My crew for this venture:
CAPTAIN:
SKILL: 7
STAMINA: 18
LUCK: 8
SCIENCE OFFICER:
SKILL: 11
STAMINA: 15
MEDICAL OFFICER:
SKILL: 7
STAMINA: 16
ENGINEERING OFFICER:
SKILL: 11
STAMINA: 24
SECURITY OFFICER:
SKILL: 7
STAMINA: 22
SECURITY GUARD 1:
SKILL: 12
STAMINA: 24
SECURITY GUARD 2:
SKILL: 7
STAMINA: 19
SHIP:
WEAPONS STRENGTH: 8
SHIELDS: 17
What a mixture of striking brilliance and staggering incompetence. Looking at this makes me feel like there's something rotten at the core of the AstroNavy. I bet the Captain comes from old money, and poor old Security Guard 1 is probably black, or a woman. She'd probably be better off staying in the alternate universe.
THE ADVENTURE BEGINS:
Once again I began my perilous journey beyond the Seltsian Void. I knew this book quite well by now, so I was able to skip a fair portion of it. I buzzed past a number of planets which were of no help on previous attempts, until I reached the small grey planet with the crashed scout ship.
As you may recall from my last adventure, the planet had a poisonous atmosphere. I still sent a recon crew to check it out, but when they returned and my crew members started to drop dead, I instantly sealed the docking bay and halted the spread of the poison. This allowed me to resolve the situation without making a single die roll, and that's the way I like it.
We moved on to the planet Jolsen-3, where my last captain met his demise trying to find his way through a dimensional portal. I beamed down to the planet once more, and was greeted by I-Abail. This time I politely refused to eat (as I knew now that the food was drugged), and instead of taking me to the portal chamber against my will, I-Abail led me there as part of a tour and explained how the portal might help me to return to my own universe. I accepted the alien's offer to test the portal and stepped through.
I'd mapped the strange other-dimensional maze beyond the portal during my last game, so I was able to get to the critical point quickly. I was faced with two dead ends. Stepping off one led to certain death, and the other to safety. Last time I chose poorly, but this time, aided by prior experience, I made the right decision. I emerged back in I-Abail's lab, where he and his people rushed forward to congratulate me. The test had been a success, and I could have used the portal to take myself and my crew home. The ship, however, was too large, and we would all be stranded in space without it. I-Abail had some good news though, as told me that a large portal would be opening soon near a black hole in Sector 159.
I returned to the ship, and we proceeded to a small yellow planet nearby. The surface was hot and volcanic, and devoid of life, so I decided not to explore further. It seemed unlikely that we would find useful information there.
We headed for a large grey planet, ignoring a space station along the way, as we were undamaged and had no need for repairs. Once we were in orbit around the planet we were hailed by an alien who introduced himself as K'Tait of the Malini Mining Outpost. He invited us to beam down and take part in the 'Contests', a series of sporting events, but I declined. We had better things to do than waste our time on frivolous pursuits. Besides, interference had garbled the coordinates he gave us, and I wasn't about to beam down without the correct numbers.
Nearby was a large wheel-shaped structure, but instead I decided to head for a small black planet. The planet showed no signs of life, but I was beginning to feel guilty about our lack of exploration, so I decided to investigate. I beamed down with my Science Officer and Engineering Officer. We explored the barren surface for a while, until our air supply had almost run out, but when we tried to signal the ship we were horrified to discover that the magnetic rocks of the planet were jamming our signal. My Science Officer had an idea, but I had to test his Skill with the dice to determine f it was a good one or not. With his Skill of 11 I made the roll easily, and he suggested that we heat up some rocks with our phasers to get the ship's attention. Eventually they beamed us back up, and we were on our way once more.
The next planet we encountered was greeny-grey, and supported intelligent life. We hailed the planet, and a local named Luff gave us permission to beam down, which I did with my Medical Officer and Science Officer.
We materialised on a vast floating platform that hovered above the land. Three adults and a number of children were there, but before I could react one of the children ran forward and took my hand, pulling me in a direction away from the adults. Against my better judgment, I decided that I would follow this child, and he led me into a nearby building where we met Luff. Luff was also a child, and he explained that on their planet children were born with vast intelligence that deteriorated over time, and so the children ran the planet. I explained the plight of my crew to Luff, and he offered to help. I eagerly accepted the offer, and after consulting their computers Luff told me that our universe would intersect with his on Stardate 21.
Part of the deal for his aid was that I had to give Luff a tour of my ship. I had no problem with this, as even if he were to use the knowledge for nefarious purposes it would all be happening in a universe that wasn't mine. Either I would be safely in my own universe, or I would be trapped in this one, and in that case I would not care about my fate. Luff toured the ship, taking extra interest in the Engineering Section, then beamed back to his own planet.
As we left the planet my crew became restless, and demanded to know what we would do next. Armed with the information I had learned in our travels, I decided to use it to locate a black hole that I thought would return us home. At this point I was instructed to subtract the time coordinates I had found (Stardate 21) from the location coordinates (Sector 159), which gave me a result of 138. We flew the ship right down the throat of the black hole before us. Would we make it home, or were we hurtling to our deaths?
We emerged from the black hole in another universe, and within a short time my communications officer spotted a familiar sight: sub-station Einstein! Our mission had succeeded, and we were home.
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