Date: June 23, 2012
Game date: January 7, EY218
Location: Aiscapo system, Daebak
Previous events: Getting the truth from Clegman
Jillian, Malcolm, and Volkova wake up quite early in their bedrooms in Clegman's mansion and quickly find each other to talk. They're unable to come up with any concrete plans and decide that they'll talk to Quiy and Vob and then get to Xao's place in Wonju before committing to anything.
Jillian prowls the corridors on the top floor trying to find the Grob but runs into Clegman first. The Grob stayed in his room overnight and he invites her to go talk to them while he heads down for breakfast. The Hummingbird's crew heads into their host's bedroom and talks to the aliens. They all decide to head back to Providence, ideally leaving today, to drop off the Grob with the Iof. From there they'll take the slide point to Vishnu -- with no little apprehension on the Grobs' part -- allowing the Iof to make the trip without having to pass through any jump gates. In Vishnu they'll finally give the weapons that they've been lugging around to Labrys City. They may well check out the Leary jump ship that exploded in Vishnu in EY212 while there now that they know that it's the ship that the Iof accompanied to the system.
For now the Grob will stay with Clegman for the day while the humans talk to the Resplendent Dragon. They'll come back later in the day and Clegman will hopefully agree to fly them all up to Osan Station where the Steel Hummingbird is docked, allowing them to not have to worry about the Grob when they take a shuttle. This all seems acceptible to the Grob, since there's not presently any way to find out more about the missing Tigd.
Downstairs at breakfast Jillian quietly informs Clegman about the plan to leave the Grob with him for the day and asks if he's willing to fly them up to Eondeog. He is, and seems happy to have Quiy and Vob for a bit longer. Jillian than calls Xao and informs him that they'll be there on the first flight out.
At Clegman's front door, while everyone says their goodbyes, Clegman clumsily passes a piece of paper to Malcolm. He may be trying to be subtle about it but everyone notices him. Malcolm plays along and waits until they're driving to the airport to open it and passes it to Jillian to read. It's headed with the word "SECRET!!!", underlined twice. Underneath that are fourteen lines of text. Each begins with the name of a space station or port and is followed by four alphanumeric strings. Jillian and Malcolm have enough experience to quickly work out that these are locations, bay numbers, ship IDs, passwords, and access codes. It looks like codes to ships in every system in the cluster. Why did Clegman give them this?
They mull over what the list means on the morning business flight to Wonju. When they land they rent a car instead of taking public transport at Malcolm's insistence and drive to the address Xao gave them. Like Bishop the night before they're impressed by the mansion that the Wang family owns.
A Vishnan servant who calls himself Rishab greets them and brings them to a sitting room while he gets Xao. The place is as monied on the inside as on the outside but the colourful metre-and-a-half salamander lounging on the floor gives them pause until they remember that in the higher reaches of Aiscapan society they're the "in" pet to have.
When Xao arrives he has Bishop in tow and Jillian's relieved that he did in fact sleep here last night. Xao introduces Kang, the amphibian, and then has everything, including Clegman's note, summarized for him and Bishop tells of his visit to the prison yesterday to see Warden Whang. His plan is to seduce her into telling him about the Black Rose Syndicate, which she's obviously involved with, he believes. If the Steel Hummingbird is going to leave tonight then he needs to head back there today to explain why he can't make their date tomorrow and hopefully get the information from her before they leave.
His crew does its best to convince him that this is a stupid idea -- Xao washes his hands of the whole thing and refuses to get involved -- but somehow Bishop comes out on top and gets his way. While making his point he lets slip that Jillian has a criminal past but if Xao hears he doesn't acknowledge it. Volkova largely stays out of the argument, working on making two copies of the list Clegman gave them, and as exactly as possible. One copy is for Xao, the other a backup for the Steel Hummingbird.
The plan for the day then is for Bishop to visit the prison while Jillian, Malcolm, and Volkova fly back to Mokpo and get Clegman to fly them up to Eondeog and Osan Station. Everyone will meet at the Steel Hummingbird at 7pm. With that settled it's time for breakfast, served by Chan Ae, another of the Wang family servants. She's too old and not attractive enough for Bishop to hit on and he's focusing his energies on his later meeting with Whang anyway. Jillian and Malcolm have already had breakfast at Clegman's mansion and nibble enough to be polite while Volkova digs in and eats like it's going out of style, not that she knows what style is.
A longer-term plan is hatched over the sounds of Volkova's chewing: the Resplendent Dragon and Steel Hummingbird will meet at Bhopuhr in three weeks, giving the former more than enough time to finish her upgrades. That's fine with Xao, as Bhopuhr is the Dragon's home port: it's where the crew met and they all have friends there. Jillian feels a twinge as she hears that the other ship has a home port. The Resplendent Dragon just seems so...functional. While he's waiting for the upgrades Xao will ask around the University's Department of Xenobiology and Xenotechnology to see if he can find out where Seo Yee might be.
Observing how Xao interacts with his servants and his facility with the impressive array of expensive cutlery at the table lets Jillian realize that Xao doesn't just have a rich family but was born into this wealth and is very comfortable in it. When he's flying around the cluster he doesn't show this face but she can tell that it's in his blood.
Breakfast over, Bishop wanders off to get a bus to Sogbag while the rest of his crew go to the airport to catch a flight back to Mokpo.
Bishop has good luck with the bus and in a few hours is standing in front of Sogbag D. He doesn't have much trouble getting in to see Whang, who is surprised to see him there; the date they've arranged is for the next evening, after all. He explains that he has to leave the system tonight and brings up the possibility of lunch today instead, before he goes. She explains that lunch isn't really going to work; the only two locations are in the prison cafeteria or in the tiny diner in the village of Sogbag proper, and it would be awkward to be seen with him given her position. She makes it clear that she's not embarrassed about him and that she does want to have dinner with him some time in the future. He should definitely contact her the next time he's in-system.
Leaving the prison, Bishop is a little saddened but hopeful for the future. On the bus ride back to Wonju he has a Dream about the warden: he sees her walking into a cave on uBuntu that's simultaneously natural and artificial; when she leaves it he feels a Dream tingle coming from her. This feels like a true Dream and it's something he'll have to pursue the next time they meet.
Jillian, Malcolm, and Volkova's trip goes uneventfully. They have to wait for a flight to Mokpo thanks to it no longer being a business flight-friendly time of day but don't have any problems. Clegman's found a large dufflebag for the Grob to hide in on the way to his fuelled ship and the flight up to Eondeog goes fine. No one wants to mention the list he's given them until they check things out further. At Osan Station they take their leave of him and head off to the Steel Hummingbird, where Bishop has already arrived. Volkova lets the slightly battered Grob out of the dufflebag and, leaving them on the ship, everyone else goes to check out this mysterious list.
As they walk Bishop tells them about his Dream about Whang. They're all intrigued but there are too many other things going on now to follow up on that immediately.
The list leads, as they suspected, to a long-term storage area. Jillian goes up to the counter and presents the ID and password. The clerk checks out the numbers and tells her that it will be fuelled up and at station three in half an hour. After the wait they head to station three and as expected a ship waits for them, of roughly the same size category as the Steel Hummingbird but smaller overall. It has no name, just an ID, as if it were part of a corporate fleet.
From the outside it's a drab and entirely forgettable ship but once they use the access code and climb inside they find that it's much more interesting inside than out. There's space for six, a space drive as good as the Hummingbird's that's been modified for slide points, and a small cannon. The navigation data has been wiped.
Everyone's confused. What are they going to do with fourteen ships like this? Why did Clegman not give them any details about this? They fly the ship around for a bit and it's fine, but with no idea what else to do with it they return it to storage and head back to the Hummingbird.
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Bishop's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 14)
Jillian's Bedpost Notch Count: ha! ha!
Malcolm's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 1)
Volkova's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 2)