An Other CT solo - Part 4: Travelling at last

Date : 056-1105

Düningen   0310   A799A9D-E   N   Hi In    Amber

Lin is shouldering her bag and walking down the Gate 436 umbilicus to board the Type-M passenger liner Schneewittchen. She looks out the portholes and marvels at the other ships attached to the station in rows above and below. She can recognise a subsidised merchant vessel or two, and what she assumes is a  scout ship, and a variety of huge bulk freighters, and if she closes her eyes she can picture how they flew here, how they docked with the station, and how they'll leave, and she can imagine herself at the helm. She's been playing this game in her head for the better part of two days. However the skill chip they put in her brain is supposed to work -- it's definitely working.

She had hoped she might find a job as a star pilot at the highport. Such naïveté! No one recruits crew here; there's too much paperwork. So she'd looked at the star charts and settled on Uizk as the most likely place to find a berth. She'd been lucky to find a ship going there, and luckier still that it hadn't filled up with high passengers, as her new life of modest means meant she only had a single voucher for a middle passage. And in the post-implant consultation, the doctors had advised her not to travel low passage for at least two months, as she'd almost certainly not wake up from it.

When she wasn't staring out the porthole of her (terribly cheap) hotel room, she was mostly asleep. The meds were just barely keeping the headaches and vertigo at bay. 

[week 1 of side effects from the implant: She needed to roll END or lower (5-): 9, fail. She took d6=6 hits to DEX (down to 5).

I rolled for ship availability this week using Zoser's Solo; 2 rolls were permitted as Düningen has a Class A starport; 2D=liner (21 passenger staterooms)

I also rolled for High (3D-2=8) and Middle (4D-2=11) passengers, so there was no chance of getting bumped.

-cr60 for minimal food & lodging

Q: Any significant encounters until departure? unlikely: O2 c1 - no, and...]

She's greeted by an open hatch at the end of the umbilicus. She steps into the ship's airlock and peeks in through the inner hatch to find a short passageway whose bare walls and whorling crimson carpeted floor look surprisingly like a hotel that boasts hourly rates. She calls a tentative 'hello?' and moments later a uniformed steward runs up to meet her.

"So sorry," says the youthful [d6=] woman glancing at chronometer, "boarding doesn't start until --oh!-- right now, I suppose."

Lin hands over her passage voucher and is escorted to her stateroom, given a brief explanation of where things are, and left promptly alone. She isn't sure what she'd really expected her stateroom to be like. Her entire understanding of passenger ships comes from those naff holo-series like "Love Aboard: Passion on the King Richard" and "Romance on the Singing Star" -- and those must be 200 standard years old at least. Come to think of it, this ship might be of a similar antiquity. And it could be cleaner. Still, the room is bigger than her first flat when she finally moved out on her own, so it should do for the next week.

[Q: Does she notice anyone/anything immediately interesting whilst boarding? unlikely: O2 C2 - no, and... 

+Event: Ambiguous event - Punish / Expectations]

When the ship finally puts off towards the jump point, the captain addresses the passengers -- the high passengers attend in person, the middle passengers watch on the viewscreens in their staterooms. [d6=] He might also be 200 standard years old, and is certainly not as dashing as the ones on the holos. And he hasn't time to finish his prepared speech before one of the bridge crew pulls him away to answer an emergency distress call.

The passengers are confined to their staterooms, but are soon informed that there is no cause for alarm; there is merely a bulk freighter requiring assistance with emergency repairs. Lin just goes back to sleep. She hopes the other passengers aren't going to kick off, but herself, she doesn't particularly mind.

Twenty hours later the ship continues towards the jump point. The announcement wakes Lin from her sleep, and quite literally leaps from the bed in exultation. This more than anything marks the break with her past life, and, more than that, she's wanted to go into space since she first learnt about the rabbit that lives on the moon of Terra. Even after her disappointment when she was old enough to understand that it was just a story. She glues her face to the tiny porthole in nervous anticipation. The captain begins the countdown over the intercom. The lights begin to dim. And then--

Lin comes to on the floor, bathed in sweat. She checks the digital wall clock. She'd only passed out for a minute or so. She looks up at the porthole, but it's already gone opaque. She cleans herself up and goes back to sleep.

[Ship encounter: bulk freighter 3000t, requires help with repair

To Avoid a Bad Reaction on the trip (Solo): 9+ due to the delay: 2D=9, ok

No malfunctions or misjump

Lin was released from hospital 1d6-1=5 days before she arrived at the highport, so the start of this journey sees the beginning of the 2nd week of RNA side effects: 2D=3, no damage this week, and can heal the earlier hits to DEX.

Onboard event (d66): Passenger is an inspector for the government who is authorized a tour of the ship.

Q: How big is the inspection team? (d6+1)x10=60%; 8 x .6 = 4.8 : 5 of the high passengers]

When Lin wakes up, she feels significantly less ropey, but still lines up all the pills she's got to take with her breakfast. The menu options on her screen are all unfamiliar, so in the spirit of adventure she makes her selections at random. Fifteen minutes later a panel opens to reveal a tray with compartments full of steaming hot... substances. There's blue and liquid-y, white and mostly viscous, and a yellowy lump of doughy solidity. None of it tastes bad, but also none of it tastes any different. At least there's a strong plastic cup of sweet tea to wash it down, and with a minimally metallic aftertaste. Oh dear, is this what homesickness tastes like?

Her culinary adventure is interrupted by another announcement form the captain. "As you may know," he lies, "Inspector Chagra from Düningen's Bureau of Standards is travelling with us on this voyage for a routine compliance check. She and her team will touring the vessel whist we're in jump, and she is anxious to meet all the passengers and crew. I'm sure you'll all want to welcome her as she..."

Lin pushes her half-finished tray back into the dispenser. What the texture couldn't do to rob her of her appetite, that announcement certainly has.

She hopes that leaving the 'do not disturb' indicator on at all times will pre-empt the inspector's visit, but the steward contacts her the next day (ship's time) to inform her that a meeting must be arranged. "It shouldn't take but five minutes. But you know what sticklers for compliance those Düningeners are!"

[reaction when meeting L 2D=12! very personable. maybe too personable!

Q: Does she suspect anything? unknown d6=1; O6 C5 - yes]

At the appointed hour, the door chimes. Lin mutes the sound on the vid-programme she'd been watching and fumbles for the door-open switch. The Inspector is there, in her crisply-pressed suit, followed by a ship's crewman and an aide of some sort, whose concealed pistol beneath a loose-fitting jacket Lin clocks at first glance. [Streetwise 9+: 2D+1=11]

"This is Lin Daiyu," says the aide, reading off a datapad, "Glunish citizenship."

"I'm very pleased to meet you, Traveller Lin," says Inspector Chagra. "I trust you're enjoying your voyage."

"Yes, it's a very comfortable room."

"Such a long way from your home system. Do you travel often?"

"As often as I can."

"How wonderful! You must have seen so many ships."

"A fair few."

"Tell me, how do you think this one compares? I myself find the accommodations most comfortable."

"Not a bad size for business travel."

The aide is nosing round the stateroom and making notes on his datapad as the Inspector and Lin engage in even more absurd small-talk. But inwardly Lin's alarm sirens are screaming. No Düningen official is this chatty unless they're trying to trip you up. And she isn't going away! She's definitely suspicious of something. Maybe the way Lin carriers herself is too much of a giveaway. There's no way they could trace her old identity, but she's still got the old fear of their authority and its omnipresent reach. Extreme measures are required. Lin focusses on the nausea that hasn't truly abated since leaving hospital. She totters for a moment and catches herself on the vanity table. [needs to roll over END (6+) to pull this off: 2D=10] 

"Sorry, not feeling too well all of a sudd-- ITALbleeuuurgh..."

"My shoes!" shrieks the Inspector, and leaps back out into the corridor. She shouts at the steward, "have your medic check her out at once. At once! If this results in quarantine..."

The medic arrives, out of breath. Lin explains she had emergency surgery on Vinstreg for some sort of water-bourne parasite in her ear, and she's still in recovery, and shows her bag full of anti-nausea medication. The medic insists on a full examination, just to be safe. 

[10+ to diagnose actual cause of her 'illness' DM +medicine 2D+1=6, no

She needs an 8+ to sound convincing (medicine-0 from JoT): 2D=8, ok

Q: Any fallout? 50/50: O2 C3 - no, but...]

Despite the clean bill of health, Lin is confined to quarters for the rest of the journey. 

[After 3 days bed rest, she heals the 5 hits to DEX. The 3rd END roll for implant side effects comes due on the final day in jump: 2D=2, no damage.]

When the Schneewittchen is about to emerge from jumpspace, Lin is once again glued to the porthole. The external shutters slide back as the lights dim and the captain begins his countdown. She's just starting to understand why they say you shouldn't stare too long at the grey void of jumpspace when there's a flash of light and the sensation of being flung through a hole in spacetime seems to force the air from her lungs. But she's still upright when her vision clears and she can see the field of stars outside the ship. A successful end to her first jump.

next post: looking for a ship