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."