Game date: October 13, EY217
Location: Providence, between Beck and Limbaugh
Previous events: "Rescuing" Emily Varnsen
The rest of the flight back to McNeely Station mostly takes place in silence, punctuated by the sound of Jillian making good use of the punching bag set up in their makeshift gym down in the cargo hold.
When they land at McNeely Jillian reluctantly calls the naval offices and makes an appointment to see Lt. Cmdr. Phoebe Rubin as soon as possible. She then coldly tells Emily to get off the ship before she returns and stomps off. Malcolm checks out any messages that may have been left for them. The Deccan Driller has hired a private investigator, one Madelyn Allen, who they claim is hot on the case. He's too disturbed by the events of the past day to care to pursue the matter further and leaves the ship to rent a motorcycle and decompress by going for a long ride on the large station and having a good meal of bangers and mash. Volkova works off her feelings about the situation by drinking steadily on her own in the cargo hold.
Gabi and Harry make their own awkward ways off the Steel Hummingbird and Bishop is left alone with Emily. He tries to convince her to leave but his charm works against him and he's not very good at lying and manipulating people in this way. She has no intention to leave the man of her dreams! He finally decides to take her out to dinner, show her the wonders of the station, and convince her that it's a good place to start a new life. As a head start he'll even put her up in their Little Piccadilly flat that they've paid for up to the end of the month. He grabs a set of keys for the place from the bridge of the ship and is about to show Emily the wonders of the station when he realizes that he has absolutely no cash to pay for any of this. He sheepishly asks a more than tipsy Volkova for a bit of cash and she hands him over some dirty bills along with a bottle of vodka and some crude comments about how he can end the evening with Emily.
While in the waiting room of Lt. Cmdr. Rubin's office Jillian sees a fairly recent copy of Art! magazine and can't help but to go through it, no matter how painful it inevitably ends up being. This time the pain is especially acute; there's a glowing review of an exhibit by Alexei Rusanov that's currently on at the McNeely Fine Arts Museum. She manages to not rip up the magazine but it's a close thing and she's not in a great state of mind when she's called to see Rubin.
Not surprisingly, Rubin puts Jillian through the wringer and gives her a proper chewing out. The investigation wasn't providing much to contradict the crew's account of events with Kel Varnsen thanks to the refusal of Seldin Automotive Parts or Bauer Mining back in Walküren to reveal anything about their executives or what they might have been doing on Beck. There was a good chance that the murder charges would be dropped but now this comes up. Shotgunning an unarmed teenager? Rubin will contact the Varnsen family back on Beck and insists that although the Steel Hummingbird's crew still have freedom of movement in the system that they tell her whenever they fly anywhere and give her a flight plan. She'll contact them when they need to come back to the station. A cowed Jillian leaves with Rubin shaking her head and muttering behind her.
The wind rushing through his hair helps Malcolm to calm down and feel better. While out and about on his motorcycle he passes by the McNeely Fine Arts Museum and sees that a major exhibit of Alexei Rusanov's art is on! Without Jillian around to be offended he parks the motorcycle and heads into the museum, enjoying himself thoroughly for a few hours. That Rusanov is an amazing artist, all right. Afterwards he drives to Little Piccadilly and enjoys his bangers and mash, ending the night with some drinks in a nice bar.
Since he'll be taking Emily to Little Piccadilly anyway Bishop decides to treat her to a Piccadilly-style meal in the neighbourhood: fish and chips. He can't afford anything like the restaurant that Malcolm's at, so the two of them thankfully do not cross paths. After dinner he takes Emily to the flat and hands her the keys, amazing her with his largesse. She invites him to stay the night and he naturally agrees.
By the time that Jillian gets back to the ship Volkova is fairly drunk and once she's convinced that Emily's nowhere to be seen she joins Volkova. The two drink the night away.
The next morning both Jillian and Volkova have pounding hangovers and are too distracted by their agony to notice Bishop sneaking onto the ship. Malcolm eventually takes pity on them and whips up some special tea to take the edge off, an old family recipe. Surprisingly, it works on Jillian and her head clears! She writes a letter to Lt. Cmdr. Rubin about their upcoming flight to Ingraham. Turning her attention to actually planning the flight she notes that there's no way that they'll be able to make the flight to Ingraham in one go; it's far enough that although they do have the range to make it there -- just -- they won't have enough fuel or life support to make it back. Hannity is just about halfway there and will make a good refuelling stop even if it's not really settled. It's a nasty planet full of toxic atmosphere and volcanoes but the numerous mines that operate there can usually be counted on to sell supplies to visiting ships, albeit at an obscene markup.
Gabi and Harry have no particular desire to spend ten days each way on a ship to the middle of nowhere to look at ruins on a desert planet with poison air even if aliens built them. They'll stay at the flat until the rent runs out and then find a smaller place until the Hummingbird comes back. Gabi is sure that they can get enough money to pay for it. She also offers to try to find out about Flint Cardesco and his whereabouts during the three weeks that the ship's away. Jillian accepts the offer even if she doesn't think anything will come of it. When Gabi mentions that she noticed Bishop sneaking onto the ship Jillian excuses herself to go talk to him.
Jillian doesn't trust Bishop to have done the right thing. He cracks under Jillian's questions and quickly reveals that he's given Emily the keys to the flat. Rolling her eyes, Jillian leaves and goes to buy some art supplies to calm down; she feels like her artistic block is behind her now and wants something to take her mind off of Bishop and Emily.
While Jillian's away Malcolm takes a call from the team from Aiscapo University. They'll be ready to go the next day. Malcolm fills them in on the flight plan and travel times, they make sure that the ship can store all of their equipment (including a small vehicle) and reveal that they have extra air if it's needed on the flight. Malcolm agrees to the price they offer of just a bit more than 10,000 Bleaghs, half up front.
When Jillian gets back she feels much better. She gives Gabi and Harry the keys to the flat, the ram-plated pickup, and the minibus. She also, sighing, tells them that Emily will be staying at the flat until the end of the month. They shake their heads but will do their best to not kill her. Wishing her the best of luck on Ingraham they head off to Little Piccadilly.
The rest of the day is spent checking things out and making sure that the Hummingbird is ready for such a long flight. Bishop sets up a small living area in the corner of the cargo hold, far from the spare parts pulled from the People's Freedom and the boxes of weapons and ammo cleverly hidden in crates labelled "Danger: Tomatoes".
The team from the university show up early the next day, October 15th. Seo Yee is obviously in charge. It seems like all the body mass that she's missing due to her truncated height went into her nose. She immediately makes fun of the artwork on and in the ship, asking if blind people have been at it and pretending that the interior of the ship is actually a funhouse. She also wonders aloud why Bishop is dressed like a pimp. She takes Malcolm's veiled comments about her nose in stride and it's obvious that she enjoys this sort of ribbing and can take it as well as giving it.
Shaila Shah and Jagadeep, both from Vishnu, round out the team. Shaila seems like a frumpy and dull technician while Jagadeep is enthusiastic and muscular but not too bright. He seems to be responsible for "losing" the ship that the team was supposed to be using but everyone's evasive about that topic.
The Steel Hummingbird's crew are relieved to see that both of the women are in their early forties and therefore unlikely to be pursued by Bishop. A large quantity of equipment is loaded into the cargo bay: a dune buggy, sensor equipment, pressurized tents, respirators, oxygen tanks, and other items in unmarked crates. Seo and her group aren't fazed by their "quarters" in the cargo hold. They're apparently used to field conditions.
It takes a few hours to get everything onto the ship and properly secured. Then, after a final check, the Steel Hummingbird takes off for Hannity and Ingraham. Surely this trip will be less eventful than the past few weeks!
Bishop's Bedpost Notch Count: 1 (running total: 12)
Volkova's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 1)