Well… as busy as this place is… maybe folks occasionally get ‘stuck’ outside? There could be an access panel or something… I mean, I would expect everyone to have radios, but I’m sure accidents happen, right? There’s probably some kind of backup method. I’ll just have to look for it. I mean, if nothing else, with a place this big, there’s going to be smaller ships that come inside, right? I could maybe slip in with one of those….
Of course, if I just float out here thinking forever, I’ll accumulate dust and become a comet. Better to just go look. I head over, circling the place to get a better view, looking for… I don't know. Logically, when I have basically no information, one door is as good as another. But… still, I want more information. So I look.
Eventually, I see … wait, I'm not the only guy outside without a helmet?
As I watch, I hear dice in my head, and get it: So there's a first level spell in Starfinder: Life Bubble. It lasts one day per caster level, and can affect up to the caster's level of people with one casting. What it does? Makes most vacuum dangers a complete non-issue. It wraps the user in a shell of fresh air, one inch thick. Pressure becomes irrelevant, and it helps stabilize the temperature too… I mean, it's not a great idea to have a single failure point, especially when Dispel Magic exists, but… OK, yeah, somebody's going to risk it.
Which also means someone expects to get back inside after a walkabout. I get closer, watch and… yes! She is a female kitsune, apparently - picture an anthropomorphic fox, with some inherent magic but a lot less than in the Japanese legends. She's wearing a red mechanics jumpsuit, and has a toolbelt with wrenches, hammers, and a few things I don't recognize, as well as a huge number of pockets.
Given that there's nothing to hide behind in space, I just float on up next to her, and try to say hi.
I'm not really used to space yet, OK?
When that doesn't work, because of the distinct lack of air out here, I just sort of wait. I can be patient. I've had uncountable days in the emptiness of The Drift to learn.
The lessons didn't take too well, mind, but I am able to wait the… approximately ten minutes… while she works on a panel. Looks like fairly routine maintenance… she's replacing some burned out data cabling.
As I grab a handhold, I take the time to look at her while she works… in addition to the work suit and a safety line attached to her belt, she has what looks like a wired headset, with a microphone very close to her elongated mouth, and also an earpiece. She seems to be holding a conversation… pity I can't read lips. It's odd, though: Usually engineers have more than one safety: What’s up with the lack of a helmet?
When she eventually does look at me, she starts and pulls back, drawing a firearm of some kind out of her belt and pointing it at me.
Oy, people are jumpy.
I blink a few times, show my empty hand, point at my mouth, shake my head, and then point at the station, hoping she gets the idea. I just take ten on Bluff for a ‘secret message’: “I can't talk out here. Take me inside?”
I'm pretty sure she sighs, then she puts her gun away, nods her head, and motions for me to follow. Unfortunately, with my mere +2 Acrobatics modifier, I'm not very good at following. Still… she's patient enough, and I'm in no danger: Spaceflight from the Excuba isn't useful for fine maneuvering, but it works well enough to keep me from drifting off. I absolutely feel outclassed here, but that’s OK: Of the two of us, I'm reasonably sure I'm going to live longer.
In total, anyway: Maybe not in one stretch.
I catch her mouthing things as we go, pausing, and then mouthing more. I can't hear anything, but I am reasonably sure I can expect a welcome party wherever we're going. Which is fine, really. If they simply wanted me dead, they just wouldn't let me in: No bloodstained floors to clean up that way. You know, unless they just like seeing spilled blood, but those folks don't last long in a functional society. So I should be fine.
Should.
Still, when we get to the airlock - a very small circular affair of metal and glass on an arm that opens inwards - I am a little nervous. Maybe more than a little. OK, I'm sweating bullets… but hey, nobody can tell, as water at body temperature turns right into vapor in a vacuum.
Still it's a way in. The door opens, we climb inside to a cramped room - maybe a five foot cube of white walls with a lot of handholds - close the door, and listen to the hiss of air coming in… the woman finally says something I can hear: “So who are you, and how'd you get outside the station without a way back in?”
I chuckle, “My name is Alex, and… I wasn't on the station; I was on a rock in The Drift with no ship, two guys in a wrecked ship landed on the same chunk of rock, I fixed their ship to get off that rock… and things got a little out of hand when I found out they worked for the Azlanti Star Empire… I can handle vacuum for a time, so leaving was the better choice. And here I am.” It's… an abridged version of the truth. “Thank you very much for letting me in; might I know the name of my rescuer?”
She considers, “Ayako. So you’re saying there’s Azlanti agents around?”
I shake my head, “No. They were heading for Croban-3, transport here was part of the deal for fixing their ship… and honestly, as cheap as that ship was, station defenses would have no trouble with it at all.”
She nods, “Well… just as well; station security is of course going to want a word with you regardless….”
I chuckle as the hissing stops and I reach for the inner door, “I kind of figured. Let’s get to it then, eh?”
As I open it, yes, there’s a larger room with a beefy guy in blue armor and helmet, a big two-handed gun leveled at me, standing in the artificial gravity of the inside of the station proper. I calmly put up my hands as I step out of the airlock, asking “So… would you like to restrain me or anything?”
“DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH TROUBLE YOU’VE CAUSED?” The big guy in blue shouts at me. His voice is slightly distorted, like it’s coming through a speaker.
Ayako cringes at the noise.
I shrug, “Probably briefly taking you away from whatever else you were doing and maybe producing another report for you to write. This isn’t the right way to come in, I’m sure, but I’ve never been here before, didn’t have a radio on me, and didn’t have a ship to dock. I have no idea how to handle that situation, so I just tried to say hello to someone who I figured probably knew how to get in before I died due to lack of oxygen.” Not that I ever would have, because I don’t need it anymore, “And now there’s an upstanding, trustworthy officer of the law who’ll probably escort me to the correct place to register my entry, declare goods, fill out forms, ask what I was doing outside, possibly fine me, and whatnot.” I hear dice in my head. I am trying to be diplomatic, I suppose.
Patricia whispers in my ear, “That’s a pretty decent roll, finally.”
The man looks at me for a minute in silence, “THAT’S ABOUT RIGHT, YES. COME THIS WAY PLEASE.”
Ayako speaks up, “Olthiss, you have the volume up on ‘Crowd control’ again.”
Olthiss pauses, and a moment later speaks up, “Oh. Sorry. The suit doesn’t relay the sounds it makes, so I can’t just tell. Regardless, this way, please. Ayako, we’ll want your statement as well.”
She sighs, “Can’t you just take it? I know that big suit of yours has a recorder built in, complete with full video, and that you've kept it running constantly while on duty ever since the gym incident.”
“Look, it is literally my job to respond when people shout for help, that doesn't change when it's coming from the women's showers. I just need to make sure the request is documented next time!” I can hear him take a deep breath, “But no, we need you under oath, all nice and official.”
“... or maybe you want the footage next time, eh?” Ayako wiggles her eyebrows suggestively, “But yeah, fine, I've already flagged my soup.”
“You know I don't swing that way, Ayako. Come on…” he points with his rifle, and we file out….
Well… as busy as this place is… maybe folks occasionally get ‘stuck’ outside? There could be an access panel or something… I mean, I would expect everyone to have radios, but I’m sure accidents happen, right? There’s probably some kind of backup method. I’ll just have to look for it. I mean, if nothing else, with a place this big, there’s going to be smaller ships that come inside, right? I could maybe slip in with one of those….
Of course, if I just float out here thinking forever, I’ll accumulate dust and become a comet. Better to just go look. I head over, circling the place to get a better view, looking for… I don't know. Logically, when I have basically no information, one door is as good as another. But… still, I want more information. So I look.
Eventually, I see … wait, I'm not the only guy outside without a helmet?
As I watch, I hear dice in my head, and get it: So there's a first level spell in Starfinder: Life Bubble. It lasts one day per caster level, and can affect up to the caster's level of people with one casting. What it does? Makes most vacuum dangers a complete non-issue. It wraps the user in a shell of fresh air, one inch thick. Pressure becomes irrelevant, and it helps stabilize the temperature too… I mean, it's not a great idea to have a single failure point, especially when Dispel Magic exists, but… OK, yeah, somebody's going to risk it.
Which also means someone expects to get back inside after a walkabout. I get closer, watch and… yes! She is a female kitsune, apparently - picture an anthropomorphic fox, with some inherent magic but a lot less than in the Japanese legends. She's wearing a red mechanics jumpsuit, and has a toolbelt with wrenches, hammers, and a few things I don't recognize, as well as a huge number of pockets.
Given that there's nothing to hide behind in space, I just float on up next to her, and try to say hi.
I'm not really used to space yet, OK?
When that doesn't work, because of the distinct lack of air out here, I just sort of wait. I can be patient. I've had uncountable days in the emptiness of The Drift to learn.
The lessons didn't take too well, mind, but I am able to wait the… approximately ten minutes… while she works on a panel. Looks like fairly routine maintenance… she's replacing some burned out data cabling.
As I grab a handhold, I take the time to look at her while she works… in addition to the work suit and a safety line attached to her belt, she has what looks like a wired headset, with a microphone very close to her elongated mouth, and also an earpiece. She seems to be holding a conversation… pity I can't read lips. It's odd, though: Usually engineers have more than one safety: What’s up with the lack of a helmet?
When she eventually does look at me, she starts and pulls back, drawing a firearm of some kind out of her belt and pointing it at me.
Oy, people are jumpy.
I blink a few times, show my empty hand, point at my mouth, shake my head, and then point at the station, hoping she gets the idea. I just take ten on Bluff for a ‘secret message’: “I can't talk out here. Take me inside?”
I'm pretty sure she sighs, then she puts her gun away, nods her head, and motions for me to follow. Unfortunately, with my mere +2 Acrobatics modifier, I'm not very good at following. Still… she's patient enough, and I'm in no danger: Spaceflight from the Excuba isn't useful for fine maneuvering, but it works well enough to keep me from drifting off. I absolutely feel outclassed here, but that’s OK: Of the two of us, I'm reasonably sure I'm going to live longer.
In total, anyway: Maybe not in one stretch.
I catch her mouthing things as we go, pausing, and then mouthing more. I can't hear anything, but I am reasonably sure I can expect a welcome party wherever we're going. Which is fine, really. If they simply wanted me dead, they just wouldn't let me in: No bloodstained floors to clean up that way. You know, unless they just like seeing spilled blood, but those folks don't last long in a functional society. So I should be fine.
Should.
Still, when we get to the airlock - a very small circular affair of metal and glass on an arm that opens inwards - I am a little nervous. Maybe more than a little. OK, I'm sweating bullets… but hey, nobody can tell, as water at body temperature turns right into vapor in a vacuum.
Still it's a way in. The door opens, we climb inside to a cramped room - maybe a five foot cube of white walls with a lot of handholds - close the door, and listen to the hiss of air coming in… the woman finally says something I can hear: “So who are you, and how'd you get outside the station without a way back in?”
I chuckle, “My name is Alex, and… I wasn't on the station; I was on a rock in The Drift with no ship, two guys in a wrecked ship landed on the same chunk of rock, I fixed their ship to get off that rock… and things got a little out of hand when I found out they worked for the Azlanti Star Empire… I can handle vacuum for a time, so leaving was the better choice. And here I am.” It's… an abridged version of the truth. “Thank you very much for letting me in; might I know the name of my rescuer?”
She considers, “Ayako. So you’re saying there’s Azlanti agents around?”
I shake my head, “No. They were heading for Croban-3, transport here was part of the deal for fixing their ship… and honestly, as cheap as that ship was, station defenses would have no trouble with it at all.”
She nods, “Well… just as well; station security is of course going to want a word with you regardless….”
I chuckle as the hissing stops and I reach for the inner door, “I kind of figured. Let’s get to it then, eh?”
As I open it, yes, there’s a larger room with a beefy guy in blue armor and helmet, a big two-handed gun leveled at me, standing in the artificial gravity of the inside of the station proper. I calmly put up my hands as I step out of the airlock, asking “So… would you like to restrain me or anything?”
“DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH TROUBLE YOU’VE CAUSED?” The big guy in blue shouts at me. His voice is slightly distorted, like it’s coming through a speaker.
Ayako cringes at the noise.
I shrug, “Probably briefly taking you away from whatever else you were doing and maybe producing another report for you to write. This isn’t the right way to come in, I’m sure, but I’ve never been here before, didn’t have a radio on me, and didn’t have a ship to dock. I have no idea how to handle that situation, so I just tried to say hello to someone who I figured probably knew how to get in before I died due to lack of oxygen.” Not that I ever would have, because I don’t need it anymore, “And now there’s an upstanding, trustworthy officer of the law who’ll probably escort me to the correct place to register my entry, declare goods, fill out forms, ask what I was doing outside, possibly fine me, and whatnot.” I hear dice in my head. I am trying to be diplomatic, I suppose.
Patricia whispers in my ear, “That’s a pretty decent roll, finally.”
The man looks at me for a minute in silence, “THAT’S ABOUT RIGHT, YES. COME THIS WAY PLEASE.”
Ayako speaks up, “Olthiss, you have the volume up on ‘Crowd control’ again.”
Olthiss pauses, and a moment later speaks up, “Oh. Sorry. The suit doesn’t relay the sounds it makes, so I can’t just tell. Regardless, this way, please. Ayako, we’ll want your statement as well.”
She sighs, “Can’t you just take it? I know that big suit of yours has a recorder built in, complete with full video, and that you've kept it running constantly while on duty ever since the gym incident.”
“Look, it is literally my job to respond when people shout for help, that doesn't change when it's coming from the women's showers. I just need to make sure the request is documented next time!” I can hear him take a deep breath, “But no, we need you under oath, all nice and official.”
“... or maybe you want the footage next time, eh?” Ayako wiggles her eyebrows suggestively, “But yeah, fine, I've already flagged my soup.”
“You know I don't swing that way, Ayako. Come on…” he points with his rifle, and we file out….
