After greeting the new - passengers? crew? - Daneel retreats to his quarters. He runs through some of the breathing exercises he learned from Leonidas until his concentration is broken by the smell of food. Following his nose, he heads to the common area.
Daneel digs into the grub with gusto while listening to the others talk. Secret repair bases would be awfully handy, if Siete really knew what he was talking about.
"So, not a mechanic. What then? A history professor? Some sort of Harrier geek?"
Steph turns to the Squire with a smile. "Follow me. I'll show you our medical bay and introduce you to our other doctor." On the way down the hallways she answers his other questions. "My name is Stephanie Allison, but everyone calls me Steph. Much easier to yell in a "situation". I am second in command, for what it's worth. I make sure there's supplies, and entertainment aboard the ship for the crew. The officer team is more of a democracy than a military chain of command. We have our mission, and we decide together how to best follow it." She gives a short tour as they continue to walk.
"Here we are." She opens the door to the medical bay. "Please put your things inside, and we'll head to the officer mess for the dinner meeting."
"So, not a mechanic. What then? A history professor? Some sort of Harrier geek?"
Siete looks down at the deck. His eyes dart back and forth at the scene in his mind. "I was there. Up and to the end."
Siete stands and heads to the galley. He grabs some brandy that he had seen earlier. He squeezes the liquid into his mouth. The smoky sweetness smoothly transitions into a growing burn as it slides down his throat. "Some archeologist found my cryotube and the Doc... He juts his thumb to Killian. ...thawed me out."
"Like I said." Siete throws up jazz hands and lyrically sings. "I'm a time misplaced meat popsicle."
Killian places his equipment within the medical bay and then heads for the Officer's Mess. He arrives just as Siete is telling of his past.
"Yes he was in an ancient, but very advanced cryo-tube. Took a fair bit of work to figure it out and get him back on his feet! Nothing like the low berths we have today."
He begins to go on a long and very technical talk of the differences between the two types of suspended animation...and will keep going joyfully until someone stops him!
Byron ignores Killian's technical talk and asks, "So who were you before your illustriously long career as a meat popsicle?" Byron takes a swig of his drink as he waits for an answer.
Siete could make up any past he wanted. It's not like anyone could check up on it. But the scout could see no advantage in it. "Everyone and everything I know are dead. Except maybe this." His hands sweep to indicate that he's talking about the Harrier. "I bet that you're really trying to figure out how'd I fit in." He smirks a bit.
"I know how to be a bad guy." His face breaks into a smile and his eyes dart to Stephanie. He gives her a quick wink. Looking back to Byron. "And as a relic of the past, this is the closest thing to home that exists. So you know that I'll be loyal to the ship."
Siete shrugs. "I don't mind getting my hands dirty."
Jerry finishes with his notes, looking at them for a last time before shutting down his terminal. He opens his door and walks quickly to the crew lounge.
After looking around to ensure that everyone, particularly the new arrivals was in the room, Jerry starts.
"I introduced myself before. I have been serving as commander and sometime negotiator. The others can introduce themselves, too."
After a pause, he continues. "We also have some hired crew - three marines, a drive chief and Dr. Hargek. From what I understand, Squire, he might be able to assist you. And, before someone else tells you, we have a vargr in a cold berth. We'll defrost him in a bit, when we need his information."
"Now, what about you recent arrivals? How did the King rope you into this venture?"
Steph laughs at Siete's mention of being a bad guy. "Good. You Byron and Ray, who is sick, are the best bad guys we have."
Siete sidles up to Steph. He leans sideways to whisper in her ear. "I bet you can be a very naughty girl yourself." He smiles subtly while pretending to listen to the commander. He offers her the pouch of brandy.
Siete takes a squirt of brandy after waiting a minute for a response.
"Now, what about you recent arrivals? How did the King rope you into this venture?"
"He had compromising holovids of me."
Steph takes the brandy and leans over. "I'm married. To a very nice planet side farmer who ignores me for the most part." She takes a sip, and passes it back.
"Ignores you? Poison to a young woman's soul." His index finger surreptitiously strokes her finger as she passes back the drink. "You can have my full and undivided attention whenever you need."
Killian coughs loudly to try and bring the conservation back to the task at hand.
"I suppose being frozen for a few centuries and lead to all sorts of odd behavior. Getting back to introductions, I am Doctor Killian Yuan of the Drinax Medical Institution. I was asked by Princess Rao to join this expedition and lend it my full support."
He looks around at the diverse group trying to gauge their reaction to him.
He will also scan their surface thoughts to see what he can pick up. He also sends a message to Daneel.
"Did the institute send you here as well?"
Byron finishes off his glass and looks over at Killian before asking, "So do you have any experience in a gun or melee fight? Or will this be a time of learning new and interesting skills?"
Killian replies with a wan smile.
"No, I have no military training...but I am a very good doctor. My physical handicap keeps me from more 'strenuous activities. I am adept at computers as well!"
"I told him that we can add rocket launchers to that thing." He says while pointing at the gravchair.
Daneel looks appraisingly at the gravchair and nods slowly, "Yeah, we could make rocket launchers work."
Steph laughs. "Doctor you can match me for fire power. I have a man portable heavy weapon I can drag around if we ever need it. Haven't used it yet, but I have it."
"Yeah me too. Well, I haven't used it in a few hundred years, but I'm skilled." He smirks.
"Gentlefolk, we have been tasked with capturing the pirate that raided Clarke and Torpol. The vargr revealed that there is a secret route to Theev. The vargr is in a low berth right now and I want to keep him there for some time," states Jerry.
"I am proposing a jump to Noricum. Once there, we defrost the vargr and get the coordinates for the next jump. Even if the Nemesis cannot reach the coordinates from Noricum, it's a step on the path."
Jerry looks around at the others before continuing.
"Noricum is an Amber system, though, so there is some risk. Are you prepared to take that risk?"
"That seems like a necessary step. But he may not tell us what we need to know if we aren't willing to take him on. What then?" Byron says.
"Then you put him in an airlock and see if he sings." responds Siete
"No, doing that just gets him to tell you something. Not what you need to know." Byron says.
"Not without truth serum." He says then pauses. "How fully stocked is the Med Bay?"
"I am sure we will not need to resort to such primitive tactics with this Vargr. I am sure he will be more than willing to help us...but that will be seen once we arrive at our destination, I suppose. Were there any specific duties you wished us to perform on the journey to Noricum? Does anyone need medical assistance, for example?"
Killian moves his chair so that he can see everyone to be sure if any of them might need some assistance.
"I'm good thanks Doc" Marco answers, "your exercise plans worked a treat once my back was fixed.
"What makes Noricum an Amber zone anyways? If I was afraid of risk I wouldn't be here but if there's something we should be prepared for - let's prepare!
Sindal/Trojan Reach 2018 - D8867BB-1 Ag Lt
Noricum (also known as "Old Sindal" is a trinary star system with a Yellow main sequence almost identical to Sol. The two other stars are M9V and M6V red dwarfs in distant orbits.
Noricum was the capital of the Sindalian Empire until it was devastated by artificial plagues in -1446 during the Empire's final days. Over two thousand years later, nearly 30% of Noricum's surface is still considered a death zone. Some or all of Noricum's inhabitants may be nonsymptomatic plague carriers.
Land on Noricum today, and your spacecraft will scare the sheep. The planet is entirely agrarian, and the people live in wooden huts. In the settled regions, you have to look hard for signs of Noricum’s imperial past. There are clues – a wall built from chucks of ferroceramic instead of stone, an animal pen using strands of plastic cabling, a woman’s necklace made from chips of computer memory crystal – but in the settled areas, the people have deliberately tried to bury the past.
Land in the danger zones, in the ruined cities, and you will scare only the ghosts. Of course, open your airlock without a vacc suit, and you’ll be scared for the thirty seconds or so before the viruses infect you. After that, you have a few days of agonizing pain before an even more painful death. Over thirty percent of Noricum is considered a death zone, where no living thing dare go. Most of the great structures of the Sindalian Empire were destroyed in the wars that ended it – there are now only radioactive craters where the Imperial Palace and the Ministry of Justice once stood. There are rumors that the treasury of the empire was moved in the final days before the end, and buried somewhere in the catacombs beneath the capital city. No would-be grave robber has ever returned – there are other dangers than viruses in the ruins, such as mutated animals and the last-ditch security systems left by the Sindalians.
The people of Noricum have learned to survive on their blighted world. They eat no meat, as meat is likely to contain toxins. They consume high doses of certain bitter herbs, and boil all the water they drink. When a man passes the age of forty, he is sent out into the blighted zones to build a firebreak and keep the ashen barriers between the farm and the deadly ruins intact. None survive this ritual, but a good man endures for a tenday or more before dying on the far side of the ash fields.
The Emperor of Noricum dwells in a small hut, and tends a vegetable garden. His ancestors once ruled a hundred worlds with an iron fist, and a hundred miles from his garden there is a statue a hundred metres tall that bears his family features, the face permanently frozen into a cruel sneer. The Emperor of Noricum, though, has a simple smile on his face as he tends his turnips.
Hearing the library entry play Marco frowns and comes out with "Huh. No sleeping around down there 'less you get a blood test first, I got it. Even if we have to suit up it sounds no worse than anything we Vespexers've seen though. Any reason to think we might have to poke around on the surface? You could hide anything in a 'death zone' but would your pirate be there?"
"Please plot a course to the gas giant to refuel," directs Jerry.
"While we are doing that, perhaps it is time to talk with the vargr. Squire Killian, can you and the doctor bring him out of cold sleep?"
"Up to you." Siete shrugs. "But I don't see why we can't wait 'till we get there."
Following the Captain down into the lower decks, he meets up with the current ship's doctor. While introducing each other, the Captain continues to move into the lower berth and low passage storage.
"Ok, well let's take a look at his vitals and start to defrost him."
Over the next few hours, both doctors work to reanimate the sleeping Vargr.
Medic:
The groggy vargr Krrsh wakes and peers up at the doctor. "How long have I been asleep?" he asks. "You're not going to put me back? I know the way to Theev, I tell you!"
Siete follows close behind Killian to the lower berths. He turns back to the others following. "Look, the vargr doesn't know me or the Doc or Marco." He accidently bumps into Killian's Gravchair. He quickly turns to face forward. "'Scuse me."
Siete furrows his brow. "I have an idea. We can pretend to be salvagers. Somehow the virus got the crew. Nemesis turned to salvage. Bing Bang Boom; we wake up mister Fluffy. But now he's infected. Our Doc needs the unmutated original virus to make a cure. So we need the jump coordinates to the virus origin."
Siete turns back to see what they think.
"I think as long as we agree not to freeze him he will tell us what we want. I am just not sure we should bring him on as crew, which is what he wanted. But if we drop him off on some planet he might manage to get word to people about us. So maybe we should just take him on and give him an escort until we know if we can trust him. We have extra hands now." Byron says looking through the window doorway at the panicked Vargr.
Jerry ponders the two proposals for a moment before offering his opinion.
"Let's not make things more complex than necessary. And, the vargr has seen some of us already," he opines.
"Make him work for a position on the crew. After we tell him that the crew is larger, so he needs to stay in our good books and work even harder. He values his life, so he won't get us to jump to a hex where we can't go further or get back," Jerry continues.
"Worst case is that he gives us coordinates where there are ships or defences waiting for someone like us to jump in. So, we come out of the jump with weapons hot and engines ready to make maximum speed."
Jerry looks around at his old companions and the new arrivals.
"What do you think of that?"
"Sounds better than trying to disguise this overpowered yacht as a salvager. I mean, we could do it, but you'd never get her looking the same again." Marco gives the wall a pat. "I like this look. It's growing on me. We could bug whatever workstation you're planning to give him if you're worried about him turning his coat again."
"That sounds like a good plan Jerry. He's got as good a reason as any of us for being on this ship privateering. Let him work for his spot. If he does try to stab us in the back, we'll set Ray or Byron on him."
Byron when you get those coordinates let me know, and I'll head us in the direction of Noricum or a gas giant near it." Steph says.
"We can have the marines take turns working with him. Its not worth one of us babysitting him." Byron says and then looks over to Jerry, "Its all you. Go see what he will say for a berth."
Siete nods with Byron then shrugs. "It will betray us."
Siete runs to his bunk and later he arrives at the low berths, just as Krrsh wakes.
The groggy vargr Krrsh wakes and peers up at the doctor. "How long have I been asleep?" he asks. "You're not going to put me back? I know the way to Theev, I tell you!"
Siete cranes his neck to place his face in the sightline of the vargr. "Hi." he says brightly. "I've got good news and bad news."
Siete watches the vargr blink at him. In a game show host's tenure, he says. "The captain has decided that you're now a probationary crewmember." Siete pulls a toothbrush and presents it to Krrsh. "You're the ships janitor. Here's your equipment." Once he takes the brush, he says. "Now, give us the coordinates."
Killian moves back as the others start to talk to the Vargr. He busies himself with the readings and care of the low berth chamber while the dogman is questioned.
Killian will use his abilities to read the Vargr's mind about the whereabouts of Theev and anything else he can pick up.
Jerry saunters down to where Krrsh is cleaning the engine room under exacting eye of Kagni Vasiir. After watching the vargr for some time, he quietly speaks with the drive chief.
"Kagni, how is he doing? Any problems?"
After a short conversation, Jerry approaches the vargr.
"Krrsh. It's time for you to start really paying your way. What are the coordinates for the fuel depot?"
[spoiler=Killian]The location of Theev is well-known. It's just that you can't reach it without either a jump-3 ship or a secret fuel depot. Killian can see the secret fuel depot in Krrsh's mind, but not its location.[/spoier]
Kagni addresses Jerry with respect. "He's a fair worker, Captain, and he knows which end of the engine gets hot, but he's no engineer."
Krrsh looks up at Jerry. "I said I would, didn't I?"
Krrsh repeats a set of universal coordinates that places the depot a parsec coreward of Noricum where it can be used by J-2 ships from Theev, Palindrome, Noricum, Thebus, Number One and Salif.
His coordinates are specific. You can base a nav roll off of them, but jumping into deep space is always more difficult...