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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shadowdancer" data-source="post: 2441862" data-attributes="member: 515">Chapter XDate: 210-993Location: Aboard the Bray Keaven and Blue Donovan, approaching Kerin's Tyr  A strangled groan emits from Saro as an ugly suspicion rises. Glancing anxiously at Aidan, Saro quickly yet cautiously approaches the open container in an attempt to get a better look at it. -----"Mr. Silver, I need you up here," Kevon says as he checks the level on encryption on the computer lock. "Mr. McConnell, is your leg all right?" -----"Yes Cap’n. From what I can tell, it appears to be only bruised a bit." -----While waiting for Aidan to arrive, the captain checks the comm system. He attempts to clear the automatic message program running through the system, and to establish ship–to–ship comms with the Bray Keaven. -----Vargas continues to hold position locked to the Blue Donovan. He toggles the crew communication. "Kevon, do you think that you will be able to divert that ship in time? I also wonder where the rest of the crew may be. This seems to be going too easily, I suspect that somebody has left more than enough nasty surprises on board that death trap. According to the ship’s chronometer, you have about 23 minutes left to accomplish your task. Good luck and good hunting." -----"We’re still a couple minutes away from being able to determine that, Mr. Vargas," Kevon replies calmly, albeit a bit distracted. "Thank you for the update." -----"Roger Kevon, acknowledging your last transmission. I will maintain contact with the Blue Donovan as long as possible. Vargas out." -----In the crew lounge, Aidan tears himself away from amusedly inspecting the carcass of the jawsenbek and rushes to the bridge. When he arrives, he cheerfully asks, "You requested some computer assistance?" before getting to sitting at the third bridge station and pulling out his tabletcomp. After a moment of inspection, he comments, "Ah, standard General Products Mk 1/bis Model 232.kx02. Let me see here, this shouldn’t take long." -----Meanwhile Kevon attempts to estimate how long it will take to get the ship back under sophont control, as well as quick–and–dirty nav numbers to determine roughly how much time he’ll need to effect the proper course correction and add 50 percent. He decides that about 5-10 minutes of 1G thrust at a 90 degree angle to their current course should be enough to convince the Warne Highport that the angle has shifted enough to avoid impact. -----Vargas continues to maintain course and speed to maintain lock with the other ship. He thinks to himself, "What next?" as he comms engineering. "Martha, what is the position and status of the Ghaieul? For some reason I have the gut feeling that we had better keep an eye on that ship. "Vasilii, please keep trying to raise the Ghaieul. I am beginning to get suspicious about there being no answer." -----Vasilii repeats his previous message and adds "Please acknowledge, Ghaieul." He gets no response. -----Ian stays with the Doc as he checks out the dead, keeping a watchful eye out for any other surprises. "Hmm. It doesn’t look like you can help this one, Doc. "Kevon, Aidan, any chance either of you could get into the computer and lock down the rest of the hatches and iris valves so we won’t have any more surprises? Just see if you can add it to your ‘to do’ list!" he ends with a grin. -----Saro contacts the Bray Keaven. "Vasilii, this is Saro. Could you indulge me and seal off and lock the areas where our passengers and the frozen beasties are berthed until we get back aboard? It is just for my peace of mind." -----Vasilii acknowledges Saro and passes the request on to Martha, who has control of that stuff from engineering. -----"Roger that," Martha says, triggering the lockdown of the low berths and the cargo holds. She continues to monitor the sensor array. -----After listening to the comm traffic, Swann decides to join the bordering party on the Blue Donovan, just in case there are any more surprises waiting. Once Saro and Silver clear the airlock on the Donovan, Swann crosses over. He exits the airlock to find Ian and Saro inspecting a container. He takes a look at the deceased reptile splayed on the floor. "Ian, this things big enough for you to get a new belt and a pair of boots out of its hide," he says. He prods it with the toe of his boot. "Sure is nasty looking. You’re lucky it didn’t do some real damage to you." "Thanks for your concern. I managed to get a lucky shot." "So, should we search the rest of the ship while Kevon tries to get control of this runaway?" -----The Bray Keaven and the Blue Donovan continue accelerating steadily at 1G towards the Warne Highport. -----Vasilii continues to hail the Ghaieul, but still receives no reply. Vasilii wonders whether the Ghaieul has anything to do with the dueling pistols, either intercepting them or protecting them or just keeping an eye on them. He decides to get a picture of what’s happening with the various ships as regards intercepts and matches. Gathering the available data he puts together a timetable for:1) Blue Donovan to change course sufficiently to calm everybody down — 0236 hours.2) Ghaieul to flyby close enough to shoot at them — 0300 hours.3) Ghaieul to close and match, to theoretically allow docking — 0315 hours.4) The Botswann to intercept and match Blue Donovan and Bray Keaven — 0320 hours.5) Blue Donovan to make a controlled journey to Kerin’s Tyr at 1G — 0700 hours.-----Continuing her sensor sweep, Martha has the Botswann on the scan along with a couple of other 200-dTon Hue Mercenary boats (MacCaren and Joosul). The Hue Mercenary boats are broadcasting their transponder squawks. Rapidly retreating to starboard is the Ghaieul, also replying to transponder squawk requests. The Ghaieul is falling behind because of far traders’ high speeds, but she is accelerating. -----Vargas is really beginning to become concerned about the lack of communication from the Ghaieul. He now begins to concentrate on maintaining an even track with the Blue Donovan in the event that he will need to make an emergency docking. He thinks, "Well, let’s see: A ship full of wounded and dead crew and passengers nearing a critical collision with the high port, a giant lizard eating the dead, a Vargr ship attempting to catch up and no communication, all gunners and command away, minimal crew — the situation is excellent. Life as an adventurer is a thrill a minute." "Vasilii, what is the status of the Blue Donovan and the communications with the Ghaieul?" "No change." "Please inform Kevon that I shall maintain a shadowing position until we are clear of danger of collision with the high port." "Will do." Vargas then clicks the intercom and asks, "Martha, how is the engineering plant taking this beating?" -----Martha responds, with a voice brimming with concern, "I’ve yet to do a detailed diagnostic, but preliminary reports show a number of red flags. I don’t like it, not at all. If someone’ll take sensors, I can start making some field repairs." -----"Well, I’m not quite as bad at sensors as I am at comms," Vasilii says. "I’ll monitor them, and let you know if there’s anything that looks important." Vasilii starts to alternate between monitoring sensors and comms. -----After a few minutes of "Hmmm, that’s interesting," "Ah," and "Why did they do that?" comments along with the occasional "Oops," the "Lockout Active" message on all of the screens at Kevon’s pilot station suddenly disappears, and Aidan comments, "The ship is yours, I believe." Kevon checks the controls, and he does seem to have the ability to disengage the autopilot and take manual control at any time. "Well, done, Mr. Silver," Kevon says as he starts programming his maneuver. "You’ve earned at least another week of not getting shoved out the airlock." He pauses long enough to give Aidan a mischievous smile, then returns to his work. -----After a moment of coordination between the two far traders, Vasilii disengages the Bray Keaven’s docking tube and Vargas fires the port thrusters to move the Bray Keaven 1 km to starboard of the Blue Donovan. Then, the pair of far traders pivots 90 degrees to port and begin accelerating. -----Finally recovering fully from the shock of his encounter with the overgrown gecko, Ian turns to Swann with a troubled look on his face. "Swann, I am concerned that you left the Bray Keaven with only three crew members aboard. None of which have any skill in gunnery that I’m aware of. Please consider returning before we are forced to undock. I am planning to search the ship, but my first priority is to protect Kevon and Aidan so I planned to stay here at the entrance of the bridge until they have control of the ship." "I thought securing this ship was the pressing concern," Swann says. "I didn't know the boarding party was going to establish control so quickly. Plus, with all those shuttles out there, I don't think anyone will try anything. But if you think it’s best, I can go back." Swann walks back over to the airlock just in time to see the Bray Keaven pull away as the Blue Donovan changes course. He turns back around, a sheepish grin on his face. "Well, I guess I missed my ship. "Maybe we should start looking around now, see if anyone else is aboard?" Ian turns off his comm unit so no one will hear the stream of curses he starts hurtling at Swann under his breath. -----Vasilii, manning comms, notifies the Botswann of the course change. Botswann replies, "Well done Bray Keaven. Please continue accelerating on your current heading for another 5 minutes and then start decelerating. Botswann and MacCaren will intercept for inspection. What is the status of the Blue Donovan’s crew and passengers? Departure manifest shows four crew and four passengers." -----Kevon replies directly to the Botswann’s orders. "Understood, Botswann. We’ll continue at 1G on current heading for 5 minutes, then decelerate to station keeping. Blue Donovan out." -----Saro completes his inspection of the rectangular box in the corridor. The box does appear to be a mobile low berth similar to the ones used to transport the frozen beasties in the Bray Keaven’s cargo hold. He is a little curious as to how the box came to be in the corridor, since it's too long to be maneuvered around the corner, until Swann points out that the box could have come in from the cargo bay or through the forward cargo lock. -----On the bridge, Aidan locks down the iris valves as requested earlier by Ian. -----After Vasilii relays the crew and passenger count, Ian, Swann, and Saro decide to head to the passenger lounge to investigate. Ian and Swann go up first. When the lift doors open, they find six bodies scattered about the lounge. There are three men and one woman in various civilian clothing, and one man and one woman in light blue jumpsuits. All have their hands bound behind their backs. None have any visible wounds other than the two in jumpsuits who appear to have some blunt force trauma. All are breathing, and the civilian woman is moaning lightly. Speaking over his comm unit, Ian says, "We have six bodies in the crew lounge. They all appear to be alive at the moment. Doc, you’d better get up here." Ian approaches the civilian woman who is moaning and starts to untie her hands so she will be more comfortable. "Ma’am, can you hear me? I am here to help you. Who did this to you? Do you know what happened to the other two people on board?" -----Listening to the boarding party over the comms, Martha says, "From the sounds of it, there is still one crew member missing. Be careful, boys, in case he may still be on the ship somewhere." After a moment’s pause, she continues. "He may be gone, of course, to avoid the crash, but if he’s part of some bunch of fanatics or zealots or something, who knows what he’ll want to do in order to protect his mission." -----Swann goes over to the men in civilian clothing, and starts checking them for injuries and for weapons. "Ian, check her for weapons before you untie her. Can’t be too careful." "Huh? Oh, OK Swann. Can’t be too careful, right." "Dammit!" Ian thinks to himself, "Gotta get my head on straight and quit piss’n and moan’n about Swann leavin’ the ship!" Ian searches the woman before he unties her and resumes questioning her. -----Martha continues to monitor sensors to make sure everything proceeds as normal. She also continues specific diagnostics of the various ship’s systems that were strained by the recent exertion. -----Vasilii contacts Martha. "Miss Smythe, you’re our EW expert. I was wondering if it would be possible to send a message to the Botswann without Ghaieul getting wind of it. Do we have that sort of capability? Would you be able to work something out?" -----The young engineer responds, "It all depends on the range of their sensors. I can do something low powered, that won’t carry as far, and can even encrypt it. I’ll create you a comm link." -----Vasilii sends a secure message to the Botswann. "This is Bray Keaven on secure comm. We have received no comm from the ship Ghaieul, who is making a matching maneuver. We find their behavior a little suspicious — they have ignored hails since we asked them to pull off. Can you advise whether you are familiar with this ship? Also, can you give us an ETA to reach our vicinity and/or match us? We’d appreciate an escort, if that is possible. Request secure reply." He appends course and speed details for the various participants. -----Botswann replies, "Understood, Bray Keaven. We have warned the Ghaieul off as well. They do not seem to be inclined to acknowledge. I doubt that they will try anything with us in the neighborhood, but I would recommend caution just in case. Our records indicate that the Ghaieul has some history of opportunistic ‘assistance’ in the past. Our ETA is currently 37 minutes." -----Vargas is concentrating on the piloting of the ship in an effort to keep it out of harm’s way. He continues to shadow the Blue Donovan and silently wonders why the crew was left alive. "Vasilii, it seems strange to me that a pirate attack would take over the ship, set it on a collision course with the high port, then leave the crew alive. As my adoptive father would say, this does not smell right. There is a great deal more to this then meets the eye." "Yep. Maybe we disturbed them; maybe they relied on the lizard thing keeping the crew from the bridge. Who knows?" "If you can contact the boarding party without any one else overhearing, tell them to carefully watch for booby traps. I just have a gut feeling that all is not as presented." "Will do." </blockquote>

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