Play date: November 17, 2012
Game date: March 19, EY218
Location: Aiscapo system
Previous events: Travelling through the slide point was as terrible as promised
The Steel Hummingbird is in Aiscapo, sitting 2AU above the jump gate. Jillian checks the constellations again and finds that yes, they are indeed in Aiscapo and not in Vishnu, as expected. With Jillian's newfound knowledge of the fourth spatial dimension comes the terrible realization of just how tenuous her stability is and how easy it is to fall out of this universe. How was she never aware of this before? It's due to luck alone that she hasn't slipped into another plane of existence yet in her life! The best thing to do is to move as little as possible.
She can't find the Iof or the Resplendent Dragon on her sensors; perhaps they haven't made it through yet or have somehow ended up in Vishnu. The electrical systems on the ship are damaged and the sensors flicker in and out of operation, making it difficult to scan local space and also making it impossible for her to tell how long they've been in the slide point.
Volkova's priority is therefore getting the electrical system stabilized and she rushes the task by ignoring safety procedures. She manages to get everything up and running in an hour, including the advanced sensor array, though she ends up painfully grounding herself several times in the process. She's not exactly hurt, but her muscles twitch sporadically.
Now that they've got fully functioning sensors Jillian manages to convince herself that no other ships are nearby. Looking at where the planets are relative to each other tells her that it's March 19, EY218: they spent eleven days in the slide point!
Bishop is excited to find out that they're in Aiscapo. Maybe he can drop in on Warden Whang! He tries to convince the crew that Daebak is a good place to find out what's been going on, but when no one agrees he drops the topic and grumpily takes a look at the injured crewmembers. None of them ends up being too badly physically injured. Jillian's badly sprained wrist requires half a week of a tight bandage soaked in an oddly-smelling light green liquid. Malcolm's badly bitten tongue needs a piece of crapbark tied to it with gauze for a day; he immediately tries to dilute the taste with tea. A couple of days of electrical leeches imported from Crapworld attached to points above Volkova's major nerves will do her wonders. Bishop's medicine may not be standard or aesthetically pleasing but it is effective.
Although the Iof isn't in sight it doesn't mean that Bishop can't use his "egg" to contact them. When he does so Chig replies with a "happy" response and reveals the Iof's position: she's out at the farthest planet in the system, the ice giant Jiha yeojanggun.
Jillian insists on staying at the control board -- to keep a sharp eye on sensors, apparently -- and asks Bishop to check if Ghost is all right. The cat rode out the trip just fine, though her claws ripped up Jillian's comforter as Ghost hung on for dear life on the trip through the slide point.
The best thing to do is to head to Juche's smaller moon, Jageun, to refuel and repair. The 2.5AU trip would normally take three days, though given the crew's skills it should be faster than that. It has a third-rate base that will suffice for their needs and where no one is likely to pay much attention to them. With the jump ship Zheng He in the system and orbiting Daebak it's best to stay in the backwaters. Jillian plots out a course from her console, not heading off to her office where her charts are, and the results of her work have extra numbers attached. Malcolm's concerned by them but Jillian insists that if he wants to he can just ignore them and use the first three spatial values.
Over the next three days it becomes obvious to everyone that Jillian's gone off the deep end again. She eventually tells them about the fourth spatial dimension and tries to get them to physically move as little as possible. For her part she insists that she'll stay in her seat on the bridge and take her meals there. Everyone plays along, but when she finally falls asleep Volkova carries her to her bed. Waking up halfway through the next day Jillian is initially frightened, then relieved that she only fell through the universe to her bed. It could have been much worse!
On the way to Jageun Volkova realizes that her birthday passed while they were in the slide point. Does this mean that it didn't happen? That it doesn't count?
Malcolm's flying is as efficient as always, but Jillian's "extra" calculations and Volkova's gross motor twitches as she attempts to fine-tune the power output work against him and it's a full three days of travel to Jageun. At least his tongue and Volkova's nerves are back to normal by the time they dock on the tiny, irregular moon. Jillian's wrist is still wrapped and pungent, however.
March 22, EY218
The base that's a pimple on Juche's smaller moon is as dingy as it was the last time Jillian and Malcolm were here years ago. Bishop will only deal with refuelling and repairs if he gets a promise that they'll go to Daebak and when that's not forthcoming he retires to his room to sulk. Jillian, Malcolm, and Volkova decide to arrange for refuelling and then go to the bar. Jillian manages to convince herself that Volkova will give her the extra solidity to keep her rooted in this universe and so she uses her engineer as both physical and psychological support.
Jageun's base doesn't really have a name and neither does its excuse for a bar. It has a floor sticky enough to almost pull shoes off, serves only the lowest grade of alcohols, and its atmosphere -- literal and figurative -- leaves much to be desired. There is one definite upside, though: Olivia's in the corner having a drink!
There are happy greetings all around and once she's convinced that Bishop's all right -- and after rolling her eyes at his behaviour over Whang -- Olivia tells them that it took the Iof and Resplendent Dragon less than a day each to get here. They waited for a few days and then decided the best thing was to split up; the Iof would stay out of sight and the Dragon would stay close to the gate. The plan was to give the Hummingbird a fortnight and then decide what to do if she didn't show up. The Dragon's been here for ten days docked in an internal berth to keep her hidden. On the Dragon's trip there was some negligible damage to the ship and Olivia was unable to sleep for a few nights, but Neet made it through without any problems. Xao, though, seems to have a minor break in his femur and is walking with a cane.
After a birthday drink in Volkova's honour it's time for a trip to the Resplendent Dragon to see Neet and Xao. They too are happy to see that everyone's safe. Xao asks about Jillian's musky wrist and she asks about his leg, but they're both on the mend. He doesn't ask why she's so tightly cleaved to Volkova, though; Jillian tries to see if this means anything but he's as inscrutable as ever. There are more drinks and then discussion about how to get to Vishnu. The human ships can go through the jump gate like honest travellers but the Iof can't hide its alien nature. The best thing to do is to meet with the Iof and see if everyone's sensor data gives a clue about why after taking a return trip through the slide point they ended up here instead of in Vishnu. When Volkova mentions that the Hummingbird needs a new targeting system for the cannon Olivia offers the Dragon's old one; she still has it around, just in case, and is happy that it can be used.
Everyone's happy to leave this dismal moon base and they fly off to a point 1AU below Juche. Jillian spends the trip lying as still as possible in her bed, Ghost walking over her, curious at what her owner is doing. Volkova replaces the cannon's targeting system. Bishop longingly gazes out a porthole in what he thinks is the direction Daebak is in.
March 23, EY218
Bishop contacts the Iof when they reach the meeting point. Jillian's wrist is still sore but well enough along that it doesn't need to be wrapped up anymore, to everyone's olfactory relief. The Iof jumps in many hours later and the ships are all connected via umbilicals. The Grob are happy that the Hummingbird made it through.
Jillian has to be carried to the Hummingbird's common space, where the meeting takes place. Everyone notices this but focuses on the task at hand: working out what happened in the slide point and why it didn't lead back to Vishnu. The Dragon has its data printed out and the Iof gets its ready quickly, but Malcolm's not yet gotten around to printing out the Hummingbird's and they start the analysis without it. Arba, Jillian, Malcolm, Olivia, Volkova, and Xao, the sensor experts available, all bend their heads and after quite a long time aren't able to work out why the slide point led to where it did. It does seem that there wasn't another way to go inside it that would have led them to Vishnu.
Things get awkward when Jillian starts to explain the importance of factoring in the fourth spatial dimension. No one believes her, but Neet keeps quiet. Vob doesn't and eventually calls Padb, the Iof's navigator, to deal with this delusion. Jillian pulls out all the mathematical stops to convince Padb about this extra dimension that she's only recently become aware of, but the Grob knows navigation and the calculations involved even better than she does. After an intense scribbled debate that almost no one else can follow Padb finally convinces Jillian that she's wrong. Her bubble bursts and Jillian is suddenly cured of her delusion. She has been healed by mathematics!
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Bishop's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 17)
Jillian's Bedpost Notch Count: ha! ha!
Malcolm's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 1)
Volkova's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 3)