(Referee and Jaek's player only) |
Shark spends the rest of the jump continuing with
zack training and so on. Everyone else keeps their training programs
going too.
Shark also works on reading and writing the script. Writing is extremely hard, but he perseveres.
Robert starts relabelling the various fixed script on the ship with galanglic.
It's the day before the ship is due to come out of jump. Misha has decided it's time for a talk with each of the new folks, so one at a time he takes Callisto and Jaek aside for a private conversation in his stateroom. The staterooms are the only place on the ship that provides privacy from the internal ship displays.
First, Callisto: Misha says, "Would you be interesting in staying on as permanent crew?"
"Yes," says Callisto. "It's an interesting crew,
I like the dynamic. I've had a lot of fun playing bartender while on
the ship, and I'm looking forward to, you know, doing some real sensor work
when the opportunity arises."
"Well, before you say yes, it's only fair of me to warn
you that the ship itself was salvaged from a highly classified..."
"Was it in a pre-lost state when it was found?"
"It was salvaged from a highly secret, highly classified,
Imperial
Navy storage facility. We are wanted -- and actually presumed
dead -- by this same organization, and if we were to be found again, we would
probably die again. Our underlying goal is something like find out
where the ship came from, identify what organization this is, and if possible
stay alive."
Callisto seems totally nonplused. "I'm rather fond
of puzzles, and I'd be glad to help you on this quest."
"Finally, the job pays shit."
"Hey, who cares about pay when you have such a wonderful
hook? And a great bar to hang out with, and... I could get used to
this for a while."
"You're hired."
"Thank you. I look forward to working with you."
Next is Jaek. Misha opens, "Would you be interested in staying on permanently?"
"I don't know. What's the offer?"
"OK. Let's see. It is the chance to ride around
on a ship scavenged from a highly classified Imperial Navy storage facility.
It is the chance to survive the attention of some not so friendly highly
secret military organization. And all for pretty much standard Imperial
rates."
"I don't know. You know, the kid annoys me."
"The kid?"
"The little girl."
"Oh. She's not a kid."
"And the crew... You gotta understand, from my point of view the crew is full of weirdoes and freaks, OK?"
"Is that a good or a bad thing?"
"I haven't seen anybody do anything except shenanigans
and pranks. We haven't stopped anywhere, jumped to empty space. Jumped
to an empty hex. Not a good idea. In my book, that's just asking
for trouble. We run marathon simulations for beer I'm going to get
anyway. I'm, like, I'm not sure what's going on. Standard rates,
huh?"
"You think that's high?"
"No, no. Well, I just feel my entrepreneurial spirit
kicking in. I went into business about six months ago, and I've got
a business going here. I'm just happy to get to the starlanes. So.
What's the plan? Are we going to just, uh, jump to empty space,
make me nervous, jump out of empty space, make me nervous, jump back to empty
space... I mean I'm just looking for a little more..."
"Well, what would be more interesting? Perhaps taking
out a highly confidential secret military organization?"
"OK. Subject two. I spent most of my career
trying to make myself less noticeable. You guys draw attention from
all corners of the universe. So is that what you're going to do when
you're trying to get to the bottom of a conspiracy, and, like, destroy these
people? What if you discover it's like, your uncle?"
"We're reasonably sure it is not my uncle. He's dead."
"Well, then it would be a real conspiracy, wouldn't it?
I could certainly offer my services, because it looks like you guys
need them, however... I think that standard Imperial rates are a little low.
There may not be a lot of profit motive by many of you guys. It
looks like I'm well equipped and funded, but I feel a little -- self-conscious
about taking money from the rich guys, you know, the Baron. Standard
Imperial rates are kind of low."
"So you want something on top of standard Imperial rates?
Your own stateroom, all the beer and food you can eat, all the fires
you can take..."
"You want to make me fat and lazy."
"Well, there is a gymnasium. There is the whole, you know, Imperial Navy to deal with."
"I have no problem with the Imperial Navy."
"We have a problem with the Imperial Navy. Certain
parts of it. What I meant is they're all out to get us. That's on top
of strangers."
"In a dysfunctional sort of way, it's intriguing. What
if we said I'll stay on until something better comes along?"
"I would think that's a given. Or something worse."
"Something worse comes along? I don't follow you."
Misha laughs, "What, you can't think of anything worse
than working here? The ship could blow up, misjump..."
"You might be misunderstanding me. I'm not, like,
going to bail at the first sign of trouble, that's not me at all. You
know, a bunch of people who are going out waving red flags, saying come and
get me, shoot at me, take me put me in jail, I'm dead I don't exist, yeah
makes me a little nervous, that's all I'm saying." He pauses. "I
could use a little excitement. I guess in a sick and dysfunctional
sort of way this is the best course of action for me."
"So. You're hired. Get to work. Welcome aboard."
"Do I get a name now?"
"You're not supposed to be dead, you don't need another
name. But if you'd like one, you're welcome. So your job is to
drive the grav craft, and assist Shark in any way he wants."
"OK. I'll give you a list of things I need."
So the crew of the Nightshade is now twelve.
The Nightshade comes out of jump in the Wonstar
system. They're running in stealth mode with no transponder. This
is their third six day jump in a row -- strange, but then Jaek has already
assumed they're using some sort of strange technology.
Helia has astrogated
them into the system near the mainworld. She
holds position for a while until they determine their course of action.
Here is a good place to pick up news. Helia will
have to bring them within about five meters of a ship for Robert to be able
to pull it in undetected.
There is a good bit of traffic in this system. Callisto
-- their new sensor operator -- pulls all the ships up on the main holodisplay
for the command crew. It's pretty much what one would expect for a
B-class starport
on the starlanes with an Imperial Naval Base. She's
been warned to look for "object in stealth mode" but sees none of those on
her displays.
The traffic control beacons direct incoming ships to the mainworld.
The command officers hold a briefing on the bridge for the crew as to what they're planning to do in Wonstar.
Shark says, "This is the home of the company which is
sponsoring the Department of Horticultural Fertilizer at the University of
Mora, which is funding the Marquis. The Wonstar Development Corporation
has been here for two hundred years, was granted tax-exempt non-filing public
service company status by the then Duke. It is the only one to have
received that status."
"Tax exempt non-filing?" says Jaek, "That would be nice to get."
"Yes. It is exempt from filing. The rules... it's impossible to apply for such status."
"Give me a few blank certificates and I'll have it worked out."
"Not without the Duke."
Misha says, "Well, let's find this corporation. I'm
sure it's in more than one place, but let's do it. Any thoughts about
whether we should stay secret for a while, or just go public?"
Jaek says, "If we're running silent, we can't... Did the
transponder just kick on? We're within the 100d limit."
"What transponder?" says Helia.
"It's off," says Shark.
"Yeah, and if a ship is running, and they see you, and you're running without a transponder..." Jaek says.
"They can't see us."
"That's what I just said. He was talking about coming out and going public."
Helia agrees, "Yes, we'd have to be further out to go
public. But we can get there pretty quick. We can get there quick
enough to make your head spin."
"That isn't much of a challenge, is it?" quips Callisto.
"Oh, come on!" says Jaek.
Misha says, "Any other thoughts on going public?"
Shark says, "We are a lot closer to where we disappeared, right? We want to be alive to get back to Digitis
in six months or so, so let's go get news. Let's find out what they
know, maybe look into their databases and see what else they know, and then
make a decision with more knowledge about the local situation."
Helia asks, "So you want to sneak in and get real cozy with one of their
ships? All right, you're in charge of intelligence, you find the ship
to do it with. You work with Robert and I'll get you there as long
as it's OK by the captain."
"Do it," says Misha.
Their first thought is to find a ship with most of
its crew on shore leave, idling in orbit. Jaek says he doesn't really
have a handle on what they're trying to do here, but how about an orbital
communications satellite? It won't be anything special, but should
get local news if that's what they want.
That's an excellent idea. Helia brings the Nightshade
in to the mainworld, and matches orbit with a geostationary comsat. The
ship moves really rapidly, more like missile acceleration than a starship.
Robert tells Jaek and Callisto what happened when they did something like this on Mora
-- the planetary defenses opened up on the ship they were tapping through, and then fired at where they Nightshade would have been if they'd been leaving at a mere 6g.
Robert taps into the comsat feed, and pulls in four
new TNS
entries: 216-1121, 233-1121, 239-1121, and 240-1121
.
The report of their deaths, under the headline of Baron
Bridgehead's death, has finally caught up with them. The Baron is officially
dead, as are "Imperial Citizens Edward Teeth, Mich Saginaw, Vonish Kehnaan,
and Foreven native Misha Ravanos."
There has been a clash between Tukera Lines
and the government of Ianic. The Duke of Adabicci
has intervened in the dispute, coming down solidly on the side of Ianic
and penalizing Tukera heavily.
The Count and Countess Fostriades -- both former crew members of the Anastasia
with Mich and the Baron -- have been killed in an explosion on Mire, the capital
of the Darrian Confederation. Threasis Fostriades was "The Boss" of
the old ship -- the merchant officer -- while Lia (nee Geratta) was one of
the Scorpionis Marines with Teri.
Jaek says, "Here's a question for you. With your
interesting and unique backgrounds in history, it sounds like an assassination,
but could it be a staged assassination? Do they need to start over?"
"No," says Mich, "They were already clean, and made a break."
Shark agrees, "They were completely legit. They had changed their rank after."
The Baron adds that Fostriades probably gained his rank not through merit but
due to the item that wasn't on the ship after he left.
Helia adds, "It's the five other households that makes it sound like somebody trying to kill them."
Jaek says, "Can you do more when you're dead than when you're alive?"
"The Baron has," laughs Helia.
Mich tells everyone that Fostriades had possession of
an Imperial Warrant, signed by the Emperor Strephon
himself.
Shark asks, "Who else was from that previous crew?"
Bridgehead says, "Chiang Ho and NoName -- they left the Anastasia. They probably went to Spirelle."
Robert adds, "We also know that some people were trying to kidnap Mich."
Shark says he thinks he knows why the kidnapping attempt happened.
Bridgehead points out that the Black Things That Spit were from Ianic
-- NoName was training Chiang Ho.
Shark wonders if they were caught up in the conflict there
-- should they try to inform them of the sequence of events? They don't
know that the Admiral or Mich are "dead." He goes on, "From here on
we have a problem. Reports of our demise might or might not match with
activities in our names."
Jaek nods, "If you're dead, but twenty days later you withdraw from your bank account..."
Bridgehead says, "It wasn't just some bank account, was it, Mich? Yeah, Mich has been compounding his interest."
Mich asks him, "Well, there's another million that just
disappeared. Wouldn't know anything about that, would you? There
was a million stashed on the ship."
"What? What ship?"
"The Anastasia."
"Oh. No, I wouldn't know anything about that."
"I had a million credits
hidden on that ship," laughs Mich.
Jaek asks, "And you blew it up?"
"No. It was... destroyed."
Shark says, "It blowed up good."
The Baron adds, "Although you won't read about that on the news."
"Yeah. The city blew up and a ship in space was damaged, right?"
"That's a long story." The Baron obviously thinks they've discussed this enough.
Mich continues, "We have several mysteries to look at. Why was the Anastasia
and the starport destroyed? Why was Fostriades killed, if he really
was? We have to continue on the run from anybody who thinks we have
this ship."
"If anybody does. They might just assume that it
was one of their people, it's not like there's any evidence of it."
"...we want to contact the original builders of the ship, or as close to their living..."
Jaek says, "I have a couple of questions. If someone
did do an active scan -- materials, energy output, densitometer -- what kind
of things would they pick up? Apparently we're using paper thin walls
that are not steel."
"In stealth mode?"
"Nah. I'm getting on the ship, we're loading the gravcraft up, somebody runs an active scan."
Helia says, "They'd see a thin walled spaceship."
Shark says, "Depends on what spectrum..."
"Right," says Jaek, "We're talking TL-15, densitometers,
power output, neutrino sensor, what would they pick up? Would they
pick up a normal ship output or would that raise suspicion immediately?"
Mich waffles about stealth mode. He concedes it
would look really strange to have Jaek and the gravcraft vanish into mid-air
as they crossed into the stealth bubble. He adds, "The weirdest thing
that we did was to cross to one stealthy box while we were stealthy. Trying
to walk across the gangplank and not seeing what we're walking to, saying
well there's something there..."
"So you guys really can't answer my question."
"No," says Shark, "Well we have, but not in stealth
mode. No power output, no neutrinos, some heat, and a visible blue
glow when we run the maneuver nacelles."
"And we're not very dense," adds Mich.
Jaek continues, "I'm just curious, because the sensor
op over there will know that she flips on the sensors to check those ships
out there, she can tell you displacement, power output, probably engine size,
probably crew compliment, life support rating, she can tell you how fast
they're going if the computers do a few iterations. I'm just curious."
Mich says, "There is a fairly big dense lump -- the 720 missiles are rather dense."
The Baron says the jump drive is a big solid mass too.
Jaek says, "I'm just curious whether they're going to
pick up a non-standard configuration or a standard configuration."
"Non-standard, most definitely," says Bridgehead.
"That adds to the hazard of going public. You go
public and somebody runs an active scan, and suddenly they want to know what
we're carrying. They want to know who we are."
The conversation returns to the issue of Fostriades. Shark
says that whether he escaped the explosion or not, apparently another issue
involving the Anastasia has been taken care of.
Mich points out that Fostriades hasn't even been active in the gravitics journals in the last several years.
"Right," says Shark, "But he was a link, and in operations
of this kind you take care of all links. If I were in charge of that
operation I would have blown him up. So, given that Akim's next book
would have been Anastasia Conspiracy or something like that, and would
have detailed all the assassinations..." He laughs, "We could write
this book, and he could stay alive for a long time!"
Robert says, "We have the other copy of his manuscript -- the only one that wasn't destroyed, right?"
Jaek asks, "Did you publish it?"
Shark says, "Actually we did ship that to the Marquis
to get published. In Akim's name. But we could ship another one
later. Anyway, so they'll probably go after Mr. Ho next, and NoName,
if they haven't already. It wouldn't have turned up in the news unless
they were on a ship or something. And there was a civil war on Ianic, and lots of people died."
"So we're here to find out about Wonstar, is that what you guys want to do? The Wonstar Development Corporation?"
Mich suggests, "We could land here on Wonstar,
and hold a press conference and say the rumors of our death are greatly
exaggerated -- we all survived. I don't know what that would get us."
Kalida says, "A death sentence."
The Baron breaks in loudly, "It would get me my authority back
again, and it might be useful to have a real noble on board."
Shark says, "It might get you killed."
Helia agrees, "You'd be a dead noble pretty soon."
Bridgehead says, "How could it be any worse? I'm dead right now!"
Shark says, "But you could spend the money."
"While hiding and pretending to be dead? I'm a noble!"
"So? We can posthumously publish as many journals as you like."
"That's not the point!"
Misha says calmly, "Are you saying just because you've died you're no longer baron?"
"Well, I've got to wander around as somebody who isn't a baron!"
"That's only on the outside."
Kalida adds, "Presumably they would give your position to someone else, as you're not there to..."
The Baron says, "Well, actually..."
Robert asks, "How long have you been a baron? How long have you been alive?"
"A Baron, not too long..."
"Well if you don't have to wander around as a baron, ..."
Bridgehead harrumphs, "What would you know? You
know, I can pull strings you can't. Now if we could have somebody else
announce that we were alive..."
Shark changes the subject. He says, "I find it very
interesting that Helia wasn't reported, and she had been on board much longer
than Misha and I."
Helia says quietly, "I'm not sure how the Marquis has me listed."
"As official crew..."
"I'm not sure how the Marquis has me listed," Helia says again.
Kalida says, "Still, it did say 'ten' and it didn't list ten names."
Robert says, "It listed the Imperial citizens and the commander."
Helia says, "Um, actually it did miss an Imperial citizen
at least, because I am an Imperial citizen. But I wasn't the only one.
It didn't mention the starfish and he was with us."
Shark says, "Robert wasn't. Interesting. Vonish was listed."
Robert stays silent. He's probably not officially anywhere.
The next stage is to look into the WDC, perhaps look
into some corporate records. Robert figures he can bounce through other
comsat hops, and especially after the Mora
experience it would be
wise for Helia to be ready to pull out quickly. Unfortunately the net
here is pretty primitive, and there's only a directory
entry. He'd like to get into the Naval Base system, but it's not connected
to the civilian networks -- they have their own manned stations in orbit.
Jaek starts perusing the news that Robert's been downloading.
Contrary to what he expected, the WDC does not have a large footprint
in the news. They are not prevalent in the news, hardly appearing at
all. There are occasional items about contracts awarded for construction,
survey, food service, and so on. They have five locations, one of which
is their head office, which has about fifty employees. The head office
is about 60 km southeast of Down Port city. The other four are scattered
around the planet -- three of them are in farming areas, while the fourth
is on the desert side of the mountains in the northern hemisphere. There
are apparently no offworld locations; there is a farming colony on the moon,
but the company does not have a presence there. Despite what the rest
of the crew have been saying, the WDC's not as large, or its presence as
apparent, as he had first perceived.
Jaek says, "This rinky-dink little company is scaring you guys?"
Shark says, "They're funding a couple of billion credits
a year to a single department at the University of Mora."
"What is that department?"
"The Department of Horticultural Fertilizer."
"Bullshit. Yeah, OK. They're funding it. What kind of research is performed there?"
"Officially, or what do we know unofficially? Unofficially
it funded the ship we lost just after we found this one."
Misha adds, "It funded the Third Eye."
Jaek asks, "Why would this Mora University department fund you?"
"They were asking the Marquis to do research, and they
gave him a ship. From the outside, the department appeared to be under-funded.
Two billion credits a year from this company to that department."
"How was the funding done? Money transfers? To Mora, from here?"
Shark nods, "The physical security was extremely good.
It's a tax exempt public service company. It's privately held,
and not required to file, so the owners are not known. But this is their
official corporate headquarters. We need to know where they're really
operating out of, and we're hoping to find that from here. Yes, we
know it's a front. We suspect it's a front for the Navy, or specifically
for the Imperial Navy Intelligence Special Operations."
Misha says, "Wait. Did we find any connection between INISO and Wonstar?"
"Not yet. I suspect there is one."
There are no electronic ways of looking into the company,
so they'll have to use physical methods. They could just land and go
up to their offices. They could pretend to be reporters or something
like that.
Callisto says, "It's not like Jaek has anyone following
him around. And he's our information specialist."
Shark points out that it should be easy enough for them
to appear to be local civilians. They do also have valid Imperial ID's.
Misha asks how they get behind the front.
Shark replies that they'll have to check out a site for
physical evidence. Jaek, Shark, and Robert, with Teri for backup on board
the ship in case they need bailing out.
Jaek agrees. He suggests they build a digital link
so that once they get there, they can hook up to their systems and broadcast
back to the ship.
Shark says they have a totally secure way to broadcast back -- a completely secure one way link.
Jaek adds, "I tend to get into computer systems and set
off alarms. As long as I don't have to get into the system, I'm good.
I can do almost anything we need to, but getting into the system, that's
for someone else."
Robert says, "We can hook a data port into the system,
have it turn a flashlight on and off, and we'll know about it -- from orbit.
It's a flashlight in a black box connected to the dataport. That's
it. No-one can see the flashlight, and it doesn't transmit."
Shark asks which site they should go for, one of the agricultural
sites, or the one in town? They could just land and use a grav vehicle.
Jaek points out that from the news it seems like a gravcraft
would stand out -- there aren't any in use here. "It depends how covert
you guys want to go. I wouldn't go tech 10 in a tech 7 location, unless
we wanted to."
Shark agrees. He says there's two obvious choices:
the one in the city, or the one in the desert off by itself.
The desert is the choice of the crew.
Shark asks Helia to move them into geosynchronous orbit
above the desert site. She does so. Shark slips into sparkly
pink mode.
Jaek says, "Why are you doing jump calculations?"
"I'm not," says a distracted Shark, "I'm looking for objects
in stealth mode near the site in the desert." No objects in stealth
mode show up.
Jaek idly wonders what he means by stealth mode. He
hasn't heard of any cloaking technology except black globe.
Robert tells him that they have previously come across another object
cloaked in exactly the same way as this ship. It showed up on the scanner
as "object in stealth mode." That was the whole extent of the information,
but it saw it was there.
Shark asks Callisto to work the sensors and see what else
might be there. He doesn't mention that he has already tried himself.
Callisto reports that the building looks like a warehouse,
situated about 1500 meters from a fairly steep rock face. There is a landing
pad out front. It's built on the desert, which here is hard
with small rocks. She's also picking up signs of a small fusion plant,
enough to run a small village; it's more than would be needed just
for a warehouse. The building is thermally shielded -- she can't make out
any people inside the building.
There are five people outside at the
moment, who all appear to be security guards in uniform. Two are armed with high power rifles, the other three
with submachine guns.
Jaek says it's probably not a warehouse of canned peas,
and probably not gold bullion. -- somewhere in between. It's
also not an area where you'd expect to see anyone, and anyone who did approach
would be visible for a long way.
Shark briefly entertains the idea of intersecting the
roof of the building with the stealth bubble, but the effect of looking like
there was a hole in the roof would probably not help their cause here.
The five guards are all at the front of the building.
The landing pad seems to be intended for helicopters -- there's insufficient
length for it to be used by conventional fixed wing aircraft. There
are no aircraft within a hundred kilometers. The main door is at the
front, but there are what seem to be fire doors at the back as well.
It's a couple of hours before mid-day local time, just before midnight Imperial time. At Misha's
order, Helia drops the ship down near the back of the building. This
is on the west side of the warehouse; the long axis runs north - south. The
Nightshade is facing south.
Shark asks Robert about a fiber optic cable to run out with the away
team, to look inside the building. Robert reminds him that last time they
tried that, they couldn't keep the cable intact -- in fact they broke it
three times before giving up. Still, it should be easy enough to slip a small camera under the door...
All Shark wants to do is get a look inside the building
before they go in. He drops into sparkly pink sensors and looks around.
Pictures from inside the door appear on the main command holodisplay.
Inside the building, it clearly really is a warehouse.
There's some crates stacked in here, but not too many -- the building
is fairly empty. Labels indicate that the crates contain mostly unassembled
equipment, primarily construction equipment, moisture collectors, and
so on. There's some drilling equipment. Some vehicles are parked in the
building. It's not enough equipment to do development here, but it
is all of appropriate tech level and consistent with a small scale project
to improve the desert environment. The floor is solid concrete.
Shark moves the viewpoint around to see most of the building
interior. In the near corner -- the southwest corner -- are some offices
enclosed by internal walls. The fire door they've selected -- about
a third of the way from the south corner -- doesn't reveal any alarms to
Shark's visual examination.
Overlaying a map of the outside with the views from the
inside reveals no unusual voids, even though because of the crate layout
there are some areas that can't be seen right now.
It's time to examine the building in person.
Shark is wearing his zack, and carrying his pistol and
a set of Mich's PRIS binoculars. He selects a set of clothing from
his wardrobe to fit in with the locals, and wears that over the zack.
Jaek dons a grav harness over his leather, carrying a
hand computer and intrusion gear. He's armed with two pistols in shoulder
holsters, and a large chromed pistol strapped to his leg. With his
shades on, he looks the epitome of coolness.
Robert has the data port, hand computer, and intrusion kit. He travels light.
Shark, Jaek, and Robert go down via the main cargo lift,
and walk out of the stealth bubble to the building. The thin hot air
rasps at Jaek's lungs, but he's breathed worse. Robert is less accustomed
to the change of atmosphere, and gasps for breath briefly before being ready
to go. Jaek is more disconcerted by the lack of a visible ship behind
him. It doesn't seem to be bending light, it's just as if the ship
wasn't there.
Jaek slips the latch on the door easily. Robert
watches him intently, and is satisfied with the newcomer's work.
Inside, the building is well lit and cooler than the outside,
despite the open delivery door on the far wall. The wall is thick with
insulation. Air conditioning units lend an ever-present hum to the ambiance.
Shark scans for electronics, but finds
no evidence of surveillance. Everything appears civilian and above
board. The group has entered between stacks of crates; the office
area is not visible from here.
The ceiling is about ten meters up. Jaek floats up to look around from above the crates.
There are about a dozen workers over by the main entrance
in the center of the east wall. They're lounging about as if it's a
lunch break or something. Four others towards the north end of the
building are de-crating something. Nobody seems to be doing anything
out of place in a warehouse. Jaek passes on the information.
They start moving towards the offices. Shark and
Robert move along the ground, while Jaek floats silently above them.
About twenty meters from the offices they start hearing
voices. There's an open door on the east internal wall, where they
can't see through it. Some windows also look out on the east wall;
there is no window facing them on the north internal wall. The office
area has a ceiling about three meters high. From this distance it's
clear that the internal walls and ceiling are plastic.
Shark suggests they try again later, to see if there's a night shift. There's
no reason for anyone to be working a night shift here, surely.
"Are we bailing? I could kill them," jokes Jaek.
He leads them back out of the building and onto the Nightshade. Robert is a bit noisy on the way out, but no-one seems to have noticed.
While they wait, they take the ship up two klicks.
That should keep them out of the way of anything that might reveal
their presence.
For the next few hours, waiting for night, Shark goes
to the gcarrier
and runs the NAS equipment on the ship and the people in
it. He is astonished to find that he only picks up himself and no-one
else on the ship. He tells Robert, who didn't know that but isn't surprised.
They wait for sunset. The local day here is 23.4
hours, but the tall mountains will bring a much earlier sunset that it would
on the flat.
Later in the day an aircraft approaches from the south.
It's a twin rotor transport helicopter, approaching from the south
and not keeping a very high altitude. There are three people on board.
Shark expects them to leave one security guard here and take the others way.
The helicopter is unarmed. "See," says Jaek, "This
is just a warehouse facility. They don't appear to be unusual."
"Except they have five security guards," says Shark.
"I haven't figured that one out yet."
The helicopter comes into land at the pad and shuts down.
The people walk from the copter to the building, and others come out
to unload the cargo. Nobody seems in a hurry. It takes about
an hour to unload, then all return to the building. The helicopter
is then closed up and secured for the night.
As the sun sets, the five guards enter the building and
are replaced by another set. This group is also five, but this time
is equipped with (primitive) night vision equipment. These move out
from the building and set up patrols around the building.
At Shark's request, Helia moves the Nightshade
down again to a position over the east side of the building. He then
looks inside again in sparkly pink mode. Over in the northeast corner
there's another three meter high internal division, which is where everyone
seems to be.
Now they have a plan of the building and an estimate
for number of people. There are two sets of five guards, sixteen workers,
plus the three in the helicopter, for a total of 29, plus voices inside the
office area. The offices have been shut down for the night.
Jaek can't figure out why they're so worried. They've
seen nothing during the day to indicate there's a reason for alarm.
Shark points out that there are no roads to here; the
only way here is by aircraft. They can probably take out
the external guards (non-lethally, even) before they sound an alarm, and they can then get inside. That
makes it an overt operation, though. He says he's sorely lacking in
the catlike maneuvers of a professional -- he's more used to outdoor environments.
Robert is also uncomfortable with silent physical intrusion.
Jaek figures he can get in and out without being detected,
and can probably hook up the data port if it's not too complicated.
Shark says they could put an active two-way unit in there.
Robert points out that even though they'd have to transmit to it, it
would never have to respond. Jaek can be rigged with a camera so Robert
can talk him through the installation if need be. Robert goes off to build the spread spectrum
receiver; he already has the black box with the LED inside it.
When Shark suggests putting a relay on a nearby mountain top,
Jaek says he doesn't know why he's so paranoid -- they'd be using bands the
locals haven't even discovered yet. Shark responds that the company
they're dealing with is not a TL-7 company, not based on the TL-15 security
they faced on Mora.
Jaek floats out of the side hatch behind the bridge,
and moves over to the same back door. Again he slips into the building, and this time moves over to the offices.
The office door is not locked. There's a minicomputer
sitting in a full height rack in the corner, and it's trivial for Jaek to
hook up the port. He positions it tucked into the rack so that unless
a computer tech works on stuff in the back, no-one will notice the additional
box. These low tech computers are so full of cables and wires anyway,
it might not even be noticed then.
The main job done, Jaek picks up a paperweight as a trophy.
He then takes some time to examine the rest of the office.
(Referee and Jaek's player only) |