TUELLER: “You’re the captain now.”
TUELLER: “Let me know how it goes for you.”
STORY: “Oh, dear.”
TUELLER: “Heavy lies the crown.”
STORY: You spend a few hours gliding through space on a different trajectory. It’s now well into the night.
STORY: Noma beeps through again. “Sensor readouts indicate a large mass of rock, organic material, and… electronic activity.”
STORY: “Low radio signals, but whatever that is, it appears to be… on.”
TUELLER: Toggling ship wide comms: “Everyone who’s up get up here.”
TUELLER: Quietly enough not to wake deep sleepers.
TUELLER: “Sorry, you’re not the captain anymore.”
TUELLER: “Good job, though, girl.”
STORY: “Thank you, Mr. Ya’Makasi.”
TUELLER: After graduating from college, Tueller did what all Ya’Makasi do and did a tour of the family businesses, to see what he had an aptitude for and what he needed to improve on. HIs crucible came when he wa sent to a CJH branch office on Enceladus independently to do an internal audit. His math skills were only okay, but he hates not understanding things. And what he eventually, through weeks of pouring through the books on CJH Enceladus, was that the office was being run into the ground by militant Jacobites, who were using the office to embezzle funds to try to return the throne of Britain to the exiled King James XXXI of Scotland, which in addition to being an absolutely idiotic idea, it’s a worse one to fund it by cheating an interplanetary criminal organization. Tueller didn’t know what a Jacobite was (he still doesn’t), but he discovered very quickly that discovering criminals embezzling from criminals is also a bad idea. When the office collectively turned on him and kidnapped him, leaving him chained outside the Enceladus station without adequate air as they tried to figure out how to use a Ya’Makasi prince for advantage, Tueller discovered he had it in him to turn the tables on is captors and kill them. He killed eight people when they came back for him, men and women, and he has no problem living with himself afterwards.
—
STORY: I like to think that humanity has involved to the point that women and men are killed with equal zeal/regret.
STORY: Okay, excellent! You left off last session having freed Three-Sing-Flowers from A-Sec holding after a surprisingly quick legal proceeding.
STORY: Peregrine will be ready with her upgrades by the end of the day. Is there anything else you want to handle on the Ark before departing, and what is your destination?
STORY: You currently have three empty cargo compartments.
TUELLER: Pick up Two Class 0 Cargo for the ship, get translator software if we can, and, clear out for the wreckage?
TUELLER: Wreckage of the ship first, and then wreckage of the planet?
STORY: Excellent! You do so, and Noma is way ahead of you – she’s been reviewing the translation protocols used by the Ark and has planned a course with Three that will, with their cooperation, take less time than a typical language download.
STORY: Millie, what Class 0 Ark-sourced items do you pick up as cargo?
MILLICENT: UNIVERSAL INJECTION/ASPIRATION FILTERS
MILLICENT: They’re interchangeable filters for the rebreathers used by most breathing aliens
STORY: Both units?
MILLICENT: No just one
MILLICENT: The other is
TUELLER: Let’s get some food, too. Lembas-loaf: Non-perishable carbon based MREs.
STORY: CJH Origin, eh?
MILLICENT: Hell yes. That
TUELLER: Indeed.
TUELLER: Bhattacharya recipe.
TUELLER: —Guys, pssst, there’s a CJH branch that makes products and loves giving them Lord of the Rings themed names.
TUELLER: —We should definitely give them some tech to work with.
MILLICENT: —good idea
STORY: Ok, all set. You’re loaded up, everyone has *very much* enjoyed their shore leave, and the ship’s upgrades are done. Kahn comes onto the Ark for the second half of the last day, picks up a few things, and has lunch with Alejo as promised. Alejo, can I get a face adversity + influence please?
ALEJO: 2d6+2
ALEJO: /roll 2d6+2
STORY: @ablair01 rolled 10 + 2 = 12
STORY: — still thinking about a houserule for passive insight/perception rolls, if anyone has any ideas
STORY: Oh boy. Kahn is in a great mood. He’s chatty with you, relaxed but energetic. He seems to be finally settling into this new chapter. He shows off his arm, showing you how magnets stick to his elbow now, and he can smash cans better than you normally could with a boot.
STORY: Something else, too, is going on. He’s not really forthcoming, but you’ve never seen him like this.
ALEJO: “Good to see you so cheery.”
STORY: “Hm? Oh. Yeah. Glad to have some shore leave.”
STORY: He smiles and chucks your shoulder. “How’d it go on the station?”
ALEJO: “Yeah. That’s a story.” Alejo smiles and shares the salient details, skipping some of the more personal bits involving Aki.
STORY: He’s happy to hear the details, asking questions, and tells you he spent most of his time cleaning the ship and organizing but she’s starting to feel like home.
ALEJO: “Looking forward to getting back to her, I think. So, you gonna tell me your news?”
STORY: He raises his eyebrows. “Hm?”
ALEJO: Alejo gives him a sideways but friendly glance. “I’ve known you a long time, friend. Something’s new with you. ’Course if it’s none of my business, I get it. But you know you can talk to me.”
STORY: “Mm.” His cheeks turn red and he nods, slowly. “Ask me later. Don’t wanna jinx it.”
STORY: And promptly changes the subject.
STORY: You have a pleasant lunch!
ALEJO: Cool.
STORY: Okay! Three is eager to get onboard and sticks close to Millie.
STORY: Everybody else is back by the time you get the shuttle out to Peregrine. As promised, she is updated, retrofitted, disguised, now complete with a secret compartment for smuggled or illegal goods, camouflage and anti-detection measures, and a new paint job.
STORY: Six EVA suits hang in the airlock.
MILLICENT: Millie gives herself, and kind of Three-Sing-Flowers v15 an extensive tour of the new features of the ship
TUELLER: “You need a drink, Flo?”
TUELLER: “You drink ethanol recreationally?”
STORY: They do not notice you are speaking to them and continue staring at the bulkheads and opening little lockers in the kitchen to explore.
TUELLER: Tueller fixes a drink and just watches them to make sure they don’t space us all.
MILLICENT: “Mr. Ya’Makasi, this is very impressive work.”
STORY: Noma pipes in over the intercom, cheerier than usual. “Welcome home, co-captains and Mr. Soto.”
ALEJO: Alejo raises an eyebrow at the greeting. “I’ve been demoted, Noma?”
ALEJO: “News to me.” He mutters and takes his kit to his room.
STORY: “Thank you for appreciating my humor, Mr. Soto. I was worried you would not catch it.”
TUELLER: “Noma, did you have a good shore leave?”
STORY: “I did, thank you for asking, Mr. Ya’Makasi. I have expanded my locally stored knowledge base significantly, and I was able to dedicate five to six hours each night to observing nonhuman social interaction. It has been very educational. I would be happy to share my findings with you at another time, perhaps the next time you are intoxicated.”
MILLICENT: Millie beams. “It’s so good to be home!”
TUELLER: “We ready to go, Ghost?”
TUELLER: There’s a note of fondness in the last word.
STORY: “We are, Mr. Ya’Makasi. Shall I take us out?”
TUELLER: “Let’s light this candle.”
MILLICENT: Millie smiles.
STORY: The engine hums warmly as you break away from the Ring and start out into deep space. Three pushes their face against a porthole, watching the Ark get smaller, eyes wide with excitement and pride.
STORY: Okay! We’ve got a week and a half in space. Let’s do one Cramped Quarters roll. Tueller had the intro story and Alejo had a mysterious lunch, so Millie, hit me.
MILLICENT: It’s a straight roll, right?
STORY: Yep!
TUELLER: Who with first?
STORY: Yeah
MILLICENT: hmmmm
MILLICENT: Millie and Alejo
MILLICENT: /roll 2d6
STORY: @josh rolled 10
STORY: All right! Millie and Alejo, describe how the two of you bonded over the past few days.
MILLICENT: Millie drags Alejo along to show her how the new secret compartments and stealth capabilities work.
MILLICENT: Tueller is otherwise engaged drinking himself into a stupor
MILLICENT: And Millie can’t seem to open the secret compartment once she’s closed it.
ALEJO: Alejo has a childlike enthusiasm for showing this stuff off.
ALEJO: “This stuff is so great. CJH has some crazy great tech. Especially for hiding shit.”
TUELLER: —They also have a sign that notes that it’s CJH property and going past the second door will result in death of your civilization.
MILLICENT: “It _is_ remarkable, I must give it to the Ya’Makasis.”
STORY: You two are squeezed into a spot at the back of the kitchen, fiddling with a set of lockers that acts as the false front to the hidden cargo compartment. Once that door is opened, you can enter the compartment, but it’s mostly full of illegal guns at the moment. It’s also possible to, from inside the compartment, undo a series of latches that will let the port side of the ship’s nose swing open, allowing cargo to be loaded, but those switches can only be triggered when the ship is in atmosphere and the engine is shut down.
MILLICENT: “You never really told me how you came to learn so much about these.” Millie twists the hidden latch properly and it swings open. She smiles hugely. “Covert operations.”
ALEJO: He gives her a positive nod of approval when she gets it open.
ALEJO: “I got caught. Trying to steal from CJH.”
ALEJO: Alejo points inside the compartment. “And there’s a second hidden compartment that you’d never ever find if you didn’t know where to look for it.”
MILLICENT: “That doesn’t sound likely, those are clearly your original legs.” Millie laughs.
ALEJO: He laughs. “Yeah, it was dicey for a while. I earned some good will by being . . . really, really sneaky. The rest of my crew got caught and spaced, but I escaped over twelve highly trained folks looking for me on a small ship for three days. That bought me some leniency.”
MILLICENT: Millie leans against a counter, listening.
ALEJO: “So, the stealth tech, you’ll love this stuff, Doc. I haven’t a clue how it really works, but it displaces almost all sensor data. We can go dark. Really dark.”
MILLICENT: Millie frowns. “Three days of constant hiding.”
ALEJO: Alejo turns to face her and shrugs. “Hardly the longest I’ve had to hide.”
MILLICENT: Millie smiles sadly. Reaches over and squeezes Alejo’s arm.
MILLICENT: “No, I guess it wasn’t.”
MILLICENT: “You were saying something about sensor displacement, Mr. Soto, weren’t you?”
ALEJO: “I was! There’s something about being a secret — not keeping a secret but being one — that is thrilling.”
ALEJO: “Here,” Alejo takes her hand and rushes her to the stealth console, showing her around it.
MILLICENT: —I’m good with bonding over Alejo’s past trauma. Good?
TUELLER: YOU GUYS ARE HOLDING HANDS.
MILLICENT: —or at least, the revelation of it
MILLICENT: Yeah
ALEJO: –Yeah. So.
MILLICENT: We know what the people tuned in for
TUELLER: —AM I GOING TO BE A CO-CAPTAIN IN LAW?
MILLICENT: —Did you just tune in?
MILLICENT: —Are you new?
TUELLER: —I AM A CAPTAIN IN A SCI-FI SHOW SO I AM HITTING ON THE PURPLE LADY
STORY: Okay! It’s an otherwise uneventful ten-day trip. Three diligently attends their translation sessions, Jac tinkers with the HVAC and spends time chatting with Noma now that she can’t do much with the engine, Kahn checks the loadout and secures cargo, Tariq makes sure the med bay is stocked and clean.
TUELLER: Tueller spars with Loll a little but nothing really happens between them yet.
STORY: Jenny wakes up early to exercise and helps the rest of the crew learn tai chi and jiu-jitsu. T’chololl is starting to develop a rapport with the other crew members, if awkwardly announcing her superiority and then winning everything can be read as rapport.
STORY: Ten days in, your spot in line at the jump relay comes up. Alejo, how do you help Three prepare?
ALEJO: In the day leading up to the jump, Alejo starts telling Three about the process, and particularly about how it can feel. He practices proper jump protocol with them, keeping it pretty light and fun.
ALEJO: He is trying to judge how much of a sense of humor Three has.
STORY: Their language is about halfway into Noma’s local fork of the translation database, so you’re able to understand them a lot better.
STORY: They have absolutely no sense of humor whatsoever.
STORY: They are, quite literally, the last hope for their entire civilization, so they’re focused, eager, more than a little worried, and deadly serious.
ALEJO: Alejo learns that after messing with them about the jump. He then softens his approach and takes a more somber, though still light-hearted approach to the prep.
STORY: Also, they grew up on a small, mostly empty ship with three adult clones and two children and all of them were on the same protracted suicide mission, so yeah. Not a lot of humor.
STORY: They are very grateful for your help with the prep.
ALEJO: Alejo makes it his mission to get them to laugh.
ALEJO: It’s failing, miserably so far, but he tries.
STORY: Okay! Your turn in line. Tueller, can you please describe jump protocols and how it feels to enter a jump?
STORY: To help, jumps effectively work like tesseracts in L’Engle books – rather than moving the ship, you bend space around the ship and simply step into your destination. There is no inertia, no real travel, just an instantaneous appearance wherever it was you intended to go.
TUELLER: Jump protocols going out from the Ark are mostly a lot of paperwork. Noma is able to help with the paperwork and get us up in line, but whoever designed the jump from the Ark could give NYC in failing to setup infrastructure–there’s simply not enough jump gates for people who want to leave. So it’s like waiting in line for days.
TUELLER: We get in line without having to actually be in line, just waiting for our shot to come up, but you know there’s an exciting world still going on at the Ark, but you can’t go take advantage of it because you have to be ready to go at any time.
TUELLER: Noma handles the waiting, which makes it better on us. We actually wind up jumping in the middle of our sleep shift. There’s a chime, and some people wake up, and those who don’t are woken up by the feeling of being turned inside out from both our throat and our rectum.
TUELLER: It’s over before you actually register that feeling, but it feels _awful_
STORY: Okay, this is now relevant. Where do Alejo and Tueller sleep?
STORY: https://the-peregrine.obsidianportal.com/characters/peregrine
STORY: Jac, Kahn, Tariq, Jenny, T’chololl, and Three are all in area 12.
STORY: Millie has the top floor.
STORY: Area 4.
TUELLER: Starboard 13.
STORY: There are actually double bunks in each of those rooms, the upper ones fold up against the wall when not in use, just for future reference in case you somehow run out of space in this giant ship.
STORY: Alejo, you take the port 13 bunk?
TUELLER: Or bunk together.
TUELLER: Recreationally.
STORY: Sure, though getting recreational on a twin bunk that swings out from the wall five feet up sounds unnecessarily dangerous.
STORY: But whatever swings your tail.
ALEJO: Port 13, yeah. Though recreational bunking is cool too.
TUELLER: Tueller’s into some kinky shit with six limbed ladies.
STORY: None of the crew have so far expressed interest in recreational bunking, but also none of them have been asked directly, so. You never know.
TUELLER: —Here’s to swimming with doublejointed legged women.
ALEJO: —Alejo has eyes for Millie, but doesn’t really realize it yet.
STORY: — THAT’S SUPPOSED TO BE SUBTEXT UNTIL SEASON 3 GEEZ
MILLICENT: —Millie currently has eyes for science and outrunning her traumatic bad decisions, gawd
STORY: Anyway, if you don’t wake up from the jump, you do soon after, when you hear screaming coming from the dormitory.
STORY: Millie, you happily sleep through this.
TUELLER: Tueller’s up with the jump chime, and out of bed when he hears screaming
ALEJO: Alejo jumps out of bed, throws on PJ bottoms and runs out, shirtless, to see what’s going on.
TUELLER: Towards in, in his PJs as well.
MILLICENT: —I’m a little bummed that Millie sleeps through this so she can’t run out in her PJ bottoms as well, because it’s a really good TV gag
STORY: You throw the door open together, swinging it open to see Jenny and Kahn on the floor, holding down a shaking and screaming Three.
TUELLER: “Jump sickness?”
STORY: They are fully freaking out, panicked, yelling in language that is only half translated, but either way they’re making no sense. They buck under the weight of the two crew members holding them down, tossing Kahn to the side. They’re stronger than they look.
ALEJO: Alejo kneels down beside them. His voice is smooth and sweet. “You’re alright Three.” He puts a gentle but firm hand on Three’s chest.
TUELLER: “Guess we know why they don’t jump.”
TUELLER: Tueller reaches down to try to keep them from hurting themselves or each other
STORY: Kahn scrambles back over. Tariq and T’chololl stand awkwardly to the side. T’chololl notices the two of you and straightens up, staring at Tueller in his pajama bottoms.
STORY: Alejo give me Face Adversity + Influence, please.
ALEJO: /roll 2d6+2
STORY: @ablair01 rolled 10 + 2 = 12
STORY: Three notices your hand on their chest, looks at it a moment, looks over at Jenny, and visibly relaxes, still breathing heavily. They look up at you. “You did not… your description was not full.”
STORY: Their voice gets confusing as they speak in a mixture of translated Kith, untranslated Kith, and English they have picked up while onboard.
ALEJO: He nods consolingly. “For sure. Sorry. My bad.”
STORY: The pitch and timbre wobble as your universal translator attempts to manage the mixture.
STORY: “You should have said… it feels like.”
STORY: “Shitting backwards.”
STORY: “Is that the word?”
STORY: They look at Jenny. “I am sorry. You can let go.”
MILLICENT: —real life lol
TUELLER: —So my normal commute.
ALEJO: He eases up the pressure of his hand but leaves it for a moment, as a sign of comfort before pulling it away. He laughs.
TUELLER: “That was a good one, too. Bad ones are…bad.”
ALEJO: “Best description of it I’ve heard.”
STORY: Jenny lets go and crawls back, her white cotton pajamas covered in little pink embroidered rabbits.
STORY: Kahn, in scrubs, gets up on his knees and offers Three a hand.
ALEJO: Alejo smiles at her. “Nice rodents.”
STORY: Jenny looks at you, confused. “Hm? Oh!” She looks down at her pajamas. “Right. Yes. Gift from my mom.”
TUELLER: “You able to do more of those, Flo?”
ALEJO: He gives her a “sure they are” look and stands, offering her a hand up.
STORY: Three takes Kahn’s hand and sits up, catching their breath. “I am sorry, everyone. I did not expect these feelings. Yes, I think I understand now. How many more will we do?”
TUELLER: “Depends on where we want to go eventually.”
STORY: Jenny takes it. “She said military issue are bad for my skin,” she grumbles.
TUELLER: Tueller is sadly missing this chance to flirt.
STORY: “We want to go to my home planet.”
STORY: “To Kith.”
STORY: “To where it was, I mean to say.”
ALEJO: “Your skin certainly deserves the best.” He says this lightly, not really looking at her, while paying attention to Tueller and Three.
TUELLER: “No more jumps before Old Home. We jump everywhere eventually, but you probably got one or two more, minimum. Sorry bud.”
STORY: Three nods, then turns around and throws up onto the deck.
STORY: Kahn holds out his arm to steady Three.
ALEJO: Alejo is startled by this and jumps backwards an inch or two, though he’s not really close to Three.
TUELLER: Tueller holds them not unkindly while they throw up.
TUELLER: “Okay, we’ll keep you on light rations. You good to disable the guns? It’d be a shame to go all this distance just to get a piece of metal through us at sub light speed”
STORY: They nod.
STORY: “I will be all right. Thank you all for your help.”
TUELLER: “Our pleasure.”
TUELLER: Tueller will stay up a little bit with them making sure they hydrate properly.
TUELLER: Also, eventually, trying to figure out what happened to their planet.
TUELLER: Since the language training hasn’t been adequate to explain it up until now.
ALEJO: Alejo is awake now, so he’ll offer to play counters with anyone who’s up for it. At least for an hour or so, until sleep finds him again.
STORY: Tariq will take you up on it, Alejo. He says he doesn’t sleep too well anyway.
MILLICENT: Millie dreams of new beaker day, the day when new beakers get delivered to the lab.
MILLICENT: They smell a bit like the cardboard they’re shipped in, but also of potential and science
STORY: So! Next morning. You’ve got one more week of travel, so let’s do another Cramped Quarters roll.
STORY: Tueller, hit me!
TUELLER: Talking to Three! Trying to buddy up to them and learn about their planet.
TUELLER: /roll 2d6
STORY: @chris.stuart rolled 8
STORY: Okay! So this will reveal/discover the answer to their question about an aspect of yourself or your past.
STORY: Set the scene for me.
TUELLER: Same night, immediately after the jump, Tueller is just chatting and trying to calm Three down by telling funny jump stories, while kind of clumsily trying to sound Three out about their past.
STORY: They brush their teeth and change into a clean shirt.
STORY: “Is it common for people to sick after a jump?”
TUELLER: “Oh man, all the time. I went through a time when I tried to stay drunk through it. THAT was a mistake.”
TUELLER: “I fared alright. Just sick in a boarding suit. Nandini threw up AND shat herself at the same time. Inside of a suit, even.”
TUELLER: “It’s an instant transition from drunk to hungover when you jump.”
STORY: “What is… drunk? You were thirsty?”
TUELLER: “Oh! Ummm…well, we drink ethanol recreationally.”
STORY: They look confused.
STORY: “Does ethanol not poison your species?”
TUELLER: “We mildly poison ourselves until we get addle-brained and laugh a lot.”
TUELLER: “If you do it wrong, your head hurts the next day and everything tastes wrong and looks like there’s a wrong sized star lighting everything up.”
STORY: “That sounds terrible.”
TUELLER: “But if you do it right it’s AWESOME.”
STORY: “Oh.” They look thoughtful.
MILLICENT: —-2nd honest to God lol of the night
STORY: “Can I try?”
TUELLER: “You can, absolutely.”
TUELLER: Tueller pauses. “Let’s…just….a sec.“’
TUELLER: “Noma? Do you know anything about Kith toxicity to ethanol?”
STORY: Noma comes over the intercom. “Based on the biological samples taken, I cannot say for sure, but it appears to be safe to test and experiment.”
TUELLER: To Three. “Excellent. Just making sure its the right level of…intoxication.”
TUELLER: “So, shots!”
TUELLER: “Let’s try a sampler.”
TUELLER: Tueller grabs a couple bottles.
TUELLER: “This is tequila.”
TUELLER: “This is bourbon.”
TUELLER: “This is rum.”
STORY: Noma speaks up again. “Mr. Ya’Makasi, please remember that Mx. Sing-Flowers is quite literally the last and best hope for their civilization.”
TUELLER: “So am I, Noma. So am I.”
STORY: “Perhaps the lesson can be briefer than your typical… lectures.”
MILLICENT: —3rd
MILLICENT: —SO AM I, NOMA
MILLICENT: —Jesus this better go well
TUELLER: “Okay, buddy. You just drink this.” Tueller pours bourbon. “This is a sipping bourbon, so let’s just toss it down our throat and see how it goes.”
TUELLER: Tueller demonstrates.
STORY: Three holds up the glass and sniffs it.
TUELLER: —I have no particular revelation in mind, btw, so let’s search for a lesson.
TUELLER: “It’s got a good nose, but just go to fucking town, Flo.”
STORY: Let’s cut to half an hour later. You have already learned three Kith folk songs in their native language.
STORY: What was your question again?
TUELLER: Well, I wanted to know how their planet blew up.
STORY: Oh! They aren’t sure, but the way the legends go is that their people were cloned from three astronauts who happened to be outside the blast radius when the planet was destroyed. What they were able to piece together from received radio signals before the destruction of the planet involved some kind of multi-country conflict that didn’t get deescalated.
STORY: That was somewhere in the range of 5,000 years ago. The three survivors, names lost to history and now known as One, Two, and Three, traveled in their self-sufficient ship through space, literally floating directionless, cloning themselves until they had raised a full crew compliment of 20. They traveled for another thousand years, continuing the cloning practices, until they found New Home, or Kithheim, as they call it.
STORY: By that time, the three cloning lines had been copied and mutated so many times that they were no longer able to breed with each other.
STORY: The population of Kithheim is 200 million. They are surviving adequately, as Kithheim has plentiful natural resources, but as a society they are stagnating. Innovation and culture are withering.
STORY: Sex has become an unknown practice, as there is no reason for it to exist. The Twos stopped having discernible genitalia two millennia ago.
TUELLER: “huh.”
TUELLER: “Well.”
TUELLER: i’m not implying Tueller has lost interest, btw.
STORY: A few hundred years ago, Kith leadership decided to take on the unprecedented endeavor of sending out search parties to scour the galaxy for help – looking for someone to take their people to the ruins of Kith to seek out anything they could find in the salvage that might provide them with additional genetic material for their cloning practices.
TUELLER: Tueller doesn’t know how to continue.
STORY: Even a single computer bank of genetic data could give them enough information to start again, and build back the species they once were.
STORY: The kith have very advanced cloning capabilities, and have learned how to account for the small variations that occur and grow a more or less healthy population through hundreds of generations of copies of copies, but their other technological capabilities are limited. There are no known jump relays near them, and they lack FTL travel (as does everyone, outside of jump relays).
TUELLER: And wild jumps?
STORY: They’re unaware of the concept.
STORY: Three is very interested in your description.
TUELLER: “I’ve never done it before. It’s dangerous.”
STORY: “So.. you can make the ship guess where to go?”
STORY: “And if you are right, we reach home right away?”
STORY: “What if you are wrong?”
TUELLER: “It’ll take you somewhere. People are mostly afraid of winding up inside a star or something like that, but the volume is almost entirely empty. But regardless, some people who wild jump don’t come back. Whether they disappear or just can’t make it back… well, I don’t know.”
TUELLER: “I’m a take-it-as-they-come kind of guy. We’re getting my ex-girlfriend’s wife’s eggs first, then getting down to your planet, and then we’ll figure out the next step after that.”
STORY: “Do you know someone who has done the wild jump?”
TUELLER: “My uncle runs a wildcatter guild. They set out to find new planets and moons. He’s done a couple wild jumps and returned, but he doesn’t share with us. That wing of the family are….well, assholes, really.”
TUELLER: “Setting up a new Family elsewhere is only an honor given to a rare few.”
TUELLER: Tueller gets quiet again, and then downs a triple shot of tequila.
STORY: “What is that word?”
STORY: “Family?”
TUELLER: …
TUELLER: “Family are the people who produced you who let you know you owe everything to them.”
TUELLER: “And the others who owe that as well.”
TUELLER: “And the ones who, as a result, stick with you even if they don’t want to.”
TUELLER: “Up to a point, of course, and you never want to test to find out where that point is.”
TUELLER: “Because if you pass it you don’t have a family anymore, and you’re probably dead.”
STORY: They look confused.
STORY: “It sounds like you do not like this family.”
TUELLER: “I love the Family. I serve the Family. But I hate the fuckers, too.”
TUELLER: “No one has a family like mine. Which is good for everyone else.”
TUELLER: “I am not a typical human.”
STORY: They scratch their head, spinning an ice cube around in their glass. “Why choose this?”
TUELLER: “Why did you choose your path?”
STORY: “I did not. I was born on our ship and taught my duties.”
TUELLER: “Well there you go.”
STORY: “I see. A family, it is your purpose.”
TUELLER: “Whether you choose it or not.”
STORY: They put a hand on your shoulder. “I hope you can enjoy yours more, or find another.”
STORY: And promptly lay their head on the table and fall asleep.
TUELLER: Tueller refills his glass and keeps sipping.
TUELLER: “Yeah. Sounds nice.”
STORY: Next morning!
STORY: You’ve got a week’s travel before you reach the location of Ruma’s destroyed ship.
STORY: Anyone have plans for that week?
TUELLER: Seems like a no.
ALEJO: Nothing in particular.
MILLICENT: Nope
STORY: Okay! Things proceed as usual.
STORY: On day eight after your jump, it’s late in the evening. Who typically goes to bed last?
TUELLER: Tueller.
STORY: Tueller, you’re resting your feet in the bridge, where the view is nice, and Noma comes on the intercom. “Mr. Ya’Makasi.”
TUELLER: “Noma.”
STORY: “We’re entering the edge of the asteroid field. The debris is spaced far enough apart that I do not anticipate an immediate need for manual control, but sensors have picked up something I believe you would like to know about.”
TUELLER: “I’m all ears, Noma.”
STORY: “There appears to be a significant… clump.”
TUELLER: “We have any visual yet?”
STORY: “No, it’s outside our trajectory. But if you would like to investigate, we could have visual contact in two hours and six minutes.”
TUELLER: “We got time. Let’s see what’s interesting out there.”
TUELLER: “You fly us. I’m on the PDC.”
STORY: “PDC?”
TUELLER: “Point defense cannons.”
TUELLER: “In case something slides towards us that needs dissuading.”
STORY: “Of course.”
TUELLER: “You’re the captain now.”
TUELLER: “Let me know how it goes for you.”
STORY: “Oh, dear.”
TUELLER: “Heavy lies the crown.”
STORY: You spend a few hours gliding through space on a different trajectory. It’s now well into the night.
STORY: Noma beeps through again. “Sensor readouts indicate a large mass of rock, organic material, and… electronic activity.”
STORY: “Low radio signals, but whatever that is, it appears to be… on.”
TUELLER: Toggling ship wide comms: “Everyone who’s up get up here.”
TUELLER: Quietly enough not to wake deep sleepers.
TUELLER: “Sorry, you’re not the captain anymore.”
TUELLER: “Good job, though, girl.”
STORY: “Thank you, Mr. Ya’Makasi.”
STORY: Out the window, you can see what she’s referring to – though to you, from this distance, it looks like a small moon. It isn’t quite round, and you catch enough of its silhouette to see that it has many craggy outcroppings. Sensors read it as a hundred sixteen kilometers wide.
ALEJO: Alejo never sleeps deep. He pops up, rolls out of his bunk, and slips on some clothes. He hits the comm on the wall. “On my way.”
STORY: Alejo, you run into Jenny on your way out of your bunk, she pulling on her second sneaker.
STORY: She pulls her hair back with an elastic. “Any idea what this is?”
ALEJO: He shakes his head and gestures for her to lead the way.
STORY: Jenny is in a tank top and her bunny pajama bottoms. She rushes up the stairways ahead of you.
ALEJO: Alejo follows her up the stairs, close but not too close.
MILLICENT: Millie is likely the first one to the bridge.
MILLICENT: Considering her quarters
MILLICENT: She is groggy, in turns excited and still sleepy.
MILLICENT: “Mr. Ya’Makasi.”
TUELLER: “We got something interesting.”
TUELLER: “We got a castle in the sky.”
STORY: Tueller, if you squint you can see what looks like several large, white veins running through and around the larger rocks.
TUELLER: Symetrical or random?
STORY: Neither, it looks biological.
STORY: They follow the crevices of the rocks in a way that looks like they grew there.
TUELLER: We have a nearby star?
STORY: There is a nearby star, yes. Noma evaluates the location for you. “Mr. Ya’Makasi, this object is approximately 10 percent closer to the Kith sun than their original homeworld is estimated to have been.”
TUELLER: “We got something new under the sky here”
MILLICENT: “Oh.”
MILLICENT: “Something new.”
TUELLER: “Rock and biologics.”
TUELLER: “And it’s talking.”
STORY: As Jenny arrives, you note the absence of a visible atmosphere around the object. No clouds, no refraction of light, just the rocks and then space.
STORY: She stops dead in the entrance to the bridge when she enters. “Whoa.”
TUELLER: “Or muttering, at least.”
MILLICENT: Millie wraps an expensive looking robe around her and slides into a chair in front of a terminal. “Noma, please transfer sensor-yes, thanks.”
TUELLER: “Evening Jen. Here’s something new for us all.”
TUELLER: “More things in heaven and earth is I believe what we promised you, more or less.”
ALEJO: Alejo keeps moving into the cabin and nearly knocks her over, mesmerized by what he sees. “Sorry! So sorry.” The second is distracted again by the view.
TUELLER: “Ejo, you’re driving.”
ALEJO: He nods absently and slides into the pilot seat.
MILLICENT: Millie slides her visor from her robe pocket onto her head and scans for alien tech.
TUELLER: “Noma, I’d like your attention on the rock.”
TUELLER: “Keep us safe, Ejo, but inch us closer.”
TUELLER: “Jen. You’ll get your chance, but can you wake up Three?”
TUELLER: “I think they’ll want to be here.”
STORY: Jenny nods, staring out the window one last moment, and heads back downstairs.
STORY: Alejo, why don’t you give me a description of what you see with a little more detail please.
ALEJO: As we get closer, the rock appears to be expanding and contracting in various places. It’s probably just a visual illusion, like a mirage, but the impression is startling.
ALEJO: The white veins now appear to be shimmering, moving as well. They are not constant, not pulsating but flowing.
ALEJO: The rock seems to be an exceptionally large asteroid.
ALEJO: “The hell is this thing?”
TUELLER: “Hopefully Flo will confirm it, but I have a suspicion this is Kith.”
ALEJO: Alejo is flying cautiously, attentive to the slightest changes in any spacial dynamics as he pilots us closer.
STORY: Millie, this rock is peppered in alien tech. It’s lighting up in dozens of places on your visor.
STORY: Noma beeps in. “The biological makeup of the white sections of this object appears to be mycelial in nature.”
TUELLER: “Fungal?”
STORY: “The rock itself does align with my understanding of the geological makeup of Kith, though information on that is extremely limited. However, the presence of alien technology on parts of the surface does indicate that these pieces came from a planet.”
MILLICENT: “Is it broadcasting?”
STORY: Millie, please Face Adversity + Expertise
ALEJO: “We really need Three up here. I don’t fancy getting shot tonight.”
MILLICENT: /roll 2d6 + 2
STORY: @josh rolled 4 + 2 = 6
MILLICENT: Well, shit
STORY: “Unclear. I’m picking up ambient radio noise, which indicates it’s active, but I cannot find anything clearly broadcasting outside of the object itself. Would you like to hail it?”
TUELLER: “Not until we have a Kith up here, please.”
STORY: Jenny arrives back with a sleepy Three. They look outside, eyes wide. “What is this?”
MILLICENT: Millie nods.
TUELLER: “We’re in Kith space.”
STORY: In the intervening eight days since your last conversation, Three has completed their language download with Noma and is now able to speak to you without communication issues.
TUELLER: “Does that look reminiscent of anything.”
ALEJO: “Look like Old Home?”
STORY: They shake their head, slowly. “No. Kith was green, lush. The records speak of rivers and islands everywhere. It was a small planet, but this…” They look at the sensor readings. “This is barely a moon.”
STORY: “And it looks dead.”
STORY: “What are those branches?”
STORY: Noma responds. “It appears to be a mycelium.”
TUELLER: “Your guess is…well, all we’ve got here.”
STORY: Three nods, slowly again. “I do not recognize this, I am sorry.”
STORY: “Is this our destination?”
TUELLER: “Flo, so, I think we need to proceed with the possibility that this,” Tueller points, “Is what remains of Kith.”
STORY: They squint at the viewscreen.
TUELLER: “Something went wrong. That’s the given here.”
ALEJO: “Which means we might need those words or code or whatever to keep from being shot out of space.”
STORY: They nod. “Yes, of course. Shall we open a channel to provide the codes?”
ALEJO: “Doc, you’re up.”
MILLICENT: Millie opens a channel
STORY: You make a connection with whatever is out there.
STORY: Three steps up to the mic, and speaks a series of words into it that your translators do not pick up. You suspect they left those out of their courses with Noma on purpose.
STORY: A voice comes in on the other end of the wave. “Credentials accepted. Welcome home, Dr. Blume.”
STORY: Three stands. “We should be safe to proceed.”
TUELLER: “Welcome home, Flo.”
ALEJO: “Dr. Blume?” Alejo mouths the words but doesn’t really say them.
TUELLER: Tueller shrugs, out of Three’s sight.
TUELLER: He gives Alejo a slightly suspicious look.
MILLICENT: What language is that voice in?
STORY: You can’t typically tell with the universal translators active, but you can usually get when a voice is coming in unmodulated, and this one isn’t – so you assume it’s Kith, translated to English for you.
MILLICENT: And “Blume” is translated or original?
STORY: Translated.
STORY: Also, I forgot – Millie and Tueller, please do Assessment + Expertise rolls for all the scanning before
MILLICENT: /roll 2d6 + 2
STORY: @josh rolled 10 + 2 = 12
TUELLER: /roll 2d6+1
STORY: @chris.stuart rolled 10 + 1 = 11
ALEJO: –Nice!
STORY: Okay! Millie’s got a Data Point covering Kith technology, and Tueller’s got one about this planetoid thingy.
STORY: The information you get is the same as what you already gathered, I just wanted to give you the opportunity for data points.
STORY: So.
STORY: What do you do?
TUELLER: “Well, shit, let’s get on with it.”
MILLICENT: Millie nods.
TUELLER: “Ejo, bring us in. Standard paranoid pattern, getting close, ready to bug out if threatened, and land if not.”
TUELLER: To Millie, “not our first time at this rodeo.”
MILLICENT: “It seems not!”
MILLICENT: Is Tariq around?
STORY: No, you assume he’s asleep.
ALEJO: Alejo brings us in.
TUELLER: Tueller sits with his hands resting near the stick to control the cannons.
TUELLER: Keeping an eye out for debris or whatever.
TUELLER: “Airlocks, open fields, ledges, bunkers, anything that looks like it screams ‘come down and loot me,’ please, Ejo.”
STORY: You start to approach the object. You get close enough to see structures on the surface, and more clearly understand what you’re looking at – it appears to be large chunks of what was once a planet, held together with massive strands of fungal rhizomorphs. They’re not necessarily even with each other, and not smooth at all, so entire city blocks may run at a 90 degree angle to a neighboring quarry. It’s like a collection more than a planet.
STORY: The white rhizomorph cords pulsate and flicker underneath the surface, as if dim lights are traveling through them.
TUELLER: Does it look alive or dead?
TUELLER: The fungus, not the city itself.
STORY: Definitely, unquestionably alive.
STORY: Just as you get close enough to make that judgment, Tueller, you catch something out of the corner of your eye.
STORY: An enormous turret on the surface is whirling around to point towards you.
TUELLER: “We’re being painted!”
TUELLER: “Evasive.”
STORY: Alejo, Millie, you see the entire object expand slightly, then contract. The gigantic rocks adjust and crash into each other as the moon takes a deep breath.
STORY: And the rail gun charges and fires.