Play date: January 13, 2012
Game date: March 30, EY218
Location: Vishnu system, Labrys City on the planet of Kali
Previous events: Fighting the ooze
Arriving at the hospital after the battle of the ooze Jillian and Volkova are immediately rushed into surgery. Labrys City is renowned for having the best medical care in the cluster; they're in good hands.
While the surgery begins Bishop answers the phone on the Hummingbird. It's Sara Pettigrew, their handler in Labrys City, who explains the situation in gentle and roundabout terms. As the medic on the ship he wants to see her but is rebuffed. Despite the severity of his captain's injuries she still can't allow him into the city proper no matter how much he insists. After he hangs up he and Malcolm talk about the situation and a seething Malcolm calls Sara back. He doesn't get much more than calming platitudes from her either -- she's not even at the hospital and can't give him any details though she insists that all is well -- but at least gets her to agree to either send over a medical report or have someone from the hospital call him with more information.
Malcolm then calls the Resplendent Dragon; Neet and Xao are there and on hearing what happened Neet immediately heads off to the hospital. With nothing to do but wait Bishop makes some stew and Malcolm puts a kettle on. Xao tells them about Jillian's strange phone call earlier, which at the time he didn't think might actually have been her final communication with him.
The wait is painful. Bishop tries to contact the Iof to pass the time but he doesn't get a response. Perhaps they're in a slide point, he thinks, or they may be dead, but that's unlikely and he's probably just thinking that because of what's happening here.
By the time Neet shows up at the hospital Volkova's already awake but Jillian's still in surgery. Both of the engineer's injured limbs are much better now that they've been properly seen to, especially her arm, and she's feeling well enough that she wants to head back to the Steel Hummingbird and tell her crew what happened in person. Neet pushes the bulky mechanic back to the hangar in a wheelchair, puffing a bit by the time they make it there. Once on the ship with warm stew and a cup of tea Volkova explains the events in the research centre in her own inimitable way.
The hospital calls a few hours later. Jillian's out of surgery and things went well but she's still badly injured and won't regain consciousness until the next day.
March 31, EY218
Bishop gets a ping early in the morning from the Iof; he sends a "content" ping back. He and Malcolm go over star charts to specify their location and come up with Piccadilly of all places.
Jillian wakes up in the hospital without a hangover or the desire to sleep with everyone, much of her covered in some sort of gel and lightly wrapped in a thin gauze-like material that crinkles as she moves. She'd normally be in a lot of pain but the analgesics that Labrys City has access to are nice indeed and she's in a surprisingly good mood even with her left arm unuseable. That lasts until she notices that although she has burns over much of her body the bandage she wrapped around her Black Rose tattoo to keep it secret protected it from the fire and she now has a band of unharmed skin on her upper arm with a perfectly preserved, obviously criminal tattoo in the middle of it. No doubt everyone who treated her got a good look at the tattoo.
She has a discussion with her doctor, who suspiciously doesn't mention the tattoo and describes Jillian's current state to her: a broken rib which should improve in less than a week; burns over much of her body that requires a week of intense care to be well on the way to healing without infection or major scarring; nerve damage to her left arm that is currently crippling but not likely to be permanent, probably taking the better part of a month to be somewhat functional. The doctor wants her to stay in the hospital for another week so that her burned skin can be treated properly. Jillian is eager to get back to the Steel Hummingbird and get on saving the cluster, though, and she calls her ship to tell them her condition. Bishop takes the call and convinces her that he's more than capable of taking care of her and seeing that she heals properly.
The hospital reluctantly releases Jillian and provides her with enough medications and medical paraphernalia to see her through the next stage of her healing. It's a lot of supplies, enough to fill up the trunk of the car they use to give her a ride to the Hummingbird. Bishop's completely untrained in conventional medicine and the detailed instructions don't make too much sense to him but he finds enough that's familiar in Labrys City's largely plant-based remedies to convince himself that he can help Jillian.
Now that she's back on the Hummingbird Jillian apologizes to Malcolm for the room-painting incident. The tea that she picked up for him turns out to have been a good choice: he finds it exquisite. She also apologizes to Volkova for her lascivious behaviour back in the research centre.
Now that the guns have been dropped off with Labrys City and everyone's nominally in shape to leave it's time to meet with the Resplendent Dragon's crew and decide what their next step will be. As the Dragons enter the Hummingbird they express their sympathy for Jillian and Volkova's injuries. Everyone's in agreement that exploring the Leary would be a good idea. A ship that jumped into the system from another system under D'vor attack may well carry some clues about the D'vor or "small, smart worms" in its mangled three-kilometre length. First though, the Resplendent Dragon's been asked to do a search outside of the dome for more black slime. An investigation found some evidence that the ooze found in the dome seems to have forced its way into the colony. If this means that the goop came from a larger mass out in the wild then Labrys City would like to see that larger body destroyed, and an aircraft can search much more efficiently than ground vehicles.
If this is going to be a purely flying mission then the Resplendent Dragon is perfectly willing to come along, especially since Jillian and Volkova are the only ones on the two ships who have seen the ooze up close and their injuries aren't quite so debilitating if they're on their ship. If they're going to destroy a large amount of it then they'll need something better than just the ships' cannons; kinetic force doesn't seem to be the best means of combatting it. Volkova verifies the oxygen content of the atmosphere and then calls in a request for some 200-litre barrels of flammable liquids and also scrounges what she can from the hangar. Olivia agrees to pick up the posters once Jillian remembers them and will also post one on the navigation board. While she does that Jillian plots out a search path spiralling out from the colony focusing on the direction the slime came in from and taking advantage of the relative visibility and sensors of the two ships. She ends up with an extremely efficient pattern.
Olvia gets back as everyone is ready to go and hands over the stack of printing to Jillian. She doesn't seem to like them much judging by the downturned edge of her mouth and doesn't volunteer to take any on the Dragon. Volkova's got several barrels of nasty flammable organic liquids and a couple of large dewars of liquid hydrogen just to add to the fun. She's tied them to each other in a tight package and attached them on top of some skids to make them easy to push out the back of the Hummingbird. She's also painted large pink stripes on them with glittery hull paint, ostensibly for extra visibility.
Both ships fly off and begin their search. After about an hour Jillian picks up something strange on her sensors and upon closer inspection it proves to indeed be a large mass of the black ooze, perhaps twenty metres in diameter, in a clearing. There seems to be some sort of lighter-coloured small ovoid shape rising out of the middle of the slime.
Their first priority is to destroy the mass. Based on her previous experiences with the stuff Jillian extrapolates a safe range from its malign psychological effects and Malcolm gets the Hummingbird hovering higher than that -- just to be on the safe side -- directly above the centre of the ooze. With a negligible wind making things simpler Volkova, wearing a respirator, pushes while bracing with her good leg and basically just tips the mass of the barrels over the lip of the Hummingbird's cargo ramp. Malcolm's piloting and Volkova's shoving are excellent and the barrels land just off-centre.
The Resplendent Dragon is called in and as it streaks by Olivia rakes the pink-striped barrels with a long burst of tracer rounds. Her aim is true and there is an explosive gout of flame, followed by a good long burning. The Hummingbird hovers in the area to watch, but the Dragon lacks this ability and loiters close by.
When the flames finally burn down the ooze looks done for but the ovoid in the centre looks scorched but still intact. Malcolm lands the ship close to the crispy remains and he, Bishop, and Volkova suit up and cautiously approach what's left of the slime while Jillian waits nervously on the ship. Malcolm's armed with an assault rifle and Volkova limps along with her pink grenade launcher, just in case, but the ooze is burned to a crisp with small bits of flame here and there and doesn't pose a threat.
They walk over to the centre of the scorched clearing, the remains of the slime crunching underfoot. The ovoid is indeed in good shape if somewhat blackened. Examining its design, Bishop thinks it looks like D'vor tech.
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Bishop's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 17)
Jillian's Bedpost Notch Count: Just you wait!
Malcolm's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 1)
Volkova's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 3)