Date: May 26, 2012
Game date: December 5th, EY217
Location: The Grunewald residence on Olberman, in the Providence system
Previous events: chillaxin'
With two weeks to do nothing but learn the about the Grob Bishop and Jillian finally make good headway on their language, culture, and recent history:
It turns out that Grob society is basically a functioning anarchist commune. Individuals who are more skilled have a lot of weight in related debates but are first among equals in such debates instead of having anything like a veto. The Grob debate quite a lot and in a manner whose insulting tone isn't taken personally thanks to their close society; they don't just sound like an old married couple, it's actually how they make decisions. Communication is extremely honest between them and although they know about the concept of lying they aren't very good at doing it or not being taken in by it.
Artistically, they don't have much at all in the way of visual arts, playing a strange electronic music that's a little offputting to human ears.
The Iof isn't the original name of the ship that the Grob fly; it's the name of the ship they were flying when they came across the current one. That first ship was a prisoner transport and the current Iof's crew is a mix of the crew and prisoners that they were escorting! The tattoos that some of them wear are the sign of a prisoner: Arba, Chig, Hrav, and Tigd are all prominently tattooed. Chig's tattoos in particular come from it being thought insane due to its insistence on the alternate reality of the Dreamscape. While the ship was on its way to the prison moon of their system she was attacked by another Grob ship; this was unprecedented and, taken unawares and suffering heavy damage and casualties they fled. What they could glean from communications painted a terrible picture of devastation, though with few details.
Wandering through the fringes of their system they came across the current Iof, herself badly damaged, adrift, and unoccupied. They boarded her and transferred what they could from their own, more damaged, ship. Agreed that the system was lost they left it behind and on their way into space slowly worked out the D'vor technology. The distinction between guards and prisoners was left behind. When they found that the "brain" that could run the ship could be reinitialized they did so only to have it attempt to kill them all and partially succeed; they disconnected it and were never able to gain access to only select functions despite their best efforts.
Eventually managing to get the jump drive working, they used that to gain some distance. After some jumping, guided by Chig's Dreams, they found the "small soft ones" and stayed their for a while. When they left they eventually found the Wyrm. A massive, strange ship that they didn't recognize jumped into the system some time later; the Iof kept her distance at first and before they could get over their paranoia the Wyrm were likewise attacked by the D'vor. This time the Iof did its best to protect the system but it was hopeless; outnumbered and outclassed they could only prepare to flee again. When they realized that the large ship, which had likewise attacked the D'vor was itself preparing to jump they "drafted" along with it, following it to the Vishnu system. Once there the ship almost immediately exploded, most likely due to the damage that it had suffered from the D'vor. That was in EY212; the ship was obviously the Leary jump ship, whose remains still drift in Vishnu.
After that experience the Iof kept quiet in the system, keeping their heads down and working out more about their D'vor ship, until they were found by Maurice Clegman in EY215. They hesitantly struck up a friendship with him, Tigd more so than the others. They shared their research into the "tunnels" that they could use to move to other systems and he convinced them to convert his space drive as well as their own and give the tunnels a try. When they finally did so Tigd and Clegman took the human ship and the Iof followed. In the tunnel the Iof was extremely badly damaged and almost lost altogether. When they finally struggled through to Providence they found no trace of Clegman's ship and considered it lost. Once burned, twice shy; this was the last straw and they resolved to repair the ship and stay away from all other species. The only reason they didn't flee from the Steel Hummingbird's crew on Ingraham was Bishop's "uBuntu", the same word that Chig had used.
The Iof's crew is at least as skilled in their respective fields than the Steel Hummingbird's and is specialized as follows: Piloting: Hrav; Navigation: Padb; Sensors: Arba; Engineer: Tigd (dead); Gunner: Fos; Marines: Difig, Ensig, Quiy, and Rans; Xenotechnologists: Chig and Vob. The xenotechnologists are very good at working out how the technology of other species works, explaining how the Iof is a mishmash of different technologies.
Biologically, the Grob are hermaphrodites who can't self-fertilize. They lay eggs (the "boxes" that Vob referred to when just learning the human language). Grammatically, they use a neuter term for themselves in their own language but use gendered pronouns for other species.Jillian also takes the time to ask Xao if he's interested in her, though she does it in a very roundabout way while the two of them are weeding the Grunewalds' garden. During the conversation he brings up her general reluctance to be close to others and the overall dysfunctional social nature of her crew, which makes her ponder the consequences of her reclusive nature. When he's finally flat-out asked about his intentions towards her and told what Bishop has told Jillian about Xao's feelings for her he tells her that she's frankly not his type, much to her relief. He also adds that Bishop shouldn't talk so much. Jillian soon afterwards slaps Bishop upside his head for making her think that Xao wanted their relationship to become romantic; Bishop insists that this is indeed the case and that Xao is just repressed.
When Olivia comes back from a week of shooting up monstrous mutated creatures from the Blight she's radiant at how much she's gotten to use heavy weapons in such a short time. She also brings two spots of news. Volkova is informed that her favourite singer, Julia Katina, is going to be performing a series of intimate, acoustic concerts on Olberman throughout January. Although Volkova isn't at all sure that she'll be back in time she still spends the next few days humming dance tunes and wearing her brighter sets of pink clothing, or at least clothing that was once pink.
The other news is that the Beautiful Dream is in Maddow, taking some rich idiots from Limbaugh on a tour of Olberman's nature. The Steel Hummingbird's crew, still feeling a sense of gratitude for the time that S'bu Nkosi and his crew saved their lives, decide to fly down and meet him. Volkova is the exception, still not feeling too social after Lise's comment about never seeing her again.
The Beautiful Dream's crew is, as always, happy to have a meal on the Steel Hummingbird's dime. Jillian naturally spreads the word about the D'vor and poor Seo Yee, though there's not much that S'bu can do about the latter. Bishop causes a bit of a stir when he blatantly seduces Ji-min Song, the Dream's medic. She may be attractive at a level comparable to Warden Whang, but her unfriendly nature and legendary lack of humour normally keeps paramours away. Bishop, never one to be deterred by personality defects of any magnitude when prey is beautiful, puts on a spectacular and ultimately successful effort, leading Ji-min away. All his crewmates can do is sigh...
For the last couple of days of their stay on Olberman Malcolm and Olivia decide to do some surreptitious big game hunting. Since the beasts of Olberman are notably bigger than humans they bring along an assault rifle and rocket launcher, respectively, heading out on one of the Grunewalds' ATVs to do some "camping". Alas, camping is all they do, and badly at that. They're both creatures of ships and cities and with no knowledge of anything having to do with the wilderness they completely fail to come across anything worth gunning down. Setting up the tent and getting a decent campfire going also gives them no end of issues, but they laugh off their troubles and are in a good mood when they return.
Finally it's December 18th, the day that they agreed to leave Olberman and visit Maurice Clegman in Aiscapo. Both the Steel Hummingbird and the Resplendent Dragon will go, while the Iof will stay in Providence and wait for them to get back. Quiy and Vob will travel with the Steel Hummingbird. There are heartfelt farewells between the crews and the Grunewalds along with hopes of a reunion before the D'vor destroy everything. Then it's a flight into space, a tethering of the ships, and a successful jump to the other side of the system is made on the 19th, ending up about 2AU from the jump gate.
The ships disentangle themselves and then the two human ships fly to the jump gate over the next four days; Jillian passes her true birthday on the 22nd, secretly celebrating turning 30 by drinking alone in her cabin. The ships get to the gate on the 23rd and have to wait for it to open on the 25th; on that day there is a minor exchange of presents and then they pass through to Nodapar, the system generally known as "Crapworld". Not making the trip to Crapworld itself means that they don't have to be inspected and the Grob on board are safe from discovery. The two ships wait by the gate until it opens to Aiscapo on January 1st, EY218. There are more celebrations before they sail through the gate into Aiscapo. The Dragon continues to slow down the Hummingbird on the way to Daebak and Xao openly muses about getting a better space drive for his ship while they're in the system. It shouldn't take more than a week, he thinks, and his family can help if need be.
Since the ships will have to land at Osan Station on Daebak's moon, Eondeog, everyone will have to take a shuttle down to the planet itself. This is a problem, the Grob being pretty conspicuous. Olivia knows a military shuttle pilot stationed at the Eondeog Naval Base, Woo-jin Cho, one of her boyfriends. He'll definitely be willing to avert his eyes if they can get a ride down with him. The problem of getting a military shuttle of their own down is solved by Malcolm calling up his old friend in the military, Commodore Marcus Blith, and complaining about the quality of civilian pilots. He convinces Blith to let one pilot in particular, Woo-jin Cho, give them a ride down on a military shuttle. Sorted. Jillian contacts Jinjing Wei and sets up a meeting with her old friend from the military.
The ships reach Osan Station on January 6th. Malcolm meets with Marcus Blith there and they discuss the D'vor. Blith is high-ranking enough to have heard of them but not much in terms of details, and Malcolm fills him in on them, the Grob, Seo Yee, Hoax... it's a packed conversation. Blith is impressed with the "new" Steel Hummingbird and reveals that Hoax has grown much more powerful in the past couple of years. The two of them end their brief time together in bed at an upscale by-the-hour hotel. Jillian has less luck -- in any sense -- with Jinjing Wei, who's been called away for a couple of days on naval business at the last moment.
When everyone rejoins a quick plan is made. Jillian, Malcolm, Volkova, and Olivia will head down to Mokpo in the shuttle first with the Grob. Olivia wants to spend some time with Woo-jin while she's in the system. Xao will make arrangements to have the Resplendent Dragon updated and then take a civilian shuttle down to Wonju to visit his family, accompanied by Bishop. He offers his parents' house as a place for everyone to stay while on the planet, something Olivia is happy with. Neet, not too surprisingly, will stay up in Osan Station, close to his beloved space. Malcolm calls Clegman and gets a hold of him, arranging to meet him at Clegman's mansion. Clegman seems nervous during the conversation, thinks Malcolm, but he can't be sure. He brings along his Blingmaster 5k pistol without most of the attachments -- surely there will be a corkscrew available somewhere on the planet's surface -- but the rest of his crew go unarmed.
The flight down is uneventful. Olivia is more than happy to distract the square-jawed Woo-jin and sits in the cockpit with him the whole flight down to Mokpo. The Grob, hidden in a crate simply labeled "Tomatoes", are ignored.
Once on the surface the group splits up. Malcolm rents a small panel truck and Olivia bids them adieu as she heads off with Woo-jin. Malcolm drives Jillian, Volkova, and the crate of Grobs to Clegman's house. When they get there Kim Hi-sung, Clegman's servant, is none too overjoyed to see them when she opens the door, but at least Bishop isn't with them. The Steel Hummingbird's crew is quick to point out that they've brought a crate of fresh produce for Clegman, but she shrugs uncaringly and lets them in.
They lug the crate to the study where Maurice Clegman sits with most of the lights off. He's obviously been drinking, a bottle of whiskey by his side. Malcolm and Volkova both accept a glass and before the conversation can go far at all they open the crate, revealing Quiy and Vob. Seeing them, Clegman makes as if to leap out of his chair but then falls back, his body slumping.
The conversation is fairly one-sided as Clegman reveals everything; if the letter hadn't already convinced him to come clean with the crew the sight of the Grobs breaks him. He did meet the Grob in the Vishnu system in EY215 and befriended them there. The Grob had worked out the theory of what he calls "slide points", located 2AU above and below the orbital plane. They modified his space drive and theirs to allow passage through the slide point and the ships made an attempt to navigate their way through. Tigd had learned the human tongue best and struck up a friendship with Clegman and so flew with him. The slide was a fiasco, Clegman's ship almost destroyed in the trip and coming out in the Providence system in a sorry state.
Largely adrift, they managed to get his ship nominally functional and waited long days for the Iof, which as far as they knew never made it through. With life support running out they finally gave up on the wait and struggled towards the elliptical. On the way they ran into a frigate, the HMS Crocodile, which picked them up. His ship being far too small to hide Tigd the Grob was captured and Clegman forced to sign legal documents and none-too-subtly threatened to keep the event a secret. He managed to keep the Iof's existence a secret by claiming that he'd come across Tigd in an escape capsule of some sort which had then imploded, damaging his ship. He never saw Tigd again. The Steel Hummingbird knows the HMS Crocodile as the military ship that was suspiciously close when the Resplendent Dragon exchanged Seo Yee and Vob and also as the ship that Vice Admiral Egan told them was recently and apparently not surprisingly seconded by the Homeworld Office for the Acquisition of Xenotechnology.
Clegman has more to confess: although he kept the Iof and the Grob a secret over the past few years the same can't be said for the slide points. He may be a legend in the cluster but he's nowhere near as good with his money as he is with flying and several years ago was in a dire financial situation. He was approached by the Black Rose Syndicate, which made use of his talents to deliver packages throughout the cluster where no one else could. What they paid him wasn't enough to wipe out the sizeable debts he'd accumulated and he sold them the secret of the slide points when his money problems became too much for him to bear. He's obviously ashamed with his weakness and by the time he's answered questions from both human and Grob he's fairly drunk and looks broken. He seems most embarrassed by thinking that Malcolm's view of him is irreparably tarnished.
The Hummingbird's crew want the Grob to take a look at his spaceworthy ship outside and ask him to send his maid off so that the Grob won't be seen, something they think they should have done as soon as they entered the room. He calls in Kim Hi-Sung once the Grob are temporarily back in the crate and informs her that he won't be needing her anymore; she leaves without much ado after telling him that the guest bedrooms are made up if his guests wish to stay the night.
Once they're sure that the maid is out of sight Malcolm helps Clegman out of his chair they head out to examine his shiny red Little Darling in its small hangar outside. The space drive is indeed the sort of modification that the Grob engineered. Returning inside, Jillian starts asking Clegman what exactly travelling through a slide point is like and what's so horrible and dangerous about it. He can't properly explain it but does produce a wire of sensor readings from a small safe in his study that he took while going through the slide point with Tigd and hands it over to Jillian. He has no intention of ever going through that sort of experience again if he can help it.
It's late and everyone is tired and has much to think about. As they head up to the guest bedrooms Vob tells the crew that the Grob want to talk to Clegman alone and everyone goes to bed, the Hummingbird's crew briefly discussing what they're going to do next before sleep overtakes all of them.
While the rest of his crew are talking to Clegman Bishop is, as always, going his own way. Once Xao has made arrangements at Osan Station for the Resplendent Dragon's space drive to be upgraded he and Bishop take a civilian shuttle down to Wonju, Bishop wearing his snazzy new suit. During the trip Xao confronts Bishop about what he told Jillian regarding Xao's feelings for her. He feels that Bishop overstepped boundaries and risked a good partnership. Bishop is recalcitrant, implying that Xao does indeed have such feelings but is keeping them buried and refusing to admit them. The two of them bicker all the way to the surface.
When the shuttle lands Xao assumes that Bishop is going to come along to the Wang family residence but Bishop has other plans that he refuses to specify to Xao. He accepts the address to Xao's parents' house -- Xao warning Bishop not to hit on Xao's sister when he shows up -- and then goes to catch a bus to Sogbag to see Warden Whang. As it turns out the next bus isn't leaving for another four hours. While debating what to do while waiting Bishop remembers a Dream he recently had in which he travelled around a planet meeting people and discovering the soul of the society. It's only two hours' drive to Sogbag and so he decides to hitchhike and see what comes up.
He doesn't have much trouble getting rides and lets his Dream guide him about which vehicles to ride in and which to avoid. He gets a few rides but most of the trip is made with a man who is going to the Sogbag prison himself and the two of them discuss which section they're going to (the man is visiting his wife in Sogbag C, reserved for more severe crimes than Sogbag D, where Volkova was incarcerated; she was in Sogbag D but got into some nasty business, apparently) and which conjugal visit trailer they prefer (Bishop waffles on that one).
When he's finally standing in front of the prison he thinks about what threads he can make out from his trip and realizes that a recurring comment was that the drivers all brought up their worries about the next governor of the Aiscapo cluster, who will be named soon. A change in government is always a major event and concerns about that are natural, but Bishop feels a tug in the part of his mind that linked to the Dreaming when he thinks about that.
The Dreaming may be important but so is his current mission and Bishop marches up to the guard post outside Sogbag Women's Penal Institution D. He doesn't have an appointment but he has the guard call Whang and soon he's let in to her office, a good sign. He waits in a chair while she finishes some paperwork and then they talk. He starts by apologizing for his letters; he was just trying to impress her and admits that he made a fool of himself. She agrees on the last part but as they talk his inestimable charm wins her over and she agrees to give him another chance. They make a date for the day after tomorrow at the same place she humiliated him before: the Dae Namu restaurant in Wonju. He happily agrees, especially when she offers to pay as an apology for how she treated him last time -- she admits that she's generally wary of mens' intentions.
Leaving the prison Bishop is walking on air and catching the evening bus back to Wonju just as it's about to leave only improves his mood for the entire ride back. He catches a taxi from the bus station and goes to the Wang residence. It's in the rich Pyeongchang-dong district and Bishop is impressed to find it a stylish three-story gated mansion with fairytale gabled roofs. Xao lets him in when he buzzes at the gate and shows him the guest room, where Bishop falls into a happy slumber.
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Bishop's Bedpost Notch Count: 1 (running total: 14)
Jillian's Bedpost Notch Count: ha! ha!
Malcolm's Bedpost Notch Count: 1 (running total: 1)
Volkova's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 2)