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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shadowdancer" data-source="post: 2460004" data-attributes="member: 515">Chapter XIDate: 210-993Location: Aboard the Bray Keaven and Blue Donovan, approaching Kerin's TyrOn the Blue Donovan, Saro rushes up to the passenger lounge. He finds Ian and Swann searching the six bound bodies for weapons and then starting to cut their plastic-cuff bonds. Ian and Swann don’t find any weapons on any of the bodies. Saro immediately does a quick inspection of all. The two in light–blue jumpsuits appear to have suffered blows to the head and body. There may be some neurological damage, but neither appears to be in imminent danger. The other four appear to have been rendered unconscious through chemical means, probably an injection of some sort. The two in light–blue jumpsuits also appear to have been given some sort of injection. After making sure that the two in light–blue jumpsuits really are stable and in no immediate danger, Saro turns his attention to the woman whom was originally moaning. She appears to be in some psychological shock, but other than some odd tenderness around her abdomen, she seems to be OK, all things considered. The woman rather blearily and confusedly answers Ian’s questions about what happened. "What? Who are you? Where did you come from? "No, I don’t know what happened to the captain and the other fellow. What happened? Ow, my head and stomach ache. "Who are you? I remember some men with guns who tied us up. George! George, I’m sorry for leaving. I remember someone with a needle. Why did they use a needle?" Further questions are also similarly answered, at least for some time. Gradually, the other three probable passengers also awaken in a similarly confused state. All recount a similar story and similar symptoms — a headache and a stomachache. The youngest male complains that he "knew that damned Vorick Stew was going to make us all sick." -----On the bridge, Kevon keeps the Blue Donovan on the designated course and makes the flip over to start decelerating at the designated time. The Botswann replies to Kevon’s acknowledgement of the course. "Thank you for the acknowledgement and starting deceleration according to schedule. Just so you know, we have notified the Ghaieul that their assistance is appreciated, but unnecessary at this point." -----The Bray Keaven and the Blue Donovan still have their ship–to–ship tight–beam link, over which Vasilii transmits Vargas’ warning about booby traps to Kevon, who relays the message on suit comms to the rest of the boarding party. -----Swann acknowledges the message from Kevon. "Thanks for the heads up. Speaking of, see if this ship has any sort of weapons and if you can power them up. Just in case we need them. "We’re going to check aft for more ‘surprises.’ If you don’t need Aidan to help you getting the weapons online, you might want to send him up here to help Doc." Swann then goes over to Ian and says in a low voice, "We should probably search the rest of the ship, especially engineering, to make sure they didn’t leave any backup ‘presents.’ " Ian nods his head in agreement. "Sure." Turning to Saro, he says, "Doc, you got things under control here? Swann and I are gonna go for a stroll." Turning back to Swann, he says, "Let’s go ahead and check this area out. I’d hate to leave the Doc here alone before we do." -----Turning back to her damage–control readouts, Martha sees that the automated diagnostics have completed. A very rough guestimate would put the damage at about Cr50,000 worth of damage to the power plant and maneuver drives. The plant and drives should be okay for a 1.75G bit of acceleration, but anything more would be really unwise. 1G would be best. She has enough parts on hand to conduct emergency repairs, which would restore 2G acceleration for a brief period. Martha makes a mental note to have Aidan pursue the legal ramifications of seeking recompense for answering this Signal GK. She then begins to conduct emergency repairs to the maneuver drives. "Could these guys be friends of Ian’s, perhaps after that box of his? Or do they even know about the box?" she mutters, more to herself than to the others on the link. "Boxes, boxes ever where, and no one stops to think." -----Kevon continues to concentrate on his course, monitoring the comms as he works. At some point, he uses the suit comms to contact Ian and Swann. "Mr. McConnell, what’s the word with the passengers? Anything new?" -----Ian pauses during his inspection to reply. "Captain, all six appear to be alive. Some appear to have been drugged; others were beat unconscious. I will let the Doc give you a more detailed report on their conditions. Swann and I have started a sweep of the ship. Once we have completed our inspection of the area around the lounge, we'll be heading to engineering, contacting you as we go to let us through the iris valves as needed." -----Vasilii lets Martha and Vargas know how soon he calculates the various ships will arrive and be able to dock with the Blue Donovan and the Bray Keaven. "About five minutes of evasive maneuvers should be no problem, if it comes to it, right?" Then he sends the figures over to Blue Donovan on secure comm, along with a general sit rep, and asks for a return sit rep when it’s convenient. -----Martha clears her throat and responds. "Evasive maneuvers at 1.7Gs, not a problem. You want 2Gs, that’s gonna take some attention down here." -----"Half a gee would be fine, I’d think," Vasilii says. "After all, all we have to do is spin at our deck plate compensation limit, and they’d need to fly 15G circles round us to keep the airlocks aligned. Just so long as they don’t try to fire and disable us. "Miss Smythe, a thought. If, and only if, it makes engineering sense, perhaps we might let Ghaieul detect us powering up our lasers when they come into normal sensor range. If that sort of thing can be done?" -----"Ship’s gunner is one of the few things I can’t do on this ship, Vasilii," Martha responds. "We can do it, but then aren’t we asking for trouble? How’d it look to the locals?" -----Closing the comm, the Vilani merchant mutters, "Next time, we keep a gunner aboard." "Vasilii, I heard that and could not agree more," Vargas says. "I was thinking along the same lines. "There is always a risk of attack from the Ghaieul, but I don’t think they will do so with other ships so nearby. I propose to screen the Blue Donovan and maybe bluff the Ghaieul away." "OK, but let’s not actually start anything," Vasilii says. "After all, they’ll know there are three ships from Kerin’s Tyr due on the scene within a few minutes of them. They ought to realize they just don’t have time to do anything, unless we panic them." -----"They’re already within close range for their weapons, I’m sure," Martha says. "If they were going to fire, they’d have done it by now. What with an SDB not but moments away, they’re more likely to attempt to dock and raid than open fire." -----Vargas considers the possibility that they may be boarded, then keys the intraship comm. "Martha, I am going to try to prevent the Ghaieul from boarding the Blue Donovan. However, this maneuver may result in an attack on our ship. Can you transfer engineering controls to the bridge and join us here? "Also, stop by the ship’s locker and bring my shotgun with you. Although nothing may happen, I think we should not be separated in the event of a problem." -----"Vargas, if you want 2G acceleration, I have to be down here with the engines. If you don’t mind operating at reduced efficiency on this, I can come up to the bridge. Make the call." Martha continues her repair efforts as she awaits the pilot’s decision. -----The former Scout considers the problem for a moment. "Mr. Vasilii, I don’t think they will actually fire on us with the other ships nearby but they may try boarding. In that case, I do not want Martha alone in engineering. I don’t think her safety is worth the little extra performance we are going to achieve. Besides, I have a few maneuvers up my sleeve, I think we can keep them off for a few minutes." Vargas then keys the intercom. "Martha, I think in the interest of your safety I would prefer to sacrifice a little speed. Please lock down engineering and come up to the bridge." He then turns to Vasilii and says, "I am still concerned as to why that group of pirates did not kill the passengers and crew on the Blue Donovan. Why would they give an injection to their victims, unless . . . " his voice trails off as he thinks of something new. "Mr. Vasilii, what if the survivors are the booby trap? I wonder if they have been infected with some biological agent? Please contact Saro and let him know my concerns and ask if he can do some testing to confirm or negate my fears? I just cannot understand the actions of the attackers. "I may be paranoid about this, but I just cannot see why a non-lethal injection would be given to the sophonts on the Blue Donovan. I simply believe that an ounce of prevention is worth several pounds of cure." Vargas continues to plot a course that will protect the Blue Donovan from attack or boarding. -----Vasilii relays Vargas’ idea to Saro over the laser link. "Dr. Talbek, Mr. Vargas has pointed out something suspicious . . . " -----On the bridge of the Blue Donovan, Aidan powers up the far trader’s weapons. He finds that the ship has a pair of pulse–laser–and–sandcaster–combo turrets. After a systems check, both turrets register as fully operational, and both have a full load of sand (three canisters). Kevon keeps the Blue Donovan on her designated deceleration course. His plot shows the Ghaieul closing steadily on the Blue Donovan. The Ghiaeul eventually holds a position 20 km away from the Blue Donovan but doesn’t approach any closer. -----Ian and Swann do a quick inspection of the upper lounge area and the adjoining passenger staterooms for any obvious booby traps. They find no living or mechanical booby traps, though Ian is tempted to call the malfunctioning toilet in what is probably an unused stateroom a definite hazard if not an actual trap. Ian is quite thankful that he is still suited up given the state of the fresher containing the toilet. In one passenger's stateroom, Swann finds a medium sized (0.66 m or so) lizard in a plastic cage. The lizard looks fairly fearsome with a crest, but is probably not too dangerous since it's contained and happily munching on some red fruit and part of a green leafy plant. It’s hard to say for sure to Swann's inexperienced eye, but the lizard doesn’t seem to be a close relative of the one that attacked Ian. Swann ponders the lizard momentarily before resuming his sweep. He informs everyone of what he found, adding, "This probably isn’t a coincidence. There must be a connection, but I don’t know what it is right now. Continuing my search." Ian responds, "I dunno, could be a unrelated. Many people like to keep those things as pets." After their quick inspection of the lounge, Ian and Swann head downstairs towards life support and starboard engineering. The life support systems and starboard power plant and drives show evidence of age and relatively poor maintenance, but again, no obvious traps. Swann says to Ian, "I’m glad Martha isn’t here to see this. She’d have a fit." "Ain’t that the truth!" Ian adds. -----Onboard the Bray Keaven, Martha finishes her immediate tasks and then, with a sigh, heads towards the ship’s locker in order to pick up Vargas’ shotgun. She then joins Vasilii and Vargas on the bridge. -----Meanwhile, Vargas puts the Bray Keaven into a bit of a spin to make docking more difficult for the Ghaieul should she decide try and board. -----Vasilii relays Vargas’ thought about a possible biological agent to Saro over the linked comms. A string of muttered Vilani and Vargr profanities comes back before Saro says, "I should have thought of that. Let me see what I can tell." Saro then checks each of the passengers and the two crewmen. All seem to have recently — within the last eight hours — received an intravenous injection in either the neck or arm. Inspecting each's abdomen, Saro finds that all have been given some sort of injection with a fairly large needle just below the stomach and around the upper portion of the small intestines. Running his portable imager over the area of each, Saro sees that for a few of the folks, there is some slight internal bleeding as a needle has pierced the intestines, but in others, there doesn’t appear to be any significant internal bleeding. All of the passengers report that they remember getting an injection in the arm or neck, but nothing else. They also all report some tenderness and soreness around the abdomen injection point. Saro keys his suit comms and comments, "Ummm, guys, I hope that you’re all still suited up like I am. Looks like everyone got two injections, one that probably put them out, and another, unknown injection." -----"Thank you, Doctor," Kevon says. "Everyone stays suited until further notice." Switching over to ship–to–ship, the captain reports to the Botswann. "Botswann, Blue Donovan. We have accounted for all four passengers and three of the crew. One crewmember is dead, apparently killed by a large carnivorous reptile that was let loose on the ship. "Be advised; the others were bound and given two injections each," he continues. "Our ship’s doctor thinks one was an anesthetic, but he cannot determine the nature of the second. We should consider this ship an unsafe environment until we can give the survivors full medical tests." -----Swann looks at Ian and says, "Great. This ship just keeps getting weirder and weirder. I usually like weird. But I have my limits." "Very strange," Ian agrees. "Why would the hijackers inject them with anything besides a tranq? If they were infected with something weird and nasty, would there have been anything left at the impact site to spread the infection? You’d think it would all burn up in the crash and resulting explosion." -----Hearing the general broadcast, Vasilii goes a bit pale and lasers a voice message tagged for Saro. "Dr. Talbek, if you find anything airborne you’d better check us over here on Bray Keaven. Some air might have cycled through during docking." Vasilii has his vacc suit on, but he hasn’t been wearing his helmet. -----When Martha arrives on the bridge, Vasilii offers her the choice of sensor and comm control. Martha first locks down the bridge access from the outside again. She then takes over sensor duty. "I’ll take it, but be ready. If I have to shift to engineering, someone’s got to take up the slack," she says with a tired smile. Vasilii, Martha, and Vargas see that the Ghaieul is maintaining position about 20 km away from the Blue Donovan. The Botswann, MacCaren, and Joosul are closing now — 1,000 km away. Vargas listens to the comm links and breathes a sigh of relief when he hears Saro’s report that the crewmen are suited up. He continues to maneuver between the two ships and waits for the arrival of the authorities to relieve them of the burden of the Blue Donovan. "Well, this looks like it is beginning to end. Oh, for the life of an adventurer. And I thought the Scout service had an interesting life. "Martha, you did a magnificent job of nursing the last bit of performance from our engineering system. You are truly a credit to your profession." Martha looks sullenly over at Vargas. "I did everything I could." She sighs heavily. "All that work we just had done — ruined. I’m hoping I can make field repairs soon." "Vasilii, have you heard anything from our friends in that Vargr ship?" Vargas asks. "No, they’re just pacing us." Vargas continues to match the Blue Donovan and awaits the arrival of the officials. </blockquote>

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