Play date: March 29, 2014
Game date: September 31, EY218
Location: the Telushknin Refinery, Providence
Previous events: Some healing, some flirting, some rejoining of the Black Rose
There's some surprise when Arman asks Jillian about the slide points. She quickly realizes that although she's gone to great pains to fake her navigator's log it's obvious from looking at the Steel Hummingbird's engine that it's been modified to use the slide points if one knows what to look for, which the Black Rose certainly would. He also knows about their visits to Maurice Clegman, and it again makes sense that they'd keep an eye on the man who gave them the knowledge of how to use something as important as the slide points.
Jillian cops to using the slide points twice and then quickly turns the tables by asking him if the Black Rose has also seen the planet inside the slide points. Arman is a very cool customer but Jillian, Malcolm, and Volkova all see him blanch at the mention of this. He covers it well and no one wants to push him on it given the position they're in. Still, this is the first point of data they've come across in a while that indicates that Jillian might not be entirely crazy!
Quickly changing the topic their interrogator points out that they know how to use the slide points and are, judging by the navigation job they pulled off to get to the Telushkin, very sneaky. If they're really interested in (re)joining the Black Rose they'd have no problem carrying out a job, would they? Say, getting someone off of Bashois? His tone makes it obvious that this isn't really a request and given their position the entire crew knows that it would be best to take it.
Everyone is as surprised by his use of Crapworld's official name of Bashois as they are by the job. The last time they were there on a humanitarian supply run they didn't even touch down on the planet! The person of interest is a xenotechnologist who is one of the best in the cluster. With the D'vor tech that the Steel Hummingbird has given up and the knowledge that the cluster may soon be invaded by the D'vor it would be a good idea to find out as much as they can about this xenotechnology, no?
The Steel Hummingbird doesn't need to know the name of the person they're going to collect; two Black Rose operatives will be coming with them who know the xenotechnologist. Slide point information will be shared and the disposition of the defences on Crapworld will likewise be given to them to let them plot out a flight plan to sneak in.
There isn't much of an option here and Jillian agrees to the job. She brings up the necessary repairs to her ship and Arman replies that it's being repaired -- if they refused the job they'd probably be killed and the Black Rose would use the ship themselves, Jillian knows, so they'd be working on it anyway -- and the repairs should be done in three days or so. Jillian, Malcolm, and Volkova want to take a look at the ship and Arman magnanimously allows them to do so.
Escorted by a pair of SMG-toting guards the three of them head to the flight bay where the Steel Hummingbird awaits. She's awkwardly placed so that if someone were to try to fly the ship out of here quickly they'd have to slowly back up and make a painstaking maneuver to orient the ship correctly... if they weren't Malcolm. No doubt there are also some vital parts missing to prevent any escape. The rear ramp is down and Tapan Markesh, the xenotechnologist that they previously met on the Gurg, is excitedly examining the D'vor ship section and jump drive parts that are being offloaded by the station's crew and practically flapping with excitement. He's happy to see the Hummingbird's crew, though he can't look Jillian in her mangled face. They engage him in some small talk about his new toys and he lets slip that it's good to have more D'vor tech to examine; he's looked at some on Ganapati, of course, and... he shouldn't have said that. Jillian tries to press him on the matter but he realizes that he's said something that he really shouldn't have and scurries off sheepishly.
Ganapati is the largest moon of Ganesha, the middle gas giant in the Vishnu system. It's not used for much of anything and has no permanent settlements, so its mention is interesting. Something else to follow up on!
Before entering the ship everyone takes a moment to look at the general shape it's in. The gorgeous paint job has been blasted by the spate of rockets that hit the ship and while the repairs are decent enough Volkova knows she could do better. There's no replacement for the advanced sensor suite anywhere on the Telushkin and the green stealth material that the Grob got them likewise has no replacement, so the only major repair to a specific component that's going on is to the atmospheric engines.
It's obvious that a new paint scheme is needed. Malcolm sarcastically suggests that they use the lime green and sparkly pink hull paint that Jillian bought on Beck: they already have the paint on hand and it will use up the last of the paint that he hates so much. Excellent, thinks Jillian! Dazzle camouflage! Malcolm realizes that he should have kept his mouth shut. He shakes his head and thinks that at least he can petition to have it set up so he can't see the worst of it from the cockpit.
Jillian is of course interested in the mechanical damage and paint job to come but she's also very concerned about how her interior art fared in the attack. Once inside it's immediately apparent that the interior of the Hummingbird is a mess. Some of it's from the combat but it's obviously also been tossed by the Telushin's crew. Ghost is found to be ok once she's lured out from under the captain's captain bed. The art, on the other hand, is in fairly dire shape from the two factors already mentioned. While the arrows piercing the two-faced heart obviously sheared off from the rocket impact, which is understandable, it looks like someone was wearing the big clown foot and there was simply no call for that sort of vandalism.
Upon closer inspection nothing was stolen, not even their beer money. The Black Rose looks to be a much more professional criminal organization than the ostensibly legal Hoax!
Over the next few days everyone takes on a task. Bishop is ordered by Jillian to help her with the painting and he reluctantly assists in making the ship truly hideous. His captain calls it dazzle camouflage but he thinks it's more like nausea camouflage. Jillian has time in between painting the green and pink sections to think about her situation and spends a day in a deep depression, forcing Bishop to do most of the pink sections.
Volkova joins the repair crew and speeds up the repairs by a fair amount. She also looks for tracking devices while working and duly finds one but leaves it untouched for now.
Malcolm refuses to have anything to do with the painting and can't help with the repairs so he spends his time trying to seduce the young guard he's had his eyes on. With the help of an aphrodisiac tea blend he calls "Rampant Unicorn" he does indeed manage to bed the guard. As they lie together afterwards Malcolm thinks that he should probably do something to justify this to his crew and finds out what he can about the two Black Roses who will be joining them. The guard's still fairly groggy from the tea and between-sheet grappling and the best Malcolm can get is their names: Ester Hahn and Samiksha Sharma. After their coupling the guard realizes that he was taken advantage of and keeps a good amount of distance between himself and Malcolm.
Bishop and Jillian also try to get some information out of their captors-cum-employers during their downtime. She informs her crew that Asjadi, Arman's bodyguard, was her bodyguard while younger, and she'll try to get some information out of him; Bishop got along well with Tapan Markesh the first time they met and he should do his best to strike up that relationship again, perhaps bringing up the black ooze that they found in Labrys City. Since Tapan has already given up some information about Ganapati he's likely to give up yet more with a little cajoling. The two of them find their targets and get to work.
Asjadi is more than happy to talk to Jillian and is concerned about just how (physically) scarred she's become; she tells him about how she's become so (physically) damaged, specifically the loss of her eye to the attack when they approached the Telushkin. Jillian's part of the conversation is half probing questions and half breaking down to the man who protected her as a girl. She gets some information from him, but it's a (psychologically) messy affair.
There's not too much that Asjadi can tell her about this mission that she's going to embark on. It does seem to be what Arman Sahlesi claimed it to be, a rescue mission of a person who could be helpful against the squid things, but he doesn't know any more than that.
When asked about Rashid, Jillian's former bodyguard has more information. Rashid is indeed in the system but seems to have screwed something up and is no longer in charge of anything. What he screwed up is uncertain; Asjadi heard something about lesbians in another system and because of Rashid a whole bunch of Black Rose people had to move. Realizing that he's probably talking about Labrys City, Jillian wraps up the conversation with a hurried but heartfelt hug and rushes off to stop Bishop from telling Tapan about the black ooze: it's probably a Black Rose thing and there's no need to let them know that the Steel Hummingbird has faced off against it!
Bishop has had no problem getting Tapan to open up. If anything, the xenotechnologist is too loquacious and it takes Bishop a while to get much that's useful out of him. It turns out that the Black Rose had to move their base in Vishnu to Ganapati for some reason or another and that, with much trouble, they managed to shoot down a squid ship and take the parts back to their new base in the Vishnu system and examine it, though the parts were in terrible shape.
Just as Bishop starts on the topic of the black ooze Jillian rounds the corner at a good clip, trying to look casual and pulling Bishop away to touch up some paint on the Hummingbird that's not quite dazzling enough. Between Bishop and Jillian's skills at deceit Tapan completely forgets about the ooze that Bishop was starting to talk again and doesn't think that anything's suspicious as they leave.
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Bishop's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 17)
Jillian's Bedpost Notch Count: 0
Malcolm's Bedpost Notch Count: 1 super-creepy case of using space roofies (running total: 6)
Volkova's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 4)