A Fractured Ringworld

[ScifiFangirl]

~closed for KittenofDeath~

Character Appearance:
http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/5/52043/1142539-miranda_2_large.jpg

The Ringworld:
http://d20myway.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/ringworld.jpg



"Good evening Dr. Fairbanks."

The sharply dressed military men looked quite out of place at the entrance to her dorm. It was friday night, and the calls of drunken tenants drifted through the halls. Melissa, however, had little time for such things. She had worked her tail off for the last 9 years, and it wouldn't be long before she held her doctorate in her hands. A doctorate in the brand new field of Xeno-Archeology, as well as a B.A. in General Medicine. At 26 this was no small achievement. This combination made her extremely coveted in some circles. Melissa was right where she wanted to be. She was the first of her kind, and thusly, already on the cutting edge of her chosen profession. Reluctantly, she had accepted her pseudo-celebrity status on campus.

A holo-display on her desk showed a readout of known extra-solar archaeology sights. Sending normal Archeologists had proven inadequate for the job, in some ways. But there was one place that eluded them completely. The Ringworld. Her tired eyes welcomed the soldiers serious faces, her lips curving in a smile of relief. She had been waiting for the day when they would call on her. "Please, come in Captain. Just Miss Fairbanks, at least for another week." When he said 'Doctor' she felt a surge of pride rush through her. She had earned it.

"General James, Maam." Her eyes widened at the mention of his rank. The blue-green orbs looked up, taking in his decorated uniform and graying hair as if for the first time. They must really need her if they sent him. "I only came to say one thing, and it is exactly what you have no doubt heard, or perhaps even desired. The United Terran Republic has need of your skills on Ringworld." Melissa's breath caught in her throat, and she fought to hide her excitement.

The General continued, his eyes hardening like a man used to having his orders followed. "Do not make arrangements with another employer. Have a good night, Miss Fairbanks. When you receive your doctorate, you will be expected at the Yucatan Space Elevator at 0900 the following morning."

* * * * * * *

The foreboding undertone of the General's voice was lost on her as she walked into the spaceport. Her stomach was far too full of butterflies to think of anything but investigating the mysterious builders of that strange place, the Ringworld. No one knew what happened to them, or why they left such a marvel of engineering behind. She had only seen pictures of the place. But they were majestic pictures.

The Space Elevator was located on a UTR military base in the Mexican Province. Truckloads of rookie jarheads and Fleet personnel poured into the parking lot, the hot Mexican sun beating down upon them. The huge black tower of the elevator itself extended to the heavens farther than her eyes could see. Shouts of outward bound voyagers flitted chaotically about her as she raced towards the towering monstrosity in the passenger seat of an army jeep. It grew ever larger in her eyes. Every time she thought they must almost be there, it surprised her to discover it becoming bigger still. This fact only served to build on her excitement. Melissa hoped that the Ringworld proved to exceed her expectations as well.

The jeep skidded to a halt before the entrance to the huge structure, and the young woman stepped from the passenger seat. The handsome officer followed her, his face serious. "This way, Maam."

She followed him dutifully into the cavernous room at the base of the elevator. Formations of soldiers marched in time, forming up within the massive enclosure. Intimidating Tanks motored in behind them. Soon they would be within the Colony ship. It would be the first non-exploratory vessel to visit the strange world. It did, however, strike her as odd that the UTR Military was such a big part of the operation. Melissa was under the impression that this was strictly a colonization voyage. She shrugged it off as a political force exerting their will upon perhaps the most important endeavor in human history. It would be the first human colony in space. "Where are the civilian settlers, Corporal?"

"Most of them are already aboard the Colony ship, Doctor. We were waiting for you. I have been informed that whoever it is that built this place, we have reason to believe many of their ruins are still actively-"

"The dark energy readings are high within some structures on the surface, yes, I have studied this." She said it gently. She didn't want to sound like a snob.

"Ahh... Of course Doctor. In light of that fact the brass thought it prudent to await your presence. If some crazy shit goes down we might need you." He grinned and shot her a charming grin. Melissa blushed as she felt his eyes trail over her frame, and almost wished she had spent more time partying in college. She wasn't quite sure how to react, so she said nothing. The sound of creaking metal echoed around the room, and the door eased shut. Melissa felt her stomach flip as the ground under her feet moved. It slowly picked up speed, and shot her towards the stars.

* * * * * * * *

http://www.starwars-tw.com/story/vehicles/rebel/mon-calamari-cruiser.jpg

The colony ship was an almost organic looking vessel. Crewman bustled about her, intent on their various tasks. Melissa was shown to her rather luxurious quarters, where she would be staying for the next six months. She set her things down and sat on the couch. A vast window looked down upon the earth. Smaller ships moved lethargically across the picturesque view. Their was a time when space was only a dream to Melissa. The thought brought a dazzling smile to her face. They would be underway soon, and entering hyperspace. The moments stretched to hours, the young archaeologist feeling nervous and wandering around her new dwelling. She had been instructed to stay out of the crew's way until they were underway. It was massive, with a crew of 1,500 and a passenger total of 5,000. A few of them would likely be on her science team, along with her military escort. It was well known that the Ringworld held dangerous predators.

Melissa could feel her heart pounding in her chest as the ship separated from UTR Station, and the earth began to move away...

OOC: Not sure of where to go from here. If you are interested in writing with me than please PM me. I will fill you in on the finer plot points you need to know, then you can make your character! Or you can make your character first, whatever! I am very flexible on these matters. There will obviously be sex, lol. However I would like this to be a good story and romance as well. Im looking for a writer who is interested in writing quality responses. I don't mean to sound so uptight, I am flexible about almost everything else! I'm just really excited about the story and I want to do it well.

Once we correspond, we can decide to start aboard the Colony vessel or on the Ringworld. Looking forward to writing with you, whoever you are!

 

[kittenofdeath]

The alarm was an annoying one, loud grating static that would wake up the whole ship if the room wasn’t sound proofed, but it was necessary, Captain Leon Church was not a morning person. A hand zipped out from under the covers and slammed down on the clock with enough force to make the fragile little thing crack, silencing its static whine as the Captain it was supposed to wake begrudgingly pulled back the covers and dragged himself out of bed.

Leon staggered away from the bed and over to a nearby bath robe, quickly pulling it on to cover up his practically naked 6’5 tall and well built form, leaving just his head and the wild mess of brown hair on top of it. Another sound rang through the room, the doorbell, and with a sigh he went to answer it, slowly shuffling along as he tried to wipe the sleep from his eyes. “Sir, are you awake?” a muffled voice said through the intercom “we have a lot of work to get to sir, the colony ship will be arriving soon”

The door slid open with a hiss, light flooding in to the darkened room and illuminating the captains rather annoyed face as he glared at his assistant who had interrupted him “How many times have I told you not to call me that?” he said “now go away and deal with it, that’s what I hired you for” with that he closed the door and set about preparing himself for the day ahead, his assistant was right, today was going to be busy.

An hour later he was descending down in to the ringwords atmosphere in a small shuttle the size of a van, along with his assistant, the pilot and two workers who had been taken up to the ship for injuries and were only just returning to work. “So when are they going to be here?” Leon asked as he rubbed his now clean shaven chin, he normally didn’t bother and just left it covered in stubble, but he had to make a good impression, he had even cut his hair back to a more controllable length and tied it back. Along with his old UTR naval captains hat, he imagined he looked quite nice.

“Latest estimates put them arriving in…” his assistant checked a datapad quickly “just under an hour” the assistant said before looking back to the datapad “just enough time to get the basics out of the way”

Leon sighed, he hated dealing with the basic stuff, he wanted excitement, not logistics, he didn’t care about how all the people he now found himself in charge of got fed, he just wanted them fed. “Fine, but I want to have a look at that thing, whatever it was, before they get here”

“What thing?” the assistant asked as the pilot said they were coming in to the landing pad.

“The thing, they found it last night, woke me up at 1am to tell me about it” he said with a shrug “I wasn’t paying much attention at the time, all I remember is that it was somewhere in excavation epsilon” the ship came to a stop on the landing pad with a thud, and everyone inside quickly hurried off so they could take off again.

“I… I don’t have anything about it on my reports sir” the assistant said, frantically searching through the information on his datapad “there haven’t been any reports from the epsilon excavation site since their check in last night at 10pm”

“Well I didn’t dream it, I stubbed my dammed toe when I got up to answer the call” he snapped back “Find out what it was and where it is, I’m getting something to eat” he started off in the direction of the bases mess hall “come get me when you either find out the information or our guests arrive.”

 

[ScifiFangirl]

The distant ring grew steadily larger against the backdrop of the dead, rocky planet it orbited. Melissa could hardly contain herself. She paced back and forth in the docking bay. It had been a terribly long six months, even though she had made friends amongst the other members of the excavation team. The team consisted of herself, a greying engineer named James, and an older asian woman named Rae. She was a theoretical physicist, of all things. She could not stop talking about the dark energy readings, and her excitement nearly paralleled Melissa's own.

James chuckled and watched her pace. "Calm down, Melissa, you'll wear a hole in the floor."

She ignored him. "How much longer."

Rae looked up breifly from her datapad, sitting on a bench, seemingly calm. Her eyes held a focused intensity. Doubtless she was going over the data one last time. "Just another five minutes, sweetheart."

She sighed and continued her nervous pacing. Rae and James shared a grin. Rae nodded in agreement at his words, "Ahh, the impatience of youth."

They were scheduled to be on the first wave of shuttles to the surface. Melissa had demanded that it be so.

* * * * * * * *

As she breathed her first lungful of Ringworld air, a winning smile graced her face.

"Look at her, Rae, she's grinning ear to ear."

"Yes, well it is magnificent, isn't it?"

Yes, it was. The beginnings of a camp had sprung up in the short time since their arrival. Jeeps motored about, filled with chattering settlers and supplies. Off in the distance, fiery streaks line the sky. Launched from the colony ship, they were pods filled with self erecting buildings. With all the talk of terraforming to create a human settlement, finding a ready-made environment had made the job rather easy. By nightfall they would have comfortable quarters to sleep and lounge in. But for now, there were important matters to attend to.

"Come on guys, lets get a driver and head out to Epsilon. It's the closest."

James flagged a young private down, and they piled in. It was an odd sight, to see the world curving upwards instead of down. The band of steel and earth narrowed as her eyes followed it to the heavens, until it disappeared. They rode in silence. Conversation would have been difficult anyhow above the noisy Jeep, but even if they were in a Church she doubted they would have said anything. There was too much to find out, too much to think about. It was a long half-hour before they arrived at the site.

A dynamite blast rocked the ground as it rushed past the speeding vehicle. Chunks of rock shot into the clear blue sky, the dust slowly dissipating in the gentle breeze. The structure itself had been buried in a hill. Three angular shafts of metal extended from the earth, meeting in an apex to form the framework of a hallow, three-sided pyramid. A Hexagonal hole about thirty meters wide extended into the bowels of the Ringworld, into the darkness.

Another, much smaller complex sat to the side. It too was a pyramid, although this one was closed. The archeologists had set up camp there. The private skidded to a halt, a little annoyed that the scientists had distracted him from his duties, and said nothing as he sped back to main camp. the three of them walked to a group of chattering people, and a tall, attractive man who spoke as if he was in charge.

Melissa cleared her throat importantly as she approached, and he looked over his shoulder at her. "Excuse me. I am Melissa Fairbanks. I trust you were informed of my arrival. I'm going to need you to fill me in on everything that I have fallen behind on since my voyage." She took the time to study him further. He towered over her 5'7 frame, and looked very much like he knew how to handle himself in a fight. His clothing did not entirely hide his well-taken care of physique. A naval cap topped off the ensemble. Hmm... An ex-military man. I certainly hope he doesn't defer to them... this is my operation now...

 

[kittenofdeath]

It turned out that they didn’t need to find the log of epsilons contact to the captain to determine it was them who sent the message, when they missed their scheduled check in with the main compound it was pretty clear that something had happened there. Leon diverted the Lambda team, who had finished their examination of some overgrown ruins not too far away, then saddled up in a jeep filled with security personnel and headed out himself.

Leons earpiece kicked on as he gazed idly out the side of the open toped jeep he currently shared with the first three troopers he could find “sir, they’ve just arrived, and are making planetfall now” his assistant told him, he wondered if it would still be called ‘planetfall’, what with this not really being a planet, but after a few seconds he decided he had more important matters to attend to.

He tapped the radio in his ear and spoke “Send a message that I’m out in the field and will be in touch as soon as I’m able” he said just as they were able to see epsilon in the distance “until then, you are in charge over there” they were going to take over dammed near all of the agrological matters, not much he could do about that, but he was not letting them muscle him out completely.

At first it seemed that they had beaten Lambda team to the site, since there didn’t appear to be that many people there, odd, considering they were in a jeep and Lambda had been in one of the shuttles that had been repurposed for less bumpy artefact transport, but that soon turned out to be quite wrong. As he and his security entourage neared, almost half the people present rushed to great them, all looking rather distressed “thank god you’re here” a short and thin man who appeared to be one of the archaeologists said as the jeep came to a halt.

Leon climbed out of the jeep, letting it speed off to inspect the area while he found out what the hell had happened “What’s happening? Why haven’t you made your check in?” he said in a noticeably annoyed voice “and where’s Lambda team? I sent them ahead of you”

“That’s just it sir…” the man said, trailing off as if he couldn’t bring himself to say it, then someone else beat him to it “We are Lambda team” cut in a young and slightly pudgy looking blond girl “We have no idea where Epsilon is, and for some reason we can’t raise anyone on the comms”

Leon was quiet for a moment, his face scrunched up in contemplation, now he officially had a missing team “well fuck” he said as he crossed his arms and rubbed his brow “this is just what I needed, get this place operating again, we’re going to need to know what they were doing to know what they’ve done



“You” he singled out one of the security guys “take a com unit and set up a relay station” the trooper nodded and quickly set about his task, a check of their radios showed that they weren’t just jammed completely, they still worked, just not at a strength to get all the way back to base, probably why his assistant had come in so choppy earlier.

An explosion went off, sending a rumble through the ground, the Lambda team was finishing uncovering the smaller structure, carefully watched over by the security detail that had come with them, while the two remaining men the captain had brought stood watch over the entrance to the larger structure “Captain” the short scientist from earlier got his attention “someone else is coming”

Leon followed the man’s gaze, glaring at the approaching vehicle, it wasn’t one of his, which meant his guests had arrived. “crap” he mumbled under his breath, before turning back to the man who had pointed it out “have you found anything in their note yet?”

“Nothing new yet sir, what shall we do about them?” he looked at the oncoming car “should we cover it up?” he asked, evidently afraid of being kicked out of the job as well, a quick look around at the others going through Epsilons equipment told him that they felt the same way.

“No” he said with a sigh “hiding a fire just lets it spread” he heard the jeep pull up behind him and his teeth gritted without him even noticing “just let me do the talking, at least they can’t report it, that should give us some time to ourselves”

He looked over his shoulder as one of the three cleared her throat to get his attention, rude of them, but it at least let him know who was in charge, he knew from experience that if you guess that one wrong and piss off the real leader, you’re off to a bad start with any sciency people. He looked on as she introduced himself, though he had a hard time paying attention, she was much… Well she just wasn’t what he was expecting, though with his years of practice at dissembling it was impossible to pick up anything from his face other than vague disinterest.

He turned when she was done, and getting to see her properly made he look much less what he expected, it was hard not to make a crack about her wanting to be ‘filled in’. “Well miss Fairbanks, the structure behind me, which up until this morning was open, has closed for unknown reasons, and is not opening in response to the way it was opened before.” He looked over to the larger pyramid “that one however, opened just as mysteriously, and appears to be somehow dampening communications to the point at which we cannot contact anyone outside this dig site.”

He scowled at the opening in its side, still thankfully watched over by the two security troopers “And to top it off, the people present when all this happened have gone and disappeared on us” he looked back to her “I can’t think of anything else that’s worth noting.”

 

[ScifiFangirl]

“Well miss Fairbanks, the structure behind me, which up until this morning was open, has closed for unknown reasons, and is not opening in response to the way it was opened before. That one however, opened just as mysteriously, and appears to be somehow dampening communications to the point at which we cannot contact anyone outside this dig site.”

“And to top it off, the people present when all this happened have gone and disappeared on us. I can’t think of anything else that’s worth noting.”

"It's reacting to us. How very strange." She muttered the words, almost to herself, before looking back up at the man. She recognized him now. He was the one who had found the Ringworld in the first place. All at once she felt a little guilty for her rude introduction. "You are Leon Church." She smiled. "You have found a wonderful thing, as I am sure you are aware. Anyways, I am the newly-minted xeno-archeologist. Hopefully we can cooperate with each other and unlock this place's secrets together. I would like to have a good relationship with you and your staff."

She walked to the smaller pyramid, running her hands over the cool grey metal. "We won't be able to open this from the outside, we'll have to figure out how to communicate with the team inside. Were going to have to go into that pit. We'll need climbing equipment."

Melissa could not hide the fear from her eyes, as she stared at the massive, dark hole. "I hate heights..."

 

[kittenofdeath]

So this was the lady in charge now? He though the name Fairbanks sounded familiar, that was all he knew until now, he hadn’t even known she was a she to begin with. That was going to be a problem, he had always had trouble bossing around or screwing over women, especially the beautiful ones. He blamed his mother for raising him to well.

“I’d love for our ‘relationship’ to go along without complications as well” He said, following her to the smaller pyramid, though looking much less eager than she did, the military man in him telling him that anything that makes a whole team disappear without a trace isn’t your friend. That was another problem, he had conducted this endeavour with precision and caution, often having to reel the scientists and archaeologists in before they did something stupid. He couldn’t guarantee she wouldn’t be the same, and there wasn’t much he could do if she was.

"I hate heights..."

“Heights aren’t the problem” he said, his hand raising to his earpiece “it’s the bottom that sneaks up on you” he finished with a smirk, before activating his earpiece with a tap “Get some climbing gear over here, our guests want to do some sightseeing” he deactivated the earpiece and turned back to Melissa “to memory, this site has three sets of climbing equipment, and there’s one in our jeep, so we won’t be able to go down there en masse”