An Other CT solo - Part 7: Hazards

079-1105
Drokkotli  C734677-9  Ni


Moments after emerging from jumpspace at Drokkotli, the Captain summons everyone to the bridge. "There's a lab ship about 200,000km from the jump point, drifting inward. We can't hail them, and our sensors are picking up highly erratic EM readings. I want to check it out in case they need help. Tandery, once you've confirmed the course, start prepping for EVA."

"I'll get the medkits out just in case," says Harrisumn. "But if there looks like any biohazard, we need to follow proper quarantine procedure."

"Oh, come on," says Korilu, "Death Station was just a holo. Stuff like that doesn't really happen."

"That's real brave talk from someone who had to watch half of it through her fingers. And not what I'm worried about."

[Ship encounter: 400t lab ship, Comms are out, radio silence

Q: Any anomalous reading when scanned? unknown d6=2: O3 C1 - yes, and...
Q: Pinnace still there? unlikely: O2 C2 - no, and... air/rafts missing too
+Event: PC positive - Pursue / Dreams]

"Need me to go, Captain?" asks Diter. "I am your security chief, after all."

"Ah, until we get you two trained up on vacc suits, I don't think that's a good idea."

"I assume you want me out there," says Korilu. "I'll go fetch a few tools and things. Are you coming, or...?"

"I need to stay here, in the cockpit."

"You know," offers Tandery. "Lin just got her pilot's qualification. Why not let her handle the approach?"

* * *

Lin settles into the captain's seat and steers the ship on the course that Tandery had set, flipping round 180 degrees at the midpoint for a gentle deceleration. Her hands move across the controls almost of their own volition, but when she pauses to think about it she finds she does actually know everything she's doing. The implant really worked!

She matches the lab ship's speed and trajectory, having overshot it by about 100m to get a good look at the thing. "Not sure about the airlock," she says into the commo, "but I think I see your way in. It doesn't look great, so be warned. It'll just be a sec whilst I use the docking thrusters to line you guys up. Is 20 metres OK?"

[pilot 5+ to bring ship within 20m of the lab ship's airlock 2D+1=10, OK. This isn't stressful enough to provoke a Crisis from the implant; honestly, if this weren't her very first go at piloting, I wouldn't have rolled for it at all.]

Manoeuvring completed, Lin follows her crew mates' progress via the external airlock camera. Both Captain Elleder and Korilu are perfectly skilled in vacc suit operations [vacc-1], but Tandery moves with the grace of a dancer as she floats out the airlock, trailing her tether like a single yellow water sleeve [vacc-2].

[Q: Airlock OK.? 50/50: O1 C2 - no, and... blown (1-2 in 3-4 out 5-6 up) out]

"Switch to my helmet cam," says Tandery.

"No, switch to mine," says the Captain. "Last time we tried to use Tandery's cam, everyone looking at the monitor got motion sick. She swishes round too much."

"That looks like it was blown outward," says Diter, staring at the monitor. "Catastrophic failure, or sabotage?"

"I want to check the hull a little more before we go inside," says Korilu. "In case of radiation."

"Lin, dear," says Tandery. "Could you do another sensor sweep? There's laser damage on the hull, and it's making me nervous."

[Sensor sweep needs 8+, DM +electronics: 2D+1=9

Q: Radiation? 50/50: O5 C8 - yes]

Lin has to eject Diter from the navigator's chair before she can start running the sweep. Fortunately he's too curious about the result to be a prick about it.

"Can you hurry it up?" says Tandery. "Korilu headed round towards the centre already. She said it was fine, but--"

"Getting the readings now... Oh, definitely more radiation than normal."

"How much more?"

"I wouldn't want to live there, but you're fine for--"

"Shit shit shit!" yelps Korilu. And then they're all talking at once, and Korilu's screams turn to inchoate panic.

[Crawling over the hull needed a normal vacc suit roll (10+) DMs +4/lvl vacc suit: K 2D=natural 2, gets into trouble. T helps her recover 7+: +2/lvl : 2D+4=10]

Flipping through helmet cams is even more confusing with the constant motion. Lin and Diter look at each other helplessly.

Then, "we're fine," says Tandery. "We're all fine. No one's spinning off into the void. And no one will ever unhook their tether again."

"We're coming back inside," says the Captain.

Once everyone is safely aboard, and Harrisumn has doled out some anti-radiation tabs from the medkit, they convene on the bridge. As the Captain and Tandery plot the course for the mainworld, Korilu fills the rest of them in.

"I crawled round far enough to see that the power plant in one of the engine pods had been holed by laser fire, and was leaking radiation. We were shielded from it by the intervening hull. Lucky I always lead with my rad-counter out in front, but I, er, panicked a bit when I ducked back."

* * *

Planetary night has fallen over the port by the time the Effi Briest is on the final approach vector. Captain Elleder wants Korilu on standby in engineering to watch the drives, since she keeps saying they feel off. He lets Lin pilot down to the landing pad whilst he is on the radio to the port authority, reporting the dead ship as a hazard to navigation.

"Thanks for the heads-up captain, but we already have it logged. It's in extra-national space, so our city-states are still arguing over who is responsible for moving it [knowing - news - power]. You wouldn't happen to have good drives and tow cables, would you...?"

* * *

The captain calls one last crew meeting once the ship is on the landing pad and the drives powered down. "It's night outside, so everyone can have the rest of it off. The delivery can wait until the morning. Harrisumn, you'll be happy to know I've had a change of heart. You can go in my place. Korilu, I assume you'll not mind staying aboard to keep an eye on things and get the freight unloaded whilst I drum up more business. And mind they fuel us up properly. I seem to recall from the last time we were here that the port truly earns it's C-class rating."

"Glad to be going," says Harrisumn. "But if you're staying in port, who in charge of the mission?"

"Tandery, I think that falls to you. You've got proper command experience, after all."

"Aye, aye, Cap'n! So, which of you three can get us there without denting up the new vehicle?"

"I can pilot an air/raft as well as a ship," says Lin. "I always used to get picked to be the getaway driver."

"Seriously?"

"Haha, no. Just a joke. But I am licenced."

* * *

[Starport Encounter: nothing out of the ordinary
World event: Local crisis; bush-fire, earthquake, hurricane, rioting.
Q: What? Dangerously / Messy]

Lin slinks into the common room to find Tandery engrossed in a data reader over the remains of her breakfast.

"Sorry sorry sorry. I slept through the alarm somehow."

"No, you didn't." says Tandery. "I cancelled it. Have you looked outside yet?"

"No."

"A sandstorm's blown in from the desert. I'm putting off the trip until tomorrow. But we have some errands to run. Fancy a shopping trip?"

"I'm skint, but sure. I'll come along."

"Brill. I'll have to coax a sealed taxi to come out and pick us up. The others are getting cleaned up. Eat something first. It could be a while before we're picked up. Even the locals don't want to be out in this weather."

* * *

The sealed taxi is a boxy air/raft that attaches the passenger section directly to the ship's airlock. There are already two pairs of travellers inside, so all conversations are kept at their most innocuous. Lin doesn't mind, as she is transfixed by the view out the scuffed plexiglass view ports. The sky is a dim, sombre red. Gusts of ruddy sand and dust swirl and patter against the window like sudden bursts of rain. What little she can see of the terrain through the murk is wind-smoothed rock beset with heavy durasteel structures, and yellow guide-lights flashing weakly to delineate roadways and footpaths. It's but a short trip into the starport's main terminal complex, but the swaying of the sand-blasted air/raft leaves more than one passenger feeling queasy upon arrival.

The terminal was never particularly elegant nor state-of-the-art, but compared to even the modest facilities on Uizk it seems antiquated and shabby. Lin is surprised to find it's even dingier than the Handarbeiterviertel [workman's' quarter] where she grew up (the word 'slum' is never used on Düningen, even when it is meant).

"What a dump!" says Diter.

"I thought you liked slumming," says Lin.

"Slumming yes. The threat of dysentery, somewhat less so."

"I've seen worse," says Harrisumn. "I'm sure all the dust tracked in from outside makes it look worse than it is."

"Haven't they heard of sweeper-bots?" say Diter and Lin in unison, then lapse into unnerved silence as each ponders the implications of having echoed the other's response.

There's not much to see in the port, but there is an outfitters which supplies most of survival gear one could need in the wilderness of Drokkotli, or indeed, for the walk back to the landing pad.

The most important of all are respirators to be able to breathe the meagre atmosphere; they buy six (cr100 each) to fill up the ship's locker. They'll need goggles as well. Six again (just in case) for Cr 50 a go; they're pretty high end TL9 ones. They also buy some heavy outerwear, coats and matching over-trousers of heavy canvas-like fabric [counts as jack armour]. They cost the same as the goggles, and are practical rather than fashionable. Tandery hopes she's guessed right about the Captain and Korilu's sizes. And it's all courtesy of the credit chip the Captain sent Tandery off with. As is lunch.

Also, since their new air/raft is open-topped, they splash out Cr400 for a detachable canvas top, complete with plastic passenger windows. When they get back to the ship, Diter insists on installing it himself, and curtly refuses any and all offers of assistance. But he acquits himself splendidly [mechanic-1, no roll needed]. Tandery comes in to check up on him, and is impressed by his handiwork. And they'll need it; the weather bulletin does not see the dust storms letting up for nine planetary days at least.

[Q: Storms abating? 50/50 (4+): O2 C1 - no, and...]


080-1105

"So, just how good a driver are you?"

Lin doesn't answer Tandery's question, being startled at the sight of Diter climbing into the air/raft with his hunting rifle.

"I, uh, thought those weren't allowed."

"Why Lin," laughs Tandery, "I never had you as a stickler for the niceties of planetary law."

"I'm not really. Just, maybe we should make an effort to conceal our arms or summat."

"Oh. Um. OK. What do you suggest?"

"These seats come up at all?"

"They can do," says Diter. "Just give me a few minutes with the toolbox."

[they have D's rifle, H's revolver, & 2 auto pistols from the ships locker]

The operation is shortly finished. Before heading out of the nice, climate controlled cargo bay of their ship (and having to don respirators), Tandery wants to go over the route. She intends to navigate from a hardcopy map in a guidebook she picked up in the tourist office, such as it is. Everyone crowds round in the cab of the air/raft as she traces the route with her finger.

"So, we have to take the road out of the starport to about 8 klicks past Arjijli Junction, cut through the centre of the Skizdir basin until we go either over or around the Mura'a plateau, then into the Thi Huang highlands and up Vüsidin peak."

"Are you serious?" says Harrisumn.

"I'm afraid so."

"So it's one of those sorts of planets..." offers Lin.

"Oh, come on," says Diter, "we all know that the 38th Century Expansion was the only time in history anyone ever did anything interesting."

"It gets better," says Tandery. "The first page opens with a quote from Çinar."

"Of course it does."

"So how'd the system get off with an original name?" asks Harrisumn.

"Must've been named pre-settlement. Anyway, that's our route. Now, Ms. Lin, if you would care to fire up the time machine, we can be underway."


next post: Across the dim face