**Action** - "A Holographic out-of-body experience"

The Krylon factory exploded in a plume of flames, members of the Blue
Dwarf crew, and various Mollopods, Aerons and Eniram were covered in
debris, cogs, and parts of semi-constructed Krylon war-machines.
The team spread out to survey the area and make sure no Krylons were
left dead on the planet. They discovered a mostly-human cowering in a
destroyed escape pod which was smouldering in a crater. The man
introduced himself as Lester Seventeen-Dot-Phelps which most people
thought was too much of a mouthful so tried never to have to write it
down.
Justin Pancake was found bouncing around in his shield bubble through
molten lava flows. He was cursing so badly and threatening that the
team almost left him there, but when he started threatening to kill a
puppy for every minute longer they left him bouncing, they threw a
net over him and dragged him back to the transport point.
--------------------------------
Where: Mollopod Homeworld
When: Several days later
"Will this really work?" Asked Efof.
"Of course!" Said Jay. "You've used the AR machines plenty of times
right? Plus, since when have you been scared of stuff!"
"I'm not scared!" Efof said quickly and unconvincingly. "But I only
use the AR machines for interactive porn, not rescuing starships from
megalomaniac robots."
"That's a big word for you Efof!"
Efof grinned. "Megalomaniac? I looked it up this morning. I've been
waiting all day to say it!"
Jay nodded at Rufus, who placed an AR headset over Efof's face. Rufus
was wearing a long white lab coat, and looked quite the respectable
scientist, but Jay still couldn't help thinking how young he was and
was worried this might all be a waste of time.
----------One hour later---------------
Efof, Jay, Rufus, Lester and a few other crewmembers stood on a
raised platform above the Mollopod's second largest city. The city
was quite picturesque, being built on the coast next to a beautiful
purple sea. They didn't see much of this of course as the platform
they stood on hovered almost a mile above it.
What was the most unusual thing about this ensemble was that everyone
had a "H" on their forehead. Any passer-by would assume this
gathering of Holograms was the annual "I'm dead but loving it" party
(organised on Facebook). But these people weren't dead, their
lifeless bodies were laid on medical beds in the Mollopod Science
Centre several hundred metres below them.
Efof scratched frustratingly at the "H" on his forehead.
"Stop it!" Said Rufus.
"Its itchy!"
"No it's not. You're scratching a holographic representation of your
head, it doesn't itch at all. You can't even feel anything."
"It itches! Besides, what's the worse that could happen, could it
fall off?"
"No. It's permanently attached."
"Then I can carry on scratching." Efof said. Then suddenly realised
something. "I... I just realised what's wrong with my forehead."
"Other than the 'H'?"
"My penis is missing!" He started bawling and crying out for his lost
penis.
The group had assembled on this levitating platform to behild the
birth of a new experimental starship. Several high-ranking Generals
in the Space Corps were showing off their new ship, but were
momentarily distracted by the sounds of Efof crying about his lost
penis.
Rufus grabbed the Holographic Ffionian by the shoulders and pulled
him to the edge of the platform. He pointed down at a
hospital. "Look. You've not lost your penis. Your real body is down
there and it has a penis firmly attached to it."
Efof stopped sobbing. "Really?"
"I'm really sorry, but we hadn't discovered Ffionians when we started
writing the software."Said another voice. It was Lester Seventeen-
Dot-Phelps, who like everyone else, also had a "H" on his forehead.
"You created the software?" Rufus said.
"Well... I worked on it... a bit. I never thought to include a
parameter to allow penisses anywher other than the groinal region
though, sorry."
Efof nodded in understanding.
They all turned their attention back to the General who was
announcing the new spaceship. .It was a totally holographic spaceship
named the "Enlightenment Version 0.22 BETA." It was highly
experimental and totally holographic.
Rufus walked to the edge of the platform and looked at the ship. It
had a backbone of wire-mesh, and a computer processor. The rest was
entirely holographic. This meant the ship could take on any shape it
wanted. The General presses a remote control and the ship transformed
into many different shapes, including a Starbug, large beachball, an
imposing-looking space-fighter, a space-squid, a small moon, and the
USS Enterprise.
The General then went on to announce that the ship could support an
unlimited amount of additional holograms, including crewmembers.
"What's he saying?" Efof asked. "I can't hear."
"He's saying that if a holographic crewmember dies,
the 'Enlightenment' can bring them back to life."
"Oh" Said Efof.
Then without warning he pushed Rufus off the edge of the floating
platform.
The holographic Rufus screamed, and fell a mile until he hit the
ground. Then he materialised next to Efof again. "That was not
funny!" He shouted.
Efof grinned cheekily.
-------------One day later---------------------------------------
Jay stood on the bridge of the "SS Enlightenment v 0.22 BETA", which
currently looked like the inside of Dr Who's Tardis.
"You all know that the Blue Dwarf was sent into Krylon space through
a portal known as the 'Firewall'." He said to the entire crew. "And
that no living human or organic lifeform can pass through
the 'Firewall'. Well we've left our human bodies behind, and are now
going to pass through the firewall in our current holographic form."
"Does this make us invincible from the Krylons?" Efof put his hand up
and asked.
Jay grinned. "As holograms, we can't die. We'll be brought back by
the Enlightenment's computer. But if the Enlightenment is destroyed,
then we could all die."
Efof gulped and looked around at the other holograms. He'd never felt
so invincible but vulnerable at the same time.
Four Space Corps cruisers intercepted the Krylon armada just far away
from the Firewall to cause enough distraction for the Enlightenment
to quickly pass through undetected.
As the ship passed into the Krylon dimension, everyone felt the
scanning beam pass through the photons of their artificial bodies. It
felt odd knowing that this should normally kill them, they were like
ghosts watching someone slice a knife through their necks.
The Krylon dimension was a mess of orange and red fiery swirls. There
were no stars, but in the distance they could see geometric shapes.
Cubes, prisms, octahedrons. These must be the Krylon's mechanically-
created planets.
Jay looked back to Rufus. The bridge of the ship had now changed to
the Bridge of the Enterprise, and Rufus was busy checking a computer.
"Any idea where the Blue Dwarf is?" Asked Jay.
Rufus shook his head. "No. But there is a Krylon ship coming right at
us."
"Change us into one of their own ships. They might be easily fooled."
Efof bit his holographic fingernails. "Or they might not. Do we have
any weapons?"
Rufus shook his head. "We can project hard-light holograms outside
the ship though."
"Like what?"
<Tag!>
I hope this action post stirs some creativity. I haven't planned how
we should use this ship, so the first person to post can decide what
happens next!
Sorry to rush past a few things, like the aftermath of the explosion
on the planet, and us meeting Lester Seventeen-Dot-Phelps – I just
wanted to get to an exciting story. I'm assuming by this point that
Lester hasn't met everyone just yet, so you can still introduce
yourselves to him (or his hologram at least!).
There are a few characters I haven't included in this post, this is
either due to them not currently posting or having told me that they
want to pursue their own subplot. I left Andy the cleaner out because
I thought it would be unrealistic for him to be included on this
mission – but I do want him to turn up in some interesting way. I
wanted to make you work your way in in some interesting way though :-P
All other characters that I missed out, just assume you're already on
the ship.
If you have some interesting ideas for this story, either talk them
through with me or just go ahead and post them. This can be as wacky
a you want.