 |
| Lín |
073-1105
Lin composes herself for a moment, then, still breathless from dashing across the concourse, marches into the restaurant and tells the host that she's here with Captain Elleder's party. The host consults his terminal briefly, then with a mumbled 'right this way' leads her to a quiet booth in the back.
Lin's eyes adjust to the dim light and she finds that the booth has but a single occupant, a younger woman in a fitted sleeveless top and a long blonde braid slowly coming undone over one shoulder. She rises as the host slips wordlessly away.
"Hiya! I'm Tandery. You must be Lin. Oh, hon, did you run all the way here? Have a seat and catch your breath. When the Captain shows up, lets tell him you were here before me! Maybe I expect too much of a merchant ship, but their whole time-is-money thing seems only to apply when they think there's a credit waiting to be made. Some day I'll shame them into punctuality."
 |
| Tandery |
rendez-vous at starport bar, meets d6=3 of the crew (engineer powering up ship & checking engines)
starport encounter? 5+ on d6: no]
 |
| Captain Elleder |
"I assume Tandery has apologised for our collective tardiness," says the Captain. "It's the one thing she can't adjust to, being out of the navy."
"She'd mentioned."
"And did she tell you where she fits into our little mercantile enterprise?"
"I hadn't," interjects Tandery. "I always like the way you tell it."
"And she's too modest to do it herself. Officially, she's our navigator[-1]. But she also does the accounts [admin-1], and is a damn sight better at getting a good selling price for speculative trade than I'll ever be. And there isn't much on a ship that she can't turn her hand to [JoT-1]."
Tandery is almost looking sheepish when her attention is suddenly arrested by someone approaching the booth. Lin follows her line of vision to see a man with a boxer's physique [brawl-1, STR 9], complete with broken nose, and wearing a wet-dock worker's knitted cap.
 |
| Harrisumn |
The medic sits down at the table and addresses his captain. "Korilu isn't coming. She's worried about something in the engine again."
"Harisumn, this is Lin."
"Hey, Lin. Yeah, she's convinced that the j-drives are vibrating at the 'wrong frequency'. Is that even a thing? Oh, also, the new guy isn't coming."
"At all?"
"No, he'll be aboard when we leave. He just said summat about family business. I didn't push, cuz, well, you know."
Lin looks to Tandery, who just rolls her eyes at the exchange.
"I'm glad he didn't have to bail," says the Captain, then turns to Lin. "The other security operative I've engaged is, erm, he's the son of a baronet. From Nivvid. He's... well, you'll meet him. He can do the job."
. . .
[Assuming the ship broke even on it's last run--
+75,000 freight
+12,000 low passengers
-15,000 fuel
-13,200 life support
-----------------------
58,800 new ship's fund
Normal trading & ship economics start from here.]
Harisumn insisted on discussing business with the Captain all the way to the boarding zone. Tandery pronounced them both frightful bores, so she and Lin held back.
"It's too bad you're coming aboard on a planet where we can't just walk up to the ship on the landing pad. You can get a good look when we touch down on Drokkotli. But we can have a peek out the window if you want. See what we can see that isn't hidden by the umbilicus."
The Effi Briest is named after the fondly (mis-)remembered ancient Terran classic of love, laughter, and carefree youth. It's just a standard type-A Free Trader, but to Lin it's the most beautiful thing she's ever seen.
Tandery misinterprets her wide-eyed fascination. "Amazing, right? I never seen one this new either. The Captain won't say how he got it, though. It's big secret."
"So, how long have you all been together?"
"He hired us all on Tifrä like six months back."
"Is that where captain is from?"
"Haha, no. He's Vebrulish. How's that for irony? His first ship of his very own, and he can't fly it home unless we put in bigger jump drives!"
. . .
Tandery takes Lin up to the passenger deck.
"You can have your choice of staterooms since there's no passengers this trip out -- the Captain wants to be able to discuss the 'mission' without fear of eavesdroppers. But, um, you might want to avoid the big ones aft. If we keep you on as security, he's gonna want those for high passengers."
"That's alright. These are plenty huge. I don't know what I'll do with all this space."
"Hahaha! Wait, are you serious?"
. . .
Lin is alternating between stowing her meagre possessions and pressing buttons on the interior consoles to see what they do when she feels the air pressure change subtly and a slight tug as the grav plates and inertial dampers come on. Moments later Captain Elleder announces a terse 'prepare for lift-off' over the intercom, and then nothing. But when Lin peeps out the porthole all she sees is the wispy yellow clouds of Uizk's lower atmosphere.
She watches as the atmosphere fades and the horizon becomes ever more curved and is finally replaced by a field of stars. She wants to watch until they get to jumpspace, but the combined effects of sustained excitement and prescription medication send her for a little lie down in her new bed before they're an hour out of port.
[no malfunctions.
Ship encounter: Bulk Cargo Hauler 3000t, Transport matches a ship that went missing last year
Q: Captain hail them? 50/50: O6 C3 - yes, but... feigns ignorance
Q: Gets a response? certain: O1 C4 - no, but... automated recording
jump!]
By the time they hit jumpspace, the ship's time chronometer shows 23:09, so the Captain invites everyone who wants a nightcap to convene in the upper common area. Lin splashes some water on her face and brushes out her slept-on hair before opening her door and making a left turn directly into the common area (she'd picked the stateroom closest to the galley on purpose). Tandery gets up as soon as she appears.
"Sorry," she says, "I need to crash. Uizk traffic control couldn't make up their minds which trajectory they wanted us on and I've spent almost five hours making course corrections. But I wanted to say good night, and welcome aboard."
The Captain is there, but can't stop yawning, and leaves ten minutes after Tandery. Harisumn spends the whole time in the galley, mixing some sort of colourful fizzy cocktail, then wordlessly takes it down to his stateroom.
As Harisumn is leaving, Lin hears a stateroom door down the corridor sliding open. She looks over to see her new colleague in the 'security detail' swanning towards her. Diter-Frantz von Krehl is a tall muscular blonde Adonis, and if Lin can read his expression right --and she most certainly can-- he's just the sort of arrogant prick who would describe himself as such. He makes no attempt to hide the fact that he's just checked her out, and he knows she was just looking at his well-defined pectorals, standing out in high relief beneath the skin-tight designer chemise. And when she grimaces and heaves an exasperated sigh he just smirks and sits down as if nothing had transpired. He most certainly doesn't care.
 |
| Diter |
"And how should I look?"
"It depends. Just what is it you were hired on for?"
"I hate to have to be the one to tell you this, mate, but if the Captain brought you in to be the brawn, it stands to reason that I, conversely..."
"We'll see. I take it you've done this sort of thing before."
"I've been doing this 'sort of thing' since you were in short trousers. Now it's my turn to ask impertinent questions. How come you're doing this, and not zipping about in your yacht or composing poetry in your ancestral gardens or summat?"
"Because I prefer to be slumming."
They trade barbs for a few more rounds, then lapse into silence, and return to their staterooms. Lin's got the measure of her new associate, and knows exactly how she'll handle him; he'll probably be a liability, but she's domesticated his sort before. Now if only she could meet the engineer!
. . .
[Avoid a Bad Reaction (Solo) needs 8+: 2D=7, no
d6=Stubborn. A choice has been made and the PC does not like it.
d6=Harisumn
Event: shipboard romance d6= Diter & d5=Korilu]
Lin wakes up to a flashing message light on her bedside terminal. The Captain has invited the entire crew to elevenses.
When Lin enters the lounge, Tandery is sitting at the table, re-plaiting her hair into an even more complicated style. She smiles and mumbles a hello through the hairpins she's holding in her mouth. Harisumn is in the galley again, cutting up what appears to be real fruit, though not of any variety Lin's ever seen before. Next to Tandery is a young woman whose mass of coppery red hair is the least colourful part of her ensemble. She says, "Hi. I'm Korilu, the engineer. You must be Lin." Then she goes immediately back to making eyes at Diter across the table.
Harisumn comes out and puts the fragrant-smelling plate in the centre of the table. "That's the last of whatever these were, so enjoy."
Tandery mumbles something at him, and he replies with an annoyed, "What?"
She looks to Lin and pleads, "mmmmmmmhhh!" Lin takes the hairpins from her mouth so she can speak.
"They're called slasla fruit and they grow in like every littoral zone on Evcerei. They're our major export. Do you ever pay attention?"
Before Harisumn has a chance to retort the Captain Elleder comes in and interjects, "we'll have to stock up next time we get out that way."
He waits until all are seated and served, then addresses his crew. "Our mission is to deliver some prototype scientific equipment to a research team at their base in extra-national land on Drokkotli. The good news is that it's only about 350km from the port, and the cargo has come pre-loaded on an air/raft. The bad news is that the base is on a mountainside in the badlands, and it's the windy season, so the recommended flight ceiling is pretty low. The air/raft is also our payment for the delivery, so we want it back in one piece. I'll be driving; that means it'll be on me if it gets dented. It's a standard 4-seater. In addition to our two new security specialists, I'll take Tandery along to keep us from getting lost."
"I wanna go," says Harisumn. "I sat out the last one. I don't feel like getting stuck in some sad provincial port again. Why can't we leave one of the new ones to guard the ship?"
"They were hired on to do this job. This equipment is very valuable, and the patron is convinced someone will try to steal it."
"Well if I'm not going you don't need me here then."
He gets up and leaves without another word.
. . .
[Q: Any strong reactions to Lin either way? 50/50: O5 C7 - yes
Q: Who? d5=Tandery
Q: Reaction? Carelessly / Heavy
Also, the last day in Jump will be time to check for implant permanence: She needs 9+, DM +2 for INT A+ : 2D+2=12 - she's now got Pilot-1]
Most of the crew are invisible for the rest of the jump. Korilu and Diter are carrying on, and only seldom emerge from his stateroom for longer than it takes to grab some things from the galley. The Captain and Harisumn are avoiding one another, and as they have the same argument any time their paths cross, they too remain mostly sequestered.
Tandery is very friendly, though, and she gives Lin a tour of everything on the ship, enumerating its little quirks and occasional benefices. And she has a million stories to tell about her time in the navy, though most of it involves staving off boredom on deep patrols and shore leave hijinks.
Lin starts to feel more herself again as her body adjusts to the implant, and though she still has the occasional twinge, by the 5th day in jumpspace she's completely off her medication.
She and Tandery decide to have a drink to celebrate. One drink turns into two, and then into the rest of the bottle. And then into a second, liberated from the private stash in the ship's locker. Tandery gets even more talkative, and not a little maudlin. She tells Lin some of her other war stories, the ones she usually doesn't mention. The ones she wishes she could forget.
[Rolling END- to remember everything the next day: L 2D=5, yes; T 2D=7, yes
Reaction to see how Tandery feels about her lapse: 2D=7, unsure]
The next day, Lin is glad of the extra medicines she hadn't finished. She goes to see Tandery to offer her some. Tandery comes to the door of her stateroom wrapped in a blanket, trembling and frail.
"Sorry about last night. I went on too long about... stuff."
"It's OK. Really. I come bearing gifts, mostly prescription ones. These will sort you out, trust me."
"I just don't want you to think I'm a monster or something."
"I don't."
"You just, you didn't say much."
"I was being a good listener."
"But I..."
"Hey, now. I'm no stranger to the drunken, midnight confession. I promise you, I've spent plenty of time on both ends of it. You'll see. Next time, it'll be my turn."
"Yeah, OK. Maybe."
next post: space hulk
Lin wakes up to a flashing message light on her bedside terminal. The Captain has invited the entire crew to elevenses.
When Lin enters the lounge, Tandery is sitting at the table, re-plaiting her hair into an even more complicated style. She smiles and mumbles a hello through the hairpins she's holding in her mouth. Harisumn is in the galley again, cutting up what appears to be real fruit, though not of any variety Lin's ever seen before. Next to Tandery is a young woman whose mass of coppery red hair is the least colourful part of her ensemble. She says, "Hi. I'm Korilu, the engineer. You must be Lin." Then she goes immediately back to making eyes at Diter across the table.
 |
| Korilu |
Tandery mumbles something at him, and he replies with an annoyed, "What?"
She looks to Lin and pleads, "mmmmmmmhhh!" Lin takes the hairpins from her mouth so she can speak.
"They're called slasla fruit and they grow in like every littoral zone on Evcerei. They're our major export. Do you ever pay attention?"
Before Harisumn has a chance to retort the Captain Elleder comes in and interjects, "we'll have to stock up next time we get out that way."
He waits until all are seated and served, then addresses his crew. "Our mission is to deliver some prototype scientific equipment to a research team at their base in extra-national land on Drokkotli. The good news is that it's only about 350km from the port, and the cargo has come pre-loaded on an air/raft. The bad news is that the base is on a mountainside in the badlands, and it's the windy season, so the recommended flight ceiling is pretty low. The air/raft is also our payment for the delivery, so we want it back in one piece. I'll be driving; that means it'll be on me if it gets dented. It's a standard 4-seater. In addition to our two new security specialists, I'll take Tandery along to keep us from getting lost."
"I wanna go," says Harisumn. "I sat out the last one. I don't feel like getting stuck in some sad provincial port again. Why can't we leave one of the new ones to guard the ship?"
"They were hired on to do this job. This equipment is very valuable, and the patron is convinced someone will try to steal it."
"Well if I'm not going you don't need me here then."
He gets up and leaves without another word.
. . .
[Q: Any strong reactions to Lin either way? 50/50: O5 C7 - yes
Q: Who? d5=Tandery
Q: Reaction? Carelessly / Heavy
Also, the last day in Jump will be time to check for implant permanence: She needs 9+, DM +2 for INT A+ : 2D+2=12 - she's now got Pilot-1]
Most of the crew are invisible for the rest of the jump. Korilu and Diter are carrying on, and only seldom emerge from his stateroom for longer than it takes to grab some things from the galley. The Captain and Harisumn are avoiding one another, and as they have the same argument any time their paths cross, they too remain mostly sequestered.
Tandery is very friendly, though, and she gives Lin a tour of everything on the ship, enumerating its little quirks and occasional benefices. And she has a million stories to tell about her time in the navy, though most of it involves staving off boredom on deep patrols and shore leave hijinks.
Lin starts to feel more herself again as her body adjusts to the implant, and though she still has the occasional twinge, by the 5th day in jumpspace she's completely off her medication.
She and Tandery decide to have a drink to celebrate. One drink turns into two, and then into the rest of the bottle. And then into a second, liberated from the private stash in the ship's locker. Tandery gets even more talkative, and not a little maudlin. She tells Lin some of her other war stories, the ones she usually doesn't mention. The ones she wishes she could forget.
[Rolling END- to remember everything the next day: L 2D=5, yes; T 2D=7, yes
Reaction to see how Tandery feels about her lapse: 2D=7, unsure]
The next day, Lin is glad of the extra medicines she hadn't finished. She goes to see Tandery to offer her some. Tandery comes to the door of her stateroom wrapped in a blanket, trembling and frail.
"Sorry about last night. I went on too long about... stuff."
"It's OK. Really. I come bearing gifts, mostly prescription ones. These will sort you out, trust me."
"I just don't want you to think I'm a monster or something."
"I don't."
"You just, you didn't say much."
"I was being a good listener."
"But I..."
"Hey, now. I'm no stranger to the drunken, midnight confession. I promise you, I've spent plenty of time on both ends of it. You'll see. Next time, it'll be my turn."
"Yeah, OK. Maybe."
next post: space hulk
Character sheets
Lín Dàiyù
6B5D85 Age 38 Other 5 Terms
JOT-1, Streetwise-1, Air/raft-1, Electronics-1, Bribery-2, Auto pistol-1, Pilot-1
Cr435
Captain Escoran Elleder
565879 Age 42 Merchant 6 Terms
Blade-1, Electronic-2, Gunnery-1, Jack-o-T-1, Steward-1, Pilot-1, Air/raft-1, Vacc-1
cr53,425
blade, revolver +5 speed loaders
Free Trader
Lt. Cmdr. Tandery Uimoh
798CB7 Age 34 Navy 4 Terms
Gunnery-1, Navigation-1, Vacc-2, JOT-1, Ship's Boat-1, Admin-1
Travellers'
cr10,600
inertial locator
Harrisumn Jhilner
967996 Age 34 Other 4 Terms
Revolver-1, Medicine-1, Computer-1, Gambling-1, Brawl-1
cr7,835
hand computer, medical kit, revolver +3 speed loaders
Diter-Frantz von Krehl
9ABB6C Age 22 Navy 1 Term
Rifle-1, Mechanic-1
cr7,490
cloth armour, rifle w/ electronic sight +3 clips
Korilu Mitraicx
86A685 Age 28 Scout 2.5 Terms
Pilot-1, Engineering-1, Vacc-1, JOT-1, Tracked vehicle-1
cr20,000
blade
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