High Law and Low Justice, Part 4

[Maerdwyn]

ooc: Chinese curse... "May you live in interesting times."

Some of you eat revenously, for others, Ktarle simply hooks up an I-V. As the sleeping arrangements gets sorted out, food is distributed, and some eat ravenously, while others of you don't have much of an appetite after such a long stretch without food or sleep; Ktarle offers I-V nourishment to any who simply want to fall off to sleep. Trel stays up a while longer, to make sure the passengers are staying in line, and to monitor ships systems for a little while; when he is confident none of the passengers is going to do or say anything stupid, he too goes to sleep.

The next eight hours pass uneventfully, save for the dreams. The next morning everyone gathers in the passenger lounge, looking a bit more alert than before. Things hurt a bit more for some of you (Ruzz'koff's wounds especially pain him a little more on this, the day after his major surgery. As Ruzz'koff prepares to start the meeting, Ktarle escorts the two surviving members of the crew into the lounge.

Present:
Ruzz'koff
Trelene
Tomas
Saanath
Trel
Ktarle

Rergshael (Dvonn's astrogator), a vargr woman in her late 30s
Hector Guzman (Dvonn's steward), human male in his twenties

Alden Glendower, Shirshaq: human male, 55ish
Arthur and Dorothy Fingal, Qaarz: mixed human couple, 60s
Varina and Milikan Kenin, Shirshaq: luriani couple, late 40s
Bel Poniru, Shirshaq: luriani male, late 50s
Kevan, Lorin, and Bilem Woliriu, Shirshaq: Luriani family (parents in their 30s, Bilem is 8)
Kiria Menehiru, Qaarz: 11 month old luriani girl

Everyone looks around at everyone else, waiting for someone to begin.

 

[DrZombie]

Captain Ruzz'koff

An hour before the meeting, Ruzz'koff wakes and takes a shower, letting the hot water melt away most of his muscle cramps. He carefullu grooms his pelt and dresses in his gala uniform, his only remaining clothes. He then gathers all the proof (video and audio) and prepares the meeting. When everyone is gathered he stands up
"Ladies, gentlemen. As most of you know, I'm Captain Ruzz'koff. Our situation is as follows..." and he once again explains the entire story as he sees it, without too much embellishments, frequently interrupting his speech with fragments of audio and video as proof of his story.

When he has finished, he looks around at the dazzled passengers and remaining crew.

"Now, does anyone have anything to add or to ask?"

He then prepares for the storm.

 

[Maerdwyn]

Alden (predictably, to those who have gotten to know him over the course of Dvonn's journey) is the first to speak. "All right," he says, "I'll give it a go. Say we accept that all of this happened...why did they do it? I can see them trying to bust Malikot's balls a bit, but murdering people from two different ships? Why?"

 

[doghead]

Saanath, human male merchant adventurer

Saanath leans back in his chair.

"I have wondered that myself. I have no definite conclusions, but it seems that Mr Nels-C is at the center of things. He had with him on the Kerchan some fairly significant security. And I think that there was some form of communication suppression centered on the Kerchan. Dr Scatigue would be able to tell you more on that. It stuck me as some type of analogue to Black Globe technology, although I'm no technical expert.

"What I can't decide is if he was the target or the instigator. My initial feeling was that Mr Nels-C was the one pulling the strings. His insistance that the Dvonn was a corsair suggested that he knew more about the situation than he let on in the bridge. But as pople have mentioned, there doesn't seem to be an compelling motivation. It would seem like a hell of a long way to go to crush a minor competitor. Which leaves the other option; was the Dvonn used as bait in a a trap laid to get Mr Nels-whatsists?

"There are still one or two loose ends," Saanath's eyes flicker over in Quinn's direction, "to tie up. Hopefully they will give us some more insight into the situation."

 

[Tonguez]

"There's also the issue of that dust that we had to clean up when we arrived on board here" Tomas adds much more rested and showered than he had been

"we know it was organic but does anyone in the crew or passengers have any idea what the source of it might have been? That might explain the link to Nells"

 

[Wilphe]

Dorothy Fingal

"Never seen anything like it. Is there anything in ships papers suggesting that such a dangerous cargo was being carried by a passenger?," she looks at the surviving crew members, "The thought does occur, loath though I am to entertain the possibility, that it was not an element that entered into the Nells plan and our hunter friend picked it up accidentally. Then again he might have been a dupe."

 

[Maerdwyn]

"Armand brought that stuff aboard? Serves him right then," Alden says callously.
Kevan scowls at him, and says forcefully, "Look before anything else gets discussed, I think we owe these people our thanks. Whatever that stuff was and however it got on here, it would have kille us all if they hadn't rescued us, and some of them did die saving us. So, on behalf of my boy, my wife and I want to thank you all." The others all nod and thank the rescuers, including Trel, heartily, although to the latter, the thanks are mingled with sentiments of condolence ranging from unintentionally offensive to eloquent.

 

[Maerdwyn]

When everyone has quieted down again, Rerg'Shael says, "We do thank you, and, I know I speak for Hector when I say we will do what we can to help out as crew until we get to port." She pauses for a second, and says, "Now, back to what happened...Do we all agree it was deliberate sabotage? I check my jump calcs five times - we still ended up here. I checked them after the misjump, and I guarantee you they were right...for us to end up, lame, in the same system as the Empress' Fury, and for the 'dandruff from hell' to start falling at the same time? There's no way that was a coincidence."

 

[Guest 11456]

Trelene Scrautigue : Luriani Navy 2/Prof 7/Trav 1: Retired Makhidkarum Vice President

"Rerg'Shael? I would appreciate your help in going over the current jump calculations. We need to make sure of where we are going. We also could look over your calculations again. It always helps when a second set of eyes looks things over. We also should do an extensive computer diagnostic to see if there are any abnormalities there. Once this meeting is over, of course." Trelene tries to reassure the vargr woman while getting her thinking on other things. "For now I am going to run a complete diagnostic on the engines. Please let me know if I am needed elsewhere." With that, the luriani woman starts to head for engineering.

 

[Tonguez]

"No doubt the engines were deliberately wrecked" Tomas offers "the rest still needs to be traced. So sorry who is Armand? you mentioned him earlier..."