Play date: November 22, 2014
In-game date: December 12, EY218
Location: Vishnu
Previous events: Lots of people died
After all the devastation and death the Steel Hummingbird's happy to hear that the Chempil Arayan, unlike its naval brethren, doesn't seem to be involved in the slaughter. It's easy enough to locate where the frigate is broadcasting from and the Steel Hummingbird sends a narrow-beam communication to it. It's too far to allow an actual conversation so Malcolm tells them about the situation on Shiva. The Chempil Arayan insists on some proof and so they send them the recording of the takeover of The Ashram and the sensor readings of the station's impact on Bhopuhr. Jillian identifies herself as a former member of the military for what it's worth and provides all the details she can remember. It's enough to convince Captain Travancore that something suspicious is going on and he tells her that he'll contact the Nehru and demand an explanation.
They fly on for a while until they get another message from Travancore informing them that the Nehru hasn't convinced him that its intentions are honourable and he plans to pursue. The smaller ship will likely come out second in a fight with the destroyer but he can't just sit by if the Nehru really is going to destroy Labrys City.
While this is happy news on the surface the Nehru will still get to Labrys City long before the Chempil Arayan can catch up. It also means that the Nehru speeds up to stay ahead of its pursuer; this burns more of the destroyer's fuel but also means that the Steel Hummingbird will only get to Kali with a five-hour lead instead of the almost fifteen hours that they were hoping for. Labrys City is informed of the changed schedule and some last-minute equipment requirements from Volkova as everyone races towards them.
Volkova works frantically on the cargo decks to make them suitable for long-term habitation. They don't have much in the way of extra gear but she does her best while Bishop keeps the passengers already on board calm. The trip's long enough to give everyone time to breathe and take in the horrors that have happened but he manages to keep everyone focused on the tasks ahead. In the end the only parts of the ship that aren't turned over to passenger space are the tiny hidden compartment -- which is too small to fit a person into anyway -- the space drive deck, the bridge, and Jillian's quarters, where the whole crew will bunk for the duration of the trip.
December 13, EY218
Kali at last. Malcolm dives through the atmosphere and makes a screeching landing at Labrys City. He's locked the door to the bridge and Volkova's on the cannons just in case there is a panic and things get ugly, something they dearly hope doesn't happen.
Luckily, Labrys City is frantically busy but not panicked. Bishop and Jillian are met by Disha Malach, the colony's over-uniformed head of security, and Punita Golan, who is as close to a leader here as possible. They gratefully thank the crew for their warning and their offer to take as many people to safety as they can. Jillian and Punita talk while Bishop and Disha Malach get the assembled throng of refugees and their supplies on board in an orderly fashion. No one wants to ask how these people were chosen. Punita has a passenger list ready and Jillian recognizes several names on it: Zanani, the prostitute that Bishop Dreamed of marrying; Kasturi Karwal, Olivia's girlfriend who was studying the ovoid device the black slime came in; Ruchi Shetty, Neet's mother; and Helga Lang, the xenobotanist who faced off against the black slime with Jillian and Volkova.
The boarding goes reassuringly smoothly despite the disturbingly large number of babies and takes up much less time than feared. Punita reveals that the city's been preparing for something like this for a while, since the attacks from the mysterious base on Kali that's since been emptied. Those attacks made it obvious that huge domes were too vulnerable to not have other plans. They have taken the abandoned base and repaired it as well as setting up several other bases that are mostly independent but also purposely hard to detect -- the jobs shipping construction equipment to Labrys City that Jillian saw on The Ashram now make sense. These new constructions can hold ten thousand people, a quarter of the population on Labrys City, but it's better than nothing. The others will either hide out in vehicles, or in respiration masks, or in bunkers underneath the city, and wait. Someone will stay in the control centre and try to contact the Nehru just in case. Punita asks Jillian to record the conversation in case the worst happens and Jillian agrees.
With everything going well and well ahead of schedule Volkova exits the ship and asks Malach if there are any grenades for her launcher -- she's not sure when she'll be able to get more. Malach sends a runner, who returns with four grenades. The others are in the hands of defence troops. Jillian gets a list of the locations of the other bases on Kali as well as the passenger manifest from Punita and in turn explains how they're going to use the slide points to get out of the system now that the jump gate's loyalty is unsure. Punita and Malach point out the last person in line: Janaki, a young security officer, as the person in charge of the refugees. She's only 22 years old but is a natural leader. There are brief introductions and then it's time to go.
Malcolm takes off like a bat out of Hell, following the flight path that Jillian's plotted out, and they pull out of atmosphere with several of their nonessential systems off for extra stealth. There is no sign that the Nehru has noticed them. Jillian makes an announcement that they'll be going through slide points and explains what that's like as best she can to the refugees. They'll take the upper slide point -- they know it leads to Providence while they don't know where the lower one goes and with a ship full of refugees they have no desire to go exploring.
As they pull away they keep their comms and sensors pointed back at Labrys City, recording everything. If Janaki is the leader here it's best to let her hear what's going on and she's invited to the bridge. The Nehru shows up right on time and the person on comms in Labrys City tries to communicate with the ship. She's very calm for what's likely to be a suicide job. It's obvious that she's going out of her way to make it obvious what's going on, giving the ship every chance to stop or communicate and spelling out what her sensors are showing her. There's no response from the destroyer and it does indeed open fire on Labrys City. The Steel Hummingbird may not know the communicator's name but they hear her die.
Janaki breaks down in tears at this and reveals that she was born on Labrys City and now her home is gone. This is the first time she's ever been off the planet and there's nowhere to return to. Everyone lets her cry until she's able to speak. She wants to know what's going on, there being no time to find out in the hurried exodus: why did the navy decide to kill the entire colony? She gets the full story: the D'vor, the Grob, the Leary, the black slime... all of it. It's a lot to accept on top of the destruction of her home and she asks if she can be alone for a bit. She's shown to Jillian's quarters and given all the time she needs.
As the ship keeps flying towards the slide point Bishop and Janaki keep the refugees calm. He isn't too happy when Helga Lang, the Bureau of Xenobiology botanist who was stationed in Labrys City, hits on him in no uncertain terms. No matter how desperate she is after her long stint in a women-only colony he's just not attracted to her. She's too old -- she must be thirty -- and her giant hair frightens him. He manages to deflect her attentions in the direction of the male mechanic from The Ashram or Malcolm, but the latter keeps himself on the bridge most of the time. Malcolm's too worried about his family to be in the mood and wants the bridge to be secure just in case. Everyone on board is under a lot of pressure and someone panicking or -- worse -- someone under D'vor control could be disastrous.
When the jump gate is supposed to open on the 14th Malcolm spends the day focused on the comms, listening for any news about his family, but there's only silence. As much as he wants to send a signal to see if they've made it through he resists. Any signal he sends would mean that ships near the jump gate would be able to trace the source.
Jillian spends some time talking to Neet's mother Ruchi, who insists that Jillian call her Maji. Maji's not sure how Neet is going to handle the death of his girlfriend Ashley, not to mention how Olivia and Xao are going to deal with their own losses: Olivia's boyfriend Senajit and Xao's girlfriend Rupa both lived in Bhopuhr and can only be assumed dead. Maji also obliquely brings up Jillian's off-again, off-again relationship with Xao as Neet saw it but refuses to divulge any details despite Jillian's repeated queries. That would be improper.
The next few days go fairly well. Volkova sets up netting that she obtained from Labrys City to keep the refugees safe while in the slide point and Malcolm brews up a vat of calming tea to hopefully keep everyone from freaking out too much from the psychedelic experience and Bishop goes into some detail to the passengers about how passing through a slide point feels.
December 18, EY218
The Steel Hummingbird finally reaches the slide point, 2AU above the still-silent jump gate. Volkova gets everyone into the netting, Malcolm's tea is consumed, and Bishop preps everyone for the insanity to come.
It's a fast trip through the slide point, the experience of the crew and their usual preparation paying off again. Nonetheless it's a very rough ride and a massive electrical surge takes out the long-suffering advanced sensor array and knocks the cannon out of whack. Worse, the ship lurches to the side at one point with no warning with such force that anyone not strapped in would be badly injured. As it is Malcolm catches his foot in the pedals and his ankle gives with a sickening snap, though the rest of the crew are only bruised. After that no one dares to unstrap themselves and go check on the refugees in case the same thing happens again. Not until they're through the slide point.
December 19, EY218
Only once they're through does Bishop set Malcolm's ankle with a healthy amount of wriggling animal life held down by leaves and a pungent ointment. A pair of crutches that Bishop was using as trellises is found in the med bay and Malcolm starts practicing with them once the vines are carefully peeled off of them. Bishop also sends a ping to the Iof to let them know where the Steel Hummingbird is. While he's occupied Jillian scans the area with the ship's sensors to make sure that they're alone.
After that it's time to check on the refugees and it's a terrible sight. Nine people are dead, 45 are badly injured, 36 less injured, and sixty made it through with nothing worse than minor bruising. Without Volkova's nets the butcher's bill would have been far worse. Of the people they know best Helga Lang and Kasturi Karwal are pretty badly bruised but nothing more than that. Samiksha continues to have bad luck with traveling through slide points: she's unconscious and seems to be concussed.
Bishop and the handful of passengers who have some medical training take care of the injured while Volkova takes the bodies to the larger of their secret cargo compartments and turns down the heating in there, the best that can be done without a mortuary on board.
While the passengers are being taken care of Malcolm flies towards the Providence jump gate to see if it's ok.
December 21, EY218
The jump gate looks like it's intact and is transmitting normally, so Malcolm follows Jillian's plotted course to Beck, almost 9AU away, the course designed to make them look like they've come through the gate and refuelled at Carlson.
Jillian sends a tight-beam transmission to Colt, the militarized moon that orbits Beck, and gets a message through to Vice Admiral Egan. At this distance it takes just under two and a half hours for the message to come back, and knowing that it's impossible to know if the message is overheard -- it will spread out and not be much of a tight beam if nothing else -- she keeps the message vague, mentioning that she has almost a hundred and fifty passengers on board, many of whom need medical treatment, and that there has been trouble in Vishnu. The response is to bring the refugees to Skousen, the biggest city on Beck, and that someone will be waiting for them there. It will take a week to get there, assuming efficient flying and plotting.
Picking her way through the masses of people on the ship and checking on their state, Jillian's pleased to see that Kasturi the computer expert, is getting along famously with Choi the xenotechnologist. They've managed to get some space and are excitedly examining the ovoid device that came on the ship with the rest of the gear for the refugees. While Jillian's happy to see that they're working together she's a little nervous about the ovoid being on her ship. The two researchers try to reassure her by bringing up that it's disabled and isn't nearly as dangerous as the black slime that Helga Lang brought on board.
With that news Jillian stalks over to Helga's location and demands to know what the xenobiologist was thinking, bringing a sample of the thing that almost killed several people onto an enclosed ship. Helga insists that the small slime sample that she managed to save is harmless and in a metal container that has been welded shut. There's no way she'll open it on the Hummingbird. She convinces Jillian to let the slime "live" so that it can be studied in a controlled, high-tech research facility. Jillian may not be happy about the thing, but she has to admit that Helga has a point.
December 22, EY218
It's an otherwise uneventful day, but only Jillian knows that it's her true birthday. She stays in her bunk with the door closed for much of the day getting drunk, but manages to neither vomit nor to have a raging hangover the next day. Maybe she's really maturing?
December 24, EY218
The crew get an unpleasant surprise when the Crocodile -- the frigate seconded to Hoax -- approaches and hails them while they're about 3.5AU from Beck. They are suspicious about the ship that's figured in so many unpleasant and suspicious events but respond in a neutral manner. The frigate can see that they're damaged and knows that they have injured people on board -- it asks them if they need any assistance, such as medical, but Jillian insists that everything is ok and to her relief the Crocodile heads off.
Once they're alone Jillian sends a message to Egan on Colt about the Crocodile's appearance, keeping the tone unemotional. Egan's reply is that she thought that the Steel Hummingbird might enjoy a surprise -- the Vice Admiral's tone makes it clear that she too is surprised by this.
December 28, EY218
Beck at last. They call the Skousen Airport on the way in and are given a hangar number to report to. On the flight down Malcolm makes the unpleasant discovery that the atmospheric engines were also damaged in the slide point's electrical overload but they're working well enough to make it to the airport. After landing Malcolm taxis over to the hangar and they can see a couple of buses, several ambulances, and medical personnel waiting for them. When they come to a stop (with Malcolm arranging it so the rear gate is in position to open up right next to the ambulances, of course) and disembark a Commander Thomson is there to meet them. She's all business and has the injured -- including Samiksha and one of the mechanics from The Ashram -- in ambulances in short order. The uninjured will be put up in some cheap temporary housing until something more permanent can be arranged. The refugees are only a tenth of one percent of the city's population, so that shouldn't be a problem.
Not all of the passengers will be leaving the ship just yet. Choi and Ester stay on the ship, as well as Ruchi and Kasturi, who both want to rejoin the Resplendent Dragon in Aiscapo. Helga Lang will also go to Aiscapo and report to the headquarters of the Bureau of Xenobiology.
While Bishop and Jillian are dealing with the refugees Volkova forcibly vents the ship's atmosphere to get two week's worth of smell of a gross of people off the ship. While that's going on she decides that four grenades aren't enough and wants more. Three weren't enough for Crapworld and this looks like a war is beginning. There really isn't time to go to one of the arms merchants in the city, especially with Malcolm's ankle rendering him unable to drive well, but she knows there are some ammunition vending machines in the airport. She goes airport shopping but come up empty; the vending machine has a grenade jammed between the racks and glass -- possibly from someone trying to shake the machine enough to get a free grenade -- and it generally takes a while to get a daring enough repairperson to fix it. She debates doing so herself but decides that it's best to just head back to the ship instead of making trouble.
By the time Volkova's lumbered back to the hangar the ambulances and buses have left. Everyone left gets on the Hummingbird and they fly off to Colt.
Landing on Colt, aka "the death star" due to its mass drivers pointed at Beck, Vice Admiral Egan and the inevitable cluster of flunkies are there to meet them. Choi, Ester, and Ruchi Netty stay on the ship while everyone else -- the Hummingbird's crew, the three uninjured mechanics from The Ashram, Helga, Janaki, and Kasturi -- follows Egan to the same bland meeting room that the Hummingbird's crew met her in before, Malcolm hobbling as best he can on crutches. One unwelcome addition to the meeting is Inspector How, who is waiting for them with her little annoying sculpture on the table besides her. Egan gives the crew an apologetic shrug and takes a seat on the other end of the table from the Hoax agent.
With so many people most of the seats at the table are filled up and Malcolm intentionally sits relatively close to Inspector How. As he maneuvers his crutches he swings one in a quick motion as if he's trying to bring it to the other side of his chair -- but his aim is Inspector How's sculpture! His added range and quick motion beats her scramble to protect the paperweight and the crutche sends it flying into the near wall, where it breaks into a few pieces. As Inspector How picks up the pieces off the floor, scowling, Malcolm offers a completely insincere apology.
Jillian needs to tell Egan what's going on but can't just tell the full truth with How here so she makes a gamble and quickly comes up with a story about how they came across a damaged Vishnan ship in the Nodapar/Crapworld system that had the recordings and story that she's about to tell. She can tell that Inspector How knows that she's lying and Jillian's act isn't helped by her temporary crew looking surprised at her tale. Inwardly she's proud of the stoic expressions on her permanent crew's faces, who nod in agreement with her tale.
Regardless of what Inspector How believes, she tells about how the ship in Crapworld told them about the destruction of The Ashram, Bhopuhr, and Labrys City, about the Nehru's voyage of destruction, even about the Leary's survivors in Vishnu, specifically how one of them was captured and tortured by the Vishnan navy and the Leary's story about the D'vor attack in a distant solar system. This unnamed Vishnan ship they met in Crapworld ship seems to have seen and encountered a lot! Jillian passes the recordings, from the "Vishnan ship", to Egan.
The Vice Admiral is obviously shocked by the news but what confuses Jillian is that How's mask drops and she doesn't bother to hide that she's also plainly horrified by the destruction in Vishnu. As Egan asks about the jump gate and gets a noncommittal answer Jillian sees How putting things together in her head...
--------
Bishop's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 20)
Jillian's Bedpost Notch Count: 0
Malcolm's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 9)
Volkova's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 4)