[Part 1](
https://www.reddit.com/HFY/comments/131t1q9/first_contacts_part_1/)
[Part 5](
https://www.reddit.com/HFY/comments/13rv3xp/first_contacts_part_5/)
“Let’s introduce ourselves to the Captain of this boat!”
Nathan pushed the door control and was greeted with a flashing Yellow light, the door had already been locked down, with that, he took two steps back and levelled his pistol at the bottom left of the door, he began firing his gun, spacing the shots around the edge working his way up the left and along the top of the door, reloading after 12 shots.
Reloading was done between two boxes, when one was empty, or low, he would push it into a belt pack he was wearing, a whir from the pack indicated that it was feeding new rounds into the box and within seconds it was full again.
It took a total of 20 shots for him to reach the place he had started, Nathan reloaded his pistol once more and stepped forward with a spring and brought his right foot up to kick the door, the sound was almost as loud as the gun, the metal finally giving in to the stress and falling away.
Beyond the door were a dozen command officers and four Axarli soldiers, they were already disarmed and ready to surrender, likely as a result of watching the carnage that Nathan had already inflicted on their defence forces.
Most of the Officers were Sovereigns of the Pearls, though a couple of Euterians and a Forgol were among them. “Which one of you is the captain?” Nathan’s voice was raised to an uncomfortable level for the Sovereigns who all covered their auditory antennae, one of the Sovereigns stepped forward her hands still clasped over her antennae.
“Everyone else on the floor, face down and arms out!” Nathan’s voice was still raised but he had lowered it a little. The remaining crew complied with his command.
Nathan lowered his voice back to normal conversational level and turned to the Sovereign Captain “Captain, I understand you are taking prisoners from the surface.”
“That is correct.” The Sovereigns were not able to speak Orvangian directly, so her words issued forth from a worn translator device about her neck.
“I would like you to call your crew and have them surrender.”
“I Do not know your species, but you stand with the Federation against our might!” the Captain and her Sovereign Officers all flourished their hands and feelers in a dance-like display.
I am not sure what happened next, a pulse of electromagnetic energy hit me and my suit was instantly fried, pain shooting through my body at the same time, I found myself laying on the floor the ceiling above me decorated with the flashes of Nathan’s pistol.
Despite the repeated blasts of that handheld cannon, I couldn’t hear a sound and I could see my thoughts around me as though I had engaged in the bond with an Orvangian, I was soon floating on a warm ocean of orange light, enveloping me in its softness.
My eyes drifted closed and Purple Valuri bloomed before me, the faces of my family and the distant arches of my home rose into the sky above. I whooped and laughed like Nathan as I clung to the velvety mane of a Plains Rasil, its legs pounding the landscape into the past behind me, we rose over the hills and across the savannah of Talloral and I Roared like the Volluk on the plains of Orvang.
Dreams fell away to a burning pain as consciousness returned to me, I was in a medical bay, opening my eyes was painful, the white surfaces and bright lights making them sting as much as my chest did.
A pair of Tilik were lingering close to my bedside with relief washing over their faces, they moved back and Nathan stepped into my field of view. His face now sporting several fine slices that welled up with red “Jin! We are glad you’re awake.”
The Tilik flapped their tentacles in agreement and I heard a muffled voice in the background. With considerable pain, I pushed myself into a sitting position so I could survey our situation.
We were still aboard the Separatist ship, in a medical bay, there was a pile of equipment blocking the doors and they had been welded closed, the Euterian officers from the bridge were strapped down to one of the beds though they were unconscious, the Forgol officer was standing beside Nathan a thin trail of white bile trickling from his nasal ducts a sign of the fear and discomfort he was in as a result of having Nathans Pistol barrel so far down his throat that it was likely brushing against his oral lymph nodes.
“What happened?”
Nathan bared his teeth at me, the Forgol seeming to shrink slightly at the expression “Those bejewelled Centipede guys pulled a McClain on us, blasted us with an EMP and Frag weapons.
“I had to shoot them and the power armour guys too, it was a blood bath.
“Your space suit took most of the damage and got fried by the EMP, but you got stuck pretty good yourself. Doc here says you had 28 flechette pieces in you.” Nathan gestured to one of the Tilik.
“The Bejewelled Centipede Guys are called ‘Sovereigns of the Pearls’ and the Power armoured guys are Axarli.” My voice was a little weak but it brought Nathan’s Smile back.
“So, there’s a whole army of those Axarli guys out in the hallway now, waiting for our surrender, but my new pal here says there is a service duct that runs through the floor of this room.” Nathan patted the back of the Tilik he had called Doc earlier.
“Even if we escape this room, where would we go?” I winced and even yelped a little as I swung my legs to hang over the side of the bed.
“Well, this ship’s sensors and weapons are out at the moment, I may have devastated the bridge a bit, so I need you and Doc to go down to the Shuttle and bring it around to their Hangar bay.
“Me and Mister Tactical Officer here.” He grinned at the Forgol officer still tasting his pistol. “We go down to holding, free your fellow crew members and meet you at the light frigate they have parked in the hangar.”
It was as insane as every other plan he had come up with, yet I couldn’t shake the fact that his plans seemed to work every time so I mirrored his thumbs-up gesture to him and slid off the bed.
Gravity on this ship was about 15% lower than what I was used to, which made standing possible, but I could feel the slices of pain in my chest and legs, medication was probably the only reason I was able to move at all.
Nathan passed me the Laser Rifle again and I pointed it at ‘Doc’ but Nathan pushed my gun down, “Woah there, Doc is on board with us, he is my newest pal ok.”
The Tilik’s cybernetic translator chipped in with a slightly musical tone “I don’t want to be here either.”
Doc moved to a floor panel and lifted it away, below was a narrow catwalk surrounded by bundles of cables and pipes. Nathan turned to the second Tilik medic “Remember what I told you!” it nodded and injected itself with a sedative, slumping to the floor within moments.
Doc dropped onto the catwalk and I followed, “Good luck Nathan!”
“Same to you Jin.”
Doc began heading left along the duct, Nathan and his hostage dropped in after us and lowered the panel back in place then headed right.
Doc and I soon arrived at a service shaft, it ascended about ten decks, but it went down to the very bottom of the ship, where we were going. The wall next to the duct had a rail mesh on it and a half dozen tractor lifts were parked here, Doc configured one and stepped off the edge, it grabbed him in its tractor beam and began a swift descent, I followed suit, setting it for deck 210 and stepping into the shaft.
The little rail-mounted tractor-beam device reached Deck 210 in under a minute, it would have been an exhilarating ride if it weren’t for the danger I was in.
Doc arrived a few seconds ahead of me and was waiting on the floor of the shaft when I arrived, he lifted a wall panel off once I dismounted from my tractor lift, beyond the panel was an engineering hallway, not far from the hub where a crate of Tilik still sat.
As we walked past the crate Doc read the top, “Can we let them out now?”
“Let’s take it to the airlock, we can let them out just before we exit the ship.”
Doc hooked a lifter dolly to the crate and began pushing it along with us.
We soon reached the airlock Nathan and I had used to enter the ship, my suit was damaged from the flechette attack, and the computer systems had rebooted now but I had to patch it before we could decompress, “Do you need any protection?”
“How long will we be in the vacuum?” Tilik are all able to survive for short periods out in space, but some are augmented for longer periods.
“About 20 minutes, maybe more.”
Doc took a magnetic field generator from the airlock and attached it to his harness, it would provide additional protection from radiation, which he was going to need so near those engine cones.
Once my suit was sealed, we stepped into the airlock and I reached out to the crate to push the release, as soon as the lid popped up, I pulled back and hit the airlock controls. It only took moments for the airlock to cycle and the outer door to open.
I took the lead out into the engine spaces and made my way back to the panel that Nathan had hastily welded back into place, with the laser rifle I shot each weld and then gave it a good kick, the panel breaking loose and floating away from the hull. It occurred to me that I had never done anything like this before, this was the sort of action that Nathan would have taken, it was exactly how he had gained access to the command centre, shot the door and kicked it open.
I didn’t dwell on the thought, the engines were still hot so I clambered out followed by Doc, the Shuttle wasn’t far away so we moved as quickly as we could manage.
It wasn’t long before we were in the rear of the shuttle, “Doc, can you fly?”
“No, I am a medical specialist, but I do have some engineering training.”
“See if you can get the laser banks back online.”
Doc pulled a repair kit from the wall and began a diagnostic survey, I left him to work and glanced at the device sitting on one of the chairs here, it was clearly the black case Nathan had recovered from the Endeavour, but now it was open, the lid was raised on a framework, becoming the top of the device, I recognised what it was, though I had never seen a portable one before, it was a Fabricator, able to manufacture items from schematic diagrams, the Doradul had several of them in the engineering bays but they were large and fitted into the walls.
I stepped through into the cockpit and strapped in, I wasn’t a pilot like Nathan but I had hundreds of hours of shuttle operations time, I could only hope that the battleship’s weapons were still disabled.
The shuttle detached from the Separatist ship and I kept close to the hull, moving as quickly as I felt comfortable doing at this distance. Once we were out from among the engine cones I turned onto the dorsal surface of the battleship, its cannons were all aimed forward now, sitting in their standby positions and none reacted to my presence.
I picked up the pace as I navigated between turrets and antennae clusters, not as reckless as Nathan had been, but I was ignoring my instructor’s safety rules as it knocked a radar dish off the surface of the battleship.
We were almost at the prow of the ship where the hangar was when the laser banks came back to life, I set them to strafing auto-targeting mode, so I could shoot any Axarli in the hangar with the squeeze of a trigger.
My reckless disregard for flight safety reached its peak as I passed the prow of the battleship, making a hard roll and braking as Nathan had done, I even bared my teeth when I completed the move without crashing.
“What was that!” I heard Doc’s Translator proclaim from the rear compartment.
The Hangar ahead was open an atmospheric shield keeping it from depressurising, I could see a few deck crew and some Axarli were targeted by the shuttle’s computer.
I advanced the shuttle through the shield so the weapons fire would not evacuate the atmosphere, the sudden shift from zero-G to the downward pull of the hangar’s gravity forced the shuttle’s nose thrusters to fire and shook the shuttle. As soon as we were through the shield I pressed the trigger and the shuttles laser bank began to fire, deck crew scattered to shelter while Axarli troops began to return fire.
There was plenty of space in the hangar, the Light Frigate stood like a tower on the Port side allowing me to make evasive moves and even take cover. It didn’t take long before the hangar deck was largely clear, even the Axarli had retreated into the surrounding hallways and rooms to avoid being incinerated by the shuttle’s laser.
After they withdrew I had little to do but hover and wait for Nathan to arrive, Doc came into the cockpit once we had stopped firing “What now?”
“Until Nathan and my crew arrive there is not much we can do.” The Tilik had sided with the Separatists back during the war and Doc deciding to join us was beginning to bother me, why would he sign up for fleet duty only to abandon it?
“Doc, why are you here?”
He looked slightly puzzled at my question, “You mean why did I decide to join you and Nathan?”
“Yes, why would you sign up for fleet service in the Separatist army only to abandon your post now.”
“I didn’t sign up, you know we share our home planet with the Norold.”
I gave an affirmative gesture.
“Well since the Separatist council decided to rebuild the fleet they needed crews, and the Norold were quick to support the new fleet, they decided that every family of Norold and Tilik would provide one person for the fleet forces.
“This was easy for them, they have families of dozens each, but Tilik families are usually no more than five to eight, so to protect my family from reprisals and my mother from forced service I stepped in to replace her.”
Doc deflated in the co-pilot’s chair, I was aware that the Tilik were very peaceful before the Separatist war, many believed that they were not enthusiastic supporters of the Separatists, especially since the planet Ghoat was still a member of the federation despite being a Tilik colony.
“So, you figure that the Separatist fleet will write you off as a casualty now and your family will be safe.”
“Exactly, the Euterian Officers don’t know I am siding with you, my colleague understands and promised to keep it secret, the Fleet will compensate my family and send condolences.”
Through the window of the shuttle, I saw weapons fire again, a group of Axarli backing out of their cover position and under fire from a combination of Plasma Fire and the unmistakable streaks of white thunder that Nathan’s pistol issued forth.
I opened fire again, clearing away the Axarli that had broken cover, moments later Nathan emerged with twenty of the Doradul’s Crew and one Forgol captive, they were using Axarli sidearms and seemed to be carrying makeshift shields.
Axarli in other covered positions began firing on them so I lowered the shuttle and fired back, Nathan pushed his team toward the frigate and up the gangway.
I moved the shuttle to cover them as much as possible, taking dozens of hits from plasma casters, their rifles were not going to fell the shuttle quickly but the damage was already mounting up, soon my laser bank was down again and moments later navigation followed.
“Jin, we are about to launch.” Buddy’s voice sounded over my suit’s com system.
“OK, I am right behind you, I will need to dock soon, my navigation is out.” As soon as I finished speaking, my Warp drive went offline as well.
The Frigate began to ascend moments later, I turned and pushed out ahead of it escaping the weapons fire before anything else went down. The frigate soon followed and once it was clear of the battleship’s hangar its shuttle bay door rolled open and launched the emergency shuttle that was blocking my path.
The moment the bay was clear I manoeuvred into it, the frigate’s tractor beams bringing me to a safe landing, the bay doors closed and the ship jumped to warp moments later.
Doc and I disembarked from the shuttle and took the elevator to the bridge, there were a half dozen members of the Doradul crew here, manning stations. All but one were auxiliary bridge crew, ones that would take night shifts, the only member of the primary crew here was the Secondary Ops Officer, he and I shared the same rank, though he was technically my superior.
In the pilot’s seat was Nathan grinning his toothy grin at me, “Welcome to the Endeavour 2.”
[Part 1](
https://www.reddit.com/HFY/comments/131t1q9/first_contacts_part_1/)
[Part 5](
https://www.reddit.com/HFY/comments/13rv3xp/first_contacts_part_5/)
(I am running a little behind on writing this last couple of weeks so there may be a missed week in the near future, I will do my best to prevent that, but be warned.)
That does a good job at a reasonable cost.
Thanks in advance.
Please keep in mind I have stage 1 HS. And it's hormonal, and my period/ovulation triggers breakouts. And I don't have trigger foods either.
The only thing I changed about 6 months ago was vitamins. I was taking no vitamins previous. I tried zinc, made me sick and gave me massive migraines. I went and got blood tested and I was severely low in vitamin D which seems to be a common theme with people with auto immune type conditions.
I bought vitamin d, omega 3 and probiotics and take them daily. And so far month by month no breakouts. I'm praying this holds up through the summer 😭 this will be the true test.
I do also use dr bronners peppermint soap and the ordinary glycolic acid tonet. But I was using that for a while. And it does seem to help the problem.
I'm just trying to focus on gut health, as gut health can impact so many things in your body. I've noticed the biggest difference with the probiotics.
I have taken Xanax on and off for 10 or so years. A few years back when i used to drink a lot on top of the Xanax I got sick and ended up in the hospital basically in a coma state i had stopped drinking and taking Xanax thinking I had to get healthy only to find out that was the most dangerous thing I could do and I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone. I was diagnosed at the time with a auto immune disorder. I had every bad symptom tinnitus, depersonalization, tremors for almost a year after I stopped taking the Xanax against doctors orders who told me it was impossible. This was about 6 years ago when it happened and maybe about 4 years or so when I finally got better and was off the Xanax. My dumbass got better after a good year and half then believed it was a auto immune disorder and got back on the zans about 3 years ago since I started believing all the specialists and doctors who convinced me that it was an underlying disease. Having seen how covid went i came to realize the medical community doesn’t know a whole lot. Anyways the pharmacist messed up my prescription early this year and i skipped a day and half dose and developed tinnitus again and all the terror symptoms and started to taper myself currently feeling super fucked finally finishing my taper a couple days ago with my worse symptom being tinnitus and tremors and depersonalization. I feel like I must be the most ignorant person on earth to find myself in this situation two times just praying and hoping the tinnitus goes away so I can find some peace.
Has anyone else had experience with the tinnitus going away and what time frame did it go away? Im hoping it goes away quicker this time since I don’t drink so my body doesn’t have as much to heal as the first time around.
What is the best option I have for painting the chipped areas on my black Audi? I don’t want to paint the entire vehicle to fix a three inch area. Will auto body businesses do ‘spot’ painting? I’ve never chipped a vehicle before so I’m naive, clearly. And, yes, no more automatic car wash ever again.
Thank you!
“What exactly is the nothing we don’t have to worry about? Stu made it sound like a cross between blackmail and a National Enquirer feature on the Overlook. Talk to me, boy.” Stephen King
I propose the entire movie is set on December 2nd. Redrum day. Jack has already been locked in the pantry, and Wendy has been hired on as the new hotel manager. While Hallorann is mid-flight (chapter 42), Danny is sleeping in the apartment, and Jack is sleeping in the storeroom Wendy feeds everyone a whole new story using (akin to auto hypnosis) hypnosis aka shining. She sets up a snow cat for Hallorann to bring her, and keeps real good time, so she’s ready to leave Jack as soon as Hallorann gets there to The Overlook.
“By five o’clock tonight you’ll never know anybody was ever here”
I believe she’s leaving Jack for Al Shockley too. Al Shockley the tennis coach at stovington and the investor with the largest block of stock in the overlook hotel.
This is from the book:
“The greatest terror of Danny’s life was DIVORCE, a word that always appeared in his mind as a sign painted in red letters which were covered with hissing, poisonous snakes. In DIVORCE, your parents no longer lived together. They had a tug of war over you in a court (tennis court? badminton court? Danny wasn’t sure which or if it was some other, but Mommy and Daddy had played both tennis and badminton at Stovington,so he assumed it could be either) and you had to go with one of them and you practically never saw the other one, and the one you were with could marry somebody you didn’t even know if the urge came on them. The most terrifying thing about DIVORCE was that he had sensed the word—or concept, or whatever it was that came to him in his understandings—floating around in his own parents’ heads, sometimes diffuse and relatively distant, sometimes as thick and obscuring and frightening as thunderheads. It had been that way after Daddy punished him for messing the papers up in his study and the doctor had to put his arm in a cast.
That memory was already faded, but the memory of the DIVORCE thoughts was clear and terrifying. It had mostly been around his mommy that time, and he had been in constant terror that she would pluck the word from her brain and drag it out of her mouth, making it real. DIVORCE. It was a constant undercurrent in their thoughts, one of the few he could always pick up, like the beat of simple music. But like a beat, the central thought formed only the spine of more complex thoughts, thoughts he could not as yet even begin to interpret. They came to him only as colors and moods. Mommy’s DIVORCE thoughts centered around what Daddy had done to his arm, and what had happened at Stovington when Daddy lost his job.”
Also, in the book when Jack is told by Al that he’s not allowed to write a book about the hotel he says this:
“How do I know it? At the worst, you’re planning to smear my hotel by digging up bodies that were decently buried years ago. At the best, you call up my temperamental but extremely competent hotel manager and work him into a frenzy as part of some … some stupid kid’s game.” “It was more than a game, Al. It’s easier for you. You don’t have to take some rich friend’s charity. You don’t need a friend in court because you are the court. The fact that you were one step from a brown-bag lush goes pretty much unmentioned, doesn’t it?” “I suppose it does,” Al said. His voice had dropped a notch and he sounded tired of the whole thing. “But Jack, Jack … I can’t help that. I can’t change that.” Stephen King
Al had been setting Jack up all along. To get to Wendy? Perhaps not at first.
Danny was 42 months old when Jack broke his arm.
21 months later, in July, he never touches another drop of alcohol. He finally quits. Forever and ever and ever.
5 months later it’s December 2nd. Five months of peace, five months on the wagon.
Al-cohol Shock-ley
Bob T Watson the original hotel owner and caretaker died by electrical shock when he “accidentally” plugged his finger in a light socket in the earlier thirties.
The hotel had been working on Jack and a Wendy for a very long time.
Now Wendy wears the gold chain
“Roll over, doggy. Play dead. Woof-woof.
Horace had put on the golden chain in 1939, and when it served his purpose he had knocked it off. That had happened tonight” Stephen King Before The Play
And
Notice the covers on the furniture at the end of the movie: They covered it all up.
And you’d never know it was Wendy. You’re supposed to overlook that piece of the puzzle.
Stanley Kubrick was a genius.
Posting with my partners consent.
My partner has been prescribed testosterone for the treatment of her endometriosis.
The back story for context:
My partner (37yo) has battled endometriosis since a young age and has endured multiple surgeries to remove endo tissue. She has also endured the chronic pain and other effects of this disease.
As her partner I have been interested to learn as much as I can. In my research I learned that estrogen is known to drive the growth of endometriosis and to aggravate the symptoms of it. As a male who uses/abuses testosterone I know a little about keeping estrogen in check, in the male body anyway.
So my question to her, and to her physician was this. If estrogen drives endometriosis, can we get hers under our control and keep it low. Essentially induce perimenopause and manage/monitor her hormones manually, as I do.
To our surprise her physician embraced this with enthusiasm. In fact they already had a protocol to support this, but would not generally prescribe it as it's not something many would be comfortable with. They proposed a pellet, I proposed injectable compounded at 10mg/ml for fine tuning. They were happy to prescribe this.
Rather than shut down her HPG axis all together we supplement testosterone, in conjunction with progesterone and an aromatase inhibitor. The theory being the raised testosterone and aromatase inhibitor will result in over all lower estrogen levels. Regardless of the theory, this is what we have seen this play out in her weekly tests. We see in her blood work that she still has a cycle, but at much lower levels of estrogen. She does not menstruate. Of course this impacts fertility but this is not a concern.
She uses Testosterone Cypionate compounded at 10mg/ml and is on 6mg/week taken subcutaneously twice weekly. Her levels have stablised at 2.5nmol/l (72ng/dl), but we're using the Free Androgen Index to guide her dosage, and that is sitting between 4.0 and 5.0. As we have her dosage dialed in we will increase the strength of her compounded so as to reduce injection volume, not that it has caused any problems.
In fact I believe it will be possible to use regular 100mg/ml Testosterone when administered via a refillable auto injector. This will allow for very small volumes to be injected accurately and conveniently. This is the method by which I administer my own TRT.
We wanted to post this here because this protocol has worked extremely well for her in regards to her pelvic pain and other effects of endo. We would love to have a broad conversation with others who may have insight to share. And to share her experience so that others may benefit.