Game Date: August 22nd, EY217
Location: Green Star Mining Operation 119 (aka The Curry Bowl) on Lakshmi, a moon of Indra in the Vishnu system
Previous events: Panjeet in Love!
After the finale of "Panjeet in Love" shows the crowd just what a fireworks display in a low-gravity environment can do everyone heads into the pressurized part of the mine and gets out of their suits. The crew of the Steel Hummingbird is planning on leaving, so everyone heads into the bar for a last drink.
Volkova is surprised to be approached in a friendly manner by the engineer that she slugged with Knuta the day before. He's got an obvious bruise on his cheek in the shape of Knuta's head. He apologizes for his behaviour, explaining that he was drunk and couldn't believe that her obviously non-standard wrench could be nearly as useful as Volkova claimed, especially given her claims that "hitting" is a universal mechanic and engineering technique. He humbly asks if she could show him how this works.
He seems sincere, and Volkova is happy to show her techniques to others in her trade. The most obvious piece of equipment to show her abilities on is the mining drill that went down almost a week ago. Now that the Hummingbird has brought in the necessary equipment for it repairs it can be brought back online once the parts are replaced.
The entire crew of the Steel Hummingbird comes along, still little suspicious of the miner's intentions, but he doesn't seem menacing at all. Everyone suits back up and heads down the long mining tunnel in a couple of miner transport vehicles to the very end of the mine shaft, where a monstrous drill sits still. Volkova examines the equipment while a few miners and mechanics come over to see what's going on. When she begins to savagely beat the equipment the miners are concerned, but she's soon done, and the hydraulic system is in place and fully operational despite looking a bit the worse for wear.
The various mechanics curiously examine her work, which is unorthodox in the extreme but extremely solid. She shows them that the pieces can still be removed with the judicial application of still more force, to the amazement of all. They're so impressed that they offer her a position on the spot, replacing someone who was killed in an accident, but she refuses, for now at least.
Back in the pressurized mine complex there are no outgoing jobs, which isn't surprising for such a small mining operation: most of what leaves here is refined ore, after all. Back at the ship, it looks like there is something else that will keep them from leaving immediately. There is a folded note taped on the main entry hatch that's addressed to Malcolm. It reads "If you're interested in xenotech, see me" with an address. Bishop and Malcolm go to check this out, Malcolm bringing his pistol, while Jillian and Volkova prep the Hummingbird for liftoff.
The address is in the residential block of the complex and the occupant urges them to enter quickly. Her name is Rosemarie Laughton, a Piccadillian like Malcolm. While she seems to have gone to some lengths to make herself look plain, the apartment is quite frilly. She tells them that she's heard that Malcolm has been asking if anyone's seen anything… alien in local space, something with tentacles. Philipe Carozzo, a friend of hers on the Dobbs Habitat, where she lives, did in fact see something similar to what Malcolm's been talking about. He was telling people about it but recently went missing. His ship is still docked at the Habitat but he's disappeared along with his journal; she had a key to his quarters, but he's the only one who knows the codes to get into his ship. Bishop and Malcolm can't help her, but they do all agree to share information should anything else come up. On the way out, Malcolm asks her about the apartment's frilliness. It's not her place; it belonged to someone who died in a mining accident and it's being rented out to visitors. This is much like the furnished apartments that Bishop and Malcolm stayed in over the last two days.
The Steel Hummingbird and her crew finally say goodbye to Green Star Mining Operation 119 and head off for the jump gate to Aiscapo. Although there is some temptation to go to the Dobbs Habitat and investigate what happened to Carozzo, the Habitat is fairly far out and perpendicular to their route to the jump gate. There is also the matter of not wanting to "disappear". The trip to Jump Gate Alice should take two days. About halfway there Malcolm picks up a distress signal. It's weak, and if the life support on the ship in question is down it's unlikely that anyone else can make it here before the air reserves in EVA suits will be depleted. Malcolm sends a signal to the Navy's base on Shiva that they're investigating. Out here it will take half an hour before the signal even reaches Shiva. During the hour it takes the ship to get to the source of the distress signal medical equipment (mostly worms and ground herbs) and EVA suits are prepared by Bishop and Volkova, respectively. Jillian and Malcolm keep a wary eye out the windows and on the sensors; this is a classic pirate trap.
It's obvious when they find the ship that it's been in a fight and came in second. It's matte black, much larger than the Hummingbird, and looks to be heavily armed and armoured. The ship is also heavily damaged, with a debris field around it and deep gouges in the hull from what might be beam weapons. Only the Navy is officially allowed to use beam weapons. There are no sensor readings of anything on the ship functioning. The closest functional entryway to the bridge looks to be a boarding launch dock that's currently empty. Malcolm stops the Hummingbird close to this entry point and extends the short umbilical. Everyone suits up and heads to the ship. The damaged spacecraft has all the hallmarks of a pirate ship, so everyone brings along their weapons. Jillian has her shotgun, Malcolm his pistol, and Volkova has Knuta. Bishop, a lover rather than a fighter, brings his charm.
After manually cycling the airlock everyone enters a long hallway that runs what seems to be the length of the ship. There is neither light nor atmosphere here, and flashlights are used to find the way to the bridge, their primary goal. The lack of a functioning space drive also means a lack of artificial gravity, so everyone has at least some difficulty in the microgravity and clumsy EVA suits. There are many doors and exits from the hallway that go unexplored. A corpse greets them at the end of the hallway. It looks like he didn't make it to an EVA suit in time judging by the lack of physical damage. The corpse also seems pretty fresh and likely died in the last day or so. The closed door to the bridge looks like it's airtight. Malcolm bangs on it in Morse code and feels a reply through the door. To summarize the slow conversation: There are no functional comms on the bridge, but it is still pressurized. There are three people on the bridge and only one EVA suit. Other EVA suits would be in lockers by the airlocks.
The Hummingbird's crew head back down the hall, looking for suits. There aren't any by the damaged front airlock nor by the boarding capsule dock. At the rear airlock, right by engineering, they find another corpse in much the same state as the first. There are two EVA suits here, enough for the people on the bridge. Since they're right by the engineering section, they decide to pay it a visit and see the state of affairs. They manually open the doors and take one step in before Malcolm's flashlight shines on a hand holding a pistol! He hauls Bishop out of the line of fire as whoever is in the engineering section shoots at their lights. The bullet misses Bishop by a hair and everyone piles back into the corridor. Volkova jams the door shut with a piece of debris. Everyone who is armed takes their weapons out while Bishop regains his calm.
Jillian notices that the corpse by engineering has a tattoo of a black rose with a snake curling around the stem. She recognizes this as the sign of a criminal organization from her home system called the Black Rose Syndicate. Everyone is worried and not sure what to do next. Deciding that more information would be good, Jillian and Malcolm head out the airlock. Tethered to the ship, they use their flashlights to signal to the survivors through the bridge windows while also seeing what the situation in there really is. There are indeed three people, one of whom has an EVA suit on. A slow conversation follows by flashlight. When told about the incident in engineering, the bridge survivors seem surprised that anyone else on the ship is alive. They say that their ship was attacked by an alien ship with tentacles; the description pretty much matches what the Steel Hummingbird's crew saw.
A plan is hatched and communicated to the bridge. There is another room off of the bridge that the survivors can hide in while the Hummingbird's crew opens the door to the bridge and drop the extra EVA suits in. Layers of found plastic taped to the corridor's walls just outside the bridge will help to prevent too much atmosphere from escaping and, with the door closed again, the survivors can re-enter the bridge and don the suits.
This all seems to go according to plan. After giving the survivors enough time to get the suits on, Jillian and Malcolm point their weapons at the door as it opens...
Bishop's Bedpost Notch Count: Zero. (running total: 6)
Volkova's Bedpost Notch Count: Zero (running total: 1)