Play date: February 1, 2015
In-game date: December 31, EY218
Location: Providence system, McNeely station orbiting Limbaugh
Previous events: Hoax has a conspiracy inside a conspiracy inside a burrito
Groggily waking up far too early after a largely sleepless night next to Volkova's massive, snoring form, Jillian has an idea. Instead of simply getting the navy to repair the Steel Hummingbird, why not get them to improve it? While the Hummingbird's already better than the average courier ship there's certainly more than can be done before the frame can't fit anything more crammed into it. This is a great chance to make her ship much better while likely not having to pay for it.
She calls Malcolm at the Queen Elizabeth hotel, where he's registered under the name "Malcolm Reynolds", and finds that he's been thinking along the same lines. He invites them over to the hotel for its famous breakfast where the whole crew can hash out the details of what they'd want the ship to be able to do. It may also be best for Jillian and Volkova to stay at the hotel; Malcolm's got the regency suite so there's plenty of room. Thinking about sleeping in a tiny bed with Volkova's bulk, Jillian readily agrees.
The Queen Elizabeth is fancy enough that Volkova goes to the effort of cleaning up properly before they head off. While they're getting ready to go Gabi and John wake up. Jillian explains that they're going to stay at the hotel where they won't bring the Black Rose down on their friends and asks them to take care of Ghost, which they agree to do.
Once at the hotel Jillian removes her oversized sunglasses and they join Bishop and Malcolm at a table in the large dining room. The place is posh enough that the staff do their best to hide their distaste at having Jillian's scarred face and Volkova's scrubbed but still uncooth self in the middle of the room; they obviously would have rather hidden them behind some of the plants if they'd known.
The food's as good as it's said to be and they work out the details of what they'd want in the new and improved Hummingbird. More armour and a larger Lyudmilla are exactly what the navy should be able to install without any issues. A general overall improvement of the electronics is asking for fair bit of effort and getting a better space drive than their current already high-end model might not be possible without some persuading. Egan's on Colt, currently 0.85AU away according to Jillian, so a real-time call is out of the question given the fourteen minutes it would take for any signal to return. As a group they work on a message to send to Egan. Jillian handles the writing with everyone else contributing. She leans heavily on her past as a hot-shot military navigator and they collectively argue that given the dangers that they face these improvements are a small price for the navy to pay to ensure as much as possible the survival of the ship. The message ends with a list of the components that they think would be best. Volkova also offers to go to Diego Garcia to oversee the improvements and make sure that the no doubt lazy mechanics get the job done properly and quickly.
As they finish up with the letter Malcolm looks up and notices the crew of the Resplendent Dragon sitting down at another table along with an attractive woman he doesn't recognize. They're supposed to be in Aiscapo but if they're here it would save them a trip and a fair amount of time. Jillian's sitting next to him but is focused on the message and wouldn't really have a chance of noticing anyone at another table given her current vision anyway. He says he'll be back later and hobbles off to the Dragons' table on his crutches.
When he sidles up to them they're all happy to see him, especially Olivia. He tells Neet that his mother is in the hotel and gives him her room number. Malcolm puts on a serious face and tells Neet that he should go talk to her right away. Neet looks confused but Malcolm's tone convinces him and he heads upstairs. Olivia pulls Neet's freed-up chair next to her and Malcolm falls heavily into it. There is a quick introduction to Sabine Weiß, who is apparently the Resplendent Dragon's new space drive engineer. She's from Walküren and is very friendly and pretty, with short light blonde hair that's gelled up and the edges of some tattoos visible at the edges of her all-black clothing. Normally Malcolm would be in a friendlier mood but what happened in Vishnu is still raw. He quickly explains that his ankle was broken coming back from Vishnu and then goes into the massacres that happened there. He tells it all in the style of a dry military report to keep his emotions in check.
The Dragons are, of course, shocked at what happened. Bhopuhr, the city that The Ashram destroyed, was their home base and they all had friends and relationships there. Malcolm specifies that Neet's mother and Kasturi, Olivia's girlfriend, survived and are in the hotel. He indicates where the rest of his crew is sitting and asks them to come over when they've talked amongst themselves about what's happened. He gets up and rejoins his crew. On the way over he thinks about whether Sabine seemed like bad news in some way but he didn't have enough of a conversation with her to be able to be sure. She does seem somewhat familiar, though.
Back with his people Malcolm tells them who he was sitting with. Jillian's concerned when Malcolm mentions Sabine's tattoos -- could she be a Black Rose? Malcolm couldn't tell given that Sabine's clothing was covering most of her arms, but Jillian puts on her sunglasses to be safe.
After a few minutes the Dragons join the Hummingbirds -- another table is pulled over -- and Sabine is introduced. The tone is sombre and Jillian can't tell through her sunglasses if Sabine is evil or not. Bishop recognizes Sabine as looking much like Ester Weiß, the shuttle pilot for the Eggen Observatory, and Sabine admits that Ester's her older sister. She seems quite taken by Bishop.
Everyone agrees that it would be best to talk in more detail in a more private place. Malcolm suggests his suite where he's platonically staying with Bishop and they all leave the table. Jillian goes to send off the message to the Vice Admiral and tells them that she'll meet them soon. Olivia in turn begs off to go see Kasturi, giving Malcolm a heartfelt thank you and hug in the hallway while everyone else walks to the elevators. When they're along he asks her about Sabine and Olivia says that Xao hired her to be a specialized space drive engineer on the Dragon. He's been putting everyone through the paces preparing for combat with the D'vor -- it's been like boot camp -- and while Olivia's amused by Xao suddenly going all tough guy she's honestly happy that she's managed to get another cannon upgrade. She's not too happy about Sabine, though. The new addition is snobby according to Olivia and, worse, has a big dog. A dog! On a ship! Sabine may be competent enough with a space drive but Olivia's not terribly convinced that she's a good fit for the rest of the crew. As for whether Sabine's evil... Olivia has no idea.
Once upstairs Xao approves of Malcolm's spacious suite. Everyone relaxes a bit, Malcom making tea and stronger drinks -- it's early but then it's also a serious time -- and Jillian soon shows up. She drags Xao into another room and interrogates him about Sabine and whether she can be trusted. He responds that she's gotten the approval of her sister and she seems a pretty decent person. Given his prodigious social skills he'd likely know. Jillian's distracted by the D'vor, the destruction of Vishnu, and a potential Black Rose on the Dragon, but she does notice that Xao seems to have gotten over his dislike of her after her merciless gunning down of Flint Cardesco. Time heals all wounds, she thinks. Or he's just hiding how he feels.
While Jillian and Xao are in the other room Bishop gets a ping from the "egg". It seems that Chig has recovered enough to communicate again! The Iof is still in iLanga and Bishop sends a ping back of "longing" so that the Iof will come to Providence as soon as possible. This will take two trips through the slide points: one to Walküren and thence to Providence. Given the Iof's experience going through slide points this shouldn't be a problem.
Jillian doesn't want Sabine in the room for some of the things that they have to talk about and Xao agrees. When they return to the living room he asks Sabine to leave; he'll get back to her later but right now they have private matters to discuss. She takes this in stride -- it's obvious that they're all old friends -- and says her goodbyes.
Once she's gone they fill Xao in on what's going on with Hoax. While interesting this seems like small potatoes to him next to what the D'vor have been up to and he brings up a visit to Vishnu as a good next step. They can both look for survivors and get information on what the D'vor are up to in the system. This is something the Hummingbird's crew has been mulling over as well and they agree that a trip back will be dangerous enough that having more ships going to Vishnu would be better. The Iof, Resplendent Dragon, and Steel Hummingbird would make a formidable squadron given the dangers of going back to Vishnu.
There's a knock at the door: it's a very deferential valet who has a response from Egan on a silver tray. The answer is all they hoped for: Egan has no problem with the improvements and the navy will pay for all of it. The estimated time for the work to be completed is four weeks. Volkova scoffs at this timetable and says that she can easily get that down to two weeks. These naval types just need the proper motivation she says, cracking her knuckles. She'll go to Diego Garcia, where they already know her from when they dropped off the ship, and get the Hummingbird ready in a fortnight.
With at least two weeks to cool their heels they decide to take care of some mundane business, like checking their mail. Bishop opts to stay behind while the other go to the post office. Malcolm offers Jillian a ride on his motorcycle. Since the central post office is right by the docks Volkova will come too, though she'll take the subway there. Malcolm's bike won't take three. While Jillian raids the minibar to build up her courage for going out in public Malcolm quietly asks Volkova if she can figure out a way to make the hull only take the initial military paint job and otherwise be resistant to paint. Volkova thinks this is possible but isn't sure if she should go through with it. How will her captain react if she can't express herself on the hull of her ship? It might lead to more crazy eye.
It's not too long before Jillian, Malcolm, and Volkova are at the central postal office. There are several mailboxes to check and three of them have messages. Two of them in the Steel Hummingbird's communal mailbox are from Olivia. One from the 24th of December reads "We're in McNeely! Xao wants to get a permanent space drive engineer. >:( Staying at the Queen Elizabeth: Xao's treating us with his parents' money!" and the one from the 25th reads "V: check your mailbox!".
Volkova excitedly finds a gift certificate from Olivia to Bollywood, the Picc-Vish restaurant that Olivia -- and pretty much only Olivia -- thinks is excellent. The attached note simply says "Merry XMaS, V!"
More interesting, at least to Jillian, is the message in the secret mailbox that has just been set up. It reads "Look out for Donald Robinson, head of Hoax in Providence. Jerk. Has personal gang: Electric Eliminators. -H." and is dated December 28th. It seems that How is trying to be helpful, even if her note only reinforces what the Steel Hummingbird already thought about the Electric Eliminators.
When Volkova catches a shuttle to Diego Garcia Jillian and Malcolm head to the hotel, stopping on the way for Jillian to pick up some simple art supplies. She doesn't want to risk getting paint all over the suite so she opts for a sketchbook and some coloured pencils and the like. She can at least still work on some nice colourful designs for the ship's new hull while they wait!
When the two of them get back to the Queen Elizabeth they both stop cold in the lobby when they hear a voice say "Nikoo?" behind them. There's no way that someone knowing Jillian's real name can mean good news. Fearing the worst, Malcolm reaches for his illegal Blingmaster but stops when Jillian's fearful face turns into a confused but radiant smile. She knows this woman and the two of them hug each other fiercely. Malcolm passes the art supplies to a porter to be brought upstairs and then ushers them into the bar and finds a dark booth for the three of them.
The new woman, Sheema, is a friend of Jillian's from back in her home cluster of Zartosht who has come here to find out about the Black Rose and cause them trouble as a journalist. She undoubtedly attractive, with long shiny brown hair and good taste in clothes. The two of them speak quickly and pretty much entirely to each other. Malcolm reports what happened in Vishnu in the same report style that he used earlier in the day with the Resplendent Dragon. During the conversation the existence of the D'vor comes up but not the Grob, uBuntu's secret, or the slide points. Malcolm can't help but notice -- with an arched eyebrow -- how often the two of them are touching each other's arms during the conversation.
When Sheema tells about her trip here with Azar, someone that Jillian remembers from Zartosht but in a completely different context than how she knew Sheema. She also brings up that her mother, a judge, was killed due to Rashid, Jillian's ex. At this Jillian orders a double and Malcolm starts trying to get her upstair and away from the booze.
They're soon up in the regency suite where the conversation continues. The conspiracy in Hoax comes up, as does the plan to explore Vishnu. This means that the slide points need to be brought up, but Jillian seems to have no problem telling her old friend everything.
Sheema surprisingly asks to come along to Vishnu; can the Hummingbird use another pair of eyes? Jillian immediately says yes, but Malcolm brings up the likely danger. Being a reporter who investigates organized crime, this doesn't faze Sheema. This mysterious Azar won't be invited and Sheema agrees not to tell her about Nikoo/Jillian. It looks like the Steel Hummingbird is going to be pretty full.
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Bishop's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 20)
Jillian's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: zip)
Malcolm's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 10)
Volkova's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 4)