Play date: September 7, 2013
Game date: June 20, EY218
Location: iLanga system, isiBhakabhaka space station
Previous events: Flint Cardesco captured and interrogated
It's late and everyone's tired. When the large meeting breaks up Jillian quietly keeps Malcolm and Volkova behind while the guests return to their quarters and Bishop takes the opportunity to head down to the passenger level to make some food for everyone before they go to sleep: it's been a busy day and he's heard several grumbling stomachs during the meeting.
When it's just the three of them Jillian tells Malcolm and Volkova that the longer that Flint Cardesco lives the more likely it is that he'll escape to make more troubles for them, troubles that could have the Black Rose hunting them down. She can't see any way that keeping him alive will be anything less than disastrous and so she'll just kill him now and be done with it. She asks Malcolm for his Blingmaster; he hands it over without a word. Jillian heads grimly down the stairs, Volkova on her heels. Malcolm decides to stay behind and sits in the galley, assault rifle in one hand while he looks at a photo of his family that he holds in the other.
On the passenger deck Olivia's still hanging out guarding the floor. Xao's also there, obviously waiting for Jillian and completely unsurprised by the heavy pistol in her hand. He's disappointed that she didn't at least think about this until the morning, that she's lied to him about the plan on how to deal with Cardesco and his crew, and that she's willing to kill an injured prisoner without bothering to really listen to opposing viewpoints.
The two of them have a debate of sorts, but they're not trying to convince the other of their position as much as beat each other down through sheer force of will. While they glare and talk bluntly Olivia and Volkova stay quiet. Olivia's obviously terribly uncomfortable with this situation in which there aren't obvious good guys and bad guys and heavy weapons aren't the way to win the day. Volkova decides to let her captain fight her own fight, contributing only by her reassuring presence.
In the end it's Jillian who is triumphant. Xao makes a bitter comment about "once a Black Rose, always a Black Rose" before glaring at Olivia as if she's let him down and then storming into his quarters, slamming the door behind him. Olivia looks like a deer caught in the headlights, something Jillian and Volkova never thought they'd see.
Jillian realizes that this may be a permanent rift in her relationship with Xao but this is not the time to dwell on that. She takes a deep breath to get her head together and is about to open the door to Cardesco's cell when Bishop shows up with some food, a last meal for their prisoner. Jillian won't have any of it and forcefully tells him to take the food upstairs. Bishop tries and fails to sway her and heads up the stairs with a glum look.
Finally free of distractions Jillian puts on her best "pissed off Black Rose higher-up" look and opens the door to Flint's cell, the pistol slightly concealed behind her leg. Flint focuses on the face of his criminal superior and before he fully registers what her intent is Jillian puts a bullet through his head. The shot is deafeningly loud in the small room and carries throughout the ship. Upstairs in the galley the corners of Malcolm's mouth curl in the smallest smile and he puts away the photo.
In a flat tone Jillian tells Volkova to clean up the mess and trudges up the stairs. She hands the revolver to Malcolm -- who discovers that happiness is indeed a warm gun -- and proceeds to get very drunk in her cabin.
Volkova cleans up the mess. She doesn't find it traumatic at all, having seen worse industrial accidents back home involving people she actually cared about. Not wanting the new passenger quarters to be permanently stained she spends a good while mopping and scrubbing. Flint's body is wrapped up in several tarps and dragged down to the cargo deck, where Volkova turns down the heat.
When she's done she and Olivia talk about the situation for a bit. Olivia's very uncomfortable while Volkova's much more fatalistic about the whole situation, seeing them as the goons of their crews and these sorts of complex moral calculations as something beyond them. Maybe the electromagnetic field here is affecting everyone? Olivia asks her friend if she can take over guard duties for the night; Olivia feels the need to talk to Xao about what's going on. Tired as she is Volkova agrees and keeps herself awake through the night working out the plans in her head to a Faraday cage helmet to keep herself safe from the planet's malign influence.
June 21, EY 218
To no surprise Jillian wakes up in the morning with a bad hangover, though she's had worse. She blearily knocks on Xao's door and when he finally opens it he's extremely cold to her. She refuses to apologize for what she did night before but wants him to talk to the other two prisoners and find out how deeply they're involved with the Black Rose and if they're the vengeful types or loyal enough to Cardesco to come gunning after the Hummingbird and Dragon's crew. Xao is honestly the best person on the ship to question people, though asking him is difficult.
Xao agrees, saying that it's better than Jillian shooting them, but when she demands to be in the room with him during the questioning he refuses to have her there: he can do it alone or she can do it herself. She reflexively refuses to back down and he stalks back into his room. Sighing, Jillian talks to the two prisoners in turn, bringing Volkova along for muscle just in case.
Frank Evans is the man that Olivia curryfaced the day before. At his best he's got an impressive beard, a bit of a bald spot, and a muscular physique, but he's been curry faced into unconsciousness, spent all night without food or water, has terrible cramps from being tied up, and has unsurprisingly soiled himself. Jillian is much nicer than when she was interrogating Flint Cardesco and allows him to shower and eat something, giving him a guest robe to wear. Bishop runs Frank's clothes through the wash so he'll have something other than a robe to wear but for the moment his temporary garb can't help but make him feel more vulnerable.
When Jillian talks to him he asks if last night's gunshot was the end of Flint Cardesco. She nods. It turns out that Frank was just working for Cardesco. He knew his boss was a confidence trickster of some sort and didn't especially like him, knowing that Flint's friendly exterior hid someone who used and ultimately discarded people. During the questioning Jillian works out that Frank seems to actually have some personal honour: he definitely had the drop on the foursome that broke into the Gallatin and was perfectly in his rights to gun down what were apparently pirates -- one of them even had an eye patch! -- but didn't and wouldn't have unless they'd tried to draw on him.
Convinced that letting Frank Evans live is an acceptable risk Jillian interviews his compatriot, Alexandra Baker. She's someone who goes out of her way to emphasize her natural attractiveness in a way that involves big hair, lots of makeup, and tight jeans. Like Frank she's seen better days and has a bullet wound to her thigh as well, though at a closer look it seems nowhere near as bad as it first appeared. She is given the same treatment as Frank, though when she asks for some makeup or hair spray Jillian and Volkova can only shrug apologetically. She too disliked Cardesco, though worse than Frank, and the two of them had made a pact to watch each others' back regarding their employer. Jillian determines that Alexandra isn't a threat either despite having a noticeable cruel streak.
The prisoners are locked up again and Jillian shares what she's found with Malcolm and Bishop. Neither see any point in killing these two and are fine with how things have turned out up to now. Malcolm is in fact quite pleased, while Bishop accepts the situation. With Cardesco dead and his employees deemed not a threat the plan is unchanged: Olivia and Xao will fly the Gallatin away with its original crew on board, destroy the ship, take the prisoners on the Resplendent Dragon, and dump Alexandra and Frank somewhere in Providence. The Steel Hummingbird's crew and the Grob will meanwhile go to the surface of uBuntu and see what's going on with Chig's Dreams of stupid death and reunite with the Resplendent Dragon in Providence if Xao will have anything to do with them.
Jillian asks Olivia and Volkova to patch up the Gallatin's electronics that Volkova smashed up. Olivia's happy to get away from Xao and the two head off to the ship, electrical repair equipment in hand. On the way they run into a younger iLangan woman with dreads and wearing coveralls. She's obviously a mechanic of some sort who works on the station. She seems a bit bored and asks if they need help. Neither engineer is much good at lying so they primarily omit details while kindly refusing her offer. She doesn't care enough to press the matter and admits that she isn't much good with electronics; they don't have much call for that sort of work with the EM field here wrecking most electrical systems over time. Volkova comments that the field has an effect on people's behaviour as well, but the station's mechanic dismisses the idea as without merit; she lives here and that's just not true. Volkova frowns. So much for her Faraday cage helmet.
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Bishop's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 17)
Jillian's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (and unlikely to change)
Malcolm's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 4)
Volkova's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 3)