Prison Pit
- Characters
- Prison Library
- Logs 1
- Logs 2
- Jailbreak
|
|
near the snow goose, 0404/menkor, 21:22 shipboard time, 213/1106
 DM Note: No Derek this week so Gripper in the background. |
Nearly eight days more passed before the Vanguard's computer notified her crew of a jump emergence 12 klicks away. Active scans identified an object matching the tardy jump torp, and the crew looked at each other. "I'm not jumping with that on board!" stated Martha emphatically. "The Snow Goose jumped OK, until this thing was disturbed," pointed out Alice. "The torp took sixteen days to come back, though," put in Manx. Alice shrugged, and Martha turned away towards her stateroom. "Let's have a look at it anyway," she said.
Half an hour later, she was floating in open space regarding the torpedo catefully. She recognized the marks on it she and Manx had made putting the artifact inside, and was completely convinced that she had the right missile. A few minutes' work with a zero-g screwdriver had the plate off, and she reached in and lifted it out.
Once more, she saw strange, disquieting flickers and suggestions at the edge of her vision. Maybe she had a harder personality and less conscience than Gripper, or maybe she was simply less sensitive, but she wasn't overly troubled by what she saw. More and more, she was coming to believe that this device was mentally controlled in some way, and said so.
Placing it in space some way from the torp, she jetted elegantly around it, examining the artifact from all sides. There were no markings or controls on it, and it struck her that while the supporting mists swirled and shifted, the balls did not appear to revolve or move at all.
 DM Note: We checked psionic latency at this point and Martha came up with a strength of 1, not even a spoon-bender... Alice rated as 4. |
Gritting her teeth, she concentrated and - feeling mildly foolish - silently commanded the artifact to do something. Nothing happened, but then she'd not really expected it to - she knew she wasn't psychically sensitive. Alice had a try, from the bridge, as well, to the same effect. "Perhaps we need to visualize some destination," she said; and then Manx, standing next to her, leaned forward, cupped his hands in a faintly suggestive fashion - and vanished.
So did the artifact.
Alice and Gripper glanced around wildly, while Zugh leaped to check the sensors. These reported a disturbance and the appearance of a man-sized mass near the wreck of the Snow Goose, ten klicks away. It would take them ten minutes or more to move the Vanguard there; a man in his shirtsleeves was never going to last that long. Their hearts sank. Manx was done for...
When Manx had reached,out with his mind for the artifact, he'd been quite certain in himself that he wasn't a psionic. True, he had an almost supernatural ability to influence crowds, but that was talent and charisma. Nevertheless, he percieved - not quite saw - images of the balls appear in front of them, and knew that if he 'gripped' them just so, he could turn them. He also knew that each had a 'top' somehow. Lifting his eyes to the distant dot of the Snow Goose, he thought there! and rotated the outer two balls.
Without transition, he found himself adrift in open space, the artifact fifty feet or so from him - in the same relative position to him as it had been a moment ago - with no sign of ship, comrades, jump torp... or any form of vacc suit. With the realization came the pain as the effects of decompression began to bite; the near-absolute zero cold solidifying his flesh, the pressure inside his body straining his thinner membranes. Frozen blood clogged his nose and his eyes blurred as they bulged. Death was seconds away, he knew, and he had only one chance - to repeat his unfortunate success. Desperately he reached out again with his extrasenses to the blue artifact resting innocently in space nearby, his whole mind yearning for the warmth and safety of the starship he'd recently vacated. There! he demanded as his consciousness faded.
Aboard the Vanguard, Manx's comrades were just beginning to wonder how they were going to jump home again without a competent engineer when a loud crash sounded from near the stern. Investigating, they discovered Manx himself, sprawled semi-conscious and half-frozen in the companionway leading down to the stern airlock. They hardly needed Martha's radioed cry of "Hey, the bloody thing's back!" to work out what had happened. Manx lurched to his feet, eyes wide with the horror of his narrow escape, and without a word stalked into his stateroom. After a series of thumps and bumps he emerged, screwing the helmet of his battledress down with emphatic finality.
 |
When Alice looked at him and suggested he try again, his reaction was perhaps understandable. Hastily, she clarified that what she wanted was for him to try and close down or deactivate it to make it safer to transport home. With considerable trepidation, he reached out yet again. Whatever part of him he used to do this appeared to be very tired, making it a greater effort, but he made the connection and visualized concepts like "Lock" or "Park". Eventually, he managed to find something that worked, because the three spheres sank down to their respective indentations and clicked into place as the glow winked out. When Martha took hold of it once more, it was inert; no ghostvisions flickered at the edge of her sight as she brought it back to the ship.
 |
With all their objectives achieved, Alice and Martha felt entitled to kick back a little, and spent a couple of hours taking turns at using the Vanguard's turret to blast bits off the remains of the Snow Goose. Although hitting a stationary two-thousand-ton hulk at close range wasn't especially challenging, each got a good working knowledge of the equipment; with luck and the aid of the Vanguard's impressive computer, they might even manage to fight the ship. Quite apart from anything else, it was very therapeutic.
near the snow goose, 0404/menkor, 09:39 shipboard time, 214/1106
| DM Note: The great rival to the Third Imperium is an interstellar state known as the Zhodani Consulate. The Zhodani not only embrace psionics but actually assign noble status based on their possession. After the Psionic Suppressions of the 800s, the possession of such abilities bears a flavour of unsavoury treason for most imperial citizens. |
Manx spent most of the night in the Vanguard's single regrowth berth while his frostburned skin and torn nasal membranes healed. The others sat up for a while, discussing how they felt about the revelation that Manx was - despite his denials - some kind of psionic. None of the command crew were actually Imperial by birth, but all had served in the Imperial forces and had been exposed to the feelings and prejudices of the average Imperial for most of their adult lives.
"So, he cheats then," said someone. Martha chuckled. "He cheats at conning people out of their money in exchange for the dubious benefits of a non-existent religion?" she summarized, and everyone laughed. It put things in perspective; however Manx was able to do what he did, he was still Manx, after all.
jumpspace, 0404-Inversar, 14:17 shipboard time, 214/1106
|
During the week of their jump back to Inversar, Martha took a copy of Alice's portfolio of footage and stills from the security cameras. This copy she modified to remove any sign of the artifact or its' crate; in this version, the dimensional shifts it caused had simply been unexplained weirdnesses. Everything else she left as it was. The result was two similar presentations, one of which allowed them to keep the artifact.
Jump Point, Inversar/Menkor, 21:23 local time, 220/1106
As theVanguard flew in from the hundred-diam point towards the mainworld, Alice transmitted the flight plan to Shelnat Island to the planetary TrafCon. Perhaps because they were now registered as employees of Tallis rather than being single-ship wanderers, there was no problem clearing the plan, and by the time the two-hour flight from jump point was done, they were able to descend to the island without delay.
Shelnat Island, Inversar/Menkor, 23:29 local time, 220/1106
 |
As the ship settled onto the pad, a vehicle pulled into the car-park and sat there waiting for them. On disembarking, they discovered Rosalie Wallis waiting for them. "You'll need your cheque-book," chuckled Alice in greeting. Wallis' eyebrows went up. "Oho?" she said, "this is good news then?" Martha settled into the back seat, gripping the locked yellow box containing their samples. "Put it this way," she said, "your KCr100 goes nowhere near." Wallis didn't seem discouraged by this. "The hotel's still being refurbished," she said rather apologetically, "but there are enough spare rooms in the complex to put you up."
The drive across the island showed repairs well in hand, as well as improvements to the security arrangements. These were evident in the central complex, which looked less like an office and more like a fortress. Inside, however, it was as comfortable as could be desired. Advised that the main boardroom was booked for 3pm the next day for their presentation, the four settled into an evening of R&R; good dinners, deep, hot baths, champagne and soft beds for the night.
Shelnat Island, Inversar/Menkor, 15:01 local time, 221/1106
 |
 |
The presentation started quietly, with mundane footage of a starship's crew loading cargo and preparing for a flight. With the exception of an amateur historian who was quietly enthusing over the rare footage of ROM clothing and equipment, the gathered scientists and corporate suits seemed unimpressed and a low hum of conversation rose around the holodisplay. The appearance of the first alien, slinking out of the secure cargo area and vanishing into the ducts with ominous grace, reduced this considerably - and the first sight of crewmen hauled into the ducts or ripped to bloody shreds quicker than the eye could see produced a ringing silence.
Slowly the tragedy unfolded before them, the aliens ravaging the crew, then themselves being harrowed by the unpredictable peculiarities that engulfed the ship, until finally the harsh fact of being stranded by the misjump won out over all and the long silent wait began.
The display went dark and the lights went up. "For your KCr100," said Alice, "you got that video." Martha slid the datacrystal across the table to Wallis. "For a bit more," continued Alice, placing the yellow crate in front of her, "you get the box as well." Wallis reached into a pocket, and extracted five small flat cases, which she slid across the table. "Your initial payment," she said as Martha opened hers to find, rather surprisingly, actual cash inside. "May we see what else is on offer, please?" Wallis continued. Alice opened the crate and - for maximum impact - lifted out the massive alien skull. Even dry, fleshless and still, it conveyed an overwhelming sensation of menace and fear. Awed, the scientists gathered to examine it, gingerly touching the terrible teeth in their extensible jaw.
Wallis looked Alice in the eye. "We both know how our relationship works," she said, "and that we both have secrets outside it. I would, though, like an honest answer to this question please. Do you intend to sell or offer any of this elsewhere?" Alice didn't hesitate. "No," she said, honestly enough; the artifact wasn't any part of anything Tallis had been shown, after all. "This is the only copy." Wallis nodded, and added another KCr500 to their payment as the gleeful scientists and geneticists gathered the samples as if they were the Holy Grail. Phrases like "... forget dinosaurs, these'll win wars..." drifted out of the group. "Remember what you saw today," called Manx after them. "These things are deadly beyond belief. If these escape, they'll finish you all." The scientists left the room, and Manx wasn't sure they had even heard him. Time to be somewhere else, thought Manx.
"I'll draw up a contract," added Wallis, "for a percentage of any profits. Only a small percentage, but like the Terbium process, if we can produce a product from this a small percentage will be very respectable."
At this point the DM's brain simply shut down and nothing futher happened
Session Date: 5th October 2011 (278/-2507 Imperial) |
||
 |
 |
 |