Broccli_Head
Explorer
I think they should space him after finding out all the codes accounts. C'mon, be a bunch of pirates!
Traveller T20: Tales of the Bray Keaven [Updated 12-20-05]
- Thread starter Shadowdancer
- Start date
Shadowdancer
First Post
But we haven't even gotten around to torturing him yet.Pyske said:
Shadowdancer
First Post
In honor of the holiday (Thanksgiving, here in the States), I'm adding a little bonus to tie up some loose ends.
But first, in looking through the original posts from that period, I discovered I had inadvertantly overlooked a post by Vasilii. I added it to the last game update above. For those who want to go back and read it, it comes right after Swann's joking comment to Vasilii about Cuddles.
But first, in looking through the original posts from that period, I discovered I had inadvertantly overlooked a post by Vasilii. I added it to the last game update above. For those who want to go back and read it, it comes right after Swann's joking comment to Vasilii about Cuddles.
Shadowdancer
First Post
Aidan retrieves his Imperial Warrant. Though none of the crew has actually seen an Imperial Warrant before, the "warrant" does certainly look authentic with an impressive set of watermarks and other anti-counterfeiting marks similar to ones found on Imperial Credit bills. The warrant indicates that the cubes’ contents have been certified as being legal and not inherently dangerous — though the warrant makes no comment about the dangers in possessing the cubes.
The warrant doesn’t give Aidan possession of the cubes nor does it grant him any powers other than the ability to move the cubes through Imperial customs and inspections without delay.
Martha calls up an image from the ship’s library program that reveals something that certainly looks like Aidan’s warrant, but she still isn’t sure.
After the meal is over, Martha returns to engineering and makes three separate copies of the security camera files of the breakfast meeting — including voice logs — onto the appropriate storage media. She also includes all files relevant to the events of the Oser, and the computer log files that indicate Mr. Silver’s violations of the ship’s computer. She hides two of these in various locations about the ship. The last copy she gives to Kevon secretly and asks him to keep it safe, after explaining what is on it. She tells Kevon it is insurance in case Mr. Silver decides to say that something different happened aboard the ship when the vessel arrives at Fonnein.
After breakfast, Swann gives Vasilii the credits he took from the Oser. "Put those toward fixing the damage to the ship."
Opening an access panel in the lounge, Swann and Vargas disconnect the network link to Aidan’s cabin from the passenger deck trunk. They could disconnect the entire passenger deck trunk to the computer, but doing so would disable all terminals in the passenger area, where most of the crew is bunking.
Following the Doc’s advice, most of the crew spends the day otherwise relaxing. Kevon does go to see what he can clean up in his former cabin.
Swann plays around with the files downloaded from Mark’s computer on the Oser. Almost all of the files are encrypted. Swann is able to decrypt many of the files. Quite a few files are of a rather personal nature — there appear to be several unfinished novels and screenplays for trashy romances. There are a set of files that should prove interesting to the authorities: a record of communications regarding similar cargo snatch attempts, most not using the Oser directly.
Swann does not find much about the most recent attempt. There is a brief note stating when the Bray Keaven was due to pass through the Sentry system the first time around and the expected crew count. There is also a list of expenses incurred to date. The expenses indicate that the Oser was in the Sentry system when the Bray Keaven appeared with only Martha alive. The Oser then left the system and incurred no expenses until docking at the highport on the same day as the Bray Keaven returned to Sentry.
Saro puts Vasilii and Ian on bed rest, given their wounds, and tends to them during the day. Saro wishes that Darishun were still onboard so that he could have the Virushi sit on Vasilii and Ian to make them stay in bed.
The warrant doesn’t give Aidan possession of the cubes nor does it grant him any powers other than the ability to move the cubes through Imperial customs and inspections without delay.
Martha calls up an image from the ship’s library program that reveals something that certainly looks like Aidan’s warrant, but she still isn’t sure.
-----
After the meal is over, Martha returns to engineering and makes three separate copies of the security camera files of the breakfast meeting — including voice logs — onto the appropriate storage media. She also includes all files relevant to the events of the Oser, and the computer log files that indicate Mr. Silver’s violations of the ship’s computer. She hides two of these in various locations about the ship. The last copy she gives to Kevon secretly and asks him to keep it safe, after explaining what is on it. She tells Kevon it is insurance in case Mr. Silver decides to say that something different happened aboard the ship when the vessel arrives at Fonnein.
-----
After breakfast, Swann gives Vasilii the credits he took from the Oser. "Put those toward fixing the damage to the ship."
-----
Opening an access panel in the lounge, Swann and Vargas disconnect the network link to Aidan’s cabin from the passenger deck trunk. They could disconnect the entire passenger deck trunk to the computer, but doing so would disable all terminals in the passenger area, where most of the crew is bunking.
-----
Following the Doc’s advice, most of the crew spends the day otherwise relaxing. Kevon does go to see what he can clean up in his former cabin.
-----
Swann plays around with the files downloaded from Mark’s computer on the Oser. Almost all of the files are encrypted. Swann is able to decrypt many of the files. Quite a few files are of a rather personal nature — there appear to be several unfinished novels and screenplays for trashy romances. There are a set of files that should prove interesting to the authorities: a record of communications regarding similar cargo snatch attempts, most not using the Oser directly.
Swann does not find much about the most recent attempt. There is a brief note stating when the Bray Keaven was due to pass through the Sentry system the first time around and the expected crew count. There is also a list of expenses incurred to date. The expenses indicate that the Oser was in the Sentry system when the Bray Keaven appeared with only Martha alive. The Oser then left the system and incurred no expenses until docking at the highport on the same day as the Bray Keaven returned to Sentry.
-----
Saro puts Vasilii and Ian on bed rest, given their wounds, and tends to them during the day. Saro wishes that Darishun were still onboard so that he could have the Virushi sit on Vasilii and Ian to make them stay in bed.
Shadowdancer
First Post
Chapter XVI
Date: 168-993
Location: Aboard the Bray Keaven, in jump space between Sentry and Fonnein
The morning of the second day in jump, the crew gathers for breakfast. On the bright side, Swann hasn’t discovered the traditional "bomb for leaving Sentry" onboard yet. Ian takes a Marine ration pack and gives it to Aidan, but otherwise leaves Aidan in his room. The rest of the crew gets normal meals.
Swann again eats a big bowl of oatmeal, topped with fresh fruit. As he eats, he listens to what the other crewmembers say.
-----
Vasilii starts off the discussion. "Mister Silver’s explanation yesterday was a bit incomplete. He left out something he said in the earlier conversation I had with him in the cargo bay.
"Sometime prior to leaving Sentry, Mister Silver sent a message ahead to Fonnein informing his contact there that he would be arriving shortly, presumably with the cubes. He also informed them he’d be arriving on this ship. Unless we do something about it before we arrive, I suspect they’re going to be looking for us, him, and the cubes when we show up in orbit."
He turns to Martha, Kevon, and Vargas. "Also, one of the Oser crew had a portacomp that had some kind of antenna peripheral on it. Apparently, our mystery cubes have some kind of transponders in them that this little portacomp could track. I can only imagine the avionics at Fonnein’s Highport are going to see them when we get in range, let alone when we dock. My personal feeling is that we should start trying to find some passive means of hiding them from sensors with what we have onboard, but that’s my opinion. Might also behoove us to reprogram the transponder and show up under a different name.
"And not to get off the subject, but for everyone’s information, the Fonnein legal system, what there is of it, doesn’t rely on any codification of their laws. No statutes, no formal bill of rights, nothing. The people are supposed to be pretty levelheaded, but apparently someone with a lot of juice on that planet wants at least one of these cubes righteously. I’d VERY strongly recommend nobody leave the highport. Hell, for that matter, don’t leave the ship. As long as we’re in orbit, we’re still under Imperial jurisdiction, and as useless as seems to be these days, I’d rather trust that over the locals any day.
"As for Aidan and the cubes. Since he seems to have a patron on Fonnein who wants to see him succeed with his mission, he’d probably get sprung from the local jail the moment we walked away from the police station, assuming he would get detained at all, given their legal system.
"As unattractive as the prospect is, my vote’s to keep him on the ship for the entire stay at Fonnein, sedated if need be, and as soon as the repairs and maintenance are finished, we make a jump back to Sentry and take up the subject with the Marquis’ people, and let them deal with the cubes. Considering the money that's getting thrown around for these cubes, I’d say we’re in WAY over our heads — it’s time to cut our losses and walk away from this mess. But I’ll be damned if we’re going to turn them over to someone who hired yahoos like Aidan Silver or Hil Seirl to take the cubes off of us.
"Oh, and that’s the part that REALLY gets me! Everyone and their cleaning droid knows where these damn cubes are, but nobody will come to US with an upfront offer! No, they have to hire spaceheads like him to TAKE the cubes off us, and still have to pay huge amounts of money anyway to a middleman! Not a good business model, unless they’re looking to kill the middleman when he shows up to make the exchange."
He thinks for a brief moment about the off-hand comment, looks at the others with the realization that he’s probably right.
"That’s it! That’s gotta be it! You figure he shows up to make the exchange, the other guy’s thugs disarm him before they let him in the door — one unarmed middleman is a lot easier to dispose of than seven armed crewmembers on their own starship. And it leaves no witnesses who could tie the person who’s supposedly buying to the cubes our affable middleman’s delivering. They get the cubes for nothing, except for a couple minutes of smooth–talking promising lots of money, and the price of a bullet."
He looks at the door to Aidan’s quarters. "I don’t know whether to hit the little bugger, or to feel sorry for him. Since he’s a witness to the original job offer, he might still end up with a bounty on his head whether he delivers the cubes or not."
-----
Kevon frowns as he comes to the same conclusion as Vasilii. They were certainly in over their heads; if he had an escort frigate or even a fast patrol ship, he would say stay the course. But not in this poor excuse for a proving grounds target.
"I’ll get to work on the transponder suppression," the lieutenant commander offers. "I’m a sensor and communications specialist, so I should be able to fashion something that will work."
"Maybe with something from Mr. Silver’s cargo," he adds in thought.
"So, the question is: do we tell Silver that his life is most likely in danger if he continues on his delivery route?"
-----
When Swann finishes eating, he sits back, looks around the room, rubs a hand across his face and says, "I’m not so sure Mr. Silver’s life is in danger. If he were dealing with criminals, then yes, they probably would eliminate him upon delivery of the cubes. But whoever arranged that Imperial warrant for him has Clout. Lots of it. Probably a Noble. A Nobel playing Games. And oh, how Nobles love their Games.
"I think Mr. Silver is basically working as a troubleshooter. Some Noble on Alief had arranged to deliver the cubes to a person or persons on Fonnein and Adukgin. The recipients could very well be Nobles as well. Probably doesn’t matter if they are or not.
"Anyway, this Noble on Alief hired the former Captain of the Bray Keaven to transport the cubes. But the Captain, and most of the rest of the crew, die from the plague. The ship is seized by the Imperium. The Noble doesn’t know what happened to the cubes, but he still wants them delivered. So he sends Mr. Silver to find them and deliver them. Goes to a lot of trouble and expense, too, so this Game is obviously important to this Noble, and probably to the recipients of the cubes as well.
"Now I’ve done some similar work for Nobles from time to time. They like good, reliable Game pieces. They don’t like to lose good, reliable Game pieces. It seems as if Mr. Silver is a good, reliable Game piece, so his patron Noble doesn’t want to lose him. So I doubt he’s in any danger, as long as he completes his mission. Nobles also don’t like to kill someone who has completed a mission. They have a sense of honor about such things.
"However, if you cross a Noble, or expose his Game when he wants it kept secret, then the Noble will retaliate. Nobles who lose their Games don’t blame themselves; they blame their Game pieces. He might have you killed. He might just make your life Hell. If we don’t cooperate in this little game, we might just make ourselves one big enemy.
"You servicemen who are on reserve status or detached duty — you could be called back to active duty and assigned to sit on some frozen rockball planetoid monitoring Zhodani Core Expeditions for the rest of your life. Or doing field-testing of new vacc suit designs on a planet with an insidious atmosphere.
"And Vasilii. How would you like to find yourself working for a Merchant trade delegation visiting K’kree space? Do you want to become a vegetarian? You’ll be wishing you had a Cuddles to protect you if a K’kree catches a whiff of meat on your breath.
"Now I’m not saying we should just hand the cubes over to Mr. Silver and let that be the end of it. No, we need to protect ourselves, and our ship, and watch out for our own interests. He’s offered to get our ship repaired. Let’s take him up on that offer. He, and his Noble patron, owe us that much, at least. It’s because of them that the ship got damaged in the first place. I’m certain we won’t be taking all of Mr. Silver’s profit for this job. He’s going to compensated once this is through, I’m sure. Compensated very well.
"We also should be concerned about who else wants these cubes. Someone hired Hil Seirl and went to a lot of expense to track down the cubes and try to intercept them. Maybe it was one of the intended recipients, anxious to make sure he gets what was promised him. Maybe it’s another player in the Game, someone new. So we need to be careful and cautious.
"We also have some unfinished business we need to take care off. We still have the vials of starflower pollen. We need to get rid of them. While we’re in jump would be a good choice. We don’t want to get caught with that stuff during an inspection.
"There’s been a lot of activity revolving around, and conversation about, these cubes. But we still know very little about them. I suggest we go get them, right now, and start trying to find out what they are, what they do, and why someone would want them. But most importantly, we need to find out if they do have some sort of transponder that allows them to be tracked, and if so, how can we mask it or block it.
"And we only have six days left. So I suggest we allow a supervised Mr. Silver assist us with our investigation into the cubes, if he is so inclined."
Vargas says, "Well, one, I agree about the pollen. The sooner it’s out the airlock the better. Second, if nothing else, we might want to find a spot under the fusion plant to stick the cubes. That much metal combined with magnetic fields does nasty things to RF. Third, we might want to consider helping Silver get the cubes to whatever Noble he’s working for. Might transfer the attention from us to the Noble and net us brownie points at the same time. Last, I’m loath to leave the XT after we land, if we land. I don’t see much use in wandering into a hot LZ."
The Scout draws a mug of Kevon’s Navy paint thinner coffee.
Ian looks at Swann. "Interesting theory. Makes for good storytelling. Guess we’ll have to wait and see if it fits in the fiction or non-fiction category."
He takes another gulp of strong Navy brew java. "As much as I hate to admit it, I actually think that pain-in-the-ass," gesturing toward Aidan’s cabin, "was telling the truth yesterday. Question is, what do we do about it? Do we take the credits, hand him the cubes, and kick him off the ship once we arrive and be done with it? That sounds like the least trouble for us. But Swann, you don’t seem to like that idea. No matter what we decide to do, when we arrive, we need to be prepared and on our toes."
Swann says, "I agree about being prepared. But I think that for the ordeal we’ve been put through, and the damage to the ship, we need some compensation before we cut Silver lose with the cubes."
Ian subconsciously starts rubbing his wounded leg. "I like the idea of turning off or changing the ship’s transponder so we don’t advertise our presence once we drop outta jump at Fonnein."
"You do know it’s highly illegal to do either one of those?," Swann asks. "I’m not sure we need more legal complications at the moment."
"As far as the cubes emitting some kinda tracking signal," Ian says, "I would be surprised if that is the case. I think the antenna attached to the pirate’s laptop was to be used to link up with another ship in orbit. Remember, his story was he wanted to purchase passage on our ship, then dock with another ship in orbit to transfer cargo."
A frown crosses Ian’s face. "On the subject of the pollen, I vote to space it."
Martha nods, relief entering her voice. "I second that!"
"Yes," Ian continues, "let's allow the pain-in-the . . . uh, Mr. Silver to join us and examine the cubes."
"Personally, I think we should just send him on his merry way when we reach Fonnein," Martha sighs. "But I’ll go with the majority on this one. I still don’t trust that ol’ groat, and I think that the liberties he takes with things that aren’t his will be the death of him. I’d just rather that be a death of one rather than a death of eight, but that’s my thoughts on the matter."
Martha slumps back into her chair, sipping half-heartedly at her mug of Bitterstouts.
-----
Vasilii listens to Swann’s theory, but apparently is not entirely convinced. "OK, I hear you, but given the importance of the issue, I’d like to make sure your theory has some solidity. I’m not harping on it; I just want to walk through it to make sure we’ve covered the angles.
"OK, as for the warrant, it claims that what’s inside the cubes is perfectly legal, but it specifically avoids describing the contents. If it’s legal cargo, why not list the contents? If I were a customs agent, that would look a little odd to me.
"Also, if it’s legit cargo, why would the other crew put it in a smuggling compartment instead of the cargo bay or the ship’s safe?"
"Depends on exactly what is in the cubes, and if someone else wants it," Swann says. "Hil Seirl’s involvement seems to indicate someone else does want it. It might be some sort of top secret research project, or a new prototype. It would be legal, but you wouldn’t want your competitors to know you were moving it from one system to another. They might try to hijack it. Or it could have been stolen from the rightful owner, and the owner wants it back. It’s legal to own, you just don’t want anyone to know you’re trafficking stolen goods."
Vasilii mulls this one over. "Hmm. Alright, for now I can work with you on that one. It seems a little far-fetched to me, but I can’t say it couldn’t happen that way.
"OK, we’ve tossed this ship from stem to stern, and we haven’t found any document even remotely like that warrant left behind by the other crew. They would have had the exact same problem getting those cubes through customs as Mister Silver would, so why wouldn’t they have something like it, if the cargo is legit?"
"Well, besides the fact that Imperial warrants are very rare and difficult to obtain, giving one to the original crew might've make them a little too interested in what they were carrying," Swann says. "Smuggling something through customs, they were used to. Smuggling something valuable enough to warrant an Imperial warrant, maybe someone else might be interested in acquiring it."
"But then, by your own argument, wouldn’t giving one to Aidan run the chance of making him too interested?"
"Well, I believe that at the point the patron sent Silver after the cubes, he probably felt he had no other choice, since there was a very good chance the cubes had been discovered by the authorities."
"Consider also, if you were a patron who wanted a classified cargo shipped somewhere without running the risk of having it opened by Customs, wouldn’t your cargo look less ‘interesting’ if you gave the delivering crew a piece of paperwork that made the cargo look legit and official, that also allowed them to walk it right past the Customs desk, rather than hiring the crew to specifically smuggle it?" Vasilii asks. "I mean, wouldn’t a legit cargo with papers look less interesting than a smuggled one without any, hmm?"
Swann smiles and says, "It’s certainly not the method I would have chosen, but the patron may have considerations we’re not aware of."
"Although," Vasilii smiles to himself, "that idea is rather secondary. To be honest, your theory has a pretty major hole in it. To be even more honest, I’ve seen planets smaller than the hole in your theory, which basically boils down to this:
"This hypothetical patron we’re considering, who wants the issue of their cubes dealt with quietly, discreetly, secretly, in a way that arouses NO ONE’S suspicions or curiosity," Vasilii points at Aidan’s stateroom, "hired HIM for the job!
"I mean, c’mon Swann, this guy’s the poster child for unresolved childhood dependencies! If he’s not the center of attention, he’ll shrivel up, wither, and die. This is NOT the guy you hire to be low-key and discreet.
Swann smiles again and says, "Again, not the method I would have chosen.
"I think the patron hired the ship to move the cubes to a new location," Swann theorizes. "When the ship was confiscated because of the plague, the patron had to assume the cubes might have been found. So he gets the warrant for Mr. Silver so that if they have been discovered by a third party, Silver can walk in and take them back with no questions asked. Or at least without having to answer the questions."
"Except that the warrant doesn’t allow him to take possession of the cubes," Vasilii says. "It only lets him move them through Customs."
Swann considers this. "I thought the warrant allowed him to take possession. Hmmm, that would change the scenario a bit. But only as far as how Silver would have to go about acquiring the cubes."
"Alright, now let’s look at your Nobles and their ‘good, reliable game pieces,’ " Vasilii says. "You ever play chess, Swann? In chess, all your pieces are theoretically valuable, it’s just a question of the use you put them to. But for the sake of seeing a larger strategy succeed, ‘good and reliable’ game pieces will easily become expendable and sacrificed without a second thought. I mean, game pieces are worthless if they don’t get used at some point, right?
"And for the right amount of money, even good and reliable game pieces can be replaced. And Nobles usually have plenty of both to spare."
"Well, I’d say Mr. Silver is a very valuable piece. Holding that warrant pretty much makes him a queen. You don’t sacrifice your queen unless you’re going for a checkmate."
"I wouldn’t give him that kind of credit just yet," Vasilii counters. "The scope of his warrant is too limited to help him get the cubes, not without some kind of help. His best bet would have been to get a Customs agent on his side while we were still on the ground at Sentry and confront us there. Then he would have had the authority behind him to simply take the cubes without us being able to say anything.
"But as it is, alone with us out here, he’s got nothing. If anything, he’s complicated his own problem by drawing attention to himself and the cubes, in a way that’s made us unreceptive to him, and pretty seriously damaged his chances of ever getting hold of those cubes. I’d say he’s on the same level as the rest of us pawns.
"Besides, I’ve half a mind to take that damn warrant off of him to keep him from going anywhere with those cubes when we get there."
"There’s still the matter of the damages to the ship," Swann says. "I think we need to be completely and adequately compensated for that. And there’s the matter of Silver’s patron. I still think that, whoever he or she might be, we don’t want them mad at us. In fact, if we can arrange for them to become indebted to us so they might do us a favor in the future, all the better. It never hurts to have influential friends in powerful places."
Vasilii lets out a long sigh, looking thoughtfully at the table for a moment, absently tapping the side of his coffee cup with his index finger as he thinks. He finally speaks, addressing the rest of the group as much as Swann. "Alright. How about this, then. Two cubes, two destinations, that’s two exchanges that have to be made. We go ahead and make the first one on Fonnein and see how it goes. If it goes off without a hitch, we continue on to Adugkin and make the exchange there.
"But, if the exchange on Fonnein goes rimward and we get ripped off, or the ship gets broken into again, or if the ship or any of us get detained, we turn over whatever cubes we have AND Aidan to the Imperials, and wash our hands of the matter. How do you folks feel about that?"
Swann smiles. "That sounds fine. And if any of those things happen, and Silver is still around, the Imperials will be the least of his problems."
"In either case, if we’re ever going to return to Sentry in the future, we’re going to need the warrant after the exchanges are done, to back up our story that the cubes weren’t contraband being smuggled," Vasilii says. "That much I’m going to insist on — I’m not ready to burn our bridges at Sentry, at least not yet."
Ian appears deep in thought. "That sounds like a decent plan," he finally says.
"I don’t want to burn any bridges, either," Swann says. "I don’t think we’ll need the warrant. We can always deny anything the Oser’s crew says about what we were carrying that they were after; they could have gotten the wrong ship, and it would be our word against theirs. With nothing in the smuggling compartments, they have no proof.
"I don’t know if Silver has to return the warrant after he’s made his deliveries. But if worse comes to worst, as a backup, we can make a copy of the warrant. We can save the copy we download from the imbedded chip we scanned, and visually record the original. In fact, that might not be a bad idea to do anyway, just as a precaution."
Vasilii interrupts him with a tone of resignation in his voice. "The Sentry people have the portacomp. Think about it for a minute: the diagram of the ship with the transponders highlighted on it, along with the coordinates. This ship is a standardized design; they’re going to know that whatever had those transponders wasn’t in any of the cargo bays. And if I were a Customs agent, I’d want the crew to produce nothing less than the original warrant to explain that.
"Still, making a copy couldn’t hurt."
Swann looks puzzled. "Am I missing something? What diagram of the ship with the transponders highlighted? I don't remember that being on the computer. It was just a readout of location coordinates that at the time corresponded to the smuggling holds. We don’t even know for sure that the cubes have transponders attached to them. That’s just speculation on our part right now. That’s why we need to do a thorough examination of the cubes."
He stands up. "I’m going to get the cubes right now so we can start examining them. Vargas, could you help me?"
"Sure," Vargas says, shrugging. "Let’s just hope they’re not rigged to explode or anything. Jump space is pretty unforgiving."
Swann turns to look at Ian. "When we get back with the presents, we’ll bring out Silver. Maybe he knows something about them."
Swann and Vargas head down to engineering to retrieve the cubes.
Shadowdancer
First Post
Any predictions when the thread reaches 9,000 views?
I say Dec. 10.
I say Dec. 10.
Shadowdancer
First Post
Chapter XVII
Date: 168-993
Location: Aboard the Bray Keaven, in jump space between Sentry and Fonnein
Swann and Vargas retrieve the two cubes (with the help of a grav pallet) and bring them to the lounge to be inspected.
-----
After the discussion, Martha and Saro wait until the others leave, put on their vacc suits, retrieve the vials of pollen and pollen paraphernalia from the ship’s safe, and then go to the port airlock. They enter the airlock, depressurize the airlock, and open the outer iris valve. They then briefly amuse themselves by alternately pitching the vials full of star flower pollen into the gray void of jump space until they are all gone. The pollen paraphernalia then quickly follows.
-----
While waiting for the others to return, Vasilii looks at Aidan's warrant again. The text of the warrant reads:
Imperial Warrant of Legality and Safety
This Imperial Warrant of Legality hearby certifies that the contents of these high security transport cubes (No. 1384A5SW87EI6R223NM23 and No. 1384A5SW87EI6R223NM24) are neither inherently dangerous nor prohibited under Imperial Law. The Imperial Investigative Service instructs all Imperial officers and courts to allow these cubes to pass unimpeded through Imperial space and ports. These cubes are subject to local laws, but the Imperial Investigative Service requests that local jurisdictions accept this warrant.
Attorney General Tamlin Frukoki
Imperial Investigative Court No. 59273–991
Janis/Core
The warrant does have a chip embedded in it. Passing a reader over the chip repeats the warrant on the screen. Vasilii notes that the warrant doesn't mention Aidan specifically. Looking in the computer’s library program for Imperial Warrants, Vasilii finds that Imperial Attorney Generals can issue certain classes of warrants, but the entry doesn’t indicate what those classes are beyond "examples are deputizing investigators, authorization for searches, and authorization for transport."
-----
Kevon and Vargas put their heads together and decide that moving the cubes closer to the power plant will help mask any transponder in the cubes. Of course, moving the cubes closer to the power plant basically means leaving the cubes out in the open in engineering.
Kevon casually comments that placing the cubes in the safe in his cabin might help, but the safe is a bit too small for even one of the cubes.
On a lark, Kevon tries to use the ship’s sensors to pick up any chirps from the cubes while they are still in starboard engineering, and is unable to detect any chirps he can attribute to the cubes’ transponders. He guesses that either he missed the proper frequency or the cubes’ transponders only reply to a specific chirp request.
-----
After Swann and Vargas retrieve the cubes without incident, Ian fetches Aidan from his cabin. Then Vasilii, Swann, and Kevon lead the inspection as the others mainly just look on or keep an ear out.
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Ian sits back and observes, trying to be at ease. "Don’t want to do anything that’ll get my ass chewed out by the Doc," Ian thinks to himself, with a half grin.
-----
Vasilii watches as the cubes are brought up. "Hmm. Just thought of something I’d like to check out, back in a minute."
He gets up and takes the lift down to the crew deck, and goes to the ship’s locker to get a radiation counter. He switches it on, gets a background count, makes note of it, then takes it up to the lounge and puts it next to the cubes to see if there’s any difference. "I know they haven’t set off the alarms, just wanted to know if they put off any radiation at all. Figured it couldn't hurt."
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Swann suggests scanning the cubes using everything available on the ship, including the ship’s sensors if that can be arranged. He also suggests scanning — actively and passively — for a transponder signal, again using the ship's sensors and communications equipment.
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Ian says, "Didn’t someone mention that ultraviolet light is used to view the ID numbers? Maybe it would reveal more — it’s worth a try."
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Swann, Martha, and Saro scan the cubes with everything available onboard: engineering diagnostic scanners, medical scanners, radiation detectors. There is nothing above normal background radiation detected.
There are no electronic emissions detected with the handheld equipment; assuming the cubes have transponders, nothing is detected squawking.
Swann and Kevon try to use the ship’s sensors and communications gear on the cubes. The sensors really aren’t very helpful since they are designed to scan out of the ship, not in the ship. The communications, though patched and jury rigged, isn’t very helpful either. No electronics emissions are detected.
The cubes feel quite solid and sturdy and have no apparent seams or openings.
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Other scanning reveals pretty much what was revealed before. The cubes are a dark plastic shell about 5 mm thick. Inside the cubes’ shell lies a large volume of foam. At the center of the cube there is a second cube about 10 cm across that is either solid or at least resists any attempt to scan its contents.
Based on the scanners, most of the outer cube appears to be foam–like substance, but it doesn’t mean that it’s light foam. Doing some quick calculations, Martha estimates that weight distribution is:
Outer cube shell — about 5 kg
Inner cube — about 5 kg
Foam — about 15 kg
Martha says, "According to the densitometer, the inner cube’s density is approximately 5.0 grams per cubic centimeter. That’s in the range of iron-based ores, such as magnetite, or even a titanium carbide ceramic, but far less dense than most precious metals, as well as the radioactive elements on the upper end of the periodic table. That’s at least according to these engineering tables." The engineer taps her handcomp screen.
"Based on the way the interior of the cube resists densitometer scans, I’d dare say it’s either uniform or the exterior has been processed using some advance technology that impacts the atomic bonding."
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Martha retrieves a blacklight. The blacklight reveals ID numbers that correspond to the numbers on Aidan’s warrant.
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Aidan does comment that the cubes are intended for secure transport of whatever is inside and that attempting to open the cubes outside of a very specific set of atmospheric conditions will result in the cubes self destructing.
Martha replies, "That implies, then, that the inner cube is susceptible to the corrosive or explosive nature of the foam. That, and the fact that there’s foam present, does imply that the object is somewhat fragile, which rules out my thoughts on the superdense processing — unless, of course, it’s something from an Ancient site or something like that. You never can tell with tech that advanced."
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Vargas scratches his chin and considers the cube for a moment. "Now and then I’ve heard of some pretty exotic tamper–proof features for containers. Sometimes you even haul one by courier if you’re a Scout, but I don’t know if I ever heard of anything like this."
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Somewhat reluctantly (but contritely at the same time — no mean feat) Aidan returns to his cabin, retrieves a few things, and then shows the crew his tablet reader, which appears to be a fairly high–end, TL-12 model. The tablet reader has an attachment apparently identical to the one that Mark’s portacomp had on it (the antenna). Aidan’s tablet reader is displaying the same program as Swann saw on Mark’s portacomp with its readout of serial number, distance, and bearing. When Aidan first starts the program, Martha’s comm scanner shows a brief transmission from the cubes on a little–used frequency. The squawk is very brief and low powered.
About five minutes later, the cubes apparently squawk again. Martha’s capture of the transmission shows that the data is probably significantly encrypted. After Aidan shuts down the program, Martha doesn’t pick up any other squawks.
Swann says, "Martha, lock that frequency into the ship’s computer. We might need it in the future."
"Sure, Swann. Can you help me decipher this a bit? If we can identify the method used for encryption, it might give us a clue as to who ‘Mister’ Silver works for, or who this package was intended for."
Swann makes a mental note that he, with Martha’s help, will work on breaking the transmission encryption during the remainder of the jump. He also will sit down with Aidan and work on upgrading the ship’s computer security.
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Vasilii looks at Aidan and his tablet reader. "I hope it doesn’t matter that Lt. Darlow and his people have had about two and a half days so far to look over a portacomp from the Oser that had the same program and peripheral — that’s how they knew we still had the cubes.
"But setting that aside for a moment, let me see if I can explain where this crew is at, with regards to your cubes.
"After that little lovefest with the Oser, those cubes have become a lot of aggravation we didn’t sign on for. And to put it mildly, we’re really not interested in going after any more trouble we didn’t sign on for. As things stand at the moment, nobody at this table is going to promise you a trip to Adugkin.
"That doesn’t mean we aren’t willing to work with you, we’re just looking to take this one step at a time. The idea that’s being tossed around at the moment, which may still get shot down since only part of the crew has voiced an opinion about it so far, goes like this:
"We go ahead and make the exchange at Fonnein, and I’m personally tempted to put the caveat on it that the exchange only happens after we get the repairs and maintenance done on the ship, but I’ll leave that for later discussion.
"But to continue, the plan is that we make the exchange at Fonnein, and see how that goes. If it goes off without any snags, then we make Adugkin the next stop.
"BUT — if the exchange goes bad, or anything happens to us or the ship, we turn over you, the warrant, and whatever cube or cubes we still have to the Imperials, and we tell them about how we've been getting shot at for these cubes and leave it to you to explain why.
"So I guess the questions you have to ask yourself are, do you trust your patron, and does your patron trust the people they’re sending you to deal with?
"Or let me try the question this way: Have you dealt with these people before? Or at least has your patron dealt with them before? Or do they have a reputation of some kind?"
Aidan becomes very business-like, all traces of the past clown disappearing. "I do know and trust my patron, having worked for her before several times. I do not know the people I’m delivering to, but have dealt with all manner of rapscallions in the past. My patron typically sends me to people who have a breed of honor that can be trusted, as long as one watches them. Vigilance, and keeping them off guard, pays off. I frequently play the clown to put people off their guard and have them not take me seriously or to distract them from my real intentions."
He pauses briefly before continuing. "My telling you this is a measure of my respect for you, although I’m sure you’ll take that somewhat askance. I take the potential danger of these deliveries very seriously, but I was not sure of you when I came aboard and was not certain what actions I would need to take to make the delivery. I would like to make sure you are all compensated handsomely for making these deliveries, especially as you have been badly stung by association with these items. My own compensation generally comes in dealing in influence, which I shall equally hope to reward you with.
"Now as to these cubes. I am very curious. Please permit me a few moments." Aidan works on his portacomp, putting as close to the cubes as possible.
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During the discussion of the cubes, Saro stays in the background, watching the rest of the crew, especially the two under his medical supervision. When needed he helps out performing various tests on the cubes.
After a while of discussion and examination he pipes up. "Ahem. It seems that we have gone as far as we can examining the cubes for the moment. I suggest we table discussion of our plans for the cubes and Mr. Silver until a later time, as I am about to exert my medical authority and shoo Vasilii and Ian back to the sickbay to continue their recuperation.
"For what it is worth, I just want the damn cubes off the ship one way or another, be it by spacing them, or by helping Mr. Silver with his delivery. Let us all think upon our options some more and meet to discuss it again."
Saro waves his hand in the general direction of the sickbay, raising his eyebrows while looking at the injured men. "Gentlemen?"
When he moves to leave the room, Saro stops by Martha and quietly addresses her. "Martha, I need to see to Ian and Vasilii at the moment, but I’d like it if you would stop by my cabin for a few moments when you get a chance tonight or tomorrow."
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After the discussions about the cubes are over, Vasilii retrieves his hand computer from his stateroom before returning to sickbay.
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Kevon, Swann, and Martha attempt to analyze the transmissions from the cube as well as a transmission detected from Aidan’s antenna. As far as they can tell, the antenna on Aidan’s portacomp emits a chirp, the cubes reply, and then nothing happens for another five minutes.
After spending the rest of the day and all of the next day analyzing the transmission and the encryption, Kevon, Swann, Martha and Aidan — working separately and together — manage to crack the encryption.
Both Aidan and Kevon recognize the encryption as being a variant of Hsieu-Buowil-5, a fairly secure military encryption commonly used about a hundred years ago for lower level military IFF systems and now beginning to see use in high level commercial applications.
The chirp from the antenna is some sort of non-varying identification number of some sort along with the number 2.
The replying squawk from the cube is a repeat of the identification number, the cube’s serial number, and an alpha–numeric string that seems to vary. Aidan and Swann both theorize that the string may be tied to some sort of secure ID built into the cube and the antenna in order to verify that the returning squawk is authentic.
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Meanwhile, Saro checks on his patients. Ian and Vasilii do seem to be spending quite a bit of time in bed. However, Vasilii seems to be particularly tired and healing slowly.
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After an evening spent relaxing and chatting for the uninjured folks, the crew and Aidan turn in.
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Martha sleeps soundly until she is wakened by a loud crash, a grinding noise, and a shudder, seemingly coming from port engineering. She bolts out of her bunk, slaps the shipwide alarm, and then dashes for engineering. As she opens the iris valve leading to port engineering from the low berths, a thick cloud of smoke billows towards her. As the smoke begins to clear, she sees two hazy figures. She recognizes the striking blonde in blue just as the blonde raises an SMG and fires. Martha throws herself to the side, but the rounds strike home, and the last thing that Martha sees is . . .
. . . the lower half of the desk in her stateroom. Martha blinks, and then staggers up from the floor where she appears to have thrown herself (from the bunk) and listens to the apparently normal hums of a functional starship. She plods to the door, opens it, and peeks outside. Looking into the lounge, Martha sees Kevon drinking a mug of his ImpNavy strong coffee.
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