The Ace of Spades Campaign - Alien Base part 07

Alien Base Sub Level 2 - the Zoo
The elevator receiving room was of the same size and dimensions as the one above on sub level 1. Once again, in each corner, there was a gun turret, which did not move or react to the presence of the party. The floor was a lot cleaner than the floor above, devoid of any rubbish. The atmosphere was suitable for oxygen breathers and the room was well lit with strip lighting.

There were two doorways in the room, one to the right, which was west and one to the left and east.
"Which way?" Storm asked. "Right or left?"
"I'm getting a faint reading of chlorine gas to the right," Lynda said as she activated her scanner. "To the left seems breathable. I'd say go left."
The doorway was protected by a bluish forcefield, which made visibility beyond it difficult but not impossible. To one side of the door was an intercom and an on/off switch, which, when Storm pressed it, deactivated the forcefield.

As they entered the room, they could see one exit visible on the opposite wall, with a pair of closed sliding steel doors of the kind they had encountered on the first level. Several pieces of equipment could be seen standing around, each plentifully supplied with various probes, monitors and sensors. Panels were open in one of the machines in the south east corner, and other machines, which had tubes with some fluid in them, could be seen. Some of the tubes had odd-looking objects floating in them. It looked like some sort of operating theatre, but the equipment seemed like it would be more at home in a body-shop.
"This equipment is, definitely, surgical in nature," Judith confirmed, "but it is meant for exploratory and experimental medicine rather than for helping the sick."
"Creepy!" Rebecca said, looking revolted.
Most of the equipment had been cannibalised with parts ripped out, wiring removed, and various modules pilfered. The floating objects in the tubes proved to be human organs - a heart, a liver and three kidneys. The organs were quite dead.

In the north east corner of the room was one machine that was intact, although at first it looked like it had some missing parts. These, however, were for the support function and not the main device itself. Both Judith and Lynda identified the device as a biostasis machine, which could be used on living creatures to reduce them to a state of suspended animation. After carefully examining the device, Judith was able to determine that this machine had been set for a human to be placed on it.
"I've seen one of these machines before," she revealed, "but they are very rare."
"How do they work?" Danica asked.
"Well, you place your subject on the platform here," Judith said as her memories of using a similar machine came flooding back. "Once you switch it on, the machine will zap the subject. To all intents and purposes, the subject will appear dead. Rigor mortis quickly follows. No breathing, heartbeat or brainwave activity can be detected at any level. The difference is, a dead body will rot, but one in stasis will not. You can revive the subject by a simple electrical shock."
The only other equipment of note in the room was a stack of wheeled circular platforms about six feet in diameter. They were not powered, and could be spun or pushed easily once lifted from the stack. They were merely equipment sleds, but their lower surfaces had been treated somehow for lower friction. Storm made a mental note to take one back to The Ace of Spades when they finished exploring the rest of the base.

They left the processing room and entered a short corridor that terminated in another blue forcefield, beyond which was a T-junction. Nothing was present in the corridor but it glowed softly with a pinkish light and it seemed warmer than the rest of the base so far. Checks for radiation, chemicals or anything else for that matter, revealed nothing on their medical and science scanners. The only anomaly they found was that Smiley reported there was no source of illumination in the corridor. Lynda wondered if this was a glitch on the robot's part but just as quickly dismissed the idea. Unbeknownst to them all, this was a decontamination chamber. It was perfectly harmless to humans and humanoids but its function baffled the party.

Once out of the corridor, they were faced with a choice of two directions to take - north or south. They stuck to the left, which took them south to a familiar set of circular steel doors. Storm pressed the switch at the side of the doors and they slid open.

Inside was a huge room, filled with a large number of circular platforms identical to the one they had seen in the processing room. Most of them were surrounded by columns of blue light and many of them contained a creature, apparently held in biostasis.

A bank of control panels were situated nearby but they were damaged beyond repair. It looked like they had been ripped apart and cannibalised. Parts of broken modules and pieces of machinery littered the floor around the control units. Up by the roof, which was ten feet above them, were more of the gun turrets. Danica counted seven of them. Four of them were situated near to the broken control panels and the others at the far end of the room.
"Well, this is interesting," she proclaimed. "Are these biostasis devices, Judith?"
"They certainly appear to be," the doctor replied.
"Come on, let's see who or what they're holding," Storm ordered.
Of the first two, one was empty and the other was broken.

Of the second units in line, the one to the north was empty but the other one yielded an important find. Inside was a tall, good looking black man. The blue light offered no resistance when Judith and Rebecca pulled the man out of the biostasis unit. He slumped to ground, apparently dead. He wore a spacesuit and carried a helmet. An identification tag on his left breast revealed him to be Johan Hensler, chief engineer of the DSX Timothy.
"Bingo!" Rebecca exclaimed. "They are here. Our first clue as to what happened to the missing scout ship."
"There's more here," Danica said as she approached the next two biostasis units.
They each contained an alien animal. One looked like a small lioness, but much more lower slung and sleek looking. Judith identified it as a Yayna, a leonine animal also known as a dune runner. It was possible that it could be native to this planet. The other creature was much smaller and was clearly dead as rot had set in. It appeared that the stasis had not worked on it. It vaguely resembled a stingray, about three to four feet in length. Its head was shark-like and its tail had a membrane on its lower edge. Unlike the terrestrial stingray, it did not have a stinger, but it did have a cluster of tentacles on the lower part of its body and spikes running down its spine. This was one of the natives of the planet and was called a Thonne.

Moving on, they discovered three more alien creatures. One was some kind of small monkey-like animal, similar to an orang utan. Judith could not identify it. Nor could she identify the large mollusc-type creature adjacent to the monkey. It had bright green skin with a large shell made up of six segments. On its face were two dozen small tentacles and two eyes atop stalks. The third animal was a male version of the dune runner they found earlier.

Of the last four biostasis units, one was smashed, one was empty and two held space-suited humans. One of the humans was a beautiful young woman with sky-blue skin and long white hair. Her ID tag revealed her as Tara Seven, a space jockey on the DSX Timothy. The other human was beyond help. He was identified as Emerson Garvey, a scientist from the DSX Timothy. His spacesuit had been breached in many places, and underneath could be seen many incisions. Judith made the grim discovery that many of his organs had been removed and that his skeleton was riddled with holes where bone samples had been taken.
"What's even worse," she said in a fearful voice, "I can find no traces of any anaesthetic on him. He must have been tortured alive."
"How awful!" Rebecca gasped. "That poor man."
"Who could have done such a thing to him?" Danica wondered.

They dragged the bodies along to the front of the room and laid them out on the floor.
"We have eight bodies here," Judith spoke authoritatively. "Two are beyond help, but I can revive the others, if that's what we want to do. Otherwise, they are perfectly safe as they are; they will remain in stasis until someone applies an electrical shock to them."
"We should definitely revive the male and female crew members of the Timothy," Storm decided. "As for the others, I think we should leave them as they are but bring them with us on these sleds. Agreed?"
They all agreed. Two cables ran from each biostasis machine along the floor. One was for the power feed from the base, but the smaller one was an electric probe. Judith used one on Johan and he revived instantly with a cry of alarm.
"Don't worry," Judith quickly reassured him, "You're safe now. We mean you no harm and have come to rescue you."
"Thank you," he replied groggily.

Judith then revived the blue-skinned female. She, too, came round swiftly and she stared at Judith and her surroundings in wide-eyed alarm. She didn't speak but her lips trembled in fear. Judith placated her with a gentle touch to the side of her head and softly spoke to her,
"You're safe," she spoke calmly, stroking Tara's long silky hair. "We've come to help you and take you home. Look, here's one of your crew."
"Hey, Tara," Johan smiled at the young woman. "It's good to see you again."
This reassured her significantly and she nodded to him.
"What happened?" she asked.
"That's what we're here to find out," Storm said, "We're hoping you could tell us."
"I remember we dropped out of hyperdrive in the RSC 8996-aug star system to make a course correction," Johan recalled. "We picked up an unknown radio transmission from one of the planets and Captain Denton decided to investigate. Next thing I remember is the ship being attacked and disabled. We lost all power. Enemy robots must have boarded us. I got knocked out and that's all I can remember. Where are we?"
"You're in an alien base on the third planet from the sun," Storm informed him. "You're still in the same star system."
"They weren't robots that attacked us," Tara revealed. "They were big insectoid creatures, similar to a scorpion but without their claws. I got struck twice by one of their stingers and before blacking out my whole body just froze. I couldn't move at all."
"Well, we haven't seen anything like that so far," Storm said, hoping to placate the young woman. "This base looks like it has been abandoned in a hurry."
"Do either of you recognise any of these creatures here?" Judith asked as she indicated the alien animals lying on the floor.
"I've no idea what they are," Johan admitted. "I've never seen them before."
"Me neither," Tara added.
"Fair enough," Judith said, shrugging her shoulders, "Shall we press on? We still have more of this base to explore."
Johan and Tara nodded in agreement, glad of the company and willing to help as best they could.