosity, trapped. Frustration, remove field, imploring.") Mutzachans who make an IQ check at a -50 while studying the asteroid will be able to see the two interacting fields, and realize that the collision field is what's holding the asteroid in place.

Simply shutting off the field for less than a minute will allow the asteroid to pull free of the ship. In gratitude, it will seal the breach it left thoroughly enough to allow the ship to make the jump to hyperspace, as well as releasing control of any crew members. Destruction of the engines will also afford this same result--though the ship isn't going much of anywhere in that case. Alternatively, the characters could decide to attack the asteroid. If they do, it will fight back as best it can, summoning back any crew members it controls to attack the characters. The rock has a Threshold of 7 and effectively possesses 250 Body Points. It can generate a powerful bolt of electromagnetic energy (treat as a Plasma Pulse matrix fired at the 9th energy bracket) once every three seconds. If it is destroyed, all crew members under its control will black out for from 1-4 hours, after which they will be normal. Repairs to the hull will be necessary before the ship can continue.

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Caught Between an Eridani and a Hard Place: Wrap Up

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Caught Between an Eridani and a Hard Place: Chapter 4: The Sound and the Fury

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Caught Between an Eridani and a Hard Place