Entry Log 9.3
Today was interesting…
I was up early fixing a machine near my room because it was malfunctioning and making a lot of noise that woke me up.
As I was doing that, my boss announced that everyone was going on a vacation.
Then I overheard that we would leaving soon. I finished up repairing the machine and got ready for this 'spontaneous' event.
And then it went all downhill from there…
Progress (Or 'Getting used to the daily grind.')
The spaceship drifted in a controlled direction as its inhabitants went on their tasks and goals inside, aware of the fact that in a few days a special occasion was getting closer and closer.
Time passed by as the Mars People got things ready for the occasion, while the lone human onboard went on with his work inside the lab. Work that would affect his missions in acquiring DNA samples on Earth...
Ever since that day with the Chowmein-Conga, Voxl was constructing a way to keep himself safe from potential dangers. But besides keeping himself safe, it had other functions installed.
Using a chassis of a Martian 'Ring Laser Mecha' as the base, Voxl modified the inside to be hollow to allow himself to fit inside. He also made a small platform on the inside that would rise and lower due to accomodate his shortness.
Then came the additional changes. The first major change was replacing the glass dome area with a mini-UFO to act as the 'head' of the machine. With the 'head' attached, Voxl customized the controls with a scavenged arcade joystick and buttons pad.
The arcade stick and buttons came from a old arcade machine found in an island made of junk out in the ocean waters. It was picked up via the tractor beam and brought onboard to scavenge any useful parts. (Though this only turned out to be the control pad, as everything else was too weathered to be worth fixing or using.)
The second change was replacing the arms of the Ring Laser Mecha with scavenged parts from the remains of a rival alien machine called a 'Vanguard'. The Vanguard was found in a dump way outside the boundaries of a major city in the Australian continent. (Also, it was clear that the main torso of the machine was shot up with plenty of bullets.)
Using some hand tools from Earth and equipment from the Mars People, the laser emitters in the arms were removed. Then the arms were disconnected and put on the nearby table, allowing Voxl to modify them to work a bit differently.
The red eyed man left his lab to ask his boss if it was alright to take two capture ring emitters (which his boss did allow), and Voxl got the two devices. Though his boss also did make sure to tell him to be careful due to the limited quantity of said devices they have onboard the ship.
The capture ring emitters did look like the standard issue Martian gun, save for the fact the barrel was more in the shape of a circular dish. To make sure they were working, Voxl used the devices on a volunteering Mars Person. (The devices was set to a very low power setting, so as to not actually harm the Mars Person.)
The moment the trigger was pulled on one of the emitters, a trio of blue energy rings flew out and descended over the Mars Person. One more pull of the trigger and the blue rings closed in on the Martian. They also went down in size, getting small enough to just barely encircle the target.
The Mars Person soon fell to the floor on its side as the rings made sure to limit the movement of the target.
"Welncernovervl elgnfdjknvdkb ver vjwnvk vkjrwenverkjw…" The Mars Person said out loud as it waited for this part of testing to be done.
Pulling the trigger for the third time, the rings then disappeared as the Mars Person was able to stand up again on its own tentacles.
Voxl placed that emitter on the nearby table as he handed the other one to the Mars Person. The Martian looked at him in confusion before Voxl explained what was going to happen next.
"First off, I'm sorry if the capture rings gave you any discomfort or pain. That was not my intention. Second, I handed you the other capture ring device to test it on me. To make sure these emitters work on something else other than fellow Martians."
"Rnvwjlenen fskvbekjv vrenkejnlfwnfelnvr ewvnle wnclwn?" The Mars person worrying said back as it responded.
"No, I set it on the lowest setting. It shouldn't hurt me at all due to me being human." Voxl said before a faint smuggish grin formed.
"Lncwnvn wejvnrwn wcnvrelnvty yiqpodjqwnwqo. Jqaawelnwe pjpcewjonmvn." The Martian retorted before pulling the trigger.
Just like the first time, the trio of blue energy rings shot out of the device and descended over Voxl. Another pull of the trigger made them shrink in size as they moved inward. Soon, Voxl's movement was limited as he continued to stand upright.
"Change the power setting to be a bit higher, It's a bit easy to push back these rings." Voxl noted aloud.
The power setting was amped up a bit as the blue rings got a bit more stronger. But it still wasn't enough. Voxl asked for it to be put higher and the Mars Person did as so…
Except the Mars Person accidently (and not intentionally) went a bit further than intended.
The rings now started putting out a force that made the muscles in Voxl's legs give out, causing the researcher to collapse to the ground. Then the force started to make him feel a moderate amount of pain as Voxl struggled to push back as he lay on the metal floor.
The Mars Person was a bit stunned by seeing this and started panicking, adding more time for the rings to be on.
"Shut it off! Quickly!" Voxl screamed out before the pain made him stop.
The Mars Person snapped out of its panic and pulled the trigger a third time, making the rings disappear, ending the sensation of pain. Once that was done, it carefully put the device on the table before rushing over to Voxl and helping him get up.
Voxl didn't have much to say except, "Remind me to ask which setting you ended up on..." before collapsing once again onto the floor, losing consciousness.
Opening his eyes, Voxl saw the interior of his own room. The room in of itself just had a mattress with two pillows and blankets take up one part. The remaining parts were just empty space that Voxl planned to fill in with other furniture...provided he ever had the time to do so.
The walls, floor, and door were all made of smooth metal and the light above in the ceiling was always on. Overall, a bedroom that just barely passed the basic definitions for human standards.
However, for Martian standards, this was much better. They didn't really sleep in beds...instead they just sleep on the floor or against a wall. When asked why, they responded that it's been done like that for a long time.
Waiting for the sleepiness to subside, Voxl spotted the paper note left by the door. It had something written down in very broken english. (And it was also hard to read because the writer didn't really know how to spell the words.)
"Yu fal. Tis fomr ht Mra woh voltkner to aisit inn leb. Lfeu yu ohnn seft metearlal. Ope yu rae kay." (You fall. This from the Martian who volunteer to assist in lab. Left you on soft material. Hope you are okay.")
There was more, but it was the equivalent of chicken scratch, making it pointless to figure out what would have been written. Voxl placed the note near his bed as a reminder to hold onto it for the moment.
Heading back to the lab, Voxl entered to see that the room was empty of life till he stepped in. Despite that, the work on the custom Ring Laser Mecha continued.
After getting the two capture ring emitters off the table, the equipment got inserted into the Vanguard arms. Then the arms themselves were put onto the body of the machine.
After getting into the machine, Voxl tested out its controls. The machine went forward, back, left, right as the joystick was moved in said direction. Then came the 4 other directions, which the machine did as well.
Up next was the testing of the arm emitters. Pushing one of the buttons, a arm discharged some electrical energy around the circular energy focuser. Testing out the other buttons led to the other arm doing the same.
Voxl then pressed two buttons at once, making the machine put both arms up as the combined effort fired off one large blue capture ring. It dissipated after reaching the door, showing the range it had.
Eventually, all of the buttons were pushed at one time (with there being three buttons), as the resulted ended up being nothing.
The last part of the machine to test was the inside platform. As Voxl made it go up and down, he noted the range of height that would be optimal when using the control of the machine.
With that done, Voxl exited the machine and pulled out the design papers he made and finalized the name for the machine.
The moderately modified Ring Laser Mecha was given the designation name of 'Voxleian ZX-S2000'. After that, Voxl made sure to keep the ZX-S2000 in his lab in a corner as he came up with ideas about further modifications.
This went on till Voxl returned to his room, getting rest for the next day. What he never knew at that point was that the day after tomorrow would change his expectations of Martian life aboard the massive ship...
Entry Log 9.3, continued…
The downfall started after we arrived on a gorgeous sandy beach that was outside of any city or town. In other words, it was remote.
I decided to be on the sand as several others had the same idea. They either went swimming or just talked with each other.
I personally thought that was boring and tried to spice it up with a 'Sandball' fight. A 'Sandball' is just a handful of sand that ocean water in it that eventually hardens up a bit as it drys.
So, I made a Sandball and threw it at several of my co-vacationers. They actually started complaining before they realized what I was doing and decided to join in.
This went on till...I threw a Sandball that ended up hitting the wrong person at the wrong time.
In short, I ended up running as they gave chase...scaring me the whole time until my boss got everything resolved in a calm manner.
I apologized and the vacation went smooth since then...and after a day passed, we returned to the work environment relaxed.
That's about it. A vacation that almost went terrible, but rebounded in the end.
Though I really wish it wasn't at a beach…