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.