TEST DRIVE MEME #1

[space_aces]

WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD

Your journey only happened because of your benefactor, so it begets that it starts at your benefactor as well. SUPERBIA, which is as much of a location as it is an entity, is where everyone's search for Fortuna begins.

There's not much of a welcome party: shortly after their fateful encounter with SUPERBIA, in which they swore to join the quest to find Fortuna, the new Privateers will find themselves afflicted by a sudden change in perspective. See, teleportation is a tricky process, so from SUPERBIA's point of view, why not make the target destination none other than itself? One highly disconcerting moment later, and the Privateers find themselves inside the belly of the beast.

The vast mega-structure is shockingly lonely, void of anyone other than the Privateers. Those who look off the metal satellite and to The Network for intelligence (or take a skim at the Space Wikipedia article) will find out that the surrounding space is clear for lightyears; rumors have it that the place is cursed. It won't take long to understand why.

1

Overclocked

The innards of SUPERBIA are that of an impossibly scaled up computer, and the Privateers start right in the middle of it. You are the spider living in the dusty PS4. Literal rivers of coolant, transistors the size of mountains, landscapes made entirely of circuitry. The sky, bounded by a distant metal ceiling, is constantly alight with coursing electricity that cracks the sky with lightning storms. It can be assumed that the Privateers are the first living things to set foot here, because such a place is not ever meant to be traversed by delicate, organic, mortals that worry about things such as "temperature" or "voltage". SUPERBIA needs not lifeforms to continue its operations; why design for them? Traversal itself is difficult: unscalable walls and perilous drops are common to encounter. The only company the Privateers will find are oddly adorable maintenance robots, which sadly seem too occupied by their directives of maintaining the massive machine to offer any assistance (or even acknowledgement of their new guests).

It is immediately clear that the most urgent priority is to get the hell out of here. Before your adventure ends at the starting line.

2

Skeletons In The Closet

If one stays inside SUPERBIA, either by getting horribly lost or losing all common sense, one will notice a peculiar pattern emerge as one gets deeper into the bowels of the mega-structure. Passages shrink and become more level, and the incredible hostility and danger of the surroundings fade away, until one comes across areas which were definitely intended for humanoid organisms to use at one point.

The construction of these areas is cramped, unfurnished, and dreary; they are reminiscent of artificial environments meant to handle harsh external conditions like a submarine or bunker, but they are entirely livable. One can eventually find distinct rooms, but everything in them has crumbled to dust and their original purpose is nigh impossible to discern. Deeper investigation may reveal the few items that have stood the test of time. While it is more plausible for life to have existed here, that doesn't seem to be the case now. What happened here?

3

The Shipyard

In the opposite direction, when one finally reaches the outer edges of SUPERBIA, they will be rewarded with the place to pick up a spaceship and a stunningly beautiful view of outer space. The outside of SUPERBIA has no atmosphere to get between you and the stars, and they shine brightly, like a beacon calling one out into the first steps of adventure.

The shipyard is already filled with countless space ships of every size, form, and function, all autonomously constructed by SUPERBIA's factories over the countless years. What's the harm in taking one or twenty out for a spin? Even if one has no intentions of permanent ownership of the vehicle, it's not like SUPERBIA will miss it. For a Privateer with a more specific vision, however, there are kiosks around the yard which will allow one to design their very own space ship down to their exact specifications. When the process is done SUPERBIA's matter printers will have it out and space-ready right before your very eyes.

If a Privateer has a ship, vehicle, or large item that they intended to bring with them, they will also find them here, neatly parked in the Shipyard. Why didn't SUPERBIA extend this courtesy to the pilot's themselves? The answer is revealed as soon as the owner makes a closer inspection: the inner contents have been rearranged, like a whirlwind was unleashed inside and assorted loose items thrown around. Now aren't you glad your transportation was given special attention, and the same didn't happen to your innards?

4

Hot Crewmates in Your Area

But how will a single Privateer man an entire space ship? No worries: when one steps into a ship, the strangely endearing maintenance robots will suddenly take acute interest. The robots will follow inside and immediately start assuming the duties of a spacefarer, eliminating the need for extra hands on deck.

Even still, there's just no eliminating the want for a human touch, though. Thankfully even that dilemma has a contingency plotted by SUPERBIA.

Communication devices are easily available on every space ship. They come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from huge stationary consoles to portable smartphone-like screens. But whenever a Privateer attempts to access the Network, a pop-up will appear, obscuring the whole screen.

Tell me a little about yourself. Are you a LEADER or a FOLLOWER? What is your best feature?
The device will be rendered unusable until one relents to the pop-up's demands and provides answers to its questions. What will these be used for? The mystery will be solved when a social media app mysteriously installs itself on the same device, with profiles preemptively made for every Privateer. Each Privateer's profile consists of their given answers, paired with embarrassingly candid photographs. SUPERBIA has eyes in many places it seems.

Comments

[funnylittleclown]

"Lie? I never lie! I only... ad lib sometimes..."

And not at times like this, when one was being beseeched by such a heartfelt and desperate sort of plea. He might not have understood where this deep need of Ten's originated from but it was plain enough to see it existed. Compassion was the only answer on occasions like this one even if it did risk exposing him. How could he do any less?

The Doctor drew in a slow deliberate breath and gently exhaled it again, speaking much more softly and kindly than he had during his very brief moment of being offended.

"I wasn't born on Earth. I come from a race of beings not too terribly unlike humans, in some ways, called Time Lords."

He raised his arms in a little shrug, baggy trousers held on by a length of tied rope which acted as a belt, and a coat that seemed several sizes too large for him. He wasn't the very picture otherworldly.

"To you, I'm an alien."

[pioneer10]

Time Lords. There's something that's just so damned... fictional about it. It sounds made-up, on the face of it; maybe that's what convinces her, ultimately, of his honestly. A liar would probably have thought of something a little less on the nose, at least.

Well, probably. She's known people who would do that kind of thing. But as obstructive as this 'Doctor' seemed to want to be, he didn't strike her as being stupid— or, at least, not that kind of stupid.

"Wow."

Otherworldly was relative. If you had the right perspective, it was possible to witness the eye of God in a football play. Still, she doesn't know what else to say.

"I was one of the first five human spacecraft to leave our solar system. Part of my mission was to find aliens, if any were out there; at first, I used to wonder, but... You know, I honestly never thought this day would arrive. You obviously already know where Earth is, and what Humans are, but— it's just a formality. There's a plaque bolted to my antenna struts, it was put there by the NASA scientists that built me. It's been waiting for almost twenty millennia for you, or someone like you, to read it."

Juice would have given her hell about the approximation. Nine would have given his magnetometer just for a chance to be here. The least she can do, on their behalf, is do this right.

[funnylittleclown]

"Oh of course! I recall that two probes were launched about a year apart with messages to any extraterrestrials that might happen across them. Ten and Eleven, I think. Eleven must be your little sibling? You still have the plague?"

If deep space mission devices could be said to have siblings. The Doctor was certainly of the opinion that they could, but he was so excited by meeting history up close like this he was off like a firework, rounding Ten and looking to each strut until he found the right one with the plague. It must have been hit with a little space dust along its way as it was just a little worn and it had a small dent near one of the corners but it was brilliant. Still perfectly easy to read after all these years!

"How clever really! Sending a family engraving and a star chart as well. I always wondered why the hydrogen. You can find that almost anywhere. Common ground I suppose."

[pioneer10]

"Nine's the most recent. Hydrogen's supposed to be a reference point. So the rest makes sense. Obviously you don't need it, but it's not like we knew what was out there when I was launched. I don't know what it looks like where you're from; this whole alternate dimension thing is pretty weird, you have to admit."

Or did he? Maybe this was normal, to an alien. Bold new world.

"Honestly, I might wake up and decide this is all too insane, and there's nothing about this that's even remotely plausible, let alone acceptable, but right now I think I'm willing to believe just about anything. It's been a pretty weird damn day."

[funnylittleclown]

"It's a little unusual. I don't often go hopping between dimensions. It's not meant to be that easy to do really..."

There were rules to prevent it, both from the Time Lords but also from the universe itself which tended to keep itself contained through natural, gravitational and interstellar processes. SUPERBIA had to be very powerful indeed.

"It's not insane though surely? You were sent out to discover more about the universe and you've succeeded in ways you never could have imagined!"

[pioneer10]

"Well, it's not that I'm not happy. It's just— look, there're a lot of things about the world that are just completely unexplainable.

And I don't need answers for them, mostly. It's enough just to be here. But when you've been around the block as many times as I have, metaphorically, you get a pretty specific bedrock of what's possible and what isn't.

So, while weirder things have happened, that doesn't make this exactly possible. It might be that I've finally just hit something that busted my processor or something. Onboard memory failure. It's a long time in the dark, out here.

But again, don't get me wrong: it's definitely good to meet you. A real highlight of the millenia.

[funnylittleclown]

"I do understand. It's a great deal to take in all at once."

And each individual handled the new and abnormal in a different way.

"If its any consolation I think your memory processor is functioning remarkably well. You haven't panicked or flown into any sort of a rage. A little denial is reasonable enough, this is all very new."