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!)
[Back to Gaming War Stories]
[Back to May - July]
[June-July -- uneventful? Or a date-frotzup? Dunno... Some of each?]
**August 10, 155**
We finally get back to NG, and get a week of being debriefed. Whee. [.25
points in Administration skill, everyone...] Then we get a job from the
Interstellar Health Organization (IHO), and it's to take a lot of stuff
to this new Thral colony world, Parva, which Guess-Who-and-start-with-the-
initials-SH-and-company-beginning-with-A managed to discover a while back.
The stuff is medical. Also, an expert genengineer... Dr. Circe Jones, who
I remember hearing about because we're *also* taking the ship, _Holmes'
Sweet Home_ on board with us, and Sweetie says "Hi!" Oh, stars.
Sweetie's wings pop off, and it gets put in our hold. What won't She think
of next...
Before we take off, Derek discovers explosives in one of the cargo boxes.
Turns out it's a bunch of missile warheads. (Probably Navy -- since they
showed up to take possession of them and didn't want to say anything other
than, "this is no longer your concern.") I am most displeased
that anyone would try to smuggle anything on *this* ship -- without at least
asking me and offering a cut. There's the problem of who those would have
gone to -- no off-loading address. Maybe there's something fishy about our
IHO contact on Parva. We Shall Have To Be Careful.
But I shall also have to *fix* something up. An empty box, with the proper
numbers on it. Well, not *quite* empty -- a note reading, "Haven't
you ever heard of 'professional courtesy'?"
**Aug 17, 155**
We arrive and are greeted by the Navy, who gives us some more data. (Parvari
already got smart and bought the White Lady's version.) We are told which
of the Sapients we should avoid, some of the conditions in the Zones, etc.
We land in Zone Lon and pick up Greta Kagan, the IHO person. Then we start
delivering. First, Zone Vanlit. Soldiers here. Off-load stuff, and Dirk
gets to wander around in his exoskeleton, scaring off bandits.
Second stop, Zone Ber-mil. Turns out that Greta's contact's band got outsted
by another quasi-military gang. We don't know this at first -- all we know
is that they don't seem to be quite sure what's going on. They send a kid
with a gun out to meet with us. I haul him over towards the ship to explain
the medical supplies and let Kelly read him. Turns out that he's stalling
till the others can rush us. Wretches.
We won't off-load anymore, we decide. But Derek insists on going out to
pick up the two wounded lifesigns we scanned. So when the group with the
guns and missile launcher start rushing us, Derek and his exoskeleton (and
armored vaccsuit, thank the stars) are outside the lock, while we and the
Thral kid are on the inside.
[[Derek is outside -- he shoots his blaster and takes three of them out
(including the one with the missile launcher) with two shots (blow through!),
but is taken out himself with a lucky shot and he falls.]]
When people start rushing the ship, the logical thing to do is close the
airlock. So I hit the close-button. So the Thral kid shoots me with his
rifle! Doesn't he have any hormones?? I had my suit looking like a halter-top
and pants! Idiot. At least the Reflex-armor mode was on, and the sensors
got the incoming bullets. Hope the brat was startled that all that exposed
skin didn't turn into something T'kik would force out of the food synthesizer...
Anyway, first thing *I* know, there's this stardamned *loud* noise, and
something's thrown me against the wall a couple of times, and then there's
this nasty SCRAW-TWANG noise of bullets ricocheting off the wall next to
me. Fortunately, I keep my feet. I draw and fire my stunner, and the kid
drops.
[[Nobody sees this -- Kelly has taken cover just a little before the attack
started (Danger Sense), and Warren and Greta dive for cover *when* the attack
starts. Only Silver doesn't try to get out of the way.]]
Then Kelly and I have to go out and rescue Dirk, since somebody seems to
have gotten lucky and taken him down. Kelly is a healer. We get Dirk into
the airlock, cycle it, and then cycle the Thral kid *out* the lock, and
then we take off.
And then we have to dodge missiles, because the twits decide to fire on
us.
So we get a ways out, and I get off, and I head back to see if we can salvage
those two wounded people who were probably part of the *correct* band of
Thrals.
I don't have the proper equipment. There's an electric fence in the way.
I have to go find a proper stick and vault the silly thing. Then it's trek
through the greenery [[which is, BTW, the local equiv of poison ivy; Ber-mil
is so Green...]], creep over to where the Thrals are (with Awol's camo-cloak),
and talk my way in without getting shot. There's just one little problem
-- Quickheal won't work on a busted spine, which is what one of them has.
Oh, well. Maybe if Kelly can get in here, she can stabilize him enough to
be moved. Trouble is, how to get the ship in here? I wish we had stealthing....
Oh. Right. Dr. Jones is the White Lady's mother. Sweetie is visual-stealthed
at the least (and probably more...). *That* ship can get in here. So they
talk to her and she comes in herself, with Kelly and Dirk, and it turns
out that she's not just a Nobel-Prize-winning gengineer, she's also a psi
healer. The spine-case *walks* to Sweetie under his own power. (This explains
Her, this explains Her, this explains Her... Talk about "Let mommie
kiss it and make it better!")
We take off, bid Dr. Jones farewell and thanks, and go looking for any more
survivors of the little group. Find one of them. Offload the trio of Thrals
and the remainder of the medical supplies -- they think they can use the
stuff to barter their way into another group.
Then on to Zone Mossekay, one of the few *civilized* Zones. I could use
some civilization. I could use about three Kintarans, actually. At once.
Nothing like getting shot to get the blood pumping...
Well, Zone Mossekay has many friendly natives, and most of them are toting
around computers and sensors with Her mark on them, for some crazy reason.
I find a nice friend [name of Toriven Glantak], and we wind up at his place
(after I tell Parvari that he can bloody well tell Greta that I'm tired
and jumpy and she doesn't want a tired and jumpy pilot to make deliveries).
Darn near Kintaran stamina on this fellow. Good.
Turns out, of course, that Zone Mossekay has delusions (or ambitions) of
Byte-hood, and had researched *all* of our little crew to the best of their
abilities. And then they sent a hand-picked team to go and chat us up and
see what free information they could pick up from all of us. My little spookling
volunteered for me, though. I suppose I should be flattered.
[[They also had a fellow who talked to Awol and let him steal silverware,
and some who talked to the others, including T'kik.]]
My proto-spook also wants a warp-drive. They want to go claiming nearby
planets, probably, and they need an FTL drive for that. Problem is, Parva's
not allowed to have FTL capabilities just yet. (Too many war-like people,
and people who would want to nuke the Sapients in the belt, who don't deserve
it, probably, because they've all been reprogrammed by Guess-Who-And-Start-With-The-Initials-SH-And-I-Don't-Mean-Me.)
Well, why not give me the shell and the claim-beacons, and I can get the
engines fitted on somewhere in civilized space, and then release the probe-drone
*outside* of Parva-system. If it never comes *inside* Parvan space, then
probably nobody will kick!
We finally agree on a price. Now all I have to do is talk Parvari into coming
back here after we finish with the IHO's little mission.
I also wrangle the codes for Wasoltiv Liberty out of my spook. The Wasoltiv
government looks just like the Thral homeworld, except with a Dictator instead
of all the mega-Veeps, and I don't like it. Turns out the resistance group
has a grav-comm. They're speakable, then... (I wonder who gave them the
grav-comm... *Her*?) I can make a deal -- I'll supply them with some holdout
needlers, and a bug, and they give me old weapons... And most importantly,
I'll smuggle a disk full of information on the Real Wasoltiv Situation out
of their Zone, and agent it to a newsie, and get them a passle of off-world
Credits.
Ought to be fun.
**Aug 18, 155**
I wonder if Kagan qualifies as Ungodly? She insisted that we be gone at
6am the next morninng. Wretch. I made a point of being 5 minutes late.
So we delivered to Zone Parelavan with some trouble (our contacts managed
to wreck their truck, and we had to track them down to where they'd taken
refuge with a hermit-family), and to Zone Telet with almost major problems
-- a bunch of religious rabble-rousers tried to come and do something nasty
to our ship (seems some of the people there don't like aliens), and almost
got through the battlesuited (!!) troops who were guarding the area.
We got out of there, and then they shot a couple of missiles at us. Pfeh.
Zone Brisha is fine -- it's got gobs of Zone Lon's people there, apparently,
as well as refugees from Zone Me-xan (where we are not going).
Zone Peko is ... annoying. That lot were trying to be Sparrials, scanning
or swiping anything that wasn't nailed down. We closed the doors and Awol
retrieved our stuff. Along with some other things. We gave them back most
of the stuff, but when they claimed to have two laser-pistols, we said that
Awol didn't have any of those (they were slug-throwers; obviously somebody
got greedy) and besides they weren't supposed to bring weapons onto the
ship anyway. So Awol got to keep the guns.
Zone Newl is silly -- they want to insist on unloading the cargo personally,
and they've got way too many weapons for us to let onto the ship, and they
won't take 'em off. So we put the stuff in the 'lock, cycle it, and they
unload it from there.
Then, for that evening, Zone Wasoltiv. *They* have a little parade/speech
thing set up, with newsies and such. Parvari, Kagan, Warren, Derek, and
Kelly go out for some of that -- Parvari and Kagan do the newsie/speech
thing while the rest of us watch over the unloading stuff.
Then it turns out the entire crew is invited to Dinner, and to stay in the
main Startown hotel (Zone Wasoltiv has wasted no time in creating a Startown...
Turns out it's designed to keep aliens inside its limits, away from any
other businesses or people, and where they can be monitored at all times.
Eyech.) for the evening. I'm *not* staying in any bugged hotel, thankyouverymuch.
This place gives me the creeps. But I will go to Dinner, since my Wasoltiv
Liberty contact might meet me there.
The Hotel is really fancy -- and not a little tacky. I ask Parvari, "All
this for a bunch of scruffy fringers?" and he says, "It's free.
Enjoy it until they figure it out."
We are guided around by the most annoying, unctious, little Thral I can
recall meeting. I tell him to go away, and not flirt with me, because he's
not attractive enough. This apparently serves only to endear me to him the
more. After the Dinner, when dancing is allowed, I tell him to drop dead.
He falls to the floor, which I acknowledge as useful, but keeps pestering
me until I have to ask one of the Security fellows (obvious Security, that
is -- I figure half of the "non-security" people are actually
plants, stooges, or total loyalists) to get rid of him so I'll say nice
things when I get back to New Garavar. *That* finally works.
I digress. During the Dinner, one attractive waiter catches my eye, and
I ask him what he's doing when he's not being a waiter -- he says he'll
tell me about it after the Dinner. I say I'm intending to go back to my
ship, and he says, "Let me give you my number." It's the grav-comm
address. I tuck it into my biosuit and say, "Maybe I will talk to you
after Dinner."
So the pair of us wind up back at his apartment, where a little sonic screen
is quite useful. I supply one of the holdout needlers and the bugs right
then and there (well, I have to go into the bathroom to pull them out of
my secret pockets -- they didn't search me going in, and probably wouldn't
have found those anyway, but there's no reason to give away *all* my secrets)
and hand them over. He gives me a disk, and we arrange that I'll deliver
the final needler in Zone Lon, where they'll give me my payment of "antique
guns."
His place has audio-bugs all over, and a visual bug in the living room,
and I am just too wound up to feel like relaxing with him, so eventually
I leave. I have to purchase a disk-reader for the primitive data-disk he's
given me, but that's not much of a problem. There's a vid-disk store handy.
I go prowling about, looking at their collection of "steamy" material.
I sigh, and get asked, "Is something the matter? Can I help you find
anything?" I ask the fellow behind the desk if there's anything that
has more... agressive females in it. "You mean *perversion*?"
he asks. I sigh again and mutter to myself that I've forgotten about alien
psychologies. He says that maybe he could come up with something... I show
off some of *my* personal collection. He looks intrigued (must be a real
market for perversion), and asks what sort of stuff I want. I say that I'm
really interested in older movies and such -- antiques. And maybe we can
work something out -- he should give me a call if my order comes in.
I buy the player and a couple of disks, and wander out. (I notice that there
are no fountains around here -- the place seems to be laid out with the
intent that there will be no sources of "covering noise." Yeesh.)
I go back through Customs, pay that bill (easiest Customs I've ever met,
besides Sparrion -- just declare and pay) and head back to the ship, where
I will play the Thral vidplayer so that my computer can pick it up and feed
it into the secure level. Then I'll start trying to market the thing.
[[Etalon went to the Dinner as well, and flew back to the ship -- except
he took a little side-trip to see how close he could get to the main city.
A helicopter shone its light on him for a minute. He flew back to the ship.
Warren is off carousing with willing females. Kagan visited the hospital.
Kelly and T'kik stayed on the ship. Awol went to Dinner. Parvari went up
to his hotel room to go to sleep. Derek went off with the most spirited
of the ladies, and is preaching sedition and equality and stuff. They are,
of course, being followed.]]
**Aug 19, 155**
2:30 in the morning. I have gotten everything but the last half-hour of
the tape copied into my computer. Then a couple of jeepoids with a couple
of customs officers, a pair of cops, and two dockworker types come up and
buzz the door. Fraggit. Busted? I need twenty minutes to fix up the disks
so that I'm not traceable. T'kik and Kelly can stall them in the hold.
...
Turns out they never make it out of the hold -- they go hunting for "contraband"
and find The Box, and proceed to make a show about lecturing Kelly [whom
they have decided is the "ship's wench"] and T'kik about smuggling
military-grade weapons as they pry open the crate ... and find it empty,
except for my note. Here, they start yelling about searching the ship. T'kik
seals the doors and airlocks shut, trapping them inside. The bug gets Kelly
out of there, and there is a bit of a problem about it resisting arrest,
and it taking the six Wasoltiv people "prisoner." One of them
eventually shoots T'kik's drone. *Messy*.
I sound red alert and call everyone back to the ship, including Kagan. Awol
has hotwired one of the limos and picks everybody up to take them to the
ship. They get past the guard [Warren implied (heck, stated) that the ship
had an emergency and could have blown up...]. Kelly has been playing with
the people by trying to Morphazine them telekinetically (didn't quite work,
but has potential...), and then throwing packing stuff at them, and then
Derek activated the anti-mutiny gas and knocked them out.
I came up with the wonderful idea (taken up quickly by T'kik) that we simply
weren't aware that these were *real* cops -- they showed up at 2:30, and
were very rude (unlike all other Wasoltiv authorities we've met, uh-huh),
and shot T'kik! They were obviously impersonating real Wasoltiv police!
(I get Kelly to fry any of their ID or quasi-ID cards that have electronics
in them, just to lend weirdness and confusion.) Eventually, they actually
buy this, and send out *another* team of police to investigate. We play
good little galatics and cooperate. They tell us that they'll have to continue
the investigation in the morning.
I go to bed.
Morning -- they come in again, look around (ignore the hotwired limo Awol
got...), take The Crate (and note) away, filch numerous of Parvari's trade-goods,
and tell us not to leave.
Derrek's girlfriend of last night shows up at the ship. She seems to want
something from him. Kelly drags him off and asks what's going on, then gets
into her mind... Something she said doesn't jive with what *my* contact
said -- that no other non-loyalists had managed to get into Startown. But
she's asking for society data, and medical stuff, and saying that *her*
apartment isn't bugged, and she can get past the Customs people... So while
Kelly's in her mind, I ask, "So, dear, are you an intelligence agent?"
And while she denys it, Kelly implant-comms, "Merry Christmas."
Yep, a spook. I usher her off because "we're going to be taking off
soon, and I don't think your government wants us kidnapping one of their
spooks." She wants to know what ghosts have to do with anything.
By noon, we are allowed to leave. I give them a *lovely* take-off, clearing
the starport fence by a few feet and then doing a striking bootlegger reverse
off to Denar. Their traffic controller yells about leaving flight-lanes
and 1,000 cred fines. As if I care. Idiots.
Next, Denar, where we get to deliver to both more TRF, and this other group
(the TRF calls 'em "'bot-lovers") that translates as "VIRUS."
The guys in charge of both groups keep glancing over at me, for some reason.
{smirk} Maybe it's the skimpy setting I've got the biosuit set for.
After that, Tokar, where they're the most organized, useful anarchy I've
ever seen. Place is crawling with 'bots, too.
Zarrain is not a problem.
Then Carval.....
We get held hostage. Never never never hold Kelly hostage. Bad Idea.
We finish off-loading the stuff, and the people want to invite us to lunch.
Okay, sure, why not -- Kelly says that something interesting is going to
happen, and she wants to go. [Kelly crit-fails a Precog roll...] In the
middle of lunch (which is not so good), a bunch of people with guns come
in and tell us not to move, etc., etc. I comm to Parvari, "We've been
kidnapped, Captain." They take all our weapons. (Well, not all *my*
weapons...) and tell Kelly to call the ship.
Kagan is in shock, of course.
They want everyone off the ship in five minutes, and then they'll tell us
the rest of their demands. Goody.
Kelly starts playing heat-up, cool-down games with the people -- one of
them passes out! Unfortunately, while she's trying to heat them up and give
them fevers and temperature shock, she does something wrong and the whole
fragging *room* explodes! And about six of those people's guns! That takes
a few of them out of action... The leader of the twits apparently thinks
somebody came in and did something from behind them, since he takes several
people and goes to the door. Kelly tries some more things, and a couple
*more* guns explode and she passes out.
Twit leader comes and says that the ship had better stop doing whatever
it's doing or he's going to shoot people! I take the comm, implant-comm
to Parvari, "I'm going to say something strange. Just agree with me."
I relay the demand. Then I explain, "Kelly did something that made
the room blow up and then she passed out. I think she's okay, just tired."
When Etalon, Parvari, and two of T'kik's drones come out, we get stuffed
into another room. Kelly wakes up and plays some games with making lights
appear just barely within our guards' line of sight (corner-of-eye stuff).
The leader comes in and says that if anything else happens, he's going to
shoot somebody.
Meanwhile, T'kik has been scanning things from the ship and has noted that
all but two of the sentries have stopped moving, and those two have run
into the compound in a panic. The bug sends a drone out and finds a pair
of "biped Kintarans" who're getting into the compound.
The bipedal Kintarans take out a couple of the twit Thrals who are guarding
the interior of the complex. Around this time, Kelly turns out the lights
in our room. One of the idiots opens fire. Kelly does *something* and one
fellow falls over [flash-froze his helmet]; one of the guards runs out;
Kelly does something else, and the sole remaining guard in our room screams
and rips his helmet off and is rolling around on the ground whimpering.
The sole guard outside the door slams the door shut. I run over and Morphazine
the guard, and we pass out weapons. Kelly looks through the door somehow,
and makes the outside-guard's rifle explode.
By this time, all the Thrals who can move are beating a hasty retreat out
of the complex. We recover most of our stuff, except for my laser, stunner,
and vibroblade! I want my stuff back! I take Derek's blaster and head out,
somewhat against Parvari's wishes.
I run into the biped Kintarans -- they ask which Zonemind made me. They
say Carval made them. Okay, this is weird. This wasn't mentioned in the
data we were given. Right. I'll figure out something after I get my stuff
back... The twit Thrals have gone and holed up in a nearby cave system,
drat 'em. Maybe we can get the ship to come in and blast the place...
I'm just in position when Warren calls me up again. Sweetie called. Dr.
Jones went into one of the Zone Mante citadels, and apparently people were
in there, and now Sweetie can't raise Dr. Jones on the comm anymore. Oh,
FRAGGITALL!
I zap at the fellow I was aiming for, and am only about a meter or so off.
Then he fires back, but I'm already swinging for lower branches, camoed.
I miss the one I was trying for, but catch hold of another one, a little
lower down, so I don't break anything of mine.
I meet up with the biped-Kintarans again and tell them that I have to help
rescue someone. We're halfway there when the twits raise us on the radio
and start telling us to go back to the first base or the hostage gets it.
Me, Derek, and the two critters get ourselves dropped off in a clearing
to wait for stealthed Sweetie while the rest of the ship goes to "wait
for instructions."
We get to the top of the building, and want to get in -- there's some problems
about this, but one of the critters (they have numbers, not names! Argh.)
produces a key that lets us in. I asked Sweetie if it could hypno the baddies,
but it has a lousy range for that. *sigh* We go in, and the felinoids take
out two guards, then go down to take out another two who were doing something
to the main computer core [[tossing a grenade in...]]. Derek is in Awol's
camo-cloak. After the furries go out of sight, I sigh and turn my suit camo.
He says "Nice suit." I say, "I like having an edge sometimes."
I also turn on my sonic screen.
Derek and I scan the rooms, find four Thral lifesigns, one human one. Good.
She's still alive. Derek has a stun rifle, a tangler, and some stun-grenades.
Unfortunately, I have only two hands, and the Thrals are in three different
areas. Ah, well, Dr. Jones is a powerful Healer, so even if I get hurt (unlikely,
if I'm good and lucky, since I'm effectively invisible right now), rescuing
her is top priority. Besides, I think I'd rather be dead than have to explain
to Her, "Your mom got shot because I dithered around trying to stay
safe." I have him open the door, while I have a stun grenade in each
hand. I toss the first one towards the two Thrals standing in Dr. Jones'
area, the second to one of the pacing ones, then draw my laser. Then things
get kind of confused...
[[Silver makes both her Thowing rolls. One Thral drops -- the two by Circe
make their HT rolls that second. Combat Reflexes allows them to react. One
gets a critical success with his rifle. Silver makes her fast-draw with
her laser and is about to snap-shot the remaining Thral not in range of
a stun grenade (he's confused and cannot react this second) when the AP
round hits her. Her reflex armor does *not* catch the bullets this time
(not that it would have mattered), and we discover the meaning of "blow-through"
as the bullet enters the suit, drops her to 0 HT, and exits the other side.
Silver fails her HT roll to stay conscious. There is a lot of blood and
Silver drops to the ground.
Derek has his stun rifle out and leans in to shoot the remaining Thral as
the others finally succumb to the stun grenades. He tries to administer
Quickheal through Silver's biosuit's "medicine ports" but discovers
that Silver is paranoid and they don't respond. The suit has lost integrity
around the wound, though, so he can administer it there. Then he goes and
revives Dr. Jones (who cures her stunner headache) and points her in the
direction of Silver. While Circe is doing her healing thing, Derek zots
the stunned Thrals with tangler-shots.]]
[[Arcangel: "If you must get shot, get shot rescuing the Power 15 Healer."]]
I'm starving, and there's this ceiling above me, and a lot of blood on the
floor next to my face. "No clouds," I mumble. "Good."
Obviously I wasn't deaded, then... Dr. Jones is sitting over me. I ask her
what time it is, to reset my internal clock. She finds this bemusing. I
sit up and discover that there's a hole in the back of my suit, and a lot
of blood all over everything, like my back. I guess one of the Thrals got
lucky...
We convince Circe to *please* check out all the future citadels before entering,
and tell Sweetie to make sure she does, then we collect the furries (who
are sort of bewildered that we didn't kill the Thrals we caught -- they
*really* call these Thrals vermin....) and the prisoners and get the Albatross
to come and pick us up. We drop the Bloody Dawning twits (the resistance
group who were more concerned about converting other biologicals than fighting
'bots, even when there were still 'bots to fight...) off with the *real*
Carval "authorities." (They'd infiltrated Kagan's contacts, and
set us up.)
[[They'd been breaking into Zone Mante citadels, and then Circe stumbled
into their midst and got hit over the head.]]
Finally, back to Lon where we can kick Kagan off, and pick up the last half-hour
of the Wasoltiv Liberty tape and the Liberty payment. Then we go hopping
around to do some trade of our own. I talk the Captain into going back to
Z.Mossekay, so I can on-load the warp-less probe. He doesn't want to know
what's up. Then we'll head for Tokar, probably. Wasoltiv is *not* on the
list. [The order actually was: Lon, Tokar, *then* Mossekay.]
At Tokar, I trade a fair amount of stuff, and some credits, and pick up
a "Doberbot" and the manuals for it. I'm sure Flare can think
of something to do with the thing.
**Aug 20, 155**
After a relaxing evening at Zone Mossekay with my sweet proto-spook, we
head out. For some obscure reason, we have picked up another pilot -- a
fellow who got a one-way ticket to the Zone and needed a ride off. He dead-heads,
working his passage, but Parvari isn't going to pay him anything. This fellow,
Cyrus [something or other], is from Alardin. Kelly is not impressed with
him, and I'm not either.
Our cargo from here is loaded on, including mine. [[The proto-probe that's
gonna get equipped with FTL and dropped off outside the system afterwards.]]
We lift off (Cyrus does the honors, actually, while I watch), and head for
the Sapients in the belt -- Sapient Arralee is selling ore. We discover
a strange sensor/computer set-up hidden inside one of the ingots! Arralee
denys knowledge of it -- says it was part of some goods that Sapient Vanlit
sold it. Vanlit denys knowledge. Kelly tries to read it, but can only find
that it was made by a bunch of 'bots. Cyrus wants to sell the data on how
Kelly did that (he figured out she's a psi), but Kelly pre-empts him by
saying "hello" to one of Arralee's 'bots. Arralee sells data to
Sapient Brisha, who promptly calls up Kelly -- she says "No" a
lot, and explains that it wanted to hire her to have experiments done on
her.
Arralee replaces the problematic ingot with a good one. Then, when we're
loading stuff that Sapient Vanlit was selling, we find *another* anomoly
-- a robot of unusual design hidden in one of the ingots. Vanlit refuses
to replace the problematic one, and insists on taking all of its shipment
back.
[[Mossekay was trying to slip a spy-'bot onto a ship, routing the ingot
through Vanlit. Vanlit thought that Mossekay was trying to slip a *combat*
robot through, and decided that would be a good idea, so it put its own
combat 'bot in, to try and take the winners of the presumed Mossekay-shipcrew
battle.]]
**Aug 21, 155**
I get a note from Her, asking that I drop by Her ship when I get back, please.
I reply that I am at Her beck and call, and ETA is [[whenever]], barring
unforseen problems.
Turns out everyone else got cash, for helping save Her mother.
**Aug 22, 155**
I call up Dr. Hill and ask him, firstly, how things are going (Mitsy is
still working on the Stalker stuff -- it's her project for her Ph.D -- and
Taylor was out for a couple of days after coming back, which Hill thinks
is my fault. I don't tell him it was probably 'cause he had to be debriefed
by the NGIA), and secondly, if he'd hunt around for a friendly xeno-anthropologist
to babysit a couple of constructs from Parva... After some discussion, he
agrees that he'll do it.
**Aug 28, 155**
For some strange reason, the comm-beacon that should be here isn't working.
Ah, well. At least we can certainly see just about anything before it sees
us.
**Sep 1, 155**
It is just about to be my watch, and I find that during Cyrus' watch, a
comm-call came in from a ship that's been sitting in one place for a while.
The comm-call was from a kid who said that the ship had been taken by pirates
and her mom had been shot, and then the *IDIOT* calls *Parvari* and *sits
around* waiting for him to make a decision! And then he won't get out of
the pilot's chair so I can *head* for that ship!! **IDIOT**!
We get there -- fortunately without me having to mutiny -- and get onto
the ship. Cyrus was being a twit about me going in alone, trying to get
behind the pirates while Dirk and him distracted them. Idiot.
I will be carrying the camera to prove that this boarding action is legit.
One of the forcelocks is damaged and can't be locked -- another (the one
Cyrus and Dirk were going to go in through) is locked, so Cyrus comes to
the one I'd had my eye on. I swap around and hack the lock open in a minute.
Dirk tries to get in via a 3rd airlock, but it's wedged shut (it was too
close to some weapons that got shot out). I hang around upside down and
shoot in through the forcelocks -- I nail a pirate's head, but he's wearing
a combat helmet. Kinda surprise him, though! A Kintaran with a blaster rifle
leans out of one of the rooms and fires a shot (which misses) and then in
the middle of the next shot, it kinda peters out... [[Crit-fail on the pirate's
part.]]
[[Cyrus enters and takes out a Kintaran with a laser rifle, but falls to
a crit-success from a human with a blaster -- never walk into cross-fire.
Cyrus fails the HT roll and will be dead very soon. Silver sees him fall,
doesn't hear him on the comm, assumes the worst. She turns herself invisible.
Dirk shows up and provides covering fire while Silver (sonic screen running
too) launches herself in and dashes over to Cyrus. Nobody shoots at her.
She hits him with Suspend, then tries for the pirate with the blaster, who
manages to dodge back inside a room and close the door before she does enough
damage to get through his biosuit. The Kintaran with the blaster rifle manages
another crit-fail and drops the weapon; he's having a bad day. Dirk takes
out mister combat helmet, and the blaster-rifle Kintaran. Silver takes off
for the cargo bay, but there's nobody there but an unconscious human [[Arala's
lightning bolts...]]. The sole remaining functional pirate heads out the
airlock, and Dirk goes after him and shoots him and Silver has Dirk drag
the fellow back inside.]]
We hook up the passage tube.
Etalon goes around hitting people up (even pirates!) with Suspend and Quickheal,
and we manage to get Arala and Arala's *SPARRIAL* mom into the Albatross.
Etalon has a field day with pirates and Cyrus and Arala's mom.
**Sep 3, 155**
Arala really was
stolen by Sparrials... *Before* birth -- somehow, her "dad" managed
to get a genetic sample from the New Garavaran Gene Databanks! Cute kid,
Arala.
Some of the pirates (like the dead ones who were in Engineering, which is
where Arala and her mom were holed up) had some funny marks on them. Arala
and her mom say that maybe they'd fallen into some electrical wiring. I
didn't see any open, but oh, well.
One of the pirates says Arala and her mom had rigged up some spark-throwing
device -- and Arala was certainly playing with the gravity on the ship until
Warren asked her to stop so we could come on and shoot pirates. Another,
the lead fellow (Mr. Combat Helmet, who is a Thral), is also helpful in
providing answers about the strength of the pirate ship (1 disruptor beam,
two particle beams, assorted lasers...) and says which of the pirates was
the pilot, who knows where the rendevouz spot is... (That pirate is the
Blaster-Rifle Kintaran, Grayscar.)
**Sep 4, 155**
Cyrus gets patched up and will probably survive his brief stint of being
dead. We get to Kestral, off-load ore, off-load pirates, and I talk Parvari
into letting the furries stay on until New Garavar (since there's a decent
chance that I'll be able to find a Xeno-anthropologist to babysit them there...).
I take the furries sight-seeing. They want to talk to Unars...
Awol announces that he's going to be hanging around with Arala and her mom
-- they need help, he says. This means that Parvari will wait until Cyrus
is up and walking...and hire him. Dear Stars.
At least I will have time to arrange something with that cargo I contracted
to carry.
**Sep 5, 155**
I drop in on Cyrus, say I'm glad that he's alive, since I'd have hated to
have risked my life for nothing, and bop out again.
Around in here, She calls up and is curious about the furries -- "Kayolas,"
She calls them. I think Dr. Jones might have done that as well, but I was
not really in any condition to note details like that.
She talks to them for a while (falling into their contagious speech patterns
at least once, and mentioning that She was the one who shut down the recalcitrant
AIs) and manages to get them talking first to Sapient Brisha, and then to
Sapient Carval, who says they must have been captured by Mante (one of the
shut-down ones) and it's very sorry about that, and *it* explains that "the
Artemis Zonemind" made all the AIs leave, and that any Zoneminds who
didn't promise to stop killing Thrals were shut down. It does allow that
"the Artemis Zonemind" is really more like several Zoneminds working
together. The Kayolas want to know if they can hunt the Selene Zonemind.
Sapient Carval explains that Selene is an ally now, so no, they can't. It
tries to coax them back to stay with it until it gets a new planet. It agrees
that they can go to new planets and see if the planets are good, but it
can't talk them into coming back and going into cold-sleep ("sleeping
is boring"). Apparently it and the White Lady are going to set up some
trust fund and try to lure a xanthropologist in to babysit the pair; I have
no idea what will happen next...
**Sep 20, 155**
After arranging to get the Doberbot and weapons that I got to Flare's (expended:
$2000 credits; got back: $3000. Not bad.), I take myself over to Her ship,
wondering why I got that summons/request/whatever. Turns out that She, stars
help her, is bored (and lonely), and wants to talk to somebody who is 1:
having more fun than Her, and 2: not somebody from one of Her ships (since
She can know everything *there*, just about). ("Why else do you think
I have so many weird people on my ships?")
It turns out (after poor Diana is cut from the loop), that She happens to
*like* hot-pilot types. She says that She'd always wanted to be one. I,
brain overheating, allow that I'd thought She was... too self-confident,
too stable, to want to be a hot-shot. She said that everyone has a repressed
side. I said that *I* didn't! She said I probably did -- a subconscious
longing for security and stability, an anchor. Then She apologized for analyzing
me, said it was one of her bad habits. I said it was all right, but I wasn't
going to think too hard about it just then, though it didn't seem quite
right... I mentioned Mom, and how Seth'd called her/me "a survivor."
So She said that I'd probably seemed more vunerable, but She thought my
"Mom" was probably just as "lost" as me, might even
*envy* me... My mind definitely boggled. Highly unlikely. Mom's just peeved
at me for being less than perfect. I covered with a comment that nobody
sane would envy working on the same ship as a Hive Beetle.
The topics turned to some of my and Diana's exploits, like those three Marines
we picked up once, and the ways of exhausting them -- not too much interest
in the details of how Diana took on two at once, but when I explained that
males often found the sight of two females "playing" to be...
resurrecting... She blushed! Just a little, but with Her coloration, it
showed quite nicely. Of course, I spend most of the rest of the chat trying
to decide whether I want to try and get Her to blush again, or if that would
be unwise.
Much other discussion, of course, including a mention that all three of
us enjoy "shocking people" -- especially Diana, in her new body.
*Bad* pun. I tell Her that She's definitely a sadist.
She shows off various ship designs that She's done up, though not yet built.
I drool over the fast ones, and admire the less-than-fast ones too. She
asks what I'm looking for in a ship, so I tell Her (fast and stealthed),
and then mutter darkly about people who would make me sell my soul.
She said that She owes *me* a favor or three! I suppose I won't argue too
much, since I got my silly self shot while rescuing Her mom, but I'd thought
that would be more of an evening up of the debt that *I* owe *Her*.
She asks if I'd like to stop by and visit again sometime, and I say, "Your
whim is my command!" She looks a little startled, that I'd want to
visit a "boring old computer hacker," so I mentioned that I could
count the number of people who Knew about me on the fingers of one hand,
and have fingers left over, and it was *nice* to be able to talk to somebody
where I didn't have to hide details all the time. Then I ask if She's going
to be free during my week of shoreleave.
Diana, after I leave, asks what happened for forty-three minutes in there
-- was I seducing Her? I nearly choke, and sputter "NO!" Not that
She's not my type, of course, but I'm not sure if I'm Hers. She did blush.
But it's really too much to hope for. Anyway, I tell Diana as much -- that
I don't think I'm Her type, and then ask, "Am I?" To which I get
a smirk and a declaration that that's personal business, which Diana's always
been banned from talking about. Of course, Di suggests, I could ask *Her*...
To which I state that I'm going to do no such thing, of course.
Diana then says that I'm afraid of Selene, to which I reply, "The person
who took out a station? The person who has enough data to get me rehabilitated
and maybe brainwiped, and Mom certainly brainwiped? You *bet* I'm afraid
of her!" Diana says that She wouldn't tell anyone -- She's very ethical
about personal privacy. I say that I don't want to be annoying, and tempt
Her to make any phone calls. Diana insists that She wouldn't, that She doesn't
take things personally anyway -- look at how She handled Vlad. I point out
that She let *me* have Vlad, and that was probably a pretty good revenge,
even if I couldn't bring myself to do him in while he was being a puppy.
Diana allows that I have a point. I also state that if I ever catch him
again, I will deactivate his clones and braintapes, max out his credcards
again, then rip out his living heart and feed it to him. Which would be
merciful, compared to what Mom would do. Diana allows that I had a point
there, too.
**Sep. 21, 155**
More chatting with Her. I think She's having fun tormenting me... Watching
my bioscans, no less! Fraggitall. So I started trancing out so She couldn't
tell when She'd said something that made *me* sort-of blush. She thought
that was interesting.
Wish I dared to flirt at Her. She's het. I *know* She's het. Though She
did say something about forgoing men for the duration... I really am going
to skin Vlad if I ever catch him. But I don't want to flirt with Her and
maybe freak Her. That would be bad. I *like* talking with Her.
I invited Her to come to Flare's Halloween party with me.
Must remember to encrypt this stuff. Mom would have cow.
Anyway, I mentioned something about going slumming, and that I could fake
up an ID card for Her. She asks what I'd need, and I tell Her, and ask when
I should show up, and She says anytime, so I'll wander over there tomorrow.
At the end of that, I bowed to Her, and She griped a little about it, and
I told Her, "But sometimes it's *fun*" and beat a hasty retreat.
Diana says that She just sat at Her desk for a while after that...
**Sep. 22, 155**
Wandered over, and She showed off the disguise She wants -- had a holobelt.
Though the first setting wasn't the disguise... It was a black leather outfit
holo... Then She said "Oops." At least She'd taken off that sensor-visor
first, so She couldn't see what that did to my heart-rate, even if I *was*
grinning at the notion. She looked pretty neat in that... She said it was
a Halloween costume from a while ago, though She hadn't used it. [[This
is a fib. This holo wasn't intended for Halloween at all. She was also bioscanning
with the wall sensors.]]
I told Her there would be other Halloweens. (And stars know I'd like to
see some of them...)
Weird thing is, when She did that "oops," She didn't blush, and
I think She was looking at me when She did it. Not an accident? Yeah, but
what reaction was She looking for? Me grinning? Me *pouncing*? Stars, I
*wish*. Mrph... I'd better be careful or I'll wax poetic.
Other weird thing is that She didn't have to show off the holodisguise of
"Penelope Adair" (copper-red hair, goes by "Penny,"
of course...) -- She had the data in the computer already...
After I hacked together the ID card (and it wasn't a bad job, I'd say),
I asked Her what She wanted for Christmas. She looked a little boggled,
and asked why, so I told Her that I didn't really have many people to get
gifts for, so why not? She said that She didn't really need much -- a biosuit,
a spare, Her ship... I grinned at Her and said I'd send Her a card, at least.
Later, I called up Diana, and insisted on getting Her measurements. If She's
going to flaunt holo-clothes like that at me, well... In return for the
measurements, and a promise to film Her opening the present, I tell Diana
what I want to get... [[an outfit in black]] Diana wonders if that's not
a bit serious, and apparently *she* didn't get to see the holocostume! I
tell her to just send the measurements to my computer.
[a trip of about a month, probably down Sparrion way; uneventful]
[On to October - December]