The Ace of Spades Campaign - Alien Base part 07

Alien Base Sub Level 2 - the Zoo
The elevator receiving room was of the same size and dimensions as the one above on sub level 1. Once again, in each corner, there was a gun turret, which did not move or react to the presence of the party. The floor was a lot cleaner than the floor above, devoid of any rubbish. The atmosphere was suitable for oxygen breathers and the room was well lit with strip lighting.

There were two doorways in the room, one to the right, which was west and one to the left and east.
"Which way?" Storm asked. "Right or left?"
"I'm getting a faint reading of chlorine gas to the right," Lynda said as she activated her scanner. "To the left seems breathable. I'd say go left."
The doorway was protected by a bluish forcefield, which made visibility beyond it difficult but not impossible. To one side of the door was an intercom and an on/off switch, which, when Storm pressed it, deactivated the forcefield.

As they entered the room, they could see one exit visible on the opposite wall, with a pair of closed sliding steel doors of the kind they had encountered on the first level. Several pieces of equipment could be seen standing around, each plentifully supplied with various probes, monitors and sensors. Panels were open in one of the machines in the south east corner, and other machines, which had tubes with some fluid in them, could be seen. Some of the tubes had odd-looking objects floating in them. It looked like some sort of operating theatre, but the equipment seemed like it would be more at home in a body-shop.
"This equipment is, definitely, surgical in nature," Judith confirmed, "but it is meant for exploratory and experimental medicine rather than for helping the sick."
"Creepy!" Rebecca said, looking revolted.
Most of the equipment had been cannibalised with parts ripped out, wiring removed, and various modules pilfered. The floating objects in the tubes proved to be human organs - a heart, a liver and three kidneys. The organs were quite dead.

In the north east corner of the room was one machine that was intact, although at first it looked like it had some missing parts. These, however, were for the support function and not the main device itself. Both Judith and Lynda identified the device as a biostasis machine, which could be used on living creatures to reduce them to a state of suspended animation. After carefully examining the device, Judith was able to determine that this machine had been set for a human to be placed on it.
"I've seen one of these machines before," she revealed, "but they are very rare."
"How do they work?" Danica asked.
"Well, you place your subject on the platform here," Judith said as her memories of using a similar machine came flooding back. "Once you switch it on, the machine will zap the subject. To all intents and purposes, the subject will appear dead. Rigor mortis quickly follows. No breathing, heartbeat or brainwave activity can be detected at any level. The difference is, a dead body will rot, but one in stasis will not. You can revive the subject by a simple electrical shock."
The only other equipment of note in the room was a stack of wheeled circular platforms about six feet in diameter. They were not powered, and could be spun or pushed easily once lifted from the stack. They were merely equipment sleds, but their lower surfaces had been treated somehow for lower friction. Storm made a mental note to take one back to The Ace of Spades when they finished exploring the rest of the base.

They left the processing room and entered a short corridor that terminated in another blue forcefield, beyond which was a T-junction. Nothing was present in the corridor but it glowed softly with a pinkish light and it seemed warmer than the rest of the base so far. Checks for radiation, chemicals or anything else for that matter, revealed nothing on their medical and science scanners. The only anomaly they found was that Smiley reported there was no source of illumination in the corridor. Lynda wondered if this was a glitch on the robot's part but just as quickly dismissed the idea. Unbeknownst to them all, this was a decontamination chamber. It was perfectly harmless to humans and humanoids but its function baffled the party.

Once out of the corridor, they were faced with a choice of two directions to take - north or south. They stuck to the left, which took them south to a familiar set of circular steel doors. Storm pressed the switch at the side of the doors and they slid open.

Inside was a huge room, filled with a large number of circular platforms identical to the one they had seen in the processing room. Most of them were surrounded by columns of blue light and many of them contained a creature, apparently held in biostasis.

A bank of control panels were situated nearby but they were damaged beyond repair. It looked like they had been ripped apart and cannibalised. Parts of broken modules and pieces of machinery littered the floor around the control units. Up by the roof, which was ten feet above them, were more of the gun turrets. Danica counted seven of them. Four of them were situated near to the broken control panels and the others at the far end of the room.
"Well, this is interesting," she proclaimed. "Are these biostasis devices, Judith?"
"They certainly appear to be," the doctor replied.
"Come on, let's see who or what they're holding," Storm ordered.
Of the first two, one was empty and the other was broken.

Of the second units in line, the one to the north was empty but the other one yielded an important find. Inside was a tall, good looking black man. The blue light offered no resistance when Judith and Rebecca pulled the man out of the biostasis unit. He slumped to ground, apparently dead. He wore a spacesuit and carried a helmet. An identification tag on his left breast revealed him to be Johan Hensler, chief engineer of the DSX Timothy.
"Bingo!" Rebecca exclaimed. "They are here. Our first clue as to what happened to the missing scout ship."
"There's more here," Danica said as she approached the next two biostasis units.
They each contained an alien animal. One looked like a small lioness, but much more lower slung and sleek looking. Judith identified it as a Yayna, a leonine animal also known as a dune runner. It was possible that it could be native to this planet. The other creature was much smaller and was clearly dead as rot had set in. It appeared that the stasis had not worked on it. It vaguely resembled a stingray, about three to four feet in length. Its head was shark-like and its tail had a membrane on its lower edge. Unlike the terrestrial stingray, it did not have a stinger, but it did have a cluster of tentacles on the lower part of its body and spikes running down its spine. This was one of the natives of the planet and was called a Thonne.

Moving on, they discovered three more alien creatures. One was some kind of small monkey-like animal, similar to an orang utan. Judith could not identify it. Nor could she identify the large mollusc-type creature adjacent to the monkey. It had bright green skin with a large shell made up of six segments. On its face were two dozen small tentacles and two eyes atop stalks. The third animal was a male version of the dune runner they found earlier.

Of the last four biostasis units, one was smashed, one was empty and two held space-suited humans. One of the humans was a beautiful young woman with sky-blue skin and long white hair. Her ID tag revealed her as Tara Seven, a space jockey on the DSX Timothy. The other human was beyond help. He was identified as Emerson Garvey, a scientist from the DSX Timothy. His spacesuit had been breached in many places, and underneath could be seen many incisions. Judith made the grim discovery that many of his organs had been removed and that his skeleton was riddled with holes where bone samples had been taken.
"What's even worse," she said in a fearful voice, "I can find no traces of any anaesthetic on him. He must have been tortured alive."
"How awful!" Rebecca gasped. "That poor man."
"Who could have done such a thing to him?" Danica wondered.

They dragged the bodies along to the front of the room and laid them out on the floor.
"We have eight bodies here," Judith spoke authoritatively. "Two are beyond help, but I can revive the others, if that's what we want to do. Otherwise, they are perfectly safe as they are; they will remain in stasis until someone applies an electrical shock to them."
"We should definitely revive the male and female crew members of the Timothy," Storm decided. "As for the others, I think we should leave them as they are but bring them with us on these sleds. Agreed?"
They all agreed. Two cables ran from each biostasis machine along the floor. One was for the power feed from the base, but the smaller one was an electric probe. Judith used one on Johan and he revived instantly with a cry of alarm.
"Don't worry," Judith quickly reassured him, "You're safe now. We mean you no harm and have come to rescue you."
"Thank you," he replied groggily.

Judith then revived the blue-skinned female. She, too, came round swiftly and she stared at Judith and her surroundings in wide-eyed alarm. She didn't speak but her lips trembled in fear. Judith placated her with a gentle touch to the side of her head and softly spoke to her,
"You're safe," she spoke calmly, stroking Tara's long silky hair. "We've come to help you and take you home. Look, here's one of your crew."
"Hey, Tara," Johan smiled at the young woman. "It's good to see you again."
This reassured her significantly and she nodded to him.
"What happened?" she asked.
"That's what we're here to find out," Storm said, "We're hoping you could tell us."
"I remember we dropped out of hyperdrive in the RSC 8996-aug star system to make a course correction," Johan recalled. "We picked up an unknown radio transmission from one of the planets and Captain Denton decided to investigate. Next thing I remember is the ship being attacked and disabled. We lost all power. Enemy robots must have boarded us. I got knocked out and that's all I can remember. Where are we?"
"You're in an alien base on the third planet from the sun," Storm informed him. "You're still in the same star system."
"They weren't robots that attacked us," Tara revealed. "They were big insectoid creatures, similar to a scorpion but without their claws. I got struck twice by one of their stingers and before blacking out my whole body just froze. I couldn't move at all."
"Well, we haven't seen anything like that so far," Storm said, hoping to placate the young woman. "This base looks like it has been abandoned in a hurry."
"Do either of you recognise any of these creatures here?" Judith asked as she indicated the alien animals lying on the floor.
"I've no idea what they are," Johan admitted. "I've never seen them before."
"Me neither," Tara added.
"Fair enough," Judith said, shrugging her shoulders, "Shall we press on? We still have more of this base to explore."
Johan and Tara nodded in agreement, glad of the company and willing to help as best they could.

The Ace of Spades Campaign - Alien Base part 06

Alien Base Sub Level 1
The party returned to the central room where the elevator was located and moved in a clockwise direction to the door in the centre of the next wall in line. This also led to an identical corridor to the one they had just exited. Danica activated the hatch at the side of the door and it slid open.

Inside, the room was of identical dimensions to the storeroom they had just explored. This was also a storeroom, but it was used for bulk storage, whereas the other room was used for the storage of spare parts and machinery.
"Another storeroom," Danica observed. "Let's see what have this time."
In the north east corner were six large drums. In the north west corner were a number of small barrels and to the south were a pair of powersleds of the same design and size that they had seen in one of the submarine modules in the docks.

Judith, Lynda and Storm went to examine the large metal drums. Both Judith and Lynda noted a slightly warm breeze coming from the end of each drum. Closer inspection revealed that the breeze emanated from a small valve.
"I picked up this in the other storeroom," Danica offered as she took out the small device from a pouch on her belt. "What do you reckon?"
"It looks like it should fit into any of those valves," Lynda observed. "Pass it over. I'll insert it into this valve here."
The device fitted perfectly. Twisting one end of the device opened the valve to allow a very small blast of gas to emerge. Lynda closed the valve and immediately took a reading with her science scanner.
"Yuk! It's chlorine gas," she noted. "I believe these drums all contain liquid chlorine. As you know, chlorine gas is highly toxic."
"Why would anyone store so much liquid chlorine?" Storm asked, shuddering at the thought of what it could do.
"It could be for chemical warfare purposes," Lynda suggested grimly.
"Or possibly, for a chlorine-breathing race," Judith offered.

The five crew members moved over to the opposite corner, whilst Smiley kept watch at the doorway. The barrels in this corner were easily opened to reveal a pinkish mass of fibre of vegetable origin inside each one. Once again, Lynda activated her handheld science scanner over the contents.
"I wouldn't suggest eating this stuff," she warned with a note of alarm. "It contains huge amounts of hydrogen cyanide with many other lesser chemicals, in which chlorine figures heavily."
"I could be right, couldn't I?" Judith surmised. "We could be dealing with chlorine breathers and this might be what they eat."
"That's certainly possible," Lynda acknowledged, "but it doesn't explain why we have oxygen in the rooms on this level."
She made a note of the labelling on the sides or the barrels to add to her database of the two alien languages thus far encountered.

"I want to check out these sleds," Storm said as she walked over to where the two vehicles were parked.
Each powersled was two yards square and they were operated via a simple control panel that used the same joyhole principle as used to control the submarine they had arrived in. They, too, had been drained of power, but Lynda, who was a very knowledgeable engineer as well as being a skilled scientist, informed the others that, "I could get these working if you want."
"Absolutely," Storm agreed enthusiastically. "We could use these to get around the base."
Lynda ascertained that the powersleds could be re-powered if the correct voltage was applied to their battery terminals. By determining that the power cable was made of aluminium and by calculating the area of its cross section, she was able to compute the correct voltage.
A number of cables hung from the walls and ceilings. One of them proved to be used for recharging the batteries of the powersleds. Thirty minutes later, both powersleds were fully charged and mobile.
Lynda hooked up one sled behind the other and Storm offered to drive them around the base. They all climbed on board. Storm knelt down to operate the joyhole but the others remained standing.

The third room they visited was very similar to the previous two. This was another storeroom. Again, the dimensions of it were the same as before and once again, it was devoid of life. The room was filled with metal crates and boxes of various sizes and colours.

On closer examination, it was noticed that all of the containers at the northern end of the room had a small green tag stuck on one end of them. The writing could not be deciphered but Lynda added it to her data-pad, knowing it would help toward understanding the alien language. The crates all contained foodstuffs in many combinations of colour, fragrance and consistency. Analysis revealed that they were edible and safe to eat for humans but that they tasted bland and were lacking in many essential vitamins.

A comparison between identical packages revealed that in every case the contents of the package with the green sticker was either a different colour, was splotched with another colour or smelt differently.
"I believe the packages with the green stickers are spoiled," Judith correctly deduced. "I suspect that here, green means danger."
It was another piece of the jigsaw they had in solving the puzzle of the alien base. A small number of the boxes were empty, so they placed one on the back of a sled. The plan was to fill it with any bulky artefacts, devices or treasures they found. Rebecca placed her large industrial diamond in the crate as it was quite heavy.
"Just one more room on this level to check out," Storm said after an hour had passed in this room. "Let's go."

The fourth room was the same shape as the three others on this level, but this one was dark and quite cold. It was also almost completely empty but closer examination revealed tubes coming out of the ceiling, floor and walls at various points. There were many marks on the floor and walls as well as twisted brackets. The brackets were now useless, apparently as a result of the over-hasty removal of the gas tanks they were connected to. The fact that this storage room, obviously used for storing breathing gases and other such needed chemicals, was the most thoroughly looted was a big clue that the base had been abandoned. The party did not stay long and returned to the elevator.

"There are three more levels below us," Danica revealed. "Shall we drop down to the next level?"
The others all agreed. Danica pressed the button for the second level and wondered what they might discover there? Was the base really deserted? Would they find any survivors from the DSX Timothy or any evidence of what happened to them? Lynda had discovered writings belonging to two alien races. Why two? Who were they? So many questions and so far, no answers.

The Ace of Spades Campaign - Alien Base part 05

Alien Base Sub Level 1
The elevator descended to the next level and opened to a room that was perfectly square, with the elevator occupying the centre of the room.

"This area is breathable," Lynda announced as she activated her science scanner. "We've got normal oxygen levels here."
"In that case, we may as well make use of their air supply," Storm suggested, "and preserve our own oxygen supplies."
"I'm not detecting any lifeforms either," Judith added as she checked her medical scanner.
"That's a relief," Danica said, "but even so, stay alert, everyone."
"Absolutely," Rebecca replied, "I've still got my Phaser set to kill."

As the party stepped out of the elevator they could see that the floor was covered in trash, as if a great deal of material had passed through in a hurry and the remnants had not been cleaned up. Some of the trash was made of some kind of vegetable matter and other pieces were made of metal. There was a circular door in the centre of each of the four walls, all of which were closed. An activation lever was visible next to each door. In the four corners of the room, high up near the ceiling, was a single weapon turret. No one could identify what the weapons were, but they all looked identical. The turrets did not move at all. Whether they were active or not was unknown.
Lynda scanned the walls and and made this discovery, "It looks like this whole base is constructed of macromolecules," she revealed. "Each individual wall is really one single, gigantic molecule held together by the terrific strength of stomic binding."
"Which means what?" Storm asked.
"It is going to be very difficult to blast or cut our way through a wall or the floor," the research scientist replied. "Blasting it would make the wall deform outward from the blast and return to its normal shape almost instantly. Cutting would be equally useless. You'd need a very special tool, which we don't have, to cut through these walls."
"Bummer," Rebecca responded.
"We'll check out this door in front of us," Danica said, "and if it's clear, we'll move around this area in a clockwise direction and check out the other three doors. Smiley, lead on."
"Affirmative, mistress Danica," the robot replied in a cheerful voice.

The door opened to a short corridor that led to another door, identical to the one they had passed through. A single red lighting strip ran along the top of the corridor to provide illumination.

The room they entered was rectangular in shape and was clearly some kind of storeroom filled with many boxes and crates. There was no sign of life and nor were there any cameras or gun turrets visible.
"We may as well check out these boxes," Storm said, "and see what's being stored here."

They spent about five minutes opening boxes at random and they all made discoveries. Rebecca was absolutely delighted to find a huge industrial diamond weighing roughly 20 pounds. It was worth about 10,000 Credits.
"Oh, lucky me," she squealed.
"Remember, we share any finds we make," Danica, who was standing next to her, reminded the young cat burglar.
"Yeah, I know," Rebecca sighed forlornly. "What have you found?"
"I dunno," Danica answered. "It's some kind of control valve. I've no idea what it's for, but I'll keep it. We might need it later."

Judith and Storm were checking out the boxes at the other side of the room. Judith found a collection of small cubes that looked like children's toys. They were of many colours and they stuck together in whatever shape they were given. Their use remained a mystery, but Judith still took them.
Storm found several small flat cans. They were full of a thick, oily, yellow fluid. Analysis revealed that the liquid was most likely some kind of lubricant. She kept one of the cans.

In one large crate, Lynda found the drive and motor assembly of the type used in the powersleds they had seen in one of the modules in the dock above. With it was a scroll of instructions for its assembly, which Lynda copied to her data-pad for translation purposes. She left the devices in the crate.

"I'm getting the feeling that this complex has been abandoned," Danica surmised. "If there is anyone here, surely they would have noticed our arrival by now."
"It's certainly looking that way," Storm agreed. "Let's see what else is on this level."

The Ace of Spades Campaign - Alien Base part 04

The Alien Ship
Storm landed The Jack of Spades shuttle close to the point of origin of the signal form the atomic reactor that Lynda had spotted on the ship's sensors. Flying over it, the crew of six noted it was some sort of vessel, possibly a spacecraft. Once on the ground, the vessel was hidden from view by steep sand dunes.

Storm ordered Jeanette to remain onboard the shuttle. The ship's gunner was the only other crew member on this mission who had piloting experience. Venetian Scout, Danica, led Storm, Rebecca, Lynda and Judith towards the alien ship. Smiley the robot sped ahead of them.

They had only travelled fifty metres when a creature emerged over the top of a sand dune. It was a lava salamander, a native of this planet, although none of the crew recognised it as such. This was the first time any of them had seen such a creature. The lava salamander was heavily armoured and frequently swam in lava pools. Its strong teeth were powerful enough to tear through armour. The environment suits worn by the crew would provide them little protection if the creature bit them.

"Oh, shit!" Danica screeched in alarm. "I don't like the look of that. Blast it!"
She had her Phaser Pistol already drawn, ever alert for danger. It was on kill setting and she fired once, hitting the creature in the side of its head. Rebecca and Storm drew their Phaser Pistols and snap fired almost simultaneously. They also hit the creature.
What none of them knew, was that the lava salamander was immune to heat damage - after all, it swam in lava pools. It growled menacingly at the party.

Even though the creature took no damage from the three shots, the aggressive nature of the party of strange beings made it think again about attacking them. Or maybe it just wasn't hungry. Whatever its reason, it turned tail and slunk away.

Soon after, the party discovered the alien ship. It was slightly longer than their own shuttle, and it also had two decks. The lower deck and the front of the ship were partially submerged under dust and sand as it rested on the shoreline of a large sea of dust. There were airlocks on either side of the vessel, just next to the bridge. The crew were able to gain access to the interior of the vessel easily enough. A quick survey revealed that the lower deck consisted of, from front to back, the bridge, the airlocks, main computer and life support controls, an empty cargo bay and the engine room, which contained the atomic reactor. The vessel was of a modular design. It was really a flatbed vehicle which could take various modules into a large equipment bay on top. This particular module was split up into a gunnery station at the front, behind which were seven crew cabins on the port side, which each contained a futon-like bed and an empty cupboard. On the starboard side were a sick bay and store room. The sick bay also contained two futon-like beds. At the aft was a large fuel tank. All of the rooms were empty and there were no clues to be found as to who the vessel belonged to. On the bridge, there were no seats as such but four oblong shaped cushions on the floor. All of the control panels were lower down than on a normal vehicle. Also, both decks were roughly one and a half metres tall, forcing the party to bend down as they moved around the vessel.
Upon examining the atomic reactor, Lynda worked out what the alien ship really was.
"Hey, I know what this is," she announced with clear delight. "It's actually an ionocraft."
"And just what is an ionocraft?" Rebecca asked. "I've never heard of one."
"Let me explain," Lynda said confidently. "Although this ship is powered by an atomic reactor, its method of propulsion is unusual. It uses a drive principle invented by Igor Stravinsky in the 20th century. It was suggested as a viable substitute for both rotor and jet propulsion, but was never developed due to the tremendous head-start enjoyed by other forms of propulsion. It languished and eventually expired on Earth. But whoever built this are masters of electricity, as they have taken the ionocraft principle and made it into a useful form of propulsion."
"So, does it fly or sail?" Storm asked.
"It can do both, but this is primarily a submarine. Did you notice those short, stubby antennae at the back? I bet there are more at the front. When in motion, the forward antennae will emit a blast of positive ions, while the rear antennae will turn their charge negative. The positively charged dust will be pushed backward by the combination of the like charge to the front and the unlike charge to the rear, pulling the sub forward. The antennae on both ends then switch polarity, to prevent dust from accumulating on the rear antennae, and the process repeats. Do not confuse this ship's ionic drive with a space ion drive. An ionic drive must have some working fluid to operate. This form of propulsion cannot work in a vacuum where there are no particles to charge and use for repulsion."

Storm relayed their findings to Kimberley on The Ace of Spades.
"That's great work," Kimberley congratulated them. "Have you worked out how to pilot it yet?"
"I'm working on that now," Storm replied. "The controls are very few and we should be able to work them out."
"Be careful, Storm," Julia warned.
"You betcha!"
The main control panel of the submarine was just under a viewport. No switches were marked, but a small screen on the panel was visible next to several switches. Under the screen was a hole. This was the equivalent of a joystick (a joyhole?) and it was meant to take the tip of a tentacle, although a finger would serve just as well. When Storm inserted her finger, the screen lit up with a map of the planet. Moving her finger around in the hole caused a flashing image of the submarine to detach itself from the sub's picture on the screen and begin moving around on the screen. Storm moved the picture of the sub to the point where they had located the third of the the four sources of radioactivity, which was roughly 400 miles south-east of their current location but under the sea of dust.
This had an immediate effect. The submarines' power plant was activated and the sub began to move at great speed towards the point indicated. The onboard computer took care of all of the calculations needed and piloted the vessel towards its destination. The computer would always take the shortest route, which could result in the sub taking to the air for part of the trip. This is what happened. With enough of a take off run, the sub could become airborne, travelling at speeds of up to 4,000mph, although it got nowhere near that speed. While airborne, additional lift was provided by retractable wings, built in towards the aft of the sub.
With a bit of experimentation, Storm discovered that the first of the switches next to the screen would abort the mission, returning the sub to normal command mode. Moving the flashing indicator off screen would result in the flashing image coming back on the screen from the opposite direction (it "wrapped round"). The second switch overrode the computer entirely, and the joyhole became, in effect, a steering wheel, giving Storm full control of up, down, left, right and speed. The next switch opened the equipment bay doors but would not function whilst the sub was in motion. The last switch would launch the sub into the air under manual control and would not function unless a finger was present in the control hole.
There were two other panels either side of the main control panel. On the starboard panel was a small screen with a picture of the view forward and a target reticule etched into the surface of the screen. This was the gunnery control. The crew left this panel untouched. Its use was obvious from even a cursory glance. The panel on the port side was sealed and could not be opened without a proper access code, although it did have an easily activated computer tie-in port. The crew wisely decided not to tamper with it. Sharuna might have cracked it but she wasn't present on this mission.

Storm contacted Jeanette to inform her of their findings.
"Were heading to the third source of radioactivity," she added, "and if that proves to be a false lead, we'll continue on to the fourth source, which lies in the same direction as the third."
"Acknowledged, Storm," Jeanette said. "Do you want me to wait here for you or to return to The Ace of Spades?"
"I have no idea how long we're going to be," Storm answered, "I think it might be more prudent for you to return to The Ace of Spades. If we need any assistance we'll give you a call and you can come to our aid with the cavalry."
"Will do, Storm. Jeanette out."

The submarine arrived at its destination a few hours later, which turned out to be a large dome of grey material on the floor of the dust sea. The base hangar opened automatically as the sub approached, revealing a simple docking tube with a dock to one side. No weapons were visible but a number of spy cameras were to be seen. None of them moved or gave any indication they were active.
The crew disembarked, fully expecting some kind of reception but the dock was eerily quiet and there were no signs of life anywhere.
"Curious," Danica cautioned. "Stay alert, everyone. Draw pistols. Judith, scan for life-forms."
"I'm not getting any readings at all," Judith replied as she looked up from her hand held medical scanner.

On one side of the dock was a huge sliding door that was closed. A single button to one side of it opened it to reveal  a gigantic room on the other side. Hanging from the ceiling were four more equipment modules for the submarine, with catwalks twining around them. Below was dust, so that the sub could easily scoot over under a module and lower it into its equipment bay. A ramp led up to the catwalks, which the party took, moving at a steady walk.
The first module was securely locked up but judging from the sensors and gun barrels protruding from the front it was clearly a heavy weapons module. The second module opened easily, and was some sort of laboratory with lots of canisters, many of which were refrigerated. Most of the equipment in this module had been stripped and removed. The third module contained ten power sleds, each two yards in length by two yards in width, and each hooked up to a two yards square flatbed trailer. The sleds were operated by a single joyhole atop a short column. They all appeared to have been discharged of their power. None were operable. It was hard to tell what the function of the fourth module was as it had been completely gutted of all equipment.
Lynda made a note of the labels on the canisters, and other equipment, on her data-pad. It seemed like they were written in two alien languages. Lynda surmised that these would help in deciphering the languages and thus, hopefully revealing who the base belonged to.
Eventually, they made their way back to the submarine dock and towards what looked like an elevator.
"Shall we explore further?" Danica asked rather unnecessarily.
"Of course we will," Storm replied. "It's what came here for. Let's go."