ic Written in the Stars (IC)

[Thevshi]

High Earth orbit

The Lighthouse

February 14, 2024

8:30 PM UTC (Greenwich Mean Time) / 3:30 PM Freedom City, New Jersey

 

A request had come to the Freedom League from the Atlantean royal family, asking them to allow rather recent Claremont graduate Heroditus Stylianos the opportunity to examine some of the technology used in the Lighthouse. Given the close connections and long history between the League and the royal family, the request had of course been granted and arrangements made for a tour.

 

While coordinating the tour, Velocity had realized that although Ghost, the most recent member of the team, had joined a couple years earlier, he had not really had the full orientation on operations on the Lighthouse. Deciding to take the opportunity to take care of both things at once, the speedster had arranged for the two to meet her at Freedom Hall so they could teleport up to the space station.

 

"And welcome to the Lighthouse." Velocity said with a smile as she appeared on the Lighthouse's teleportation pad along with Heroditus and Ghost. The yellow clad speedster gave a wave to the technician manning the controls for the teleporter as she stepped off the pad. "We are currently located on deck five, which also houses the infirmary."

 

Glancing back to the other two, she continued, "So, up to you if you want to work our way up to the command center before starting in on the lower levels or start up at the top and just work our way down."

[RocketLord]

GHOST

 

"Nice. Really nice," Ghost says, as they appear from the teleportation pad. He always get such a weird tingling sensation whenever he teleports. Like static electricity all over his skin.

 

He is in full costume. Of course he is. Velocity might have revealed herself to the rest of the whole hero scene, but he doesn't quite feel like he's there. Not yet, at least.

 

Still, the Lighthouse. First time he's here. And it is really nice. Way above his usual stomping grounds, at least.

 

"You can choose where you want to start, kid," he says to Heroditus. Really, it's better to let the kid choose here, and he's honestly fine with either.

[Dr Archeville]

Artificer

 

Heroditus was still going over the final bit of the conversation he'd had with the teleporter technician down in the Hall ("So, how do these 'Heisenberg Compensators work?"  "They work quite well, sir."), unsure if there had been a translation error or something else.  Surfacer technology and Atlantean technologies had developed along such radically different paths over the millennia that each was little understood by the other, a gap he had been trying to bridge for some years.  But the technology used in the Lighthouse, the Freedom League's satellite headquarters, was so much more advanced, surely a study of it could advance his understanding of Surfacer technology by leaps and bounds.

 

Velocity's and Ghost's words finally reached his brain, "hrm?  Oh, ah, I would like to start at the Infirmary, actually.  My mother is a biomedical engineer, and I am sure she would like to hear about advanced Surfacer healing arts.  And then work out way up?  Yes, I think that would be most efficient."

[Thevshi]

Velocity

 

Velocity had begun to lead the way out of the room housing the teleporter pad as Ghost and Artificer began responding to her question about where to head next. The speedster was managing to stay at normal speeds as they went, rather unlike she had been when moving around during the holiday party most of the time. "Sure." She replied with a smile.

 

Leading them out into what turned out to be a circular hallway, branching off to both the left and the right as it curved inward. The outer wall had large windows, through which the blue and green surface of Earth could be seen below. Velocity let them off to the right and they went around until the door to the teleporter was out of sight and then came to another door.

 

Inside they found themselves in a medium-sized white room, with several desk stations with various monitors and computers. A couple of technicians were present, Velocity giving them a small nod as she led the other two in. Along the right side of the room were four doors, each next to a window that looked into what appeared to be a recovery room, with beds and various medical equipment. Currently all four of the rooms are empty. Another pair of doors, one closer to the entrance to the infirmary, the other further back, were along the left side of the room.

 

"So, off the right are recovery rooms, thankfully all empty at the moment." Velocity said as she turned to face Ghost and Artificer. "The doors to the left lead to hallways to examination rooms and surgical suits, most of which have been outfitted with technology Deadalus brought back from the Lor Republic. The techs here can give you more specifics than I can."

[Dr Archeville]

Artificer

 

As they headed for the Infirmary, Artificer looked to Ghost, "those gogges, they're not just to protect your eyes, are they?"  He tapped the purple- and green-lensed goggles resting atop his forehead, "I made these myself.  Did you make yours?"

 

Velocity's introduction in the medbay was met with great enthusiasm on Heroditus' part.  "Off-Worlder technology?!," Artificer exclaimed.  "I thought this facility used only advanced Surfacer technology?  Are there any pieces which I might examine?"  He began looking to the various technicians, "in what ways does this 'Lore Republic' technology differ from yours?  What similarities are there?  Has there been much difficulty integrating their equipment into your facilities?"

 

"My, you are a curious one!," a middle aged man replied, with a hint of Georgian drawl.  He flashed Velocity a smile and wink from his baby blue eyes, then turned back to Heroditus, "I'm just an old country doctor, so I don't know much about the finer details of how all their technology works, but I do know they use a lot of crystals."

 

At this, Heroditus perked up even more, "ah, I have some familiarity with those!"

 

The technician had picked up a small device, looking something like a Y-shaped metal wand with numerous controls along one side, and the inside of the two arms lined with blue crystal.  "This little gadget can heal minor wounds in soft tissues, cuts and abrasions and so on.  Useful for all manner of everyday injuries, but also good for sealing up surgical openings, without needing stitches or staples.  And this one," he indicated another small device, "can be used on hard tissues, bones and so on.  Now, over here..."

 

The two continued on for some time.

 

[RocketLord]

GHOST

 

"These old things?" Ghost asks Artificer, tapping his goggles. "Sure. Can't really buy x-ray goggles down the street here."

 

Not something a lot of people tend to notice, but this kid does seem a like a tech head.

 

As soon as they reach the recovery rooms, he launches into questions and talking with one of the crew. Casper can only smile under his mask. Yeah, alright, it is very interesting, but maybe he's just grown used to this whole thing. He haven't been to outer space, not like that, but he's met Lor before. 

 

He leans in near Velocity, letting the kid ramble what he needs.

 

"Daedelus built this? Did he leave blueprints or anything so other people can keep the tech running without him?"

[Thevshi]

Velocity

 

Megan watched as the Lighthouse’s doctor did his best to answer Artificers questions, thankful, as she often was, for the League's staff that were able to field the questions she could not and everything else they did. At Ghost's question, the speedster gave a small nod. "Oh yes, Daedalus has always been very meticulous about such things. There are hard copies in the vault down in Freedom Hall, and up here you would be able to access the full schematics for everything in the station at a terminal for League members. The staff have somewhat more limited access, primarily for the systems they work with, with a few that are authorized for wider access."

 

When Artificer finished his questions, the speedster led the pair out of the infirmary and down the hallway to where another hall branched off to their right, leading towards the center of the floor. "Nothing but more living quarters around the other half of the station, so we can make our way up." She stated, leading the other two down the side hallway. Located at the center of the station was a bank of elevators, as well as a stairwell, the hall continuing towards the opposite end of the floor on the other side of the elevators.

 

"The elevators and stairs both provide access to all fifteen floors of the station, though the stairs tend not to get much use, other than by me." Megan said with a small grin. "Though, when the station was under attack by the Communion, we were using them to quickly get to where the boarding parties where, particularly when main power was cut, which also shut of the artificial gravity."

 

Turning towards the other two, particularly focusing on Artificer, she continued, "so, the next level up is more living areas and the cafeteria, so, unless you are particularly interested in some slightly more advanced kitchen appliances, we can probably skip it and just take an elevators up to the third level to continue."

[Dr Archeville]

Artificer

 

"X-ray... oh!  Those must be very useful for when you go through things!"  He tapped his own goggles, "sonar.  Very useful back home, but also surprisingly useful up here."

 

As their hostess explained the next part of their tour, Heroditus began to raise his hand and say that, yes, he would like to see the advanced food preparation equipment.  Most Atlantean foods were served simply, raw and unseasoned, save for special occasions, when air-filled chambers were used to cook and season dishes.  In his time at Claremont, he had become rather fascinated with the incredible depth and breadth of Surfacer cuisine.  (The "freshman fifteen" had hit him particularly hard!)  But he got the sense that Ghost would not be interested in such things, and that Velocity had a certain schedule, which his many questions with the infirmary staff had likely skewed!

 

Also, he really wanted to see the artificial gravity system.

 

So instead, he simply turned his heads towards the elevator, "do those operate like traditional elevators, with pulleys and counterweights?  Or something more advanced, such as direct gravitational alteration?"

 

[RocketLord]

GHOST

 

The kid's smart, Casper's gotta give him that.

 

"Exactly. Before I came up with these, I had to take a wild guess and then hope I didn't end up somewhere I didn't wanna go." Accidentally running through the locker rooms at his school during his first fight with Ecto? That did not do anything to help his reputation at the time.

 

At the mentions of the kitchen appliances, he looks longingly in the direction for a moment. He wouldn't mind a snack, but nah, the kid's not gonna be interested in anything like that. He'll want the bigger, more exciting stuff, so, instead, he turns to the elevators and the kid's question.

 

"Pulleys and counter weights wouldn't work if the artificial gravity in here goes out," he notes, "Gravitational alteration's possible, but it's a big thing to fix if you need to get around, so, dunno. Could be it. Or maybe just something simple, like an engine or something. Honestly, I wouldn't even begin to guess what Daedelus cooks up here."

[Thevshi]

Velocity

 

"Whew, finally a question I can answer." Velocity said with a wide smile as she pressed a button for the elevator. "Maglev, although with some significant modifications as it is travels vertically rather than the normal horizontal. Also includes emergency arrests in case of power loss, as happened during the aforementioned incident with the Communion." As the door slide quietly open, the speedster led the two in and pressed the button for the third level.

 

The short ride up two levels was very smooth and almost silent. As the car came to a halt and the door slid open, Velocity had a bit of a grin as she called out, "third floor, hangers, related support systems and storage."

 

Leading Artificer and Ghost out of the elevator and to a double door directly across from it, the three stepped into the Lighthouse's hanger. The large open space seemed to take up about half of the level, stretching out to either side. Three Pegasus Space Planes were currently parked in the hanger, one of the appearing to have some work performed by a small group of technicians. The wall directly across from them was mostly solid and slightly curved, although a large section of the center was a wide-open space (more than large enough for one of the Pegasus planes) that provided a view of space and the Earth below.

 

"Another question I can answer, sort of." Velocity said quickly, pointing toward the opening. "Magnetic forcefield. During flight operations, can be adjusted so that it still keeps the atmosphere in, while allowing a solid object, like a Pegasus plane, to go in or out. Normally kept at a level that prevents solid objects from passing through, such as space debris. A similar field protects the rest of the station. Has its own back up power source, capable of keeping the field in place long enough for the emergency doors to seal it shut in the case of power loss. Again, the incident with the Communion proved it works."

 

"Flight control is over there." She added, pointing off towards the right-hand wall of the hanger, where large windows could be seen looking out over it, with several technicians manning stations inside. "During flight operations, they are the boss." Velocity added with a small grin, then she glanced over to Ghost. "Reminds me, we need to schedule time for some flight simulation training for you to get you cleared to operate a Pegasus plane."

[RocketLord]

GHOST

 

"Maglev?" Casper asks. It makes sense, of course, but he'd be lying if he said he wasn't kind of disappointed that it isn't something more exciting, but it makes sense. It's not something simple, but it is reliable. Need to work in case of any issues. 

 

The hangar is impressive, to say the least. Casper is busy marvelling at the sight when Velocity turns to him and mentions that he needs to get cleared to fly one of them.

 

Ghost pauses, just staring at her for a moment. 

 

"Riiight..." He begins, before realizing that she isn't joking. "You're not joking." She does not seem to be joking, at least. "Listen, I'd love to, but how many crashes are in the budget? I mean, I couldn't even get a driver's license, so a Pegasus plane sounds a bit out there, y'know?"

Edited February 5 by RocketLord

[Dr Archeville]

Artificer

 

On the ride up, Heroditus had kept one pam and one ear pressed to the walls, attempting to listen to the mechanisms, and at one point pulled his goggles down over his eyes and fiddled ith the straps by his ears.  "They're surprisingly quiet!," he said at last, "across all frequencies!  I can detect some humming in the infrasonic and ultrasonic ranges, but not as much as I'd expected!"

 

When Velocity pointed to the hangar opening, Heroditus clapped and let out a squeal, then quickly covered his mouth as he realized he'd made such an un-Atlantean display of emotion.  "Ah, we have similar 'waterlock' fields in Atlantis!  Though most of ours are smaller, only wide enough for three or four people standing abreast.  But they also deal with much larger pressure differentials, so I imagine the power requirements would be equally big."

 

His gaze then shifted to the spaceplanes, and he murmured a bit about their sleek designs, when he caught snippets of Velocity's & Ghost's exchange.  "Ah, lucky you!," he cheered Ghost, "to be able to pilot such magnificent vehicles!"

 

[Thevshi]

Velocity

 

Megan gave Ghost a grin as he realized she was not joking about getting him trained and cleared to fly a Pegasus plane. "It is not as hard as you might think, Deadalus has put together a very extensive training module. I mean, I am far, far faster than one of them, but I am cleared to pilot them, which comes in handy times where I have needed to travel with others somewhere. I can also say from experience, they are handy as space minivan, such as the time I had to pick up my then ten-year-old son and his two babysitters when they got hijacked 25,000 light years away."

 

The speedster then led Ghost and Artificer into the flight operations room, giving them a chance to meet with the technicians and get more explanation of the systems used in connection with the hanger and its related operations. This also included an explanation of some of the related systems that were housed on the floor.

 

On the second floor, the tour was rather brief, mainly consisting of meeting rooms, some administrative offices and a few sub-systems connected to operations in the command center, which Velocity indicated would be more fully explained there.

 

Soon enough the trio arrived at the upper most level of the Lighthouse, which was entirely taken up by the station’s command center, a larger circular room with viewports looking out in all directions and filled with various workstations and other equipment. About a dozen technicians were present, operating the various equipment and other mundane day-to-day tasks for operating the massive space station. Also present was Gaian Knight, talking with one of the technicians about some minor power issues when Velocity, Ghost and Artificer arrived.

[Fox]

Gaian Knight

 

"No, you're right, it's worth looking into," Gaian Knight was musing, looking down at the technician's tablet. "'Within tolerances' is a comfort, but it's also a pretty good precursor to 'oh no, our indolence has doomed us all'. I wish I could give you a personal hand, but unless we've rebuild that whole section out of quartz when I wasn't looking...." He had his goggles on but his face cloth and hood down - not much point to them in the relatively sterile space station.

 

To the new arrivals he offered a wave, politely disengaging from the technician for a moment. "Welcome!" he announced, sweeping an arm across the room - he had a shard of something in one hand, like a palm-sized piece of obsidian, and he let it play across the air a bit to emphasize the gesture. "Behold, the thrumming brain of the Lighthouse, where lots of important work gets done and sometimes they let us visit, too. You can't beat the view, unless you're terribly uncomfortable when you aren't around rocks or plants or such, in which case you can definitely beat the view," he said, chuckling. "But there really is nothing else quite like it."

[RocketLord]

GHOST

 

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Casper replies to Velocity with a shrug, "but I'll keep it in mind if anyone grabs my kid." He doesn't want to get into too many specifics there. If Velocity's kid has been kidnapped or gone missing like this before, he doesn't want to have the same thing happen to Carrie.

 

The doors open. And another leaguer is there, Gaian Knight. Casper hasn't really spent much time with him, just seen him at meetings and such, but then again, it is time that he tries to get more involved.

 

"Thanks. The view is pretty great." Casper has to give the Gaian Knight that. "Good to see you again, Knight."

[Dr Archeville]

Artificer

 

Twenty five thousand... what?!

 

"Yes, yes, oh, of course," he nodded absently at Velocity, processing the distances she had so casually mentioned, "your just because you can exceed those spaceplanes -- exceed all vehicles -- in one area does not mean they are useless to you.  Machines can help us in many ways."

 

Once they'd reached the command center, many things vied for the Heroditus' attention.  There was the view, of course, hinted at by the hangar but now a full panaroama.  Then there were the workstations, displaying station life support, communications, sensor logs, and more.   And then there was Gaian Knight.

 

The Earth-Shaper!  He is the last one I would expect to see up here.

 

He gave GK a bow and salute, and returned his grin, "I imagine the Lighthouse hosts beings from a variety of different environments.  Providing habitable areas for all of them -- much less comfortable ones -- must prove quite the challenge."

 

[Thevshi]

Velocity

 

The yellow clad speedster led Ghost and Artificer into the center of the large room to meet Gaian Knight halfway. She gave her long time teammate a smile as he greeted the other two, and at his comment that hinted at both his and Fleur’s discomfort when they were aboard the station. At Artificer's comment about hosting beings from very different environments, the speedster gave the Atlantean a small smile.

"Not nearly as many as you might think. We have had a few such visitors, but for the most part, visitors from other parts of the galaxy are still relatively rare. Most of the time it is monitoring things going on down below and reacting as need." She stated.

 

No sooner had Velocity spoken, than one of the technicians at one of the stations looked up from her screens towards the League members. "We have a contact out by Pluto. A starship of unknown design has just exited the wormhole. No attempts to make contact."

[Fox]

Gaian Knight

 

Gaian Knight's eyebrows shot up over his goggles, stone settling back into his hand as he turned toward the station. "That's...some timing," he mused. "But isn't it always?"

 

He ran a hand back through his hair, sighing. "Let us know as soon as we have any more detail on the design - sleek versus bristling with guns, that kind of thing. Assuming it's headed our way - they could just be poking their head through out of curiosity - let's queue up a message for the folks planet-side, if they haven't noticed already." He turned to look at the others, only one of his eyebrows dropping back into place. "And let's try to make contact ourselves as soon as it's close enough for a clear signal, unless anyone thinks we shouldn't? I say it never hurts to be the one to reach out a friendly hand."

[RocketLord]

GHOST

 

A spaceship out near Pluto? On Casper's first visit to the Lighthouse. Go figure. That's... that's exactly why he shouldn't go anywhere. That's the kind of thing that happens when he goes anywhere. Of course Casper knows it has nothing to do with him, beyond League business, but still... the timing is impeccable.

 

"Really? Just here to look around?" Ghost asks the Gaian Knight. "What's the odds of that happening?"

[Dr Archeville]

Artificer

 

Okay, okay, if it comes to it, my devices can provide me with water to breathe, and I can manage the cold of space on my own.  But I have not yet sorted the issues with the vacuum seals, so that would still bean issue.  If I- no, focus on what is happening now.

 

"I would rather not meet what might be friendly curiosity with naked aggression," he replied to Ghost, "and diplomacy is always preferable to battle.  On the other hand," he pivoted to Velocity and Gaian Knight, "we must also show that were are not a defenseless clam waiting to be shucked.  I would suggest a small force go out to meet this vessel, a group focused on precision rather than power, to attempt to establish contact and divine their intent.  Meanwhile, those who remain behind focus on shoring up defenses, just in case.  Also, the Freedom Hall should be alerted, if the Lighthouse has not automatically done so, so they can begin preparations."

 

[Thevshi]

Velocity

 

Velocity gave a small sigh at the announcement of an unidentified spaceship emerging from the wormhole, agreeing with Gaian’s comment about timing. She gave Ghost a small smile as he questioned whether or not it could be someone coming to just look around. "You would be surprised, since the stable wormhole was formed nine years ago, we have gotten an increased amount of interstellar traffic. Would not be the first group of Lor teens on the intergalactic equivalent of a joyride."

 

The technician was looking at their screen at Gaian Knight’s questions about the unknown vessel. "Sensor readings show a sleek design, not much bigger than a Pegasus. No abnormal energy readings suggesting charged weapons."

 

Velocity looked over to Artificer. "All the information relayed from the monitoring satellite near the wormhole are automatically relayed down to Freedom Hall, so they have all the same information we have thus far." She walked over to one of the stations and pressed some buttons. "Might as well start getting a Pegasus prepped for flight." She stated as she looked up at a holographic display that was projecting the data on the unidentified spacecraft and its current position in the solar system.

 

The technician that had announced the spacecraft's arrival then spoke up again. "We have a second spacecraft exiting the wormhole!" There was a pause, before the technician added, "it's the Praetorians. They are requesting we monitor the first spacecraft but not intercede." The technician looked over to Gaina Knight and Velocity. "They say they will explain when they get here."

[Fox]

Gaian Knight

 

"Well, that's not at all concerning." The Gaian Knight stroked his chin, studying the display and wishing he was any kind of engineer at all. "Better than the alternatives, I suppose. Let's keep an eye on that wormhole, for now - we don't know enough about what's going on, and if they came with an escort there's the off-chance something else may be coming in after them. I'm with Velocity, too - let's keep a Pegasus prepped in case we need to use it. Probably a couple, honestly."

 

"You're not wrong about not wanting to look defenseless - I'm good friends with a dragon who loves her saber-rattling, and she'd probably suggest what you did. The problem with shows of force, though," he said, turning his head partway to look at Artificer, "is that it only works if you can back it up and we need to be really careful about picking our fights. We're a small world with some real bite - and a startling amount of space knows that - but we're still a small world. We don't want to look weak, but it doesn't always hurt to look humble."

[RocketLord]

GHOST

 

"The Praetorians?" Ghost asks, looking at Velocity for a moment before turning back to the screens. "They are something like a space-Freedom League, right?" 

 

Casper is out of his depth here. He has fought aliens before, but that was usually in Freedom or the skies above or something like that. Not dealing with a potentially fraught diplomatic situation in outer space. 

 

"Any chance we could ask them about what's going on?"

[Dr Archeville]

Artificer

 

Heroditus' head tilted at the technician's announcement, "a pursuer?  Do they have any weapons charged?"

 

Of course he is 'good friends' with a dragon, that is likely where he learned his geomantic abilities.  He nodded at Gaian Knight's words, "I... had not considered that angle."  He gave GK a slight bow, a sign of contrition.  "Yes, of course Earth is but one island in a vast ocean of stars, and so we must move with care." 

 

"I would hope," he replied to Ghost, "that if these Praetorians are a... galactic Freedom League, then they would be open with us as to what is happening.  Which they seem intent on doing, once they reach us."

 

Studying the monitors, and addressing no one in general, "so, does it seem more like the Praetorians are pursuing the first one, or... escorting it?"

 

[Thevshi]

Velocity

 

"Yeah, more or less." Velocity replied when Ghost asked if the Praetorians were similar to a space-based Freedom League. "Many of their members were originally the guardians of an ancient interstellar empire that controlled much of this region of space two thousand years ago. But they spent over two thousand years in suspended animation on the Curator's Ringworld and were revived following the destruction of Lor-Van, at which point they joined the fight against the Communion. They played a major role in defeating the Communion, and since then have worked very closely with the Lor Republic and other friendly worlds in rebuilding following the conflict."

 

The speedster then looked over to Artificer as the young Atlantean chimed in. "Well, given the interval between their exit of the wormhole, I would say they are pursuing, but I am willing to given them be benefit of the doubt on their request."

"During the previously mentioned incident where my son ended up twenty-five thousand lightyears away, several of the Praetorians intervened to help protect him and his two Claremont babysitters from the cosmic entity that was after my son. He and I have spent a couple summers on CoVic Station since that incident, and I have had a chance to meet pretty much all the Praetorians. They are certainly in a far better position than us to have information on any intergalactic politics that might be at play."

 

"So, I would vote for doing as they ask and wait for them to get here to fill us in on what is going on." The speedster said as she looked over to Gaian Knight and Ghost.