NOBODY: Actually, Eli would like a chance to explore the VR environment before we attempt the ICE. Eli also wants wants to make sure that Max is present for any possible health issues that might arise.
GM: Sounds good. I assume that you've already read the turn that Surge sent that tells of his experiences in the VR net so you have an understanding of what is there. Let me know what, specifically, you want to explore.
Eli did some exploring and found all of the same things that Surge did. However, he also decided to try some passwords at the mafia-guarded warehouse. After the third failed password, the ICE attacked him. He learned some of the limitations of the VR interface and the attack strength of the ICE. Eli himself was not hurt, but did log off in a hurry.
Later Surge and Eli went in together. However, Eli was again attacked with no provocation this time, indicating that the interface that he was using (in the avionics room) had been marked as an intruder. This happened twice and, on one occasion he got knocked below -10 Stun so he got booted out and was not able to log back in until after he rebooted and after his "link-dead" icon was cleaned up by a garbage collector daemon, which took the form of a morgue truck and operator.
..........
On the 24th of November, the resupply ship arrives at the mining pod to restock the station with air, food and water. Four hours after they depart, Vamperina, Eli and Chase head down to Black Moon in PEBBLE. You've already arranged to meet Jack at the same place as before.
The trip is as uneventful as the previous trip and, about 24 hours later PEBBLE has landed on Black Moon approximately 2,000 kilometers from Circle City. Jack comes bounding in a short time later carrying a load of supplies in a large sack on his back. Greetings are briefly exchanged. Vamperina hands Jack several cash cards and Jack is off again. His speed over the ground far exceeds anyone elses. He can make half a dozen trips before others can even make one.
Twelve hours later, Jack has completed his third and final trip carrying supplies, vacc suits and parts from Circle City to PEBBLE. Everything is safely stowed and PEBBLE lifts off. The trip back is similarly uneventful and takes about 24 hours.
GM: Mark off the Cr3300 for additional parts (if you haven't already), Cr10,000 for 2016 person days of food, and whatever you decide to spend on the two additional vacc suits. Is this everything or was there more that you wanted to buy?
JACK: Marked off both those expenses, and I will start a record of our supplies. I'll get a work suit similar to Vana's, which was around 6800 as I recall. Any other options I might specifically like? What did Surge want?
SURGE: What did we decide on star charts? I think that was the biggest thing remaining on my mind.
NOBODY: I believe the Cr25k for starcharts was a popular expenditure.
GM: Let me know what star charts you want. Cr25,000 will buy you 25 star charts which will get you all of the Spinward Marches and some from other sectors.
VAMPERINA: The only one that Vamperina has a strong interest is the star chart for the Regina subsector. Otherwise she would just as soon wait until we need them.
JACK: The problem here is that we haven't really talked about our plans other than 'get out of this system'. Do we want to go set up on Jewell? Do we want to go back to the Regina area? Either one could be a problem if this ship is a known Imperial research vessel. Personally I think acquiring the Regina subsector star chart would be only prudent at this point, but have no reason to believe that we'll need any of the other 61? charts.
GM: So go ahead and mark off another Cr1000 for a star chart of the Regina subsector. If Surge and Eli convince everyone that other star charts would also be very useful, then you can mark off more for them at that time.
SURGE: I would definitely want the Regina subsector star chart at a minimum. That now gives us all three charts next to us. If we decide to head 'south' we'll need to get those subsectors but that can probably wait until later on.
JACK: Personally, I want to get out there and do some good with my powers, instead of hiding and being unable to act for fear of exposure. If that means exploring non-imperial worlds in order to avoid the mutant-hating public, as well as the possibility of exposure as an escaped criminal, so be it. I'm tired of living like a mundane, I've been doing that for the past 40 years or so, I'm ready to take some risks again, maybe save some lives and right some wrongs. What do each of you want to do with yourselves?
..........
Upon reaching the floating asteroid that is actually ROCK, Vamperina remotely activates the two hatches that conceal the docking bay for PEBBLE, and pulls inside. Once snuggly docked, she shuts down the engine and closes the hatches. Surge is waiting on the other side of the airlock.
The rest of the month passes uneventfully, with Eli, Vamperina, Chase, Max and Curt all mining, and Jack and Surge staying in ROCK.
NOBODY: If Jack doesn't have any familiarity with this type of space vessel, Eli will recommend that he follow the intro courses, with Surge's guidance, that Eli had set up for Curt. Its all in the schedule.
On December 3rd, the resupply ship arrives and, in addition to restocking the air, food and water, they also bring the cash cards for November's mining. That is what you have been waiting for. You take the cash cards and leave the mining pod for the last time. You take with you all of the food, potable water and other supplies (you can add another 21 person days of food), including the ten sets of asteroid mining tools (worth about Cr2000 each) which were stored at the pod.
NOBODY: "I wouldn't mind rigging the pod for destruction, just to further cover our tracks. Maybe disable any tracking devices and send it careening into the gas giant, or the sun. The less info that can possibly be scraped up on us, the better, and more confusion to the enemy(s), especially Serene. If the pod just up and disappears, as to blowing up, that leaves them with a lot of unanswered questions, and a bit of our own back. BTW, can we scavenge the pod for additional parts and such?"
You reach ROCK, floating some 20 km away, with no problem. The whole group is together again.
The group meets in the wardroom where Vamperina and Surge explain some of the Jump options.
"A normal jump," Surge explains, "means having a star chart, traveling to the established jump point for that system, and then plotting a course and jumping. Doing it this way is the safest way and the chances of something going drastically wrong are slim. The star chart for this sector does not indicate that Black Moon has a jump station, basically a spaceport near the jump point, so it is not likely that we will have any problems using the jump point even if we are feeling paranoid. If we were feeling paranoid, we could pick some other point outside of most gravitational influences, and jump from there but the risk of a misjump does go up."
"A couple of other options that I don't think we need to worry about on this trip have to do with speed and distance before jumping," Vamperina says, taking over from Surge. "Normal jump points are a good distance from all other gravitational influences except the primary (sun). If we were in a huge hurry and didn't want to take the six or seven days to reach the jump point, we could jump right after leaving the atmosphere but the risk of a misjump is pretty high. It's tough on the pilot and even tougher on the astrogator as they try to plot the jump."
NOBODY: "Such manuevers should be left for emergencies only."
"The final point has to do with speed," Surge says, picking up where Vamperina left off. "For a normal jump, you accelerate halfway to the jump point, and then decelerate the other half of the distance so that you arrive at the jump point at a maneuverable speed. The other option is to simply accelerate all the way to the jump point which means, for this ship anyway, we'll be traveling at about half a million kilometers per hour when we reach the jump point, and then jump. There is some risk of a misjump doing it this way. The other thing to consider is that velocity built up in normal space is not diminshed at all by the jump to hyperspace which means that you still have that velocity when you come out of jump space. This isn't normally a huge issue since you can then decelerate all the way to the destination. All in all, it could trim about a week off of a normal trip. There is also a slight risk that, when you come out of jump space, there might be an obstacle in our flight path that, at our speed, we couldn't maneuver around in time. However, the chance of this happening is incredibly slim."
"So, in conclusion," Vamperina says, "our normal modus operandi will be to use a star chart, use established jump points, arrive there at maneuvering speed, and jump from there. But we wanted everyone to know that, in emergency situations, there are other options."
NOBODY: "First, I'm not certain how good Surge is, but if he feels confident in the manuever, I would like to not arrive at the standard jump points. Not until we have some time and distance from here. Also remember, we are uncertain as to the status of this ship, or its current reputation. It was being chased by a Zho (pronounced 'joe') ship when it was last seen.
GM: You can pronounce it however you want, but I pronounce it 'zoe'.
GM: In game terms, doing a normal jump (star chart, jump point, maneuvering speed) gives both the pilot and astrogator a +3 to their respective rolls.
GM: Using a star chart and jumping from a safe distance at maneuvering speed, but not at the established jump point, incurs a -2 to astrogation rolls only.
GM: Using a star chart and established jump point, but at high speed incurs a -1 to the astrogation roll and a -2 to the pilot roll.
GM: Penalties are cumulative so using a star chart but not an established jump point, and going at high speed incurs a penalty of -3 to astrogation and -2 to piloting.
GM: Jumping before reaching a safe distance incurs not only the penalty for not using the established jump point (-2 astrogation) but also a -1 per 5 million km short of the 50 million km safe distance for the astrogator, and -1 per 10 million km short of the 50 million km safe distance for the pilot.
Once Surge and Vamperina finish their lecture on jumps, Eli gets up and talks about damage control and ship's systems. "Damage control is everyone's job on a spaceship, "Eli begins in a tone that indicates that he has given this training hundreds or thousands of times before in his long career in space. His training starts in the wardroom covering some of the basics but then moves out into the ship where, over the course of the next few hours, and into the following day, he explains all of the ship's systems from the vacuum toilet on up to the fusion drives in the engine room, and the control panels on the bridge. The two days of training are a bare minimum to understand the ship and the rudiments of damage control and shipboard fire fighting. Throughout the training, Eli often refers to his training schedule that will help everyone adjust to a life in space and be ready to deal with emergencies and contigencies that might arise. Thus, his training will continue far beyond the two days of initial familiarization.
NOBODY: "Each of you is responsible for staying on top of your training. This is not something that you should let lapse because you have other interests. To do so endangers the ship and the rest of us. In space, ignorance and lack of preparation is death. There are several of us on board with full training: Vana, Surge and myself, and one of us should be available at most times to answer questions.
NOBODY: I strongly recommend that each of you take the chance to learn gunnery skill. Currently, those of us with the skill will be needed elsewhere in the ship should we be in battle. Don't always count on the one spare gunner to be available.
NOBODY: Also, we will all have duties. Some fo you independent spirits may not like that. Tough. this ship will need regular maintenance, and that does including scut work and cooking. If one of you actually knows how to cook, I'm not including Vana, Surge, or myself, I would recommend that you take over the galley. The cook generally gets out of a lot of the general ship maintenance as he is usually doing most of it in the galley.
NOBODY: I strongly urge all of you to get some experience working with basic mechanics and electronics. This will greatly ease the work burden on myself and Surge, and could save us all in case of an emergency.
NOBODY: Please note that all of these skills; ship familiarity, gunner, electronics, and mechanics are very useful for getting berths on space vessels. Should you ever become separated, by choice or otherwise, you can get decent paying positions to just about anywhere you need to go.
NOBODY: One thing that I want to make perfectly clear. We may act as a commitee when deciding where to go and what to do, for the most part, but when it comes to emrgencies like ship-to-ship combat, Vana is Captain. This is not a voting thing. This is a matter of training and experience. Vana has the most experience at commanding a space vessel, having done so in Fleet. I have some experience in command as well, however, it is not high on my list of pleasant, sunny, fun things to do. Unfortunately, Surge and I will probably be very busy performing our respective specialtiess during a combat. I strongly urge the rest of you to sort out your strengths to see who would be best to perform as backups to the three of us. Cross-train as much as possible. I will be doing the same. Speaking of which, Vana, I'd like to get in some flight training on both the Pebble and the Rock.
NOBODY: For those of you who don't think they need to share in the responsiblilities of the ship, let me point out that there are precedents, traditions, and laws in Space Maritime Society that support much greater shares of ship profits going to senior officers and lesser to less skilled shipmates. As far as I'm concerned, as long as all of us are willing to teach each other, and learn from each other, in order to back each other up, I'm willing to waive the traditional ship shares for equal divvies.
NOBODY: Now I recommend that we have an official meeting and perform some official voting and appointing of positions so that everything looks all legal and proper for the ship's log.
GM: To reflect this, everyone can have one EXP to spend on Vehicle Familiarization: Small Spaceships. If you already have a 1 point familiarity with Vacc Suits, then you can use this point to upgrade to a 2 point Vehicle Familiarization: All Spaceships. If you already have a 2 point familiarity with all spaceships, then you can spend this point however you want.
NOBODY: "Waking the girl seems feasible, now. Max will have to be present. I recommend that we not overwhelm the girl when she first awakens. Max and maybe one other with good interpersonal skills, for alleving the child's concerns, should be present, and the rest of us can be nearby watching, listening, and commenting by remote. The thing is not to hit the child with too much right away. We could easily overstress her and make an enemy or a basket-case. I would recommend either Jack, for personality reasons, or Vana, because she is the only woman amongst us, to be in with Max. Vana, if you go, might I recommend your least severe outfit. Something that says homey and comfort."
Late the following day (Dec 4th), Max and Vamperina are in stateroom two which contains the cold sleep machine where the girl that you know to be Lisan Ricket is sleeping. With the doctor's bag handy, Max begins the process of bringing her out of cold sleep. He is in no hurry and proceeds cautiously. Surge and Eli have rigged the intercom in the room so that the others on the ship can hear what is going on and react if things go bad.
The whole process takes only 20 minutes. The girl wakes slowly from her long sleep. When her eyes finally open and register their surroundings, she sees Max and Vamperina. There is an initial look of confusion at her surroundings but then some understanding settles in. She doesn't say anything immediately, but simply looks around the room.
"How are you feeling," Max asks with a friendly look on his face. The girl looks at him and he continues, "I've worked with your father in the past, Lisan, when we were both working at the Institute of System Studies in Cape Goliath. This was before you were born so you don't know me. You have been in cold sleep for a few years." The girls eyes widen when she hears this but she doesn't say anything. "My name is Professor Brody," Max continues. "What happened to your mother and father?"
When asked a direct question, the girl finally responds. "I - I don't know," she says. "They were on Zeycude and then father called on the radio. Something had gone wrong. He said it was an emergency and that I needed to get away. He told me to tell the computer to run 'Emergency-111 to Rio' and then to get into the cold sleep chamber and that - that everything would be okay. I asked him if everything was okay and he said it was but for me to do as he said. He said someone would meet the ship at Rio and everything would be okay. After that I didn't hear anything more from father. I just did as I was told. I remember as we were leaving, there was a zho ship on the screen and it was coming towards us, but then - then I did as I was told and got into the cold sleep chamber."
She pauses for a moment and then asks, "Professor Brody, are we at Rio?"
Surge, who has been examining the star map after hearing what the girl had to say, has found Rio. It is a rich, agricultural world in the Chronor subsector. It is also firmly in Zhodani space.
Max looks at Vamperina, who replies, "No you are in the Newcomb system in the Jewell subsector. It's an imperial world. We were hoping you could tell us how you got here."
The girl is somewhat distraught by her circumstances but can be kept calm with level questions and occasional references to the fact that Max knew both the professor and his wife many years ago. Lisan has no idea how they ended up in the Newcomb system. As far as she knows, they should have arrived in the Rio system within a couple of weeks of leaving Zeycude.
Knowing what you know of Jumping, it's easy to conclude that the ship might have jumped early as a result of the Zhodani ship showing up and the result was that they misjumped.
Meanwhile, both Surge and Eli have found some references to emergency procedures in the professor's library. Emergency-111 is a procedure where the ship handles the jump entirely on its own, given a specific destination. The procedure is very flexible and allows for a lot of emergency contingencies. In looking it over it seems likely that the ship did not make it out to a safe jumping distance and instead jumped early as a result of the Zhodani ship showing up and probably attacking. The result was a gross astrogational error. The emergency procedure, however, accounts for this and notes that if the ship arrives at the wrong location, it is to try to find out where it is and then, if fuel allows, jump again to get to the destination. If it is unable to reach it's destination, it is to try to jump to any system that has an imperial naval base and broadcast a specific signal code on a specific frequency using a specific encryption code. Failing this, it is to try to get to any inhabited system where naval vessels are known to call in at and broadcast the same signal.
It is obvious from reading the procedure that the writer tried to cover every possible contingency with multiple logical branches, including a scenario where the radio, for whatever reason, could not be used. In such cases, ROCK was to simply approach a naval vessel, with shields and gun turret down, so that they would investigate.
SURGE (to GM): If we were to fly to Zhodani space, what would we expect? Will they hunt us down? Will we be boarded? How easily could ROCK slip by patrols or other scanning? Based on what we know of zhodani space protocols and such.
GM: Given the nature of ROCK, if you Jumped into a Zhodani system, and did not arrive at the established Jump Point (a -2 astrogation modifier) then there is a good chance that you would not be noticed. If the ship was not under power, and everyone took to PEBBLE (remember that PEBBLE has the psionic shield) if a Zhodani ship came near, then it is highly possible that the ship would be mistaken for a rock floating in space even if they did a psionic scan. If you want to try to travel there legally, then it would take a lot of time to get all of the necessary permits and licenses from both sides, assuming that you could even get them and that a background check did not reveal that you were criminals on the run.
SURGE: Interesting, so it was out of fuel when we found it right? There were no signs of struggle or looting inside the ship right? Just a damage to the gun turret.
GM: Yes, the ship was out of fuel for the Jump drives though it could still move at sublight speeds. The pop-up turret was damaged and there was no sign of any sort of internal struggle.
JACK: It would seem that it mis-jumped to start, and perhaps used up all the fuel on this bad mis-jump that spanned quite a distance. One thing noone covered on their lectures about hyperspace is what distances you normally expect to be able to cover on a single jump. It seems unusual to jump that distance to me...
VAMPERINA: "Good point Jack. Jump 1 is one parsec. ROCK can do a max of Jump 3, which means that it can cover a maximum of 3 parsecs. If you look at the star map that we have of the four sectors, each hex is one parsec. ROCK's speed is 1 light year per day. Thus, if we were to Jump from her to Lisan (3 parsecs), it would take us a total of 9.6 days in hyperspace, plus about a week at each end getting to and from the Jump Points. That assumes that we use normal Jump Points."
VAMPERINA: "By my count, we are about 15 parsecs from Zeycude. Apparently the ship was trying to Jump from Zeycude to Rio, which is two parsecs, but ended up here. Whether it was one massive misjump that covered 15 parsecs, or whether it ended up someplace else and then Jumped here is a mystery. We know that ROCK was out of fuel when we found it and I can also tell you that ROCK is not set up for fuel skimming; PEBBLE is. Thus, the professor could not have programmed the computer to refuel the ship by skimming gas giants or oceans."
JACK: It also seemed to be hiding, perhaps there's an overriding protocol that kept it from continuing to seek fuel and jump back to Rio. Perhaps the fact that it was attacked set off its 'run and hide' program.
SURGE: Surge first addresses the situation, "I feel we have to help this girl find her parents or extended family, if possible. I'm not sure if it would be wise to jump directly to Rio now but we should research that possibility. We should also ask about extended family to see if we can find an aunt or uncle or grandparents. Before I spend too much time thinking of possible ways to go about these tasks, we should talk whether we should or not."
VAMPERINA: "I like the idea. The idea of trying to rescue her parents is obviously dangerous but, on the plus side, we really do have the ideal ship for sneaking around."
GM: In talking to Lisan, she does remember occasional visits to extended family members in Cape Goliath a few years ago but doesn't know exactly where they live and how to contact them. And she really only knows them as aunt this and uncle that, with no surnames. This ship has been her home since she was born. The last time that she was in Cape Goliath was about two and a half years before the problems on Zeycude. Lisan is obviously hoping that you will find her parents for her.
JACK: I think we'd be completely unprepared for what skills we'd need to properly slip into Zhodani space, we have no idea how to communicate with the Professor covertly to let him know we're there, and I have no reason to believe any of us can go down to a Zhodani world without immediate exposure. I don't even know what they look like, for pete's sake.
JACK: For now, I think it's too big of a risk, not enough known to attempt it. Returning Lisan to her extended family has other risks, both of exposure for ourselves and of course losing the ship, but I'm willing to lose the ship if we must. Maybe, with enough time and cautious information-gathering, we'll be able to prepare well enough to try that trip to Rio. The possibility of the professor and his wife being still there, undiscovered, after years, seems pretty remote, though.
VAMPERINA: "I agree its very risky and I'm definitely not proposing that we jump right into it. I don't think Surge is either. It would require careful planning." She smiles and continues, "However, it is definitely and 'good' and 'heroic' thing to do and right now, I'm feeling a bit 'good' and 'heroic'. In any event, I'll go with the majority on this one, obviously."
GM: What the group does know of the Zhodani is that they look perfectly human but they are a psionic-dominated society. The plebescite has no inherent right to privacy, including privacy of thought. They are ruled by the psionic class. A government official can, at any time he wishes, invade the mind of a plebe and find out what he is thinking and, if his thoughts are criminal, can have him arrested. The professor used his personality overlay machine to interact with the Zhodani.
NOBODY: "Does anyone have any alternate plans that they wish to make known? I for one am at loose ends, and am unsure what I wish to do in the long run. The last three years have been interesting, if unexpected. To my knowledge my home is still in available to me as I was unsure how long I was to be reactivated for, so I mothballed the asteroid. Still, it would be the first place that they would look for me. So igoing home is not a viable option, yet.
CURT: I really don't follow what you just said here. You live in an Asteroid, and you put it in mothballs?
NOBODY: As far as searching for Lisan's parents, we need to get a lot more information. We need to hit a more urban center, preferably a sector capital, to get up-to-date data on the goings-on of the area.
NOBODY: Has anyone any thoughts on my proposal to scavenge the pod then make it disappear to cover our tracks?"
CURT: My vote is to not make the pod disappear. They are technically doing something illegal up here so I don't think they are going to go looking for us. On the other hand, if we destroy/steal/damage the pod, we're going to piss them off and they could very well come looking for us. I would even go as far as to have those that actually worked there to leave a note saying something to the effect of "Thanks for the job, but something better came along, so we quit". Of course if we end up stealing all the mining equipment, I would probably say skip the note.
VAMPERINA: "I vote to simply disappear and not try to destroy the pod."
SURGE: "I realize that some of us have several bitter feelings towards Serene. Admittedly their tactics are evil and cruel. But I am unwilling to destroy the pod. Matter of fact, I'd suggest that we make it appear as if you all just went out mining one day and never returned. Maybe leave some food, a tiny bit of ore and some personal effects behind. Stuff that we don't care about. That would make them wonder what happened. Otherwise, let's just leave the pod as it is and get out of here. Whether we like how Serene went about their business the end effect for us was very beneficial. We were struggling to see how we could reach the spaceship without spending a good chunk of credits for a charter ship. With Max, Chase and Vamperina finding the ship they saved us all those hassles and risks. We're now discussing where we want to go. I'd soon forget about Serene completely and look forward. That's just me though."
NOBODY: "Although I have no intention of forgetting what Serene has and is doing, I have no intention of doing anything to excite them in the near future. I do like Surge's notion of how to leave the pod, and I would actually like to take it a step further and leave behind most of what you guys would have left in the pod if you went out on a day of mining. Even personal gear. Anything without a real sentimental or financial value, including and especially the food and water we took, should be put back. I see no problem with mild compensation for minor articles, although you guys were transported here with only your suits and interview clothing. More confusion to the enemy. Leave them scratching their heads."
VAMPERINA: "If we do that, then we should also leave the other seven sets of mining equipment behind or they will probably assume that our departure was planned. Given the value of the mining gear, about Cr14,000 total, I would rather not leave it behind. Personally I have no bitter feelings towards Serene. Yeah, I was pissed when I first got up here. But once we started getting the hang of mining, and they started paying us, then I got over my bad feelings. And, of course, when Max and Chase found the ship, I was downright pleased."
NOBODY: "We have money. We've shown that we can make more pretty readily. Right now I would rather give Serene as little reason to think we went out system as possible. Maybe five sets of mining tools might be okay, allowing for breakage and such, but Cr14k isn't worth the hassle of them possibly being pissed off enough to alert the authorites or Serene associates at other systems to be on the lookout for people trying to sell off mining gear. As it is, if the pod looks like you planned to return, then they will probably assume some sort of accident and maybe search a little around here, but not bother other than that if there is little of value lost. I say it is worth Cr10k to seriously reduce the threat of Serene investigating us."
VAMPERINA: "I still vote we take all 10 sets. I honestly don't care if they are pissed at us for taking them."
JACK: "I agree that I wouldn't mind having Serene confused, but I honestly don't think there's much we can do to throw them off the trail. If all of you disappear all at once, with or without mining equipment, they're going to assume we found a way out of the system. -Especially- because I just went missing off their 'radar' within the last month, without giving notice to my employer, or saying goodbye to my friends. They have been pretty smart and hard to fool in the past, I really don't think it's worth investing even 10k in the possibility of fooling them. I simply don't think they'll care, because you guys mined SO much more for them than they ever expected, they'll just be happy they got to keep you that long.
JACK: "In the end, vengeance is a fool's game. I should know, I've seen it played out far too often in the past. As much as I'd like to shut them down, put them out of business, simply make them pay, it is not worth it.
GM: You have actually already taken all 10 sets of mining tools, all of the food and anything else you could scavenge from the mining pod. So, by default, you are going to take everything unless a majority votes to take them back and a couple of people make the trip back over there to restore the pod. It will take about 24 hours to return everything to the pod and also reverse all of the effects of your scavenging.
CURT: At this point, I say we just keep everything we have. I can't imagine they are going to chase after us across 1/2 the galaxy.
..........
CURT: Question for those (most likely Surge) monitoring the radios. Do you listen in to the normal radio traffic around the moon? I was curious as to how often ships came and went, and when the last ship came/left and if there were any more.
CURT: As to what we do next, I really have no preference. For the most part, I'm willing to go wherever the wind (or this ship blows me). I think I have some abilities that could help the group out if we decide to look further into helping the girls parents.
CURT: As to Eli's lecture on ships duties, I really have no problems helping out doing whatever needs to be done as we have always done in the past. This includes pretty much any job that needs to be done (heck, I sat in the bottom of a latrine for a day just to help the group out), but I wasn't real excited about how Eli put it. I'm not really willing to become a "peon" doing all the shit jobs on the ship because a few other people are "too important" to be doing such lowly work. In the past we've all done everything that was needed no matter who was doing it or what the job is. From Eli's lecture, it sounds like this might change. Me being the one with obviously the least amount of useful skills I can see my "job" becoming one of all the worst duties on the ship. I'm not really willing or interested becoming the groups gopher/whipping boy because others are too important to do those jobs. If this was a military ship and I had enlisted, that would be different, but as far as I'm concerned we all earned this ship equally (granted it may only be for a little while) and so I want to feel like an equal, not the ships janitor. If something important is going on that requires someone with the needed skills to be busy doing that, fine, I'll take up the slack and do what needs to be done during those times, but otherwise I would prefer to see some of the lesser duties be spread out more fairly. Since there can only be one captain, one chief engineer, etc, there are only so many "good" jobs available, and since some of you already have licenses to those positions that in effect would permanently put the rest of us into the lackey category basically forever. Basically I see everyone in this group as equal, and I would really like to see it continue that way.
NOBODY: "When I am not busy maintaining the engines, I will be performing scut work as well. The thing is, things do need to get done, and you don't have the skills to do the more technical jobs. Luckily for all of us this ship will need a minimum of such labor. I did suggest that you train in other skills so that you can ease the burden of maintenance and inspections on Surge and myself, and give yourself marketable skills. This will allow the less desirable work to be spread around more evenly.
NOBODY: What you are failing to realize is that the work is not demeaning, but at this time, it is about all you are capable of contributing. If you feel that you are too good to occasionally mop the floor or cook a meal, or just plain don't want to contribute then that's another issue entirely. If you can prove that you are more than capable to take over any one of these "good" jobs from myself, Surge, or Vana, I'm sure those duties can be split, and the scut work further divided.
NOBODY: The thing is, is that we are in an enclosed environment that is fraught with danger. Discipline has to be high. Even nonmilitary vessels run a tight ship, or they die. Everyone contributes what they can, for the survival of the ship. I will tell you this, I didn't get to my rank and level of experience without thousands of hours of scut work before that. And when I lived alone, I sure as heck had to do all of the scut work for myself.
NOBODY: You will be treated as a member of the crew, just less experienced. There is no shame in doing menial work, nor have I implied such. Nor have I stated, or implied that you are to be considered a lackey, gopher, or whipping boy. What I have said straight up, is that when it comes to emergencies, combat, or other times of stress, the chain of command must be respected, even on nonmilitary ships. That means nonexperienced people need to take orders from experienced people. Now if it comes to shipboard fighting, I lack a lot of experience there. I'm happy to take orders at that point from somebody with training and experience in that area. When it comes to trouble with the engines, I expect you to hop to on my say so, simply because you want to survive to see tomorrow, just like the rest of us, not because you are a lackey.
NOBODY: As my first sergeant told me when I offered the same arguments as you did, over a hundred years ago, 'You don't like your situation? Leave. Don't want to leave, but you don't like your job? Improve yourself. Millions have done it before you, including me, and millions will do it after you. Now stop bothering me so I can go back to making sure you have enough oxygen to whine to someone who really cares.'
NOBODY: Sorry, Curt, but space is tough. For all of us to survive in space, we have to be tough. You are free to leave, or arrange to pay passage if you don't like the idea of doing your share based on your abilities. Although as a paying passenger you are restricted from most areas of the ship, and then must follow any crewman's orders in the case of an emergency."
CURT: Heh, curt looks at Eli, rolls his eyes and ignores him trying to hold in a laugh.
VAMPERINA: Vamperina shakes her head and says, "Eli, you are so far over the top it is not even funny. This is NOT a military ship. This is not even a commercial ship. This is a private spaceship and we are all equals here. If you persist in talking to everyone like they are wet-behind-the-ears recruits then don't be surprised if no one listens to you. Personally I would rather have you engaged in training since you are good at it but, quite frankly, your people skills are so bad that they might even represent a danger to the good order of this ship. I don't think anyone on this ship needs to be told what to do. I think everyone here can be counted on to do the right thing in both mundane and emergency situations." She pauses briefly before continuing, "Quite frankly I am worried about you, Eli. You spent so many years in fleet that it seems like you don't know how to let go and how to act outside of fleet."
SURGE: Surge sighs, "I don't have any fleet experience but I've served on a commercial vessel. I don't think we need to be so strict with command on this ship. I believe our group can continue to function as it has in the past. If we get into ship's combat I think having capable people at the various stations is sufficient. I don't know if I made this very clear but ROCK has a very sophisticated ship's computer that is capable of handling most emergencies. If all of you were incapacitated I could get the ship to a destination by simply telling the computer. Heck, Lisan did this."
CURT: You obviously look at this differently than I do. This is most likely I guess from your background in the military. Me not being in the military and having nothing but bad experiences from those I have met who were in the military, you are right, I am not willing to sit back meekly and be ordered about. Especially from someone who I don't consider to be my superior. As I said earlier, I am willing to do anything that needs to be done. I'm willing to clean toilets, cook food, you name it. I'm NOT willing to become the official Toilet cleaner because you Eli are too important to do it. Like I said. We're equals here. Yes you might have more skills in taking care of the engines, but that doesn't make you better than me. It's like having 4 people go in equally on buying a car and having one person say Ok, I have the most skill in driving so I'll be the driver, you two have ridden in cars quite a bit in the past so you will be riding with me and number 4, since you've never ridden in a car before your job will be to keep it clean and make sure the tank is full. Some day, if you earn the right, I'll let you ride in the back seat. It just wouldn't happen. Everyone equally owns the car. In our case, we all, at least temporarily, "own" this ship, and it's a safe bet unless it pertains directly to helping you maintain something you are working on, I won't be taking orders from you Eli. You periodically seem to go off on power trips for whatever reason and while I consider you a good person, when you get into one of your moods, I really have no intention of being around you or even paying you much attention. That said, I want to make clear to anyone else that seems to think I was saying the lower jobs were beneath me. I don't feel this way at all, but I just hope everyone else feels the same way, that there are no jobs that are beneath them either. If that's the case, I think there is no problem here. Eli, you seem to be trying to make a problem where none really existed previously.
CURT: I just want to make one other thing clear. If we are under attack or in any type of emergency type of situation, I'll certainly take orders from anyone and everyone who knows more than I do. That's not what I was saying at all earlier. I was just saying I wasn't real excited about taking arbitrary orders from someone just because they were on a power trip or something. As I think my actions over the years have shown, I'm not a trouble maker or someone with a big ego, I'm more than happy to do whatever it takes to make everyone happy and to make things work, as long as we all treat each other fairly and don't go off on power trips on people just because they feel they should be allowed to because they know more. Other than Eli, I don't think there has ever been a case with anyone else where this has happened. For those that may not know, I've been treated very poorly in the past (to put it mildly) by people in power, especially by the military, and I'm real wary about it. Enough so that I may over react if it happens in the future.
NOBODY: Eli cringes away from the group. "I'm sorry I told you that you had to obey my arbitrary orders, Curt. I didn't mean to go on a power trip and call you a lackey and a peon and a whipping boy. I'll try not to ever do it again. You don't have to do any of that stuff if you don't want to. I'll take care of it."
JACK: "Sadly this is a group that includes some polar opposites, and we just need to try to find a way to see the other's point of view. Eli, you have been taught by the military and by a lifetime's worth of experience that space is a harsh mistress, and your answer to fight that has always been discipline. Discipline is one answer, but it is not THE answer. One of the reasons I have stepped back from the role of command is simply because I don't want it. Command is always fraught with danger, not from outside, but from within. Add to that the overwhelming responsibility, and I wouldn't take power if it was handed to me on a silver platter. This is part and parcel of why you see me as a weak leader, because I won't use my strength to command.
JACK: "Curt is from the opposite end of the spectrum, one who has been abused by power so often that it has become what he expects. When he sees someone trying to institute discipline, he sees the signs, and knows that someone will have power, and in the end it will be he who pays the price. This is not true in a group of friends, and I hope he can give us the benefit of the doubt.
JACK: "Eli, you are very good at training us what needs to be done, please stick to that. What you may need to work on is trusting us to do it, without being ordered to. If you know something needs to be done and it's not being done, by all means let me or anyone else on the crew know about it, and we'll do our best to make sure it gets taken care of, in the speediest and most efficient manner possible. The problem will come in deciding between what is your opinion of what needs to be done, and what in FACT needs to be done. We need to work on trusting YOU too, and knowing that you will not put your personal opinion ahead of your factual judgement.
JACK: "Curt, noone is hoping to relegate you to the role of servant, or lackey, or whatever word is popular today. You have been a faithful friend, going out of your way to make things work for us all, and we have no reason to believe you would not do the same again.
JACK: "This is not meant to be a dressing down of Eli or his speeches, and I hope he does not take it as such. Vana's speech wasn't far off the money, but it was a little too abrupt. Eli, I welcome your input on the benefits of discipline in space, -especially- when in damage control or emergency situations, I hope you will continue to provide it. Please do not take it personally when we choose a less disciplined route, as long as it gets the job done. |