#weekly updates?

Chapter 1. Last One Standing

There's only two of them on the island.   No-one else is coming. They are about to head back out, to seek their end in the water when a message comes through with a GPS signal attached [i survived.  come to the beacon.  supplies here. LifePod 5].  The CTO looks at the Commander, raising a challenging eyebrow and together they head out towards the beacon, narrowly avoiding some hostile wildlife on the way. They arrive at LifePod 5 - bobbing on the surface in the shallows, relatively close to the downed Aurora and Yu goes inside,emerging moments later with a datapad.  [God i hope there are other survivors.  If you've found this I've put water and nutrition bars along with seaglides in the storage of this pod.  It should be synthesizing med-packs if you require them.  I've headed out to build a bigger base at these coordinates.  Please feel free to join me, as the more people we have working together the better our chances are.  Nemo d'Vidas]

Nemo is working away at her sanctuary - there's plenty of metal salvage, her PDA while a snarky bitch has provided her the means to build an underwater base, though it warns she will have to repay the total costs of product used. Nemo sighs no-one on the ship knew of her true identity and she could build the base entirely out of diamonds and still not make a dent in her wealth. There were glass panels, and she was adding on some extra rooms, beside her bedroom, the storage room and the scanner room because she had to hope that someone would hear her message and survive.  Suddenly a shadow fell over her and she turned to see two figures, their faces obscured by their masks, she signed at them but when she got no response, beckoned to them to follow her and led them inside her base.  Water streamed off of them as they climbed into the airlocked antechamber.

They hung up their suits and masks on the hooks Nemo indicated, and she brought them into the open-work/eating/leisure space she had created.  "Hi, it's so good to see you.  My name is Nemo D'Vidas - I was a passenger about the Aurora." The older Asian woman bows, "I am Chief Technical Officer Hikari Yu."   Nemo bows in acknowledgement, "and I am Second Officer Nicholas Keen," says the man, though his expression was severe Nemo could see a smile glinting in the silver of his eyes.

"Is there anyone else?  I know I found a few pods where they didn't make it." "No-one else had made it to the island by the rendezvous time." answered the Commander "Oh there's another island?  Excellent, maybe there'll be some plants we can propagate." "We'll need to recover before we swim back there." "Fair enough, i imagine it’s a journey even with seaglides.  I found a couple of Seamoth parts but i'm still missing a few to get the blueprint to load correctly.  But, enough of that - the sun is setting so why don't I show you around and make us some dinner - it'll be fish and water but at least its food." "Thank you Ms D'Vidas." "Oh please, call me Nemo - both of you.  Now if you'll follow me I've got some small bedrooms set up this way." The facility is small but there's enough room for all of them and both Yu and Keen have ideas for extensions. Nemo makes dinner - as promised it’s Peepers and fresh water but she goes to her room and pulls out from her purse the last few mini-chocolates she had on her and shares them for dessert.  The officers are appreciative - and they talk for a while on lighter things, before going their separate ways to bed.  The next morning Nemo was up early, as usual and had made a pot of tea, watching as the water lightened as the sun rose.  She was detailing thoughts and plans in the journal section of her PDA - and had come up with some action items that hopefully Yu and Keen would be on board with helping her with.  Yu walked into the living area rubbing her eyes, and Nemo directed her to where the coffee machine she'd restored was.  She made herself what looked like a black-hole of espresso and came to sit next to Nemo.  After awareness had crept into her face - two cups of that dark coffee later, Nemo offered a nutrition bar, knowing from experience they were easier to digest than fish on first waking.   "So Officer Yu," "Please, Nemo, my name is Hikari - I do not require you to address me so formally," Nemo smiles - it lights up her face, "Hikari, is there a way to get an outgoing signal that changes the distress call?" "Maybe, why do you want to send something?" "I have a bad feeling - the island I ended up on had a strange alien structure.  to me it looked like a weapon - potentially it could have shot down the Aurora and if it did, then any spacecraft that comes to rescue us may suffer the same fate or worse if it is a smaller ship." "You may be right.  did you have any thoughts yourself about it?" They quickly start talking technical jargon, and Hikari is impressed at Nemo's knowledge.  It strikes her as odd that the younger woman doesn't defer as much as she’d expected - though she does give credit where credit is due.  She asks suddenly about Nemo's age, and gets a raised eyebrow as well as an answer that doesn't actually give her a number at all.

Officer Keen walks out into the main area of the base and sees the two others in deep conversation, so he's pleasantly surprised that Nemo breaks it off and turns to acknowledge him before he's said anything letting him know where the coffee is and the food.  Both Yu and d'Vidas wait for him, and after he's had his coffee he asks "So what have you been planning?" D’Vidas is the one who answers after exchanging a look with Yu, "We're going to try and create an outbound signal that warns ships away. There was an alien tech on the island I went to, and I believe it is likely what shot down the Aurora - something like that would destroy any smaller ships who got into range.  Then we were going to do some resource hunting - with the three of us we should be able to cover a lot of ground and hopefully find enough parts to get blueprints for a seamoth or three.  After that I would like to return to your island and see about getting our food sources stabilised.  I'm also concerned - when i went closer to the Aurora I received a radioactive warning, I think there's something up with the engines so we'll need to see about protective gear if we want to try and access the Aurora." "That reminds me," Yu interrupts, "I have made rebreathers.  They'll help with the exploration." "Hikari, you're a genius." Nemo responds "I could just about kiss you."  She takes a rebreather and ignores the slight blush on the scientist's cheek.

"Commander," she turns back to him "what are your thoughts?" "Firstly you can call me by name, there's only three of us and I'm not one for standing on ceremony." Both Nemo and Hikari nod.  "Secondly I think that if you can get that signal out I am very much for the idea that no-one else loses their lives to this death-trap world.  As for exploration, Nemo you have a scanner room?" "Yes I've built one and upgraded it slightly - I can set it to look for wrecks as its likely that's where we could find blueprint information and scrap metal which will come in handy for base-building."

"Alright, how long do you think it will take you to work out a radio fix?" "Hikari?" Nemo asked, "Around 2 days to work out the fix - I'll need copper and wiring kits" "Check in the storage room I know I've got copper on hand for converting into wires or batteries but i'm not sure about the kits" "Alright, you focus on that Hikari - if you need help shout out. Nemo perhaps you and I could do some exploration, I'd be curious to see this other island you found." "It's a few hours by seaglide, we could go now and make it by midday." "How about we spend some time to see if we can find those missing Seamoth parts first, it'd make traveling simpler." "I agree, lets go set the scanner."

As Nemo stands, she press a hand against Hikari's shoulder "Let me know if you need anything." Nicholas falls into step with her as they head to the scanner room, "here we are," she says, "let me change it to highlight wrecks." "What is it currently on?" Nicholas walks around the centre hologram looking at the lit up spots "At the moment?  basalt - i needed diamonds for laser cutters and basalt outcroppings occasionally have them."

"I see.  and there it goes."  The hologram reloads and several spots highlight. Nemo comes over and looks as well. "It seems like there are 4 within the scanner's distance - shall we split them two and two?" "Certainly, do you have a spare chip for the goggles?" "Oh yes, here," she crosses to a wall locker and pulls out a chip and a laser cutter, offering them to Nicholas.