Game Date: August 23rd, EY217
Location: Vishnu system, in space between Indra and jump gate Alice
Previous events: Passing some EVA suits to survivors, likely pirates, on the wrecked ship Gurg
Everyone holds on to something as air rushes out the door to the bridge. Someone steps out in an EVA suit. He seems unarmed, but the two others who exit have submachine guns, and the first to exit the bridge reveals a pistol that he's been concealing. No one is overtly hostile but no one is very trusting, either, and it very quickly turns into a Truxican standoff. A gunfight without atmosphere would be incredibly deadly and without lights other than flashlights or gravity it would be luck, not skill, that would determine who'd be left alive after the bullets stopped flying. This is the sort of thing that bording parties train in, but it doesn't seem like anyone involved in the present situation has much of that sort of training.
Both sides try to convince the other to put down their weapons. Bishop pours on the charm, Volkova tries to convince the supposed pirates that they have need of an engineer if they're going to get their ship moving again. Everyone is a little stunned when Malcolm decides to holster his Blingmaster 5000 pistol and head back to the Steel Hummingbird. With most of the crew still there the survivors of the Gurg decide to let him go. Bishop's charm eventually wins out and a deal is struck: everyone will leave their firearms in the corridor just outside the bridge but take the ammo with them. Danger averted for the moment, the apparent leader of the Gurg crew introduces himself as Massoud. He seems friendly enough now that no one’s armed.
Back on the Hummingbird, Malcolm gets the ship ready to leave and starts to keep tabs on the comms to see if the Gurg's crew is using comms at all. They're not doing so as far as he can tell, so he makes some tea and keeps checking out the comms just in case.
Back on the Gurg, everyone goes to the engineering section. A note is written by Massoud and, attached to a flashlight, tossed into engineering. There is no gunfire, unlike last time, and after a few minutes two more crew come out, making five survivors so far. It's decided that everyone should check out different areas of the sizable Gurg for more survivors with the exception of Volkova, who will look at engineering to see what she can do. She is aided by Anthony, the salvage equipment operator who knows just enough to help her. She rips some clothes off of a corpse in engineering "for rags" but is actually looking for another snake-and-rose tattoo, which she doesn't see.
While the search is going on, Malcolm dons his EVA suit again and enters the wreck. He takes all of the weapons from the hallway and leaves them just outside the boarding launch dock with the exception of the shotgun, which he takes back to the Hummingbird. Back in his seat he keeps the shotgun on his lap and a cuppa close by while maintaining an eye on the comms.
It seems that only five crew survived whatever happened to the Gurg. The captain's corpse has been found, officially making Massoud the one in charge. What was it that happened, exactly? Massoud explains that they came across a ship in space that seems much like the squid ship that the Hummingbird found. It seemed dead in space but when they tried to salvage it, it suddenly powered up and attacked them. He claims that their own ship is an old military model they got cheaply and that the boarding capsule dock is a remnant of the old design; the Gurg hasn't had a boarding capsule since they've owned it.
By the time that the search for survivors is over Volkova has almost got the space drive working well enough to get the ship moving, if not too impressively. With the engines running artificial gravity is restored, making everything easier. The general ship systems such as internal power and life support will take a fair bit longer.
While Volkova is banging away at the ship, Bishop talks to Tapan Markesh, one of the Gurg's crew. He's not a sailor, but is a xenotech specialist instead, and more than a bit chatty. The Gurg's EVA suits are old and for survival rather than real extravehicular activities, and without a functional comm unit in Tapan's suit the two must put their helmets together to communicate. It does make the conversation rather private!
Bishop is both charming and very social. He gets lots of information out of the guileless Tapan, much of it very interesting. The Gurg had a second ship accompanying it, similar in size to the Steel Hummingbird, called the Carcharon. They did indeed find the squid ship as Massoud says, but the Gurg sent a boarding capsule over to it. A second, larger, squid ship appeared out of nowhere and started to blast away at the Gurg, crippling it. Tapan doesn't know what happened to the Carcharon during all this. Moving on to other topics, Tapan recommends that the young Bishop go to Aiscapo University, where he studied xenotech with Dr. Rolf Fisher. Also, rush the Trilam fraternity! They have amazing parties! He gets Bishop's mail box number at the Ashram and promises to contact him; he seems to consider Bishop a friend already.
While this is going on Jillian and Massoud have a conversation of their own, but they dance around topics and play their cards very close to the vest. In the end they don't manage to find out much about the other.
Bishop tells Jillian what he's found out, and over the next little while the Hummingbird's crew hatches a plan. The sensor information that they already have is no doubt valuable but they could likely get even more for it if they had two sets of sensor readings from a squid ship. They decide to take the Gurg's sensor console back to the Hummingbird for repairs and copy its data there. The plan involves distracting the Gurg's crew while this is going on. It's not a ludicrous idea to do some of the more finicky repairs on the less-wrecked Hummingbird, so it shouldn't be too difficult to pull this off.
The comms and life support have been fixed, making everything much more pleasant and efficient. Unmesh, one of the Gurg's crew, complains over the comms that the weapons left by the bridge have been removed, but no one does anything about it; the ship is nearing functionality and everyone is focused on that.
Volkova gets the pirates to repair the more superficial damage to the ship. Bored, they're happy to occupy themselves. Massoud helps with the ship systems. He runs sensors on the ship but knows how to operate them more than how the electronics actually work. Volkova and Jillian manage to convince him that the sensor equipment needs a trip to the Hummingbird while Bishop keeps Massoud distracted by praising Volkova's engineering abilities to the heavens.
With the sensor equipment on the Hummingbird, Jillian quickly copies as much of the sensor and navigation data as she can and takes a quick look at some of it. The ship is from Zartosht, a system that Jillian knows from another cluster. There are indeed data about the squid ship and based on its navigation data this is likely the ship that attacked the Resplendent Dragon.
It's not too long before the Gurg is repaired well enough to limp to a port somewhere. Everyone is relieved that the repairs are done and that no one has done anything violent or stupid. This relief is broken when Unmesh shows up, having found the weapons that Malcolm left by the capsule dock. He waves two SMGs around menacingly but is sternly talked down by Massoud and sullenly allows the Hummingbird's crew to leave unmolested. The farewells are short and awkward after Unmesh’s scene.
Malcolm's been keeping the Hummingbird ready to go for a while now and as soon as the rest of the crew is on board he cuts in the engines and fires the afterburner to get out of the area before the Gurg can try anything. Everyone hopes that Massoud and his crew didn't get a good look at their ship; if they did it's pretty hard to forget! Once they're convinced that they're safe they beam a message to the Navy on Shiva telling them about the pirates, the state of their ship, and that it does seem to be the ship that attacked the Resplendent Dragon. They have done their duty both in helping out a stranded ship and telling the Navy about the presence of pirates.
At this point it's August 24th. The gate to Aiscapo opens in a day, and it's going to be a race to get there on time.
Bishop's Bedpost Notch Count: Zero. (running total: 6)
Volkova's Bedpost Notch Count: Zero (running total: 1)