Traveller T20: Tales of the Bray Keaven [Updated 12-20-05]
Shadowdancer
First Post
Chapter XXIV
Date: 120-993Place: Groves Airport outside Lowford, in Bromley, on Alief
Since the crew had been up late the night before and had a long day, the crew sleeps in a bit with regards to ship time (1100 hours), but is up early local time (0700 hours) with a number of plans.
Argent plans on talking to the military officials, starting with Lt. Marks, about getting the necessary background information and clearances to make rescue runs into Medway.
Saro leaves before most of the others are up in order to track down Dr. Hays and Dr. Warren, and ends up wandering back for a bit when he finds that the doctors were up late, too, and haven’t risen yet. Saro does have a chance to examine Martha’s blood samples while singing a broad selection of his power ballads, much to Argent’s chagrin given that Argent’s cabin is nearby. Saro’s stomach announces its unhappiness at being empty with loud grumbling. He has been thinking of abandoning his Vargr power ballads for now and debates what kind of music would be appropriate.
"I know! Ursa hunting chants!" He then starts singing in the low register, a very simple haunting and melancholic melody.
He sets out again at 0700 hours local time to track down the two doctors for breakfast with the intent of spending the day with them trying to find out more about the virus, the epidemic, and the outbreak in the capital.
Swann starts plugging away at a computer console, trying to mine information about companies, research facilities, and hospitals. He plans on tying into the local networks as soon as he can rouse someone who has a little more information and possibly a landline or wireless access setup.
Vasilii dresses in his most presentable business suit, checks his appearance twice, and prepares to meet Major Eckels so that she may point him towards the best local banking concern and a source for a good portacomp as well as any other supplies that may be needed.
Martha wakes up from another restless night with a touch of grumpiness. She still would rather install that missile launcher, and it’s not at all clear to her what sort of decon station needs to be set up other than the originally requested setup in the port cargo lock. If she finishes the port cargo lock decon station and no one gives her guidance on any other decon station, she just might decide to install that missile launcher anyway, figuring the Captain probably doesn’t want the missile launcher rolling around in the cargo bay when refugees are loaded there.
Ian has plans to track down Lt. Marks and use him as a springboard into the local military structure with the intent of doing planning for his little vacation excursion.
Ian also will be looking for travel documents for KGL citizens or for travel to KGL. He figures there are probably at least a few KGL citizens being held by the Bromlians somewhere nearby.
Darishun looks about and decides to find out where the portable building is going to be set up and what assistance he can provide.
Vargas is still sacked out in his cabin and shows no signs of stirring until Argent comms him to ask if Vargas will accompany him off ship.
Shadowdancer
First Post
Vasilii leaves the ship early in the morning to find Major Eckels. At the foot of the stairs leading to the starboard airlock, he finds that a guard/escort is quickly summoned for him and takes him to Major Eckels, who is at her distribution headquarters a few kilometers from the airport. The guard seems to be warranted since the throngs near the airport appear to be a little desperate (though still under control).
Once Major Eckels has time to see him, Vasilii greets her with a cheerful smile and spends a second or two in small talk. After that, he comes to the point. "Major, I would be most appreciative if you could tell me what you know of the local banking institutions. I understand that the plague has disrupted some finance, but some businesses should be stable enough to survive. Since we might be called upon to travel to different parts of the planet on humanitarian efforts, I'd like to find a banking system that is as worldwide as possible. This way our funds won’t be tied up if we find ourselves in another country for a few days."
Vasilii smoothes his suit and continues. "Also, my Captain is pursuing possible avenues to assist your relief efforts while we await further orders from the Marquis’ staff. To this end, I’m looking for certain supplies. Might I impose upon you to recommend local vendors who can assist us in obtaining what we need? I don’t have the specific parts list yet, but I’m sure it will fall under mechanical guidelines, mainly plumbing, valves, and such. If you have been involved in setting up decontamination stations, then I’m sure you have an idea of what we are looking for."
Smiling at the Major, Vasilii continues. "Also, the crew has asked me to obtain some items that we were unable to get at Sentry due to the urgency of the mission. One of the crew has asked me to get them a personal computer, probably of the laptop variety. I’ve had requests for items such as scented soaps, sausage from an animal called a ‘hipbeast,’ and other things. I personally would love to restock the ship’s galley, as we have been living on those field rations for over a week now. Perhaps you know of some shops here in the local community, Lowford isn’t it? If you ever get some time off, I’d love to have a local guide. I’m sure you’re busy, but perhaps we can find some time and you can show me around. Dinner in a small open air café and a stroll would do wonders for me, since we’ve been cooped up in that ship for a while now."
Major Eckels appears rather harried, and Vasilii’s charm only seems mildly effective today. On the bright side, she does arrange for one of her sergeants to assist with the arrangements. The sergeant, a bookish fellow by the name of Burnett, proves to be fairly efficient and helpful. The supplies for the decontamination station in the port airlock are quite easy, and Burnett arranges for the supplies to be delivered from stores collected by the Bromlian military.
Arranging for the bank account is a little difficult, but the Alief Bank of Commerce branch in Lowford is open, if under armed guard. Sergeant Burnett and the guard accompany Vasilii to open the account and deposit the funds. The exchange rate between Lingonsallers and Bromlian Pounds at the time of exchange ends up being 17.03 Lingonsallers to the pound, so the Bray Keaven account now has 1,174,398 Bromlian Pounds.
The current exchange rate between Bromlian Pounds to Imperial Credits is 9.56 BP to an Imperial Credit.
Obtaining a high powered (for Bromley) portable computer also proves relatively easy in the university town. Vasilii finds a used TL-11 portable computer from Ling Standard Products for 33,000 BP. Certainly more than on Sentry, but not unreasonable given the situation.
Obtaining the soaps is also very easy, but the sausage is nowhere to be found, as are most food products since the refugees have consumed almost all of the available food. So, it looks like Marine rations for a bit longer.
After discussing these things with the Major, Vasilii starts to take his leave. "Oh Major, I was wondering what the procedure is for linking our ship into any planetary computer network? I’d like to be able to search for items of interest and keep current on the news. Is there a protocol for a wireless link, or would we actually have to run a cable to the ship?"
The purchases and arrangements take longer than Vasilii expected, and he returns to the Bray Keaven at 1700 hours local time.
The Bray Keaven account now has 1,141,364 BP.
While singing his Ursine hunting chants and waiting for the Bromlians to wake up, Saro thoroughly examines Martha's samples. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), there doesn't appear to be anything unusual in Martha's blood samples. "Well, it was a long shot to begin with," he says between verses in the chanting.
Just as Saro is finishing his examination, Darishun pokes his head into the makeshift sickbay, draws his head up in surprise, and comments, "Good morning Doctor. Ah, much better than Vargr ballads. Thank you."
"I'm glad you approve. You still have to educate me on Virushi music."
"Ah yes. I was going to tell you that I'm going to head off and see if I can help set up that portable building that we brought. I will comm you if I think that you could be of assistance also."
"That sounds very good to me."
With that, the massive sophont carefully backs up and heads off down the corridor.
A little after 0700 local time, Saro, stomach grumbling, heads out the starboard airlock. At the foot of the stairs, he is met by a pair of guards who quickly call a hovercraft and guard to take him to the Bromlian doctors. Apparently, the guard/driver is to stay at Saro's disposal because the guard ends up being nearby all day unless the Doctor is in a guarded area.
Saro extends a hand in greeting to the guard. "Saro Talbek," he says, smiling. After he responds, Saro asks him for his opinion on the outbreak. "Tough times around here, huh. What do you think is behind all of it?"
The precaution of the guard seems somewhat warranted since the crowd at the edge of the airport seems to be getting a little edgy, and the crowds that the hovercraft passes on the way to Dr. Warren's research lab (about 4km away from the airport) are being kept back by soldiers.
Saro spends the day discussing options and theories with the Bromlian researchers. They also make plans to set up the portable building as a research facility slightly inside the quarantine area so that subjects may be brought there for treatment and/or decontamination. Some of the negotiations with the military are a little tricky, but the doctors manage to convince the military of the wisdom of the idea (with caution).
Saro does add to his store of knowledge about the virus, what has been tried to combat the virus, and what hasn't worked. He does learn more about the analogue of the virus that targets rabbits. That virus does seem to mildly afflict rabbit farmers occasionally, but the symptoms are very mild, and it doesn't seem that a simple mutation could be responsible for the AHV version.
"This might have been discussed many times so I apologize for the redundancy, but have there been any reports of rabbit farmers affected by AHV?"
He does find out that the Bromlians do have pretty good manufacturing capability, so there is some chance that they'd be able to manufacture a vaccine/treatment if one could be found.
The outbreak in the capital is a monumental disaster only made better by the fact that the outbreak started out slowly enough that it has been contained to just the capital at this point.
There are many, many groups crying out for rescue that range from entire residential skyscrapers to people in individual houses. Only three of them are claiming that they were afflicted with the virus but have survived/recovered. There are two to four people surviving in each location.
A looming medical disaster is the accumulated effect of the estimated million or so people who have already died. Saro's eyes widen at the toll. "My God, where are all the bodies?"
Though he would like to stay and work with the Bromlian doctors more, Saro does decide that he needs to make his way back to the Bray Keaven and discuss his findings with the crew.
Once Major Eckels has time to see him, Vasilii greets her with a cheerful smile and spends a second or two in small talk. After that, he comes to the point. "Major, I would be most appreciative if you could tell me what you know of the local banking institutions. I understand that the plague has disrupted some finance, but some businesses should be stable enough to survive. Since we might be called upon to travel to different parts of the planet on humanitarian efforts, I'd like to find a banking system that is as worldwide as possible. This way our funds won’t be tied up if we find ourselves in another country for a few days."
Vasilii smoothes his suit and continues. "Also, my Captain is pursuing possible avenues to assist your relief efforts while we await further orders from the Marquis’ staff. To this end, I’m looking for certain supplies. Might I impose upon you to recommend local vendors who can assist us in obtaining what we need? I don’t have the specific parts list yet, but I’m sure it will fall under mechanical guidelines, mainly plumbing, valves, and such. If you have been involved in setting up decontamination stations, then I’m sure you have an idea of what we are looking for."
Smiling at the Major, Vasilii continues. "Also, the crew has asked me to obtain some items that we were unable to get at Sentry due to the urgency of the mission. One of the crew has asked me to get them a personal computer, probably of the laptop variety. I’ve had requests for items such as scented soaps, sausage from an animal called a ‘hipbeast,’ and other things. I personally would love to restock the ship’s galley, as we have been living on those field rations for over a week now. Perhaps you know of some shops here in the local community, Lowford isn’t it? If you ever get some time off, I’d love to have a local guide. I’m sure you’re busy, but perhaps we can find some time and you can show me around. Dinner in a small open air café and a stroll would do wonders for me, since we’ve been cooped up in that ship for a while now."
Major Eckels appears rather harried, and Vasilii’s charm only seems mildly effective today. On the bright side, she does arrange for one of her sergeants to assist with the arrangements. The sergeant, a bookish fellow by the name of Burnett, proves to be fairly efficient and helpful. The supplies for the decontamination station in the port airlock are quite easy, and Burnett arranges for the supplies to be delivered from stores collected by the Bromlian military.
Arranging for the bank account is a little difficult, but the Alief Bank of Commerce branch in Lowford is open, if under armed guard. Sergeant Burnett and the guard accompany Vasilii to open the account and deposit the funds. The exchange rate between Lingonsallers and Bromlian Pounds at the time of exchange ends up being 17.03 Lingonsallers to the pound, so the Bray Keaven account now has 1,174,398 Bromlian Pounds.
The current exchange rate between Bromlian Pounds to Imperial Credits is 9.56 BP to an Imperial Credit.
Obtaining a high powered (for Bromley) portable computer also proves relatively easy in the university town. Vasilii finds a used TL-11 portable computer from Ling Standard Products for 33,000 BP. Certainly more than on Sentry, but not unreasonable given the situation.
Obtaining the soaps is also very easy, but the sausage is nowhere to be found, as are most food products since the refugees have consumed almost all of the available food. So, it looks like Marine rations for a bit longer.
After discussing these things with the Major, Vasilii starts to take his leave. "Oh Major, I was wondering what the procedure is for linking our ship into any planetary computer network? I’d like to be able to search for items of interest and keep current on the news. Is there a protocol for a wireless link, or would we actually have to run a cable to the ship?"
The purchases and arrangements take longer than Vasilii expected, and he returns to the Bray Keaven at 1700 hours local time.
The Bray Keaven account now has 1,141,364 BP.
-----
While singing his Ursine hunting chants and waiting for the Bromlians to wake up, Saro thoroughly examines Martha's samples. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), there doesn't appear to be anything unusual in Martha's blood samples. "Well, it was a long shot to begin with," he says between verses in the chanting.
Just as Saro is finishing his examination, Darishun pokes his head into the makeshift sickbay, draws his head up in surprise, and comments, "Good morning Doctor. Ah, much better than Vargr ballads. Thank you."
"I'm glad you approve. You still have to educate me on Virushi music."
"Ah yes. I was going to tell you that I'm going to head off and see if I can help set up that portable building that we brought. I will comm you if I think that you could be of assistance also."
"That sounds very good to me."
With that, the massive sophont carefully backs up and heads off down the corridor.
A little after 0700 local time, Saro, stomach grumbling, heads out the starboard airlock. At the foot of the stairs, he is met by a pair of guards who quickly call a hovercraft and guard to take him to the Bromlian doctors. Apparently, the guard/driver is to stay at Saro's disposal because the guard ends up being nearby all day unless the Doctor is in a guarded area.
Saro extends a hand in greeting to the guard. "Saro Talbek," he says, smiling. After he responds, Saro asks him for his opinion on the outbreak. "Tough times around here, huh. What do you think is behind all of it?"
The precaution of the guard seems somewhat warranted since the crowd at the edge of the airport seems to be getting a little edgy, and the crowds that the hovercraft passes on the way to Dr. Warren's research lab (about 4km away from the airport) are being kept back by soldiers.
Saro spends the day discussing options and theories with the Bromlian researchers. They also make plans to set up the portable building as a research facility slightly inside the quarantine area so that subjects may be brought there for treatment and/or decontamination. Some of the negotiations with the military are a little tricky, but the doctors manage to convince the military of the wisdom of the idea (with caution).
Saro does add to his store of knowledge about the virus, what has been tried to combat the virus, and what hasn't worked. He does learn more about the analogue of the virus that targets rabbits. That virus does seem to mildly afflict rabbit farmers occasionally, but the symptoms are very mild, and it doesn't seem that a simple mutation could be responsible for the AHV version.
"This might have been discussed many times so I apologize for the redundancy, but have there been any reports of rabbit farmers affected by AHV?"
He does find out that the Bromlians do have pretty good manufacturing capability, so there is some chance that they'd be able to manufacture a vaccine/treatment if one could be found.
The outbreak in the capital is a monumental disaster only made better by the fact that the outbreak started out slowly enough that it has been contained to just the capital at this point.
There are many, many groups crying out for rescue that range from entire residential skyscrapers to people in individual houses. Only three of them are claiming that they were afflicted with the virus but have survived/recovered. There are two to four people surviving in each location.
A looming medical disaster is the accumulated effect of the estimated million or so people who have already died. Saro's eyes widen at the toll. "My God, where are all the bodies?"
Though he would like to stay and work with the Bromlian doctors more, Saro does decide that he needs to make his way back to the Bray Keaven and discuss his findings with the crew.
Shadowdancer
First Post
Ian leaves the Bray Keaven shortly after breakfast and descends the stairs from the starboard airlock, where he finds a pair of guards at the foot of the airplane stairs. After a short conversation, the guards put him in touch with Lt. Marks. After another brief discussion, a sergeant shows up in a small hovercraft to whisk the former Marine to a meeting with Gen. Tilshire.
After a considerable amount of skepticism on the General’s part, Gen. Tilshire agrees to allow the crew to proceed as long as it is clear that the Bromlian military will not mount a rescue operation if things go bad, and they will disavow that any adventure was at all condoned by the Bromlian military. He mostly seems to be concerned that the Bromlian military is not in any shape to repulse a conventional and biological attack on Bromley that may be triggered if the crew gets captured. Even if the crewmembers succeed, Bromley won’t publicly acknowledge the success. In other words, the same sort of set up that plagues covert ops everywhere.
Ian does make a good contact in a member of Bromlian’s Special Forces (the Steppe Service): a Col. Rundell who readily agrees to talk shop. Seems that the Steppe Service was thinking along the same lines and also has been a little stymied for fear of KGL reprisals. The Colonel does provide a pair of likely target hospitals in a small city (Kingan) just across the border along with another likely target hospital in a town (Judithan) about 80 km from the border. The border seems to be relatively lightly guarded outside of the main roads and populated areas given that the area is not particularly hospitable except near the water. Ian also picks up more planning information that will be useful later.
Unfortunately, the Colonel thinks it is unlikely that he’ll be able to arrange transport anywhere near the area.
On the bright side, the Colonel does have a friend in the intelligence service who was preparing a few sets of border passes and visas just in case, and modifying them for the crew’s use should be relatively easy.
After a fruitful day of talking shop and planning, Ian heads back to the Bray Keaven for an early dinner.
Sometimes, the day just doesn’t start out well. Swann finds a local wireless connection, but rather than talking to Lt. Marks to get access to the local planetary network, Swann figures that he will just hack his way onto the system. Ought to be an easy job, and he figures that he can always tell the Bromlians that he was just testing their system for them.
Well, the job was relatively easy, but Swann manages to spill Nuvo-Cola on his console. On most decent ships, the console would be sealed, but it appears that this console wasn’t properly sealed, and Swann then has to spend the next three hours quietly cleaning out the console and hoping that Martha won’t notice before he can get back to a starting point again.
Once he is able to really get started, Swann is able to find some information of note. Alief does have a pretty decent low–tech net setup, and, luckily, most of the networks use low–tech computers with correspondingly low–tech countermeasures. Getting access to systems proves easier than sifting through which systems to access.
By referencing fuel records, spikes in food deliveries, vehicle repair requests, parking records, medical records, and several other systems, Swann is able to ascertain that there seemed to be an increase in orders/shipments of syringes, filter mask modules, and biohazard suits to hospitals across KGL. All hospitals seemed to have these increases start a month or so before the plague first broke.
However, there were no marked increases in visits to the hospital or to doctors’ offices or clinics. There were also no public pronouncements of vaccinations.
The three closest hospitals are two hospitals in a small city (Kingan) right across the border from Bromley and one in a small town about 80 km from the border (Judithan).
Another bit of interesting information is that a far trader, the Sanford, was allowed through the blockade with a set of spare parts for the Crown Prince’s Milk Formula factory and a shipment of Hava-Cola concentrate. There was much condemnation by the government press about the Imperium holding up the far trader.
While wading through information, Swann does come across a series of ads, news segments, and references that indicate that the KGL government gave away a free case of King–Sour (some sort of national fizzy drink) to each King George’s Land citizen above the age of 2 and a case of Crown Prince’s Milk (a baby formula) to everyone younger than 2. The giveaway started about two months ago and was touted as a patriotic thanks to the loyal subjects of the King. "Frellin’ ingenious way to distribute the inoculations," Swann marvels to himself. Digging a little further, he finds some complaints from King-Sour diehards that the government had King-Sour Enterprises skimp on the sugar in the give-away formulation, but most of the populace welcomed the giveaway.
His eyes tired from sifting through data on the screen, Swann heads to the lounge just as the others are returning from their days for an early dinner.
Argent and Vargas leave the Bray Keaven to meet with Gen. Tilshire in order to find out more about the situation in Medway. Gen. Tilshire, while appreciative, hands the two former scouts over to another of his aides, a Lt. Colonel Billings. The three spend the day examining maps of Medway and reports of people who are holed up in the capital and apparently surviving.
There are about 80 odd groups that have called for help. The size of the groups range from a couple to hundreds in a sealed skyscraper. Rescuing all of them may prove very time consuming, and possibly dangerous to those holed up since they will be exposed to possibly contaminated air while they exit their buildings.
Three groups are notable in that they are claiming at least one member suffered from AHV but recovered. Claim Alpha is a group of three people holed up in one of the middle class suburbs. Claim Bravo is a group of 10 who are holed up in one of the rich enclaves on the northwest side of the city. Claim Charlie is a family of four who is on the top of an office skyscraper.
Most of the groups in the city have reported that they have run out of food. Claim Alpha and Claim Charlie also report that they have run out of food.
Lt. Col. Billings arranges to have the portable building delivered by the Bray Keaven set up just inside the quarantine area. He also clears the Bray Keaven to go in to rescue people if the crew chooses, but the Bray Keaven will have to be thoroughly decontaminated each time (though Lt. Col. Billings agrees to arrange for help). The Bromlian military agrees to accept the people that are brought out as long as they are put into vacc suits or biohazard suits while in Medway, brought out to a decontam observation zone or the portable building (which is right next door), and placed under observation for 24 hours to make sure that they are free of the virus.
In a burst of enthusiasm, Lt. Col. Billings does some checking with Gen. Tilshire, and the General agrees to purchase up to 10 dTons of the MREs from the Bray Keaven for 20,000 Imperial Credits per dTon. The General also agrees to pay the crew 200 Imperial Credits for each refugee brought out from Medway. Unfortunately, the Bromlian military is rather strapped right now for Imperial Credits, so the payment will be in the form of an equivalent amount of mined silver.
Martha decides to start with patching and painting the scoring from the mining laser while waiting for the decontam shower supplies for the port airlock. The patching/painting is relatively relaxing and rather easy work, and she can observe the throngs of people around the airport as well as the steady stream of cargo aircraft landing at the airport to bring in humanitarian supplies. There seem to be more people around the airport this morning than the day before.
After finishing the patching, she goes down to talk with the Bromlian guards and finds that her shower supplies have been delivered, and she then sets up a decontam shower in the port cargolock.
Following a quick lunch and break, she decides that she’ll get that missile launcher installed and calls Lt. Marks to get some engineering help in the form of a couple of cranes and maintenance personnel to help with the external installation.
The Bromlians arrive pretty quickly, and Martha and the personnel get to work, though some of the Bromlians look a little oddly at Martha’s vacc suit while others look wistfully at it. The installation proceeds smoothly, and the missile launcher is ready for power on, tracking tests, and test firings of one or two missiles in the atmosphere, and one or two missiles in space. The rest of the installation and tests will take between two and four hours, and will need to be performed somewhere that won’t unduly alarm the Bromlians.
After cleaning up, Martha joins the rest of the crew in the lounge for dinner.
Darishun spends the day helping set up the portable building and trying to help the Bromlians make the best use of the gear that the Bray Keaven has brought. In most, the initial fear is eventually replaced by wary deference to the large sophont, but Darishun does win friends through his easy going and helpful manner.
Darishun returns to the Bray Keaven to report that the building has been set up along with decontamination stations.
Over dinner, the various crewmembers recount what they accomplished and what they learned during their first full day on Alief.
After a considerable amount of skepticism on the General’s part, Gen. Tilshire agrees to allow the crew to proceed as long as it is clear that the Bromlian military will not mount a rescue operation if things go bad, and they will disavow that any adventure was at all condoned by the Bromlian military. He mostly seems to be concerned that the Bromlian military is not in any shape to repulse a conventional and biological attack on Bromley that may be triggered if the crew gets captured. Even if the crewmembers succeed, Bromley won’t publicly acknowledge the success. In other words, the same sort of set up that plagues covert ops everywhere.
Ian does make a good contact in a member of Bromlian’s Special Forces (the Steppe Service): a Col. Rundell who readily agrees to talk shop. Seems that the Steppe Service was thinking along the same lines and also has been a little stymied for fear of KGL reprisals. The Colonel does provide a pair of likely target hospitals in a small city (Kingan) just across the border along with another likely target hospital in a town (Judithan) about 80 km from the border. The border seems to be relatively lightly guarded outside of the main roads and populated areas given that the area is not particularly hospitable except near the water. Ian also picks up more planning information that will be useful later.
Unfortunately, the Colonel thinks it is unlikely that he’ll be able to arrange transport anywhere near the area.
On the bright side, the Colonel does have a friend in the intelligence service who was preparing a few sets of border passes and visas just in case, and modifying them for the crew’s use should be relatively easy.
After a fruitful day of talking shop and planning, Ian heads back to the Bray Keaven for an early dinner.
-----
Sometimes, the day just doesn’t start out well. Swann finds a local wireless connection, but rather than talking to Lt. Marks to get access to the local planetary network, Swann figures that he will just hack his way onto the system. Ought to be an easy job, and he figures that he can always tell the Bromlians that he was just testing their system for them.
Well, the job was relatively easy, but Swann manages to spill Nuvo-Cola on his console. On most decent ships, the console would be sealed, but it appears that this console wasn’t properly sealed, and Swann then has to spend the next three hours quietly cleaning out the console and hoping that Martha won’t notice before he can get back to a starting point again.
Once he is able to really get started, Swann is able to find some information of note. Alief does have a pretty decent low–tech net setup, and, luckily, most of the networks use low–tech computers with correspondingly low–tech countermeasures. Getting access to systems proves easier than sifting through which systems to access.
By referencing fuel records, spikes in food deliveries, vehicle repair requests, parking records, medical records, and several other systems, Swann is able to ascertain that there seemed to be an increase in orders/shipments of syringes, filter mask modules, and biohazard suits to hospitals across KGL. All hospitals seemed to have these increases start a month or so before the plague first broke.
However, there were no marked increases in visits to the hospital or to doctors’ offices or clinics. There were also no public pronouncements of vaccinations.
The three closest hospitals are two hospitals in a small city (Kingan) right across the border from Bromley and one in a small town about 80 km from the border (Judithan).
Another bit of interesting information is that a far trader, the Sanford, was allowed through the blockade with a set of spare parts for the Crown Prince’s Milk Formula factory and a shipment of Hava-Cola concentrate. There was much condemnation by the government press about the Imperium holding up the far trader.
While wading through information, Swann does come across a series of ads, news segments, and references that indicate that the KGL government gave away a free case of King–Sour (some sort of national fizzy drink) to each King George’s Land citizen above the age of 2 and a case of Crown Prince’s Milk (a baby formula) to everyone younger than 2. The giveaway started about two months ago and was touted as a patriotic thanks to the loyal subjects of the King. "Frellin’ ingenious way to distribute the inoculations," Swann marvels to himself. Digging a little further, he finds some complaints from King-Sour diehards that the government had King-Sour Enterprises skimp on the sugar in the give-away formulation, but most of the populace welcomed the giveaway.
His eyes tired from sifting through data on the screen, Swann heads to the lounge just as the others are returning from their days for an early dinner.
-----
Argent and Vargas leave the Bray Keaven to meet with Gen. Tilshire in order to find out more about the situation in Medway. Gen. Tilshire, while appreciative, hands the two former scouts over to another of his aides, a Lt. Colonel Billings. The three spend the day examining maps of Medway and reports of people who are holed up in the capital and apparently surviving.
There are about 80 odd groups that have called for help. The size of the groups range from a couple to hundreds in a sealed skyscraper. Rescuing all of them may prove very time consuming, and possibly dangerous to those holed up since they will be exposed to possibly contaminated air while they exit their buildings.
Three groups are notable in that they are claiming at least one member suffered from AHV but recovered. Claim Alpha is a group of three people holed up in one of the middle class suburbs. Claim Bravo is a group of 10 who are holed up in one of the rich enclaves on the northwest side of the city. Claim Charlie is a family of four who is on the top of an office skyscraper.
Most of the groups in the city have reported that they have run out of food. Claim Alpha and Claim Charlie also report that they have run out of food.
Lt. Col. Billings arranges to have the portable building delivered by the Bray Keaven set up just inside the quarantine area. He also clears the Bray Keaven to go in to rescue people if the crew chooses, but the Bray Keaven will have to be thoroughly decontaminated each time (though Lt. Col. Billings agrees to arrange for help). The Bromlian military agrees to accept the people that are brought out as long as they are put into vacc suits or biohazard suits while in Medway, brought out to a decontam observation zone or the portable building (which is right next door), and placed under observation for 24 hours to make sure that they are free of the virus.
In a burst of enthusiasm, Lt. Col. Billings does some checking with Gen. Tilshire, and the General agrees to purchase up to 10 dTons of the MREs from the Bray Keaven for 20,000 Imperial Credits per dTon. The General also agrees to pay the crew 200 Imperial Credits for each refugee brought out from Medway. Unfortunately, the Bromlian military is rather strapped right now for Imperial Credits, so the payment will be in the form of an equivalent amount of mined silver.
-----
Martha decides to start with patching and painting the scoring from the mining laser while waiting for the decontam shower supplies for the port airlock. The patching/painting is relatively relaxing and rather easy work, and she can observe the throngs of people around the airport as well as the steady stream of cargo aircraft landing at the airport to bring in humanitarian supplies. There seem to be more people around the airport this morning than the day before.
After finishing the patching, she goes down to talk with the Bromlian guards and finds that her shower supplies have been delivered, and she then sets up a decontam shower in the port cargolock.
Following a quick lunch and break, she decides that she’ll get that missile launcher installed and calls Lt. Marks to get some engineering help in the form of a couple of cranes and maintenance personnel to help with the external installation.
The Bromlians arrive pretty quickly, and Martha and the personnel get to work, though some of the Bromlians look a little oddly at Martha’s vacc suit while others look wistfully at it. The installation proceeds smoothly, and the missile launcher is ready for power on, tracking tests, and test firings of one or two missiles in the atmosphere, and one or two missiles in space. The rest of the installation and tests will take between two and four hours, and will need to be performed somewhere that won’t unduly alarm the Bromlians.
After cleaning up, Martha joins the rest of the crew in the lounge for dinner.
-----
Darishun spends the day helping set up the portable building and trying to help the Bromlians make the best use of the gear that the Bray Keaven has brought. In most, the initial fear is eventually replaced by wary deference to the large sophont, but Darishun does win friends through his easy going and helpful manner.
Darishun returns to the Bray Keaven to report that the building has been set up along with decontamination stations.
-----
Over dinner, the various crewmembers recount what they accomplished and what they learned during their first full day on Alief.
Last edited:
Shadowdancer
First Post
Thanks. And yes, we are lucky players.Maldur said:Great story, scifi roleplaying like it should be!
Lucky players!
Shadowdancer
First Post
Earlier in the day, Saro learned that there have been some scattered reports of rabbit farmers in the north being affected by AHV. The reports indicated that the farmers still eventually succumbed to AHV, but generally they lived longer than those who lived in Medway did.
"Well, if nothing else that would be a third avenue of research," he tells the crew that night at dinner. "We can get some rabbits with their version of the infection, and try to concentrate the virus and test it as an active vaccine. We may be able to engineer some changes in the rabbit virus to hopefully weaken it and make it crossreactive with AHV. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if that were the route that KGL took with their technology level. They had time on their side, though."
Vasilii sits at the evening meeting, slowly eating Marine rations but definitely not savoring them. He reviews his day for the others, going into detail concerning the banking system and giving everyone the proper procedures to withdraw funding if needed.
Leaning back, he sits politely through the others’ briefings. His face shows definite interest when the reward on recovering survivors is mentioned. When the mention of the rations comes up, his eyes gleam and he starts scratching on a piece of paper, trying to come up with a rough estimate of the silver involved in tonnage and its probable value on Sentry.
When Martha talks about finding someplace to test the new missile launcher, he quips, "Maybe our friends in Lingsdonland would let us test there, they were so friendly before."
Other than that, he sits quietly and waits for the captain to issue a plan of action for the next day.
"I’ll be damned," Marcus muses as he listens to Swann’s announcement of the "free" giveaway. "They distributed the vaccination in the soda and the milk. The people naturally consume these as part of their daily diet, and they’re inoculated against the disease without even knowing it. Brilliant."
Swann says, "Yeah, I’m going to concentrate my computer search tomorrow on the milk formula plant and the cola plant. I’m hoping they might have a formula for their new secret ingredient stashed away somewhere for future use. I’m also going to check out those two hospitals just over the border, see if they might have some reserve supplies stockpiled."
"I’d be willing to drink some of that, if you can find us some," Martha says. "Hey, Doc, do you think you might be able to isolate what you need if we can get a blood sample or eight from people who’ve drank this stuff?" Martha looks over at the medical officer."
"That’s a definite possibility," Saro says. "As with the people who have recovered from AHV in the city, what we are looking for is someone who has antibodies against the virus. Most vaccines that are ingested consist of weakened or crossreactive organisms and the good thing is that they usually elicit a strong immunologic reaction and large quantities of antibodies so people from KGL should serve quite nicely.
"On the same train of thought, if the little excursion can acquire samples of the milk and cola, even if it's not enough for everyone, we can inoculate people here and then extract the antibody. That is if we can’t isolate the 'secret ingredient.’
"Once we identify the antibody I believe we have the technology here to produce it in large quantities and thus provide passive immunization for everyone. An alternative is to find this presumably weakened or crossreactive virus. That is the likely 'secret ingredient' in the cola and milk. That is active immunization. There are pros and cons to both, but at the same time, both could be effective."
"OK then," Ian says. "It sounds like the adventure holiday now has an expanded itinerary. We have four possible objectives or plans of action." He starts to list the possibilities.
"A. Abduct a citizen of KGL who has drunk either the milk or the cola. This is probably the easiest to accomplish. We can nip over the border, find a convenience store and kidnap the first person we see who buys a cola. Something along the lines of ‘Hi, have you ever won a free can of cola? Did you drink it? Did you like it? Yeah? Well, today is your lucky day; you've been selected as the 100th lucky customer from this store to appear in our next National Cola Advertisement! Please come with us.’ "
Darishun looks up rather alarmed by Ian’s suggestion to blithely kidnap a KGL citizen. "Ian? Surely the poor citizens of King George’s Land are innocents in their government’s madness. I’m sure that if were to simply discuss the devastating effects of the virus on their neighbors, they would be willing to let you draw a quick blood sample from them! Really now, a simple discourse should be able to avoid violence." Darishun continues for some time trying to persuade the others to avoid violence.
After the Virushi finishes, Saro says, "I can’t believe we are talking so nonchalantly about kidnapping someone, but it is for the greater good so I guess it’s alright. We’ll treat them well and return them safely, agreed?
"Since we are at it, one might not be enough. If it is that easy could you make multiple trips and get more than one person? Once we isolate the antibodies we still need to identify the one or ones against AHV and a good way to do it would be to compare which antibodies citizens of KGL share and then look for ones that are younger isotopes."
"Anyone have any idea how much authority the Imperium has given us?" Vargas asks. "Are we authorized to do anything we want but they’ll disavow knowledge if we’re caught? Do we get hung for shooting the wrong person, no matter what the reason? Might be good to know going in."
When the discussions dies down, Ian continues with his mission options. "B. Either the milk or cola factory may have stockpiles of the vaccine along with evidence of production or tampering. This would give us a smoking gun to point at KGL, something I feel is morally important. Of course, this would be much more difficult than the first mission."
Saro says, "Agreed."
Ian continues. "C. One of the hospitals near the border that may have received medicines against the plague. At the very least, we can just steal some blood from the blood bank, as long as it was donated after the free give away began."
"That might or might not work," Saro says. "Usually, once medicine reaches a certain technology level whole blood isn’t used anymore. Donated blood is divided into components. Antibodies would be with the fresh frozen plasma and they might be less effective, but in a pinch it might work. Getting medications against the virus might not work, either. We already have drugs that are effective against AHV and that doesn’t get us any closer to a vaccine."
Ian continues again. "D. A military -- artillery or air -- unit to look for bio-warfare munitions. This is probably going to be too much to handle, so I think we should skip it."
Saro says, "That is interesting. So you think they are firing the vector like a shell? Finding the vector could also be a smoking gun against KGL. Keep your eyes open while over there."
"It’s nice that many of those of you who aren’t going into hostile territory still have the luxury of being civilized," Ian says. "However, when you are at the sharp end you have to do whatever is necessary to get the job done. I’m sorry but I don’t give a rats arse for the rights of one or a hundred possibly innocent KGL citizens. There are millions of dead people and more every minute right here in Bromley, and God knows how many more in the countries next door. This isn’t some theoretical ethical dilemma guys, its MILLIONS of lives at stake. Frankly, if we have to shoot a few farmers just to get a blood sample I’ll still sleep comfortably at night. That said, it is my intention to get what we need without causing undue harm to anyone."
Martha speaks up. "Now look, I don’t normally truck with kidnapping and whatnot. But I don’t think we should unless the Doc thinks he can learn something useful from it. From the sounds of it, he’s not sure he can learn anything from it, though there’s the chance. You sure you want people to think this is how the Imperium operates?" she asks.
"Personally, I think it’s a better idea to check out this factory, and see what special arrangements were made for that production run. If a new additive was brought in, where was it brought in from? I think THAT’s the place we wanna check out, in the long run. Seems to me that someone who knows their way around a computer might be able to find out without anyone even endangering themselves. Let’s face it, a coke factory’s not normally the highest security situation, and they didn’t change that just to make this one batch. Since they probably don’t make AHV antibodies next to the WonderFizz Pop, chances are we’d be wasting valuable time taking on the coke factory." Martha pauses to take another bite of her meal.
"Well, a soda or milk factory may not normally be a high–security place, but I wouldn't bet on it given the situation. I think it’s worth a try," Ian says.
"I’ll work with whatever you get," Saro says. "The whole point of pursuing different avenues is that neither I nor any of the other scientists involved can be sure that one method will work. Maybe Darishun is right and you only need to find some sympathetic KGL citizens and convince them to help us. It does sound more difficult but I think the team should know what options they have and have the flexibility to execute which ever they feel is best. Having said that, I agree that a factory or a hospital should be the first and second options, respectively.
"First of all, it is highly unlikely that they put antibodies in the soda drink. The most likely vaccine in that case is either weakened AHV or some crossreactive virus like a strain of the rabbit virus. Antibodies are large proteins that would be absolutely denatured in the stomach and even if they survived the stomach are too big to be reabsorbed in the gut. It would be reasonably easy to just add the virus to the drink. That is what the expedition would be looking for, in my opinion. Weakened AHV virus or some crossreactive virus.
"Just as a summary, there are two approaches to this vaccine. Active immunization is giving someone either the organism or a reasonable facsimile, and the patient has an immunologic reaction developing their own antibodies, hence immunity. The second is passive immunization in which we engineer, acquire, or produce antibodies and administer them to the patients, conferring them with immunity. Either one should be effective, but passive immunity tends to act faster while active immunity usually lasts longer.
"If in your 'vacation' you get either a source of the weakened or crossreactive virus and/or a source of antibodies against AHV we will be golden."
Martha speaks up again. "Another tack to follow is to look for high–profile, cutting–edge scientists in this system who disappeared a few years ago. These are the guys who are probably working in an underground lab somewhere, building this crap. Find them, track one of them down, and I bet we can find out where their base of operations is. That’ll give you a damn good smoking gun."
Martha shrugs. "I dunno, but I hope this helps. I’m trying to come up with some brainstorming to give us more definite answers than knocking some guy out on the street and hoping we get something from draining a pint or two."
Swann represses a smile caused by the image Martha’s comments painted in his mind. "I think we’re pretty much agreed that kidnapping a Kinglander and going Carpenter’s Vampyre Deer on them is a last-resort measure. The hospitals, the soda plant, and the formula plant are probably our best bets, depending on what can be dug up on the computer."
Ian says, "Agreed. Now as for equipment and materials we’re going to need. I think we should take the air raft as our incursion vehicle: its easy to hide, can fly the difficult mountain terrain, and even travel underwater if needs be. We can steal some local transportation once we are over the border.
"I think we should take a communicator of some kind and the computer that Swann has to log into the local net. We can put suits, armor, weapons, anti–virals, etc., in the air raft and keep stuff in travel bags for latter use. We have papers for KGL and can go whenever we feel ready.
"Vassilii, we will need some KGL cash on hand."
Vasilii stirs, then replies. "Mr. McConnell, I believe we should be able to get that in country. Since the virus hasn’t significantly infected KGL, their banking and financial systems should be functioning normally. I’d hate to ‘telegraph’ our intentions by withdrawing KGL currency here.
"If you’d like, I could set up separate accounts for each of the pseudo identities with the bank and pad it with credits from the main account. That way if we withdraw money for use in KGL we won’t be compromising our nest egg."
Vasilii clears his throat and adds, "I think that since this is going to be at least a week long ‘vacation’ that we should plan accordingly. I’d be more comfortable taking our own food and water for consumption in KGL and we'd need some for the trip anyway.
"Since this world is technologically advanced enough for air rafts, does anyone know what ‘traffic control’ would be like in KGL? It certainly wouldn’t advance our cause to be spotted going in.
"Lastly, I’d appreciate a shot of the antivirals we brought before we went in. I need a day to work a few small issues anyway."
Saro turns to Vasilii. "Like I said before, if you take a dose of antivirals today, by tomorrow the protection will have worn off. An alternative would be to take the equivalent of 7-10 doses with you and administer them day by day. I can just show you what you need to do to self-administer the drugs."
Turning to Ian and Vasilii, Swann says, "I’m not sure the air raft will be our best choice, at least not for moving around in KGL. Maybe we could cross the border at a remote spot, then hide the air raft and acquire a land vehicle or hovercraft there? Although I don’t like the idea of leaving the air raft unguarded, and having to depend on finding transportation there. We could also take the air raft as far as the border, then leave it somewhere safe on this side of the border, and take other transportation into KGL. Ian, maybe your friends in the Bromlian Army could help us with this?
"We also need to find out about the gun laws in Bromley. We need to know going in what it’s safe to take, and what we need to hide really well, and use only in a life-and-death situation.
"Also, I need someplace where I can access the planet’s computer network with the new computer that Vasilii was able to procure. I want to try it out here first to learn its capabilities before we leave.
"I like the idea about the separate bank accounts set up using our aliases. That will give us some freedom of independent action, if needed, and will still offer us some protection as well as disguising the involvement of the rest of the crew."
Ian says, "Vasilii, as for ‘telegraphing’ our intentions – wouldn’t using the lingdondollars in KGL do exactly the same thing and tell KGL what location we were at at the same time? See if you can cut a deal with a bank here to do the exchange from their reserve cash but not put it though the books until next week or something. Cash doesn’t leave a trail like electronic exchanges do."
Vasilii smiles. "Mr. McConnell, it doesn’t work that way. When I deposited the money in the account it was automatically converted to the local currency -- pounds. If I set up accounts for the ‘personas,’ I’ll pad it with an amount and when we withdraw it in KGL we’ll do so in the local currency there. It should be standard, banks handle withdrawals all the time and we can do so as soon as we arrive."
Looking at Swann, Ian says, "As for the air raft: the plan was to use it to get over the border, then steal something local that is less visible. We can leave it parked somewhere inconspicuous. A guard is not necessary -- we just keep the keys. Someone left hanging around simply watching an air raft is bound to attract a lot more attention and look more suspicious."
"I’m not suggesting we leave the air raft guarded," Swann says. "But since they aren’t very common on this planet, if we leave ours hidden in KGL and it is discovered, it will draw too much attention. We might find the border closed, with no safe way back across."
"As for illegal weaponry," Ian continues, "the point is not to let anyone see it unless we want to use it. We could look at hiding big guns somewhere in a vehicle to avoid casual road blocks or check points, but most check points just look at your papers and glance in the trunk. Unless you attract their attention, they don’t get you out and frisk you or search your bags. We could check to get permits for Bromley on the way out, but we’ll have to dump them at the border so we don’t implicate these guys.
"It does occur to me that Queen whatsitsland obviously has some kind of deal going with KGL. Maybe we should look for soda giveaways over there. Infiltrating them wouldn’t be quite as dangerous. In any case we should get moving ASAP. People are dying like flies whilst we sit here and chat."
Vasilii looks around the room, then speaks. "Captain, since we’ll be gone that will leave the crew shorthanded if you attempt any relief efforts. Perhaps you could look into hiring some medical or hazmat personnel to assist with the evacuation process, if any are available. Personnel from those fields should be familiar with the necessary protocols for dealing with this plague. Since we can easily pay good wages in Bromilian pounds and make a profit (since our pay is in Imperial credits) it might be an answer. If Bromley doesn’t have any personnel to spare, perhaps we can look to Fulham or another country that hasn’t been affected. Pick them up after you conduct the missile tests and return them when we leave this world."
After all of the reports are made and all the discussion is over, the Captain summarizes. "There are three groups who claim to have a survivor of the disease among them; we’ll rescue them first," he says. "After that, we’ll start with other smaller groups first, then work our way up the food chain. We may not be able to get everyone, but we should be able to get a good number of pockets out of the quarantine zone.
"We’ll test the missile system first thing; I’ll talk to the general’s staff for a remote location in Bromley to perform the atmospheric test," he continues. "Perhaps they have a proving ground somewhere outside the quarantine zone. We’ll go out to one of the outer planets of the system to perform the space test. Will that be sufficient, Martha?"
The Captain also suggests that the vacation team go for the soda and milk processing plants and one or two hospitals first, only going with the less "friendly" routes if those fail.
"Well, if nothing else that would be a third avenue of research," he tells the crew that night at dinner. "We can get some rabbits with their version of the infection, and try to concentrate the virus and test it as an active vaccine. We may be able to engineer some changes in the rabbit virus to hopefully weaken it and make it crossreactive with AHV. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if that were the route that KGL took with their technology level. They had time on their side, though."
Vasilii sits at the evening meeting, slowly eating Marine rations but definitely not savoring them. He reviews his day for the others, going into detail concerning the banking system and giving everyone the proper procedures to withdraw funding if needed.
Leaning back, he sits politely through the others’ briefings. His face shows definite interest when the reward on recovering survivors is mentioned. When the mention of the rations comes up, his eyes gleam and he starts scratching on a piece of paper, trying to come up with a rough estimate of the silver involved in tonnage and its probable value on Sentry.
When Martha talks about finding someplace to test the new missile launcher, he quips, "Maybe our friends in Lingsdonland would let us test there, they were so friendly before."
Other than that, he sits quietly and waits for the captain to issue a plan of action for the next day.
"I’ll be damned," Marcus muses as he listens to Swann’s announcement of the "free" giveaway. "They distributed the vaccination in the soda and the milk. The people naturally consume these as part of their daily diet, and they’re inoculated against the disease without even knowing it. Brilliant."
Swann says, "Yeah, I’m going to concentrate my computer search tomorrow on the milk formula plant and the cola plant. I’m hoping they might have a formula for their new secret ingredient stashed away somewhere for future use. I’m also going to check out those two hospitals just over the border, see if they might have some reserve supplies stockpiled."
"I’d be willing to drink some of that, if you can find us some," Martha says. "Hey, Doc, do you think you might be able to isolate what you need if we can get a blood sample or eight from people who’ve drank this stuff?" Martha looks over at the medical officer."
"That’s a definite possibility," Saro says. "As with the people who have recovered from AHV in the city, what we are looking for is someone who has antibodies against the virus. Most vaccines that are ingested consist of weakened or crossreactive organisms and the good thing is that they usually elicit a strong immunologic reaction and large quantities of antibodies so people from KGL should serve quite nicely.
"On the same train of thought, if the little excursion can acquire samples of the milk and cola, even if it's not enough for everyone, we can inoculate people here and then extract the antibody. That is if we can’t isolate the 'secret ingredient.’
"Once we identify the antibody I believe we have the technology here to produce it in large quantities and thus provide passive immunization for everyone. An alternative is to find this presumably weakened or crossreactive virus. That is the likely 'secret ingredient' in the cola and milk. That is active immunization. There are pros and cons to both, but at the same time, both could be effective."
"OK then," Ian says. "It sounds like the adventure holiday now has an expanded itinerary. We have four possible objectives or plans of action." He starts to list the possibilities.
"A. Abduct a citizen of KGL who has drunk either the milk or the cola. This is probably the easiest to accomplish. We can nip over the border, find a convenience store and kidnap the first person we see who buys a cola. Something along the lines of ‘Hi, have you ever won a free can of cola? Did you drink it? Did you like it? Yeah? Well, today is your lucky day; you've been selected as the 100th lucky customer from this store to appear in our next National Cola Advertisement! Please come with us.’ "
Darishun looks up rather alarmed by Ian’s suggestion to blithely kidnap a KGL citizen. "Ian? Surely the poor citizens of King George’s Land are innocents in their government’s madness. I’m sure that if were to simply discuss the devastating effects of the virus on their neighbors, they would be willing to let you draw a quick blood sample from them! Really now, a simple discourse should be able to avoid violence." Darishun continues for some time trying to persuade the others to avoid violence.
After the Virushi finishes, Saro says, "I can’t believe we are talking so nonchalantly about kidnapping someone, but it is for the greater good so I guess it’s alright. We’ll treat them well and return them safely, agreed?
"Since we are at it, one might not be enough. If it is that easy could you make multiple trips and get more than one person? Once we isolate the antibodies we still need to identify the one or ones against AHV and a good way to do it would be to compare which antibodies citizens of KGL share and then look for ones that are younger isotopes."
"Anyone have any idea how much authority the Imperium has given us?" Vargas asks. "Are we authorized to do anything we want but they’ll disavow knowledge if we’re caught? Do we get hung for shooting the wrong person, no matter what the reason? Might be good to know going in."
When the discussions dies down, Ian continues with his mission options. "B. Either the milk or cola factory may have stockpiles of the vaccine along with evidence of production or tampering. This would give us a smoking gun to point at KGL, something I feel is morally important. Of course, this would be much more difficult than the first mission."
Saro says, "Agreed."
Ian continues. "C. One of the hospitals near the border that may have received medicines against the plague. At the very least, we can just steal some blood from the blood bank, as long as it was donated after the free give away began."
"That might or might not work," Saro says. "Usually, once medicine reaches a certain technology level whole blood isn’t used anymore. Donated blood is divided into components. Antibodies would be with the fresh frozen plasma and they might be less effective, but in a pinch it might work. Getting medications against the virus might not work, either. We already have drugs that are effective against AHV and that doesn’t get us any closer to a vaccine."
Ian continues again. "D. A military -- artillery or air -- unit to look for bio-warfare munitions. This is probably going to be too much to handle, so I think we should skip it."
Saro says, "That is interesting. So you think they are firing the vector like a shell? Finding the vector could also be a smoking gun against KGL. Keep your eyes open while over there."
"It’s nice that many of those of you who aren’t going into hostile territory still have the luxury of being civilized," Ian says. "However, when you are at the sharp end you have to do whatever is necessary to get the job done. I’m sorry but I don’t give a rats arse for the rights of one or a hundred possibly innocent KGL citizens. There are millions of dead people and more every minute right here in Bromley, and God knows how many more in the countries next door. This isn’t some theoretical ethical dilemma guys, its MILLIONS of lives at stake. Frankly, if we have to shoot a few farmers just to get a blood sample I’ll still sleep comfortably at night. That said, it is my intention to get what we need without causing undue harm to anyone."
Martha speaks up. "Now look, I don’t normally truck with kidnapping and whatnot. But I don’t think we should unless the Doc thinks he can learn something useful from it. From the sounds of it, he’s not sure he can learn anything from it, though there’s the chance. You sure you want people to think this is how the Imperium operates?" she asks.
"Personally, I think it’s a better idea to check out this factory, and see what special arrangements were made for that production run. If a new additive was brought in, where was it brought in from? I think THAT’s the place we wanna check out, in the long run. Seems to me that someone who knows their way around a computer might be able to find out without anyone even endangering themselves. Let’s face it, a coke factory’s not normally the highest security situation, and they didn’t change that just to make this one batch. Since they probably don’t make AHV antibodies next to the WonderFizz Pop, chances are we’d be wasting valuable time taking on the coke factory." Martha pauses to take another bite of her meal.
"Well, a soda or milk factory may not normally be a high–security place, but I wouldn't bet on it given the situation. I think it’s worth a try," Ian says.
"I’ll work with whatever you get," Saro says. "The whole point of pursuing different avenues is that neither I nor any of the other scientists involved can be sure that one method will work. Maybe Darishun is right and you only need to find some sympathetic KGL citizens and convince them to help us. It does sound more difficult but I think the team should know what options they have and have the flexibility to execute which ever they feel is best. Having said that, I agree that a factory or a hospital should be the first and second options, respectively.
"First of all, it is highly unlikely that they put antibodies in the soda drink. The most likely vaccine in that case is either weakened AHV or some crossreactive virus like a strain of the rabbit virus. Antibodies are large proteins that would be absolutely denatured in the stomach and even if they survived the stomach are too big to be reabsorbed in the gut. It would be reasonably easy to just add the virus to the drink. That is what the expedition would be looking for, in my opinion. Weakened AHV virus or some crossreactive virus.
"Just as a summary, there are two approaches to this vaccine. Active immunization is giving someone either the organism or a reasonable facsimile, and the patient has an immunologic reaction developing their own antibodies, hence immunity. The second is passive immunization in which we engineer, acquire, or produce antibodies and administer them to the patients, conferring them with immunity. Either one should be effective, but passive immunity tends to act faster while active immunity usually lasts longer.
"If in your 'vacation' you get either a source of the weakened or crossreactive virus and/or a source of antibodies against AHV we will be golden."
Martha speaks up again. "Another tack to follow is to look for high–profile, cutting–edge scientists in this system who disappeared a few years ago. These are the guys who are probably working in an underground lab somewhere, building this crap. Find them, track one of them down, and I bet we can find out where their base of operations is. That’ll give you a damn good smoking gun."
Martha shrugs. "I dunno, but I hope this helps. I’m trying to come up with some brainstorming to give us more definite answers than knocking some guy out on the street and hoping we get something from draining a pint or two."
Swann represses a smile caused by the image Martha’s comments painted in his mind. "I think we’re pretty much agreed that kidnapping a Kinglander and going Carpenter’s Vampyre Deer on them is a last-resort measure. The hospitals, the soda plant, and the formula plant are probably our best bets, depending on what can be dug up on the computer."
Ian says, "Agreed. Now as for equipment and materials we’re going to need. I think we should take the air raft as our incursion vehicle: its easy to hide, can fly the difficult mountain terrain, and even travel underwater if needs be. We can steal some local transportation once we are over the border.
"I think we should take a communicator of some kind and the computer that Swann has to log into the local net. We can put suits, armor, weapons, anti–virals, etc., in the air raft and keep stuff in travel bags for latter use. We have papers for KGL and can go whenever we feel ready.
"Vassilii, we will need some KGL cash on hand."
Vasilii stirs, then replies. "Mr. McConnell, I believe we should be able to get that in country. Since the virus hasn’t significantly infected KGL, their banking and financial systems should be functioning normally. I’d hate to ‘telegraph’ our intentions by withdrawing KGL currency here.
"If you’d like, I could set up separate accounts for each of the pseudo identities with the bank and pad it with credits from the main account. That way if we withdraw money for use in KGL we won’t be compromising our nest egg."
Vasilii clears his throat and adds, "I think that since this is going to be at least a week long ‘vacation’ that we should plan accordingly. I’d be more comfortable taking our own food and water for consumption in KGL and we'd need some for the trip anyway.
"Since this world is technologically advanced enough for air rafts, does anyone know what ‘traffic control’ would be like in KGL? It certainly wouldn’t advance our cause to be spotted going in.
"Lastly, I’d appreciate a shot of the antivirals we brought before we went in. I need a day to work a few small issues anyway."
Saro turns to Vasilii. "Like I said before, if you take a dose of antivirals today, by tomorrow the protection will have worn off. An alternative would be to take the equivalent of 7-10 doses with you and administer them day by day. I can just show you what you need to do to self-administer the drugs."
Turning to Ian and Vasilii, Swann says, "I’m not sure the air raft will be our best choice, at least not for moving around in KGL. Maybe we could cross the border at a remote spot, then hide the air raft and acquire a land vehicle or hovercraft there? Although I don’t like the idea of leaving the air raft unguarded, and having to depend on finding transportation there. We could also take the air raft as far as the border, then leave it somewhere safe on this side of the border, and take other transportation into KGL. Ian, maybe your friends in the Bromlian Army could help us with this?
"We also need to find out about the gun laws in Bromley. We need to know going in what it’s safe to take, and what we need to hide really well, and use only in a life-and-death situation.
"Also, I need someplace where I can access the planet’s computer network with the new computer that Vasilii was able to procure. I want to try it out here first to learn its capabilities before we leave.
"I like the idea about the separate bank accounts set up using our aliases. That will give us some freedom of independent action, if needed, and will still offer us some protection as well as disguising the involvement of the rest of the crew."
Ian says, "Vasilii, as for ‘telegraphing’ our intentions – wouldn’t using the lingdondollars in KGL do exactly the same thing and tell KGL what location we were at at the same time? See if you can cut a deal with a bank here to do the exchange from their reserve cash but not put it though the books until next week or something. Cash doesn’t leave a trail like electronic exchanges do."
Vasilii smiles. "Mr. McConnell, it doesn’t work that way. When I deposited the money in the account it was automatically converted to the local currency -- pounds. If I set up accounts for the ‘personas,’ I’ll pad it with an amount and when we withdraw it in KGL we’ll do so in the local currency there. It should be standard, banks handle withdrawals all the time and we can do so as soon as we arrive."
Looking at Swann, Ian says, "As for the air raft: the plan was to use it to get over the border, then steal something local that is less visible. We can leave it parked somewhere inconspicuous. A guard is not necessary -- we just keep the keys. Someone left hanging around simply watching an air raft is bound to attract a lot more attention and look more suspicious."
"I’m not suggesting we leave the air raft guarded," Swann says. "But since they aren’t very common on this planet, if we leave ours hidden in KGL and it is discovered, it will draw too much attention. We might find the border closed, with no safe way back across."
"As for illegal weaponry," Ian continues, "the point is not to let anyone see it unless we want to use it. We could look at hiding big guns somewhere in a vehicle to avoid casual road blocks or check points, but most check points just look at your papers and glance in the trunk. Unless you attract their attention, they don’t get you out and frisk you or search your bags. We could check to get permits for Bromley on the way out, but we’ll have to dump them at the border so we don’t implicate these guys.
"It does occur to me that Queen whatsitsland obviously has some kind of deal going with KGL. Maybe we should look for soda giveaways over there. Infiltrating them wouldn’t be quite as dangerous. In any case we should get moving ASAP. People are dying like flies whilst we sit here and chat."
Vasilii looks around the room, then speaks. "Captain, since we’ll be gone that will leave the crew shorthanded if you attempt any relief efforts. Perhaps you could look into hiring some medical or hazmat personnel to assist with the evacuation process, if any are available. Personnel from those fields should be familiar with the necessary protocols for dealing with this plague. Since we can easily pay good wages in Bromilian pounds and make a profit (since our pay is in Imperial credits) it might be an answer. If Bromley doesn’t have any personnel to spare, perhaps we can look to Fulham or another country that hasn’t been affected. Pick them up after you conduct the missile tests and return them when we leave this world."
After all of the reports are made and all the discussion is over, the Captain summarizes. "There are three groups who claim to have a survivor of the disease among them; we’ll rescue them first," he says. "After that, we’ll start with other smaller groups first, then work our way up the food chain. We may not be able to get everyone, but we should be able to get a good number of pockets out of the quarantine zone.
"We’ll test the missile system first thing; I’ll talk to the general’s staff for a remote location in Bromley to perform the atmospheric test," he continues. "Perhaps they have a proving ground somewhere outside the quarantine zone. We’ll go out to one of the outer planets of the system to perform the space test. Will that be sufficient, Martha?"
The Captain also suggests that the vacation team go for the soda and milk processing plants and one or two hospitals first, only going with the less "friendly" routes if those fail.
Shadowdancer
First Post
Chapter XXV
Date: 121-993Place: Groves Airport outside Lowford, in Bromley, on Alief
Early in the morning, Argent contacts Lt. Marks and asks about test firing the missile launcher as well as filing flight plans for the pickups in the capital. Arranging for a few soldiers for crowd control isn’t very successful, and the Bromlians only agree to provide the soldiers to help process civilians that are picked up once they are delivered to the receiving station set up near the portable building that the Bray Keaven brought.
While the crew is waiting, Major Eckel’s aid shows up with a group of soldiers to unload 7 dTons of Marine rations. The rations are taken from the ones originally stored in the port and starboard cargo locks (3 dTons), the second port crew cabin (2 dTons), and some from the forward cargo lock (2 dTons). A little under 4 dTons remain in the forward cargo lock and in the upper lounge.
After an hour or so, Lt. Marks comms the Bray Keaven and says that the starship has clearance to proceed to the Sands Ordnance Range (under escort) and test fire two missiles.
A little while later, Argent, Vargas, and Martha take the Bray Keaven to the vicinity of the Sands Ordnance Range. The Bray Keaven actually isn’t on the range itself; the far trader hovers high over a spot a good distance away from the range. With Vargas holding the far trader in position, Argent manning the turret, and Martha checking the calibrations, the trio goes through a series of calibration tests and mock firings. The calibrations prove to be more time consuming than expected, particularly given the presence of gravity. The subsequent two test firings and revised calibrations go fairly well, though the system will need to be further calibrated in space and firing at targets at a real distance (near the limits of the Bray Keaven’s sensors).
The trio does manage to get some time to try and improve the calibration of the port laser. These calibrations do improve the accuracy of the port laser somewhat.
After a somewhat frustrating and long day, the trio return the Bray Keaven to the Groves Airport to find the rest of the crew waiting for the ship to return, having just finished enjoying a meal provided by the Bromlian Army 35th Mess Battalion. Fortunately for the ship–bound trio, Darishun appears to be carrying a couple of large bags of food.
Shadowdancer
First Post
In the morning Vasilii, Ian, and Swann leave the Bray Keaven to prepare for their excursion.
Vasilii contacts Maj. Eckels who agrees to purchase 7 dTons of Marine rations. The silver will be delivered before the Bray Keaven leaves Alief or earlier, if the crew requests an earlier delivery. 140,000 Imperial Credits of silver is about 2 dTons.
Before the Bray Keaven leaves for the test firings, Sgt. Burnett shows up with a group of soldiers to help unload 7 dTons of Marine rations. Darishun and Vasilii help to unload the rations into the cargo bay, where the soldiers pick up the rations. The rations are taken from the ones originally stored in the port and starboard cargo locks (3 dTons), the second port crew cabin (2 dTons), and some from the forward cargo lock (2 dTons). A little under 4 dTons remains in the forward cargo lock and in the upper lounge.
While the cargo is being unloaded, Sgt. Burnett agrees to Vasilii’s request to look for some of the items for the Imperial Marines when he has a chance. The hipbeast sausage is unlikely, though, given the general food availability problem.
Vasilii comes up with a cover story for the holiday group: businessmen searching for trade possibilities. After Ian and Swann agree to the idea, he goes about setting up cover bank accounts for them using their new aliases as well as a corporate account.
He sets up four accounts with Killian Bank and Trust, a smaller bank with branches in several countries in the region. One for each of the holiday trio and a commercial one for the fake corporation. Setting up the corporation’s takes surprisingly long, and is a rather trying experience, even with the help of Col. Rundell, and he is unable to get the accounts set up in Imperial Credits (the accounts are in Bromlian Pounds).
Account Balances:
Vasilii/Vasilii: 10,000 BP
Ian/Ian: 10,000 BP
Swann/John: 10,000 BP
Corporation: 50,000 BP
Bray Keaven: 1,061,364 BP
Vasilii has a chance to do a little bit of research into King George’s Land using a computer provided by Sgt. Burnett, looking for possible trade goods. Most of the current trade possibilities from offworld sources are in the form of spare parts or higher tech devices, particularly those with military or dual use applications.
Ian contacts Col. Rundell who arranges for new IDs for the trio and provides more appropriate clothing. Ian is now Ian Gifford. Swann is now John Biden. Vasilii is now Vasilii Matahara, a trader from far off New Kandahar.
Personal firearms are prohibited in Bromley and King George’s Land except for security and military forces. Col. Rundell does arrange for permits for both Bromley and King George’s Land, but advises that the trio not display weapons in King George’s Land. He also arranges for permits for the other Bray Keaven crew.
Swann spends the day in one of the offices in the Groves Airport Administration Building with his new computer doing "research" on the soda and milk formula plants. There is a milk formula plant in the town of Judithan (about 80 km from the border) and a King Sour bottling facility in Kingan (just over the border from Bromley). The attempts to break into either facility’s computer network are extremely frustrating, and Swann ends up surfing various news sites to get a break and clear his mind.
Returning after lunch for a fresh approach, Swann remembers to adjust his approach down a few tech notches and breaks in easily to both facilities. He doesn’t find any formulas explicitly including some vaccine, but he does find some emails/memos/documents of note.
The first set of documents, at the Crown Prince Milk facility, include an angry resignation note dated from three months ago from a consulting physician stating that the physician will have nothing to do with adding an unknown governmental substance to the formula without his testing, even if the King’s Surgeon claims that the additive is safe and will aid in the development of babies. There is an interesting change order (also dated three months ago) to a mixing tank which indicates that the mixer needs to now draw from a newly installed tank No. 45 and to include 10 ml for every 100 ml from tank No. 3. There doesn’t seem to be a reversal order.
Swann makes himself a note on his handcomp: "Check on contents of tank No. 45 when we’re at the plant."
The second set of emails/memos are from the King Sour Bottling Plant in Kingan. The emails/memos indicate that the management gave the entire line staff a week of vacation (about three months ago) since they had been working so hard and that headquarters management were so happy with their production.
The last email is also from the King Sour Bottling Plant and indicates that one of the high–level managers will be waiting to meet a Col. Eddings and his delivery crew at 10 PM on Saturday night as planned. The note also indicates that the line staff of the facility will be gone on vacation for the entire week.
Swann does not find any incriminating data to indicate that a quantity of anything that could be a vaccine remains at either facility. Of course, beyond the emails/notes, Swann doesn’t find any indication of anything unusual at all at the facilities.
With a little time left before dinner, Swann does a bit more poking around in the computer systems for the hospitals in Judithan and Kingan. He does find a record for a Mr. Mark Laird at Judithan Community Hospital who was admitted 5 days ago with symptoms similar to those indicated by AHV. The treatment log is empty for the day of admission, but the nurse’s log from the last few days indicate that he is recovering well and will be released soon.
Swann makes himself another note: "We need to pay Mr. Laird a visit, see how he’s doing. Also need to see if we can track down the meds he’s been receiving."
After a long day of preparations, Ian, Vasilii, and Swann enjoy a dinner with some of their military comrades. After the Marine rations, the trio finds that the food is delicious.
During dinner, the trio exchange information and discuss their plans. They realize they will have to take the ship’s air raft since none of them knows how to drive a ground vehicle, which are the most common means of transportation on Alief.
When discussing the weapon’s permits, Vasilii mentions he is just planning to take along his snub pistol with some tranq rounds. Swann tells him, "I think you might want to take along that body pistol we found in the ship’s vault. Get all the spare clips and ammo, too. Tranq rounds are all right when you’re trying to keep a low profile, but you can’t always count on them to work. And sometimes, you need something a little more lethal for self-defense. Even if you don’t actually shoot someone, the added threat of lethality can be a wonderful negotiation tool."
Happily sated, they head back to wait for the Bray Keaven’s return.
Vasilii contacts Maj. Eckels who agrees to purchase 7 dTons of Marine rations. The silver will be delivered before the Bray Keaven leaves Alief or earlier, if the crew requests an earlier delivery. 140,000 Imperial Credits of silver is about 2 dTons.
Before the Bray Keaven leaves for the test firings, Sgt. Burnett shows up with a group of soldiers to help unload 7 dTons of Marine rations. Darishun and Vasilii help to unload the rations into the cargo bay, where the soldiers pick up the rations. The rations are taken from the ones originally stored in the port and starboard cargo locks (3 dTons), the second port crew cabin (2 dTons), and some from the forward cargo lock (2 dTons). A little under 4 dTons remains in the forward cargo lock and in the upper lounge.
While the cargo is being unloaded, Sgt. Burnett agrees to Vasilii’s request to look for some of the items for the Imperial Marines when he has a chance. The hipbeast sausage is unlikely, though, given the general food availability problem.
Vasilii comes up with a cover story for the holiday group: businessmen searching for trade possibilities. After Ian and Swann agree to the idea, he goes about setting up cover bank accounts for them using their new aliases as well as a corporate account.
He sets up four accounts with Killian Bank and Trust, a smaller bank with branches in several countries in the region. One for each of the holiday trio and a commercial one for the fake corporation. Setting up the corporation’s takes surprisingly long, and is a rather trying experience, even with the help of Col. Rundell, and he is unable to get the accounts set up in Imperial Credits (the accounts are in Bromlian Pounds).
Account Balances:
Vasilii/Vasilii: 10,000 BP
Ian/Ian: 10,000 BP
Swann/John: 10,000 BP
Corporation: 50,000 BP
Bray Keaven: 1,061,364 BP
Vasilii has a chance to do a little bit of research into King George’s Land using a computer provided by Sgt. Burnett, looking for possible trade goods. Most of the current trade possibilities from offworld sources are in the form of spare parts or higher tech devices, particularly those with military or dual use applications.
-----
Ian contacts Col. Rundell who arranges for new IDs for the trio and provides more appropriate clothing. Ian is now Ian Gifford. Swann is now John Biden. Vasilii is now Vasilii Matahara, a trader from far off New Kandahar.
Personal firearms are prohibited in Bromley and King George’s Land except for security and military forces. Col. Rundell does arrange for permits for both Bromley and King George’s Land, but advises that the trio not display weapons in King George’s Land. He also arranges for permits for the other Bray Keaven crew.
-----
Swann spends the day in one of the offices in the Groves Airport Administration Building with his new computer doing "research" on the soda and milk formula plants. There is a milk formula plant in the town of Judithan (about 80 km from the border) and a King Sour bottling facility in Kingan (just over the border from Bromley). The attempts to break into either facility’s computer network are extremely frustrating, and Swann ends up surfing various news sites to get a break and clear his mind.
Returning after lunch for a fresh approach, Swann remembers to adjust his approach down a few tech notches and breaks in easily to both facilities. He doesn’t find any formulas explicitly including some vaccine, but he does find some emails/memos/documents of note.
The first set of documents, at the Crown Prince Milk facility, include an angry resignation note dated from three months ago from a consulting physician stating that the physician will have nothing to do with adding an unknown governmental substance to the formula without his testing, even if the King’s Surgeon claims that the additive is safe and will aid in the development of babies. There is an interesting change order (also dated three months ago) to a mixing tank which indicates that the mixer needs to now draw from a newly installed tank No. 45 and to include 10 ml for every 100 ml from tank No. 3. There doesn’t seem to be a reversal order.
Swann makes himself a note on his handcomp: "Check on contents of tank No. 45 when we’re at the plant."
The second set of emails/memos are from the King Sour Bottling Plant in Kingan. The emails/memos indicate that the management gave the entire line staff a week of vacation (about three months ago) since they had been working so hard and that headquarters management were so happy with their production.
The last email is also from the King Sour Bottling Plant and indicates that one of the high–level managers will be waiting to meet a Col. Eddings and his delivery crew at 10 PM on Saturday night as planned. The note also indicates that the line staff of the facility will be gone on vacation for the entire week.
Swann does not find any incriminating data to indicate that a quantity of anything that could be a vaccine remains at either facility. Of course, beyond the emails/notes, Swann doesn’t find any indication of anything unusual at all at the facilities.
With a little time left before dinner, Swann does a bit more poking around in the computer systems for the hospitals in Judithan and Kingan. He does find a record for a Mr. Mark Laird at Judithan Community Hospital who was admitted 5 days ago with symptoms similar to those indicated by AHV. The treatment log is empty for the day of admission, but the nurse’s log from the last few days indicate that he is recovering well and will be released soon.
Swann makes himself another note: "We need to pay Mr. Laird a visit, see how he’s doing. Also need to see if we can track down the meds he’s been receiving."
-----
After a long day of preparations, Ian, Vasilii, and Swann enjoy a dinner with some of their military comrades. After the Marine rations, the trio finds that the food is delicious.
During dinner, the trio exchange information and discuss their plans. They realize they will have to take the ship’s air raft since none of them knows how to drive a ground vehicle, which are the most common means of transportation on Alief.
When discussing the weapon’s permits, Vasilii mentions he is just planning to take along his snub pistol with some tranq rounds. Swann tells him, "I think you might want to take along that body pistol we found in the ship’s vault. Get all the spare clips and ammo, too. Tranq rounds are all right when you’re trying to keep a low profile, but you can’t always count on them to work. And sometimes, you need something a little more lethal for self-defense. Even if you don’t actually shoot someone, the added threat of lethality can be a wonderful negotiation tool."
Happily sated, they head back to wait for the Bray Keaven’s return.
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Shadowdancer
First Post
Saro spends the day with the Bromlian doctors, and ends up at the portable building in his vacc suit looking at samples of the virus taken from victims with the higher tech gear brought by the Bray Keaven. He finds the virus to be interestingly complex and a near copy of the rabbit hemorrhagic virus except that the DNA strand has been extended with some interesting sequence pairs and tweaked. Consultation with the Bromlian doctors leads Saro and the Bromlian researchers to conclude that the virus is descended from the virus affecting rabbits, but could not possibly have occurred naturally.
The Bromlian doctors claim that no one on Alief should have the expertise and equipment to manipulate the virus in this fashion. Reproducing the virus is a much easier task, and the Bromlians conclude that King George’s Land could easily do that. It will be possible for many nations to reproduce a weakened or cross-reactive form of the virus in quantity for a vaccine if one is identified.
"Now let’s hope that one of the avenues by which we are pursuing that works out," Saro says. "I don’t think we have the time to engineer one of our own. This does raise the question of whether there are outside interests involved. Who else outside of KGL benefits from this situation?
"Although we can't design a vaccine due to time constraints," he continues, "we do have the virus and we know it’s genetic sequence so we might be able to design a quick diagnostic test now. Tonight, after meeting with the crew, I’m coming back here and burning the midnight oil to try and design a probe targeted to one of the unique genetic sequences of AHV. That would allow us to test patients and see whether they have been exposed to AHV. If the probe works then with a quick PCR assay we should be able to tell."
Darishun spends the day wandering about alternately alarming large crowds, trying to calm them down, and finding out where he can lend a hand or four.
The two eat dinner with the medical staff at an Army mess tent, and Darishun picks up some food for Argent, Martha, and Vargas before the two go to wait for the ship’s return.
While they are waiting, Saro asks his companion, "Darishun, I would like to know your opinion. Where do you think I would be more useful? If I stay here I can help in trying to identify if the survivors have developed antibodies and developing a vaccine that way. But the holiday team may need help identifying the right 'secret ingredient' on their trip. What else do you think we can do to help them identify what to get? Hopefully it will be clear once they reach those facilities, but what if it’s not?"
"I am unclear as to where you would be more helpful," Darishun replies. "As I understand it, your knowledge could be most helpful if we do find someone who has been affected and survived. At the same time, I have my doubts as to the veracity of these claims. I would imagine that it would be entirely within the realm of the behavior of a terrified human to claim that they had been affected and survived in order to increase the odds of a rescue.
"At the same time, it does seem likely that the madmen in King George’s Land do have a vaccine of some sort, and your presence may increase the chances of finding it. Your presence as a man of peace, reason, and healing may also diminish the possibility that a vaccine would be acquired through violence. Perhaps your knowledge and medical skills would be more appropriate on their excursion. I would like to go, but it would appear that my presence would be a little distinctive and not conducive to a subtle approach."
Saro then starts humming an old Vilani song while they wait for the ship.
The Bromlian doctors claim that no one on Alief should have the expertise and equipment to manipulate the virus in this fashion. Reproducing the virus is a much easier task, and the Bromlians conclude that King George’s Land could easily do that. It will be possible for many nations to reproduce a weakened or cross-reactive form of the virus in quantity for a vaccine if one is identified.
"Now let’s hope that one of the avenues by which we are pursuing that works out," Saro says. "I don’t think we have the time to engineer one of our own. This does raise the question of whether there are outside interests involved. Who else outside of KGL benefits from this situation?
"Although we can't design a vaccine due to time constraints," he continues, "we do have the virus and we know it’s genetic sequence so we might be able to design a quick diagnostic test now. Tonight, after meeting with the crew, I’m coming back here and burning the midnight oil to try and design a probe targeted to one of the unique genetic sequences of AHV. That would allow us to test patients and see whether they have been exposed to AHV. If the probe works then with a quick PCR assay we should be able to tell."
-----
Darishun spends the day wandering about alternately alarming large crowds, trying to calm them down, and finding out where he can lend a hand or four.
-----
The two eat dinner with the medical staff at an Army mess tent, and Darishun picks up some food for Argent, Martha, and Vargas before the two go to wait for the ship’s return.
While they are waiting, Saro asks his companion, "Darishun, I would like to know your opinion. Where do you think I would be more useful? If I stay here I can help in trying to identify if the survivors have developed antibodies and developing a vaccine that way. But the holiday team may need help identifying the right 'secret ingredient' on their trip. What else do you think we can do to help them identify what to get? Hopefully it will be clear once they reach those facilities, but what if it’s not?"
"I am unclear as to where you would be more helpful," Darishun replies. "As I understand it, your knowledge could be most helpful if we do find someone who has been affected and survived. At the same time, I have my doubts as to the veracity of these claims. I would imagine that it would be entirely within the realm of the behavior of a terrified human to claim that they had been affected and survived in order to increase the odds of a rescue.
"At the same time, it does seem likely that the madmen in King George’s Land do have a vaccine of some sort, and your presence may increase the chances of finding it. Your presence as a man of peace, reason, and healing may also diminish the possibility that a vaccine would be acquired through violence. Perhaps your knowledge and medical skills would be more appropriate on their excursion. I would like to go, but it would appear that my presence would be a little distinctive and not conducive to a subtle approach."
Saro then starts humming an old Vilani song while they wait for the ship.
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Shadowdancer
First Post
That evening, after the Bray Keaven returns to the airport, the crewmembers gather in the lounge to share information and to discuss plans. Martha, Argent, and Vargas also dine on the food Darishun thoughtfully brought for them.
"I’m leaning towards going on the holiday expedition," Saro announces. "Would it be too late to get an identity for me? I could leave a detailed protocol for people here as to how to identify patients. With the diagnostic test at least we can safely determine if they have been exposed. If they have been exposed and subsequently survived, the doctors here could easily isolate the antibodies. Maybe if that happens they could even try and contact us over the border and we could just head straight back.
"On the expedition there are many variables, and I think we have to be flexible. While I am certainly no combatant, perhaps I could be of more use there. I would appreciate all of your opinions."
Swann breaks into a smile as the Doctor announces his intentions of joining the holiday excursion. "Hey Doc, that’s great. I’d love to have you come along. We can always use another pair of eyes to spot trouble and another mind to help formulate an escape plan. And it will be nice to have someone along who actually knows what we’re looking for." Swann also thinks, "And someone who can patch us up if things go sour."
Saro smiles and can’t help but yawn. "Thanks. I hope we find something that helps and at the very least I’m sure we will learn a lot more about what is going on."
Darishun cocks his head to one side and asks, "Does the expedition team have communication devices? So we can contact you if we need to."
Argent says that as far as the Doc going, "It’s up to him. Darishun is staying aboard, so we at least have a medic for anyone needing aid. If Saro and the holiday group feel it would be better to have a medic on the trip, I would recommend that he go with them."
Later, after dinner, as Ian, Vasilii, and Dr. Saro gather around to discuss the holiday trip, Swann rubs a hand across his face, looks at the others, and says, "I have a rudimentary plan for our trip, but it’s far from complete. I’ll outline it for you, and if anyone has any suggestions or improvements, or even a better plan, feel free to jump right in.
"First, we’re going to need a fake ID and a bank account for Doc. We’re also going to need some communicators — a short–range communicator for each of us and one with a longer range we can use to contact the ship. I think that we have enough weapons on board to outfit us, except I’d like to get a couple of knives, with at least one of them balanced for throwing — just in case. Binoculars and night–vision goggles also would be nice to have.
"I think we should first go to Kingan, which is just over the border. We can hide the air raft on this side of the border and sneak across on foot. If need be, we can pose as businessmen, as Vasilii suggested. While in Kingan, we should go check out the King Sour soda bottling facility. Also there are a couple of hospitals we can check out, see if they have a vaccine stashed away.
"Depending on how things go in Kingan, we can then head for Judithan, which is about 80 km over the border. We can sneak back across the border, pick up the air raft, fly to just outside Judithan, stash it somewhere, and walk into town. We can pose as businessmen again. In Judithan, we can check out the Crown Prince milk formula plant. Our target there should be the new additive in tank No. 45.
"Also in Judithan there is a hospital, where at least one recent patient has received treatment for symptoms very similar to our mystery disease. He pulled through, which means they probably have some medicine there for treating victims. If we can’t find the meds at the hospital, we have the patient’s name and address — we can sneak into his house and take a blood sample if we have to.
"Well, that’s my plan. It's simple, straightforward, and has plenty of room for change and improv, because we’ll probably need to be flexible — something always goes wrong, no matter how good the plan.
"But I’m not married to this one. Does anyone have anything to add, or any suggestions? Have we overlooked anything? Is there another tactic we should try? I’m all ears."
After listening to the plan outline while sipping some caffeinated drink, Saro looks impressed. "I like the plan. But instead of the hospital, maybe we should look elsewhere for the vaccine. Vaccination is rarely carried out in hospitals. Some public health office would be a more likely target. Maybe a Ministry of Health or something along those lines. If they have a warehouse that would be a prime target."
"That’s good to know," Swann says. "I’ll start looking for more information along those lines."
"About that Judithan patient who survived," Saro says. "It doesn’t necessarily mean that he was treated. He could be one of those people who developed natural immunity. With all infections there is always someone who develops a natural immunity, and those people are extremely useful. That’s what we are hoping those patients who claim to have survived in the Bromlian capital are. So maybe if we talk to this patient, he would allow us to take samples from him as Swann suggested. That would be very useful."
The surgeon smiles again and there are deep lines in his forehead and crows’ feet in his eyes. "A side benefit of my presence that should not be ignored is that I can drive the wheeled vehicles that are common around here, not great but I can do it, and that I can entertain all of you with my baliset and my songs. Any requests?"
"Then we might look at obtaining a ground vehicle before going across the border into KGL," Swann says. "That would look better than a group of businessmen walking into town. We might be able to lease a vehicle, or if necessary ‘borrow’ one. Mister Vasilii, perhaps you could inquire among your sources about the possibility of renting ground transportation near the border? And we’ll need some detailed maps of the border area near Kingan, and the area around Judithan as well as maps of the cities themselves."
After the conversation Saro finds Martha and asks to speak with her privately. He says to her: "Martha, I ran the samples and I didn’t find anything. You were not exposed, or if you were it did not have any effect on you, which would be very strange. Also, there were no traces of pollen. Are you still having nightmares? How are you sleeping? Let me know if there is anything I can do for you, even if it’s just lending an ear to listen to you. I know very well that not all problems can be treated with drugs or surgery. Sometimes a little bit of caring and understanding helps. I’m here for you if you need anything."
"Thanks, Doc," Martha sighs as she rubs her eye casually. "Ummm, yeah, I’m still having the nightmares, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t from the pollen or whatever." She looks uncomfortably at the medical officer. "Look, it’s just . . . well, it’s . . . it’s hard . . . ," she sighs again, looking down at the floor. "Doc, now’s not the time. Can we do this later? I . . . I’m just not ready yet, OK?" Her tone, perhaps a bit too brusque, borders on a hidden well of emotion. She chokes out, "I gotta get some sleep, OK. Following doctor’s orders and all." With a forced smile, she squirms past the Doc and hurries to her room.
Outside her room, the soft sounds of sobbing can be heard for about half an hour, before drifting off into silence punctuated only by the occasional whimper and moan, and occasionally more tears.
Saro heads to his room and gets about five hours of sleep. His communicator is on and ready, in case of an emergency, right next to his head. He sleeps lightly, ready to be called. After sleeping, he returns to the lab and starts working on a probe and a set of primers for a diagnostic test based on the disease’s known DNA sequence. Designing the TL12 equivalent of a PCR assay is pretty easy now that Saro has the DNA sequence information (acquired from a sample that the Bromlian doctors had and run through the equipment that the Bray Keaven brought). The field medical kits and the medical equipment that the Bromlians now have (albeit in limited quantities) have a small blood/body fluids chemical profiler that can be set up to detect the presence of AHV in a sample once the information is downloaded to them. Saro sends the information to the Bromlians and downloads the information to his profiler and to Darishun’s.
"I’m leaning towards going on the holiday expedition," Saro announces. "Would it be too late to get an identity for me? I could leave a detailed protocol for people here as to how to identify patients. With the diagnostic test at least we can safely determine if they have been exposed. If they have been exposed and subsequently survived, the doctors here could easily isolate the antibodies. Maybe if that happens they could even try and contact us over the border and we could just head straight back.
"On the expedition there are many variables, and I think we have to be flexible. While I am certainly no combatant, perhaps I could be of more use there. I would appreciate all of your opinions."
Swann breaks into a smile as the Doctor announces his intentions of joining the holiday excursion. "Hey Doc, that’s great. I’d love to have you come along. We can always use another pair of eyes to spot trouble and another mind to help formulate an escape plan. And it will be nice to have someone along who actually knows what we’re looking for." Swann also thinks, "And someone who can patch us up if things go sour."
Saro smiles and can’t help but yawn. "Thanks. I hope we find something that helps and at the very least I’m sure we will learn a lot more about what is going on."
Darishun cocks his head to one side and asks, "Does the expedition team have communication devices? So we can contact you if we need to."
Argent says that as far as the Doc going, "It’s up to him. Darishun is staying aboard, so we at least have a medic for anyone needing aid. If Saro and the holiday group feel it would be better to have a medic on the trip, I would recommend that he go with them."
-----
Later, after dinner, as Ian, Vasilii, and Dr. Saro gather around to discuss the holiday trip, Swann rubs a hand across his face, looks at the others, and says, "I have a rudimentary plan for our trip, but it’s far from complete. I’ll outline it for you, and if anyone has any suggestions or improvements, or even a better plan, feel free to jump right in.
"First, we’re going to need a fake ID and a bank account for Doc. We’re also going to need some communicators — a short–range communicator for each of us and one with a longer range we can use to contact the ship. I think that we have enough weapons on board to outfit us, except I’d like to get a couple of knives, with at least one of them balanced for throwing — just in case. Binoculars and night–vision goggles also would be nice to have.
"I think we should first go to Kingan, which is just over the border. We can hide the air raft on this side of the border and sneak across on foot. If need be, we can pose as businessmen, as Vasilii suggested. While in Kingan, we should go check out the King Sour soda bottling facility. Also there are a couple of hospitals we can check out, see if they have a vaccine stashed away.
"Depending on how things go in Kingan, we can then head for Judithan, which is about 80 km over the border. We can sneak back across the border, pick up the air raft, fly to just outside Judithan, stash it somewhere, and walk into town. We can pose as businessmen again. In Judithan, we can check out the Crown Prince milk formula plant. Our target there should be the new additive in tank No. 45.
"Also in Judithan there is a hospital, where at least one recent patient has received treatment for symptoms very similar to our mystery disease. He pulled through, which means they probably have some medicine there for treating victims. If we can’t find the meds at the hospital, we have the patient’s name and address — we can sneak into his house and take a blood sample if we have to.
"Well, that’s my plan. It's simple, straightforward, and has plenty of room for change and improv, because we’ll probably need to be flexible — something always goes wrong, no matter how good the plan.
"But I’m not married to this one. Does anyone have anything to add, or any suggestions? Have we overlooked anything? Is there another tactic we should try? I’m all ears."
After listening to the plan outline while sipping some caffeinated drink, Saro looks impressed. "I like the plan. But instead of the hospital, maybe we should look elsewhere for the vaccine. Vaccination is rarely carried out in hospitals. Some public health office would be a more likely target. Maybe a Ministry of Health or something along those lines. If they have a warehouse that would be a prime target."
"That’s good to know," Swann says. "I’ll start looking for more information along those lines."
"About that Judithan patient who survived," Saro says. "It doesn’t necessarily mean that he was treated. He could be one of those people who developed natural immunity. With all infections there is always someone who develops a natural immunity, and those people are extremely useful. That’s what we are hoping those patients who claim to have survived in the Bromlian capital are. So maybe if we talk to this patient, he would allow us to take samples from him as Swann suggested. That would be very useful."
The surgeon smiles again and there are deep lines in his forehead and crows’ feet in his eyes. "A side benefit of my presence that should not be ignored is that I can drive the wheeled vehicles that are common around here, not great but I can do it, and that I can entertain all of you with my baliset and my songs. Any requests?"
"Then we might look at obtaining a ground vehicle before going across the border into KGL," Swann says. "That would look better than a group of businessmen walking into town. We might be able to lease a vehicle, or if necessary ‘borrow’ one. Mister Vasilii, perhaps you could inquire among your sources about the possibility of renting ground transportation near the border? And we’ll need some detailed maps of the border area near Kingan, and the area around Judithan as well as maps of the cities themselves."
-----
After the conversation Saro finds Martha and asks to speak with her privately. He says to her: "Martha, I ran the samples and I didn’t find anything. You were not exposed, or if you were it did not have any effect on you, which would be very strange. Also, there were no traces of pollen. Are you still having nightmares? How are you sleeping? Let me know if there is anything I can do for you, even if it’s just lending an ear to listen to you. I know very well that not all problems can be treated with drugs or surgery. Sometimes a little bit of caring and understanding helps. I’m here for you if you need anything."
"Thanks, Doc," Martha sighs as she rubs her eye casually. "Ummm, yeah, I’m still having the nightmares, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t from the pollen or whatever." She looks uncomfortably at the medical officer. "Look, it’s just . . . well, it’s . . . it’s hard . . . ," she sighs again, looking down at the floor. "Doc, now’s not the time. Can we do this later? I . . . I’m just not ready yet, OK?" Her tone, perhaps a bit too brusque, borders on a hidden well of emotion. She chokes out, "I gotta get some sleep, OK. Following doctor’s orders and all." With a forced smile, she squirms past the Doc and hurries to her room.
Outside her room, the soft sounds of sobbing can be heard for about half an hour, before drifting off into silence punctuated only by the occasional whimper and moan, and occasionally more tears.
-----
Saro heads to his room and gets about five hours of sleep. His communicator is on and ready, in case of an emergency, right next to his head. He sleeps lightly, ready to be called. After sleeping, he returns to the lab and starts working on a probe and a set of primers for a diagnostic test based on the disease’s known DNA sequence. Designing the TL12 equivalent of a PCR assay is pretty easy now that Saro has the DNA sequence information (acquired from a sample that the Bromlian doctors had and run through the equipment that the Bray Keaven brought). The field medical kits and the medical equipment that the Bromlians now have (albeit in limited quantities) have a small blood/body fluids chemical profiler that can be set up to detect the presence of AHV in a sample once the information is downloaded to them. Saro sends the information to the Bromlians and downloads the information to his profiler and to Darishun’s.
