Ed "Shark" Teeth doesn't wake up before coming out
of jump.
Robert Morris explains that he is not taking klatrin
daily any more. He still believes everyone should take it, but says
that it should be taken as a full shot. He says that taking small
amounts build up and make you pass out randomly. A full shot discharges
it, and that's no doubt why it's served in round bottom tubes -- so you
have to drink the whole thing.
While they don't need fuel for the ship, they do
need to take on some. A small amount is needed to run the low tech
Imperial equipment.
One advantage of landing on this world is they don't have to pretend to
take on jump fuel, since ships here would normally just take it from the
sea as they're berthed.
Helia asks about the fresh water stores on this
ship.
Robert replies that there are some holding tanks,
but in general it's all handled by the recycling and regeneration systems.
Helia brings the ship into orbit. Their transponder
has been queried, and Robert opens up a channel and obtains permission
to land and dock. He tells the crew that the ship can do that automatically
for them if they want. His console is the only one that has no galanglic,
just native ship script, and he communicates with it by waving his hands
at it. Sagan, the hiver,
watches him with interest.
Last time they were here, Helia had to make an unpowered
landing in the Third Eye.
This time she has no such trouble, but it is her first atmospheric landing
for the black ship. She drops into sparkly pink mode, and finds it
a most exhilarating experience. She brings the ship down with apparent
glee and a lot of giggling. She moves into their assigned dock, Berth
3.
As Helia comes in to land, she suddenly gets the
odd feeling that her zack is holding water away from her, and she needs
to take it off. She comes out of sparkly pink mode. She looks
puzzled. "Hello, we've landed," she says, and scampers off the bridge.
The view outside is rather unusual. The ship
is floating in the ocean, but the water, instead of lapping against the
hull is being held by some invisible force about 5 meters away from the
ship. It's like the ship is sitting in a large bubble.
Helia comes back, goes into sparkly pink mode, and
there's a splash as the water rushes up against the ship. She drops
out of sparkly pink, and says, "OK. That makes sense."
In engineering, Mich sees the power consumption
drop.
Misha asks, "What was the bubble all about?"
Robert says, "The maneuver drive was holding us
above water."
"No," says Helia. "Let's just say, I should
definitely fly wearing my zack." Misha notices she's now wearing
her plain suit, not her zack. She landed with the zack on.
Misha asks, "Why a bubble? Some sort of magic
force field around the ship that you turned off?"
"You know how the zack basically puts a magic force
field around you?"
"No."
"Well, magic's maybe not the right word, but you
know how the zacks protect you from things? Like, water? Like
you can swim underwater wearing the zack?"
"Well, OK, I wouldn't call it protect me.
Insulates me, prevents the water from touching me, yeah."
"Right. And I was wearing the zack, flying
the ship, and it landed on the water, the zack kept the water from touching
me. And the ship."
"The zack doesn't keep the water five meters away
from me!"
"Well, think of it as a relational skin. The
zack gives you a layer around your body, and I'm saying that when I landed,
my zack gave us a layer around the ship."
Robert adds, "So when you're in direct thought input
mode, it's taking your current environment into account. That makes
sense."
"Something along that line, yes."
Misha asks, "So you were still in direct contact
with the ship when you left the bridge?"
"All of us are in direct contact with the ship,
but that's not what he was saying. He's calling sparkly pink mode
direct contact with the ship. It is."
"But it can't just be sparkly pink mode, because
you went out of sparkly pink mode."
"I landed the ship. I came out of sparkly
pink mode, and the ship stayed where I told it to stay. I could not
land the ship so it was touching the water while I had the zack on.
It makes sense. What would really be interesting... I'll be
right back." Helia runs off the bridge.
Helia returns to the bridge, this time wearing her
zack. "Let me check something." She goes into sparkly pink
mode. The water remains next to the ship.
Misha realizes they are actually in the docking
berth, and tells Helia to stop what she's doing and put the ship back.
It's too late. There are a number of people watching the ship from
the starport. "Turn
it off, Helia!" he says.
Helia thinks that she really wants the protection
of the zack on the ship if she can -- she feels protected. Helia
drops out of sparkly pink mode. The bubble is around the ship again.
Misha is frantic. "Helia!" he cries.
Helia says, calmly, "There's a problem. If
we leave the ship like this, we may be more protected than if we don't.
It really does extend the zack's protection if I land the ship being aware
of having the zack on. I think the ship is projecting something.
And this is the land of the teleporting gunslingers. You really want
to be exposed to those people?"
"If we didn't want to be exposed to those people,
we wouldn't have come here."
"OK." Helia goes back into sparkly pink mode
and thinks. The bubble vanishes, and the water splashes up against
the hull again. She drops out of sparkly pink and beams happily at
Misha.
Misha says, "So now we've attracted a crowd."
"Oh, they'll just think somebody was having trouble
parking."
"My impression from the other astronauts here is
that this is not a common occurrence, ships that make water come and go."
"No, it's not. You can just tell them, use
my other name, and they'll think I'm not Helia. They'll think I'm
new."
"New to what?"
"Parking in water."
Misha laughs, "Ladies and gentlemen, what you saw
was not a phenomenal magic trick, it was just an inexperienced pilot!"
Helia gets serious. She says, "At all times
while on this planet, we should have you, or Ed, or me, in our zacks, ready
to go into sparkly pink mode and say 'I want the zack's protection to be
extended to the ship.' At all times one of us should be ready to
do that just in case."
"I've never been in sparkly pink mode," says Misha.
"How do I do that?"
"Sit there and think, 'I'm the Captain of the ship,
I want to do Captain things.'"
Misha laughs, but does it anyway. He goes
into sparkly pink mode.
|
(Referee and Misha's player only) |
Misha drops out of sparkly pink mode. Actually,
he almost staggers out of it.
"See?" says Helia. "Isn't it cool?"
"It's different," says Misha.
Their object here is for Vonish to stock up on supplies.
Robert wants to get some more klatrin. Grand Admiral Baron Bridgehead
wants to pick up more of the highly nutritious and most excellent beer.
Misha says that the crew can do what they want,
but they must have permission before leaving the ship.
Zacks are illegal here, but there is no way to tell
a zack from the regular suit, at least as far as they know.
Ed Teeth has woken up. Bridgehead explains
to him that he's not charged.
|
(Referee and Shark's player only) |
Bridgehead explains that he was out for just over three days, and that they're on Goose. He advises Shark to stay away from the fish oil in future.
Shark walks onto the bridge. the Nightshade is floating on the ocean, docked at the starport. There is quite a crowd watching from the dock.
The crowd on the dock parts. Six figures in black robes are walking out to look at the ship.
Helia turns to Ed, and suggests that he tell the
ship that no-one is to be allowed on board except the crew. She explains
to him how to enter sparkly pink mode as Security Officer.
Nothing happens.
Ed says, "Ship, only current occupants of the ship
are allowed on the ship." He looks at the strange symbols, but none
of it makes any more sense.
Helia suggests Misha might want to go sparkly pink
and make sure that is the case.
The black-robed figures kneel before the ship, heads bowed slightly. The dock workers move back.
"Let's go!" says Robert. He leads Mich, Vonish, Helia, Ed, and Teri Cralla (in battledress with FGMP-15) to go ashore.
But which door to use, and how do they get to the
dock? They obviously don't have the external stairway they used in
the space station. Ed laughs and says he's half expecting a ramp
to extend magically from the door.
Ed walks to the port external iris valve in the
corridor behind the bridge. As he does so, the bridge door closes,
and a new door they've never seen before closes off the corridor to the
stateroom. The iris valve opens, letting in the cold, wet, windy
air of Goose.
A gangway extends magically from the door to the
dock. Ed smiles.
They walk out onto the 3 meter wide gangway.
It's not slippery, despite the salt spray driven by the harsh wind into
their faces. The door closes behind them as they leave, and they
proceed to the dock. They turn towards the starport and start walking
towards the six robed figures.
One of the figures starts nudging the one next to
him, and apparently mutters some sort of comments. There is a brief
whispered conversation, then one of them stands up and walks towards them.
He gets about ten meters away and stops.
Helia raises a hand in greeting.
The figure exclaims, in a mixture of disgust and
incredulity, "You?" It's the teleporting man who visited them
on the bridge. "What are you doing?"
Helia says, "Walking."
Ed says, "Altering your perception of reality."
The man turns back to the crowd on the dock and
waves them away. They start walking off. He turns back and
sighs, "What did you do with the crew?"
Ed replies, "We are the crew."
"No, the crew. What did you do with them?"
He is starting to sound annoyed.
"We are the crew. Would you like to join us
for a beer at the bar. Come on, I'll buy you one." Ed walks
off towards the starport.
"Wait! You are telling me you did not
kill anyone?"
"On this ship? No."
"All right." The man sighs and starts walking
with Ed and the rest of the shore party.
Shark says, "My name's Ed."
"I know."
"And yours, sir?"
"It's not important."
They proceed into the starport.
The stevedores move aside into their normal positions.
Shark notices that they have knives ready. No-one else notices the
weapons, just that the dock workers ignore them.
They carry on through the starport rings to the
bar where the fish oil saga started. As they get deeper, they have
to relay the commdots through the battledress; the connection is rather
fuzzy at times.
In the bar, Ed marches over to a table and calls
for beers all round. It's the same bartender as last time here, and
he brings a beer to everyone, including the robed man.
Ed turns to him, and says, "Excuse me for being
nosy, but who were you expecting?"
"How did you get that ship?" is the reply.
"We found it lying about."
"Lying about."
Helia says, "It was empty and waiting."
"Why did you take it?"
Ed says, "Ships are expensive."
Helia says, "No, it was more than that. Because
it let us."
"It likes us, anyway."
The man resumes his questions. "Where was
it? What were the circumstances?"
Helia says, "It was abandoned in a hangar."
Mich adds, "The ship has never been used."
Ed says, "I'm not sure that the precise location
should be discussed."
The man says, rather more pleasantly, "It does not
need to be discussed. Just tell me."
"Only if you tell me why first."
"I want to find out your motives, your motivations..."
Helia asks, "Why were you bowing to the ship?"
"I was not bowing to the ship."
"Why were you bowing to the people you thought were
in the ship? We gave us some information, you give us some."
"It doesn't work that way. Where did you find
it? What sort of hangar?"
Helia says, "A big one."
"Where was this hangar?"
"Somewhere?"
Mich adds, "In a system far, far, away."
Ed adds helpfully, "The ship is registered out of
Dulu. It's name
is Nightshade."
"If you say so," says the man. "What happened
to its crew?"
Mich replies, "It never had any crew."
"How do you know?"
"Ship's logs are totally empty."
Helia says, "It was waiting for us."
Mich continues, "It was manufactured, put in storage,
and we were the first people to take it out."
The man says, "All right. I believe you.
What do you plan to do with it?"
Mich says, "Travel." Helia says, "Ride it.
Stay alive."
"Do you know what it is?" continues the man.
Helia says, "It knows what we are. Can you
tell us?"
"No," he says.
Shark says, "Do you know what it is?"
"That doesn't matter."
Mich says, "More importantly, did you recognize
what it was?"
"Someone... told me."
Helia asks, "Is that why you and your friends were
kneeling to the ship?"
Mich asks, "Was it just the appearance of the ship,
or how it behaved when we landed?"
Shark asks, "Would that person like to meet the
Captain of this ship?"
"No," replies the man.
"You can speak for that person?"
"Yes."
Helia asks, "Can you tell us more about what you
know about the ship, and the people that would normally been on it."
"We have been... expecting one."
"Really?" says Helia, surprised. "We have
seen another one."
"Yes." The man sips his beer, holding the
glass with black gloves over delicate fingers. He's still very careful
to make sure no-one can see his face.
Shark finishes his beer, notes where Teri is standing
by the table, and moves it around so that she could perhaps get a glimpse
the man's face. He'll review the tapes later. He asks, "What
do you say a fair price for a keg of beer would be?"
The man says, "We will cover your costs."
Nevertheless, he sounds reluctant. "If you get news, come back."
"News of?"
"You'll know."
"Are there any other specific questions you'd like
to ask us now? Text you'd like us to read?"
"No."
"When were you expecting the ship to arrive, by
the way?"
"When there's news."
Helia says, "We may have seen it."
Mich asks, "A ship this size, or larger?"
"What's the news?"
Helia says, "They were unable to deliver any news.
The ship was abandoned, as opposed to this one. That ship was dead."
Ed mentally groans at how much information they're
giving to him. In return, the man is doing a fine job of giving up
very little. Ed says, "When was the last time one of these ships
stopped by?"
The man says, "It doesn't matter."
"That long ago, huh?"
Mich asks, "Does the big red cross give us away?
Announce our presence more that if it wasn't there?"
"No."
Ed says, "We'll probably be here for a day or so
more, so if the man who told you about the black ship would like to come
and talk to us..."
"He is of no importance."
Mich asks, "Do you have any news you want us to
deliver?"
"Yes."
"To whom?"
"You'll know. And the news is that we're still
here. Tell them where."
"OK."
Ed asks, "What about the other organizations that
are here. Are they part of the we?"
The man replies, "We are all part of the we.
But when I saw you were impostors, and I dealt with you last time, I have
jurisdiction over contact with you."
"He is our interface to the organization, by right
of first contact," explains Ed.
"Appearing on our bridge," says Helia. She
turns to the robed figure, "Could you do that today to this ship?"
The man says, "I have no need."
"You've been on another ship like ours?"
"That's not important."
"Do you understand the workings of ships like ours?
"That's not important."
"It might be to me," insists Helia.
Mich asks, "Would you like to come aboard?"
"No," replies the man.
Helia continues, "Have you ever... flown...
a ship like ours?"
"You enjoy your stay. I will speak with you
before you leave. Do not leave without speaking with me again."
"Can you help us?" says Helia, but the man has already
teleported away.
Helia says to the shore party at the table, "It was
more important to tell him that the other ship was dead. In the long
run, it was more important."
Mich adds, "And there were ships."
Shark says, "We should not give away information."
Helia says, "No, there was something about him,
that was important."
"That may have been, but we shouldn't have given
it away quite that early."
Shark pulls out his hand computer, and emails Robert
to see if he can get a reflected image from Teri's tape. He looks
up, then says, "Let's go shopping. No more zacks this time."
Helia says, "I think Robert needs one."
"Well, if Robert wants to come get one...
Let's go buy some fish and some bread and other stuff. Barkeep!
We'd like a barrel of beer delivered to our ship."
"A hogshead," corrects Mich.
"Oh, and some spirits," says Helia. "Brandies,
liqueurs..."
The bartender looks at her and says, "You want klatrin?"
"Tell me something, do you have to continue to drink
it once you start?"
Ed says, "More precisely, have you ever met someone
who stopped drinking it?"
"Yes," he replies.
Helia asks, "What's the trick to klatrin?"
"What trick?"
"It seems like if you don't drink the right amount,
it can adversely affect you?"
"Why do you think it comes in a glass that's rounded?
It's so you have to drink the whole thing before you put it down."
"Can you give me a klatrin glass for somebody my
size?"
"I'd just give you the same size everybody else
has.
"It doesn't matter that I'm smaller?"
"No. You can just drink it."
"It won't matter? I drink less because I'm
small."
"So?"
"I thought if I drank more it might be bad."
Ed smiles, "You'll turn into a fish faster."
Helia asks, "Why do people drink klatrin.
It's not for the taste."
The bartender replies, "Why do you drink beer?
Why isn't it for the taste? People like it."
Helia says, "We'll take a small barrel of klatrin.
Do you have anything other than beer or klatrin."
"Just water."
Helia offers him some off-world candies, but he
declines.
Shark leads them off on their shopping trip.
They head for the bazaar. Vonish suggests they go on -- he has a
lot to do -- but Shark doesn't think they want to split up that much.
Their chef insists that they'll be bored, but they think it's safer.
Vonish immediately heads for the food supplies.
He spends his time arguing loudly -- but happily -- with the shopkeepers.
The rest of them pick up food for lunch. Shark
is surprised that the shopkeepers wave off payment. He says to one,
"How did you know not to charge me?"
"I don't understand the question, I'm sorry."
"Why aren't you charging me?"
"It's all right, it's paid for."
"I know. Who paid for it?"
"It's paid for."
One more experiment by Shark -- he takes his medical
diagnostic equipment (the non-Imperial version), and points it surreptitiously
at one of the vendors. It shows red.
They continue through the bazaar, trying various
foods. The bread is a little sticky in texture, but not bad.
The flavor is a bit unfamiliar, but not bad at all. Helia hands a
piece to Vonish when he pauses for breath; he asks about the recipe, and
she points him at the bread vendor.
The stalls have no fruits, or anything recognizable
as vegetables. No figs, dates, apples. Helia looks for sweet
things, and finds something like a sweet rice cracker. She likes
it; she offers the shopkeeper some of her candy -- he likes it. There
isn't anything like it here. Helia takes a bunch of rice crackers
-- apparently they keep quite well if kept dry. She's offered some
different things too, and the shopkeeper offers to make a sizable delivery
to the ship.
Shark and Teri keep an eye on the whole group as they shop.
Helia's next target is a bookstore. To her
surprise, they're all in galanglic. She looks for books about this
world, and finds some. She buys them all, asking to have them delivered.
She muses that they haven't seen any children here, despite wandering around
at quite diverse times. They don't normally see many children on
planets they visit -- except Digitis
-- but they have been around here at sufficiently different times to expect
to see some.
She looks for other interesting books, such as on
ships or mathematics, or starmaps. There is an atlas of Goose
including with the shipment she's picked out already, but that's about
all.
There are no books for young children. There
are some for sub-adult level, but nothing younger.
Helia asks, "Sir, can you tell me where there's
a toy store? You know, toys, games?" She pulls out some items
from her bag to show him.
"I think you can find some things down... hmmm...
that way. It's a long way..."
Helia looks around for jewelry stores. Shark
doesn't expect her to find anything, as there's not much metal here.
She does find some decorative things, stones, and so on. She buys
some -- hands the vendor some money and insists he keeps it, even though
the stuff is paid for.
Shark glances around for anything with maltese crosses,
but finds none.
The next stop is the tailor. Helia is first
there, and says cheerfully, "Greetings!"
"Greetings," says the tailor, cautiously.
"Do you remember me? You made me a suit?"
"No."
It does look like the same person. "I thought
I had bought some stuff here a while back, less than a year ago?"
"Ah. That would explain it. I'm new."
"Oh, I'm sorry. Is the gentleman that was
here going to be here sometime?"
"No, I don't think so. He's... No."
"Is he retired?"
A pause. "Yes."
"Can you tell me where I can find him?"
"No, not really, I'm not sure."
"That's a shame. I wanted to say hello to
him because I really liked the things he made."
"I can get word to him. He's my brother."
"Well, my name is Belladonna, although he may remember
me under a different name. Just describe me, I'm sure he will remember
me."
"I will."
"I just wanted to talk to him. I don't think
we're going to be here long enough for me to commission any work, although
my cousin was very interested in getting some clothing like I have.
She may come by. She looks very much like me. I don't know
when, though, she's elsewhere. Well, thank you. We're in the
harbor, if you'd like to send a message, I'd like to just speak with him."
"I'll see what I can do."
"Thank you." Helia does order some clothes
to be made in her size -- for Helia, not for herself.
They walk back over to where Vonish is buying fish.
Ed asks, "So, are you getting the same price you
did from this guy last time?"
"Well, I tried to," says the vilani,
"But he won't take anything. It sort of takes the fun out of it,
but even so..."
The shopkeeper clearly recognizes them, and Shark
notices that it is indeed the same person as last time.
Shark is distracted by the thought of food.
They get themselves lunch at the food court -- fish on a stick, bread,
and beer.
Now that Vonish is done with his shopping, they set
off in search of a toy store. Helia asks them to keep a lookout for
any women that might look pregnant, or children.
Shark looks at the clothing shops. All are
for normal-sized people, nothing for children.
Vonish makes a stop at the bookstore, picking all
sorts of volumes to be shipping back to the Nightshade.
There are no gun shops, as such, but there are harpoon
guns and utility knives, shark knives, and so on. Helia is disappointed
to find there are no knives made from shark's teeth.
Helia and Shark finally come across a toy shop.
There are dice, yo-yo's, and so on; all suitable for adults, no specific
child's toys. Helia picks up a butterfly yo-yo, and the most elaborate
yo-yo she can find.
Helia asks the shopkeeper, "I'm looking for a present
for my 10 year old niece. Do you know where I might find something?"
"Not here... is she here?"
"No."
"I... don't think you'll be able to get anything
then."
"There's nothing for children here? A different
part of town?"
The shopkeeper is looking very uncomfortable.
He's turning slightly red, like it's an embarrassing subject.
Shark moves between the two of them and changes
the subject, asking about some random toy. Now he looks at it, he
has no idea what it is. Neither does Helia.
The shopkeeper demonstrates: "You go like this
, and that, and it whirrs and clicks, and things move in and out."
Helia notes that it's like an elaborate low tech
clockwork automaton. She thinks it's cool, and buys it.
Shark explains that they need to get back to the
ship. They leave the bazaar, and return to the Nightshade.
Back on the ship, Shark and Helia explain to Misha that there's no sign of children, or anything that is a product for children. Talking about children makes people uncomfortable and embarrassed. They theorize that either the children are kept somewhere else, or they don't have children. Shark wonders idly if they are related to the Jann on Digitis, although as Helia points out, the Jann do have children.
Robert is disappointed to find that the starport computer is just a simple Model-1 type machine, which is used only to keep arrival and departure records. No other ships -- space or surface -- are currently at the starport.
Shark asks Robert what he's managed to get from the video of the robed guy's face. Robert reports that the man was wearing a fine black mesh over his face, so aside from showing that he has a nose and a mouth, there are no features visible. It's clearly a cloth mask, not like the clear face cover that the zacks have.
Shark drops into sparkly pink mode for the sensors.
He wants to look at the underside of the starport, but not a lot is visible.
It's probably all metal, but much of it is overgrown by weed. Some
areas are cleared off as if there's an ongoing project. The starport
is also apparently anchored with some large chains. There is no-one
working under there right now; there are also no vehicles, surface or subsurface,
in the area. Last time they were here, there were four ships at the
starport.
Shark then checks the football sensors. Nothing
aside from sparkly pink mode events (or failed attempts to start sparkly
pink mode) shows up.