Raw meat rice krispie treats recipe
Hold the jelly. It's peanut butter time.
2008.08.25 07:18 Hold the jelly. It's peanut butter time.
A subreddit for peanut butter, in all its evolution disproving awesomeness. And for all things peanuts and nut-buttery, from the most delicious American peanut butter on a piece of white bread to savory Malian meat stew with a garnish of peanuts eaten out of a wooden bowl, and not excluding all of the alternatives for our allergic bretheren. Pictures, discussion, and news from around the world that has to do with our favorite nut that's not a nut: Arachis hypogaea
2023.03.21 12:09 Firegoat1 Superchef Grudge Match - ep 8 - Unfinished Business -- early discussion and spoilers
It's Tuesday morning and time for Discovery plus to do an early drop of Superchef Grudge Match. This episode is entitled "unfinished business." As usual what follows will be a discussion of the chefs, the grudge, the knives, the judging and the scores, but I won't list the winners of the two rounds, altho they will likely appear later in the comments, so read on at your own risk.
ROUND ONE: The chefs for round one are Aaron May challenging his rival from their earlier days (close to 20 years ago) on the line, Ilan Hall. Aaron says he harbors so much resentment for the way Ilan bullied him on the line. (Hmmmm, Ilan a bully in his early days? (Kind of brings back shades of Top Chef season two and how ilan treated Marcel). They both worked the line on a Spanish restaurant in New York, Casa Mono. Aaron says he made it out but he harbors a lot of resentment to how he was treated. Ilan says Aaron was always jealous of him but that he himself is the better chef. Knives: Aaron's knife was hand-made in L.A. It's a 9" hand made vacuum-hardened steel. Ilan puts up what he says is his favorite knife of all time, a 7" aircraft grade CPM S36 VN steel blade. He says he would be mortified to lose it.
The mystery ingredient: Aaron brought American cheese. Ilan brought rose petals. Darnell requires them to cook a cuisine they both used to cook together, so they are required to make meat and vegetarian Spanish tapas. The secret ingredients must both be used in both types of tapas. Aaron is cooking: Meat option is Iberico ham and American cheese croquette with rose petal harrisa jam. The vegetarian option is American cheese tortilla espanola with pickled rose petal aioli. Ilan's meat tapa is chopped cheese on pan con tomate. The vegetarian dish is grill mushrooms with American cheese and rose petal special mayo. Here come the judges: Maneet Chauhan and Crista Luedtke. Judging: There is 50 points available -- 20 for taste, 20 for use of ingredients and 10 for presentation. Aaron presents his dish first. Crista says Aaron outdid himself. Maneet loved his aioli he made with the rose petals. She didn't think the American cheese in the croquette melted enough. But loved the harissa. Chef Ilan presents second. Crista says he delivered a modern take on tapas. She liked the peppers in the meat dish, but was losing some rose. Maneet loved the mushroom tapa, as did Crista. Maneet says overall it is very impressive and modern. Obviously judging is not blind. The scores: 45 to 43.
Take aways from this round: While I think there was a real grudge here 20 years ago, I think both these chefs moved on from it a long time ago. There is a lot of smack talking but its of the funny light variety like "Ilan hates puppies!" and that sort. They seem genuinely friendly at the end and seem to really respect each other. So it ended on a good note with both being good sports. Interesting that Ilan is on the show after he hosted Knife Fight -- a show with a similar concept -- for four years. Also Aaron May has won GGG 10 times and been on the show far more than that and both the judges are also regular contestants and/or judges on GGG so they know his food far better than Ilan's who has been out of competition cooking for some time other than his round on TOC 4. (not sure which of these shows filmed first).
Round two: Darnell says this grudge is near and dear to him as he's known both chefs since his culinary school days. Chef Davonte Bolden is challenging Chef Randy Pasch. The two chefs were supposed to open a restaurant together and allegedly Chef Randy got cold feet and left Ddavonte high and dry. Darnell says Che Davonte has helped him open six different restaurants. and became Darnell's executive chef. Randy is a protege of Stephanie Izard and Grant Achatz and is an executive chef. Randy says he left Davonte because he is a stronger chef than Davonte and he had to dowhat he needed to do for his career.(he gets booed by the audience for that.) KNIVES: Davonte brings a knife given to him by his mentor as 12" high carbon chef-cleaver hybrid. Randy brings his knife he named Sheila, a 10" Shun Damascus clad Chef's knife. Mystery ingredient: Davonte brings cream soda. Randy brings finger limes. Darnell assigns them to make a sweet and savory dish using finger limes and cream soda in 30 minutes.
The food: Davonte is making a pineapple bowl with Asian-inspired Spanish rich with salmon, shrimp andpico de gallo with tortilla chips. Randy is making a pork rind encrusted codwith smoked lobster, corn and quinoa salad with a cream soda vanilla gastrique with bread pudding salad. Judging: Davonte presents first. Crista says it is a beautiful presentation. She is getting the sweet but not too much. She thinks a little too much is going on. She thought it could use more lime. Maneet thought the salmon was unnecessary. The shrimp was delicious. She likes the heat in the rice. Randy presents second: Crista again says a lot going on. Delicious but strugging with the cohesiveness of the dish. Maneet says they are all delicious on their own but not cohesive. She likes the smoke on the lobster. She wanted more cream soda. Maneet says both chefs need to do more self-editing. The score is: 37 to 33. Pretty low scores right here.
Final thoughts: Even tho the second round seemed like a legit grudge the way they were acting, at the end they all talk about how the three of them are brothers and tight and the loser says if he had to lose to anyone it would be his competitor --- so I get the feeling this wasn't the hate match it started out looking like. Also weird that the host's own executive chef would be competing on the show. But at least at the end it was obvious they were all friends (for those of you who find the really hateful matches uncomfortable.)
Here is what is coming up next week according to the Food Network site: Darnell "SuperChef" Ferguson welcomes four fired-up chefs to bring the heat into the kitchen. First up, it's a Tar Heel throwdown as Chopped winner Chris Coleman seeks to take the title of North Carolina's best chef from Executive Chef Travis Myers. Then, the temperature rises in a Food Network Star rematch as Beat Bobby Flay winner Chad Rosenthal faces Iron Chef veteran Viet Pham in a fried chicken fight.
submitted by Firegoat1 to foodnetwork [link] [comments]
ROUND ONE: The chefs for round one are Aaron May challenging his rival from their earlier days (close to 20 years ago) on the line, Ilan Hall. Aaron says he harbors so much resentment for the way Ilan bullied him on the line. (Hmmmm, Ilan a bully in his early days? (Kind of brings back shades of Top Chef season two and how ilan treated Marcel). They both worked the line on a Spanish restaurant in New York, Casa Mono. Aaron says he made it out but he harbors a lot of resentment to how he was treated. Ilan says Aaron was always jealous of him but that he himself is the better chef. Knives: Aaron's knife was hand-made in L.A. It's a 9" hand made vacuum-hardened steel. Ilan puts up what he says is his favorite knife of all time, a 7" aircraft grade CPM S36 VN steel blade. He says he would be mortified to lose it.
The mystery ingredient: Aaron brought American cheese. Ilan brought rose petals. Darnell requires them to cook a cuisine they both used to cook together, so they are required to make meat and vegetarian Spanish tapas. The secret ingredients must both be used in both types of tapas. Aaron is cooking: Meat option is Iberico ham and American cheese croquette with rose petal harrisa jam. The vegetarian option is American cheese tortilla espanola with pickled rose petal aioli. Ilan's meat tapa is chopped cheese on pan con tomate. The vegetarian dish is grill mushrooms with American cheese and rose petal special mayo. Here come the judges: Maneet Chauhan and Crista Luedtke. Judging: There is 50 points available -- 20 for taste, 20 for use of ingredients and 10 for presentation. Aaron presents his dish first. Crista says Aaron outdid himself. Maneet loved his aioli he made with the rose petals. She didn't think the American cheese in the croquette melted enough. But loved the harissa. Chef Ilan presents second. Crista says he delivered a modern take on tapas. She liked the peppers in the meat dish, but was losing some rose. Maneet loved the mushroom tapa, as did Crista. Maneet says overall it is very impressive and modern. Obviously judging is not blind. The scores: 45 to 43.
Take aways from this round: While I think there was a real grudge here 20 years ago, I think both these chefs moved on from it a long time ago. There is a lot of smack talking but its of the funny light variety like "Ilan hates puppies!" and that sort. They seem genuinely friendly at the end and seem to really respect each other. So it ended on a good note with both being good sports. Interesting that Ilan is on the show after he hosted Knife Fight -- a show with a similar concept -- for four years. Also Aaron May has won GGG 10 times and been on the show far more than that and both the judges are also regular contestants and/or judges on GGG so they know his food far better than Ilan's who has been out of competition cooking for some time other than his round on TOC 4. (not sure which of these shows filmed first).
Round two: Darnell says this grudge is near and dear to him as he's known both chefs since his culinary school days. Chef Davonte Bolden is challenging Chef Randy Pasch. The two chefs were supposed to open a restaurant together and allegedly Chef Randy got cold feet and left Ddavonte high and dry. Darnell says Che Davonte has helped him open six different restaurants. and became Darnell's executive chef. Randy is a protege of Stephanie Izard and Grant Achatz and is an executive chef. Randy says he left Davonte because he is a stronger chef than Davonte and he had to dowhat he needed to do for his career.(he gets booed by the audience for that.) KNIVES: Davonte brings a knife given to him by his mentor as 12" high carbon chef-cleaver hybrid. Randy brings his knife he named Sheila, a 10" Shun Damascus clad Chef's knife. Mystery ingredient: Davonte brings cream soda. Randy brings finger limes. Darnell assigns them to make a sweet and savory dish using finger limes and cream soda in 30 minutes.
The food: Davonte is making a pineapple bowl with Asian-inspired Spanish rich with salmon, shrimp andpico de gallo with tortilla chips. Randy is making a pork rind encrusted codwith smoked lobster, corn and quinoa salad with a cream soda vanilla gastrique with bread pudding salad. Judging: Davonte presents first. Crista says it is a beautiful presentation. She is getting the sweet but not too much. She thinks a little too much is going on. She thought it could use more lime. Maneet thought the salmon was unnecessary. The shrimp was delicious. She likes the heat in the rice. Randy presents second: Crista again says a lot going on. Delicious but strugging with the cohesiveness of the dish. Maneet says they are all delicious on their own but not cohesive. She likes the smoke on the lobster. She wanted more cream soda. Maneet says both chefs need to do more self-editing. The score is: 37 to 33. Pretty low scores right here.
Final thoughts: Even tho the second round seemed like a legit grudge the way they were acting, at the end they all talk about how the three of them are brothers and tight and the loser says if he had to lose to anyone it would be his competitor --- so I get the feeling this wasn't the hate match it started out looking like. Also weird that the host's own executive chef would be competing on the show. But at least at the end it was obvious they were all friends (for those of you who find the really hateful matches uncomfortable.)
Here is what is coming up next week according to the Food Network site: Darnell "SuperChef" Ferguson welcomes four fired-up chefs to bring the heat into the kitchen. First up, it's a Tar Heel throwdown as Chopped winner Chris Coleman seeks to take the title of North Carolina's best chef from Executive Chef Travis Myers. Then, the temperature rises in a Food Network Star rematch as Beat Bobby Flay winner Chad Rosenthal faces Iron Chef veteran Viet Pham in a fried chicken fight.
2023.03.21 11:29 dangrankeyi Breakdown of Midnight Museum EP 5
 | Midnight Museum is a show that viewers need to pay attention to when watching. There is a lot of information planted at different places. And the fun of watching this series is that you get to figure out what's there. submitted by dangrankeyi to GMMTV [link] [comments] Here I'm trying to break down Episode 5 and make a recap for everyone, so that we can discuss and perhaps try to gather what we can find. Here are the previous ones: Obviously, if you want to watch the episode first, then go watch it. But if you want to read a recap first, or if you have watched it and want to dig deeper into it, then have fun reading. https://preview.redd.it/5egt6k2ci2pa1.png?width=2208&format=png&auto=webp&s=dc16b8a478328981ca4d1e7a1acbbf781fdb4d8c In the first scene, a woman named Ing (played by Fah) cooks some kind of fish soup. She narrates that "every woman dreams of being the picture of perfection. But perfection comes with a cost." The camera zooms out and we see that in order for her to make a perfect soup, she makes a disturbing mess of the whole kitchen. Nice foreshadowing! Her husband Kong removes a picture of him and his ex wife Budsara and replaces it with a new picture of him, his current wife, and his teen daughter Bee (played by Tu), who doesn't look too happy in the picture. Bee happens to see her dad replacing the picture and is angry. She stomps away, despite Ing's attempt to gently ask her to come eat a meal. https://preview.redd.it/4494273fi2pa1.png?width=2208&format=png&auto=webp&s=fa932ab3cc015e777c857fe29c5643988c8caf1a At one point, we see that Bee's hand is shaking. At the museum, Dome is confined in a small room with no window, following his request in the previous episode to be locked up. June brings him food but he doesn't eat. https://preview.redd.it/7tktkq7ii2pa1.png?width=2208&format=png&auto=webp&s=6d11dcae1eed8cede28c4a8e78ab7f73fc2a2c91 Katha and Triphob leave for an auction and they will have to be away for a few days (so the auction locks up the participants in the venue?). Katha plans to acquire a certain item from the auction which he thinks can help Dome (ie. purifying him from the Extraterrestrial Rock power). Ing and her hubby live in a building full of gossipy housewives, who try to get to know her but at the same time make rude remarks about the old times when Kong was with his then-wife Budsara who is Bee's mother. We learn that Budsara jumped off the building to kill herself. Ing looks at the picture of Kong and Budsara in the storage room. It turns out Budsara is standing there, watching Ing with a partly bloody face. At a yoga class, probably also in the same building, Ing hears the gossipy housewives make remarks about her. They imply that Ing snatched Kong away from his old wife. One of them even say her husband won't be interested in a "lowlife" of a woman who tries to get into a high society. https://preview.redd.it/rqvjwxeli2pa1.png?width=2208&format=png&auto=webp&s=42250fa128c9e7ead0db6de3474cc17efff77b45 A charismatic woman appears and introduces herself as Nisa. She also helps Ing retort to the gossipy women, or perhaps instigates Ing to act more aggressive, depending on how you read it. Nisa seems to know the right things to say and out of the blue invites Ing to her apartment, which Ing apparently agrees. https://preview.redd.it/b72sfenui2pa1.png?width=2208&format=png&auto=webp&s=fd3f7e51623b9c9556349ece484d823f58122a4c Katha and Triphob arrive at the auction place. Katha again chews that gum. This is a fancy place which gives out tarot cards to participants. Katha gets "The Hermit" card, which is just a piece of paper that can somehow be used as a credit card during the auction as well as to unlock doors. https://preview.redd.it/0i7glkexi2pa1.png?width=2208&format=png&auto=webp&s=16f7672bd310041c49337ea0fe34263a71e1c766 The auction is several days long. Katha is only interested in the last item of the last day. So he decides to just sit out in his room doing nothing (what a productive way to spend your time, Katha). Triphob is interested in a pearl-embedded egg called "The Faberge Egg" but Katha doesn't care much about it. Just like what two strangers who met on a dating app do, Nisa quickly takes Ing to her apartment after their first encounter. Nisa makes Ing a very suspicious soup, which she sprinkles something on it. Nisa keeps talking about women and how they are driven by envy. She talks about how the husbands of the gossipy housewives cheat on them or fool around with each other! I have to say Pimdao, the actress who plays Nisa, is really good. She is so charismatic. "I live above everyone. The higher it is, the more I can see. I can even see someone who jumps off the top floor," Nisa says. Nisa also knows a lot about Ing's situation, including the fact that the existence of Bee as her stepdaughter prevents Ing from achieving the perfect life. Nisa even knows Kong and Ing haven't had sex for a long time. Ing reasonably gets uncomfortable, but unreasonably eats Nisa's soup when told to. Ing apparently cannot stop eating that soup before she realizes that there is something in the soup. Nisa shows her the "charmed salt" which can help Ing get whatever she wants. Nisa talks about how women can exert power and control through indirect means, like food. The salt works wonder. After eating Ing's soup, Kong says he loves her and begins to make out with her at the dinner table, which Bee sees from her bedroom. https://preview.redd.it/naiykvo6j2pa1.png?width=2208&format=png&auto=webp&s=f4f9ed949dea767a42a9410d76002c0b12599375 Bee is trying to play a piano but she can't. She's in a place that is perhaps a piano classroom, or maybe some common area in the building. Another mysterious woman named Ratchanee (played by Mook) appears and says she knows Bee has Musician's Dystonia disorder. Bee asks if Ratchanee knows how to treat it, so she makes it go away in just a snap of fingers. Bee is overwhelmed that she can play piano again. https://preview.redd.it/no76sv39j2pa1.png?width=2208&format=png&auto=webp&s=102433af50d169985285f892cc29d102148bc85f Ratchanee offers to teach Bee piano, and gives her a card, which has an image of an upward crescent moon and something that looks like a flower on it. It's the same symbol that we have seen many times in characters and places related to the "cult" but this time we can see it much clearer. Ratchanee says if Bee believes her, everyone will pay attention to her once again. Ing sees that the storage room's door is open, so she enters. A woman suddenly grabs her from behind with a piece of clothes but then disappears. Bee walks in and Ing asks if that was her. Bee sees her mother picture on the floor and goes apeshit. https://preview.redd.it/6p4ao1pbj2pa1.png?width=2208&format=png&auto=webp&s=8190801b8eb40007d3c01f6b947035a9f3421ecd She blames Ing for forcing her mother to commit suicide and throws insults at her, which can either be "slut" or "bitch" depending on whether you are watching this episode or the preview clip. But the word can probably more accurately translated as a "low life of a woman" which again suggests that Ing isn't fit to be part of the high society in this building. Kong sees this and orders Bee to apologize to Ing. She yells and he slaps her, escalating the situation quickly. Bee pulls her hair and screams like a mad girl and runs into her room. Kong consoles Ing and they end up making out on Bee's bedroom door, while Bee listens and cries from the other side. Bee decides to call Ratchanee to tell her that she is "ready". Bee finds happiness in playing piano, but Ratchanee snaps her fingers and Bee's hands are shaking again. Ratchanee says if Bee wants to play piano again she will have to do what she says, which is to swallow her pride and eat the soup that Ing makes. Later, Bee eats the soup and becomes addicted to it, just like Kong. Their relationship improves instantly. Now it looks like the three are a lovely family. Bee plays the piano beautifully while Ratchanee smiles, and a number of young people appear. They stand there and watch her playing. Nisa hands Ing a bag of charmed salt, right at the building's entrance where everyone can see. The gossipy housewives of course see this, and they approach Nisa to ask for the "secret tips" that she gave to Ing. At the auction, Triphob informs Katha that "The High Priestess" has been buying all the auctioned items and will likely get the item Katha has an eye on, but Katha is unwavering, saying he will get what he wants. In a bar, a confident Katha approaches The High Priestess, which turns out to be the lady inside the cult building, whom the two cultist boys in the Extraterrestrial Rock episode talked about. Katha tries to ask her what she wants, but she only says it's a "personal reason". https://preview.redd.it/9flyzd0nj2pa1.png?width=2208&format=png&auto=webp&s=d1d5d605938a03b2c6c554c9d7bf19d04a9a14c1 She teases, saying she might let Katha get the item he wants if he tells her which one it is. As Katha doesn't give a direct answer, she says she will take what he wants the most as hers. And she calls Katha "Mr. Museum Owner" apparently knowing who he is. Back in his room, Katha looks at his phone. He apparently can see Dome from a CCTV. Katha, in a spectacular suit, arrives at the auction room. The High Priestess is already there, wearing an even more spectacular outfit. https://preview.redd.it/9dpawcnqj2pa1.png?width=2208&format=png&auto=webp&s=0885d594c5c6cb642037f0ee60a84f3e0ea34345 Katha tries to get the Faberge Egg that Triphob wants, but eventually accepts defeat as The High Priestess keeps making higher bets. Katha is very agitated and begins to make crazy bets to acquire a few other items, despite Triphob's protests. Eventually, the MC introduces the last item, which is a jewelry made of salt crystal belonging to an Onmyoji from the Heian period in Japan, which has the power to absorb dark power. https://preview.redd.it/nvkjmx3uj2pa1.png?width=2208&format=png&auto=webp&s=f8679073dd0bbdf8a878053145f70e58487cb0e2 Katha and The High Priestess make totally insane bets to get this. Triphob gives a warning, saying Dome has much influence on Katha "perhaps because he looks like your younger brother". Many are disappointed to hear this "younger brother" remark, but I will remind you that Triphob is likely much younger than Katha and he probably wasn't born yet when Katha and the person who looked like Dome met, including that encounter in 1820. He only knows what he was told. Triphob says Katha should not get too attached "because the world we live in is dangerous" and Dome will have to face these dangers too. "If you lost him, too, I hope you wont' do anything stupid," says Triphob. Note that he used the word ไปอีกคนนึง, which is translated as "too" here. But it means Katha had already lost another person before this. But Triphob tells Katha to bet 3 billion USD for the item. I'm not sure if the writers are aware of how high that amount is. GMMTV could probably buy SM Entertainment plus a few other smaller K-Pop companies with that budget. https://preview.redd.it/tkmmqxx0k2pa1.png?width=2208&format=png&auto=webp&s=b7038e6cf44b6211b71d770cc6747acd958c44e1 The High Priestess lets Katha acquire that item. She disappears but leaves him a "gift" which looks like the Bible. The bookmark is on the Book of Revelation chapter, and we hear her voice saying: "I am the singer of praises of the Lord. I am waiting, for the Lord shall sow wonders in heavens and earth, as blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, the moon into blood, and the stars into rubble raining down upon earth, before the returning of the Lord, which shall be the great and horrifying day of the Lord." She also leaves The High Priestess card. On its back, she wrote: "I have got what I wanted. As for this, I give you. If there is something else I want in the future, I will come to take it from you." Ing cooks some fish, but there is no more charmed salt. Kong and Bee are upset that the food tastes differently. They become insane in begging Ing to cook the food that they used to eat, and Ing leaves to go to Nisa to get the salt. https://preview.redd.it/1irvlkc4k2pa1.png?width=2208&format=png&auto=webp&s=974176ebb92f88bb48e0ad86129a3d1e5d1549c4 At Nisa's apartment, many housewives are already there knocking the door to try to get the salt as well. Suddenly the door opens, and there is a bag of salt inside. The mad housewives rush in and fight each other to get the salt. Ing is horrified and decides to leave. When Ing comes back to her apartment, Nisa is there. Kong has blood and tears on his face and he is tied to a chair. Nisa is slicing his cheek and grills it, putting salt on it. She invites Ing to try some human meat, which she says is delicious. https://preview.redd.it/zwc3hdn6k2pa1.png?width=2208&format=png&auto=webp&s=4a58c04aaa82a970ced2f1d3aabf8aaf9dddb78d Ing grabs a knife. Nisa shares the secret recipe for the charmed salt, which is made from tears "of the person who is in the worst pain of their life". "To make someone happy, it costs someone else's tears," she says. Nisa asks Ing whose tears it should be. She tells Ing to grab the knife tightly and uses it on someone she wants to disappear. This Nisa actress is really good. Meanwhile, Ratchanee is in the storage room with Bee, who has blood on her mouth. Bee has eaten her father's flesh. https://preview.redd.it/kzg4gt9ak2pa1.png?width=2208&format=png&auto=webp&s=3977863435d3078d6d65a0b0ee9b74d04162ecac Bee throws insults at Ing, who decides to end the matter right here and right now. The two women stab each other, but then it turns out it's Kong that they have stabbed. But that doesn't end the fight. They blame each other for taking away their perfect life. Bee gets on top of Ing and stabs her in the stomach, becoming the winner. She touches Ing's tears and licks it from her hand. https://preview.redd.it/km564itck2pa1.png?width=2208&format=png&auto=webp&s=79ddea58cbb90fb23cc99173cdc836775ee21b02 Bee also and says this weird and somewhat cheesy line: "it always tastes so sweet on the victor's tongue." Bee leaves the apartment and goes up to the rooftop. A number of young people follow her. They all have blood on their mouths. Meanwhile, Ing lies on the floor dying, while Nisa talks about the duties of a good woman. Bee arrives at the rooftop and smiles at her dead mother who stands there. She and the other young people eventually levitate and go up the sky. https://preview.redd.it/67ig61igk2pa1.png?width=2208&format=png&auto=webp&s=37bddbd2e00b8640612df5f9e5282088126d27c4 At the cult building, they appear. Nisa and Ratchanee are there too and they turn into transparent things that eventually merge into the woman with the upward crescent moon tattoo, which is The High Priestess. https://preview.redd.it/gzji78rjk2pa1.png?width=2208&format=png&auto=webp&s=32cfc6bfd56b71789a5cb6adf4ff3cc5651bb391 The black mummy is there. And one of the women says the time for resurrection is about to come. At the museum, Katha puts the jewelry on Dome on his ankle. Is it really an anklet or Katha just decides to make it one? But then, he fires Dome from his museum job and sternly tells Dome to go back to his world. The sad Dome gives the museum card back to Triphob who says Dome can never see this museum again, while June says she will find a way to visit him. Dome is back at the apartment, and meet a strange-looking boy (played by Nanon) who now lives next door, probably in the same apartment that the landlady was cleaning blood earlier. https://preview.redd.it/s2tgx3unk2pa1.png?width=2208&format=png&auto=webp&s=62e7e65ba713c0fb4d7f58c1188148bd2c4ebbfb The boy goes into his room. There is an incomplete female mannequin on the table. He opens his bag and pulls out a mannequin arm from it. He kisses and caresses the mannequin parts lovingly. The camera zooms out and we see that there is another incomplete female mannequin in the corner of his room. That's all. Thanks for reading! |
2023.03.21 11:02 iridael The Ordeal Ch4:Salvage
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Issac watched as the single refinery in sector had raw iron dumped into the cauldron, the induction coils around it heating up red hot as the metal inside the container bubbled and smoked away impurities. The coils dulled down automatically a minute later and the cauldron rotated, pouring molten iron into the facility where it would be poured into ingots for storage, moulds for hull plating and hundreds of other standard fabrication designs that the station might need.
The cargo ship was in its berth, the only one section one had so once the mining ship was done it would have to leave the berth for the docking ship to enter, undergo maintenance and then be moved into storage. Right next to the second cargo ship they’d moved here as well.
Without it in the berth, maintenance and prep had taken and extra day for Bradley to give the all clear. Miles and his security had put a team together and had a container with their equipment. A team of 10 was the limit. Both Issac and Miles wanted more, a team of 25 was preferable, but with the incident one of the things that was hit hard were the vacuum suits. And the security team only had 10 sets intact.
It was just another thing added to the list they needed from the JA cruiser.
His eyes drifted up from the smelter and docks, refocusing onto the titanium glass dome that was covered in a lattice of cracks but had done its job of keeping the atmosphere mostly in and drifted further until it reached the massive gate doors and the mechanism that let them open and close.
The jagged line that had cut through the door had transformed into a pixelated slice, large chunks of metal cut free and gently drifting on cables towards massive maintenance hatches for recycling…and beyond that in the dark was a light that was slightly brighter than the others. Orbiting that slightly brighter light was a ship and on that ship was what he needed to keep this station alive a little longer.
He looked down past the glass past the foundry until his eyes hit the bridge floor, his feet and then focussed on the cup in his hand.
“You’re feeling it aren't you?”
He jumps but doesn't. It's a strange thing he feels the response but then some part of him goes and stops it.
Turning around he sees Clarrissa standing at the door to the bridge. “I checked on the others too, the surviving officers. Told them I had to take the operation because of a tumour. Extended my contract by 15 years for it. Means I got to tell them what to expect. Got them to show me their medical scans, most of them anyway.”
“Expect what?” Issac asks.
“The things they don't tell you when you sign the contract. Your brain is now surplus to requirements, it's been superseded by the neural matrix in your skull. And parts of it are already dying off. The suppressants and drug cocktails giving your body the micro dosages of special elements your implant needs to keep growing, winding its way through your brain. Taking over comparatively sluggish organic processes.”
“Why.”
Clare shrugs. “The problem with evolution is it chooses what works best at the time, not what's efficient. The big wigs wanted a template for a better brain to build a better human around, and once they had that they realised that certain things were a bit surplus to requirements.”
“Such as?”
“Your occipital lobe is the first to go. It had a big lump of crystal and exotic elements shoved into it after all. Means that your vision will change. You’ll gain peripheral acuity, you’ll notice the blind spot of your eye until it disappears in a month or two. Your Parietal lobe, The bit above and in front of your vision centre goes strange next. Its basically working like a backup now. So it’ll simplify, shrink a bit. But that does mean multitasking becomes easier, things like maths and spacial awareness get better. But it also handles pain. So that’ll change.”
“How?” Issac asks, interrupting her with a raised hand. In response she pulls out a long needle and calmly pulls up her sleeve and removes a bandage to reveal where a dozen small wounds are and calmly shoves it through the muscle of her forearm.
“Pain is a message informing you of damage.” she says pulling the needle out. “the reaction ‘ow that hurts!’” she says expressing pain and clamping her hand over the new and bleeding hole. A moment later her expression levels out. And she calmly takes her hand away and starts redressing the area. “It becomes a choice. Your digital mind registers it and then you get the choice to react, or file it away for later.”
“And the frontal cortex?”
“Well, that's the part you need to really watch for. It is furthest from the implants initial location but also the one it messes with the most, because by then it's almost fully integrated. It’ll assault the area, things stop being as entertaining, as funny, some drugs loose effect, others get a lot stronger. Emotions level out…at least it did for me…others in the program I was part of”
“Other snakes.” Issac says.
“Yes…most of them stopped being able to empathise properly. They stopped thinking of the corp as a family and more like a machine. And themselves as the administrators. Answerable only to the board. They forgot that people need a reason beyond the job to work and would look for any reason to make the machine more efficient.”
“And you didn't?” Issac asks.
“I could have. It's so easy to let logic take over. But I'm a botanist. And you can't grow and care for plants without caring. But that's not the part I'm warning you of. A few of my colleagues went further. They started to crave the feelings they used to have but it takes more to get the same result. Relationships become funnels for satisfying urges. Sex becomes rape, light drug use becomes hardcore drug abuse. The thrill of a fight becomes the love of inflicting pain.”
“And every officer is now cyberized and walking down that path.”
“Which is why I'm being mostly honest with you and saying that IF I need to do my job. I will, without mercy.”
“Am I supposed to thank you for that?” Issac asks.
“Yes. Because if you could see the thing you’d become you would be horrified. But now you know what the corp doesn't want you to know. You and the other officers can be on guard to the signs.” she says.
Issac sighs and nods. “You’re right…what do you think of our chances?”
“For the next year? Pretty good. Worst case scenario we’re actually fairly well equipped to rebuild somewhere. Best case scenario? We find other ships, other colonies, maybe jump back to Sol and find earth completely fine.” she replies.
Issac shakes his head. “That's not worse case. Worse case is we find other humans and they destroy the station. Or whatever caused this happens again. Or whoever caused it finds us. There’s a lot of ways we die, humanity dies. But not a lot of ways to survive…thanks for telling me what to expect. You’ll be watching tomorrow?”
“Yea…want me to come up here for it? My team knows their work well enough that I can let them work for a day or two.” she says crossing her arms and smiling at him.
Issac stares at her for a second looking for something that's not there before nodding. “I could use the company up here.”
“Then its a date. I’ll sort us out for lunch.” she says turning and leaving him.
He sighs and looks down at his cup. The liquid inside was cold now and his arm ached from being held up at that angle for so long. A note of worry crept in at how he hadn't noticed until he’d wanted to. Quickly walking over to a welfare station he empties the cold liquid and pours himself a cup of steaming hot caffeine with flavour then returns to his spot at the window watching as the cargo ship leaves, the second one moving on rails into the launching berth where two groups are waiting to load it up.
“System, terminal 9, bring up everything on cyberization implants…search sleep requirements and highlight.” he orders.
The next day he was watching the command terminal. It was off to one side of the bridge and dominated one wall. Right now it was showing exactly what the captain of the cargo ship was seeing, which was a close up and detailed view of the crippled cruiser before panning down to the planet.
“Look at the planet. If we trace back the orbit there’s a 100km gap in one of the slices that hit the planet…” the captain's voice faded out as someone else spoke up. “The cuts planetside aren't actually that deep, a few dozen metres mostly. It's just the scale of the impact. Damage to infrastructure would have been the killing blow. Look, nuclear fallout from reactor damage… a few defences around the city detonated too by the look of things….right the ship sorry I'm a research captain.”
The scope changed again back to the cruiser. “Docking bay for shuttles, Cargo door, or we could go close to the slice and move in from there…shuttle bay it is.”
“They’re not trained for this, remember.” Chief Botanist Clarrissa says walking in with two trays stacked on each other. “They’re going to be nervous, probably trigger happy.”
“Could you do better?” Issac asks.
“Leading them? No. If I had a squad of snakes. We’d go in cold and kill anything in our way to rip out what you needed. Which isn't exactly a good starting point when trying to form bonds of trust between former enemies.” she replies, popping the lid on one of the trays revealing a bowl of steaming rice and some processed insect proteins that look like what he’s been told pork is.
He watches her from the corner of his eye whilst he watches the command screen switch from ship camera to a vac suit camera entering in through a cut out airlock. Two security officers float into the airlock and begin setting up the cutting tools whilst another pair work outside to fit a plastic temporary airlock seal around the blown outer door.
By the time the inner airlock is cut through Clarissa hands him a steaming bowl of rice and not-pork drizzled in sauce. He accepts it and uses the spork to stab a lump of meat before scooping a mouthful of rice up and eating it and immediately gagging on the assault of flavours.
“Shit sorry, you’ve been eating paste since wake up haven't you?” Clare apologises, taking the bowl from him and handing him her yet unflavoured bowl once his coughing fit subsides.
He takes it and puts it to one side before reaching for his coffee and gulping down a mouthful then swishing another around to get rid of the remaining burn. “Spicy.” he notes.
“That was tomato, onion and bell pepper flavouring.” she replies with a smirk. “One of the advantages of having done this a few times post cyberization.” she says picking up the bowl and shoving a spoonful of saucy rice into her mouth. “Don't need to readjust my taste.” she finishes after swallowing the mouthful.
Issac shrugs and takes another small mouthful of just rice this time and lets the assault of texture and flavour batter him before swallowing it and moving onto the pork.
As he does the security team sweep through the corridors of the ship, a secondary screen showing a digital map of where they’ve been and what each section of the ship was for. A large portion of the space they move through is just cargo racks and stores that they quickly scan over, letting the cargo ship and by extension the station systems catalogue as they move.
Issac watches as the team secure their entrance to the ship and start moving through the rear section bit by bit. It doesn't take them long to find the first group of cyro pods. They’re easily twice the size of the ones on the tyco, each one when touched shows a display with the basic information of who’s inside. Name age and health.
“Can it be removed?” he asked before cursing and remembering that there was a good few minutes delay between him and the ship.
“Looks like the pods are built into the ship, it’ll take us some time to figure out a way to remove them safely. Lets get a count first and search for anyone awake, or any corpses.'' The search continued through the cruiser for an hour before the team returned to the cargo ship to rest, refuel their vac suits and go at it again. As they did they identified locked doors for armouries, the engine bay and a series of entrances that matched up with the exposed sections around the slice and the reactor.
The next day the cargo ship moved to the front section of the ship and the security team began again from a forward airlock and began mapping the front end of the ship. They didn't find any cryopods in long rows like last time but did find a locked and sealed room that didn't match anything the teams knew about. By the time they’d mapped everything it was time to wait on a command decision form Issac on how to proceed.
“What do you think?” he asked Clare who had joined him for a second day on the bridge.
“Hmm. if there’s any officers chances are they’re in a secure area close to what we think is the bridge. Every other section of the ship we’re fairly sure we know about. So it depends if you want to scrap as much as possible then wake up crew, or wake them up first and see about cooperating.”
Issac doesn't reply instantly. Instead he’s chewing over possible outcomes and what way is best to proceed. After a minute of silence he nods. “I want them to cut into what we think is the officers pod bay. Extract a few pods and bring them over along with whatever supplies we can easily grab. Get into the cargo bay for that but don't destructively open the bay doors. It’ll be easier if we’re not rescuing drifting supplies.” he orders.
Half an hour later the security team were moving again. This time they moved through the ship with purpose towards the sealed forward section and after setting up a pressurised zone, started cutting into the armoured door. It took them longer than expected since the door was reinforced beyond their expectations but after a brief consultation with one of the cargo ships crew they changed up their cutting mix and sliced through the bulkhead leaving melted hot slag around a large hole. Inside what just what they expected, more cryopods. What they didn't expect was a single starved person holding a rifle aiming at the door, pod open.
“Tyco security forces! Stand down! We’ve boarded the ship looking for survivors!” the officer in charge shouts.
The JA officer looks around and backs up still pointing his gun at the security team before backing up to the back wall. “STAY BACK I’LL S-Shoot!” he screams.
“Easy. everyone out, just me inside.” the security officer orders.
“Smart call.” Clare notes watching it from the bridge with Issac.
“Why?”
“The poor sod pulls the trigger, kills only one guy, the rest throw in a stun grenade and merc him. Recover the pods carry on with one casualty.” she notes.
Issac nods at the logic and returns his attention to the screen.
“Easy sir. We’re from tyco, your ships crippled. Something hit you just like it hit us.”
“LIAR. I i i i it w-was an attack. My pod opened so I could assess damage but the power went down, the door wouldn't open…orders are to stay awake and monitor situation…”
“So you did your job. And now a rescue team is here. But listen. We’ve searched the entire ship. Most of your crew seem to be alive but we don't know how to open these pods safely. You do…tell you what. One of the guys has a nutrient pack here. You look like you need it more than we do…”
The skinny officer nods still wide eyed. “Michel, grab your nutrient pack and pass it here would you?” the security man shouts.
A moment later a hand moves into view holding a foil pack with a spout on it. The officer takes it and holds it out. “I'm going to drift forward to the middle of the room ok. I’ll open the pack and take a sip so you know its not bad and then you can have the rest ok?”
The JA officer shakily nods and Issac notes the gun drop down slightly. The camera shows the security officer move forwards, then after a moment of sound. “Ugh, I swear it tastes worse than the usual stuff.” he groans before pushing it towards the officer. “I'm warning you that stuff is nasty. But it keeps you alive.”
The JA officer doesn't pay attention, instead taking the pack with one hand and sipping at the slurry inside, he grimaces and nearly heaves the precious sludge back up but within moments the pack is empty and he sighs in relief.
“How long have you been awake?” the security guard asks.
“Don't know. Since the incident.” the officer replies.
“We’ve been in the system, about 2 weeks now. So well done on surviving this long.” he says. “Listen my orders are to recover as many pods as possible, can we move these things safely?”
The officer nods. “Where to?”
“We have a cargo hauler docked to the ship. We’re going to take whatever we can. And leave the wreckage.”
“Wreckage?”
“That's right. Your ships been cut in half. Our’s isn't jump worthy but it's in one piece. And we have room for you and all your crew.”
“But your tyco.”
“And your JA and whoever hit you hit us just the same.” the security officer replies.
They go back and forth for a while more until the officer agrees to put on a crew survival suit and follow the security officer to the cargo ship. Once inside he’s shown the damage to the ship and the planet below.
“What did this?”
“We don't know. But we still need your help and your crew's help.”
“Are there any JA ships in system?”
“Not that we’ve managed to spot. Our stations scanners were damaged and still getting repaired.”
The officer sighs. “Alright, h-h-here's what you need to do.”
submitted by iridael to HFY [link] [comments]
The cargo ship was in its berth, the only one section one had so once the mining ship was done it would have to leave the berth for the docking ship to enter, undergo maintenance and then be moved into storage. Right next to the second cargo ship they’d moved here as well.
Without it in the berth, maintenance and prep had taken and extra day for Bradley to give the all clear. Miles and his security had put a team together and had a container with their equipment. A team of 10 was the limit. Both Issac and Miles wanted more, a team of 25 was preferable, but with the incident one of the things that was hit hard were the vacuum suits. And the security team only had 10 sets intact.
It was just another thing added to the list they needed from the JA cruiser.
His eyes drifted up from the smelter and docks, refocusing onto the titanium glass dome that was covered in a lattice of cracks but had done its job of keeping the atmosphere mostly in and drifted further until it reached the massive gate doors and the mechanism that let them open and close.
The jagged line that had cut through the door had transformed into a pixelated slice, large chunks of metal cut free and gently drifting on cables towards massive maintenance hatches for recycling…and beyond that in the dark was a light that was slightly brighter than the others. Orbiting that slightly brighter light was a ship and on that ship was what he needed to keep this station alive a little longer.
He looked down past the glass past the foundry until his eyes hit the bridge floor, his feet and then focussed on the cup in his hand.
“You’re feeling it aren't you?”
He jumps but doesn't. It's a strange thing he feels the response but then some part of him goes and stops it.
Turning around he sees Clarrissa standing at the door to the bridge. “I checked on the others too, the surviving officers. Told them I had to take the operation because of a tumour. Extended my contract by 15 years for it. Means I got to tell them what to expect. Got them to show me their medical scans, most of them anyway.”
“Expect what?” Issac asks.
“The things they don't tell you when you sign the contract. Your brain is now surplus to requirements, it's been superseded by the neural matrix in your skull. And parts of it are already dying off. The suppressants and drug cocktails giving your body the micro dosages of special elements your implant needs to keep growing, winding its way through your brain. Taking over comparatively sluggish organic processes.”
“Why.”
Clare shrugs. “The problem with evolution is it chooses what works best at the time, not what's efficient. The big wigs wanted a template for a better brain to build a better human around, and once they had that they realised that certain things were a bit surplus to requirements.”
“Such as?”
“Your occipital lobe is the first to go. It had a big lump of crystal and exotic elements shoved into it after all. Means that your vision will change. You’ll gain peripheral acuity, you’ll notice the blind spot of your eye until it disappears in a month or two. Your Parietal lobe, The bit above and in front of your vision centre goes strange next. Its basically working like a backup now. So it’ll simplify, shrink a bit. But that does mean multitasking becomes easier, things like maths and spacial awareness get better. But it also handles pain. So that’ll change.”
“How?” Issac asks, interrupting her with a raised hand. In response she pulls out a long needle and calmly pulls up her sleeve and removes a bandage to reveal where a dozen small wounds are and calmly shoves it through the muscle of her forearm.
“Pain is a message informing you of damage.” she says pulling the needle out. “the reaction ‘ow that hurts!’” she says expressing pain and clamping her hand over the new and bleeding hole. A moment later her expression levels out. And she calmly takes her hand away and starts redressing the area. “It becomes a choice. Your digital mind registers it and then you get the choice to react, or file it away for later.”
“And the frontal cortex?”
“Well, that's the part you need to really watch for. It is furthest from the implants initial location but also the one it messes with the most, because by then it's almost fully integrated. It’ll assault the area, things stop being as entertaining, as funny, some drugs loose effect, others get a lot stronger. Emotions level out…at least it did for me…others in the program I was part of”
“Other snakes.” Issac says.
“Yes…most of them stopped being able to empathise properly. They stopped thinking of the corp as a family and more like a machine. And themselves as the administrators. Answerable only to the board. They forgot that people need a reason beyond the job to work and would look for any reason to make the machine more efficient.”
“And you didn't?” Issac asks.
“I could have. It's so easy to let logic take over. But I'm a botanist. And you can't grow and care for plants without caring. But that's not the part I'm warning you of. A few of my colleagues went further. They started to crave the feelings they used to have but it takes more to get the same result. Relationships become funnels for satisfying urges. Sex becomes rape, light drug use becomes hardcore drug abuse. The thrill of a fight becomes the love of inflicting pain.”
“And every officer is now cyberized and walking down that path.”
“Which is why I'm being mostly honest with you and saying that IF I need to do my job. I will, without mercy.”
“Am I supposed to thank you for that?” Issac asks.
“Yes. Because if you could see the thing you’d become you would be horrified. But now you know what the corp doesn't want you to know. You and the other officers can be on guard to the signs.” she says.
Issac sighs and nods. “You’re right…what do you think of our chances?”
“For the next year? Pretty good. Worst case scenario we’re actually fairly well equipped to rebuild somewhere. Best case scenario? We find other ships, other colonies, maybe jump back to Sol and find earth completely fine.” she replies.
Issac shakes his head. “That's not worse case. Worse case is we find other humans and they destroy the station. Or whatever caused this happens again. Or whoever caused it finds us. There’s a lot of ways we die, humanity dies. But not a lot of ways to survive…thanks for telling me what to expect. You’ll be watching tomorrow?”
“Yea…want me to come up here for it? My team knows their work well enough that I can let them work for a day or two.” she says crossing her arms and smiling at him.
Issac stares at her for a second looking for something that's not there before nodding. “I could use the company up here.”
“Then its a date. I’ll sort us out for lunch.” she says turning and leaving him.
He sighs and looks down at his cup. The liquid inside was cold now and his arm ached from being held up at that angle for so long. A note of worry crept in at how he hadn't noticed until he’d wanted to. Quickly walking over to a welfare station he empties the cold liquid and pours himself a cup of steaming hot caffeine with flavour then returns to his spot at the window watching as the cargo ship leaves, the second one moving on rails into the launching berth where two groups are waiting to load it up.
“System, terminal 9, bring up everything on cyberization implants…search sleep requirements and highlight.” he orders.
The next day he was watching the command terminal. It was off to one side of the bridge and dominated one wall. Right now it was showing exactly what the captain of the cargo ship was seeing, which was a close up and detailed view of the crippled cruiser before panning down to the planet.
“Look at the planet. If we trace back the orbit there’s a 100km gap in one of the slices that hit the planet…” the captain's voice faded out as someone else spoke up. “The cuts planetside aren't actually that deep, a few dozen metres mostly. It's just the scale of the impact. Damage to infrastructure would have been the killing blow. Look, nuclear fallout from reactor damage… a few defences around the city detonated too by the look of things….right the ship sorry I'm a research captain.”
The scope changed again back to the cruiser. “Docking bay for shuttles, Cargo door, or we could go close to the slice and move in from there…shuttle bay it is.”
“They’re not trained for this, remember.” Chief Botanist Clarrissa says walking in with two trays stacked on each other. “They’re going to be nervous, probably trigger happy.”
“Could you do better?” Issac asks.
“Leading them? No. If I had a squad of snakes. We’d go in cold and kill anything in our way to rip out what you needed. Which isn't exactly a good starting point when trying to form bonds of trust between former enemies.” she replies, popping the lid on one of the trays revealing a bowl of steaming rice and some processed insect proteins that look like what he’s been told pork is.
He watches her from the corner of his eye whilst he watches the command screen switch from ship camera to a vac suit camera entering in through a cut out airlock. Two security officers float into the airlock and begin setting up the cutting tools whilst another pair work outside to fit a plastic temporary airlock seal around the blown outer door.
By the time the inner airlock is cut through Clarissa hands him a steaming bowl of rice and not-pork drizzled in sauce. He accepts it and uses the spork to stab a lump of meat before scooping a mouthful of rice up and eating it and immediately gagging on the assault of flavours.
“Shit sorry, you’ve been eating paste since wake up haven't you?” Clare apologises, taking the bowl from him and handing him her yet unflavoured bowl once his coughing fit subsides.
He takes it and puts it to one side before reaching for his coffee and gulping down a mouthful then swishing another around to get rid of the remaining burn. “Spicy.” he notes.
“That was tomato, onion and bell pepper flavouring.” she replies with a smirk. “One of the advantages of having done this a few times post cyberization.” she says picking up the bowl and shoving a spoonful of saucy rice into her mouth. “Don't need to readjust my taste.” she finishes after swallowing the mouthful.
Issac shrugs and takes another small mouthful of just rice this time and lets the assault of texture and flavour batter him before swallowing it and moving onto the pork.
As he does the security team sweep through the corridors of the ship, a secondary screen showing a digital map of where they’ve been and what each section of the ship was for. A large portion of the space they move through is just cargo racks and stores that they quickly scan over, letting the cargo ship and by extension the station systems catalogue as they move.
Issac watches as the team secure their entrance to the ship and start moving through the rear section bit by bit. It doesn't take them long to find the first group of cyro pods. They’re easily twice the size of the ones on the tyco, each one when touched shows a display with the basic information of who’s inside. Name age and health.
“Can it be removed?” he asked before cursing and remembering that there was a good few minutes delay between him and the ship.
“Looks like the pods are built into the ship, it’ll take us some time to figure out a way to remove them safely. Lets get a count first and search for anyone awake, or any corpses.'' The search continued through the cruiser for an hour before the team returned to the cargo ship to rest, refuel their vac suits and go at it again. As they did they identified locked doors for armouries, the engine bay and a series of entrances that matched up with the exposed sections around the slice and the reactor.
The next day the cargo ship moved to the front section of the ship and the security team began again from a forward airlock and began mapping the front end of the ship. They didn't find any cryopods in long rows like last time but did find a locked and sealed room that didn't match anything the teams knew about. By the time they’d mapped everything it was time to wait on a command decision form Issac on how to proceed.
“What do you think?” he asked Clare who had joined him for a second day on the bridge.
“Hmm. if there’s any officers chances are they’re in a secure area close to what we think is the bridge. Every other section of the ship we’re fairly sure we know about. So it depends if you want to scrap as much as possible then wake up crew, or wake them up first and see about cooperating.”
Issac doesn't reply instantly. Instead he’s chewing over possible outcomes and what way is best to proceed. After a minute of silence he nods. “I want them to cut into what we think is the officers pod bay. Extract a few pods and bring them over along with whatever supplies we can easily grab. Get into the cargo bay for that but don't destructively open the bay doors. It’ll be easier if we’re not rescuing drifting supplies.” he orders.
Half an hour later the security team were moving again. This time they moved through the ship with purpose towards the sealed forward section and after setting up a pressurised zone, started cutting into the armoured door. It took them longer than expected since the door was reinforced beyond their expectations but after a brief consultation with one of the cargo ships crew they changed up their cutting mix and sliced through the bulkhead leaving melted hot slag around a large hole. Inside what just what they expected, more cryopods. What they didn't expect was a single starved person holding a rifle aiming at the door, pod open.
“Tyco security forces! Stand down! We’ve boarded the ship looking for survivors!” the officer in charge shouts.
The JA officer looks around and backs up still pointing his gun at the security team before backing up to the back wall. “STAY BACK I’LL S-Shoot!” he screams.
“Easy. everyone out, just me inside.” the security officer orders.
“Smart call.” Clare notes watching it from the bridge with Issac.
“Why?”
“The poor sod pulls the trigger, kills only one guy, the rest throw in a stun grenade and merc him. Recover the pods carry on with one casualty.” she notes.
Issac nods at the logic and returns his attention to the screen.
“Easy sir. We’re from tyco, your ships crippled. Something hit you just like it hit us.”
“LIAR. I i i i it w-was an attack. My pod opened so I could assess damage but the power went down, the door wouldn't open…orders are to stay awake and monitor situation…”
“So you did your job. And now a rescue team is here. But listen. We’ve searched the entire ship. Most of your crew seem to be alive but we don't know how to open these pods safely. You do…tell you what. One of the guys has a nutrient pack here. You look like you need it more than we do…”
The skinny officer nods still wide eyed. “Michel, grab your nutrient pack and pass it here would you?” the security man shouts.
A moment later a hand moves into view holding a foil pack with a spout on it. The officer takes it and holds it out. “I'm going to drift forward to the middle of the room ok. I’ll open the pack and take a sip so you know its not bad and then you can have the rest ok?”
The JA officer shakily nods and Issac notes the gun drop down slightly. The camera shows the security officer move forwards, then after a moment of sound. “Ugh, I swear it tastes worse than the usual stuff.” he groans before pushing it towards the officer. “I'm warning you that stuff is nasty. But it keeps you alive.”
The JA officer doesn't pay attention, instead taking the pack with one hand and sipping at the slurry inside, he grimaces and nearly heaves the precious sludge back up but within moments the pack is empty and he sighs in relief.
“How long have you been awake?” the security guard asks.
“Don't know. Since the incident.” the officer replies.
“We’ve been in the system, about 2 weeks now. So well done on surviving this long.” he says. “Listen my orders are to recover as many pods as possible, can we move these things safely?”
The officer nods. “Where to?”
“We have a cargo hauler docked to the ship. We’re going to take whatever we can. And leave the wreckage.”
“Wreckage?”
“That's right. Your ships been cut in half. Our’s isn't jump worthy but it's in one piece. And we have room for you and all your crew.”
“But your tyco.”
“And your JA and whoever hit you hit us just the same.” the security officer replies.
They go back and forth for a while more until the officer agrees to put on a crew survival suit and follow the security officer to the cargo ship. Once inside he’s shown the damage to the ship and the planet below.
“What did this?”
“We don't know. But we still need your help and your crew's help.”
“Are there any JA ships in system?”
“Not that we’ve managed to spot. Our stations scanners were damaged and still getting repaired.”
The officer sighs. “Alright, h-h-here's what you need to do.”