Play date: September 2, 2016
In-game date: March 21, EY219
Location: In space in the Providence system
Previous events: Catch up to the Cheap Bastard, get the letter for the D'vor that show the slide points are still a secret
As the Cheap Bastard flies off the crew of the Steel Hummingbird go over their future actions. It's obvious from the letter they took that the D'vor don't know about them or the slide points. This gives them many possible options. They decide to tell the military base on Beck's moon Colt what they know and then take the slide point to Aiscapo and inform the military there about the situation. They have a letter of invitation from Rear Admiral Miller for Rear Admiral Ha-Eun Choi at Eondeog's naval base.
Bishop uses a tight-beam transmission to tell Rear Admiral Miller the details about the sabotage to the space drive slide point modifications and that they'll be out of touch for a while. It takes two hours for the information to get to Miller and for her to send back a thank you and good luck to the ship. The physical letter is placed into the trapped strongbox that was ripped out from the Gallatin back in June.
It's a good idea to get the Iof and its crew here and explain the situation. Bishop contacts Chig with the Egg and in an hour or so the Grob ship appears next to the Hummingbird. After the two are connected via umbilical there is a happy reunion and three members of the Iof's crew come aboard to stay while the ships fly up to the slide point: Chig, Seo, and Vob.
During the two days Bishop finds that his healing talents are becoming less necessary as his charges improve. Xao's head is fine and Sabine's nose is only bruised, though her arm is still broken and will take a while to get better. Bishop still can't believe that they put her arm into plaster and gets the name of the doctor who treated her in Skousen. This Dr. Kildare will get a talking to when Bishop's there next time! Olivia's wounds will take a few more days yet; every individual wound isn't dangerous but there are so many of them...
Malcolm and Neet keep a relatively leisurely pace on the way to the slide point give everyone time to heal as much as possible before risking the slide points.
Chig is quick to pick up the "song-proofing" of auras from Bishop and the two of them work on everyone on the Hummingbird. It's not absolute but it will be a good first line of defence should they come across a situation like the one in Labrys City. They check out Jillian's aura and find what feels almost like scarring, supporting their theories about what's going on.
Jillian spends the time intensely catching up with Seo and Vob, meaning that she has no time to talk to Sheema about anything. Oh darn.
March 23, EY219
Once the ships reach the slide point the Iof's crew is reunited on that ship and preparations are made for the trip. On the Hummingbird's side this mostly means making sure that everyone who's not essential to the flight is knocked out with Malcolm's special tea and safe tied down into padded locations. There was a time that her crew spent hours upon hours poring through scanner readings and piling up materials in the corridors for quick repairs but at this point they're so skilled at getting through the slide points that they do it cold, and after what seems like the usual eternity -- but according to the clock is thirteen hours -- they're through, the Iof soon showing up as well.
Both Jillian and Padb (on the Iof) noticed the strange reading in the slide point, but agreed beforehand that this isn't the time to investigate it.
They're only about 3AU from Daebak and the Hummingbird decides to fly to Daebak's moon Eondeog and dock there without making much of an announcement beforehand. The Iof flies off to the hot jungle planet of Haesik-Nim to replenish its supplies and for the Grob to frolic in surroundings that are much like their home planet.
March 25, EY219
Olivia's wounds are pretty much better by now; they look mostly like she got attacked by a ream of paper and suffered lots of nasty paper cuts. She's still sort of sore, but no longer seeping when she moves.
When the Steel Hummingbird gets close to the Eondeog naval base on the moon of the same name Jillian gets in contact with Rear Admiral Ha-Eun Choi, claiming she has a letter from Rear Admiral Miller in Providence. Choi's people agrees to meet with her and gives permission for the Hummingbird to dock at the naval base. As they approach Malcolm calls his friend and lover at the base, Commodore Marcus Blith.
With the ship safely docked at what seems to be the non-military bay Bishop announces that he's going to visit Warden Whang, whom he's contacted without anyone noticing. He's told that no, he's not going. He is to stay with the crew and he's needed for the meeting with Choi. He sulks and heads off to his quarters.
After final arrangements have been made for who is going to the meeting and plans in case there are more attempts on their lives, it's noticed that Bishop is nowhere to be found. Olivia can't help but grin as she mentions that she gave him a letter for her shuttle pilot boyfriend who's based here, who will take Bishop to see Whang. No one blames Olivia for some reason, which she's pretty happy about. In a furious rage, Malcolm stomps off to Bishop's room and grabs all the clothes he can find, stalking to the engineering deck to stuff them into the plasma conduit.
Everyone's pretty upset about Bishop's disappearing act but go ahead with the meeting as planned. What else is there for them to do? Jillian brings Volkova as her Dreamer/muscle and Sheema and Xao as her social backup. Everyone else is to stay on the Hummingbird.
As Jillian and her group leave with the (unarmed) military escort everyone, on the ship and off it, keeps an eye on the situation around them, but no attacks seem imminent.
Malcolm decides to do something useful about Bishop's disappearance once Jillian's out of sight. He gets the number for the Sogbag Women's Penal Institution down on the surface and tries to get a hold of Whang. Not surprisingly, she's out for the next few days on "personal business". Malcolm sighs and leaves a message that Whang should send Bishop back to his ship as soon as possible. He's needed and it's important.
Olivia comes onto the bridge as Malcolm hangs up and announces that she's feeling well enough to get drunk and is therefore heading off to the station's bar. She's no longer part of the military but has her gunner's cap with her, which acts like a pass for things like this. She's still smarting a bit but doesn't care; she gives him a peck on the lips and skips off for her first drink in a while. Malcolm glowers on the bridge.
Jillian and her people are led through a maze of hallways that look like the hallways in most any of the military bases they've been in to a meeting room that's very much like the meeting room that they met Miller and Egan in back in Providence. The military, no matter where they are, seem to have a similar taste in decor. There is even a pair of paintings on opposite walls of an old sailing ship and the new military ship that's taken on the same name, only this time it's the cruiser Sejong. There's no one in the room and they're told that the Rear Admiral will be by shortly.
While they wait they can't help but let their paranoia get the better of them and they start poking around the room. Volkova does indeed find a listening device that she can identify as coming from Aiscapo by the manufacture. Everyone panics a bit, though they don't say anything for fear of it being heard. There's some noise in the hallway, so they quickly sit down, Volkova putting the device under her heel.
Choi enters the room with two low-ranked assistants; as soon as she comes through the doorway Volkova crushes the bug under her heel. She's in her early 40s and tall and thin in a severe military sort of way, but she smiles a fair bit. There are brief introductions and she asks for the letter from her friend Miller in Providence. While she's reading it Volkova checks her for the song. She pretty sure she can't hear it, but would feel more confident if Bishop were around.
Satisfied with the letter, Choi asks what brings the crew of the Steel Hummingbird here. Jillian asks Choi to dismiss her assistants and the Rear Admiral haughtily waves them out of the room.
Once they're gone Jillian brings up the listening bug, which Volkova produces. Choi is legitimately surprised and suggests that they adjourn to her office, which is regularly swept for bugs. She puts the crushed electronics in a manila envelope and puts it in a pocket before leading them down more hallways.
Choi's office is a little on the cluttered side and has more cutesy toy animals than one would expect from a Rear Admiral, but at least there are enough chairs for everyone. The Hummingbird's crew insists on checking for devices again, and Choi bemusedly lets them.
With the room coming up clean, Jillian spills the beans on everything that's been going on. The D'vor, the black slime, their suspicions about Juche, what happened to Vishnu, slide points, uBuntu's interior... everything. There's a lot to tell and Choi's interested in what they have to say, interrupting to ask questions. She knows about an alien invasion of Vishnu -- that much has been transmitted to higher-ups in the navy -- but the rest is a surprise. By the time they're all done she's deeply concerned in an oddly good-natured way.
She'll come up with some excuse for them to go to Juche and see what the extent of the problem is there. While she's setting that up they should hang out at the entrance of mess halls when it's meal time. That would be a good way to check out pretty much everyone with less suspicion than getting all twelve thousand crew stationed here to line up for an inspection by civilians would be. Now they just need to find Bishop...
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Bishop's Bedpost Notch Count: 1 (running total: 23)
Jillian's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 3)
Malcolm's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 13)
Volkova's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 6)