Strange Revelations

JP with Omni, Jaxx, redsword_7, Kudzu, and CS

Capt. Kenny rubbed his temples as he was stressed out about the whole situation.
"Asahi, prioritize the FTL drive first. Roberts, get things ready on your side in the meantime and get some rest. Doc, check on everyone's health. Since our employers only gave us one torch we will be in trouble if we have more issues down the road... so Roberts you will need to find a backup on the Cronos if you can... along with anything useful.".

Roberts laid his equipment out, checking each part carefully and thinking on the plan when he got over there to the other ship. He loaded his shotgun and hooked it to the combat sling that he was now wearing. If someone did break the FTL... ‘who?’, he thought.

He was the first one up and he saw the others wake up. The only thing working at the time... MUTHER. ‘Can it do that?’, he asked himself. ‘And what does that mean?’. He put his shotgun to his side pointed down. Roberts started to walk through the ship. He looked for the captain.

Finding Kenny, Roberts thought he looked rather frustrated, with good reason. "Hey, Captain. I have things on my mind. Here... if things go really bad... put this information into the transmitter. It will be a direct line to the marines. You could get in hot water later but, fuck it. Just tell them I said to do it. Save it in the buffer. Then all you have to do is hit send. Two, no one was up before me. I was the one that got up first. So there was only one operating system onboard. MUTHER. Could it do that type of damage? If so, why?" he asked.

Kenny listened to Roberts as he sipped his coffee. What Roberts said made a lot of sense, however, it also opened the door to a reality he was not ready for. If the company was going to sabotage their mission, sending a Marine was far too complicated, since it would be easier to send a technician spy.

No merc or spy would volunteer to die for some corporate giant regardless of the payout. So that left them with the AI named MU/TH/UR as a possible culprit. But saying it outloud was not wise since MU/TH/UR had ears all over the ship. So Capt. Kenny needed to choose his words wisely. So he got close and looked Roberts in the eyes as he made his eyes look left and right very fast as a warning while he spoke.
"Unless the company deliberately programmed MU/TH/UR to do such an act I don't see how that could be possible."

Capt. Kenny hoped Roberts caught onto how he was responding while giving his answer. Then Capt. Kenny stopped his eye movement and looked at Roberts as he said, "Make sure you take no chances when you board that ship. We don't know if there is a disease loose on the ship, some internal damage or something even worse so hope for the best and plan for the worst."

Roberts nodded to Kenny, "I understand perfectly, Sir. Well, that's good then. I need to finish my checks. Be ready to go over as soon as the rest are ready. Meet them at the airlock. I would check on that if you can to cover all the bases. I will check on the other ship and be back before you know it." said Roberts.

Capt. Kenny nodded at Roberts as he sipped his coffee again. Then he replied, "I'll be monitoring from the bridge. Let me know if you need something. If things take a turn for the worse we will send out an S.O.S and hope they can reach us in time. Kenny put the module he got from Roberts into his pocket for later.

"I will try to keep comms open when we start out. We can re-evaluate as time goes on" said Roberts. I will have my comms on me. It should work."

He thought for a moment.

"I don't know if you should stay connected once we are over there.", he suggested.

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Hacking into the audit log, Ogai found some interesting things. There was a ‘Special Order’ assigned to MUTHUR to ensure that the Cronus was investigated. As he was doing that, Ogai’s screen started glitching out and he got kicked out of the system.
He hissed slightly and bit at his thumbnail. Not good. The ship was basically against them. It had directed them there for a reason but someone had basically told it to. He'd need to bring it up with the captain without MUTHUR hearing about it. And he wasn't sure how. He swallowed and looked at Vera, "You good to fix this stuff by yourself?"

Vera nodded. Using the maintenance jack, cutting torch, and other repair tools, Vera went through the engineering areas, fixing hoses and pipes and other interior parts of the displacement drive. She also put out a few small fires that had started.
After about 6 hours she was ready to head outside the ship to make repairs on the exterior. She donned an EVA compression suit.

As she was about to seal the helmet, she paused in thought, and then began peeling the suit off. She stowed it away and spoke into the nearest intercom.

"Asahi...can you come here for a moment? It's...important."

Ogai hesitated for a moment, glancing back and nodding. He answered back, "Be right there." He turned and briskly walked back. He saw Vera and raised an eyebrow, "What's wrong?"

Vera motioned for him to come close to her and indicated she wanted to whisper something in his ear.

Jensen was bored and just watching cameras, he saw the two of them whispering and leaned close to the monitor, but heard nothing.

Ogai raised an eyebrow but leaned his head close to hers, waiting for her to say whatever she had to say to him.

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Capt. Kenny then looked at Jensen and said, "Hey Jensen? Mind explaining why we only get one torch assigned for maintenance when the FTL drive can break on us in the middle of a mission? It's not like we plan to use it for the sake of using it. What the hell? Are they trying to save money by skimping on our safety equipment? Won't they lose money if we can't deliver the goods?"

Jensen groaned, “Give me a break, huh? I’ve had about enough. I know you and the others don’t respect me, but you work for this company too. I’m not responsible for the loadout and equipment of your ship, I’m just here to evaluate. And if I’m being honest, this ship should’ve been scrapped over 5 years ago.”

Capt. Kenny raised an eyebrow at Jensen and replied, "Oh really now? So not only are they skimping on the equipment, but now they are using outdated ships? No wonder it's falling apart. Seriously, why wasn't this brought up before, during an evaluation meeting? Surely they had a better model ship we could have used for this mission. Now we have to worry about being stranded out here with no support on an outdated ship with less than minimum equipment and to make things worse we still have a delivery to deal with and a derelict that you insist we should deal with. Doesn't any of this stress you out?"

Jensen rebuked, “It’s no secret that most of the technology we’ve been using is outdated, McCormick... you know this. You’ve had this ship longer than I’ve known you and that is precisely my purpose on these last few missions. I have evaluated you and your ship and while your ship could use an upgrade, you’ll be happy to know that I only have good words for the crew. But my patience is wearing thin with YOU, Kenny. I don’t like being put in danger either and I will definitely have some words with the execs when we get back. Now please, stop blaming me for all of this.”

Capt. Kenny sipped his coffee then replied, "I was not expecting that answer from you."

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After a whispered exchange of words took place, Vera reluctantly went to the nearest intercom and broadcasted the following:

"Guys, it's been a pleasure working with you all, and I hope we can continue that. It's time for me to share something... I'm...an android. I've kept that from you all for reasons that no longer seem important. What this means is I've been holding back a little till now. Now I can be more of service to the crew by dropping the act. I don't need a suit to go outside for repairs, though the mag boots will help. I'm also a perfect candidate to go over to the derelict. Contagions and poor air quality won't affect me. Also, I'm...expendable. Try not to freak out over this...ok? I'm still working towards the team's best interests. So...I'm going to go for a walk outside and do some repairs. It would be really nice if you open the door for me again when I'm done, but...if you don't, I understand. Vera out…”