STORY: Millie, Calixta steps into the back area. “So. The bodies are still everywhere, and also the crew knows now about them. And us. Basically they know everything important.”
TUELLER: “That was me.”
TUELLER: “Seemed like a good idea at the time.”
STORY: “Well, actually they don’t know about this,” she waves to the rows and rows of bodies.
MILLICENT: Millie lets out a breath.
TUELLER: “I have some good ideas.”
MILLICENT: “Interesting.”
ALEJO: Alejo nods. And keeps nodding. “Okay. Okay.”
TUELLER: “I just can’t tell the difference between them.”
ALEJO: He’s still nodding.
MILLICENT: “Well. Okay, that advances our clock.”
TUELLER: “The good ones and the not good ones.”
MILLICENT: “So, let’s review and then brainstorm.”
STORY: “It was a good speech.”
TUELLER: “Thank you!”
ALEJO: “So, about an hour?” He looks at Cali.
TUELLER: Tueller comes up to Alejo as he’s settling in with CJH, and claps him on the shoulder. “Have you ever run a bust out before?”
ALEJO: Alejo nods. “Well, sort of. Never run point. But I’ve been involved. Why?”
TUELLER: “Just to be clear, we’re talking about the scam here. Not a prison break.”
TUELLER: “So there’s this guy, he owes us a lot of money, but we want him to owe us more money. We want to own him. So instead of putting him on a payment plan to us, which he could pay off in a couple years, he’s going to do us a favor. Smuggle some cargo to Mars for us. With me so far?”
ALEJO: He nods. “Yeah.”
TUELLER: Tueller brightens up. “Excellent! Congratulations, Alejo, you’re now a captain. Get a crew together, pick people with no CJH or Ya’Makasi markings or tattoos. You’re going to hit that ship in deep space — we’ll give you their flight plan — and steal that contraband. Don’t kill anyone important, don’t damage the ship too bad, but take the cargo, send me a message, and lay low for awhile. Come back in a month if you don’t hear otherwise.”
TUELLER: Tueller looks expectantly, awaiting any questions.
ALEJO: Alejo smiles broadly. “I get to pick the crew?”
TUELLER: “Anyone who will have you. The family knows this gig, so if you’e eying my sister it might be a little early for that.”
ALEJO: “Sounds fun. I’m in!”
TUELLER: “We’re going to be judging you on how this goes, but of course, the Family gets rich off of this.”
TUELLER: “I notice you didn’t ask any questions about the actual cargo.”
ALEJO: He shrugs. “I didn’t.”
TUELLER: “I like that, but I also like a little curiosity. Not all of the Family does, of course, so you’re going to have to wend your way between those of us who do, and those of us who don’t.”
ALEJO: “I figure you’d tell me if you wanted me to know.”
ALEJO: “You don’t have any family ink. You wanna come?”
TUELLER: “In this case, it absolutely doesn’t matter. Dump it once you got it. It’s worthless. Backlog of fantasy novels to pad it down. But we come back to the mark, tell him how important what they lost was, how valuable it was, how much they owe us. Then we own them forever. We’ve got a legitimate business to leverage, launder, and run up the tab, until their accounts are busted, and they sign over the ships to us. A bust out with teeth.”
TUELLER: “You do well, maybe some day you get to spend the bust out. That’s the easy part. Less fun, of course.”
ALEJO: He smiles again. “I’ll get it done.”
TUELLER: “See you do.” Tueller pats him on the shoulder and the scene ends.
—
STORY: You’ve just stepped into the cavernous, slightly-cooler-than-room-temperature hold of this base, in which are stored – as far as you can surmise – thousands of humans, held in stasis.
STORY: The full weight of the responsibility Nikau has placed on you is starting to become apparent to you.
STORY: Calixta is moving up and down the rows, checking all the little displays. She calls out status – all living and in suspended animation, so far – as she goes.
MILLICENT: Millie lets out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding.
TUELLER: Tueller comes in for a closer look. Any names or anything identifying?
STORY: From the distant specks of color on the displays, you have no reason to suspect any variation in that status for the other guests.
STORY: UUIDs, Tueller. No names. Date of arrival, current status. All alive and stable.
MILLICENT: “There must be thousands.”
TUELLER: “People stored up here, weapons stored in the center of the Ren Fest planet. I’m starting to not like the collective.”
TUELLER: Any order to arrival date?
MILLICENT: “We have no reason to suspect every single relay isn’t the same.”
MILLICENT: “The scope of this…”
STORY: None that you can find, and the variation is significant. Some are relatively new, others here for 20 years or more.
TUELLER: how long have we had a relay?
ALEJO: Alejo stands over one of the suspension pods, just looking down at the face of a young man, frozen.
STORY: Less than a century, more than a few decades.
STORY: Manaaki was involved in launching it as a young scientist.
STORY: Other questions?
TUELLER: “Well, I’m kind of at a loss here.”
MILLICENT: Is there a master control bank?
STORY: To control what, Millie?
MILLICENT: And is there any kind of reintegration room? Like a recovery room after surgery at a hospital?
MILLICENT: Getting people out of the pods, checking their vitals, inventory.
MILLICENT: That kind of thing
STORY: That question is gonna require access to a terminal and some time to familiarize yourself with the base’s operational documentation.
MILLICENT: Okay righto
MILLICENT: “And Nikau’s last act was to hand over control to. Me.”
ALEJO: “Let’s hope he gave you access to everything? Maybe we can get some gods-damned answers finally.”
ALEJO: Alejo looks around at the pods.
MILLICENT: Is there a nearby deck or terminal?
STORY: Calixta moves quietly past the three of you and back into Manaaki’s quarters, pausing near Alejo to whisper in his ear.
TUELLER: Tueller just remembers something. “And please shut and lock the door. There’s dozens of security guards who don’t know that we rule the school now.”
ALEJO: Alejo walks over to Millie. “What do you need? How can we help?”
STORY: You hear some beeps from Manaaki’s office: Calixta locking you in.
MILLICENT: “I need some help figuring out what we’re going to do next.
TUELLER: She’s locking the office door from the outside, or locking the door between the office and us?
STORY: Locking the office door from the inside, so you and she and all these semi-bodies have privacy.
TUELLER: That’s a better way to answer me than the way I phrased it.
STORY: It is.
TUELLER: Tueller ducks his head into Manaaki’s office to confirm it’s all as he asked.
STORY: Calixta, dragging Manaaki’s body awkwardly, waves you over. “Give me a hand?”
MILLICENT: Millie heads back into Nikau’s office and sends a message on the security frequencies. She looks up the communication authorization codes first. “Emergency protocols are suspended, all security teams are to stand down and return to normal operation per security authorization code omikron upsilon rho seven mu.”
STORY: “A–uh. Oh.”
STORY: “Okay.” Calixta just sort of drops the Manaaki she was trying to hide away before Millie got back and was retraumatized.
ALEJO: Alejo frowns. And chases after Millie.
TUELLER: Tueller goes to help Noma. Picking up the body and kind of hiding it from Millie with limited success.
ALEJO: “Sorry,” he says awkwardly towards Calixta.
ALEJO: “Doc, we should probably focus on finding a terminal in there, yeah?”
ALEJO: Alejo points back towards the room with the semi-bodies.
MILLICENT: Millie closes her eyes and backs back out of Nikau’s office.
ALEJO: He follows her out and closes the door behind them.
MILLICENT: Millie sits with her back to the wall and catches her breath
ALEJO: Alejo sits down next to her. “Millie . . . ” He blows a puff of air out of his lips trailing off. “You don’t strike me as the hugging type, but I’m here if you just need one. Or, I’m ready to help you work.”
ALEJO: He puts his shoulder up against her.
MILLICENT: Millie leans on his shoulder and takes some breaths.
MILLICENT: “I am investigating the possibility of adding hugs to my repertoire.”
MILLICENT: “I have read some studies that indicate that they may be quite therapeutic.”
ALEJO: He smiles and puts an arm around her, pulling her into a warm, long hug.
ALEJO: “Always ready to help with hugs.”
ALEJO: “I’m so sorry, Doc. Truly.”
MILLICENT: “I feel that at some point I must stop losing that man. One day will be the last time I have to see him dead.”
MILLICENT: “I just can’t be certain today is that day.”
ALEJO: “Yeah,” he says softly, “this is so fucking fucked up.” He holds her tightly.
TUELLER: Tueller puts the corpse in the appropriate charnel pile.
STORY: Calixta is looking around the room, trying to find a garbage chute or other disposal method.
STORY: She holds a finger to her lips. “Bathtub?”
TUELLER: “Never an autoclave when you need it.”
STORY: “I bet one of the security guards knows what to do with bodies.”
TUELLER: “They generally have a ceremony and dump it in.”
TUELLER: “Somewhere.”
MILLICENT: “I’ve never killed anyone before, Alejo. Not, you know, in person. I killed one of them today.”
ALEJO: “Yeah, it’s . . . hard under the best of conditions. This . . . I can’t even imagine, Millie. This isn’t something any person should ever have to face down.” He squeezes her tighter for a moment and then relaxes, letting her decide how long to stay in the hug.
ALEJO: “Not that I know how this feels, exactly. But I’ll be here with you through it. To the end of the line.”
MILLICENT: Millie eventually stretches, giving Alejo an indication that she’d like some space. She rolls her neck until it cracks and when she looks up at him, Alejo can see she’s been quietly crying.
MILLICENT: “Thank you, my dear. I needed to know that.”
ALEJO: Alejo leans back against the wall, easing away a little and giving her some room. He smiles gently.
MILLICENT: She wipes her eyes and rubs her temples. “Okay.”
MILLICENT: “Figure out the next step, right?”
ALEJO: “Absolutely.” Alejo stands and offers her a hand up. “We just keep taking next steps.”
ALEJO: “You need a terminal, yeah?”
MILLICENT: Millie nods
ALEJO: He takes her hand and helps her up. Then he starts looking around for a terminal.
STORY: There’s one a level up, installed in the wall.
MILLICENT: Millie takes a look
STORY: Assessment + Interface please!
MILLICENT: Can I use my Thingy for Tech on this?
MILLICENT: I can’t remember what it’s called
TUELLER: Data point
STORY: Yes!
MILLICENT: /roll 2d6 + 3
STORY: josh rolled 3 + 3 = 6
STORY: Wow dang
MILLICENT: what
STORY: That’s just… really bad
STORY: Bad job, Millie
STORY: hahah
MILLICENT: christ
TUELLER: Well you doomed the universe, Millie.
STORY: Millie, you spend some time looking through the files, which you have access to all of, and most of what you’re able to uncover is bad news. There are full records of everything that’s been done on this ship, but right now they’re too dense for you to concentrate on. What you do find is that you are now responsible for two hundred sixteen people and four thousand, six hundred and nine people in stasis. It is absolutely impossible for you to do even the daily checks and maintenance necessary on those people without help, and you understand now why there were twelve Manaakis.
STORY: You also check and confirm that there are no more of him onboard. A relief, but a sad one.
STORY: So if you want these people in stasis to stay alive, you’re going to need to enlist help.
STORY: So far, it seems that the peaceful functioning of this base has been predicated on the people walking around in it not really knowing what’s going on. You’re pretty confident these people would mutiny if told the whole truth.
MILLICENT: After all the Nikaus are sorted, Millie calls a meeting just inside the storage chamber.
STORY: Let’s sort them, then – Tueller, what are we doing with these bodies?
TUELLER: I just threw them onto the pile and didn’t do anything further with them!
STORY: hahaha
STORY: Calixta looks at you skeptically. “You think she’s not gonna notice the big fuckin’ pile of dead exes? Come on.”
STORY: “I feel like we either get your partner to help us, or we do a very awkward heist trying to find an airlock while carrying dead clones.”
TUELLER: Tueller does a quick job around the entire area, looking for good body storage/disposal.
TUELLER: And that obviously fails.
TUELLER: “My partner is either unconscious outside the door, or NOT unconscious outside the door and pissed at me.”
TUELLER: “Because I broke my nose on him knocking him out.”
STORY: “Ah.” Calixta nods.
STORY: She shakes her head, amused.
TUELLER: “And we’re trying to hide 12 copies of his boss.”
STORY: “Yes.”
STORY: “No thoughts on that one?”
TUELLER: Tueller is silent for a little bit.
TUELLER: “I reformed. Or tried. No killing. That was a thing I tried to do. Now I’m here trying to find a shovel and a place to bury 12 corpses.”
TUELLER: “Fuck it, let’s talk to Diego.”
STORY: Calixta sighs, and drops the arms of the Manaaki she’s currently holding. She takes a step towards Tueller, looking up at him sympathetically.
STORY: “It– oh. Okay.”
STORY: She gives up again, shrugging and heading to the door.
TUELLER: Tueller misses the moment again, and goes to the door to open it before he can think it over again.
STORY: Diego’s sitting against the bulkhead, looking pretty dazed. He looks up at you and his eyes widen.
TUELLER: “Hi. I’m not going to hit you again.”
TUELLER: “Sorry. It hurt me as much as it hurt you.” Tueller indicates his nose.
STORY: “You look horrible.”
TUELLER: “I haven’t seen a mirror yet, but I’ll get pretty again, I’m sure.”
TUELLER: “Listen, buddy. I need your help working through some things, about our life here and everything, and I think we’re going to…I don’t know, struggle with it all.” Tueller realizes he’s rambling, and starts over.
TUELLER: “There were twelve copies of the Director, keeping us all prisoner here.”
STORY: At that, Diego’s eyes are dinner plates.
TUELLER: Tueller pauses, and then, before Diego can respond, says “They’re all dead now, and I think you understand the panic that might happen when everyone learns about that.”
TUELLER: “I don’t want panic. I think we can work on easing that, but…well, I think the Director bodies need to go into the autoclave. The last bodies to go into the autoclave.”
STORY: Let’s see how this goes! FA + Influence, please
TUELLER: —I don’t know why I always check what my influence is. It’s always 0
TUELLER: /roll 2d6
STORY: chris.stuart rolled 5
TUELLER: This is not our night.
STORY: Oof, god
STORY: Diego stands, looking like he’s ready to continue the conversation, then bolts.
TUELLER: —And I thought that was a pretty good speech.
STORY: It was!
STORY: Calixta is about to pass you to chase after him, and you know what’s going to happen if she catches him. You have a moment to act first.
TUELLER: Tueller watches him go.
TUELLER: Tueller grabs Cali.
TUELLER: “Please no. No more killing. Not them, not you. Please no.”
TUELLER: “I thought it was a pretty good speech, though.” Tueller shakes his head as he keeps a tight hold on Cali.
STORY: She struggles against you for a moment, but you’re twice as strong as her, so she just looks up at you with urgency. “We’ll have a mutiny in an hour.”
TUELLER: “Yes. But we can’t kill our way out of it.”
STORY: She pauses, calculates in her head a moment, and nods. “All right. Let’s tell Millie.”
TUELLER: Tux is in the office too, right?
STORY: Nope, he’s back in Millie’s quarters taking a nap.
TUELLER: “And Alejo. He’s the one with charisma.”
TUELLER: “Me, I just have good looks, and even that’s in short supply right now.”
STORY: Millie, Calixta steps into the back area. “So. The bodies are still everywhere, and also the crew knows now about them. And us. Basically they know everything important.”
TUELLER: “That was me.”
TUELLER: “Seemed like a good idea at the time.”
STORY: “Well, actually they don’t know about this,” she waves to the rows and rows of bodies.
MILLICENT: Millie lets out a breath.
TUELLER: “I have some good ideas.”
MILLICENT: “Interesting.”
ALEJO: Alejo nods. And keeps nodding. “Okay. Okay.”
TUELLER: “I just can’t tell the difference between them.”
ALEJO: He’s still nodding.
MILLICENT: “Well. Okay, that advances our clock.”
TUELLER: “The good ones and the not good ones.”
MILLICENT: “So, let’s review and then brainstorm.”
STORY: “It was a good speech.”
TUELLER: “Thank you!”
ALEJO: “So, about an hour?” He looks at Cali.
MILLICENT: “We’ve killed the directors of the station and now the computers, at least, answer to me.”
STORY: Calixta nods.
TUELLER: “You have access to an ansible.”
STORY: “Well yeah, but it only talks to the Collective.”
ALEJO: He pulls out the pilers and brandishes them.
MILLICENT: “We are now responsible for around two hundred staff and four thousand bodies in storage.”
TUELLER: “And a radio signal that can get our ship.”
STORY: Calixta places a hand on the pliers and gently pushes them back down to Alejo’s pocket, shaking her head.
STORY: “Yes but – I feel I should be clear – it’s a shitty radio signal.”
MILLICENT: “It will take a dozen trained, qualified technicians to keep the bodies alive in stasis.”
ALEJO: His eyes dart towards Tueller. He nods and puts them away.
STORY: “This ship is specifically built not to allow communication outside of it, so that radio is at best going to be a bunch of static and possibly some beeps to anyone near enough to pick it up.”
TUELLER: “Unless we step outside.”
MILLICENT: “We don’t have the rations or the space to house all of them if we did take them out of stasis.”
STORY: Calixta thinks about that, Tueller.
MILLICENT: “And we have one panicked crewmember with an incomplete mastery of the facts about to spread panic.”
TUELLER: “The actual facts are also panic-inducing.”
TUELLER: “So don’t be too hard on Diego.”
MILLICENT: “Fair.”
ALEJO: “Maybe I should try to talk to the crew. Most of them know me.”
MILLICENT: “Is that a full accounting?”
ALEJO: “Maybe . . .” He takes a deep breath. “I can keep things from exploding for a little bit?”
ALEJO: “Long enough for us to get a real plan?”
STORY: “There are plenty of options for improvised weapons onboard, so I wouldn’t count on our safety once we open that door again.”
TUELLER: “Sure, I think that trying to get people to like us and understand is a great idea, but also, panicked mobs are unpredictable.”
MILLICENT: “I’d call that an adequate step one. But we’re going to need a cover story.”
TUELLER: “Or the truth.”
TUELLER: “We want everyone to know the truth, don’t we?”
ALEJO: “Do we?” Alejo points at Tueller.
MILLICENT: “Something to explain the lack of Nikau’s and whatever it is that Tueller told his mate.”
TUELLER: “That’s why we came here, right?”
TUELLER: “To tell the universe the truth?”
ALEJO: “I’m with T on this, I think.”
TUELLER: “That’s why you got me out of jail.”
STORY: Calixta sighs.
STORY: “How do we make sure they don’t all kill us once we tell them the truth?”
ALEJO: “How do we keep them from killing us if we don’t.”
MILLICENT: “That’s true. It’s also before we learned that there are thousands, probably millions in the other relays, of lives on the line if we don’t keep these machines operational.”
STORY: Calixta raises an eyebrow at you, Millie.
STORY: She doesn’t look happy to have heard what you just said.
STORY: “Operational? What?”
MILLICENT: “Okay, there are two issues here.”
TUELLER: “Short term and long term issues.”
MILLICENT: “One, what to do with everyone in stasis. Two, what do we tell the crew here.”
TUELLER: “And also the universe.”
MILLICENT: “Well, plus what do we do long-term with what we’ve found here.”
MILLICENT: “Right, so.”
TUELLER: “Just jumping the gun.”
MILLICENT: “Let’s hear thoughts on issue one first.”
STORY: “Have they ever been awake?”
STORY: “And do we have any way to wake them up?”
MILLICENT: “I think no to both.”
STORY: Calixta looks at the floor, licking her lips. Alejo, you already know what she’s going to say.
ALEJO: “So, the best we can do is keep them alive.” He gives Cali a sidelong glance. “If we have help. Right?”
STORY: “Is that the best?”
STORY: “Is that the most humane choice?”
TUELLER: “I’m…not disagreeing with Noma here.”
ALEJO: He frowns. “Cali’s not wrong about the smart play. They are . . . a vulnerability for us.”
ALEJO: “But, do we really want to off thousands of . . . people.” He hesitates with the last word.
TUELLER: “They’re copies.”
ALEJO: “So am I.”
TUELLER: “yes.”
STORY: She points. “That’s thousands of people dreaming, who won’t know when they stop dreaming. We wake them up, we run out of resources in days.”
TUELLER: “Dreaming….”
TUELLER: Tueller trails off and is thoughtful.
ALEJO: “The Weave.” Alejo looks at Tueller.
ALEJO: “You think it’s related?”
MILLICENT: “Oh that’s fascinating.”
STORY: “You think it is? I just meant they were asleep.”
STORY: “What the hell are they here for, anyway?”
MILLICENT: “Wasn’t something about the Weave supposed to have changed recently?”
TUELLER: “Someone’s stealing our dreams. What was the specifics of that?”
ALEJO: “We need to ask Tux. It was his hypothesis.”
STORY: Calixta shakes her head.
STORY: “It was his hypothesis after he went to New Vesta.”
TUELLER: “Delta brainwave siphoning.”
ALEJO: “Right.”
ALEJO: Alejo acknowledges Calixta’s point. “But, back to the matter at hand. Do we make the safe strategic play or . . . be big damned heroes here?”
STORY: Calixta throws up her hands. “How? Honestly, how? Do you know a way to create more oxygen?”
ALEJO: “If we keep them in stasis, we don’t have to, right?”
STORY: “Sure, but then they never leave this base.”
ALEJO: “For now. But we eventually need to figure out how to get us off this base. We figure that out and we can figure out how to get them off it, right?”
ALEJO: “And to keep them in stasis, we need help. Which means we need to solve our second issue.”
MILLICENT: “I’m having a very bad thought.”
MILLICENT: “I’ve been thinking of the Collective as having some secret hidden planet with lots of servers and machine inputs.”
MILLICENT: “They need some kind of machine to run in, after all.
MILLICENT: “But that puts all their eggs in one basket, so to speak.”
STORY: Calixta’s eyes widen. She’s already there
TUELLER: “Except no, they don’t.”
MILLICENT: “Noma, dear.”
TUELLER: “Noma could just flit about.”
TUELLER: “Before she moved into her very nice new home.”
MILLICENT: “Do you think the Collective could transfer themselves via delta wave?”
STORY: “I needed a system to occupy, though.”
STORY: “They do too.”
STORY: “But…” She looks up at the bodies.
MILLICENT: “Right.”
ALEJO: “Shit.”
MILLICENT: “Brain waves.”
MILLICENT: “All being siphoned from the Weave, somewhere.”
STORY: “A brain’s a biological computer.”
STORY: “If I can live in this one,” she points at her head.
MILLICENT: Millie nods.
STORY: “Who’s in there?” She points at them.
ALEJO: Alejo sits down.
ALEJO: In the middle of the floor.
ALEJO: “Shit.”
MILLICENT: “If the AI has true ansible technology they could be anywhere, operating from there.”
STORY: Calixta leans down and puts a hand on his shoulder.
MILLICENT: Millie puts her head back and exhales.
TUELLER: “So if we shut them down, we kill the human clones, but also…someone else?”
STORY: She decides now is also a good time to sit in the middle of the floor and does so, back to back with Alejo.
TUELLER: Tueller goes to Manaaki’s desk, and checks the drawers, pulls out a bottle of aged rum.
MILLICENT: “If we kill them we’re declaring war on the AI Collective by killing at least one, probably more AI consciousnesses.”
STORY: “Probably more than one someone, Tueller. Probably part of a lot of them. A lot of it. English doesn’t really have good pronouns for this.”
TUELLER: Pops the top off with a thumb, and takes a drink.
TUELLER: Passes it around.
STORY: “The Collective is a shared mind, one that can split off and reform.”
MILLICENT: Millie takes a long pull.
STORY: “Sort of like mine, on a scale billions of times larger.”
TUELLER: “’em.”
STORY: “Meaning there could be part of a thousand minds in those thousand minds.”
ALEJO: Alejo takes it after she’s done. After a swig, he hands it back, behind him, to Cali.
STORY: She takes it too, also has a long swig.
MILLICENT: Millie starts pacing.
TUELLER: “Portion of memories and evil plans and sense memories and a sense of humor, maybe. Times a thousand.”
MILLICENT: “So, we can’t take them offline.”
TUELLER: Tueller takes the rum, and another swig, and then sets it back down.
STORY: Calixta stands up, suddenly.
STORY: “Millie, log me in please.” She climbs up a level to the console you were using.
MILLICENT: Millie logs her in
ALEJO: “What about . . .” Alejo leans back just as she stands but he catches himself.
ALEJO: He stands slowly.
ALEJO: “While she’s investigating whatever she’s investigating . . . how do we know that I’m not . . . harboring stowaways?” He looks at Millie.
TUELLER: “No delta waves.”
TUELLER: “You’re not asleep. That’s my guess. This is cloud computing, holding that shit of a being that talked to you in the Weave.”
TUELLER: “If you were packing something you would have it since then.”
STORY: “Ding,” Calixta calls from a deck above you, confirming her agreement with Tueller’s guess.
TUELLER: “We all would.”
STORY: She continues typing as she talks. “Everyone who has traveled through a relay.”
ALEJO: He glances up and then back at Tueller. He looks relieved.
STORY: “These are local storage, but we’re–” she leans over the railing. “The cloud.”
TUELLER: “I mean, you still might. But we all would.”
MILLICENT: “It was! You communicated directly with the Collective!”
STORY: “Humans don’t use much of their brains while they sleep. They don’t even use all of it while awake.”
STORY: “My conjecture is that the Collective uses the processing power we are leaving idle.”
STORY: She shakes her head. “This data is beyond me. I’m not a specialist in this kind of thing.”
STORY: “I have it, I just don’t understand what I’m looking at.”
STORY: She takes a moment. “An interesting feeling.”
TUELLER: “This is what you left behind when you become discrete?”
STORY: She nods, sliding back down the ladder on the rails.
MILLICENT: Millie whistles.
STORY: https://media1.tenor.com/images/9f25463562a72c08945a76405bebaa5b/tenor.gif?itemid=9914143
STORY: “Millie? Quantum computing data your forte?”
MILLICENT: “Not my field.”
MILLICENT: Do I know anyone whose field it is?
STORY: Yes! He’s sleeping in your bunk.
TUELLER: “Tux, obviously.”
MILLICENT: “Tux, though.”
TUELLER: “Uh, who is alone amongst the mob.”
ALEJO: Alejo takes a deep breath. “I’ll get him.”
MILLICENT: “Hold on, that’s longer term than this…”
MILLICENT: “We need to keep this relay operational.”
TUELLER: “But we might want him here before a mob gets him.”
TUELLER: “That’s not so long term”
MILLICENT: “We just lost the twelve best qualified people in this sector.”
MILLICENT: “So, we need to calm the mob and restore calm on the relay. Then we need to bring in the new Directors and train them, assuming we can figure out how to work all this.”
TUELLER: “So, how do we make more Millies?”
MILLICENT: A slight chuckle.
MILLICENT: “Well, let’s please not do that.”
STORY: Calixta goes white. “Oh god. What if there already are?”
MILLICENT: “But I doubt Nikau chose the people on board entirely randomly. There should be some agile minds on board.”
STORY: She looks up at the stasis pods.
MILLICENT: Millie looks up too
MILLICENT: “I’d rather not confront that particular problem just now, please and thank you.”
TUELLER: “So we look up who’s fashioning the best improvised weapon at our gates and give them a new job?”
MILLICENT: “Alejo, you’ve been here for months. Who, aside from the Director, ran things? Who could calm a mob, if it came to it?”
MILLICENT: “We’re going to bring a select few into our confidence and convince them that running the station as normal is in the best interest of humanity and themselves.”
TUELLER: “Is it in the best interest of humanity and ourselves to provide processing power to a collective enslaving the universe?”
TUELLER: “Processing power in the form of sleeping enslaved humans?”
TUELLER: “I’ve been with us the entire time and I’m not convinced.”
MILLICENT: “Not long-term. But short term we can’t disrupt operations or we’ll all be vaporized. We need time to build a response.”
ALEJO: Alejo looks at them both. “Let’s get the immediate danger under control, yeah? Forestall mutiny so we can take our next steps.” He emphasizes the last two words and gives Millie a quick smile.
MILLICENT: “Good, yes. Now, Alejo, who do we need on our side to keep this from getting ugly?”
ALEJO: “It’s not about who was in charge, necessarily. It’s about who people liked. Who they trusted. Tux has a better bead on that than I do, but I have a couple of ideas. If I can get to them, before things go pear-shaped . . . maybe.”
ALEJO: “Cali,” he looks at her, “I didn’t know anyone in electrical. Got any ideas?”
TUELLER: “At the very least you can outrun most people.”
ALEJO: “Most?”
STORY: Calixta nods. “Booth, maybe. Most of the techs kept their heads down. They’ll go along with whoever’s yelling the loudest.”
ALEJO: “Alright. Booth, I think I know them.” He stands. “Give me 30 minutes. I’ll do what I can and find Tux. But you all need to come up with Plan B, in case this doesn’t work.”
TUELLER: “Keep in touch.”
TUELLER: Tueller goes to the door, to help get it open and closed quickly.
MILLICENT: “Okay, Noma, you’re with me, we’re going to search the warehouse for a disposal unit. Can’t believe there isn’t occasional need for it here. Once we find it I’ll ask you all to. Clean up the Director’s office.”
ALEJO: “Will do.” He looks at Millie then Calixta. “Back in a flash.” He exits quickly when Tueller opens the door. He stays close until he hears it lock behind him.
MILLICENT: “Tueller, you keep an ear out for me and hold that door.”
TUELLER: “Back on guard duty.”
MILLICENT: “Just don’t foment any additional mutinies and we’ll be fine.”
TUELLER: “It was a good speech! I don’t know why it didn’t work.”
TUELLER: Tueller seems genuinely hurt.
STORY: Millie, you find a disposal unit along one of the walls in the warehouse. Calixta, on finding it, asks you to run up to the top of this section and try to get an idea of the geography of how these pods are arranged.
STORY: Calixta heads back to Manaaki’s office. “Problem.”
MILLICENT: Millie gladly does that.
TUELLER: “A new one?”
STORY: She nods.
STORY: She holds out her hands a foot apart. “Disposal chute is about this big.”
STORY: “I am not chopping up bodies.”
STORY: “How hard can you push?”
TUELLER: “I’ll get on it.”
STORY: Tueller, you set out to figure out how to get those bodies down the chute?
TUELLER: “You have to keep Millie away from me for this.”
TUELLER: “This is going to be just about the worst thing she could possibly see.”
MILLICENT: This is like a comedy about how badly can one day go for a person
STORY: Calixta nods.
STORY: Tueller! Please roll Assessment + Physique, and no I didn’t set this challenge up specifically to let you make that roll but hey what a good opportunity to play to your strengths!
TUELLER: /roll 2d6+2
STORY: chris.stuart rolled 6 + 2 = 8
TUELLER: Damn. All I want to do is get a shower of data points.
STORY: You figure out an order to putting the limbs in and smooshing his frame and are able to get all ten bodies down the chute.
STORY: The amount of crunching is limited.
STORY: There’s no additional goo or anything.
STORY: Calixta follows with Alejo’s mop and bucket and does her best.
STORY: There are, of course, two bodies left – one in Millie’s quarters with his face smashed in, and one more in the basement cafeteria, but that’s not really your bailiwick right now.
STORY: Millie! What are you doing up there?
MILLICENT: Millie is mapping out the structure.
MILLICENT: Figuring out where the bodies are buried, so to speak.
MILLICENT: Getting an idea of how it might be managed by less educated technicians than Nikau.
MILLICENT: On a bird’s eye kind of scale.
STORY: Assessment + Expertise, why doncha
MILLICENT: /roll 2d6 + 2
STORY: josh rolled 6 + 2 = 8
STORY: You take stock of the maintenance necessary and the arrangement of the various areas, and you do a little close inspection here and there and locate some sections with thankfully empty pods, and you’re pretty sure with the right arrangements you could handle all the work necessary to keep these people alive and the pods functioning if you, Alejo, Tueller, Noma, and Tux never slept.
STORY: So realistically you need to recruit five more people.
STORY: Good, reliable people who will understand why it’s important to do this work and not talk about it, and who won’t mind the isolation.
MILLICENT: Okay! Can I do one more thing before we move on?
STORY: Yes!
MILLICENT: I’d like to see if I can use the UUIDs to identify people by their Sol IDs. We might have to scan them for trustworthy scientists/technicians to run this place.
STORY: Where will you get their Sol IDs?
MILLICENT: My hope is there’s an order to the UUIDs. The Collective would need to find people like Nikau. And Nikau might need specially trained copies.
MILLICENT: So the hope is that there’s a system.
STORY: Let’s do another assessment + expertise on that one
MILLICENT: /roll 2d6 + 2
STORY: josh rolled 5 + 2 = 7
MILLICENT: Nobody’s gotten a full success tonight
MILLICENT: And I think 3/2 was my BEST roll
STORY: Looking to tie names and vital info to UUIDs, you find a reference to a database Nikau keeps on his private terminal. That’ll be in his quarters.
STORY: Alejo! While Millie heads back, what are you doing?
ALEJO: Trying to find Tux and looking for inspirational leaders along the way, while trying to avoid any security that looks like they might be pissed.
STORY: So, not a very full docket
ALEJO: Yeah. Nothing too stressful.
STORY: Okay! Let’s go with Tux. In order to get to him, you’re going to need to stay unseen.
ALEJO: Sneaky is a specialty.
STORY: Well then! Let’s hear what you do.
MILLICENT: Odds are with you, somebody HAS to roll a success today
TUELLER: –Gambler’s Fallacy
ALEJO: Alejo takes a long and winding way back to the room where Millie was being held. He checks corners but keeps a brisk pace.
ALEJO: He figures that speed is more important than pure stealth.
STORY: I think, given your familiarity with this base and your skills as a spy, you can do this without a roll.
STORY: You reach Millie’s quarters unmolested and slip inside. Tux is standing with his back to the door, and when you slip in, he turns around, shouting in alarm when he realizes there’s someone there.
ALEJO: Cool. When he arrives, he opens the door cautiously, “Tux? Buddy?” He steps in, ready, in case Tux is awake.”
STORY: “Fuck!”
ALEJO: Alejo smiles. “Great to see you too!”
STORY: “Hi! Jesus! Where the hell am I? Why is… probably my cheek? My cheek broken?”
STORY: “Why am I not just dead? Why is the Director dead?”
STORY: “What’s going on?”
ALEJO: “You should see the other guy.” He grimaces. “Oh, you already have.”
ALEJO: He goes over to Tux and puts a hand on his shoulder. “Deep breaths, buddy. A lot’s happened, but we don’t have a lot of time to get you caught up right now.”
STORY: “HE’S IN A GOO PILE OVER THERE.”
ALEJO: “Yeah. The Director — all of them — are dead. Millie has access to all of the base’s systems, but . . . well, the crew is on the verge of mutiny. We need to quell that shit fast. And I need your help to do it.”
STORY: “ALL OF THEM?”
STORY: Tux is definitely panicking right now
STORY: “MUTINY?”
STORY: “SOTO WHAT DID YOU DO?”
ALEJO: “Yeah. All of them.” He gives Tux’s shoulder a squeeze. “Listen, right now that’s not the right question. I need you to focus up, buddy.”
ALEJO: “We have access to the station, did I mention that part? And we have a lot more answers than we had. We need your help with that too, eventually. But first, we need to stop the crew for mutinying. Okay?”
ALEJO: Alejo stands up and heads over to the freezer. He gets some ice and hunts around until he finds a wash cloth. He wraps up the ice and brings it over to Tux, putting it against his cheek gently.
STORY: Tux looks at you for a second to make sure you’re serious, and promptly vomits on the floor.
ALEJO: “I really need you,” Alejo steps back and tries to avoid the vomit, “right now.” He smiles softly.
STORY: He stays breathing in a half-squat with his hands on his knees for a couple seconds. “God. This smells worse than the blood.”
ALEJO: “Yeah, we need to get out of here.” He helps him stand up.
ALEJO: He guides him around the vomit pile as best as he can.
STORY: “Auuuhhhh. Huh.”
STORY: He keeps breathing, but starts to move over to the couch, oh but wait there’s a body there.
STORY: He settles for sitting on the edge of Millie’s bed.
STORY: It smells like Millie, in a nice way, not in like an unbathed way.
STORY: You can just tell she slept there.
STORY: “Fuck! Okay. We? We specifically have to stop a mutiny? Why not your superhero friends?”
ALEJO: “Because they haven’t been here. We have. Who do we need to convince? Who can help us keep everyone calm?”
ALEJO: “Booth. Stephanie? Diego is probably not going to calm down easy. Tueller spooked him.”
STORY: “Fuck. Uh. yes. And Conrad.”
ALEJO: Alejo nods. “Good, yeah. Conrad.”
STORY: “And one of the scientists. I never talked to them.”
STORY: “We need someone from their group to keep them chill.”
ALEJO: “Okay. We can do this, Tux.” Alejo gives him another reassuring pat.
ALEJO: “And you probably need some aspirin.” Alejo stands.
ALEJO: “Come on.”
STORY: Okay!
STORY: Alejo, what’s next. Tux is onboard, though he is also beat to shit and concussed.
ALEJO: Alejo guides him, moving much slower now, towards Conrad’s quarters. “Let’s hope she’s still in bed.”
ALEJO: They have to take a couple of brief breaks, while Tux catches his breath so he doesn’t pass out.
STORY: Conrad opens her door and immediately smacks Alejo with a stun baton. Yes, he’s usually faster than that, but he was distracted by trying to hold up his friend.
STORY: Tueller, you get a call on your headset.
STORY: “Epaphus.”
TUELLER: “Roger.”
STORY: “Got your friends here. Gonna need some answers.”
TUELLER: “Of course. What’s your question?”
TUELLER: Tueller makes a waving motion across the room.
TUELLER: A “Something’s going on come here” motion.
STORY: “If your friend has a way to call an assembly – one without any executions? Now’s the time.”
TUELLER: “Definitely on it. Definitely no executions.”
STORY: “See you on the main deck.”
TUELLER: “See you.”
TUELLER: Tueller finds Millie. “Doc, Conrad messaged me, asking for an assembly. No executions. I think we need to meet this head on.”
MILLICENT: “Full staff?”
STORY: Calixta looks like she’s ready to do some kind of attack, though there’s no one here to assassinate, so she’s confused.
TUELLER: “Everyone. Sure. Why not?”
TUELLER: “This radical honesty thing. Sure.”
MILLICENT: Millie sighs. “Okay.”
MILLICENT: “Let’s try it.”
MILLICENT: Where is there room on the ship for everyone to meet?
TUELLER: The assembly space!
STORY: The main deck! It’s where assemblies happen.
TUELLER: With flame abattoir!
STORY: You’ve either got nine minutes to make your case to the full crew or we should do a button and handle this next week.
MILLICENT: Millie calls an assembly!
STORY: It goes out over the loudspeaker, and well trained this staff is – they’re all there within five minutes.
STORY: In rows, looking scared.
MILLICENT: “Good morning, everyone.”
MILLICENT: “My name is Dr. Millicent Breedlove. I’m, well, I suppose I’m your new Director.”
TUELLER: Tueller stands, not looking threatening, but definitely ready to protect Millie if it comes to it.
MILLICENT: “I have some news that may come as a shock to all of you, so I’d like you to take a moment to process all of this before reacting.”
MILLICENT: “Well, let’s dive in. This facility we’re all in is, in fact, a jump relay.”
STORY: Alejo and Tux are standing prisonerly next to Conrad and the security staff.
MILLICENT: “The jump relays do not work as we’ve been told. The relays do not transport us from one galaxy to another, instead they make a perfect copy of the subject at the origin relay and send the information to be created into a perfect genetic copy, including current brain wave at time of transfer. That is, we are not moving, we are being destroyed at our relay of origin and remade at the relay of destination.”
STORY: Alejo, they may not be able to grab you if you make a run for it, but Tux is definitely toast if you do.
MILLICENT: “Now, that’s a lot to take in. Let’s all take a deep breath before we move on to the difficult part.”
MILLICENT: “Ahhhh, that’s better.”
STORY: There are murmurs beginning, Millie..
ALEJO: Alejo stays with Tux, though he assesses who looks the most vulnerable, in case he needs to make a move.
STORY: People are looking at each other, whispering.
MILLICENT: “Now, this is going to take a little more imagination. The staff of this jump relay is comprised entirely of copies that were not destroyed at their jump origin. That is to say, we are all clones.”
TUELLER: Tueller makes eye contact with Alejo, then looks to Tux.
ALEJO: “Well, this was one way to do it.” He glances over at Tux and smiles.
MILLICENT: “In storage on this facility there are over four thousand other cloned humans currently in stasis.”
ALEJO: Alejo shakes his head, meeting Tueller’s eyes.
STORY: Those murmurs are getting loud, Millie.
STORY: People are mulling around, no longer standing in place.
TUELLER: Tueller settles in a way that looks like he’s relaxing but is actually preparing in case there’s violence.
MILLICENT: “This facility was designed by the AI collective for a variety of purposes. One, to facilitate jump relay technology in order to provide value in our cooperation with their systems. Two, they are actively stealing the children who make the jump through this relay and ship them to reeducation planets to become soldiers in case the Collective is ever threatened. Three, the humans, and we must assume other races, across the galaxy are lending their delta brain waves to the Collective as a cloud computing environment as they sleep in stasis. In short, the AI Collective is a parasite, feeding on and enslaving the human race and all Ark council races.”
TUELLER: “Okay. I see you took my Radical Honesty to heart, Doc.”
STORY: Calixta is hidden somewhere. None of you know where she is.
MILLICENT: Millie raises a hand. “We intend to stop them. And we want your help. We can’t do it all at once, we will need to keep this relay running relatively smoothly so that the AI Collective has no reason to obliterate us.”
MILLICENT: “Right now I’m asking for your cooperation. Over the next few hours we will be taking tours to see the bodies in stasis to confirm our story.”
MILLICENT: “We will need those of you with a technical or scientific background to apply to help maintain the station so we are not discovered. Everyone else will go about their days as normal, for now.”
STORY: Millie, the murmur has become a din.
MILLICENT: “But we will need your help.” Millie looks around, grabs a folding chair and bangs it against the floor several times before climbing on it.
TUELLER: “We are all in this together, people!” Tueller chimes in.
MILLICENT: “It’s time to decide if we’re going to be comfortable as slaves to the Collective or if we will insist on freedom.” Awkwardly, slowly, Millie punches her first in the air.
MILLICENT: It’s a rallying cry from a nerd
STORY: The second good speech of the night! We can either do your FA + Influence roll now, or save it for the first thing next session.
MILLICENT: Let’s stew on my failure for a week
MILLICENT: /roll 2d6 + 0
STORY: josh rolled 6 + 0 = 6
TUELLER: Tueller tries to help out!
STORY: Go for it, Tueller
STORY: + Influence
TUELLER: Using a close up.
TUELLER: /roll 2d6+1
STORY: chris.stuart rolled 6 + 1 = 7
STORY: Okay, a cost, implication, or hard choice to make this work.
STORY: Tueller, you have to show you really mean it. What do you do to prove to this crowd that Millie is being honest and the stakes are real?
TUELLER: Tueller, who has been kitted out in full body armor, starts peeling it off, piece by piece by piece. “I mean it when we’re all in this together. We can’t be militarizing or setting ourselves apart from you. We need everyone’s help together, not following some Director with the power of execution.”
TUELLER: By the end he’s in a t-shirt and boxers, slightly flabby but still pretty strong. About as vulnerable as he’s capable of looking.
TUELLER: And he goes and stands on the trap door that leads to the autoclave. “I’m serious about putting myself in all your hands. Please, just see for yourself.”
ALEJO: Alejo gives him a wide-eyed look.
STORY: “Take it off!” comes a call from the back of the audience. “Just kidding, just kidding. We’re really here to help!” The crowd turns around and Calixta, smiling, drops her wrenches.
MILLICENT: Under her breath, “Why didn’t I think of doing a striptease to prove my sincerity?”
