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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shadowdancer" data-source="post: 1892033" data-attributes="member: 515"> Chapter XVIIDate: 168-993Location: 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 SafetyThis 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/CoreThe 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. -----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." -----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. -----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." -----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. -----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 kgInner cube — about 5 kgFoam — 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." -----Martha retrieves a blacklight. The blacklight reveals ID numbers that correspond to the numbers on Aidan’s warrant. -----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." -----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." -----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. -----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. -----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." -----After the discussions about the cubes are over, Vasilii retrieves his hand computer from his stateroom before returning to sickbay. -----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. -----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. -----After an evening spent relaxing and chatting for the uninjured folks, the crew and Aidan turn in. -----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.</blockquote>

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