Game date: October 8th, EY217
Location: Providence | Eggen Observatory
Previous events: An invitation to meet with Dr. Roberta Kirshner
Eggen Observatory, run by Aiscapo University, looks like a small apartment building tacked onto a massive telescope and other sensor equipment, which is largely what it is. Jillian is impressed by the array; it's the best that she's ever seen. As the Eggen 1 shuttle approaches the observatory the pilot, Ester Weiß, tells everyone that the space drive is out and so there's no artificial gravity for the time being. With the exception of Bishop, the Steel Hummingbird's crew are reasonably competent at maneuvering in micro-g and shrug it off but Pramath swears about how the entire observatory is falling apart; this is hardly the first time in recent memory that the drive has failed. Once the Eggen 1's engines are off it's time to hold on to handholds and carefully launch oneself around the interior dock. Bishop, Gabi, and Harry do a decent job of it despite their inexperience but Pramath careens out of control and bounces off of walls cursing all the while, and leaves to talk to Kirshner.
Kieran Hughes, one of the station's crew, comes by to help move the cargo out of the shuttle and into the storage area adjacent to the dock. Everyone who's made the trip offers to help with the exception of Volkova, who decides to go see what she can do about helping to repair the space drive until she notices a bipedal cargo loader and asks if she can use it. Kieran shrugs: no one on the ship has any training in it but if she knows how to run one she's free to use it. Volkova doesn't have any formal training in it either but has goofed around in them a few times and its magnetic feet keep her on the ground and make things easier. There are advantages and disadvantages to moving heavy pallets in micro-g conditions but they manage to get everything stowed away after about half an hour without any injuries. During the move Volkova finds out that Kieran is the cook on the station and asks him if there is any pie. She was promised pie. Kieran reassures her that he will defrost some.
Cargo moved, Volkova heads off to see what's going on with the space drive while everyone else takes the elevator and heads up to the bridge. It isn't the sort of bridge that you'd have on a ship, more awkward and much of the view out the window being taken up by the telescope and miscellaneous sensor equipment. There are two people hunched over something on the bridge. One is a man in his early 30s, the other an extremely old woman in a pink floral bathrobe leaning on a walker. The two look up as the door opens and Malcolm notices that they're looking at the latest issue of The Star, the one with their photos in it! The elderly woman introduces the man as Klaus and herself as Roberta Kirshner. She hobbles over to them in her walker, which seems to have magnetic feet to go along with her magnetized slippers.
Why someone who needs a walker wouldn't take advantage of micro-g is a question that comes to mind but Kirshner quickly starts asking them about their entrance to the system and why they flew their ship perpendicular to the elliptical plane on September 16th. The observatory has noticed ships doing this for a month or so but all the other ships have disappeared. The Steel Hummingbird is the first one they've seen that has come back and, after noticing the memorable paint job on the ship, Kirshner decided to send Pramath to find them, which took some time. They discuss the photos in The Star (which the Steel Hummingbird's crew never claim ownership of) and what happened on that perpendicular flight. Jillian and Malcolm agree to look at the data that the observatory collected on the mystery ship that they followed and its disappearance.
Down in the mechanical bowels of the observatory Volkova notices that the equipment here is past its prime and desperately worn out. Following the sounds of someone working on something she finds the engineer, Jörg, working on the space drive. He's somewhat older than Volkova, with a nose that was never set properly after having been broken long ago, and after introductions they get to the task of working out what's wrong with the drive. Volkova is an amazing engineer and Jörg is her equal; they are both impressed by the other's ability and make quick work on the equipment. It's obvious that it's been patched together many more times than is strictly safe but they bend themselves to the task of patching it one more time.
Everyone on the bridge heads to the Analysis Room -- that actually has a computer! -- to examine the data in more detail. The Analysis Room has tables, reference books, charts on the walls, large calculators with nixie tube displays, slide rules, a teleprinter, and a terminal that's connected to the computer, which actually resides in an adjacent room. Jillian, Kirshner, and Malcolm start to examine the data. This looks like it will take a little while and Kirshner calls down to the kitchen to ask Kieran, the cook on the station, to bring up some tea. Bishop, Gabi, and Harry soon tire of the equipment and conversation that's entirely beyond their comprehension. Klaus offers to show them the computer proper and they gladly leave the room. The computer is enormous and contains a large amount of glowing vacuum tubes; despite the cooling equipment it's a very warm room and the cutting-edge technology also unfortunately holds little interest for its guests.
About an hour after Volkova joins Jörg at the drive it's ready to go. He informs everyone on the station that gravity is about to come back and after a pause to let everyone orient themselves and set everything down gravity is restored. An instant later Kieran comes into the Analysis Room with a tray of squeezy tubes of tea, the only safe way to drink in micro-g. Kirshner gives him a sad look and asks him now that gravity is back to make some proper tea, in cups, for their guests. Kieran's shoulders slump and he heads back out the door. Malcolm decides that he's contributed what he can to the analysis and follows him to the kitchen. Pramath mentioned how terrible the cooking was on the observatory and Malcolm would rather brew some tea on his own to ensure it's drinkable. Down in the kitchen he's horrified to see Kieran empty the squeezy bags of tea back into a large collapsable carboy that's half full of tea. Kieran claims that as long as you make sure that there's no air in the carboy you can keep tea fresh for up to a week. A quick shudder strikes Malcolm. Once he recovers he starts to show Kieran how to properly make tea.
Combining what Jillian and Volkova had worked out with the extensive analysis that Kirshner had done before Jillian et al. showed up it's obvious that the energy signature is caused by a space drive modified in the way that Maurice Clegman's was. Powering the drive to release that energy signature at the point where the mystery ship disappeared should cause an effect something like the jump gates, only without requiring a jump gate. What's more, that point is not unique. There should be another one below the jump gate as well and more farther away, though those would be exponentially farther from the orbital plane. This is a phenomenal breakthrough!
Jillian knows that Volkova has already said that she could modify the Steel Hummingbird's space drive to allow this energy signature but she is worried about what "disappearing" actually entails. Who knows where one reappears? She asks Kirshner if the observatory can put together an experiment that's this complex. Of course, says Kirshner. The observatory has lots of shiny high-tech equipment and Kirshner would love to write up a paper on this.
Volkova comes up from the space drive and claims that everything on the observatory is falling apart. Introduced to Kirshner, she asks her what she knows about reptoids. Kirshner is confused by the questioning and Volkova is forced to conclude that reptoids are not her speciality. Reunited, the crew of the Hummingbird discuss the experiment and decide to go for it. Volkova will work with Jörg and the technicians on board to design the modifications and Jillian and Kirshner will work on where the ship might disappear to. All this can only be put into effect once the modifications to the ship are completed, of course, but that gives them over three weeks to do the work. Arrangements are begun to house the crew in the already cramped observatory.
If they're going to be here for a while they might as well check out any messages that they might have back on McNeely. Bishop has a message from Emily Varnsen, of all people. He has it read to him and it's disturbing: Emily has no hard feelings about what happened to Kel -- he deserved whatever happened to him -- but her family blames her for the whole thing. They're keeping her locked up in the house and are beating her! She hopes that she'll be able to sneak this letter out to him and hopes that he'll rescue her.
Malcolm also has a letter, from the station itself, which he has read to him as well. It's confusing: the payment on his docking fee is expired and he needs to pay up or move the ship. He's disturbed, as the Hummingbird should currently be in the process of being modified.
Kirshner checks out her messages and finds that a team from Aiscapo University that was supposed to examine some apparent alien ruins that the observatory noted on Ingraham (it's used to map out planets as well as search the stars) seems to have lost its ship and is stranded on McNeely station. Lost their ship? So it seems, and Kirshner is unclear about exactly what happened.
A quick decision is made to return to McNeely station, see what's going on with the ship, and then travel to Beck and rescue Emily. Ester will fly them back despite them only having been on the observatory for a few hours. Kirshner understands their rush and wishes them the best. She gives Jillian a copy of the data analysis that she's done on the computer.
The shuttle is much more comfortable now that it's mostly empty and the trip back takes a couple of days. On the way Bishop writes a letter to Whang to keep the fires hot and mentions the putative jump points that they've worked out. Jillian talks to McNeely station about the ship and works out that it's sitting in a bay with no work done whatsoever on it with no sign of Ace Repairs and Modifications. She files a report with the McNeely police. There's another ship, the Deccan Driller, that was similarly fleeced and she gets their contact information. The topic is naturally the source of much conversation on the way back and Jillian, who made the arrangements, is embarrassed. She considers herself a better judge of people than she was in this case.
When Jillian describes the man who claimed to be "Bill Miller" Malcolm's eyes narrow. He knows who this is! He claimed his name was Flint Cardesco when he pulled the same stunt on the Devereaux Daredevils and almost bankrupted them. Malcolm is furious at having been taken by the same man twice! He writes a letter to his family about this on the flight back to McNeely and works out the loss: they paid over 32,000 Bleaghs up front for the work, almost a third of the money that they had. It hurts, but they do still have a good buffer of cash left.
The Eggen 1 docks at McNeely on October 10th and Ester gives them her contact information on the station. She's happy to have more time here than back at the observatory and tells the group to take their time here. The crew hurry to the dock to find the Steel Hummingbird there, apparently untouched. Once on board it's apparent that someone tried to force the locked doors into the quarters where the guns and ammunition are stashed but hit an unexpected electrical conduit. The crew search the ship for sabotage or vandalism but don't find anything else awry. Jillian checks the hospitals to find out if anyone has come in with electrical burns but has no such luck. Bishop finds some dirty fingerprints on the enamel painting of the flying banana/moon in the sky (he's not sure which) that may have come from the person who was caught by the electrical charge. The police are called and they take the prints. Not seeing any chance of staying in their flat any more they head on over to get what little they've left and say goodbye to José; he gives them his condolences about what happened and offers to get them in contact with some guys he knows if they find out who did it... The last thing to do is to pick up Ghost from Brooke. It's getting late at this point and everyone is tired. They leave messages with the Aiscapo University team and the crew of the Deccan Driller and sleep on the ship that night.
It's the Deccan Driller who get back to them first and a meeting is set up in the Rampant Lion. The crew go, with Harry hiding out on the ship and Gabi wanting to head to the park in the central hub of the station. The three crew of the Deccan Driller are Bheki and Zethembe, both from uBuntu, and Margaret, who wears a "Take me to your leader" t-shirt and large grey-alien pendant. The Driller's crew last talked to "Ace Repairs and Modifications" on the 7th, so wherever the malefactors are they must be fairly close. Perhaps they can pool sources and hire a private investigator?
Bishop's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 11)
Volkova's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 1)