Game Date: August 7th, EY217
Location: Labrys City (planet: Kali, system: Vishnu)
Events: Confusion, Dukes of Hazzard-style driving, lucky Volkova
The near-death experience of the day has apparently been too much for Bishop, and when he lunges for the communications console in an attempt to broadcast an offer to help all the inhabitants of Labrys City with their "problem" he is locked in the galley. Malcolm, who can't leave the hangar in any case, stays on board drinking tea, checking out the damage, and making sure that Bishop doesn't escape. Sara Pettigrew accompanies Jillian and Volkova to the infirmary. The crew of the Steel Hummingbird having decided to pretend themselves deceased, Jillian and Volkova don hasty disguises. The floppy hats and oversized sunglasses make them look like film stars vainly attempting anonymity, but seem to work well enough. Jody Joy goes to tell the officials of Labrys City what happened in person, trying to keep everything as quiet as possible.
Volkova's prognosis is better than hoped: with a planetary atmosphere filled with chlorine, the Labryssian doctors are quite accomplished with these sorts of lung injuries. They can remove most of the residue in her lungs by filling one at a time with a gel extracted from some of the plants of Kali and then sucking out the gel with, hopefully, the residue preferentially sticking to the gel. The procedure will take most of the day and promises to be unpleasant, but Volkova refuses sedatives. Convinced that Volkova is in good hands, Jillian heads off to the command centre with Sara Pettigrew to discuss the day's events. Disha Malach, the head of security, is there, talking to Jody Joy. Malach will hold an emergency meeting with members from the council immediately. This meeting will take place in the hangar to allow Malcolm to attend. Jillian takes another look at the Labrys City sensor data, hoping to find something, but the sensors are mediocre civilian-grade and don't show anything interesting.
Attending the meeting in the hangar are the crew of the Steel Hummingbird, excepting Bishop, who hasn't yet recovered, Jody Joy, Disha Malach, and three members of the Labrys City Council. Volkova shows up in a wheelchair with an IV stand. She has a huge tube running out of one nostril to a hanging bag filled with a thick, sickly yellow-green liquid; no one is certain if the bag is filling or draining her lung. There are four items on the hastily drawn-up agenda: who the attackers are; immediate actions to take; repairing the Hummingbird; and arming Labrys City. No one knows for sure, but the general feel is that the "enemy" has a base and is mining some rare mineral. Why they are so murderous is a mystery. Any communications to Shiva, the Homeworld base in this system, will undoubtedly be overheard and may result in Labrys City being no more before any help shows up, so the best plan is for the Hummingbird to evade the ships in orbit and fly to Shiva directly. To do this it needs to be repaired, and Labrys City, having no ships of its own, doesn't have the necessary parts. There is a ship that crashed on approach due to being in poor repair a few years ago. Its wreck is not too far from the city and after the removal of the corpses and cargo it was left where it was. It will likely have salvageable parts. The Hummingbird's crew agrees to go and pull what they can off of that ship. Finally, the council announce that they have decided to arm Labrys City. Until now it's only had a few small arms and hasn't felt the need for anything more, but it looks like times have changed and heavier weapons are needed. Two of the Hummingbird's crew have military histories, and they are a cargo ship. Would they be willing to help? The crew isn't terribly enthusiastic about this, but are willing to think about it. The meeting over, Jillian spends some time trying to listen in on the attackers' communications, but doesn't find anything new: they're in code and are coming from the expected locations. With more mysteries than answers, everyone calls it a night and goes to bed.
Volkova wakes up in the infirmary the next day feeling much better. Much better than usual, in fact; the gel has removed not only the deposits acquired during her emergency repairs from the ship, but also from years of smoking! She can't smoke in the recovery room, but knows that her first cigarette will be heavenly. She also gets unexpected visitors: two young Labryssians whom she doesn't recognize, but who have somehow found out who she is. They shyly ask her to sign their mint-condition, double-bagged copies of the mechanic calendar she appeared in twenty years ago! She happily does so, and is pleasantly surprised when the cuter, older one slips Volkova her contact information. Volkova is grinning widely when released, and the first cigarette she smokes is the icing on the cake.
Preparations for the trip to the crashed ship go well. The Labryssians will lend the Hummingbird's crew a land crawler, salvage equipment, and two burly salvage engineers. They'll even trade them two first-class EVA suits for the dubious ones purchased on The Ashram. Jody Joy will accompany them again in her position of cartographer, though she's a little nervous after what happened last time she did so. The trip should take a full day but Malcolm, aided by copious amounts of caffeinated tea, drives the crawler through the entire trip in record time, maintaining a high speed and ignoring Jody Joy's directions whenever she suggests going around some feature on the landscape instead of jumping over it or ploughing through it. The ship is right where it should be, and for a wreck it's in very good shape for their needs. Cutting off and hauling parts takes twelve hours or so, during which Malcolm sleeps and someone constantly stands guard. When everything is loaded on board, Malcolm drives the whole way back again.
Back in Labrys City, Volkova immediately starts repairs and over the next three days runs the repair crew the Labryssians have provided ragged. She doesn't take any extra time off herself and doesn't understand why anyone else should, either. Well, she does take some time to get together with the cutie who showed up in the recovery room, but that's during her scheduled rest time, or close enough. Both parties understand that this is recreation, not anything serious, and enjoy themselves fully. Volkova tells Bishop -- who is still locked up -- about this, hoping to make him jealous, but instead he's wildly enthusiastic about Volkova's exploits, asking her for every detail.
By the time August 14th rolls around the ship is as fixed as it's going to be for now. Everything is in working order with the exception of the cargo hold, which needs sturdier hull plates than the wreck could furnish. It's time to run the gauntlet one more time and hopefully make it to the authorities in one piece.
Bishop's Bedpost Notch Count: Zero. (running total: 4)
Volkova's Bedpost Notch Count: 1 (running total: 1)