Turns 8.5 - 8.6 "Trixie to the Rescue and Bring Out Yer Dead!"
November 2, 2495...02:59:17
Zach apologized about his supposedly "lost" password to the security program
which had adopted the form of a policeman. "I know sir," he replied, trying to
look apologetic. "I already plan on having my lock changed as soon as I get to
my apartment. Thanks for the info on Geneva Day."
"But, hey, you said yourself that you're new here! Only a week, huh? Well,
I guess we can cut you some slack," the officer answered, climbing out of his
patrol car. His partner also got out on the other side and looked up and down
the street. "But we probably ought to at least check your ID, first," the
officer continued, "You got a travel visa on ya somewhere, buddy?"
"Yeah, sure do", replied Zach enthusiastically. He reached into his pocket,
and reached his hand in. Hopefully his shadow had been able to manipulate the
system enough to give him at least the start of a visa. He didn't want to have
to fight it out with the cops. That would make things so much harder.
He moved his hand around and felt... nothing. Empty air. Getting nervous,
he looked back at the officer, preparing to apologize again. And then he caught
a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye. Another person had just
rounded the corner, evidently a simple citizen of the town. But not just any
citizen... not by a long shot!
The girl had curves that just wouldn't stop. And her outfit did everything
to show them off. She wore a miniskirt that caught Zach's AND the policemen's
eyes. Her shortsleeve blouse was tied off into a knot just above her midriff,
and she had on fishnet stockings and a pair of heels that looked impossible to
walk in. She strided confidently up next to Zach and turned to look at the
officers.
"Are you two... gentlemen... harrassin' this nice man?" she asked, her
mouth in constant motion as she chewed some gum. She looked sideways at Zach
and told him, "They're always harrassin' us workin' girls, ya know? Never
leave us alone. Get off the streets, they say. Go home, they tell us. But we
just go 'round the next corner... 'cause we gotta make a livin', right?"
The officer that had addressed Zach before, straightened himself up and
said, "Now look here, Miss. This is no time to be walking the streets. Geneva
Day is almost here. There's no customers around for you anyway, so why don't
you..."
"I don't know 'bout that," the girl replied, sliding closer to Zach and
pressing herself against him, "This fella might wanna bit of fun. Whaddya say,
Mister? My name's Trixie. Are ya lookin' for a good time?" Zach stiffened as
he felt the woman's hand slide into his pocket and then she winked at him.
One of the officers pulled Trixie away and spoke angrily to her, "Now look
here! We'll have none of that, Miss. We'll run you in right here for
solicitation."
"C'mon," the girl interrupted, "I was just foolin', ya know? I'm waitin'
on Geneva Day like ever'body else. I ain't got no time to really give this
fella the royal treatment." The girl winked at Zach again, then turned on her
heels and moved to walk away.
The policemen relaxed as they seemed willing to let her go. "Make sure
you get back to your home," one of them called after her, "Get off the
streets! Tramp." Zach heard him mutter the last word, but like the cops, he
could only watch the girl's hips swaying as she proceeded down the street and
out of sight.
"So...ya got that travel visa, buddy?"
The cop's words brought Zach's attention back to the matter at hand. He
swallowed nervously, the strange visit by the hooker disappearing from his
mind. He put his hands into his pockets again... and felt something. The
girl. She had put something there. He pulled it out and held up a shiny new
travel visa.
"Well, I'll be damned...," he whispered, handing it over to the policeman.
The two cops looked it over carefully and nodded, handing it back. "Make sure
you're off the street in no more than ten minutes, citizen," one of them said,
"And don't go looking for that girl or anything... or we'll have to run you
both in. Understand?"
--------------
Meanwhile...back in the Command Center...
Alex continued to fret over his AI-companion, Cal, as she probed the
station computer systems for any clues to what was happening. "Time isn't
something we really have, Cal, but for this, I think it's important," Alex
said, "Just run an automated search for the keyword 'Geneva' or anything with
those letters in a different order. Give me the results by database and as
they come up. I'll see if I can figure anything out from there on my own."
He laid a hand down on the console in front of him, as if the feeling of
something solid comforted him. "God help us if Akers has set up a bomb..."
A couple of minutes passed and Cal hadn't found anything. "I'm sorry,
Alex," she replied, "There doesn't seem to be any mention of the word Geneva
in here at all. If your friend, Zach, discovered it in the proprietary
communications system, that might be the best place to look. I'm sure he
must be searching for the same thing. Hopefully, he's having better luck than
we are... but I'll keep looking here, if you want?"
Across the room, Nola looked perplexed as she looked at the "device"
sitting in the lift-car. Fearing for her safety she reached around the corner
and pressed the Level 2 button and let the elevator doors slide close and the
car travel down one floor and stay there. Over the headset Nola called out,
"Dimitrio do you know anything about bombs? If you do then why don't you
check it out. I've sent it one level below, if it blows up then it shouldn't
do a hell of a lot of damage."
Dimitrio queued up his mike and replied, "I can't say that I know that
much about 'em, Nola. But, Level Two's the Communications Deck, right? If
it's a bomb and that thing goes off, you're gonna take out all of the
expensive equipment we've been setting up on this station from Day One.
It's whole purpose is to provide a relay point for drivespace communications,
right? So, if you let that thing take out the computers on Level Two, we're
gonna be in big ass trouble with the brass when this is all over. Not to
mention, you'll probably wipe out Zach and Alex if they're still in there..."
Nola paused and looked back toward Alex at the main station computers.
Just over the edge of the catwalk, she could make out Zach's form still
sitting motionless at the far edge of the Comm Pit. "Zach? Alex? How's
that Geneva thing going? If you're about to do something then warn us
so we can get away from the... 'bomb'."
"Haven't got much on it, Nola," Alex replied, "I've set Cal to run an
automated search for it through the databanks, but she thinks it'll run for
a while before anything comes up. No word from Zach yet, either." Alex
drummed his fingers on the console before him, tired of waiting yet
completely on edge.
Nola's mind switched gears as she tried to deal with two problems at
once. Akers might still be on the loose, she thought. "Dig, check to make
sure it's Akers down there," she urged, "Be careful as it may not be him
that you shot. He was using a laser pistol before, not a charge pistol,
remember? So this could be one of his friends rather than Akers himself."
"Does anyone need me to do anything other than have the Communication
area secured? Nola out."
--------------
Down below on Level Three...
Jake spoke into his comm while he kept his rifle trained on the
attacker's figure, now lying in the hallway, "Well, did that box look like
a bomb to you, Nola? If so, you might want to send it back down our way
so Dimitrio can take a quick look at it. He's probably our best bet at
figuring out what's inside that thing. We can get on the lift with it and
take it down someplace less important... maybe the Hangar Deck? While
we're down there, we can check out that body in the air lock, and see if
Akers has any other loonies running around with him. Meanwhile, Doc and
Repo can get these people to Sick Bay. Other than that, well, you're
welcome to join our little party, if you want... or take my place, and
I'll come up and guard the Command Center."
Dr. Lugwig was happy that he had finally got the comm unit to fit his
head. The temporary distraction was a welcome interlude from his current
predicament. He had adjusted the comm unit to the proper frequency,
listened to Nola's questions and Jake's response, then briefly said into
it, "Misss T'Sssharn Lugwig alssso have no bomb knowledge, ssso hang-y
tight. Misssterr Haldig and Missster Fontecelli are going to take care of
bad humansss. I will let you know when coassst isss clear, sssafe,
sssecure."
Having said that the good doctor gave the one-claw-up sign to Dimitrio
and Jake, and said, "Lugwig waitsss, yesss." He then turned back to his
patients and checked their vital signs with his medical gauntlet. Dr.
Lugwig noticed that the temperture was getting warmer and he thanked
Ch'Nak for the welcome warmth. After making sure his patients were in the
best shape they could be, considering the current events, he whispered
quietly to Teri Reed, "Misss Reed, can you hear Lugwig? If you can hear
Lugwig squeezey Lugwig'sss metacarpusss mitt. We in bad sssoup right
now, but we workey hard to get you to Sssick Bay. You mussst hold on."
Lugwig then shook his T'sa head at Repo wishing thigs could have been
different for him and his friends.
There was no response from Teri at all, the life support pack and
other drugs, combined with her traumatic experience, had left her
unconscious of her surroundings... though her vital signs were still
strong and the increased warmth was certainly not going to hurt. Repo
hovered worriedly over her and Dr. Lugwig. "Ssshould we move them yet?"
the robot asked, deliberately using the sibilants that he had heard from
Lugwig supposedly in an attempt to more properly communicate with the
T'sa.
Across the room, Jake motioned with his hand toward Dimitrio,
indicating for him to move out through the bathroom door. The engineer
nodded silently and slipped into the dark recesses of the tiny room that
adjoined both Berthing Compartment Gamma and Alpha. It took him but a
moment to bypass the other bathroom door, and he slipped into their
original room. Everything was just like he remembered it... lots of
low-light, red-glow emergency lamps... dark and shadowy... though
thankfully, the restored gravity made it easier to navigate his way to
the hall door.
"I'm in place," Dimitrio whispered over his comm-unit.
"I copy that," Jake replied, "Nola, we're moving up to check this
guy out."
Lugwig watched the big marine slip out into the hallway, his rifle
poised at his shoulder, sweeping back and forth. Dimitrio also crept
into his hallway, and both men quietly converged on the figure lying in
the floor at the corner. When they got within ten feet or so, Dimitrio
whispered again, "I can see his face. It's definitely Akers. His
sunglasses fell off, and his eyes are open, and he's staring right at me,
but he doesn't seem to be breathing. Kinda hard to tell in that
environmental suit, though..."
Jake moved closer and glanced at Dimitrio around the corner. Then, he
stepped up and toed Akers with his boot. He didn't move and the marine
pushed harder and rolled him over. A large pool of blood had collected
under Akers' chest, and more of it rushed out of his suit as Jake moved his
body. "Doc won't be savin' this one," Dig spoke into his comm, then looked
back over at Dimitrio, and motioned with his chin, "Go help him move the
injured. I'll handle this mess..."
As Dimitrio slipped quietly back down the hallway, he could see Lugwig
peering out of the door. He waved them toward Sick Bay, but moved in front
to make sure the room was clear. It was, and satisfied that Doc could
handle the rest, he moved back to Jake's side.
"I found this," Dig offered, holding up the laser pistol, "It was empty.
But look at these..." He pointed out two charge pistols, several clips of
ammunition, and a bandolier of five fragmentation grenades. "This guy loaded
up for war before he came back up here. Where the hell did he get all this
stuff?"
--------------
Meanwhile, back in the electron universe...
Zach watched the police cruiser pull away from the curb and speed off.
He slipped his new travel visa back into his pocket and looked off in the
direction the girl had taken. Should he follow her? She'd helped him
once. Maybe she could do so again? And who was she, anyway?
He began to walk quickly down the street in that direction. He came to
an intersection, and looked each way. Straight ahead, the road led off into
a business district with lots of skyscrapers and office buildings. To his
right, there was a street marketplace, silent and empty with several
storefronts along both sides of the street. To his left, he could see a
warehouse district of some kind next to a spaceport facility. Unlike the
other two streets, this one appeared to have some activity. Once every so
often, a starship would lift off from one of the landing pads in the distance
and head off into the sky... and more frequently ships would come in for
landings.
"Now what could that represent in this kind of sculpted system?" Zach
wondered, "Data transmission of some kind? I *am* in a communications
computer. Perhaps the ships are the messages going out and coming in...?"
He looked back down from the sky and the ship that was retreating into
the stars, and was startled to see the girl again. She was about a hundred
yards away and walking toward the spaceport at a brisk pace. "Now where's
she going?" he wondered.
--------------
Meanwhile, back at the main computer...
Cal alerted Alex to at least one important discovery, "I've found
something!" Data began to scroll across the screen. "No reference to
Geneva Day... but Geneva was a place. It was the site of a major truce
signed long ago to end a war that was fought on the Solar planet, Earth. In
that time, man had not yet settled the stars. That particular war was the
largest struggle mankind had ever faced in history at that time, affecting
all of the known world."
Cal paused as she continued to process the data faster than any human,
and possibly even Mechalus, ever could. "I can see a lot of parallels
between the Geneva 'truce' and the Treaty of Concord that the stellar nations
recently signed to end the Second Galactic War. Perhaps there is a
connection? What could it mean?"
--------------
1. I had only one taker on the opportunity to roleplay Jake 'Dig' Haldig,
the marine. Everyone please welcome Dave to the group. His email address is:
dtbb@earthlink.net. Please add him to your mailing lists. And let's give him
every opportunity to work his way into Jake's persona. Dave, feel free to
begin responding in-character...
2. Fabian/Dimitrio sent me an email letting me know that he would be
unavailable for this turn summary, so I played his actions out for him.
Thanks, Fabian, for letting me know what was going on.
3. Questions? Comments? Actions?
-- Neil, DM
Welcome Dave! I play the grounded pilot (not cuz I was bad or
anything...)
Hey Neil! Could I get a quick recap on the Concord Treaty? I still don't
know quite what it was...
Is there a site that I can find more info on the Alternity setting?
-- Hai, Alex
Welcome aboard Dave. Hopefully no Hurricane will blow you away as well! he
he he
I play the "take charge" woman of the bunch, Nola. (But then again I'm sure
that you all call her the "bossy bitch") :).
-- Jamie, Nola
Thanks for the welcome everyone. Game looks great so far. Thanks for
having me.
-- Dave, Dig
Everyone seems to have lots of questions... and that's a good thing as
far as I'm concerned. I thought I'd go ahead and answer a few of them
within this turn, rather than just answering it with the next turn
summary...
1. Rich, you should have no problem catching up to 'Trixie' if you wish.
She's walking at a brisk pace, so Zach will have to run... but, there's a
lot of ground to be covered from where you and she are before you actually
get to the spaceport.
2. Hai, I can't really suggest a website to visit for information on the
Star*Drive Campaign Setting by Alternity. There is a hardbound book that
TSR sells with all of the Star*Drive info in it. That's what I've been
using to run the game from. To help you out, though, I'll have Cal explain
a lot of the info contained in the book regarding the Treaty of Concord
when I put together the next turn summary. For now, here's the info that
Alex would definitely remember on his own, after all, a lot of this history
concerns space combat, a topic near and dear to Alex's heart, I believe? :)
The First Galactic War was started when the fledgling colonies of space
broke their ties to Old Earth... it facilitated the formation of stellar
nations such as the Thuldan Empire, VoidCorp, the Union of Sol, the StarMech
Collective, the Rigunmor Consortium... just to name a few. The Union of Sol
is the stellar nation that actually contains the planet of Earth... although
it's badly overpopulated and resource poor at this point. The First
Galactic War ended because everyone pretty much suceeded at gaining their
independence from Earth. Earth had to recognize their sovereignity, and
proceeded to form its own stellar nation, claiming those worlds that it
still controlled in and around its solar system, and a few others as well
(i.e., spoils from the war).
The Second Galactic War broke out as the stellar nations jockeyed for
position among the stars. Tensions were already high, when it was
precipitated by a mutant uprising in a single star system. Certain stellar
nations came to the defense of the mutants (notably, the Thuldan Empire),
and certain others opposed them due to prevailing prejudice against mutants
in general. Interstellar war ensued. Some stellar nations were consumed
(such as the Dreth Commonwealth). Others (notably, the Thuldan Empire and
VoidCorp) expanded greatly. In the end, resources were depleted and the
war bogged down to the point that everyone knew it was pointless to continue
fighting. They were quite simply exhausted.
So, one stellar nation came forward (the Orion Leage) and suggested the
formation of the Galactic Concord... a sort of interstellar United Nations...
which would monitor all of the other stellar nations to ensure the peace was
protected. All of the remaining stellar nations agreed by signing the Treaty
of Concord, and they created a new stellar nation known as the Galactic
Concord by donating star systems and resources along their borders. The
Concord could then act as a buffer zone between rival stellar nations by
becoming a neutral third party in every conflict. It's a lot harder to go
and attack your former neighbor and life-long enemy when you have to cross
the Galactic Concord's territory to do so...
Even with that, the other stellar nations reluctantly agreed to the
Treaty of Concord. They wanted to make sure they weren't creating another
"Old Earth" scenario, so they put in lots of checks and balances to ensure
that the Galactic Concord could never become a dictator. They retained
control over everything within their borders, and Concord law holds little
sway there. In addition, as the stellar nations continue to colonize frontier
worlds, that national sovereignity extends to those new worlds as well. Of
course, a lot of sentiment and bad blood is still left over from the war.
Stellar nations do a lot of posturing and moving behind the scenes, and
contest one another on the frontier all of the time. It's as if they are all
taking a breather from the Second Galactic War in order to obtain the
resources to prepare for the next one. And of course, the Galactic Concord is
trying to casually manage the situation by playing them off against one
another and keeping a careful eye on their activities. By making sure no one
gets too far ahead, they can make sure the Third Galactic War never comes.
And that's the situation you all find yourselves in today.
3. Dave, you are correct in assuming that the door to Berthing Compartment
Beta would require a 'techie' to open (I might recommend Dimitrio as he seems
to be having lots of success in that area lately). The station is basically
still in a state of "security lockdown"...and everyone chose to leave it that
way because Akers was still on the loose and you wanted to restrict his movement
somewhat. Being dead, it looks like his movement has been severely hampered at
this point, but no one knows for sure if he was acting alone or not. It's up to
you guys if you want to "stand down" the security alert... and Alex, being at
the main computer station, can control that from his current location with Cal's
assistance.
4. Brian, power is certainly available in the Sick Bay. Doctor Lugwig is free
to use any device present there. You have three patients... Miss Teri Reed, and
two other engineer/tech types that worked on 1st shift with her. They are
obviously suffering from exposure... and you've also drugged some of them up.
All of them will be out of action for at least the next hour or so... and even
then, they will simply regain consciousness at that point and you probably won't
want them exerting themselves (i.e., moving around).
5. Jamie, the situation with the 'bomb'... if it really is one... is very
serious. We're not talking about a simple grenade. The box is pretty big...
explosives are very dangerous in an enclosed space... and this space station
does not qualify as being all that large. No one in the party is a
demolitions expert by any stretch of the imagination, but, even Nola would be
able to surmise that a blast from a bomb that size would take out at least the
level on which it was sitting, and probably damage the ones above and below as
well. You would also surmise that Akers must have been bringing it up the lift
for a reason... his target must either be on Levels One, Two, or Three.
Considering that the station's primary purpose is drivespace communication...
and that the computers for controlling that activity reside on Level Two... you
can assume that his terrorist actions must have had something to do with that,
and not just simply killing off you guys. He didn't like any of you... but he
probably had bigger fish to fry, so to speak.
Okay, I hope some of that helps to clear up any questions you guys had. You
can go ahead and post some more if you'd like, making use of the information and
clues that I just provided. On a different note, I'd like to say that you guys
are doing just fine. Don't be frustrated by the slowness of the current story.
This particular part is supposed to be... until you discover the plot behind it
all... then things are going to pick up very quickly. I think you'll all be
surprised.
Thanks for your great posting,
Keep up the good work,
Neil.
P.S. I noticed that some of you are still including Paul Culotta in your posts.
He's dropped out of the game, and Dave has replaced him, so you can remove his
address from your mailing lists. It's kamalotus@cpis.net. Thanks.
-- Neil, GM
First Off, thanks Neil for covering for me last turn. I am here and I will
post sometime today (I think I am holding up the game at this time :)).
Second, there IS a site out there that has SO MUCH info on Star*Drive that
it is almost illegal in my opinion. But it is there and it is a great
resource for those that don't have the book so enjoy: Be warned that it is a
lot of reading but I think the files are zipped up somewhere on the site for
off-line reading so look for that.
http://users.skynet.be/verge/home.html
-- Fabian, Dimitrio
OOL (Out Of Lurk):
Fabian does list an excellent site. However (pending any changes Neil may have
made), there may be spoilers to your current adventure embedded within the
website. This is because the module you are playing is actually "prehistory"
(albeit by five years) to Star*Drive, so when the Star*Drive hardcover was
created, the (likely) results of this module and its usual followup module were
incorporated into the book.
If you already know how the adventure ends (or at least, is *supposed* to end),
or don't mind knowing the results of the adventure, the website will provide
plenty of useful information that will be to your advantage. But (pending any
revisions made by Neil), some spoilers exist, and they appear without
forewarning. Something you may want to know. The adventure will still be fun
to play regardless, but some of the end results may no longer have the "punch"
they normally would have.
And now, back to your normally scheduled PBeM.
CBIL (Crawling Back Into Lurk)
-- Kevin, Lurker Status
Kevin is right but the same can be said about the Star*Drive book.
For those of us that have it, we all know that the Kendai relay station WILL
be fixed. What we don't know is exactly how and by whom. If it were my
campaign, I would have no problem killing every character by exploding a
bomb inside the station (take it easy there, just an example Neil :)).
History goes back to its normal track as another team of experts comes in
and fixes the station so the "total change" to the timeline may be minimal
and may be as simple as pushing back some dates.
Now, Neil may have a different idea of the time line and I am sure things
won't happen exactly as is written (I am hoping we can influence the
timeline at least a little).
Anyway, maybe I should have checked with you (Neil) before posting the site
to the whole group. No harm intended and like I said, it reveals no more
than the S*D hardbound does. I think we all have those "problems" in every
game and we as players have to be honest and good roleplayers and not
confuse player knowledge with character knowledge. Sure Fabian knows a lot
more about the Verge than Dimitrio does but Fabian has no idea how to break
in doors and repair mass reactors like Dimitrio can :).
-- Fabian, Dimitrio
> Kevin is right but the same can be said about the Star*Drive book.
In my haste, I failed to mention this. Yes, the Star*Drive book contains the
same spoilers. Thank you for bringing this up... it is of equal importance for
the others to know.
-- Kevin, Lurker Status
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