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RP: Cirrus Station [Episode 1] Welcome to Cloud Nine

James took in the sight of what was to be his new home for the next few months. It wasn't comfortable, it wasn't pretty, and it definitely didn't smell good. In fact, it was just like home. This didn't exactly make James happy, but it did make things a little easier to get adjusted to. Nontheless, the marine felt shortchanged. First, he can't even play ball on the awesome nano-courts, second, he actually had to pay for his food. He thought everything was paid for, he was apparently wrong.

James quickly moved over to a bunk that he immediately claimed as his own. He had no reason to think it was his own, but he took it anyway. While Dream figured out how to get food out of the vending machine, James was figuring out how to make a distillery. He didn't know much, but he was pretty sure that one of the techies would know what to do.
 
Mimi bowed politely and led Himiko briskly through the station. After a matter of moments, the two entered the bulkhead entryway into the Security Quarters, just in time to catch the rest of the group inquiring about their food.

---

"It's not exactly junk food...at least, I don't think it is," Kess said thoughtfully, glancing at the machine. "Cassefin is a health freak. All of the snacks and beverages in her machines are supposedly healthy and good for you. I wouldn't know. I'm fed a pill of condensed sugar every four days."

Kess then turned her head to Serra. "You are required to BUY the food, but the actual provisional money is given to you with each installment of your pay for your work. So, you technically are getting free meals...you just have to purchase them on your own," the Savtech answered as she stroked a few loose strands of jet black hair behind her non-existent ear.

As Dream began to hold a conversation with the Cassefin Reservoir machine, Kess breathed a gruff sigh of annoyance...apparnently, she didn't feel entirely up to babying to Freespacer Druidess through the proper procedures of vending machine use. The newly-arrived Mimi, however, looked more than happy to assist. There was barely every a time she didn't look happy.

"Miss Dream, these machines are exactly like those used in most of the more civilized areas of our universe. In order to purchase a beverage, you must pay for it!" Mimi said gleefully, bending forward slightly and placing her palms against her knees as she attempted to level herself with the shorter Freespacer. "That little slot above the selection menu reads your DA card, subtracts it from your monetary account, and allows you to buy one of Miss Cassefin's delicious, nutritious drinks!"
 
Lucius huffed as they left the fancy rec room. "Figures." He said plainly, not worrying about who would hear. That would have been one thing he would have looked forward to, but not anymore.

After the small trek through the bowls of the station, he was expecting a mild indention in the wall where they were expected to sleep, maybe an leaky hull where the atmosphere was questionable at best. Needless to say, the actual room was better than Lucius' thoughts... But not by much.

"Fuck." Was all he said. He was starting to get fed up with Cassefin's attitude. It was definitely trying on his patience.

He slung his bag onto a bunk near the door and stretched out slightly. he watched the marines complain about the most trivial things. After all, the food was still there. As long as they weren't starving or throwing up it didn't matter what it tasted like.... Although he could use a real meal once in a while. However, it was getting a little annoying to listen to the other complain about everything. Well, shit sucked, but tough it out.
 
Tweak suddenly glared at the both of them, standing up from leaning against the wall.

See, she was nervous around large groups of people, this was true. She didn't like public attention, for some unknown reason. It just made her nervous to have everyone looking at her. And, even if she wasn't the target of attention, the racket her tactical mind made telling her every little thing about every person around her nearly drove her crazy.

But, when she was alone, that was when she could focus. That's why she liked to write when she was isolated and hiding, because her thoughts came clearer then.

Despite Mimi's talking, Tweak had time to think over Cassefin's orders while she was fleeing the briefing closet. There were so many things about this new assignment that bothered her...and, being a mechanic, the biggest annoyance of all was the incredible impracticality and lack of logic or reason behind Montreal's hiring choices. If the station was safe, why have security? And, if she wanted security...The more Tweak thought about it, the more annoyed she got. Finally, she just let it out. Her words started as a low half-hissing whisper, but steadily got louder.

"I don't care if Miss Montreal sees nothing 'wrong' with the station's staff. It can be the shining pinnacle of civilization or the pit of hell for all I care! I...am...NOT...a...security-freakin'-GUARD." Tweak growled each word from between clenched teeth.

She turned her blood-red gaze on Mimi. "I don't know what you know from this 'file' on me that you mentioned, but that one fact should have been abundantly clear by its absence. Also, if your Cassefin was truly a genius, she wouldn't have hired ENGINEERS to do a SOLDIER'S duty! Send that through your thought matrices for a moment, will you please? Then tell me this: If she's got the 'real' scientists cooped up doing her experiments, who's taking care of the station's upkeep, huh?"

The exasperated neko took a breath, then continued as she shifted her eyes to Kess. "If she didn't need me for the job that I am trained to do, then she shouldn't have accepted my transfer. I don't care if I'm the lowest of space janitors, if I don't have to deal with people and can be of some actual use doing what I like to do, then I will do it with all of my heart. But, if you insist on putting me on some forsaken patrol...we will both regret that decision."

((OOC: See the OOC thread if you're wondering what brought this on.))
 
"So we're being forced to eat health food? Great." The deaths of countless cakes, puddings, creams, and other sugar-inspired delicacies flashed before her eyes. Montreal just murdered sweets.

An odd twitch ran through Keziah's spine. She walked over to one of the bunks, chose a bottom one, and dumped the heavy duffel on it. Finally relieved of its weight, she stretched her back, then sat down on the mattress, hiding her disgust at how pathetic it was.
 
If Mimi were a lovecraftian multi-tentacled monstrosity from beyond space and time gharbling and blblblblbing at her in a chorus of one thousand forgotten tongues of madness, Dream would have probably understood more of what she had just said.

"...The DA of the monetary of the buy account what?" She asked, after a long, uncomfortable silence, tilting her head to the left.
 
Serra fished in her satchel for a second while walking over to Dream. When she got to the 'Spacer, she withdrew a small plastic card.

"You do this, Dream." She said, as she slid the card into the slot, pulled it back out, then punched, not pressed, she actually punched the button for the "Vita-water" since it seemed the most non-weird of the choices. After a second, there was a buzzing noise, then a dull thunk. Bending over, she reached into the drop chute and pulled out the bottle, then handed it to her.
 
Dream chugged down slowly the bizarre drink.

"Mhh. Water and... other stuff. Still not as good as distilled water, but I guess it'll keep us from dehydrating." She noted, unimpressed. I mean, a poor soul had to go through all that to get her own ration of water, and it wasn't even distilled? What the heck.

"Anyway, if we're done here and no one must go through his sleeping cycle... what now?" She asked to the two AIs. "We continue our tour of the station?"
 
Mimi looked absolutely devastated after Tweak finished her red-eyed rant. Before she could so much as speak, however, Kess stepped forward between the two. Her expression was much different...one of outright anger.

"You don't need to yell at her," Kess seethed, almost threatening, through narrowed eyes before alleviating the gaze a bit, her initial rage subsiding. "I'll send you goddamn message. But I'm telling you right now it won't do you any good. Cassefin wasn't kidding when she said she didn't want security on her station...she thinks it a waste. Nepleslian Arms and Munitions, one of our largest funders, required her to maintain a security staff...even against her own objections. I don't know how she chose you, or any of the people she did; she picked the cheapest, most accessible personnel. Most of them were supplied by NAM, but a good amount of them were like you; just looking for a niche."

"I don't insist on you being here. As a matter of fact, I would prefer it if you are not. You are a danger to the men and women I am assisting," Kess eyed Tweak knowingly, but left the actual words unspoken. "But it is not my decision. All I can do is relay your message. You can complain all you want to me, but leave Mimi and the other Savtechs out of it. We don't make the rules."

---

Mimi and Kess stood silently in front of the group for a moment, their immediate attention seemingly unfocused for the duration. They both popped back to attention, however, as Dream began asking about more of the tour. Mimi was the one to speak first, her usual cheer marred...but only slightly. Certainly not enough to assume anything was out of place.

"Well, this is really all that you need to know right now," Mimi said with a soft smile. "You aren't expected to learn the layout of the station just yet. Kess and I will receive your patrol assignments directly from Security Chief Abeck Winston, who receives the schedules from Administrator Cassefin herself. Do not worry; Kess and I are here to guide you and tell you where you need to be. Hopefully we can enjoy a very close connection during our stay..."

Mimi's eyes widened a bit as she finished and she paused for a moment, as if a sudden realization dawned over her.

"Oh dear! I completely forgot to mention the disconnection time! Are you all prepared for it?"
 
Dream gave her an incredulous look. "Wait, but how are we supposed to become an efficient crew on this station if we can't even SEE the whole station? And... What's disconnection time?"
 
"Administrator Cassefin is going to activate a special type of disruptive barrier around the entire station once the loading preparations are complete," Mimi explained, demonstrating occasionally with some subtle hand motions. "She has justified this action to ensure that the more sensitive projects being done on the station remain hidden from prying eyes...but as an unfortunate side-effect, all channels and types of communication attempting to reach outside of the Cirrus Station will not reach outside of the sphere of influence."

"Not immediately, anyway," Kess took over, crossing her arms. "Your communications will still get to go in and out, whether it be from a datapad or something else...but Cassefin and a few Communication Officers she hired will be monitoring each transmission to make sure it's not revealing critical information. In short, it just means you won't be able to browse the InterNEP anymore, or make phonecalls...and all of your outgoing messages are going to be read by complete strangers," Kess finished, not at all looking happy to explain this news to them.

Mimi, on the other hand, continued to grin widely at them as she took up from there. "According to Administrator Cassefin, the event will happen in a few minutes. Until then, we're pretty much free to do as we please, until we receive our first assignments. If there are any questions, please ask us before that time. Cassefin doesn't like people to get behind schedule."
 
Serra just stared at the Savtechs for a moment as she fully processed what they said. Cassefin will have all outgoing messages monitored, and probably edited if they didn't look nice and had Cassefin related offenses.

When she was asked about any questions, one did pop into her head. "Yes, in fact." Serra said, "I would like to look at the schematics for the Cirrus station." She stated clearly. There was no room in that request for compromise. She wanted to look at the blueprints.
 
"Certainly!" Mimi replied. Did this Savtech ever stop smiling?

"What areas would you like to review? Would you like a list?"
 
Serra was getting irritated by the Savtech's constant smiling, but she kept that well hidden. When she was prompted with what sections she wanted to review, she smiled and placed a hand on her hip.

"I want the entire station's readout." She responded plainly. "All if it."
 
Mimi held open her two arms, palms facing forward, as a large volumetric window appeared between herself and Serra.

((Cirrus Station Descriptions))

The volumetric screen displayed two smaller windows, the one on the left displaying basic builders schematics while the window on the left portrayed the Cirrus Station's schematics through a three-dimensional wire-mesh viewpoint. There were architectural numbers and symbols flying every which-way on the screens as the Elysian engineer looked on.

When Serra 'touched' an area on either screen, the image would swivel and twirl, magnifying the area to form a very complex and detailed map of the area of choice. Most of the station was immediately accessible, including much of the Central Station as well as each Modular Facility. When magnified to a certain point, the three-dimensional window would display more detail about what the room actually contained.

A few of the rooms in each part of the Cirrus Station, however, were not labeled, and when Serra attempted to access their contents, was presented with a blank area with little data, other than the size of the room, oxygen levels and other basic environment monitors. One of these blank areas, the largest, stood at the very top of the Central Station, while several others were scattered throughout the upper levels of each Modular Facility.

Mimi waited patiently, smiling softly as she waited for Serra to find whatever it was she was looking for. Kess, meanwhile, stepped up a bit to replace Mimi in her taking of questions.

"Anyone else?" The raven-haired Savtech mumbled.
 
In fact, yes. Dream was staring at her, utterly dumbfounded.

"...no. Look, just... no. You..." She was clearly shocked "You... can't do this to me. To us. You can't cut us out of Polysentience. You're kidding, right?"

A short pause. No, they weren't. No, she wasn't.

"...You mean you're really going to cut two thousand Freespacers from the Free State and..." Wait.

Wait wait wait.

WHAT DID SHE JUST SAY?

"...wait. Wait wait wait." Dream was clearly panicking. She took a deep breath, and... "...were you talking about censorship a couple of moments ago? I'm sure you were talking about censorship. Please tell me you weren't really talking about censorship."
 
Cyril furrowed his brow. That seemed an extremely excessive way of handling information leaks. Monitoring the outgoing comms, that was fine. That was how the military functioned, and it wasn't out of the ordinary for big companies as well. Even a dingy old shipyard like Hampton monitored messages sent out.

But a total communications blackout? Well, not blackout really. But cutting everything but snail mail? That was unusual. If he didn't know any better, he'd say that they were trying to hide something. Which was bunk of course. It wasn't something they were trying to hide from the government. NAM, and by extension SMDIM, was a backer for the station. And there were too many people on station for it to be something socially unacceptable...

He stepped forward and saluted the savtechs, quietly Dream's babbling. Whatever this 'Polysentience' was, it sounded important to her, and Cyril didn't want to stand at the sidelines of some sort of religious debate before he at least tried to get an answer to his question.

"Ma'am." He said, speaking to either one of them, "We weren't briefed that this was a black station. Have you folks cleared the legality an' safety of a total comms cut off?"

He glanced over at the volumetric projection that the Elysian was fiddling around with.

"Oh, an' could I download that to me mnemonic?" He asked, pointing at it.
 
"...I'm talking about censorship," Kess mumbled mischievously, flashing a sharp little smirk.

"KESS!" Mimi scolded incredulously, continuing to hold Serra's screen. "Miss Dream, Mister Cyril, you misunderstand; your access to the Polysentience and general communication isn't being completely blocked...just monitored. As long as your are not transmitting sensitive data, you should have no problem...but you are not the first to complain about this. Administrator Circuitbreaker Peke Twenty-Two did not agree with this, either...so she went about creating a smaller, more tightly-knit network on the Cirrus for the Freespacer community she brought with her, which she will be activating when Administrator Cassefin administers the barriers."

Mimi returned to her soft grin. "You will still be able to talk to your friends and family outside of the station. Miss Cassefin would not take that away from those under her. She just wishes for the participants of this project to be safe."
 
Serra stared at the display, it wasn't what she wanted, but it would have to do till she got her hands on actual schematics. She began memorizing all the information she could about the areas selectable in the volumetric screen, though the blank areas perturbed her slightly. Though the logical reason was they were hubs and command centers.

She ignored when Dream held a mini-panic attack, since she was busy, organizing and filing all the schematic data in her brain. When she was finished, she blinked thrice and then looked at Mimi. "Thank you."
 
Tweak gave a heavy sigh of frustration. "Great...so I'm stuck here doing a job I'm ill-suited for and untrained at." Her eyes flicked back to Kess, not angry but now a cross between curious and suspicious. "What do you know about me, anyway?" she asked.
 
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