Waves in Space

You are seated in in your cabin aboard a small transport shuttle. The shuttle is on its way to Galactic Comms Station Iota. You applied for a job at the station as a transmission routing technician. You don’t know exactly what that job means, but the recruiter you’ve been in contact with has assured you that no prior experience or training is needed. This is supposed to be a pretty easy job. One where you can relax, can relieve stress. You’ve been on the shuttle for five days now. The trip has been fine. Nothing went wrong. Out the cabin window you can only a vast collection of stars wreathed in the nothingness of space between them. You’ve been off-planet before, but you’ve never stayed this long in a shuttle, away from any planet or sign of civilization. Despite what should be a fairly relaxing trip, with no responsibilities or worries, you can’t help but feel anxious about the new job. You’ve taken jobs that were supposed to be easy and relaxing before. They weren’t. The navigation system says you’re only about 8 more hours away from the station. You’re glad the trip is coming to an end, as it’s been exceedingly long. Of course, there are ships that could go much faster, that could be at the station within hours. But that kind of speed is costly, and it’s hardly an expense that such a remote station as Iota can spare, especially for just one new employee. With the end of your trip coming soon, you decide to get some sleep. You don’t want to have a foggy mind on the first shift at the job, after all. [[Go to sleep->Ship Arrived]]

You wake as the shuttle is making preparations to dock with the station. The stress of starting a new job kept your sleep restless, but you still got a few solid hours of sleep. You can see the station through the cabin window as the shuttle makes its docking approach. As a child, you had sometimes dreamed of living on one of the grand residential stations in the populous station cities of the system Cor. You imagined spacious floating apartments with windows overlooking a view of the pristine oceans of Cor-0, and bustling shuttleports flowing with families visiting their relatives and young couples moving into their first apartment together. Iota is not that kind of station. It is a hull of rusty metal with scattered antennae jutting out of it at random points. If it were found in an debris field it would be easily mistakable for a particularly ferrous asteroid. It has only a single docking port, that will soon be occupied by your shuttle. Though you can’t hear it through the vacuum of space, the port doors appear to shudder as they open to allow you to dock. [[Prepare to disembark->Prepare to Disembark]]

You gather up your things and prepare to leave the shuttle. You feel the floor shake a little, announcing that the shuttle is now firmly docked to the station, and ready for your departure. [[Look out the cabin window before leaving->Cabin Window]] [[Exit your cabin->Exit Cabin]]

Now that you're closer to the station, you can see some finer details on the exterior. Looking up at the station looming above you, you see several rows of windows encircling the main cylindrical body of the station. The docking bay seems like an afterthought of the station's design, a cube shape jutting out at the bottom. A quarter of the cube's surface, that you can see, is covered in a shinier, newer metal, as if patched on to cover some previous damage. [[Exit your cabin->Exit Cabin]]

Double-click this passage to edit it.You pick up your bags and walk out of the cabin, into the hallway, and toward the shuttle’s exit. Through the exit, at the end of a gangway, you can see a man standing in the station and waiting for you. He is tall and slender, with short, curly brown hair. He wears a navy t-shirt with a small emblem of a seven-point star with concave edges, the insignia of Galactic Contact Corp, the owners of the station. [[Leave the shuttle->Leave Shuttle]]

You walk through the shuttle exit, onto the gangway. When the man sees you, he waves and calls to you, “Hi there! You must be the new recruit. I’m the welcoming party. And also your new supervisor! Welcome to Iota!” [[Cross the gangway->Gangway]]

You continue across the gangway, and onto the station platform. As you approach, the man continues, “My name’s Clint. Clint Bachmann. If I have the paperwork correct, you must be … Quinn?” (link: "Nod yes")[(set: $nod_for_name to true)(go-to: "Affirm Name")] (link: "Do nothing")[(set: $nod_for_name to false)(go-to: "Affirm Name")]

[(if: $nod_for_name)["Great. Glad to have you on the team.](else: )["Ok, I’ll take that as a yes.]] “Now, we have lot’s to talk about. Gotta get you caught up on the new job, so you can start as soon as possible. I’m sure the shuttle you arrived on has a busy schedule to keep, so let’s get inside and I’ll catch you up on the way.” [[Walk with Clint->Walk Clint Entrance]]

You and Clint walk further into the station. The bay door closes behind you, and you hear the shuttle disconnect from the station. You are in a short hallway leading to a circular chamber with a panel of buttons. It looks like an elevator. The walls of the hallway aren’t actually walls; they’re a thick array of slightly rusted steel pipes, going from floor to ceiling. A railing lines the edges of the path, keeping its occupants from accidentally slipping into a gap between the platform and the wall of pipes. As you walk through the hallway, Clint talks to you about the station’s history. [[Listen->Listen Clint Entrance]]

"Did you know this section of the station was a later edition to the structure? See, this model was originally designed without any kind of docking capability. GCC was hired by a research corp to build a fleet of research stations to orbit real close to stars, and transmit the data they gathered back. The heat shielding tech wasn’t as good back then, which meant that it wasn’t possible to add a docking bay without the inside of it melting as soon as the station got as close to the star as it needed. So, they settled for a completely exitless design. They had to seal the researchers into the thing before start of the mission, and to get them out again they had to bring the station back to a shipyard to have it cut open. These things were basically floating death traps. “Eventually, though, they discontinued those research missions, and the corp that hired GCC went out of business. So, what did GCC do with all these leftover death traps, you ask? They did what any savvy corp does, and repurposed them into relay stations. They already have most of the communication tech, after all. But they needed to be able to get people on and off the station without performing a surgery on the damn thing, so they elected to add new docking bays to them. So, thanks to that, we get this lovely little hallway of rust!” Clint gestures to the hallway you’ve just passed through as the two of you step onto the elevator. “Now, this is the station elevator. It’s the primary way to get between different parts of the station. You go ahead and press the button for floor 7, to get a feel for it, and I’ll explain what each floor is on the way up.” [[Press button 7->Floor 7]]

When you press the button, the elevator begins slowly rising. Clint continues, “So floor 0, where we just left, is the docking bay. Pretty self explanatory. Now, we’re passing by floors 1 through 5, which are the engineering floors. Nobody goes in here very often, except when something goes wrong. Next, floors 6 through 9 are crew quarters. Your new quarters are on 8, but we’ve got a lot to get to, so we can just leave your things on the platform. The station janitor will move them to your room, and you can get acquainted with it later.” The elevator comes to a stop at floor 8, and you step out briefly. Outside the elevator is a circular platform surrounding the elevator shaft. About eight doorways line the outer wall, which you assume are each individual crew quarters. A short with man grey hair stands on the platform, and gestures to you as if to take your bags. [[Give him your bags->Give Bags]]

As you hand the man your bags, he says to you, “Welcome to the station, Quinn. My name is Johnson. I’ll get your things over to your new quarters. It’s the third door to the left from the elevator. Good luck on your first shift, and if you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask. It’s my whole job.” [[Thank Johnson->Thank Johnson]]

You thank him, and walk back into the elevator, where Clint is waiting for you. “Great, now on to the rest of the station. Above the quarters are floors 10-12. They’re the operational floors. They’re where our communication technicians (that’s you) actually work. Your workstation, Hyper-Radio Transmission Control, is on floor 11. Finally, floor 13 is Station Command. There are only four rooms there: the Station Director’s office, his quarters, the station’s bridge, and my office. You probably won’t be spending much time up there. Why don’t you press the button to take us up to floor 11?” [[Press button 11->Elevator Floor 11]]

The elevator shakes to life again and continues its ascent. As floor 9 goes by, a realization crosses Clint’s face. "Actually, there’s something I forgot to mention. Floor 9 used to be more crew quarters, but about a year ago corporate decided that we had room to spare on the station, so they moved a research operation into it. The research is apparently pretty top-secret. Not, like, the evil mysterious type of top-secret, but like trade secrets or something. I’m not privy to it, so I can’t really tell you much more. "Anyway, they did some remodeling to floor 9. Now, the research team lives and works there. Its rare to see any of them outside their floor. Since you don’t have their security clearance, you won’t really be able to get into any of the rooms on that floor, so it’s probably better that you just stay away. "I should probably explain the chain of command here as well. So, at the very top is the Station Director, Vincent Gordon. He’s in charge of everything on the Iota, and he’s my direct supervisor. He’s actually the only official employee of GCC on the station. Everyone else, and that includes you and me, is a contractor. Except maybe the researchers. I’m not sure what their situation is. “Anyway, I’m the director of the communications team. We perform the Station Iota’s primary function, which is to route communication transmissions efficiently and accurately. You’ll be working under me, performing that function for a specific type of transmissions, but we’ll get to that later. Outside of my department there’s the engineering team and the researchers, both of which answer to the Director. We also have two pilots, who work on the bridge on floor 13. They sleep in alternating shifts, so that there’s always someone on the bridge in case of an emergency.” The elevator stops upon arriving at floor 11. You and Clint step out onto a platform similar to the one you saw on floor 8. He beckons you to follow him to one of the doors on the outer wall. [[Follow Clint->Follow Clint Workstation]]

You follow Clint out of the elevator and to the right, passing two doors before coming to a stop at a door marked “Hyper-Radio Transmission Control”. He turns back to you and says, “Well, we’ve arrived at your workstation. I’ll let you do the honors and go in first.” [[Open the door->Open Workstation]]

You open the door and walk into dimly lit room. A window on the back wall overlooks the emptiness of space. Against the left wall is a large desk, and on its surface is a device consisting of all sorts of buttons, levers, and lights, with wires of all sizes connecting it to various sockets on the wall. On the opposite wall is an array of displays whose purpose you can't discern from this far away. You look to Clint for more information, and he says, "So, this is your new workstation. It's probably time I fill you in on what you'll be doing here. This station's primary function is as communication relay. We get messages from the nearby systems to wherever in the galaxy they need to go, and from the rest of the galaxy to those same systems. We handle several different types of transmission protocols, and some of them are pretty old. You'll be dealing with the oldest one we still use, hyper-radio transmissions. It's pretty old, and pretty slow, but enough people in the galaxy still use it that GCC's network still supports it. Now, more modern protocols can be routed automatically by a computer, but HRT's need to be routed by a human. So, that's your job." He points at the device on the desk. "This is a hyper-radio transmission router. It controls where we send incoming transmissions to relay them. Your job is to operate it. "Most transmissions you route will actually be packet transmissions. That means, instead of a single message, it contains hundreds or thousands of messages that all need to get to the same system. "Now, we ought to give you some hands on training with this thing. I have some practice transmissions prepared for you, but I need to be in my office to send them. There's an intercom device on your desk. I'll go back up to my office, and talk to you over the intercom to begin the training. You should hear me in just a moment." With that, Clint turns and walks out of the room, closing the door behind him and leaving you alone with your thoughts. You look around at the room, looking for a way to occupy yourself while you wait for Clint to get on the intercom. [(set: $window_visited to false)(set: $displays_visited to false)(set: $router_visited to false)]\ [[Look out the window->Workstation Window]] [[Investigate the displays on the right wall->Wall Displays]] [[Investigate the HRT router on the desk->Router Investigate]]

[(set: $window_visited to true)]\ Looking through the window, you can see nothing but the stars. The view is placid and calming. You feel like you could get used to working in here. [(if: $router_visited)[(display: "Intercom On")](else: )[ [[Investigate the displays on the right wall->Wall Displays]] [[Investigate the HRT router on the desk->Router Investigate]] ]]

[(set: $displays_visited to true)]\ You approach the wall of displays and catch a glimpse of some of the text on the screens. "Signal Strength: 78%" "Transmitter Status: Inactive" "HRT System Nominal" You surmise that these displays contain diagnostic information about the communication systems, or at least the portion you'll be working with. [(if: $router_visited)[(display: "Intercom On")](else: )[ [[Look out the window->Workstation Window]] [[Investigate the HRT router on the desk->Router Investigate]] ]]

[(set: $router_visited to true)]\ You look over the lights and controls on the router. There is a large lever on the right side of the console. The lever looks to have several settings, with names you don't recognize like "Talens" and "Gal. Rout." You figure you'll understand them pretty soon. Toward the back of the console is a series of unlit lights, accompanies by the same labels as the lever. [(if: $window_visited or $displays_visited)[(display: "Intercom On")](else: )[ [[Look out the window->Workstation Window]] [[Investigate the displays on the right wall->Wall Displays]] ]]

You hear the sound of the intercom crackle to life. You see the intercom is located at the left side of the desk, embedded into the surface. From the intercom you hear Clint's voice, "Quinn, are you there? This is Clint. I'm in my office now, and we can begin the training. Talk back to me by pressing the red button on the intercom, and let me know you're ready." [[Press the red button and speak to Clint->Respond Intercom]]

You tell Clint through the intercom that you're ready to begin. He responds, "Okay, great. Let's get started. Now, as I said before, your job is about routing the transmissions you receive to their intended destinations. So, let's go over how that works. If you sit down at the desk, you should see a small light at the lower right side of the device. It should be glowing a solid red. Can you confirm you see the light?" You look at the device and find, exactly as he said, the red light. [[Confirm over intercom->Confirm Red Light]]

You confirm seeing the red light. "Great. That's the primary status indicator. Right now it's red, which means there's no incoming transmission for you to route. Now, when I send you the practice transmission, it should start blinking green. I'm going to send the transmission, so let me know when you see it." After a few moments, you see the light turn from red to green and start blinking. [[Confirm blinking green light->Confirm Blinking Green Light]]

You confirm that the light changed. "Good. Blinking green means you have a transmission waiting to be routed. Now, every transmission has two sections, the header and the body. The header contains instructions for you on where you should route the transmission to. The body is the actual message or packet of messages being transmitted. Next to the blinking green light should be a green button. When you press it, you'll hear the header portion of the message, which will contain my next instructions for you. Go ahead and press that when you're ready." You can see the green button next to the blinking light. [[Press the green button->Start Test Header]]

You press the button, and see the light stop blinking and turn a solid green. One light in the row at the top of the router also lights up. You hear a speaker at the top of the device crackle with static before resolving into the voice of Clint. "Hello Quinn, this is the header of the test transmission. This will normally just be instructions on where to send the transmission. This time, though, it's also instructions for using the router. You should see a lever with several labels on the right side of the console. That's the destination control lever. Use it to control where you relay the transmission. Since this is just a test transmission, you just want so send it to the destination labeled 'test'. Once you've selected the destination, press the big red button in the center of the console to begin relaying the transmission." You look at the labels beside the lever, and see at the very bottom of the list 'test'. [[Set lever to 'test'->Lever Test]]

You pull the lever all the way to the lowest setting, and a yellow light to the side of the label turns on. You turn your attention to the large red button at the center of the console. [[Press the red button->Begin Test Transmission]]

As you press the button, the status light turns from green to a blinking yellow, and the speaker begins emitting Clint's voice again. "Good job. What you're hearing now is the actual message of the transmission. The router will automatically play the message for you, so you can make sure something hasn't gone wrong with it. Since most transmissions you'll be dealing with are packets, the router will randomly choose one of the messages to play for you. Sometimes listening to the messages can help pass the time. This message will end in a moment, and then the transmission will be over. When that happens the status indicator will turn red again and a bell will ding. That's when you know you're done. At that point, you know you're done. After the message ends and the bell dings, get on the intercom again and let me know you're done." The speaker goes silent, and you hear a bell ding from somewhere inside the device. The indicator light has gone back to the solid red color it started as. [[Get on the intercom->Intercom Test Finished]]

You press the red button on the intercom again, and tell Clint that you've finished the transmission. After a moment of silence he replies, "Excellent work Quinn. You did everything right. Now that you've completed that training, well, that's about all you need to know! Whenever a transmission comes in you just need to use the router to make sure it gets to the correct destination. "At this point, I can leave you to your work. Your shift ends in about seven more hours. I think there should be some puzzle books in the top drawer of the desk, so feel free to pass the time with those. If you need anything, you can reach me over the intercom. Good luck!" The intercom goes quiet, and all you have left to do is wait for the next transmission. [[Pass the time alone with your thoughts->Wait with Thoughts]] [[Look for those puzzle books Clint mentioned->Find Puzzles]]

Your thoughts wander as you sit waiting for your first real transmission. You feel, for the first time, like this job might actually be as easy as people say. You're less stressed now than you've been in a while. There's no bad news to worry you, no relationship drama, just you, some transmissions, and the stars. You might actually be able to relax. (display: "First Transmission Light")

You open the top drawer of the desk and find a stack of a dozen or so books of Picross puzzles. You pick up the first book in the stack and see that the first few puzzles have already been completed. Looking at them, you remember the rules of Picross, and you turn to the first uncompleted puzzle and you start working on it. You complete the puzzle. It looks like it's supposed to be a duck, but Picross art is always a bit ambiguous. (display: "First Transmission Light")

After about a half hour, you see the indicator light on the router begin to blink green, indicating a new transmission for you to route. [[Listen to the transmission header->First Transmission Header]]

You press the green button to hear the instructions for where to send the transmission. A gruff voice comes on the speaker. "Hi. This is a packet transmission from the Talens system comm station. Please direct this transmission to the Ralendis system. Thank you." Hearing this, you look for a "Ralendis" setting on the control lever, and find it after a few moments. [[Set the lever to "Ralendis" and push the big red button->First Transmission Message]]

You switch the lever to the setting marked "Ralendis" and push the button to begin routing the transmission. After a moment, you hear an automated voice from the speaker, "This HRT is organized as a message packet. Playing message #369 of about 800." The computer voice is replaced with a message that sounds like a young woman. She says, "Hi, Mom. It was good to hear from you in your last transmission. I'm glad Dad was able to get his job at the corp back. Classes are going fine so far. I have one professor who's a bit harsh, but the material for his class isn't too bad. "My friends are doing good, too. You remember my friend Michonne? Well, she got a new boyfriend over the semester break. His name's Damien, he's really nice. They're cute together. Oh and Cass finally finished that album he was working on! Be sure to congratulate him on it next time you see him, he did a really good job. "Anyway, I have some homework I need to finish soon, so I'd better go. Tell dad good luck from me! Love you, bye." You feel weird, listening in to a message like that. It felt kind of like a violation of privacy, despite not knowing anything about anyone in the message. But, you rationalize, it's your job to listen to these, to make sure nothing goes wrong with then, so you figure it's probably fine. Go go back to waiting, pulling a Picross puzzle out of the top desk drawer to pass the time. [[Wait for more transmissions->Day 1 Wait]]

You spend most of your first shift waiting for transmissions. They come in about once every half hour to an hour. You pass the time working through one of the books of Picross. By the end of the shift you've finished almost twenty puzzles. You hear more anonymous messages in the transmissions, each one a slice of some unknown persons existence. Eventually you hear the voice of Clint over the intercom again. "Hey there, Quinn. Congratulations, you completed your first shift. Hope you didn't bore yourself to death in there. Anyway, feel free to head back to your quarters to get some rest. There should be a shelf of rations in there if you get hungry. Remember, floor 8, two doors to the left of the elevator. There's an intercom in there, too, that connect's to the Johnson, the janitor. I believe you two met earlier. He can help you if you need anything while off the clock. Your next shift is in 16 hours. Have a good rest." [[Head down to your quarters->Elevator to Quarters]]

You leave your workstation and walk back to the station elevator. In the elevator you press the button for floor 8, and the carriage begins its slow descent. As you pass by floor 9, you notice something strange. A pair of researchers in lab coats, a man and a woman, exit on of the doors on the floor holding a large black rectangle. They position the rectangle so that it blocks your view of the door they just exited. You can hear, but can't see, another figure walk out of the door. Then, as a group, they all move across the platform toward another door, keeping the rectangle angled so as to hide the third figure from view the whole time. When they reach the door, you hear the door open as the third figure steps through, and the others turn to follow them in and shut the door behind them. You wonder what kind of research could warrant such secrecy, but you quickly turn your attention to finding your room as the elevator stops at floor 8. You approach the door, which has a small plaque reading "Quinn Jackson". [[Open the door->Open Quarters]]

You walk into the room. It's nothing special. There's a bed against the back wall, and a window where this system's star is just coming into view. There are a few shelves on the wall, one containing the rations that Clint promised, one with a stack of popular books, and another huge set of Picross puzzle books. There's a clock on the wall and a few other decorations around the room. Your bags have been placed neatly at the foot of the bed, presumably by Johnson. You're not a huge fan of the room, but it'll do. You're unusually tired, so you flop down onto the freshly made bed to rest. [[Go to sleep->End Screen]]

###Thank you for playing! I hoped you enjoyed "Waves in Space". Truth be told, I had a much wider scope for the story planned, but I underestimated the time that writing would take. With more time, this story would be much longer and more complex. I had a lot of ideas I wanted to explore, but that didn't pan out due to time constraints. I might develop this project further, but that remains to be seen. Thanks again for playing! [[Return to the title Screen->Title Screen]] P.S. This is probably riddled with typos so sorry about that!

#Waves in Space ####By Mitchell Philipp [[Begin->On Ship]]