"I see that there are injuries among your group, so of course I am concerned. I'm sorry that it appears that my simple concern regarding a missing person and security aboard this vessel has been more dangerous than I had anticipated."
The professor seems genuinely regretful about T'sorkel's injury.
"I suppose I am hoping for an update on your investigation. Any news?"
"I am also concerned that this situation has been more dangerous than anticipated. However, I am more concerned that you didn't take the opportunity to inform us that you were familiar with the Algiada Iom before this journey." Doc refrains from bringing out the evidence just yet, allowing Benjam to fill in the gaps.
Professor Benjam removes his spectacles and looks directly at Dr. Flint-Bridge. "I'm....not sure what you mean."
Professor Benjam removes his spectacles and looks directly at Dr. Flint-Bridge. "I'm....not sure what you mean."
Doc displays a folded holopicture, showing a single figure - a male ryphorian with a familial resemblance to the security officer. "You recognize this person." Doc phrases it as a statement, not a question.
T'sorkel bows his head to the Professor when he first inquires about his injury. It was a shock, yes, but the good Doctor knows her work well. I should be better in no time. It was very interesting that the Chief's room was trapped. And there's still no sign of her. But we did find something else. He pauses and nods at Doctor Flint-Bridge's line of questioning.
To her matter-of-fact statement, T'sorkel add a tone of concern in his telepathic speech. Professor, if there is history between you and Algiada Iom, we should know. You asked us to look into this, after all, and with her still missing and this trap set, we must look into all angles.
“Ah.” Brodynt is silent for a moment while he stares at
the holophoto.
“Hokkoun Iom. Such a shame.”
He takes his spectacles off and rubs the bridge of his nose,
going on, “I should be completely honest with you. While I didn't really know Algiada Iom, I knew her older brother.”
He gestures at the picture, saying, [/b]“This was taken at a
dig I was supervising in the Drakelands on Triaxus, near
the Deathinge Mountains. This was during my younger,
more reckless days, when I was considered a maverick in
archaeological circles and not the stodgy old man you see
before you.”[/b]
He thinks for a second and says, “Algiada probably wasn’t
more than 10 years old then.”
“We had just made an incredible find. A
draconic artifact dating back to, I believe, before the Gap. But
I knew that Zemellyzian, the dragon who gave us permission
to dig, wouldn’t allow us to take it for study. So, Hokkoun,
a few others, and I devised a plan to smuggle the artifact
off the planet. Long story short, Zemellyzian’s dragonkin
enforcers caught up with us at the spaceport. There was a
firefight. Hokkoun was wounded. Badly. He survived, but he
was in a coma for years, and when he came out, he had lost
the use of his legs.”
He takes his spectacles off and rubs the bridge of his nose, going on, “I should be completely honest with you. While I didn't really know Algiada Iom, I knew her older brother.”
"You hired us to investigate the disappearance of Iom and didn't think we should know she has motive to hurt you? What else haven't you told us? Now is a good time to reconsider. A lack of information could wind up killing someone."
T'sorkel frowns at the story,e specially the wounding of Algiada's older brother. Did Algiada acknowledge you in any way once you boarded the ship? I mean, this could all be a coincidence, yes? He pauses. But you did say you're transporting a relic. Is there any connection or similarity to the events back then? If she did recognize you, maybe she thought you were smuggling again and hopes to take the artifact for herself?
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Yariel eyes the Abadarian suspiciously, "An... what do we owe ya in return? Tanstaafl*, right?"
John replies quietly with equanimity. "You owe me what be in the contract. You drew it up with us as a corporate entity. While actively working on the job, whatever we -- gain -- should be considered corporate property. And even were I inclined to keep it for myself, I believe we will need to fight before this is over. Your doctor friend seems to think better arms also be needful."
The louder he continues. "I shall accompany you to the engineering deck. Perhaps my computer skills will prove useful."
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Beauregard throws his hands up in frustration. ”Another coincidence? Professor, tell us straight. Why did you get on this barge. I find it highly unlikely that if the trillions of life forms in our known galaxy, you just happen to book passage on a ship who’s chief of security has a connection to you, then we also find a have an equipment malfunction and a robot go heywire. This is all adding up to something much larger than a smuggled artifact.”
"No, I swear, it was pure chance that Algiada and I ended up on the same transport. I understand how unbelievable that may seem. Believe me, I was stunned when I saw her, but I knew it had to be her."
He continues. "I really don't think Agliada recognized me. It's been so many years, and I have become an old man. You can see how time has changed me when you look at that holopicture."
"As for the artifact we are currently transporting, I can assure you it is completely unconnected to the one Algiada's brother and I found."
Professor Benjam goes on to wax about Algiada's brother. “From what I found out later, she idolized her older brother, and it crushed
her to see him in a hospital bed for so long. It would be
reasonable for her to blame me. When I saw her on the
Chimera—a terrible coincidence if you ask me—it all came
rushing back. I have grown this goatee since those days, and
perhaps she didn’t recognize me, but I can’t shake the guilt
that I ruined the lives of two Ioms.”
Professor Benjam sighs and then says, “That’s the real
reason I asked you to look for Algiada. The guilt still gnaws
at me to this day.”
After baring his soul to the PCs, the professor
weeps softly.
Meanwhile....
As you head back toward the thruster enclosures you hear banging, some alarming clangs, and swearing. There is a puff of ashes as a vent pops open and Kiiv crawls out, covered in ash, cleaning brush in his hand. "Oh, hello. Any news on Algiada? I think I've found our problem down here, but it's going to take some time to thoroughly clean out the fuel pathways before we can fire these up again."
Rar'gul flinches at the suggestion of lunch. What? It's still morning? The trox shakes his head. I hope the afternoon is better than the morning.
On arrival at the lunch room, Rar'gul piles up several platters of wraps and a bowl of soup onto a couple of trays and carries them over to join his companions at the table. Setting in to the gathered goodies with abandon, the trox listens to the hushed conversation of the others, nodding at times, and making the ocassional contribution of his own.
"Agrreed. We kkeep what we know to ourrselves and see what else we can find out firrst," he says, his voice a low buzzing. "We should speakk Lozu again soon. And check on the Captain."
Rar'gul is ladling a spoonful of soup into his mouth when John unveils his discovery. He manages to avoid spraying the spoon's contents across the table, however, pays the price when the hot liquid goes down the wrong way. "How... much?" he wheezes between coughs and splutters.
With lunch coming to a close, Rar'gul helps dispose of their plates and scraps. As the groups start forming up, he offers, "I'll go with Flash, backkk to the engineerring deckk. Might be able to find out more this time rround."
Surprised by Kiiv's appearance from the vent, Rar'gul eyes the state of the engineer's clothing. "Lookks like quite the job. What did you find? Anything we can do to help?"
T'sorkel tries to comfort the Professor. Sir, if what you say is true, then it was not your fault for her brother's injuries. She might blame you or she may not. As you say, it has been a long time. Let us find out what's happened to her, and perhaps you'll have a chance to make any amends.
He looks to Beauregard and the Doctor. I think the Professor could use some space. Let's see what the others have learned.
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Yariel eyes John, whiskers twitching for a good ten seconds. She doesn’t appear to have figured out his deal, but transfers her portion of the credstick into her own and shrugs, ”Maybe we’ll have a fight once we figure this deal out, but it’ll probably be over before the opponent knows what hit them. Either way I’m not turning down bonus creds.”
On the way out she investigates the vending machine, money now available to burn. A few choice comments follow.
”That’s freaking cheap!”
Antitoxin purchased 50 creds
”I’m thirsty and it can’t be thaaat addictive.”
Slurm Soda purchased 1 cred
”Hmmm... gotta catch em all I spose.”
Gashappon Blind Bag purchased 5 creds
T'sorkel tries to comfort the Professor. Sir, if what you say is true, then it was not your fault for her brother's injuries. She might blame you or she may not. As you say, it has been a long time. Let us find out what's happened to her, and perhaps you'll have a chance to make any amends.
He looks to Beauregard and the Doctor. I think the Professor could use some space. Let's see what the others have learned.
Doc gives the Professor a long, appraising look before finally turning to leave. As she walks with T'sorkel and Beauregard, however, something makes her stop dead in her tracks. The halfling glances down at her left wrist, where a small green light blinks softly from under her skin.
Hells and Abyss, it's finally worked. And t'day, of all days. Da would 'ave a fit.
With just a hint of a wry smile, the doctor taps her wrist to dismiss the indicator and quickly rejoins her companions.
The shot opens on a dataport jack on some type of a machine. A small, furry paw raises a credstick and inserts it into the dataport.
The shot widens to include a young ysoki woman standing in front of a vending machine. A hologram with an interface opens in front of the ysoki as soon as the credstick is inserted. Choices are made.
”That’s freaking cheap!”
The ysoki now holds a vial of medication to treat toxins.
”I’m thirsty and it can’t be thaaat addictive.”
The soda is vended at room temperature, but as soon the ysoki cracks it open, the outside of the container becomes quite cold.
The can of Slurm is indeed refreshing and tasty.
”Hmmm... gotta catch em all I spose.”
A motor within the vending machine whirs, and a colorful bag is dispensed. On it the ysoki reads "Captain Ajax and the Steward Kids Collectible Toys".
"I tell ya, everything was working fine until last night. No sign of wear and tear. And now…” Kiiv blows out
a puff of air. “Look, this ship isn’t brand-new. Sometimes
things just break, you know? Or wear out. But seeing how
thoroughly the thrusters are broken, I think it might have
been sabotage.” Their attitude brightens. “But I’ll get them
fixed, don’t you worry!”
Kiiv turns to John. "About a year or so on The Chimera. Wasn't that long ago they called me newbie."
T'sorkel is walking down the corridor after leaving Professor Benjam. He suddenly realizes the Doctor has stopped and he turns back to see where she is. What's wrong Do--- He spots the vending machine and one of his two stomachs rumbles.
Oh, I could use a snack! He taps his credstick against the machine and orders a Sweet Desna Iced Tea and a tube of Honey Meat paste. At the last second he decides to splurge and get a grab bag. He shivers at the impulsive choice.
He cracks open his snacks and slurps from the bulb of tea and squeezes a little meat paste into his mouth. Doc, are you ok?
He cracks open his snacks and slurps from the bulb of tea and squeezes a little meat paste into his mouth. Doc, are you ok?
"Hmm? Oh, I'm quite fine, T'sorkel. Simply a progress update on a personal project of mine. Nothing nearly as exciting as our current endeavor, I assure you, but it may come in handy if we find ourselves in a tight spot."
The honey meat paste is particularly appealing to the palate of a shirren. Rar'gul would probably like it as well, though two tubes might be needed.
The blind bag once again sports colorful images of Captain Ajax and the Steward Kids.
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Yariel's eyes open with glee at the pack, quickly ripping into it and pulling out a cheap plastic ring. Immediately trying it on she models a few hand poses and then nods, "Yes, yes that will do just fine."
Turning back to the vending machine the Ysoki mutters, "I wonder... frack we don't have the time." Hurrying to engineering she takes enjoyably sips of her soda.
She slips a couple work gloves on, grabs some knee-pads and crawls inside to check out Kiiv's theory. When they admit the possibility of sabotage she asks, "Who on the ship would know enough to pull this off? Other than obviously you or me of course."
Once that is resolved she passes that info on to her allies and starts cleaning the fuel supply systems in hour long shifts with Kiiv so that neither get burned out on the hard labor.
Kiiv is happy to be conversational in between trips into the fuel supply system to clean it out. He is pleased to have company, though there is very little you can do to help speed the process up (only one person will fit in those fuel ducts).
1. Kiiv has been on the ship roughly 1 1/2 standard Absalom years. He's not sure how long most of the rest of the crew have been on board.
2. Captain Rameem is the owner of The Chimera.
3. Kiiv can pretty much set his own hours, other than occasionally having a set time where he is on watch on the bridge. Usually at this stage of the journey he is doing 10 hour days doing routine maintenance and the occasional watch on the bridge.
Rar'gul helps as best he can, fetching requested tools and cleaning equipment for the duo in the duct.
Like John, he tries to keep a light and conversational tone as he answers queries and poses several of his own as they work.
"You seem frriendly enough to me. You made many frrriends aboarrd? Or do the rrest of the crrew mostly kkeep to themselves?
"I can see you've been kkkept busy in herre of late. Have you still been expected to keep yourr watch on the brrridge as well?"
"What's the Captain like? I haven't met him yet, but he seems good humourred from what I hearrd during his welcoming addrrress."
And so on and so forth.
"I do hope that the others are making progress in Engineering," Doc confides quietly in T'sorkel and Beauregard, "we can't forget that we need those engines to get, well, anywhere, really."
After a moment's silence, the halfling switches topics. "So how shall we approach Jincheroga and Company? Thus far I have seen little suspicious behavior from the goblins, but a lack of trust and an abundance of primed trigger fingers make for adversity regardless."
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Beauregard takes a long, deep breath before responding to the halfling doctor."From our little tete a tete this morning, I think it's fair to say that Jincheroga is a fairly prideful person. Playing it like she's above suspicion but we have to do our duty is probably the best way." he says.
"Something like," Beauregard takes on a faux appoligetic, fanciful tone, "'Oh hey, I know you would never do this, you run a tight unit with your goblins, but someone's missing and unfortunately that means questioning everyone. It's such a pain, but we have to ask everyone where they were last night." he ends his mock speech. "That kind of thing. She'll see through it as a ruse, of course, but we won't trigger her prideful streak, and better yet, her pride will work against her because if she makes a fuss, she looks less professional. Doesn't always work, but I've had fairly good success with it."
In answer to Yariel's text Beauregard responds We should all meet up to talk to the Hobgoblin and her crew, last person on the list that we have ready access to. Then we can go about searching the ship or moving on to talking to the ship's crew. I want to talk to that first officer.
John and Rar'gul manage to keep Kiiv talking. He appears to be enjoying the conversation.
He mentions to Rar'gul that he has occasionally been homesick. He hadn't been away from home long when he signed on to crew the Chimera. He does volunteer that he has enjoyed a special friendship with Lozu, and that has helped his homesickness.
He enjoys Captain Rameem's sense of humor, and likes his knack for picking up good jobs for the ship, even if some of the work could be a little "sketchy".
Kiiv looks genuinely baffled at your question. He looks toward the ceiling for a moment, as if retracing his steps from last night. He finally answers you:
"No....no. I was nowhere near the engineering deck last night. It's odd that Trostinek would tell you that."
Yariel relays some text info to the group, "Seems Trostinek may have played us. Or at least Kiiv is really good at denying that he was down here last night."
Doc adds to the discourse,
"We cannot disregard the possibility that neither is lying. If I wished to sabotage the ship, I would do my best to disguise myself as the engineer."
Kiiv gives his thoughts on Algiada and her disappearance.
“We live and work
on this here ship, of course. I wouldn’t say the two of us are
friends. That’s no secret.”
Kiiv smooths the fur on their face and continues, “Joining
the crew was the first time I stepped foot off Marata and, for
a while, I was homesick. Algiada wasn’t exactly a comfort.
She’d tell me I had to ‘toughen up’ if I was going to be of
any use. I do a fine job of keeping the Chimera flying, but
words like that are tough to hear when you feel far away
from your family.”
"I'm sure Algiada will turn up. She won't be put off so easily."
"I can rrrelate," Rar'gul nods as Kiiv shares his stories. "This is the firrst time I've been away frrom Nchakkk forrr morre than a day orr two. I didn't thinkkk I'd be returrning so soon - at least not without-" The trox cuts off abruptly. Shaking his head ruefully, he continues in a soft rumble, "Without having... done morrre."
Rar'gul smiles (which involves bearing his teeth and the potentially disconcerting act of parting his mandibles). "I'm glad to hearrr you have companionship. The Firrrst Mate has been helpful and was verry concerrrned by T'sorrkkel's injurry."
Talk of the shirren reminds Rar'gul of the student's discovery in Iom's room. "I imagine you'd know the ship's ventilation system betterrr than anyone. Hypothetically, could someone trravel about the ship using the ventilation ducts? Is it theorretically possible, that is. And assuming they would fit. I'm not the best judge of these things given they look so very small to me."
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Good Call Doc, but there aren't many things on this tub that can pass for a Maraquoi. I mean, unless someone got their hands on a holographic belt, but you need a class three license to buy one on Absolom station. In most places they are class four or five. I think this just leads to more questions. We need security camera footage.
Good Call Doc, but there aren't many things on this tub that can pass for a Maraquoi. I mean, unless someone got their hands on a holographic belt, but you need a class three license to buy one on Absolom station. In most places they are class four or five. I think this just leads to more questions. We need security camera footage.
Not everyone needs a holobelt to pass under a different guise, but yes, aquiring security footage seems most prudent. I think the first officer is our most likely path to that end - perhaps we should make her a priority.
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Kiiv looks genuinely baffled at your question. He looks toward the ceiling for a moment, as if retracing his steps from last night. He finally answers you:
"No....no. I was nowhere near the engineering deck last night. It's odd that Trostinek would tell you that."
"Not that odd. The vesk be a frequent and unaccomplished liar."
***
We need to finish searching the ship first. We will have more leverage with the captain, if we can positively say that the security officer is missing, John contributes to the text stream.
Kiiv replies to Rar'gul.
"Ventilation ducts and shafts? No, there's no way anyone but the smallest creature could fit in them. If you think Algiada is in the ventilation shafts somewhere, I can assure you she simply wouldn't fit."
Doc, Beauregard, and T'sorkel appear on the Engineering Deck, joining Yariel, John, Rar'gul, and Kiiv. For Kiiv's benefit, Doc repeats some of the ongoing conversation as if the group weren't in close and constant contact.
"Has anyone found trace of Algiada yet? What sections of the ship have we not yet covered?"
"It seems we've searched much of the passenger-accessible areas. Kiiv, are there any areas of the ship that passengers cannot access but Algiada could? Would you help us investigate those areas?"
"I really don't think there is anywhere that wouldn't be accessible to you, other than crew cabins and the cabins of other passengers. Obviously I don't think it would be right for me to let you into these personal spaces."
Kiiv dives back into the fuel supply ducts to continue his cleaning.
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There are a million places she could hide. . . Or be hidden in this ship. Chopped up to bits in the air vents or garbage disposal, in someone’s luggage, or someone could have spaced her. Again, we need the security camera footage. Let’s rendezvous, talk to the Goblins, then talk to the first mate and see if she can get us access to those camera records. Then we should be able to sort this out.
T'sorkel stands, watching Kiiv. He glances back and forth to the others, but his antennae are focused on the Maraquoi, sensing his intentions. We found traces of an ooze or mucus in Algiada's room. If something was formless like that, it could fit in the shaft, right? But it couldn't take her out that way. He clicks for a few moments. [i]I agree, we ought to find the First Mate and see what the internal sensors showed. But do we sweep the ship first? [/b]