Date: January 7, 2012
Game date: November 2nd, EY217
Location: Providence system, McNeely station
Previous events: Suspended investigation; mom comes for a visit
On the way back to the Resplendent Dragon Bishop begins asking Olivia questions, wanting to get to know her better. She's not quite sure why he's suddenly interested in her mind but goes along with it and answers his questions. When she asks about her time in the Navy she says that she trained in gunnery and engineering. Despite doing extremely well in both fields she soon bored of life in the service and didn't reenlist. She definitely seems to like large firearms and explosions an awful lot; that's not especially surprising given what he knows about her. The crew of the Resplendent Dragon certainly seem to get paid more regularly than the Steel Hummingbird's. Bishop eventually despairs of really getting to know her -- unless this is all that there is to know -- and the two of them "check out the Dragon".
Back at The Jump Gate the rest of the Hummingbird's crew and Evangelina Devereaux find the Deccan Driller's table and everyone squeezes in. Margaret Kaiser, the Driller's sensor operator, immediately asks them about the aliens they met on Hannity. The crew is surprised at her direct question -- how did she know? -- but Volkova goes on about reptoids for a little while and the Driller's captain, Bheki, eventually explains that she always asks people that question when they've been off-planet. Margaret does seem obsessed with aliens given her pair of kitchy UFO-shaped earrings and a "grey" alien pendant.
Quick introductions are made. In addition to the Driller's crew there is also a largish woman in a fedora and trenchcoat at the table. This is Madelyn Allen, the private investigator that the Driller hired. She does her best to come across as mysterious and world-weary as she reveals what she has found so far. The least important is that Flint Cardesco/Bill Miller is travelling with two companions, "Alexandra" and "Frank Adams". These are no doubt aliases that will be discarded at the first opportunity but might come in handy nonetheless. Much more useful is the name of the ship that Cardesco et al. have been using: the Gallatin. It should be possible to track their movements more easily now.
There is finally the strange fact that they talked about leaving the station to "tell her skin". This makes no sense to anyone and there's a silence around the table as everyone tries to think of what this could mean. Jillian comes to the conclusion that this probably means the Telushkin, the name of a gas extraction platform that orbited Prager. Unfortunately, the platform was reported destroyed in the collision event that made Prager a no-go zone about five years ago. That's all that Madelyn has to report so far; everyone agrees that she should keep looking and the Steel Hummingbird's crew says its goodbyes before finding another table to discuss their future plans in light of this information.
There's much debate about Telushkin. If that is where the Gallatin is going it means that the platform somehow survived the Prager incident. Getting to Telushkin would be difficult, requiring somehow not getting smashed up by the debris that's still orbiting Prager while hunting for the platform somewhere in the ice giant's atmosphere. Before they could even do that they'd have to work out how to get all the way out there. Limbaugh is currently the closest planet in the system to Prager and it's still over nine and a half AUs away, greater than the Steel Hummingbird's range.
More discussion leads to the idea of heading to Beck to have upgrades carried out on the Steel Hummingbird. The town of Mechanicville is so named because of its aerospace industry and is known for high-quality, reasonably-priced work; the main reason that the work wasn't going to be done there was due to a general wariness about Beck. No one is too enthusiastic to be stuck a twenty-minute drive from Varnsen headquarters but it looks like that family is hesitant to get more publicity and will hopefully lay low. Flint was hired to give the Hummingbird a more powerful space drive and to extensively modify the frame to allow a passenger compartment and even after he absconded with the money they've got enough left to get the work done. Why not get it done on Beck now that it feels a bit safer?
It's not as if there isn't anything to do on Beck while they wait out the month or so that the additions will take. Jillian can sit down for a talk with Frederick Varnsen and later perhaps meet her artist idol John Smith, Malcolm can visit the flamboyant composer Gene Sternmann, Volkova can get some training in heavy weapons from Olivia, and if he dares Bishop can perhaps get to know Olivia better.
Agreed on going back to Beck the crew head over to the Resplendent Dragon's table and discuss this plan with them. The Dragon is here on vacation and have no real plans; they're as happy to do nothing on Beck as on McNeely Station. The two ships will head off tomorrow at noon. The Hummingbird's crew climb into their minibus and drop Evangelina off at her hotel on the way home to the Hummingbird.
Back on the ship Volkova is surprised to find that Vob has been working on dismantling the space drive. Everything has been carefully removed and it's obvious that Vob has been fastidious about keeping things ordered. As long as nothing's been broken or clumsily handled the engineer doesn't mind much. Volkova can't really communicate with the alien about what everything does so she gives it a copy of the technical manual and calmly reassembles the drive, pointing out which parts are which in the manual, while Vob watches.
The next morning, November 3rd, is a busy one for the crew. There is the usual pre-flight checking to do and more besides. Jillian calls Phoebe Rubin to inform her of the trip to see Frederick Varnsen. She also calls Gabi and asks her if she can put up John from the Stillwater Mine. Gabi agrees; besides having a spare room she still owes the Hummingbird her life and is sanguine about taking on another stray. Jillian then leaves a message for John giving him Gabi's coordinates, feeling better about helping him out that much more. Malcolm calls his mother to tell her that he'll call her when he's back on the station. She's going to stay until Flint Cardesco is found and dealt with.
It's rare for the Steel Hummingbird to fly with another ship and Malcolm has to take it easy so as to not leave the Resplendent Dragon far behind, but he doesn't really care. Jillian can't help but notice that the Dragon has upgraded its already impressive gun to a massive cutting-edge destructive beast. She opens up a channel to ask Xao why he's putting so much emphasis on firepower when he's flying a courier/salvage ship. Volkova happens to be on the bridge and blurts out loud enough to be heard over the open channel that Xao is obviously overcompensating for a rather small part of his anatomy. After a brief moment of silence during which Jillian's face has a horrified expression there is the sound of Neet laughing on the other ship and Xao cooly explains that it's *Olivia* who keeps insisting that they keep getting bigger guns. He's not sure how she manages to keep convincing Neet and himself to put the ship's money towards this but she somehow does.
The two ships keep up a conversation over the two-day trip and Jillian reveals that the Hummingbird came across the Gurg, the ship that attacked the Dragon in Vishnu at the end of July, and tells Xao the details of that encounter. She also tells him about the alien ship that they came across in Vishnu and about the resulting article in the Sun. He's read the article -- everyone has, it seems. When the idea of both crews sharing a house comes up Jillian shoots it down; there's no way that Vob's presence can be kept a secret with that many people in one house and she definitely doesn't want to be exposed to Bishop and Olivia canoodling the whole time.
Beck's reached on November 5th and the Hummingbird's crew knows what to do. A reputable (according to the Beck Better Business Bureau) repair and modification shop is quickly found who claim that they can do the modifications in three weeks. The plans are the same as those given to Flint Cardesco: a more fuel-efficient and maneuverable space drive and an expansion to the frame to include a passenger compartment. They tend to take people for long enough that actual cabins are needed: five cabins for ten people total seems right, with enough extra room to almost double their general storage and a decently-sized compartment that can be made a secret as well. Although the hidden compartment will be obvious on the plans on record here Beck doesn't require the plans to be centrally filed and the chance of anyone coming here to look them up is remote. Volkova is confident that she and Jillian can modify and conceal the compartment even more when they get the ship back. The final modification is to slightly expand the crew's quarters to give Bishop and Volkova their own rooms, putting an end to a minor, if cramped, tradition.
By the end of the day they've gone through the bulletin boards near the repair yards and rented a furnished house not very far from the repair yard with a good-sized basement on the edge of Mechanicville for the month with Bishop's charm getting them a ten percent discount on the price. Their personal belongings, boxes of dangerous tomatoes, and Vob are driven over to their new digs in the mini bus. Jillian finds a therapist for Malcolm and Volkova who can see them for an initial assessment tomorrow. The Dragon's crew finds a place to stay only a few blocks away; it seems that this part of town is rife with houses rented to crews waiting for their ships. It's been a long day and everyone is glad to get to sleep.
On November 6th Malcolm and Volkova finally get some help for their recent psychological issues. Their therapist, a cigar-smoking Walküren woman named Ziggi Fraud, is confident that she can achieve a breakthrough in both of them in a few days once they open up about their mothers. They won't be fully well but they'll be on the way to recovery and once the breakthrough is achieved she'll be able to give a better estimate of a time to total recovery. Jillian is delighted; once her dizzy spells finish clearing up -- as they're doing already! -- the crew will finally be all right.
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Bishop's Bedpost Notch Count: 1 (running total: 13)
Volkova's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 1)