Vargas, who bunks in a cabin next to the bridge, rolls out of his rack, grabs his gun belt, and draws the autopistol. He palms open the door with one hand while holding the automatic in the other. Finding no apparent immediate threat in the corridor, Vargas gets to the bridge and punches up the anti–hijack/intruder-monitoring system. Only the alarm for the (fake) port fuel processor has been tripped: none of the perimeter alarms nor the alarms on the internal iris valves show signs of unauthorized entry attempts.
-----
Martha awakes with a start. Quickly, she moves to a nearby console, attempting to access the security protocols and identify who or what may be causing the alert.
From the console in her cabin, Martha discovers the same information as Vargas. Furthermore, she finds that no authorized entries have been made since Saro apparently returned about an hour ago.
-----
Swann bolts awake, the pleasant dream about the redhead in the naughty–schoolgirl outfit forgotten. By reflex, his hand grabs the body pistol under his pillow as he scans the room. Seeing no one, he rubs his other hand across his face and then rolls out of his bunk. He quickly pulls on his flak jacket, puts the body pistol inside a pocket, and straps on his autopistol as he exits his cabin.
He draws the autopistol as he heads for the lift from the upper deck to the lower. He bangs loudly — once each — on the doors to Saro’s and Ian’s cabins as he goes past.
-----
Ian jumps out of bed, throws on his flak jacket, and grabs his gauss pistol as he heads out the door, exiting just after Swann’s knock. He takes the lift down with Swann, and the pair makes a quick plan. "Swann, you go through the corridor by the low berths, I’ll cut through the main cargo bay," Ian says. "And let’s try not to shoot each other, eh?"
They split up once they reach the lower deck with Swann heading to the port airlock first. Swann finds the port airlock still locked down as before. Getting through the various closed iris valves does take time given that each requires the longer authentication method mandated by alert status protocols.
Ian opens the hatch into the cargo bay and heads aft to the iris valve just outside the port engineering compartment, glancing around the cargo hold to see if anything looks suspicious.
When he reaches the iris valve outside port engineering, he stands to the right side of the valve and waits.
-----
Vasilii is woken out of a sound sleep by the incessant ringing of the ship’s alarm and sits up wide-eyed. Jumping out of bed, he dresses hurriedly in the nearest jumpsuit and his flak vest. Looking excitedly around the stateroom for anything he could use as a weapon, he sees the Manstopper 6 magnum revolver that was purchased for him and that he hasn’t had a chance to put in the armory yet. Grabbing it and the ammo, he fumbles the weapon open and loads it.
Opening the door slightly, Vasilii peers out into the lounge and moves slowly into the room. Hearing a noise on the deck below, he peers down through the hatch in the floor, and sees Swann securing the port airlock.
-----
Swann spots Vasilii as the merchant starts down the ladder. He lowers his autopistol and points it downward. "Evening Vasilii. It seems your blonde friend and her associates aren’t the patient, negotiating sort. I just hope our intruder isn’t a Wraith, or she’s probably long gone."
Vasilii slides down the ladder and starts to follow Swann as he proceeds aft, his heart pounding.
-----
Kevon hops up out of bed, slips an ImpNav duty jumpsuit over his skivvies, and grabs his laser pistol from its secure footlocker before heading out the door. In the corridor outside his cabin, Kevon almost runs into Swann and Vasilii as he heads past them toward the bridge. Seeing Emile there upon his arrival, Kevon asks as he slides into the command chair, "Mr. Vargas, what’s the word?"
"I think the word is ‘strange.’ The only alarm tripped was on the fuel processor. How’d they get in? I think we need eyes on the hangar bay now."
-----
Acting on a hunch, Martha pulls up the camera view for the iris valve camera that authenticates people leaving port engineering toward the corridor where the low berths are. She sees light spilling from the now–opened smuggling compartment, and the sideways–projected shadows of at least one large humanoid on the floor about 2-3 meters from the iris valve.
The light also illuminates two rectangular boxy things sitting on the floor about a foot apart with their broad sides perpendicular to the corridor. Judging from the mirrored configuration, Martha concludes one is pointed towards the iris valve and the other is pointed deeper into engineering. The rectangular boxes are about 20-30 cm by 10 cm by 5 cm. They do appear to be angled slightly up from sitting flat on the ground. It’s really hard to make out any real details. There does appear to a blinking red light on top of each box.
Acting quickly, Martha sets the grav plating in that section to zero-G, then switches it to 2.0 gravities a few seconds later, continuing the transition back and forth from no grav to high grav and back again in order to disorient and perplex the large humanoid until the crew can get there. As she does so, she relays the information on the contents of the room to the others, and tells them what she is doing to disorient the intruder, so they aren’t taken by surprise.
-----
Swann opens the iris valve to the port cargo hatch section, peeks around the edge, and then enters the compartment with his autopistol leading the way. After checking all the corners, he motions for Vasilii to come through. Eyeing the Vilani’s weapon, Swann says, "Make sure if you have to fire that gun, you know where the barrel is pointed — preferably not at me. And if you do have to fire it, be ready for a big kick. If you were in zero-G when you fired it, you’d probably hit 2-G acceleration in the opposite direction."
Swann opens the iris valve into the low berth section, and repeats his entry process and search before moving on to the port engineering section iris.
-----
A minute or two after the initial alarm has sounded, Ian, Swann, and Vasilii are outside their respective iris valves leading to port engineering; they’ve received Martha’s update, but they haven’t keyed either door open yet. Kevon and Vargas are monitoring events from the bridge, Martha from a console in her cabin.
Upon receiving the info from Martha, Ian hesitates. Tapping his comm unit, he says, "Martha, any way you can scan the interior of this area to see if there is still an alive intruder present? I don't like those boxes, anybody recognize the description?"
The back of Ian’s brain tickles a bit listening to Martha’s description. Since he can’t see the boxes himself and his brain is still a little sleep–adled, it’s kind of hard for him to put his finger on why the description should be so familiar. The boxes also confuse everyone else.
-----
Kevon checks internal sensors from his position, seeing if he can find out anything about the port fuel processor.
Kevon, tapping into the same feed that Martha found (the iris valve camera), can see there is a light coming from the right of the camera view, which would be in the direction of the port fuel processor. Something (apparently the large humanoid previously reported) casts a shadow. The shadow seems to flail around suddenly and oddly, and then suddenly flattens. Kevon is a bit confused but assumes the change is the effect of Martha playing around with the grav field in engineering.
Kevon and Martha do have the microphone turned on and both hear a satisfying "What tha?," a thud, an "OOFF," and an "UUGGGGHH."
-----
Swann positions himself on the left-hand side of the iris valve leading into port engineering, and motions for Vasilii to take up a position on the opposite side of the valve, next to the low berths. He says in a low voice, "When I nod my head at you, hit the controls to open the valve." He then kneels down, trying to give himself as much cover as possible when the valve opens. He activates his comm unit and says, "Ian, I’m about to open my valve."
Swann points his gun at the iris valve, makes sure the safety is off, then nods to Vasilii.
-----
Ian opens his valve and waits a couple seconds for anything to come flying through. When nothing happens, he turns and points his pistol through the valve, looking for the intruder.
-----
Swann nods to Vasilii, and Vasilii triggers the iris valve open. As the iris valve opens, there is a sudden bright flash, a deafening bang, and the corridor fills with light, noise, and dust/powder.
-----
On Ian’s side, he sees the flash and hears the loud bang just as belated recognition clicks on one word: mine.
At this point, there isn’t any significant powder headed in Ian’s direction, but he isn’t sure if the second mine has gone off.
-----
From the other stations, the others just hear a loud bang, see a flash of light, and see a monitor full of dust from the video pickups.
-----
"Crap!" Martha thinks to herself as she moves quickly, setting the grav plates to zero gravity. "Sorry, guys," she says over the personal comms. "Floor set to zero gee. What happened?"
Martha listens to the reports, making sure everyone’s OK, as she tries to direct the ship’s life support systems to start scrubbing the dust from the air in that section.
-----
Ian steps back to the side of the iris hatch and flip on his comm. "Swann! Vasilii! Status report! Are y’all OK?" Waiting for a response he readies his weapon in case the intruder emerges from the opening.
-----
Vasilii triggers the iris valve as Swann gestures and starts to leap into the room, only to be met by a blast of light and noise. The Vilani is stunned by the bang and slumps dazedly against the wall by the iris valve controls.
The flash and bang momentarily blind Swann, but he recovers from the initial effects. The powder appears to be some sort of tranquilizer or stunning substance, and he quickly holds his breath. He now has the difficult decision to make of running out of the area (the powder/dust stretches back about 10-15 meters and is in the air) or trying to struggle his way forward.
Vasilii is less lucky and appears to have been stunned/dazed by the initial flash and bang. Swann can’t tell if the Vilani merchant has started feeling the effects of the powder/dust or not.
The room swirls and Vasilii can’t focus on what is happening. He feels himself being lifted and moved, but who or what is moving him is beyond him.
Holding his breath, Swann thumbs the safety on his autopistol and holsters the weapon as he steps across the corridor to Vasilii and the valve controls. He closes the iris valve, then picks up Vasilii in a fireman’s carry and moves toward forward, away from port engineering and the powder.
Swann keys the iris valve closed, grabs Vasilii and sprints as best as he can towards the bow of the ship. By the time that he gets to the area near the port passenger airlock, the air seems notably cleaner, and both he and Vasilii seem to be able to breathe normally. Just in case, he does close the iris valve to the port cargo lock.
-----
Ian trains his pistol on the door and furiously tries to recall what he can about this type of mine. He thinks the mine is a variant of age–old perimeter defense/area denial mines. The mines tend to come equipped with adhesives/spikes for placement, an explosive charge and payload of some sort (usually lethal), and can be command denoted or detonated automatically. The mine probably includes a visual tripwire of some sort, probably a camera that records an initial view and then detonates the mine when the view changes by X percent (usually when something wanders into view).
As such, Ian decides that sticking his head in the iris valve and into the mine’s view isn’t a great idea. Ian is confused as to why the back of the first mine didn’t blow into the back of the second mine when the first exploded. He does keep the iris valve open and tries to peek into the engineering compartment. He can’t quite see into the fuel processor hold, and he can’t see any humanoid shaped shadows.
-----
Meanwhile, Martha hurriedly sets the grav plates in engineering to zero G and sets the life support systems towards clearing the air.
-----
Ian clicks on the comm unit again. "Martha, can you give me an update on status of the boxes and the intruder in the fuel processing area? Can you see Swann and Vasilii?"
While waiting for a response, Ian looks around for something, anything to use as a decoy to throw through the iris valve in an attempt to detonate the remaining mine.
-----
"It’s not clear yet, but I’m working on it."
From her room, Martha works on getting the filters to clear the air in the afflicted areas. After a minute or so, the air in engineering has cleared enough for Martha to see that the new mystery boxes (mines) remain where they were before. It’s hard to make out details, but the iris valve mine appears to have a rough front edge and no blinking light. The top of the second mine (presumably pointed towards the rest of port engineering) still has a blinking light on top. Martha doesn’t see any shadows being cast from the port fuel processor hold.
-----
Swann sets Vasilii down near the port passenger airlock. Swann smiles at Vasilii as they both gulp deep breaths of fresh air. "That was a close one," he says. He then keys his comm unit. "This is Swann. Vasilii and I are both OK. Ian, watch out for those boxes. They have some sort of tranq gas inside. I’m gonna grab some masks from the ship’s locker, I’ll bring you one as quick as I can."
The Vilani merchant seems to be coming out of the blast–induced daze, but his eyes remain a little unfocussed, so Swann leaves him with the instructions to keep an eye on the iris valve leading towards the port cargo lock. The rogue then grabs three breather masks, leaves one with Vasilii, and heads towards the cargo bay and Ian. Swann puts on a mask as he crosses the hold to where Ian is, then gives Ian a mask. Lastly, he draws his autopistol again and thumbs off the safety.
"Thanks!" Ian says as he takes the mask and starts putting it on. "As soon as we get an update as to the situation inside we can plan our next move. If the situation is similar to before, I think we should throw in a ‘decoy’ to trip the remaining mine, just in case it is different than the first one. Then we can move in."
"A decoy," Swann says as he starts to look around for something suitable. "Hmmm, do you think Martha would miss any of her tools?"
-----
On the bridge, Vargas and Kevon start checking the external vid cams on the ship and those provided by the docking berth. They don’t see anyone on any of the vidcams nor out the bridge viewports. Both the passenger and cargo/vehicle berth doors are also closed.
"OK, what the frell is going on?" Kevon grumbles as he continues to perform external visual scans. "If that was a legitimate fuel processor, Mr. Vargas, we’d be venting H-2 right now. Unless you have some military-grade valves on board?"
"Actually it is a legit fuel processor. It also happens to be currently nonfunctional, owing to the late cheapskate who last owned the Keaven. By the way, what do you think of trying to do a sweep around the ship while somebody monitors from up here? I could do it with one other person if we could bust someone loose."
Clearly not satisfied with the answer given, Kevon sighs and moves on to Vargas’ question. "I think it’s a good idea, but I’d first rather figure out whom the hell that large humanoid shadow belongs to in the processor. And I don’t think we can spare anyone from below at the moment.
"Let me go grab my street howitzer and I’ll comm you."
"Roger that."
After Kevon leaves Vargas’ face screws up in concentration. " ‘Whom the hell'? I guess he took ‘Grammar for Combat 101.’ "
-----
Saro is in his cabin dreaming happily of jamming on-stage with Krend Zlapidar and the Zlaptastics, the (in)famous fusion-polka act, when he abruptly finds himself awake.
"Zlappy? What's up?" he mumbles incoherently before he is able to place his whereabouts. Lying in his bed, he tries to figure out what woke him from his slumber. As he lies there he hears the sound of excited voices muffled by his door.
Sitting up, he blearily throws on a pair of slippers and a tattered robe, and heads out the door towards the bridge.
Squinting in the light, he enters the bridge and sees Emile hovering over a vid screen.
"Mr. Vargas, what’s going on? I was just having an excellent dream when something woke me up."
"Well I hope you told her you wouldn’t be back soon, looks like we’ve got an intruder aboard in port engineering, in the fuel processor. Some kind of explosion just went off and just about everyone else is down there in the thick of it. If you want, grab a screen and help me keep an eye on things. Maybe we can even find out whom the hell did this."
The former Scout taps a couple of controls and shakes his head. "Who the hell . . . whom the hell . . . or what the hell."
As his brain starts to pick up speed he realizes what Vargas is talking about, "Oh . . . no ‘her’ but I was on stage with . . . hey! Did you say intruder? Explosion?
"Damnation. I’m gonna run back and throw on some clothes more suitable. I hardly think a lounging robe is proper attire for a possible firefight. I’ll be right back," Saro tells Vargas as he trots off the bridge and back to his cabin.
Thanks that'd be me. I try to keep Saro's responses in line with what he'd know & feel. I may not always be sucessful but I try.
If I remember correctly, I was away from the game for a few days when the intruder alert went off, hence Saro's "deep sleep" episode. But it gave me fodder for a little dream related flavor text.
From her cabin, Martha works on getting the filters to clear the air in the afflicted areas. After a minute or so, the air in engineering has cleared enough for Martha to see that the mines remain where they were before. It’s hard to make out details, but the iris valve mine appears to have a rough front edge and no blinking light. The top of the second mine (presumably pointed towards the rest of port engineering) still has a blinking light on top. Martha doesn’t see any shadows being cast from the port fuel processor hold.
Martha relays that information to the others. "Whoever or whatever that was seems to be hiding," she adds. "Internal sensors aren’t indicating another presence anywhere in the ship that isn’t one of us."
-----
Ian and Swann confer briefly about their next course of action. Fortunately for their continued life expectancy, they don’t find any of Martha’s tools in the cargo bay, but do spy a mass of cargo netting. Ian grabs the cargo netting, Swann opens the iris valve, Ian throws the netting inside, and Swann closes the iris valve.
-----
As the cargo netting sails into engineering, there is a flash of light and a very loud bang, and a similar cloud of powder/gas fills port engineering. Again, the ship’s filters take about a minute to clear the air. Now Martha sees both mines without blinking lights. She still doesn’t see any shadows being cast from the port fuel processor.
"The second box is no longer blinking, gentlemen," Martha reports. "Still no sign of our intruder anymore. Be careful going in."
-----
Ian makes sure his mask is secure, readies his gauss pistol, switches off the safety, and nods to Swann to open the iris valve. When it opens, he looks across the corridor first to be sure no one is there waiting. He then enters.
Swann thumbs off the safety of his autopistol and steps through the iris after Ian, first pointing his gun upward to check if anyone is lurking above. Before entering port engineering, Swann pauses for a moment and shakes his head sadly at the turn of roles. "Now wait a second, shouldn’t I be the one sneaking onboard to lift something and then trying to evade capture?" he thinks.
Ian and Swann cautiously enter port engineering. Ian notes that the second mine has its front blown out and appears inert. Swann sweeps the area towards the rear of port engineering, but doesn’t spot anyone. The two then slowly approach the entrance to the port fuel processor smuggling hold with weapons drawn.
-----
Meanwhile, Kevon sprints to his cabin. As he rounds the corner near the port passenger airlock, he spies Vasilii’s wild eyes and wavering hand cannon. Vasilii seems to recognize the new pilot in time, and manages to avoid firing on the commander. Shaking his head and muttering under his breath that he needs to have a talk with his cousin, Kevon heads into his cabin to don his cloth armor and grab his shotgun.
About a minute and a half later, Kevon goes to and opens the starboard passenger airlock and steps outside. He carefully descends the stairs and tries to spot any intruders. He doesn’t see anyone on an initial scan of the area.
"Bridge, Holland. All clear so far," he reports over his comm. "Continuing to investigate the area."
-----
From the bridge, Vargas has been monitoring the situation and trying to spot anyone exiting the far trader. He hasn’t seen anyone leaving or anyone in the berth area.
-----
Saro gets back to his cabin, pulse starting to quicken, and throws his robe onto his bed. Grabbing a handy coverall, he slides it on and then grabs his portable medkit. He pauses a moment to put on a pair of boots before heading back to the bridge to rejoin Vargas.
Slightly out of breath, he asks, "What's going on? Anything new happen? Is anybody hurt?"
"Nope, we're still five-by-five as far as I can tell. I’m worried that we’re too spread out and disjointed though. Kevon is the only safety net we’ve got at the moment if someone is on board and gets by us here. Maybe we ought to call the local enforcers?" Vargas thinks about that for half a moment before pulling up short mentally. "Whoops, scratch that. Not with what we’ve got aboard."
-----
Vasilii remains watching the iris valve leading to the port cargo lock and the low berths beyond. The iris valve remains closed.
-----
Ian and Swann find that the smuggling hold is empty save spilled water, a number of crushed and loose Star Flower tree leaves and small branches, a fair amount of blood (at least 10 cc), and a wet, note–sized, rectangular paper envelope labeled "To: Mr. Vasilii Kugiikishshi" in elegantly flowing dark blue cursive. There is no sign of the large humanoid that was casting the shadows that Martha saw.
-----
"Guys, I think we should do a full sweep of the ship, and check on everything. I’ll run a computer sweep, to see if any entries have been made in the last few hours, just in case." Martha gets busy checking out computer logs, keeping an ear open for the comms or the computer’s anti-hijacking software, in case someone should locate the hidden intruder.
-----
Outside, Kevon completes a sweep of the area around the Bray Keaven. He doesn’t spot anything out of the ordinary other than to note that both fuel scoops have been covered with welded–on hull plating.
-----
On the bridge, Saro and Vargas continue to monitor the progress of the rest of the crew and the area directly in front of the Bray Keaven (mainly the berth passenger and vehicle/cargo doors).
-----
Martha does a full computer sweep checking all anti-hijack/intrusion logs as well as checking to see if she can detect if anyone has been fiddling with the computer system. A couple minutes searching reveals nothing unusual and no traces of how the intruder entered port engineering.
After the search of the smuggling hold turns up no intruder, Swann and Ian thumb the safeties of their pistols to on and holster their weapons. Looking at Ian, Swann shakes his head and says, "Looks like we’ve been visited by a Wraith."
Swann then keys his comm unit. "Bridge, this is Swann. No intruder here, but whoever visited us left some calling cards. Can you ask Doc to come down here — there’s some blood around the fuel processor I’d like him to take a look at. Also, inform Vasilii our visitor left him a love letter. But Doc might want to take a look at it first — it’s got some sort of liquid on it.
"I’m going to go outside and help Kevin search, although I don’t expect us to find anything or anyone. Swann out."
-----
Vargas hits the switch for the common group frequency. "Before we leap to too many conclusions, we may want to search the ship. There’s nothing to indicate whoever was in the processing bay isn’t still aboard."
"Good idea," Ian chimes in. "Let’s try to coordinate our efforts, though. Less chance of the intruder slipping around our search."
Martha kicks in, "I have nothing on internal sensors that isn’t supposed to be here, and no sign of system intrusion. Do you guys need me to join in the search?"
Vasilii sits watching the iris valve, his emotions running high with the aftermath of the mine. Listening to the conversation, he activates his mic and speaks shakily into it. "No one has come past me. I’ll stay here and make sure no one heads out this way."
Saro pipes up, "Since Mr. Vargas and I are already here on the bridge, perhaps we can monitor the screens as the rest of you move throughout the ship. As you clear a section, lock it down behind you, if we want to capture this person. If we just want him or her to leave, why don’t we secure our critical areas and clear a path to the airlock?"
"I don’t know about you, Doc, but I think I’d like to talk to whoever broke in rather than give them a free pass out of here. Just to know what the heck they’re up to," Vargas says.
Ian flips his comm unit on. "I also don’t think we should be giving the intruder a free pass off the ship. If apprehended, I’ve got a few questions I’d like answered — like how the hell it got in our ship undetected for one!"
"Yeah, but only after we kick his ass for waking me up," Kevon quips as he continues his search.
-----
Swann goes to check the starport concourse outside the personnel berth door. He doesn’t spot anything or anyone immediately outside the berth door, though there is some unloading activity a few berths down. The unloading isn’t unsual even at this time of night since ships arrive and depart at all hours. After a moment, he goes back inside to help Kevon.
Kevon checks the top of the far trader by using a nearby work platform and doesn’t spot anything unusual.
Swann and Kevon then search the rest of the berth and don’t find anything out of the ordinary. After 10 minutes of searching, Swann and Kevon have covered all of the berth a couple of times and haven’t found anything of note, though it’s possible the "wraith" could have moved from one part of the berth to another while they were searching.
-----
The search inside the ship by Ian and Martha also discovers no intruder.
-----
"Whatever it was you saw, Ms. Smythe, it’s gone now," Kevon states over the comm. "What’s the damage to the fuel processor? And I suggest we have a pair of eyes open the rest of the night tonight, in case this ‘wraith’ of yours decides to make a return visit," he says. "I’ll take the first watch."
"And maybe figure out why someone wanted to explode something in a fuel processor, on a ship with it’s fuel scoops sealed," he adds mentally.
Swann keys his comm unit. "Maybe we should all gather in the lounge for a meeting first," he says.
"What is it with these people? Frelling civilians," Kevon thinks as he rolls his eyes. "I’m on my way," he adds over the comms. "Holland out."
-----
Vasilii speaks over the comm, "OK, on my way."
Making his way to the lounge, Vasilii drops his combo mask on the table and runs some water over his face. Grabbing a drink from the dispenser, he sits at the table and waits for the others.
-----
When everyone has entered the lounge, Ian stands up. Looking in Martha’s direction, "Martha, I’d like to thank you for your help. Your quick thinking to use the gravity adjustment was great." Ian turns and looks around the table. "The crew did a great job during this emergency. Thank you for the teamwork."
Martha nods, a tired smile on her face. "I picked it up from my training days a few years back. The Chief Engineer used the technique to throw some ‘unwelcome visitors’ an unexpected curve while the crew prepared for their arrival further into the ship."
Stifling her yawns, Martha asks, "Does anyone have any ideas about who or what happened here? Could have been a Sydite from the size, but that whole ‘wraith’ thing sounds like a bad Third Frontier War holo."
Someone mentions the envelope Vasilii perks up and says, "I forgot about that, what was in it?"
Taking the envelope from Ian, Vasilii looks at the writing and then opens it. The envelope is of a cream–colored paper with lettering in an elegantly flowing dark blue cursive. Opening the envolope reveals a notecard and four Cr1,000 bills. The envolope, bills, and notecard are damp with water (presumably from the hydroponic banks which used to contain the bonsai'd Star Flower trees). The note (in the same elegantly flowing, dark blue cursive), reads:
Mr. Kugiikishshi,
I’m sorry that we could not come to a simpler and mutually beneficial agreement. An honorarium for your trouble is enclosed. Perhaps we shall meet again under better circumstances.
that'd be me. I try to keep Saro's responses in line with what he'd know & feel. I may not always be sucessful but I try.
