City of IF

[Reiso]

Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6
Chapter 1

WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE

Kent peered at the instrument panel, skepticism clearly showing on his face. He ran both hands through his short blonde hair and let go a heavy breath. One hand slid down to his face to scratch at six day old stubble. The other arm fell heavily to his side, banging the arm of his chair on the way down.

"Ow! God, mother--" he exclaimed, clutching at the offending joint. He sighed again, rubbed his face, and took a breath. "Damn. What sector are we on, Jer?"

"Thirteen, boss. We are showing no positive signs of any mineable deposits, no thermals, no gas emissions, and no bacterial traces. Instruments show we aren't likely to hit anything until grid 212, which are sectors... twenty through fifty."

"I know what the damned sensors say, Jerry, I've been staring at the readouts for eleven hours!"

"So have we, boss."

"I know. Sorry. Just getting kind of cramped in here, you know?"

"Yeah," answered Jerry as he took off his thick glasses and cleaned them with his shirt. "Cramped and hot."

"And stuffy. Sarah, how's the air?"

"Three hours, give or take. We're maintaining a thirty minute range to the feed, so that gives us a little over two hours before we have to beg off and plug in--Jerry, where's that put us?"

Jerry put his glasses back on and keyed in some commands with his console. He stroked his graying red beard as the results scrolled across his screen. "It looks like we'll be around sectors thirty-one and thirty-two by then. Right around there."

Kent glanced at his screen to confirm the details. "So we'll be well into grid 212. Ok, good, good. Sarah, what's the feed integrity looking like where we're gonna hit her up?"

"Gimmie a sec." She brushed long black hair out of her face and flipped the screen switch on her console, then typed in a few commands.

Blue light flashed beyond the portholes, dim survivor of the display from the magnetic storms up on the surface. The lightning was actually purple, but the red light never made it down this far. The deep whir of the submersible's engines droned on, nearly lulling in its monotony. Bulbs blinked, needles twitched, and the displays showed the same old barren stretch of lifeless, resourceless sand illuminated by their floodlights.

"Today, Sarah," Kent said.

"What, you in a hurry? We got a three hour wait, either way."

"Not if the feed integrity is too low, we don't."

"It won't be."

"But what if it is?"

"I said, it won't be."

"Is that your intuition, or your instruments talking?"

"Shut up, Jerry."

Kent shifted anxiously in his chair and stared at the screen of his console, hoping against his better judgment that something would show up that the sensors had missed.

"Sector fourteen. Sensors say there's a five foot drop coming. Adjust depth?"

"No," Kent said, "five feet won't matter for visibility. There's nothing here anyway."

Jerry leaned forward and rested his chin on the palm of his hand.

"Don't be so negative, Will--" Sarah's console beeped and her eyes snapped back to her screen. "Got it! Feed integrity at rendezvous will be... thirty-three percent."

"Jesus," Jerry muttered over the fingers on his face.

"Dammit! God Dammit!"

"I tried to tell you, Sarah."

"I don't want to hear it, Kent," Sarah shouted.

"Don't want to hear it? If I didn't tell you to run that analysis, we wouldn't have found out until we got there, which would have cost us time, and money, and--"

"Like I would have waited that long to run it, what am I, stupid? And so what if you had to tell me, you're the captain, aren't you? Isn't that your job?"

"Oh," Kent said, jumping to his feet. He jerked a thumb at his own chest. "Excuse me if I want a little bit of control over my own damned ship!"

"You two ought to be married," Jerry said.

"Shut up, Jerry," Kent and Sarah both shouted together.

"Alright," Kent said, "take a breath. Everyone just take a breath. We're tired, and we're stressed... but we have a decision to make."

"There's nothing to decide, boss. At thirty-three percent integrity in the line, we're looking at ninety minutes minimum before the scrubbers and filters make incoming air breathable and non-toxic." He stopped long enough to smooth his beard and lick his lips. "We need to head for the feed in the next hour, and that's if we want to push it. Forty-five minutes would be safer."

"No, no that's not right," Sarah said. "'We won't be at the same rendezvous then, we'd be looking at a different integrity."

"Sarah's right, Jer. We have three hours before we're out of air, right? So what's the feed integrity here? Run the numbers, Sarah."

"Fine. Won't take long, it's close." Keys clacked, and strings of text scrolled down her screen.

"So, what are you thinking, boss?"

"I'm thinking I don't want the whole day to be a loss. If integrity is good enough here, we might be able to get another hour or so, then just turn around and slice the angles on the rendezvous. We can run at 1.5 speed until we hit sector twenty, that way we at least scratch the surface of 212 before turning around."

Jerry folded his arms, clearly disapproving of the notion. "Sure, that could work. We would only need, uh, about sixty percent integrity to make clean air in under an hour. Give or take five percent. But--"

"We got it", Sarah said, a note of triumph in her voice. "Feed integrity is seventy-two percent at the nearest possible rendezvous."

"So that gives us, what, eighty minutes? Ninety?"

"No good; ninety there is ninety back, boss. I say we just stick to an hour."

"Come on, we can easily make at least eighty minutes both ways."

"I'm telling you, it's not safe! If everything went according to plan, we would just make it, but we need a wider cushion. How many times we gonna have this argument, boss?"

"Sure about that 'boss' part? Come on, Jer, this is the big money we're talking about. No one's ever been out this way with the kind of equipment we have, and there have been numerous reports of anomalous readings from nearby expeditions. There's something big here, guys! Something that will make us all extremely wealthy."

"You pay him to keep us alive, Will, not to follow your orders, and not to make you money."

"Us, Sarah, I said us."

"Whatever. Rich and dead isn't any better than poor and dead. Sorry, I'm with Jerry on this one."

Kent rubbed at his neck and sighed. "God, fine. You people have no ambition, I swear."

"I have a very strong and serious ambition, Will: Keep breathing."

"Yeah, yeah," Kent said, rolling his eyes. "Okay, so we go for one hour. Then we head back."


===_-_-_-_===


“Did you run thermals?”

“I ran the thermals.”

“And you checked for deposits?”

“Yes, I checked for deposits.”

“What about gases, did you scan for gases?”

“Three times.”

“And light imaging? Do you have any idea how many elements respon--“

“I ran everything! There’s nothing there, boss. There’s nothing.”

Kent threw his clipboard to the ground. “What the hell, man!” They had been on their way back for around thirty minutes, now. Nothing. Despite making it to grid 212, all their expensive equipment had might as well have been screen doors for all it showed them. “I don’t understand. No one’s been out here with anything other than visual.”

“These aren’t pristine waters, Will. We’re too close to the feed. You have to consider when it was built, we have no idea what kind of machinery was behind that or how they cleared the area, and we have even less ideas to what extent the sea floor was explored before then.”

“She’s right, boss.”

Kent kicked his clipboard across the floor and it deflected off of his console. “Yeah, I know! She is…” He stalked over to Jerry’s console, folded his arms and leaned in so that they were nearly face to face. “What about you, huh, Jer? Were you right? I mean, to be out in grid 212 and find nothing at all, well, that makes me ask myself if you didn’t make a mistake!”

“You’re unbelievable, you know that? I don’t make mistakes, at least not like that I don’t.”

“Really.”

“Yes,” Jerry said as he stood up, “really.” He turned and walked towards the break room.

“Where are you going?”

“Where do you think, genius? I’m taking my break!” The door slammed shut behind him.

Kent went back to his console and flopped down in his chair. He heard Sarah let out a long slow breath from her console. “Smooth, Will. We go at each other all the time, but now Jerry’s mad at you. Way to go.”

“What about me, huh? I’m pretty pissed here too, I’m the one losing money. You two get paid either way.”

“There’s always the next dive.”

“It’s always the next dive, Sarah, never this one. I’m starting to feel like it’s a waste of time. I mean, if we don’t find something soon, what the hell have I been doing with my life?”

“Hey, we’ll find it. The Ocean’s a big place.”

“Not as big as it used to be.”

“Not as full as it used to be, you mean.”

Kent laughed a brief, humorless chuckle. “Yeah, of course that’s what I meant. It doesn’t get much bigger than the whole world, does it?”

“Do you even know what you would do with all that money you’re trying so hard to get?”

“Sure. I would never have to worry again, that’s one thing. But I have plans… upgrade to a higher floor, eat real foods whenever I want. Buy a better sky sim--a realistic one. Hell, maybe even get a penthouse in the Peaks Colony. I hear at some times of the year, there’s a view of real sky. It’s mostly stars, but it’s real, Sarah. I want to see that in my lifetime.”

“Sounds nice.”

“What about you?”

“My share? Oh, I don’t know…”

The amber light on Jerry’s console started flashing and beeping. Kent jumped up and slammed down the all stop button, then switched on the comm. “Amber light, Jerry, get in here!” The submersible lurched slightly, and the pitch of the engines dropped as they wound down. Sarah was already at Jerry’s console, checking the data. He caught up to her and leaned on the console for a better view. “Get me a visual.”

“Working on it.”

The door opened and Jerry ran in. “Move!”

“Two seconds, Jer, Sarah’s getting a visual.”

“She can do it from her own console, you want to know what this thing is or not?”

“I want to see the damn thing first.” The display screen panned up and down along the featureless sand of the sea floor. “Where the hell is it?”

“I don’t know, I’m having a hard time finding it. Jerry’s board is… weird.”

“I’ll get your damn visual, just stop messing up my settings and move!"

They made room for Jerry, and he went to work. Within seconds, various charts and graphs displayed on his monitors. “Now that I’ve locked on for a scan, I can get the camera there. Check your boards.”

They did. Kent’s screen still showed nothing but sand. “We gonna have to dig, Jer?”

“Looks like it, boss, but only a couple of feet. I’ll send out the arm.”

“Yeah, do that. Hey, what sector is this?”

“Uh… seventeen, boss. Extending arm. Man, these results are strange, guys.”

“Why didn’t we hit it on the way out? And define strange.”

“Well, we did. We just did a basic scan on the other side of the sector, ‘cause we were trying to make good time, remember? It wasn’t until we got to grid 212 that we got thorough. We sliced the corners on the way back, and hit this sector on the opposite side.”

“Ok. And our strange sample?”

“It looks like a deposit of some kind… probably an old meteor, or possibly a rift formation. A lot of basic elements are there; carbon, iron, sulfites, etc… but there are elements that aren’t recognized.”

“Whoa, weird.”

“Wait, what do you mean, unrecognized?”

“What he means, Will, is that there’s this chart, right? And all the known elements are on it.”

“I know about the damn table--what, you’re saying there’s elements in this thing that aren’t on it?”

“Bingo.”

“So… this is something rare then… right?”

“Rare? Well, I’d have to get a good look at it to be absolutely sure it isn’t a sensor glitch or the like, but assuming it checks out, forget rare. This thing is undiscovered, whatever it is.”

A light bulb seemed to go off over Jerry’s head then. Sarah started nodding.

“How much would something like that be worth to the scientific community?” Kent tried to stifle a giggle, but between his exhaustion, how stressed he was, and this new excitement, he was finding it difficult.

“Oh… lots.”

“Are you telling me we’re gonna be rich, Jer?”

“I think I am, boss. I think we are.”

He did laugh then. “We’re gonna be rich!”

They all laughed; they laughed, they shouted and cheered, they hugged each other.

“I can’t believe it, man--Jerry, you are forgiven.”

“Wait, what, I’m forgiven? Me? Oh, whatever, you know what, we’re rich, I don’t care, forgive me all you want.”

Kent grabbed his coat and headed for the sample room.

“Whoa, Will, where are you going?”

“Downstairs, Sarah. I want to see it. Jerry, bring it up with the arm.”

“Well, that is the plan, but you can’t be down there, boss. It has unknown elements, we have no idea the danger--”

“I’ll wear a containment suit.”

“William H. Kent,” Sarah admonished, her voice stern. “No. Listen to Jerry for once, this thing could have a lead layer hiding a pocket of acid for all we know.”

“Regulations with unknown elements state we bring it in, boss. Until pros look at it, we can’t be in the same room. This is my job, damn it, let me do it.”

Kent controlled an urge to slam his fist on the door. “Jerry… Jer, come on, man. You just redeemed yourself, don’t ruin it. Who’s gonna know?”

“How about everyone I tell?”

“Ok, you know what? For the sake of our friendship, I’m gonna forget you just said that. This is my ship, I’m looking at it, and I’m ordering you to bring it up. I don’t care if you’re paid to follow my orders or not; follow this one, or I’m not paying you for anything anymore.”

Jerry sighed. “I’m following it under protest.”

“Noted.”

“Fine.” Jerry turned to his board and started manipulating the arm.

Kent glanced at Sarah, but she was avoiding eye contact with him. He hoped she’d cool off in time. They both would, when they were cashing large checks for their share of the find. He went below to the sample room.


===_-_-_-_===


The containment suit was tight, and the air was even staler than the usual fare. Kent ignored that. He pressed a button, and the floor of the small cramped room opened up to reveal seawater below. The steel sample cage rose up on hydraulic lifters, filling a third of the room. He pressed another button, and the front panel of the five by five cage slid to the side, revealing a basket with mud and a large lump of rock.

“You’re right, Jer, it looks like a meteor.”

You’ve seen it, Jerry’s voice said over the comm., are you happy?

“Not yet. I’ve been waiting too long for this to back down now.” Kent reached out and touched the surface of the deposit. He wasn’t sure he knew what his next thought was going to be, but whatever it was, he lost it. He felt a chill on his back, and his legs suddenly felt stiff. He tried to fight off disorientation, but his mind was spacey. “What just… what…?”

Boss?

“Jerry?”

Look, I know this is important to you, but it’s not just yourself you could be putting at risk. Please let me at least run a few more tests before you just crack it open.

Kent let go of the deposit and tried to shrug the weird feeling off. He hadn’t slept in a long time, his nerves were jumpy, and he was making bad decisions. His imagination had to be playing tricks on him. He was just tired, that was all. Maybe if he slept on it, he would have a better answer.

Come on, boss, what do you say?



Chapter 2


And there we have it. Sorry it's a little late, by the by. I initially wanted this first chapter and DP to be pretty brief, which on the whole I think it is, but it did get longer than I wanted. It's a little slow and rough, but I haven't quite found it yet--you guys know how first chapters are :D

So the DP seems pretty straight forward: Kent can crack the 'meteor' open, he can let Jerry run more tests, or he can follow procedure and wait until they get it back to the colony. I'm sure you guys can think of other options, so don't be shy to make suggestions.

I promised to reveal a few things about the polling. No doubt, some of you will be disappointed with how basic it was, but here we go:

Colors were the setting of the game...

Gold=Utopian City
Green=Woods
Blue=Underwater
Silver=Hybrid
Black=Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland

Silver won, which left me with some difficulties. I had a rule for how to determine the hybrid setting; Combine second most voted for setting with least voted for. The second most voted for setting was Underwater (blue), but Utopian City and Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland tied for last. So my Hybrid is something with a large underwater element to it, and smaller elements that are not wholly either of the losing votes, but something in between the two. I have a history that makes sense of it all, so how much of which sides we see of this world will largely depend on decision points made.

Next were stones, which determined the tone of the SG...

Hematite=Humor
Diamond=Fantasy
Granite=Action
Selenium=Murder/Mystery
Obsidian=Sci-fi/Horror


I am careful to say tone and not genre. I wanted to keep the SG dynamic and changeable, and by not boxing it into the trappings of a genre, I feel I do that, while still maintaining an overall tone. Obviously this will be one for Skiffiville, but that doesn't mean there won't be elements more commonly found in other genres. Conversely, I make no guarantees there will, either, I just like keeping my options open.

Next were elements, which basically decided the gender of our protagonist.

Water=Woman
Fire=Man

Well, this one is pretty self-evident.

Next was the lever, but that has to remain a mystery for now...

I was also going to wait to reveal the jewelry decision, but I think it is pretty evident in this first chapter, so I will go ahead and reveal it. Jewelry was to determine what drove our protagonist...

Ring=Love
Amulet=Wealth
Medal=Glory
Brooch=Vengeance
Pin=Redemption
Pendant=Heroism

So, this hopefully explains why he's being less than polite with so much wealth right beyond his reach. I should stress that the other options are not things he may not necessarily be interested in, just that here, in the beginning, money is King. DP's can do strange and wondrous things. :D

So thanks for playing, and thanks for reading! You guys know the drill, do some discussing, and I'll have a poll up in a few days.

[Smee]

Ooooh first! *giggles*

...And finally some answers. Excellent! Also glad to see our first vote caused some difficulties ;)

I'm liking it. The informality of the crew, despite some basic command structure speaks of a rag-tag crew, more like mercenaries, which fits around the drive for money. The dialogue is rich and establishes this nicely.

I think the captain is going to reel himself in. His drive isn't for scientific glory, or heroism to save the world. He wants money, and he can't live to get that money if he does something wrong now.

Most intrigued about the weird effects though, I'm forced to ressurect a closing tag line from a member from such time ago...

*Holds breath* :shock:

[DeadManWalking]

Erm two things. Both good.

One: AWESOME.

Two: VERY AWESOME

(ok, those weren't the actual two things, but i felt that needed to be said somewhere.)

Anyways, my two things. First, you've set up an awesome opportunity for some greed-motivated "accidents" here. Second, with that in mind, (depending on how much he trusts the others in the team,) our main protagonist should definitely keep hold of the meteorite. Way too much money is at stake here to worry about some possibly worrying radioactive sickness. (since any elements not on the table would most likely be highly unstable, since the only way i can imagine them not being there and still existing would be to have even more protons than we've found so far (then again, being scifi, it could just as easily have negative protons or something.))

[Crunchyfrog]

Excellent!

Well, I don't think he'd want to follow procedures just yet. Besides, he may lose ownership of this thing. He's tired, elated, he's put down the strange wobbly feeling he just got down to the fact he needs a rest. So he's not going to be afraid of touching it again.

Plus, the dream of selling it to the scientific community depends on rather a lot of 'if' factors - whether they'll pay for it, how much - although Kent will know more of the probability of this having lived all his life in this world and we've only read a coupla thousand words.

There must be something in the back of his mind saying this is all too good to be true. Perhaps the thought of Jerry running more tests is too much of a risk of exploding that dream - too much of a risk of revealing that it was just a lump of rock after all.

I think then he will have to discover the weird properties of this find the hard way, and take off the helmet of his containment suit for a better look at it. :shock:

Bravo! :clap:

[Emperor]

Good stuff my friend, good stuff. I particularly like that the first setting is underwater and yet it still has a strong SF feel to it - great how you married the two.

I think that all the mundane work of searching with no luck would drive him to further examine the "asteroid", protocols be damned. Though unlike Crunchy, I don't think he would be so foolish enough to take off his helmet. The innate "weirdness" of the ore, though off putting, I think would spur on that need to solve its mystery - a trait that we as humans have put to use for our greatest achievements and our worst follies. Whether that be taking more scans of it, or cracking that thing open like egg I'm not sure, but in either case I think he would at the least try to figure out more about it. Besides, if he lets some team of researchers/scientist at it first they my try to "confiscate" it in the name of "science" and their biggest pay day slip right out of their fingers.

[Reiso]

Thanks for all the compliments everyone, glad you like it! Hopefully, I can keep it this interesting. Actually, I plan for it to get more interesting, but I'd be happy just to be able to maintain it where it is.


Unless I missed something subtle, our options seem to be pretty much the same:

Continue with a careful personal inspection of the sample
Let Jerry run more tests, then decide what to do from there
Follow regulations; do nothing until professionals can examine the sample
Screw it! Let's get this helmet off and crack the sucker open!

Something to keep in mind about option 2. is that I may end up being responsible for whatever decision they make after running more tests, without polling for another DP. It all depends on how long the chapter would be at that point. If they ended up facing that decision almost right away, then I would feel like I was cheating you guys out of a chapter by going straight to a DP.

Also, remember that as much as he wants to verify the nature and worth of the sample, Jerry has brought to his attention that any interaction with it could endanger them all, and he has just admitted to himself that he's making bad decisions. Whether or not he has the capacity to appreciate those points in his current state, or would even care about them if he could, I leave up to you guys. :D

I seem to be missing some players... about four or five people haven't posted yet, so I'll wait a little longer to put the poll up to make sure we have all the options.

Thanks for playing.

[Reiso]

Still missing some players... disconcerting. I have edited the name of this post to make it more clear to anyone who might have missed it that this Storygame is indeed underway and moving along with or without them.

I had wanted to do a chapter every Wednesday, but at least this first time through, it may be better to wait and make sure everyone is on board before rushing into a poll just to make that Wednesday deadline.

If the other players who voted on the initial polls still haven't chimed in within another day or two, I'll just have to resolve myself to accept there's no pleasing all the people all the time and press forward with the polling phase.

What do you guys think about a schedule of taking suggestions and polling to fit around a once-a-week chapter post? I haven't Storygamed in a while and am curious about your thoughts on how productive/useful that pace would be.

Thanks again for reading/playing. :D

[Crunchyfrog]

Activity isn't heavy at the moment, I would suggest making it a 2 - 3 week cycle. Some of the people who have voted in your polls are not on more than a couple of times a week.

I do a 3 - 4 week cycle, with 1 week suggestions, and 1 week polls, but even then, some of my readers end up having to catch up a chapter or miss out on either the suggestion phase or voting and I consider myself doing well keeping the half-dozen or so active readers that I've got.

:)

[Gallant]

Awesome story Reiso, I like the way it's been displayed. I may steal that idea, you know, the blue. I'll use a different colour obviously. :D

As for the DP. My only suggestion is why not make someone else open it? Keeps you safe and if it's dangerous it's one less person to share the wealth with. If wealth is the protagonists primary motive then this seems like a logical course of action.

[Reiso]

Thanks to Crunchy for the advice, and to Gallant for the compliment--you are more than welcome to copy the color idea. In fact, I would like to see more people doing things like that and the different ways they do it. I think color is very effective at controlling tone or conveying a theme.

I don't remember the City being this slow, but maybe the comparatively quick response to my polls gave me a false sense of the current pace. I will follow Crunchy's example and wait until Wednesday night to put the poll up. Hopefully that will have given everyone enough time.

:D

[Gallant]

I go on everday if I can, I just don't post too much. So don't worry, you'll always have my opinion and my vote where need be. :D

[scissorkitty]

Excellent! Okay, I'm with Crunchy on this one - the temptation to see his dreams realised is too great a prod for him to ignore.. i say crack open the beastie and see what's inside!

[Reiso]

OK, I think it's been long enough, let's get this sucker going. The winning decision seems almost like a foregone conclusion, but I like making things official, so a-polling we will go.

As Smee is so fond of saying* ...Happy Voting :D



*You know you all want to be like Smee when you grow up.

[Gallant]

I was tempted to vote to follow protocol. Primarlily because they'd probably take it off him and then he'd need to steal it back! :D

[Alegria]

Sorry it took so long to read and comment. This is good. Really good.

I voted that he would break it open himself because he doesn't seem uncaring enough to put someone else at that risk. We'll see, though.

More, please!

[Chinaren]

I caught up and voted for the middle option, and made it a three way tie. :D

[Reiso]

Just a caution folks; I have just been hit by a massively unavoidable dose of RL that will consume quite a bit of time, as I will need to be making a number of arrangements with quite a few people/organizations. This will not affect the forthcoming chapter, which will be up without exception on Wednesday the 1st, because I fully intend to write through the coming storm, and quite frankly, don't want to have a delay this early on before the SG even gets its legs, especially so soon after returning from such a long absence.

That being said, I will probably be less actively involved with the DP polling for the next chapter or two, and will be relying on you guys to be as creative and vocal about the options as possible. I assure you all this is temporary, and will have only this small affect for a short time.

Thanks.

[scissorkitty]

Not a problem, R. Hope all is well and you can dive back into IF full-force soon!

[Reiso]

Okay, polling is officially closed. The winning vote was for Kent to cautiously examine the rock without further testing. New chapter will be up next Wednesday, hopefully in the morning, though, as before, I reserve the right to post as late as 11:59 PM Pac STD time. See you all next week, and as always, thank you for playing.

[Reiso]

I am deleting the poll to prevent any future confusion. For the record, the poll question was:

What does Kent do, so close to his big risky payday?

And the results...

Follow procedure and wait for the official science studs to get a look at it: 0% [ 0 ]
Be safe; have Jerry run more tests first: 0% [ 0 ]
Be sorta safe; examine it cautiously: 44% [ 4 ]
Safety, Shmafety--bust it open without protection: 33% [ 3 ]
To hell with this disorienting crap... someone else crack it open: 22% [ 2 ]

Total Votes: 9

Who Voted: Alegria, Chinaren, Crunchyfrog, DeadManWalking, Emperor, Gallant, Reiso, scissorkitty, Smee

To see the outcome of these results, see Chapter 2.