The ship is about a month out from Earth and expected to arrive at Razor City in 4 days. The trip has been uneventful thus far though a particular group of passengers has caused some degree of consternation to some of those aboard the Promise of Andromeda. The group in question consists of a class of high school seniors from Singapore. Most of the students are Asian and speak little to no English. All of the students are female and not all look like they are the proper age to be high school seniors. Some look older and some look younger. All of the chaperones are male and all but one are oriental. The chaperones all speak both English and Chinese.
With nothing else to do, Dale McNamara spent some of his time during the trip trying to figure out what the strange group was up to. It does not take long for him to conclude that they are engaged in criminal activity - notably prostitution. The real question is whether the crimes go deeper to touch on kidnapping and human trafficking. In other words, are the girls there of their own free will or were they coerced in some way. The girls mostly keep to the Coach-class rooms that they are assigned to except during meals. Most of them do not speak to the other passengers though a few of them have enough English to be able to converse. Most of the students seem to fear their chaperones and make no effort to talk, either amongst themselves or to others, when the chaperones are around. And they are always around when the girls are out of their rooms.
The most vocal of the girls is an Anglo woman by the name of Brandy. She is very attractive and could possibly be a high school student but her confidence and attitude make it likely that she is older. As the weeks pass, Dale can see that the Asian students seem to fear Brandy as much as they do the chaperones. There are also a few of the Asian women that Dale believes are older than high school age and do not seem to be here against their will. He suspects that they were prostitutes on Earth and are along because they can make better money among the "rich" asteroid minors of Razor City.
Dale concludes that one or more of the chaperones were probably pimps in Singapore or Malyasia and hatched upon a plan to bring a bunch of girls to Razor City for the purpose of prostitution. Most of the girls are here against their will but a handful, including Brandy, are not. Those who are here voluntarily are working with the chaperones to ensure that the rest of the girls don't cause any problems or report their condition to the captain or crew of the ship. One thing that Dale has not figured out is whether the captain has any role in the criminal enterprise. Is he a willing co-conspirator or willfully ignorant of what is going on? Or does he know what is going on but does not have the necessary resources to arrest the men and hold them for the long trip? Dale doesn't know. When he hinted at something going on during a corridor conversation with the captain a week or so ago, the captain ignored the inferences and kept the conversation light.
Curt Rustle is on this trip to make money. He is good at gaining the confidence of wealthy women and has used these skills to his profit. He spent most of his money on a first class ticket for the Promise of Andromeda to get next to a moderately famous, up and coming movie star by the name of Stella Belle. He has spent much of his time trying to gain her confidence. Even so, he has also noted the presence of the prostitution cartel. Although not overly concerned with the moral aspects of the criminals, he has come to many of the same conclusions as Dale.
Anita Lee is a female crew member of the Promise of Andromeda. She serves as senior communications and sensor watch officer. She has three other communications and sensor specialists who report to her. She is responsible for a lot of the avionics of the ship. Most of the watches are served by her three specialists but she stands the 8 to noon watch every day. She too has noticed something strange about the high school seniors on a field trip to Razor City. She suspects that they are actually going there for the purpose of prostitution and are there against their will, except maybe for the Anglo woman named Brandy. Anita believes that Brandy is just as much a chaperone as the men who actually claim that role. Anita reported her suspicions to the captain last week. The captain told her tersely that he was not blind and that suitable action would be taken at the appropriate time.
Stella Belle is an up and coming movie star who recently finished making a movie and decided to reward herself with a vacation to the asteroids. Stella hoped to be able to mix with the other first class passengers and have a good time during the trip. As it turns out however, most of the first class passengers are oriental and don't seem to want to have much to do with Stella. They keep mostly to themselves although they also spend some time with a class of high school seniors from somewhere in Southeast Asia, probably because they speak the same language. One of the other first class passengers, a young man by the name of Curt Rustle, has treated her well and she has enjoyed spending time with him. He acts the perfect gentleman and comes across as confident and self-assured.
With most of the other first class passengers being a wash, Stella turns her attention to the second class and coach passengers and even to the crew. She strikes up conversations easily and gets to know most of the other passengers over the course of the long voyage. As a first class passenger, she has her choice of eating in the dining hall or having her meals sent to her room. She begins hosting small dinner parties in her chambers. Curt Rustle, as a fellow first class passenger who is on the same deck as her, is a fairly regular guest at these get-togethers but, beyond that, the guest list changes every day. One day she might have the captain and some of his officers as guest while, another day, she might invite a handful of coach passengers. In this manner, Stella learns who she enjoys spending time with and who she doesn't.
Lars Larson is a coach class passenger on his way back to Razor City after a short vacation on earth to visit his mother. He is an asteroid miner who has been at his trade for about five years. Like Anita, he also noticed the high schoolers and came to many of the same conclusions as the communications officer. However, he has not tried to report his suspicions to anyone. He keeps a careful eye on the girls when he can as he has a bit of chivalrous streak that will certainly get him into trouble with the chaperone/pimps should he begin to suspect that the girls are being abused. He does not intend to let the matter go but is biding his time.
DALE (GM): Do I get any sense of other concerned people watching the girls or chaperones, or investigating? I assume I never got invited to one of Stella Belle's dinner parties, I'm used to it. As of now I'm assuming that I never spoke to any of the other PCs as anything more than a random light conversation in a corridor, I am very unassuming and tend to be the wallflower listener in the conversation, not the chatty one. In fact, I tend to be labeled a know-it-all and people rarely stay friendly with me for too long, since I have a tendency to spout off random facts that I consider relevant or interesting, but almost noone else ever does.
GM: You're call on whether you have been to one of Stella Belle's parties. I would assume that you have been but if you see it differently, I am fine with that as well.
GM: As Dale carries out his discreet investigation of the prostitution cartel, he doesn't see anyone else actively investigating but certainly sees in the looks and faces of some of the other passengers that they have probably guessed that not all is as it seems. In particular, he notes concern on the face of the ship's Communications Officer (Anita Lee). He also notes that an asteroid miner by the name of Lars Larson often looks blackly at the "chaperones" like he is just looking for an excuse to do something. Dale guesses that his motivation is most likely old-fashioned chivalry. He has also noticed that the miner carries a very ornate knife around with him at all times. It is invariably strapped to his belt. To Dale, the knife looks like a well-cared for, and thoroughly serviceable, architectural relic from the fancy engravings on the handle and the center of the long blade.
GM: Guns are not allowed to be carried by passengers but a knife is not considered a serious enough threat to be banned.
DALE: As a female (possibly of Asian descent?) Anita Lee might have noticed me looking at her a couple of times, trying to assess if she might be a useful connection to the crew, to size up who might be in on the human trafficking and who isn't. Of course she'd also be suspected of being part of it, so I wouldn't approach her until something more happened.
DALE (GM): If we get within a couple of days of arrival (assuming we are still allowed to move around the ship until arrival is imminent), I might try to compose a message to send to the authorities in Razor City, how much do such messages cost? Or are they for emergencies and official business only?
GM: You can assume that you have enough money to pay for a message to Razor City.
ANITA: Anita is a fairly plain, Caucasian woman from Leeds. Her father had been Army Special Forces and taught Kung Fu after he retired. Anita and her brothers started teaching at the school in their early teens. Her mother was a typical army wife, who stayed at home and tried to turn Anita into a domestic goddess, ready for marriage. Neither parent understood Anita’s interest in computers nor why she would join the Navy (her father was especially upset about that, and was only mollified by Anita pointing out she was going into space, and not betraying her Army roots). Anita likes computers and technology and has always looked at a locked door as a challenge. This brought her into conflict with the authorities a few times, but nothing serious ever came of it until her last hacking effort. She’d managed to uncover a massive fraud ring at the base where she was posted. For her efforts, the Navy gave her a commendation and then promptly discharged her for hacking.
ANITA: While she’s not happy about the Captain's response to her suspicions about the girls, she can understand his point of view. They really weren’t equipped to deal with this sort of situation, and if any of the ‘chaperones’ were armed, things could get ugly quickly. Someone could get hurt, or worse, the ship could be damaged. Best to leave the issue to the port authorities. In the mean time, Anita concentrates on shutting up and doing her job. In her down time, she works out and keeps mostly to herself, though she does try to maintain pleasant relationships with the remainder of the passengers.
STELLA: Stella takes note of the situation but doesn't feel comfortable confronting the group. She continues with her socializing on the ship. Unlike other movie stars, Stella hasn't lost touch with normal people and their ways of life. Though she enjoys have a higher class of lifestyle now, she tries not to be too arrogant or judgmental of those of lower stations in life.
GM: Start of live session via Maptool/Skype. Steve L, Steve G, Keith and Jason present.
The ship is four days away from its destination of Razor City on the massive asteroid Vesta, located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. As often occurs, Stella Belle is hosting a small gathering. This evening it features an eclectic mix of people including her fellow first class passenger, Curt Rustle; the ship's communications officer, Anita Lee; a criminal investigator on his way to Razor City to aid them in an investigation, Dale McNamara; and finally an asteroid miner returning to the belt after a visit to earth, Lars Larson. The chatter is light as the galley staff arrives with appetizers. After they depart, Dale brings up the subject of the high school field trip. Lars remarks that he thinks that they are actually prostitutes and Dale counters that he believes it goes deeper and that human trafficking is involved. Anita tells them that she mentioned her suspicions, which are similar to Dale's, to the captain but the captain told her that he would have to let authorities in Razor City deal with it as he did not have the resources aboard to arrest and hold the "chaperones" of the high school class who are probably human traffickers. Curt stays mostly silent on the issue generally agreeing with whatever Stella says. Stella did not have the same suspicions as the others but certainly did notice that the other first class passengers, whose cabins are at the top of the ship, were oriental and did not seem to want to socialize with her.
Dinner is brought and the five sit down to eat while continuing their conversation. Suddenly, there is a brilliant flash of light that momentarily blinds everyone at the same time as dead silence ensues. Then, as vision starts to return, everyone sees streamers of light, light frozen lightning, cutting through the room, and everyone in it. At the same time, they notice that the atmospheric pressure is increasing. Both effects increase, slowly at first but then with increasing and alarming regularity. A distant hum can be heard slowly cutting through the silence.
As Anita tries to make for the door, the pressure and light streams suddenly explode in intensity and everyone blacks out.
Stella is the first to recover. She is floating in the passage outside her room. Dale is floating in the dining room of Stella's suite while Anita is in the bathroom and also floating. A moment later, gravity reasserts itself and all three fall. Anita and Stella land on their feet while Dale crashes to the floor.
Curt and Lars are also floating but they are outside the ship. As this realization sets in both begin to panic. Lars sees Curt some distance away from him but Curt does not yet see Lars. In his panic, Curt reaches for the ship, some 15 to 20 feet away, grabs a projection and pulls himself closer. It does not dawn on him that his arm actually grew to an impossible length in order to span the distance to the ship (Stretching). Still panicked, he pulls himself to the ship's airlock and begins pounding on the door with his other hand. He is holding his breath all the while. Subconsciously he realizes that he is not experiencing any discomfort, and thinks he should be, but these thoughts remain firmly in his subconscious as he continues to panic (Life Support).
Meanwhile, Lars is also panicked and begins swimming towards the airlock using violent motions of his arms and legs. This type of movement should be impossible but he does not question that it works (Flight). He too is experiencing no ill effects of the vacuum but his level of hysteria is too great for him to notice (Life Support). Being experienced with spaceships, Lars activates the emergency override of the airlock to open it from this side. When it is open enough for them to pass through, both do so and Lars immediately cycles the lock. As fresh air supporting himself on one arm while holding his head with the other. A second is on his feet but holding his head as if to fend off a massive headache. The third seems fully alert and watches in amazement as Curt and Lars exit the lock. He asks some inane questions but is skeptical of Curt's answers ("we were stuck outside for a minute or so but we managed to hold our breaths so we are okay"). He tells them to go see the doctor but them corrects himself as he remembers that the doctor is busy treating lots of injuries right now.
Down on level 6, Anita recovers and rushes out into the dining room. She sees Dale holding his head and stops to see if he is okay. He complains of a massive headache but otherwise seems unhurt. Anita rushes out into the hall and sees Stella. The actress's right foot is stuck in the steel plate of the floor. There is no indication as to how that could be. She simply stares. Stella seems a bit confused as she looks down at her foot. She pushes with her left foot in an effort to free her right foot. All that happens is that the floor plate begins to bend so she stops. Anita is even more perplexed at this unexpected display of strength. Then Dale, who made a quick trip to the bathroom to find something for his headache, comes out and also notices Stella's foot in the deck plate.
"Stella," he cries, "let me see your foot."
He begins to move forward to examine where her foot is embedded in the steel but Stella, who misunderstands, replies, "Okay, and lifts her foot out of the deckplate for him to examine. There is no hole in the decking to show where her foot was (Tunneling). Both Anita and Dale are perplexed by this.
Dale convinces Stella to lie down on the bed in her room so he can examine her foot more closely. He pulls off her fashionable boots and notices two things. First, the color of her right foot, below the ankle, is iron gray. Second, where the foot is gray, it is also iron hard (Force Field). Dale pokes and prods to convince himself that her foot really is as hard as it appears.
"Do you feel that?" Dale asks her as he continues to prod and eventually even tickles the bottom of her foot.
"Of course," she replies. As her foot is tickled, she convulses slightly as people are wont to do when so tickled. Suddenly her foot is back to normal in both color and feel.
"You better lie down for awhile," Dale tells her. "I'm going to go see what is going on up above. I can help the doctor if there are injured people."
He and Dale run to the turbolift and head up to level 3 where Sickbay is located. As the lift opens, they see Lars and Curt who were heading back down to level 6. They quickly exchange information about what happened. Like the crew member, Dale is skeptical of their ability to exist in a vacuum for a full minute with no ill effects. Then Curt heads down to check on Stella while Lars goes with Dale to see if he can help out the doctor. Lars, like Dale, is also proficient with paramedic skill.
Anita heads to the bridge and checks in with the captain. He orders her to get the sensors and communications working again. Two of her technicians are already at work (the third had a broken arm) and she learns that the ship has no sensors and no external communications at this time. She also learns that what occurred on most of the ship is not what occurred on level six. Most of the ship experienced a violent lurching, several minutes of pronounced vibration and then another violent lurch. Many people were injured by the lurching though most are minor wounds. Anita learns however, that there were two fatalities.
She sends one of her technicians up to Avionics to see what he can learn there. When he comes back it is with bad news. Someone had left an open tool bag in the Avionics space. When the violent lurching and vibrations occurred during zero G, the tools went flying everywhere in the confined space smashing sensitive electronics gear. Anita is livid about this as there should not have been an unattended tool bag, much less an open one, in the Avionics space. She suspects that her junior technician (with the broken arm) was responsible as he has been careless before. She goes to inspect the damage and comes back to report that the damage is extensive. She does not think they will be able to restore communications but they should be able to fix some of the sensors. The captain orders her to get to work on it right away.
Dale and Lars are busy in sickbay. Triage as already occurred and the patients are now being tended to in order of severity. Dale finds himself tending one of the oriental girls from the field trip. He tries to talk to her but she does not understand the words he is saying. Dale however, suddenly seems to be able to understand everything she is saying perfectly clearly (Telepathy). With a little thought he wonders if he can make her understand him. It works and the girl is left with the impression that Dale can speak perfect Malaysian. Dale knows that something else is going on. He can see disturbing thoughts in her mind that clarify his suspicions that she is the victim of human trafficking. She can also see her debating with herself on whether to tell Dale that she is a victim but her fear of the chaperones, including Brandy, is stronger and she says nothing. But she doesn't need to. Her thoughts and memories are an open book to Dale.
It also suddenly occurs to Dale that he has not seen any of the chaperones since the strange events occurred.
GM: This is where we stopped for the night. Dale, who is the most intuitive of the five of you, is starting to put the pieces together. He knows that Lars and Curt could not have survived outside the ship in a vacuum as they said they did. He knows that Lars could not have "swum" to the ship. He personally witnessed the hardening of Stella's foot. With his recent revelation that he seems to now have telepathic powers, he is wondering if Stella, Anita, Curt and Lars were also somehow gifted with new abilities by the cosmic event.
GM: And where the dickens are the chaperones? |