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]

"The first time or the second time?"

He spoke casually as he walked around her currently gravity laden form. There was some distinct similarities. The hexagonal axis, large antenna, and long arms loaded with all sorts of clever gadgets, yes!

"Why, you're from Earth originally, aren't you?"

[pioneer10]

"Born and launched," Ten tells him, still struggling distractedly with the camera, "I'm from NASA, at least originally. Pioneer deep space survey missions— I'm Pioneer 10. Call me Ten."

And then the breakthrough: she abruptly remembers— oh! The communicator's camera! Much better resolution, and it's meant for human-scale imagery too. She gets her first actual view of the Doctor then, in color no less. He looks... very human, indeed, as he circles 'round her little corner of the shipyard.

Ten is abruptly very aware of her vulnerability; she can't move, or do much of anything, can only barely watch. This could get hairy in a hurry; JUICE would laugh himself sick. She hopes.

"That was a long time ago."

[funnylittleclown]

"Indeed it would be, I suppose, depending on what time it is here."

There had been a little lack of information in the timeframe area. It had been more important to recruit privateers for this little space race or maybe SUPERBIA only existed in the one time and therefore saw no reason to make mention of it. It didn't matter a great deal at the moment as the Doctor pointed to a device on Ten's side.

"A Charged Particle Instrument! Does this still work? I wouldn't ask only... I had noticed you were having a spot of difficulty with your camera. A long time drifting around in space will do that."

[pioneer10]

"Eighteen thousand years, give or take a few decades," Who is this guy? He's dropping hints like he's from a science fiction story about a time traveler, "I'd say I look pretty good for my age."

Thoughtfully she concentrates a moment and, for the first time in eons, activates the CPI. It, maybe a little predictably, does not respond. Of course not. Why would anything be convenient.

"Sorry, no. I completed my mission thousands of years ago; I got a few requests to power up and have a look around, but mostly it's been shut down to conserve power. I've had other things to occupy myself with, though. Plenty of good views."

[funnylittleclown]

"You do! You look absolutely wonderful."

To him and to anyone with a keen since of the wonderful. Who would ever say otherwise?

"Deep space missions like yours did have the constant worry over power. It isn't still a problem for you, finding enough power I mean? You must have found some way to sustain yourself out there?"

[pioneer10]

"Oh you know how it is; total onboard capacity is pretty limited, but ultimately I'm not going to run out. And there's nothing but time, if I ever need any; you just shut down for a few months, build up charge, and then you wake up. It's not a big deal."

She thinks for a moment; it's honestly not that bright in here, but it's incredible, compared to what came before. She wonders if solar could get her anywhere... And yet, Ten can feel it in her thermocouple, in a way that it takes her a minute or two to really quantify: she isn't going to need a shut down anytime soon, not for a long time. When she crunches the numbers it goes out to the triple-digits and she stops the calculation before it can get into the minutes and hours. Did that mean the isotopes had been refreshed, or just replaced? Was she still being powered the same way at all?

No way to know. But just the same; an improvement.

"Huh. Looks like my batteries are pretty healthy, just now. I suppose I have our host to thank for that. Makes sense; it doesn't do its mission any good if I spend half my time in standby. It's strange to have such a sense of urgency all of a sudden."

[funnylittleclown]

"That is what I was curious about. Since you've decided to help in the search for this Fortuna it wouldn't do much good to have you falling asleep in the middle of it all."

So in addition to saving condemned Time Lords from their court appointed fates SUPERBIA also dabbled in a bit of restoration and improvement on her more mechanical privateers. That was interesting.

"Well, should you need any of your other systems seen to on our journey feel free to call on me. I've some experience with spacecraft."

[pioneer10]

"I don't really have an excuse for that. Humans play all kinds of games, but nobody asks me to participate often enough for me to turn it down when the chance comes along," She says, after a moment's thought. It's odd, this guy.

He looks human enough, but the way he talks doesn't make sense; true, most of her friends are American, so there might be a cultural oddity, but Ten didn't think so. Eight billion people on the Earth was a lot even for a thing like her to befriend, and she was the least human thing imaginable. Even so, she knew humans. After nearly twenty-thousand years of nothing but watching them, listening to them, talking to them, she knew humans.

"Listen, I've been watching humans for a long time. Don't get me wrong, I love them, I am in love with every one of those weird little critters down there, but the thing is... they're not as subtle as they think they are, and you're trying to be real subtle. Granted, I don't really have any idea how I got here, or where here is, but you definitely didn't work for NASA. So, don't take this the wrong way, but:

Who are you, really?"

[funnylittleclown]

"I'm subtle am I? I have some friends who wouldn't say so."

He chuckled, happily amused by the idea. Jamie in particular was never anything one could call subtle. A bash Scottish highlander filled with all the energy and vigor of human youth. Ten was quite right, humans were rarely subtle, him however...

"I'm the Doctor."

[pioneer10]

That's not what subtlety is, Doctor. That's a big bold sign that says don't ask in block print. That's a brick wall: subtle is the other thing.

"I did say 'trying'," She hedges, with a private sigh for the ghost of precision. She's a scientific instrument, Doctor, be reasonable, "That's not a real answer."

[funnylittleclown]

"Yes, you did say that."

A gentle brick wall hopefully. His people and him were not exactly on speaking terms and he didn't care to discuss them really, not unless he had to. He gave her a little smile trying to soften his lack of willingness to be more candid.

"Isn't it enough that I'm here and willing to help?"

It's hard to do narrative with Ten. She just kinda sits there. :/

[pioneer10]

"Honestly? I wish it was. In my personal experience, people are generally good to one another, even when they're at cross-purposes. But we're not dealing with that kind of system here, we've been thrown back to the old days, when people knew they were going to run out of time. All the safety nets are gone.

You want to know what the deepest mourning was for in the last five millenia? A lightbulb. It was a beautiful bulb, in a way it was my own ancestor, spiritually speaking, but it was just a glass bubble with some tungsten in it. What's happening here is going to be so much worse than that. Even assuming we're all nice people, which is a stretch, everyone's idea of what 'good intentions' even means is going to be misaligned. Tto some degree or another, they're going to start acting like. I don't know. Animals.

So.

I'm infinitely more patient than a human is going to be, and I'm not the kind of scientific instrument who jumps to conclusions... But you've got to be kidding me if you think that that's going to be enough."

You're doig very well with it!

[funnylittleclown]

"Oh I see. You're worried I might stab you in the back."

Did spacefaring devices such as Ten even have a back? It probably didn't matter but he altered his words all the same.

"The proverbial back. Well, you needn't worry about that. I've no interest in Fortuna beyond the scientific. I want to know what it is. My only wish would be to satisfy my curiosity about it and this expedition."

If he also managed to get one last grand adventure out of it all the better! But it was curious. This mission, SUPERBIA, everyone's motivations would be a factor in it as well. Not all of them were likely inclined to be altruistic about a wish that could do anything. If it this Fortuna even existed... Ten was right to be cautious.

"Now I do wonder why you wanted to make this journey. Was it due to that deepest mourning you mentioned?"

[pioneer10]

"Don't get me wrong, here, it's not just me I'm worried about. But yeah, it is weird to not having ten billion miles between me and anything that can hurt me, now that you ask." There is a thoughtful pause. If Ten had had eyes, she'd have looked upwards in thought; but, of course, she doesn't, "I have literally never been closer to someone than at this moment, and I'm not sure I like it."

Because you are creeping her out, Doctor. That is why. You are upsetting the space probe.

"Because of the...the fucking Centennial Light? No! I mean, we all have feelings about it, but Christ, it's just a lightbulb. I came here because I wanted to play. I mean, look at me. I'm the least human thing imaginable, and I still want to feel like I'm like them, somehow. And that's what humans are; they're creatures of play. Don't you ever just want to be included in something? It's not like I need anything. I've been cruising along for thousands of years, damn."

[funnylittleclown]

"You want to be included just not too closely?"

He has to smile at the contradiction. Why that was almost like a human introvert. Wanting to be near people, feeling the need for companionship, and yet needing their space. He would give it. Far be it for him to intentionally freak out a sentient being! The Doctor took a few large steps away hoping that distance, while not ten billion miles, might at least demonstrate his willingness to take Ten's comfort into account.

"I think we're a great deal alike. You are a space probe of course and I'm... not. But we both seem to share a great fondness for humanity. Back in my universe I traveled with a several humans. They were my friends. I could never really be part of them but for a while we could travel the universe, share adventures... and have a great deal of fun. I hope you and I might be able to do as much some day."

[pioneer10]

"....Bzzzzzsskshhht."

There exists in the conversation a significant gap of time. It's a pause, a margin. Ten is abruptly made aware, horribly aware, of the fact that there, bolted to her actual struts and hull... was a plaque, made for just this occasion.

Literally, for this moment. This moment. The moment that she had spent waiting in futility, comfortably sure that it would never come; that had been, at least in part, her mission.

"Oh my god," Juice would have a fucking fit. He should be here. And Nine. Oh shit, Nine... he'd have loved this. Eighteen thousand years in the void, traveling along at seven-point-six miles a second without the slightest effort, and here she was. And Nine was missing it: it was true what they said, that life wasn't fair, "You're not human, are you. Are you an alien? Don't lie to me, this isn't a joke. Hand to god, are you an alien from outside the Earth?"

[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."