Game date: October 5th, EY217
Location: Providence | Limbaugh | McNeely station
Previous events: Still stuck on McNeely station
Once the medics and police have left everyone in the flat spends a while cleaning up the mess. Once that's done and Jillian's door has been reattached by Volkova they decide to head off to a pub to take their minds off of what's happened through alcohol and snooker, leaving a note for Bishop on the door as they leave. Harry -- even more paranoid than before -- has to practically be dragged off but reluctantly accompanies the rest rather than stay in the flat on his own.
Bishop gets back in a funk. He got a bad feeling about the girl he went off with and tried to hide his money but things went south nonetheless: she found it anyway and her burly boyfriend showed up and chased Bishop away. He gives the note a cursory reading and dejectedly goes to bed. A Dream comes to him in his restless sleep. He sees all the planets in the galaxy, many connected with thick lines, like ley lines. In the Aiscapo cluster only uBuntu has these lines, leading off across space. There are some more tenuous lines as well connecting other planets. He notices that Ingraham has one of these lines.
The next morning Bishop talks privately to Jillian about Harry. He neither likes nor trusts the thug and wants to get rid of him. Perhaps they could maroon him on a planet like... Ingraham? Jillian refuses, not in the least because the planet has a toxic atmosphere and no human population at all. She may not like Harry either but she's not going to treat him that way.
Next on the agenda is a trip to the police to give their full version of what happened the night before. José comes along to smooth out the process again, as he did last night. Everyone tells the truth, Jillian mentions that the thugs specifically asked for Harry, and Harry goes out of his way to mention that he's sure that the Seldin corporation is behind the attack. Volkova's rambling account of reptoids no doubt working behind the scenes on all this gets her an interview with a psychologist, making everyone else wait for an extra two hours while she's analyzed. While they wait José tells them that the goons that attacked them were "known to police". Once Volkova is finally and reluctantly released they head back to the flat as a group. Jillian hangs back a bit with Volkova and brings up the idea of the engineer getting some therapy; her stay in prison seems to have affected her and the captain is worried. The engineer was never like this before her two weeks in Sogbag D. Volkova is unconvinced that she needs help.
After the previous night's experiences Harry's paranoia seems more logical and thoughts turn to setting up an alarm system and reinforcing their doors and windows. It's easy enough to find a hardware store where Volkova can find tools, boards, and nails as well as the wires, batteries, and bells that she needs to set up a bare-bones alarm. She also takes some time to pick up a nonstandard wrench and some pink paint to make a new Knuta.
Back at the flat they find a note tucked between the door and the frame. It's from a Pramath Desai, who wants them to call him. No one knows who he is but his handwriting is very neat; how bad can he be? Bishop calls him while everyone else hammers, saws, and wires. Desai -- who has a fairly superior air to his voice -- is from the Eggen Observatory, which Bishop has never heard of, and makes a bit of an issue about it having been difficult for him to find them. Desai further says that the director of the observatory, Dr. Roberta Kirshner, wants to meet with them. There is a shuttle leaving from Bay 62 in the McNeely hub tomorrow at 16h. He'll meet them there, if they're interested. Bishop covers the mouthpiece on the phone and after a quick conversation with the others agrees to meet Desai. This seems to be a much too subtle ploy for Selden Auto Parts and seems like it could be interesting. Besides, leaving the station will also put some space between them and the next wave of goons that Selden Auto Parts may send.
The group splits up for the rest of the day for various tasks. Volkova finishes setting up the alarms and such while Bishop and Gabi head off to the local branch of the library to look up information on Eggen observatory. They find that it's a mobile space observatory run out of Aiscapo University that examines not just stars but also the planets of the Providence system. It's fairly lightly crewed, with only seven people on board. Roberta Kirshner is indeed the director of the observatory and has published with Rolf Fisher, though the titles of the papers indicate that they're too complex for nonspecialists to understand. Based on the publication dates of her early papers she's quite advanced in years. While they're looking things up Jillian is putting an obituary for Harry Young in the McNeely Times.
Everyone save Harry ends up at the Rampant Lion pub that night, making a fuss about him having been killed the previous night. They have no idea if this will work but it can't help to try, right? Confident that Selden won't send more thugs right away and trusting Volkova's work lets everyone sleep surprisingly well that night.
Everyone keeps themselves busy the next day packing and preparing for the trip to Eggen. Bishop writes to Warden Wang again to keep the fires burning. Since everyone's going to the observatory Jillian asks José if he might take care of Ghost but he's deathly allergic to cats. Gabi manages to find a sitter for the cat from a posted note in the street. The sitter, Brooke, is a 17 year-old ditz of a redhead but she's got enough in her head to take care of a cat and Ghost seems to take to her. Malcolm spends his day prowling the used bookstores of McNeely and, after flashing enough money around, gets two copies of the Ms. Tool Belt EY197 calendar... one still shrinkwrapped, no less. He returns to the flat in a wonderful mood but keeps his find a secret.
When 16h rolls around they're at McNeely bay 62, where Pramath greets them with a slightly annoyed air; Jillian gets the feeling that he feels he's on a babysitting mission that's beneath him. He's wearing what he probably thinks are classy clothes but they don't hide his beginning of a paunch. After introductions are made everyone boards Eggen 1, a blocky shuttle. It's more of a cargo shuttle than one designed for passengers and it's going to be a somewhat uncomfortable flight with so many people on board, not unlike many people's experiences on the Steel Hummingbird. The pilot, Ester Weiß, is friendly enough and sports some impressively gelled-down short blonde hair. As they leave the station everyone settled in as best they can, Volkova hiding out in the cargo hold to smoke without Jillian nagging her about it.
On the minuscule bridge Jillian can't help but take a look at the flight plan and notices that it's terribly plotted, obviously the work of a rank amateur, sailing too close to the gravitational wells that slow down the space drive and not taking any advantage of the faster zones. She politely brings this up to Pramath along with a suggestion for a much more efficient path and despite her gentle tone he takes offence at her implication that he's a poor navigator -- which he manifestly is -- and stalks off to the cargo hold, where he bums a smoke off of Volkova. Ester doesn't really care that Pramath is annoyed and is happy to take a faster route.
The flight to Eggen takes two largely uneventful days. Malcolm can't help but spend much of his time on the bridge and although he's a better pilot than Ester she's good enough that he doesn't bring it up. The two of them talk quite a bit and apropos nothing he flashes her the calendar halfway to the observatory, confusing her.
Pramath never warms up to Jillian but he does take a shine to Malcolm once he tastes some of his tea. Complaining about the quality of both food and drink on Eggen, Pramath asks Malcolm if he's looking for work as a cook! Malcolm politely turns him down. When Pramath brings up the topic of why Kirshner might want to meet them Malcolm immediately thinks of their encounter with the squid ship but manages to bite his tongue and feign ignorance.
On October 8th the ship docks at the Eggen Observatory.
Bishop's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 11)
Volkova's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 1)