I suppose it'd be relatively easy to add new players as the game progresses if we can find anyone else to play. Want me to ask around and see if I can't find someone else to join?

Go ahead. We can certainly fit in one or two more players, I'm sure.

I'd like to use more Universal Gadget stunt and say that I picked up an environmental analysis module for scanning atmosphere and dirt to see if the air can be breathed and soil is good for farming. Is that something I can do?

Yes.

A universal gadget can be one of two things - it can be a useful device that you just happen to have on you (or are able to quickly put together) that you can define on-the-fly and then use as desired for the rest of that adventure.

OR it can be an even more useful, even more situational device that basically instantly removes a single, minor obstacle, but can only be used once (basically, any one-shot effect, subject to GM veto).

The air/soil tester would fall under the second type (after all, you only need to use it once) - perhaps by jury-rigging some sort of temporary repair for the not-quite-working environmental sensors that were by the door?

I'll use that, then. At the very least we need to know if the air is something we can breath.

When talking to a friend about the prospect of joining this game, I described the starting situation as "approaching Soylent Green at light speeds". He was enthused about everything else until I told him it was text only, at which point he lost interest. Ah well.

He clearly has never played a proper text-only game.

If I caught a look of the outside of the ship, have we been here for some time or has the ship just landed?

There's no plants growing up the outside of the ship, and there are quite a few that appear to have been recently crushed under the ship. It probably hasn't been here more than a day or two at the absolute maximum.

Was wondering if we'd just gotten here or if we'd been here long enough for them to consider us a precursor temple or something. Trying to figure out if this is an investigative party or a pilgrimage. I could have reacted different ways to either.

The Black Knight's body language suggests more "investigative party" than "pilgrimage".

Yeah I figured it was investigative when you said the ship landed recently as opposed to looking like it'd been there for centuries.

Edit:
I figure any on board systems that you can get to working would be able to scan the food and determine if it's poisoned? Maybe someone Nathan can wake up has the skills we need to analyse our situation and get ourselves up to par as soon as possible. My getting him to stay behind and going with our friends here by myself might buy us the time we need for him to get stuff done back at the ship.

The knights are eating from the same haunch of meat as Felix's meat was cut from, and the same wheel of cheese that Felix's lump was cut from. Perhaps the loaf of bread or the wineskin that they gave him might conceivably be poisoned, but it's hard to see how the cheese or the meat could carry any toxins that the knights are not also eating.

There are on-board scanning systems in the medical bay that can tell you exactly, pretty much to the molecule, what is included in any sample put in it, identify poisons, and even prepare antitoxins for all but the nastiest. They're considered non-essential systems, so you'll need to get the computer powered up properly in order to actually use the thing, but anyone with a Science skill can work the equipment once it's been made to work.

I'm assuming that the capsules can be manually opened? Felix has a high science and engineering skill, so if there's something he'd know about the process that tells him he can't do that then let me know and I'll revise what I said.

I'm guessing you have plans for NPCs that we can wake up. If not, then I'll definitely have to change what I said because we can't leave balthazar up there by himself with nothing to do.

It may be possible to open the capsules manually, but that would take a Science roll to have the person inside survive the process. Perhaps Felix can do it; Nathan doesn't have the Science skill to get it right.

The capsules are intended to be opened by computer control. Once the computer has power and is listening to you, it should be much easier to get it to open the capsules than to try doing it manually. Also, every capsule opened is another mouth to feed...