IF YOU'RE PLAYING IN THIS GAME, DON'T READ THIS!
(This goes for Judd, John Moore, Vince, Mike, and anybody else who has
played or might play... Go read the Albatross logs!)
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[Back to October]
**Nov 5, 154**
What, by the stars, is a "Guy Fawke" that it should have a day?
And why did the Bug see fit to try and put explosives ("fireworks")
in the soup in honor of "Guy Fawke's Day"? Yeesh!
**Nov 12, 154**
Headed for the nearest station to report the pirates.
Picked up Irari researcher -- clueless fellow, Student of PseudoMammalian
Fauna. Dropped him off on his planet to study his critters, after we sold
him a stunner. Shot down one of the critters -- sky-colored things, hard
to see -- fended off the rest of the friggin' flock-or-whatever (one grabbed
at my face, but I'd pulled the biosuit hood up), stunned the one that grabbed
Dirk's blaster. Had Kelly come and read the things -- they weren't scared
of Dirk's blaster, even though he'd taken one of them out with it! Not sentient
-- wolf-like, about. But Telepathic. Left the Irari there, with luck nothing
will eat him, and someone will check in on him in a year or two.
**Nov 19, 154**
Well, it looks like I *am* my own "Guardian Spirit" -- I knew
I didn't know enough about med-tech, or brain-wipe equipment, to be the
one who put the words in my head. But I *did* know a way to leave words
in my subconscious, and *that* didn't get wiped! Couldn't have been -- the
'wipe left my opinion of scalies intact, and what I think about taking stuff
from people who don't Deserve It, and my skills, of course. Clever, clever,
clever! But I still don't have a clue as to what my name is -- probably
*couldn't* add that in with the rest of the information, since it might
have been a link between conscious and sub that let the brain-wipe affect
the rest of the information that I'd stored. Explains why they hadn't found
my stuff -- I must have hidden that even from myself, so truth drugs wouldn't
have worked. Ah, Seth, you friggin' idiot! Why'd you have to get blown up
before I got back for the 'tapes? Novatech's gonna *pay*!
**Nov 20, 154**
Oh, dear... Novatech makes friggin' *nasty* things -- "correctional
implants"... Why'd they even *bother* with the brain-wipe? Couldn't
get the parts right away? Had to do some sort of calibrations? Wanted to
analyze my stuff first? Of course... That would mean that *they* took a
braintape too! Be useless to make me loyal to *them* if I didn't have any
clues about what was going on! Did I know they were going to do that? I
had to have known they were going to wipe everything -- and if I can figure
it out now, I'm *sure* could have figured it out then... They let me alone
for several hours, I think -- so I had time to prep the guardian spirit.
I wonder if *I've* got the tapes, on one of those disks I took? I hope I've
got the only copy! They operated on me, I'm sure, to get my implant com
(keep me from calling for help, undoubtedly) -- they might have enough to
grow a clone and put the tape in *her* and the behavior-modification implant...
Sweet stars... If they do that, I'm *dead* unless the clone's mind is just
Houston. An Evil Twin would *know* where to look for me, how to trace me
-- know what the PW was to the Byte account, know what the PWs were on this
computer! (There's an invisible "Personas" file with a PW that
I don't know!) She'd have all my skills -- and know them all, and wouldn't
have the skill-degradation that I think the brainwipe left... Perfect assassin.
Even if it were an even match, could I kill her, knowing that her mind held
everything that I have lost?
They might wait a long time, to see if they can remove the implant and still
get the effects... They might not dare, though -- they already know I'm
tricky. What if she doesn't look the same? What if I look the way I do because
of design, rather than genetics? She wouldn't be taller, at least, but could
be shorter... Her voice would probably be the same -- I need to listen to
my voice more, learn to recognize it quickly.
**Nov 23, 154. 0800 shiptime
We are picking up another passenger, oh goody. Human, this time. Jim Setton,
human, dark haired, shortish, stocky, attractive -- if you like the type.
Bit of a macho image. Looked at me (not that that's unusual), but not for
very long. Seemed... Don't know -- like maybe he thinks he knows me? He
was waiting at the station before the Calder Mining stop, but he didn't
make any comment about the Albatross being two weeks late. I wonder how
long *he* was, or *wasn't*, waiting. Bug his room -- fuzzes out and goes
dead about 5 minutes after he moves in. I was friggin' right -- there's
something fishy about him... Oh, Kelly... Ask Kelly to rummage around in
this fellow's mind -- who he thinks I am, what he's doing here. We'll catch
him while he's eating, and I'll distract him.
**Nov 23, 154, 1340 shiptime
Well, according to Kelly, he likes me a lot -- not surprising, men do that.
And he thinks I'm someone called "Sherry" (Sheri? Sherinford?),
and he's worried that I'll blow his cover.
[[He'd given "Sheri" the "I'm undercover" signal, but
she hadn't given the "acknowledged" signal! She hadn't noticed
he was signalling, and had forgotten the codes anyway.]]
**Nov 24, 154, 1900 shiptime
Cornered him. "Avoiding me? My actions depend on yours, a bit."
Him: "What's the matter with you, Sheri? Three months ago
you vanished and dumped all your cases on me..." Etc.
Me: "I'm in a bit of trouble, hiding out right now."
I mention that I have a slight memory problem...
Him: "You're not in trouble with the 'Big O' again, are you?"
Me: "No. {mutter} I don't think so -- depends on who's been
hired."
Him: "You left your stuff at New Garavar -- you *do* remember
leaving New Garavar?"
Me: "Vaguely." (He buys this, or at least doesn't comment.)
Apparently I've left my case load (must be Sherinford) to him -- not many
people have called, though.
How long am I going to be gone, he wants to know.
Me: "A while. A while."
Him: "You going on to Calder?"
Me: "Yes." (Of course! I'm the one flying the friggin'
ship! Stupid question...)
Him: "You're not involved there, are you?"
Me: "No." (Dammit, how am I going to do the Hedoni act
with *him* around??? Much less pick up any crystals... Blast! What if he's
supposed to be ferreting people out like the contact-fellow?)
Him: "Good. She's absent-minded, but I don't think she'd hire
two people. We'd just get in each other's way."
Me: "Don't worry."
Him: "That outfit is flashier than any of your other disguises
I've seen -- I almost didn't recognize you in that get-up."
Me: "What, don't you like my outfit?" {smirk}
Him: "Oh, sure, I like your outfit. I just remember what happened
the last time I liked one of your outfits a little too much. My arm still
hurts."
Me: "Awwwww, didn't it heal right?"
Him: "I don't mind doing a bout or two with you, but not for
*blood*."
Me: "Oh, by the way, if you could give my bug back, or replace
it at some point...?"
Him: "I'd wondered if that was yours."
Me: "Yup -- have to keep an eye on the passengers, you know."
Him: "Or the captain -- didn't think he was your type. {muttering}
Didn't think anybody was your type."
Me: {raised eyebrows} "Oh? I don't know..." {smug}
Him: "Are there any personal computers on this ship?"
Me: {surprised} "Besides mine?"
Him: {muttering slightly} "Oh, yeah, that's right, you've
got one now."
Me: "Why?"
Him: "Can't tell you that."
Me: {shrug}
Have to remember to put the computer in the hideyhole in Hedoni's trunk.
On to Humario -- home of ursinoid aliens. We have a language tape for them,
and they have really nice jewels and jewelry. Only two days out of our way
for the Calder stop. "Jim" doesn't mind. We land tomorrow.
Personal Log, after crisis
[[The following is probably done during the two week period after Calder;
after the incident with the Diagnostic thing talking to the computer, the
computer was stored until after the SH letter was sent.]]
**Nov 25-28, 154, written on Dec 9, 154**
We get to Humario -- time to go out and have a snowball fight! Would've
taken Kelly sledding if we'd had the time (tropical waterball's never had
snow!), but oh, well. We've *all* been on the ship and stations for too
long -- nearly two straight months for me, and this is all I've known since
I woke up in a friggin' station... More, maybe a whole six months, for the
rest of us (well, besides Kelly). We ask T'kik to watch Jim. I tell Jim
to watch out for the Bug. Him, nodding: "Right." Hit Parvari with
a snowball & finally drag him into the fray. Ho -- we've got company
-- big bears and little bears. A little bear is driving the sleigh (it's
being pulled by some sort of badger-looking thing...) Warren won't talk
with these "middlemen" people. Okay, *be* a friggin' idiot, Warren!
*I'll* step forward and greet this lot. "Sir Butler" the head
bear gets translated to -- he invites us to the castle. We get to meet the
Lord. (The little bears seem to be servants of some sort, the big bears
come in shades from dark to light -- the lighter the bear, the higher up
it seems to be in status.) I get to give greetings. We get invited to stay
for a feast. I ask if we can inquire after the whereabouts of the "sage"
(xenoanthropoligist that was dropped off here a while back). Answer: "No."
Ooooookay. Don't argue with the eight-foot-tall fella with the sword &
crossbow (even if I do have the {presumed} Reflex Armor activated on my
biosuit -- Kelly noticed and pestered a sort of truth about that out of
me).
We get shown to our rooms. There are fireplaces here -- set way far back,
probably because sparks are dangerous if you're a furry person. Kelly decides
to help out the little bears who are trying to light her fire; she lights
it herself. *We* don't get any fires lit for us after that -- she seems
to have scared them half to death. I return their hose and flint&steel
gizmo. I *think* they're understanding me through the translator, but when
they reply, it doesn't translate! Some kind of "lower caste addressing
higher" dialect?
Banquet -- buncha raw carcasses dumped on a table, and the big light bears
dig in. Wander over and hack off a handful, just for grins -- can't be worse
than ship & station food. Get some of the drink. The meat, besides being
colder than any sane human would eat, tastes like tough chicken. Not worse
than standard suit rations. The drink is *strongly* alcoholic! Yow! Nice
artwork on the mugs, too. I ask Kelly if she can cook my hunk of meat a
little for me -- find out how the stuff tastes that way. She's worried about
her control, so I put on my biosuit glove. Good thing, too, since we get
a gout of flame a few seconds later, and one of the big bears comes over
to ask us to please not demonstrate our stuff till later.
We get treated to music, which sounds like Kintarans brawling. Warren, the
friggin' idiot, tries to play some human songs on one of their instruments
and gets the instrument snatched away from him by one guard (at the request
of the Lord, I think), while another tells him with body language to go
back to the little alien ghetto over here. Great. Now I can't hand over
the translator to him without messing up the deal entirely. Listen to an
epic tale with a lot of smiteing in it that doesn't translate too too well.
Watch the fire-jugglers! Yow! Attempt to "applaud" the way the
other big bears do, by tossing & catching a knife. Drop knife. Oh, well
-- been a day since I've had one of those friggin' pills, so obviously my
reflexes are a tad off, not to mention sipping at that drink at *all*.
The "trading" is a friggin' hassle & a half -- *I* am the
speaker (Parvari doesn't want to do it, and Warren is clearly not to be
trusted here). Not to mention that I'm the one with the palest hair. First
thing the Lord wants to know about is my "liquid metal" -- my
biosuit! It's set for Quicksilver-silver... (Possibly another good reason
for me to be the "leader" of this lot.) Quick discussion, determined
that we can make such a thing, sort of, for Big&Furry -- we'll have
to have measurements. Warren will have to take 'em. "He must not touch
me!" says B&F. "Understood," says me. Good thing the
scanners have a decent range. We promise a larger, heavy laser pistol and
a few smaller ones. We give a dozen radios. B&F wants to know about
what to do when an item has lost "spirit" -- we supply appropriate
"hearts" (batteries) for his "fire-bow" (laser pistol).
This is a "gifting" society, Warren thinks -- we give gifts, they
gift us in return with stuff of "equal" value... Compliment him
on something, and that will probably provoke a response... "Your jewels
are very fine, I have not seen the like before -- they outshine the stars..."
(Stop gagging, Kelly!) We get shown some jewelry. Eight *lovely* pieces...
Warren comes up to check them... The lot of them are worth, dear me, about
500K credits or so... Gape gape, boggle, boggle, until Kelly says, *Stop
gaping! Say something!* in my mind, scaring the living daylights out of
me. Right... "All these?" I ask in my most boggled voice. "Take
what you will," replies B&F. Right... Uhhh... Not the best piece
-- look at that, sigh, and set it aside. Pick 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th best,
though. Kelly gets a sense that Lord B&F is pleased and maybe a trifle
smug about this setup. We've got *plenty* of profit, so we don't ask after
anything else.
Warren takes the stuff & Derek back to the ship -- Derek is going to
help with the "liquid metal" armour for Lord B&F. Derek asks
"Who's going to take care of you, Silver?" Kelly pipes up, "I
will," matter-of-factly. I drawl, "And there's Parvari, of course,"
with a nice leer. "Can it, Silver," quoth the poor Captain. "But
I can't! My expressions don't fit in cans!" I reply. "Pilots!
Why are they always the crazy ones?" Parvari asks the sky. Silly --
*he's* the back-up pilot.
Next morning. No Parvari. We knock, no answer, we go in, and nobody's there
-- the bed's been slept in, but of our captain, there's nary a trace. Kelly
prepares to do something witchy... (Probably like what she did with my utility
belt.)
I need to be looking for the Captain, obviously, not hanging around doing
gifting crap... Ah! Warren's about to become a blond, and I'll dose him
with just enough perfume to hide his scent, and see if I can scrounge up
something that looks like armor and appoint him as my 2nd in command or
something... I can probably get away from talking to Lord B&F on the
grounds that it would dishonor me to not be in the search... I wonder why
they took him? He seemed the least dangerous? No armor like mine, no witchy
powers like Kelly's? Dark-colored, too, hence "lower-caste"? Wonder
what they'd think of Scherazade in the Quicksilver outfit?
T'kik spraypaints a shipsuit, Warren actually has some cologne that doesn't
stink too badly, and I turn over the translator to him.
Kelly gets the impression of lots of short dark arms dragging Parvari off
the bed. We catch a dwarf, but no luck questioning him... ARGH! (Takes two
stunner-blasts to take the dwarf down when he tries to escape, and then
he stops breathing! Kelly jump-started him, though, thank the stars.)
Discover servants' tunnels, go wandering around with Kelly and Derek, freak
out the kitchen staff.
[[Unbeknownst to all, Jim has a double purpose for his trip to Calder --
firstly, Selene has discovered that *someone* in the Organization is trying
to get samples of the strange crystals in that system, and secondly, around
October 10th or so, a letter came in that said someone had failed on the
passwords to Scherazade Harami's computer several times, and it was therefore
probably stolen. The Email path led to the Albatross. Well, the Albatross
is headed to Calder, so why not kill two birds with one stone?
Diana's Bow drops James Occident off at a station in time to catch the late-running
Albatross; he has appropriate tools to find the computer, and has the "maintenance
password" program. So when everyone but T'kik leaves the ship again,
Jim goes prowling with a "strange bit of equipment" (an Artemis
sensor, to find the computer). T'kik spots him and pesters him with nosy
questions. Jim wants to look at the bridge. T'kik says all right -- it can
introduce him to the computer... Jim seems more interested in the communications
logs, and not the "Eliza" style program T'kik is running, but
T'kik doesn't let him mess with that... Jim suggests that he'd like to see
more of the ship -- say, Silver's quarters? And why would he want that,
T'kik asks. Jim suggests that playing some practical jokes would be entertaining
-- like glueing all of her stuff to the ceiling, or something. [In truth,
he decided that since he couldn't find the computer, Sheri was the person
most likely to be able to hide it.] He sets off towards Silver&Kelly's
room. T'kik protests that the door will be locked. Jim says "Oh? No,
it's unlocked." and opens the door, slips inside, and closes it again,
then disables the electronic control for the door (much like Kelly did...
but without the psi).
T'kik gets the power-tools it needs to winch the door open physically, also
collects most of the rest of its drones, toting blasters, stunners, etc.
T'kik gets the door open, and finds Jim looking inside Silver's "Serena
Hedoni" trunk (mostly at all her outfits) [at close range, he was able
to scan the trunk and find that it had a shielded compartment in it! Bingo!
but he hadn't gotten that far down...]. Beside him are the disassembled
remains of a trap Silver had set for the Bug -- a fire-extinguisher and
little sign: "Gotcha!" that had been set if the trunk was opened
the wrong way. "Was this for you?" Jim asks T'kik, indicating
the remnants of the trap. T'kik flies a stunner up to the back of Jim's
head and fires, but thanks to a crit-success on an HT roll, Jim is totally
unaffected, and turns around and grabs the stunner. Discussion -- Jim looks
boggled at some of the outfits that Silver has in her trunk, T'kik asks
if it should model some of them for him, Jim asks, "Would you?"
Jim claims to be a New Garavaran Intelligence Agent, shows an ID to that
effect. T'kik and he enter a discussion about whether he has any jurisdiction
if a New Garavaran registered ship is on an alien planet. Jim claims that
he's investigating Silver, that she's some sort of pirate, stolen several
ships, that sort of thing. Eventually, through letting the blaster slip
from head-shot to familyjewels-shot, T'kik gets Jim out of the room, back
into the passenger room, and welds him in. Jim wants to talk to the Captain
-- the Captain is busy, says T'kik. T'kik then gets on the comm to everyone.]]
Whilst wandering the tunnels, T'kik calls up -- that friggin' idiot son
of a mangy Kintaran and a moulting Unar Jim was messing with my trunk, posing
as an Intelligence Agent, and saying I was a "wanted criminal"!
I COULD STRANGLE HIM! Most likely got his ID out of a candy-box! AIE! I
don't friggin' need this!
Right -- Warren and Derek and Kelly can go looking in the ATV, and I'll
take the ship up and check out the heavy-metal mountains with T'kik, after
I finish dismembering our passenger.
I manage (I think) to get T'kik to agree not to listen in on the vidcom
-- Jim's been welded into his room by the sweet darling Bug. I have to promise
to let T'kik have a unmolested audio-only "bug" in my room, though...
The conversation quiets fairly rapidly, since I go on the defensive -- Jim
thinks the computer was stolen from Scherazade!! I failed once too often
on the PWs, and it sent a call for help to Artemis! Really confusing, though,
since Scherazade is still paying for it. I could scream. (He also gritches
about the trunk: "What are you doing with a shielded compartment??
That's a smuggler's trick, Sheri!") What eventually occurs... He doesn't
think I/"we" (Assuming that Scherazade and Silver/Sherinford were
seperate people) could have changed the persona-lock so that it would work
at all for me -- thinks I'd need the equivalent of about three degrees in
computer stuff. Can't let him uncover *another* persona! He's already seen
the Hedoni trunk! (And dismantled a perfectly good trap that I'd set up
for the Bug, too.) He starts to have a fit because I gave Ms. Holmes --
Pres. of Artemis -- a fake ID for a computer that she hand-built (no wonder
the thing's so expensive!) (To quote, "Sheri!! You didn't give SELENE
HOLMES a *fake ID*--!"). Tell him I'm Scherazade's illegitimate twin
sister (I'm paying her for the computer, she's paying Artemis) and let him
stew on that for a while.
(Random from that mess: "What kind of a case are you *on*, Sheri?"
"At the moment, saving my hide, mostly.")
Meanwhile the ATV group finds some tracks, mining-trail, whatever. They
think that the captain may be in these mines. Bring the ship over. Land
on a glacier. Yeah, right. Take a pill. Fly over, land -- tricky, but NO
PROBLEM! Convince Bug that I want a laser rifle. I want to shoot something
that won't have problems like the Pres. of Artemis getting annoyed because
an annoying passenger didn't make it back.
Wander into the tunnel... Finally T'kik raises Parvari's implant comm --
and the captain himself! -- on the ship's comm. We wander about checking
things -- the biosuit is set on "ninja". He's locked in a room,
can smell some sort of "rotting fruit" smell, can hear thumping
sounds... We find a storeroom, but he's not there. On the way out, a dwarf
tries to stun Derek! I do a running dive into the tunnel (infared contacts
on from way before this all started, for what that's worth), fire stunner,
knock the little fella out, and go after his buddies. Dirk, in nasty-mode,
follows shortly thereafter, but he has to stop and mark his way and I don't.
He has to bother with the flashlight, too.
Wander around in tunnels, tracking dwarfs. Warren and Kelly find the xeno-anthropologist's
lair and his computer which has better linguistics info (has the dwarfs'
language as well!) and a map of the area! Earlier I suggested that the Captain
was deliberately kidnapped as a hostage in some sort of revolution run by
the Xanthro and armied by the short&furries. Warren finds some stuff
here that indicates I may be right. The map indicates that there are some
mining activities near a residential area, and that's a fairly logical place
for Parvari to be -- mining noises, food smells, etc. Get a visual, wait
for Dirk to catch up, and start heading for the residential area.
We're in the area when we get another person on the radio, saying, "Ship
crew". We're supposed to leave our weapons and powercells in the tunnels
and leave the area and the Captain will be released. "But I'm lost.
I can't find my way out," I protest. No problem -- one of the "Small
Folk" will lead me out. Feh. Okay, toss the powercells -- I've got
the biosuit and the needler... But he's *not* getting the laser rifle! Turn
off the comm that I've got and listen -- faint echo of the fella! Head for
that. He "just wanted to talk to the captain" when Parvari woke
up, the small guys hit him a little too hard, etc. Warren and he get into
an argument about the workability of this revolution.
We get to a store-room type place. Our Xanthro, Simon Henry (argh), is talking
into a hand-com. He doesn't have any weapons! Send Dirk in -- bare hands,
not blaster, I'll wait in the tunnel to see if he tries to escape... Dirk
lunges at him, misses, I step out of the tunnel with the biosuit back to
Quicksilver. "Don't kill him, Dirk." Simon looks at me in terror,
so I tell him, "I'm the good guy, I'm going to keep him from killing
you!"
Then we hear a thump and a "That you, Dirk?" from a door off to
one side. "Captain?" "Yeah! No kill, Dirk, no kill! Just
hurt him some!" Seems Parvari holds a grudge, and has a headache. I
send Dirk to knock the door down while I make sure our captive doesn't escape.
We are all re-united, I insist that Simon gets his stuff back (still can't
handle depriving people of their things...), I tell Simon about what we
gave Lord B&F, and tell him that the next time a ship comes, he should
call them on the comm and tell them to come trade with the dwarfs (who are
being "exploited") instead.
Parvari got a couple of kegs of that alcohol somehow -- didn't pay attention,
too busy trying to figure out what the heck I was going to do about Jim.
Give Lord B&F his bio-silver. Take off. Tap into comm and hear Jim spin
this wild tale that he's New Garavaran Intelligence (HA! but his ID *does*
look real!) and that I'm some sort of pirate. About when Parvari looks like
he's believing it, I short out the comm. T'kik arrives soon after to fix
it up (the comm-tap is hidden in the trunk, Kelly is watching over things).
Go to Jim's door. "I can make things really sticky for *you* too if
you don't stop telling the captain stuff!" He says, eventually, that
I *am* a pirate -- stole a smuggler-ship from the Organization once, and
"How do you know I'm not an intelligence agent?" "You're
a private detective!" "Ever heard of covers?" He wonders
if he can get the captain to let him (Jim) take me into custody... I tell
him to quit freaking my captain, or I'll make sure that Parvari's too busy
to answer the comm for the rest of the trip. "Two weeks?" "There
are ways.... I'd think that *your* imagination would be quite equal to the
task." "I didn't think that sort of thing was your style, Sheri."
"Ever heard of covers?" and walk off down the corridor.
Later -- "Any good reasons we shouldn't leave you on Calder?"
"I'd have to call Selene to come and pick me up." And it's not
like he couldn't send her gobs and gobs of mail from there, either....
Be real nice to Parvari -- he's nervous when I smile at him even in a mostly
non-smirking way! Argh. At least he doesn't seem to be likely to turn me
over to the son of a scaly.
[On to December]