Welcome to Nebulock Escape Vessel Recovery Services.

Congratulations!

You’ve joined the most senior and most well-respected deep space retrieval organization in operation!

Every single escape pod we’ve recovered represents a life that was once considered lost. We’re not just in the business of recovering vessels. We bring loved ones home.

This pamphlet is intended to explain operational conduct aboard all NEVRS recovery ships. Read every section thoroughly. Your continued employment (and health) depend upon adherence to company procedure. Remember! For an escape pod to require rescue, there must have first been a disaster. Every mission begins with presumed threats to safety already in place.

NEBULOCK ESCAPE VESSEL RECOVERY SERVICES

FIELD HANDOUT

Revision 12.8.4

Employee Eyes Only – Destroy This Document If You Are Not The Intended Recipient

SECTION 1

GENERAL SAFETY

1.1 Personal Conduct

• Maintain awareness of your surroundings at all times. Personal entertainment devices are prohibited while on duty.
• Never assume atmosphere is breathable, even if you witness living things comfortably breathing it.
• Tread carefully when travelling landscapes on foot. This is not restricted to planetary surfaces and includes any cosmic body, such as asteroids. In space, something as simple as a twisted ankle can result in mission failure.
• Keep your emergency locator beacon attached to your person at all times while deployed on a recovery mission, both on duty and off. “At all times” means at ALL times.
• Ship temperatures are standardized for safety, not personal comfort. Do not alter these settings!
• Report unusual sights, sounds, or smells to a superior immediately, even if they are pleasant in nature.

1.2 Shipboard Hazards

• Verify pressure integrity before opening any compartment. This is not limited to air locks. An unexpected hull breach can turn the door to any room into a doorway to disaster.
• Do not take artificial gravity for granted. Make sure tools, accessories, and personal items are secure at all times.
• Call out to any potential employees above or below you before making use of a ladder. Climb or ascend properly. Temp Addendum: DO NOT SLIDE DOWN LADDERS. Temp Addendum: THIS HAS BEEN A CONSTANT ISSUE CAUSING MULTIPLE INJURIES. STOP SLIDING DOWN LADDERS.
• Avoid standing beneath suspended cargo, such as retrieved vessels. Magnetic clamps are not infallible.
• Do not bring loose objects into ship compartments with moving parts. Ever.

1.3 Hazardous Exposure

• Pay attention to posted shielding indicators. Please note that not every ship section is shielded against every sort of external hazard. If you’re not sure if you’re safe, proceed to the central protection space. (For the sake of clarity, employees may colloquially refer to this area as “The Coconut”. Do not refer to this space as “The Coconut”.)
• Ensure duty rotation is observed when a retrieval mission involves advanced levels of radioactivity.
• Replace damaged tools, accessories, and wearables immediately. Safely cease active procedures if a replacement is necessary. Remember: If it’s rusted, it can’t be trusted!
• Do not competitively compare any hazardous exposure with other employees. Winning a bet now may result in an excruciating demise later.

1.4 Emergency Response

• Memorize all fire safety locations and familiarize yourself with extinguishing devices. Remember that fire takes unusual forms in anti-gravity.
• Lock down areas BEFORE an impending breach. The vacuum of space is unforgiving and instant. You won’t have the opportunity to do so afterward.
• Assist imperiled co-workers only when rescue will not increase the likelihood of additional casualties.
• Avoid improvising. You are NOT smarter than the thousands of dedicated personnel who came before you.

“My first Captain used to say even the smallest safety regulation was just as important as any other. I figured that was corporate jargon, until I lost track of an unsecured drill during a free-floating retrieval. Nothing came of it immediately, but the magnetic clamps inside the ship slowly brought the drill back, and it struck a communication relay. No one could talk to their family until we got back to Earth. I wasn’t very popular for a while.”

~ B.G. Wells, Advanced Retrieval Expert

SECTION 2

EQUIPMENT USE

2.1 Recovery Grapple

• Inspect your recovery grapple’s magnetic clamps before every use.
• Confirm the targeted escape pod’s mass prior to retrieval and ensure settings appropriately reflect this data.
• If an escape pod is too large for your ship’s retrieval bay, retrieve the occupant only. Do not “tow” retrieved pods. You cannot re-enter Earth’s atmosphere in this manner.
• Do not use the recovery grapple for any purpose other than escape pod retrieval. If something is in the ship’s path, go around it. You have infinite directions to choose from.
• Operating the recovery grapple is not as simple as or similar to “playing a crane game”. Do not touch recovery grapple controls unless authorized.
• Never ride the recovery grapple.

2.2 Breaching Equipment

• Clean dust/debris from pod before contact. Use your ship’s cleansing processors, do not directly apply water or flame. You don’t know how cosmic matter will react.
• Ensure that the recovered escape pod is properly secured to prevent shifting/rolling while breach is in progress.
• Confirm pressure inside escape pod matches pressure outside of escape pod before opening. A rescue won’t amount to much if the subject dies from the bends moments later.
• If cutting is necessary, ensure that the vessel’s occupant is located on the opposite side of the pod. Cut slowly and carefully. Take your time, they’ve waited this long.

2.3 Recovery Drone Usage

• Launch drones only for the purpose of recovering necessary data.
• Ensure drones are fully charged before use. Don’t be the one who ends up making your team recover a recovery drone.
• Drones may be used to move escape pods into proper position, but only during free-floating retrievals. They are not to be used for this purpose when gravity is in effect.
• If a drone appears to transmit incorrect data, recalibrate ALL drones. The one that seems to be giving the wrong readouts may actually be the only one properly calibrated.
• Recovery drones do not experience emotion and can neither plot against nor fall in love with you. If you have any questions regarding this issue, please contact a company-authorized therapist immediately.
• Keep recovery drones away from magnetic clamps at all times.

2.4 Environmental Scanning

• Calibrate environmental scanners before scanning, then recalibrate scanners and scan again. The vast majority of mission failures arise from unexpected environmental dangers on uncharted planetary surfaces!
• If scans are inefficient or incomplete for any reason, such as environmental interferences, do not proceed until a valid scan is successful.
• Do not ignore measurements that seem “impossible”. You have no idea what’s possible.
• Escape pods that are fully buried or submerged, regardless of enveloping matter, are to be considered irretrievable. In these cases, retrieve occupant only.

2.5 Personal Protective Equipment

• Inspect wearable items before every use. Do not make use of any wearable items showing ANY signs of wear. Temp Addendum: “Wear” as in previously worn-out, not “wear” as in worn previously. Temp Addendum: “Wear” means damage.
• Visors must be completely clear of debris and/or scratches. 100% visibility is required for use. Custom tinting is not permitted.
• Carry at least one full spare canister of oxygen regardless of estimated mission duration. That “quick job” can immediately become an hours-long endeavor, simply over one or two twisted ankles.
• Never remove gloves to improve dexterity while outside of your ship.

“We once located a pod with absolutely perfect sensor readings. Temperature normal. Pressure normal. Life signs normal. The recovery drones said there was a sort of subspace anomaly around the pod, folding in on itself over and over again, quicker than the human eye could perceive. Our captain had very specific beliefs about the universe, so he figured that was impossible. That anomaly ripped our grapple off like a band-aid and chewed it up in seconds. We had to mark the pod as irretrievable.”

~ Rollins Rollins, Equipment Technician

SECTION 3

EMPLOYEE MORALE

3.1 Crew Interaction

• Practice a high standard of mutual respect and understanding at all times. Adhere to chain of command.
• Learn every crewmember’s handle. Their handle may not be their legal name. Nebulock encourages all employees to choose a corporate-approved and internally registered handle of their preference to keep things fun.
• Resolve any and all interpersonal disagreements before the next scheduled sleep cycle. It is the responsibility of all personnel to assist in healthy communication and conflict resolution when necessary.
• Rotate meal seating periodically to discourage the formation of “in” and “out” groups.
• Respect personal space, quiet periods, and the property of others.

3.2 Psychological Health

• Contact family and friends through approved communication channels when available. Stay in touch with Nebulock, as well! We’re always here for any comments or concerns.
• Distinguish internal stress from external agitation. Is someone asking too much of you, or are you harboring resentment due to unstated exhaustion?
• Adhere to required evaluations with openness and honesty. If you cannot carry out a task to the best of your ability, express this fact sooner rather than too late.
• Participate in scheduled team-building exercises and other such group activities. You may not the best in the game, but just being there is a massive help to others.
• Do not read, listen to, or collect log files from ship debris and/or abandoned stations. They’re empty for a reason. Leave the last thoughts and fears of doomed travelers to experienced professionals.
• Report recurring nightmares immediately.
• Celebrate successfully completed recoveries!

“Around two weeks on, one guy starts hearing things that aren’t there. Nothing real crazy, just stuff like knocking pipes and door hydraulics. Says he’s fine, no big deal, whatever. Then one night, I go into comms and he says he just called his wife. Only problem is, she’s been dead for like five years. Me and some guys get him out of there, settle him down, get him restrained for the duration. Turned out he got remarried and that was who he was talking to. We should’ve been more, uh, communicational. I guess.”

~ Spot Adno, Labor Specialist

SECTION 4

UNANTICIPATED OCCUPANTS

4.1 Unhumanoids

• When in range, initiate and maintain communication with escape pod occupant. This will both reassure human survivors that help is on the way, as well as help to spot any irregularities in the speech or behavior.
• Visual recognition of “a human” is not sufficient. Pay close attention to biological scans before retrieving and opening a recovered vessel.
• There is a distinct difference between extreme human emotion due to stress and behavioral inaccuracy due to mimicry. In fact, a sense of eerie calm can often be more of a warning sign than “insane” behavior. Survivors who spend a lengthy duration of time in an escape pod may experience Post-Terrestrial Claustrophobic Disorder, or “The Space Willies”.
• Do not quiz occupants by asking about current events, such as who the sitting Czar of Earth Colonies is. Occasionally, temporal displacement may cause false positives when it comes to this line of questioning. Focus on organic responses and tonal shifts.
• If an occupant looks or sounds identical to you, a co-worker, or someone you know that cannot possibly be present, cease rescue processes immediately.
• If an unhumanoid occupant is released into your ship, proceed to central protection space. Locate emergency unhumanoid packet, distribute syringes, follow instructions on back of packet.
• No one working for Nebulock is an unhumanoid, so there’s no reason to be concerned about that at all.

4.2 Infectious Organisms

• Presume every pod contains unknown microorganisms, and do not risk exposure until your ship’s automated cleansing processors complete their task.
• All recovered survivors are to be quarantined as part of common practice, however, ensure camera and sensor feeds are monitored by an employee for the duration of your ship’s return.
• Report any observed abnormalities, no matter how small. This can include things such as itching, nausea, or not blinking.
• Remember! Advanced viral and bacterial colonies may be able to live outside of a host for hours, or even days. If the subject of rescue appears to be a silhouette and nothing more, they may be a hive of hyper-intelligent microbiological beings.
• Release of an infectious organism onboard your ship will result in on-vessel quarantine.

4.3 Temporally Displaced Individuals

• On occasion, occupants may originate from past, future, or even inconsistent timelines. This is not their fault, and if procedures are followed correctly, there is little to no danger involved.
• Cautiously verify common historical events with recovered survivors and probe for details as to what they last remember happening in universal news. Be sure to keep a casual tone so as to not prematurely alert the subject to their potential temporal displacement.
• If a survivor reveals they are from a future timeline, do not discuss upcoming events in detail so as to not affect the flow of time itself. We have people for that.
• Survivors who appear to be from a time period before the invention of space travel are likely to be unhumanoids. Please refer to section 4.1 if this is the case.

4.4 Cognitive Manipulators

• Like a microorganism, sometimes an idea or concept itself can cause detrimental effects on those who come into contact with it.
• Ensure that any communication with the survivor being rescued is coming through proper transmissions and not directly into your mind.
• If a co-worker appears to suddenly lose their sanity while speaking with the occupant of an escape pod, cease communication. Do not simply place another employee on the line to also go insane.
• When dealing with a Cognitive Manipulator, be sure to follow sensor readings and star charts. If they look incorrect to you, that is likely the due to an outside influence attempting to make you turn off your ship’s oxygen or to guide you into a sun.

4.5 Mechanical Dangers

• Some escape pods contain autonomous defense systems intended to repel harmful creatures and unauthorized salvagers. Be sure that these systems are remotely disabled before closing distance with an escape pod.
• Never assume dormant machinery is nonfunctional. If it looks like a threat in operation, treat it as such even if it seems to be inoperable.
• Every escape pod has an onboard system for environmental regulation and other such life-preserving tasks. On occasion, these programs may be corrupted either by accident or through malice. It is important to ensure these systems are not permitted to uplink with your ship’s computer.
• Tell the survivor being rescued to stand away from walls and to empty their pockets before deploying magnetic clamps onto the pod.
• If interior dimensions exceed exterior dimensions, this is not a mechanical issue and is likely a Memetic Manipulator. Refer to section 4.4 if this is the case.

4.6 Uncategorized Entities

• Some hazards remain as-of-yet unresearched and are, thusly, uncategorized. Stay on your toes and keep in mind what is normal and what is abnormal!
• Pitch darkness inside an escape pod is a clear sign of danger. This is often coupled with nonverbal vocalizations such as laughter or screaming. In these cases, the vessel should not be unsealed under any circumstances.
• Occupants taking up 100% pod capacity are likely not simply “big-boned”, but are more likely anomalous in nature.
• Any transmissions made by an escape pod that appears empty on scans should not be answered.
• There is no “Harold Hodge” and he is not owner of the “Hodge Podge Motor Lodge”. If, at any point, you find yourself attempting rescue of the survivor known as “Harold Hodge”, cease processes immediately and begin full decontamination procedures for ship and crew.

“People always ask what the worst thing we ever found in a pod was. They expect monstrous mutations, alien egg sacks, stuff like that. The worst thing for me was a man who spent two years in a pod. When we finally made contact, he spoke to us like he was on a phone call with a friend he hadn’t talked to in ages. Come to find out, he had the worst case of Space Willies I’d ever witnessed. He had lived an entire life, decades of time, in his mind. His home, his work, every location he went to, suspiciously round and escape pod shaped. He had a wife that didn’t exist. Kids that super didn’t exist. A terrier who died, and a golden retriever who replaced him. What’s so disturbing to me is that we took all of that away. Poof, a whole life gone with the pop of an escape pod door. Going back to a lost job, a foreclosed home, and a recently deceased mother on an Earth that moved on without him. Sorry if you didn’t want to hear about this.”

~ Porky Meller, Medical Tactician

LEGAL NOTICE

Nebulock Escape Vessel Recovery Services (NEVRS) accepts no responsibility for employee injury, dismemberment, duplication, inversion, dispersal, replacement, assimilation, compression, erasure, non-fatal death, fatal non-death, death, resurrection, immortality, or transfer of consciousness.

By continuing employment after receiving this pamphlet, you acknowledge that deep space vessel recovery involves hazards that may exceed conventional insurance coverage.

Employees who become missing, unrecoverable, inaccessible, or purely hypothetical will be sought by a NEVRS retrieval unit thirty (30) Earth days and no further.

Failure abide to by company guidelines may result in disciplinary action, including but not limited to formal reprimand, reduction in benefits where applicable, or termination of employment effective immediately. “Immediately” may refer to before, during, or after the incident in question, should anomalous time flow be involved.

Thank you for joining Nebulock Escape Vessel Recovery Services team.

We appreciate your continued service.