(31) From the Pub to the Distillery
The Regency Campaign (36/1573 to 40/1573)
(285+286-1123 to 290+291-1123)
Mich Saginaw believes the storm will end on 39.
That gives the crew of Nightshade
some time to catch up with training and so on while they can't do
anything much in the forest area. Edward "Shark" Teeth wants to
continue training Kalida Siena, Marchioness of
Nakege, as his medical assistant, who he wants to be able to qualify
as a doctor. He is also fascinated by the idea of testing out the
harnesses in the Armory.
Mich and Teri Cralla recall the testing of
Cockroach weapons they did on Jax back in the
old days, and how that testing caused more casualties than the
battle in which they captured them.
That in turn, brings up the story of how Akim
Gavrolovitch was killed -- or not -- in the back of the
gcarrier on Gorram.
They have also just missed a festival on Jewell,
happening there today.
Then there are the loose ends to tidy up here.
There are the crates at the starport, and they
want to talk to the survivors to get more details about how the Tukera destroyer
escort was destroyed. Sir Misha Ravanos suggests they go in friendly
but serious, and they find out if they know anything, and what they
know. If it looks like there's something seriously there, they start
with a little brandy, then a lot of brandy, and see what that
loosens up. They have booze, they have money, they have drugs, and
they have guns. Whatever works is what they'll use.
In the meantime, the Tukera ship that was
approaching the mainworld
has now taken up station in orbit, replacing the one that was lost.
That reduces their presence elsewhere in the system, of course.
Misha then suggests they should talk to the
Gravella, the head of Traditional Heritage Craftworks and thus the
effective ruler of Nakege. They could talk about the
possibility that one of the natives, or someone posing as a native,
delivered bombs in bourbon crates to the starport.
Shark agrees. This was a setup from months ago,
when the blockade run was planned. Someone was placed on this world to handle the
crates. It might give the Gravella a little more motivation to find
the culprit, and to alert him to the fact that there has been weird
stuff going on here.
Kalida also says they need to pick up bourbon to
pay off THC's debt.
Midwinter is in 5 days time, so they aren't even
in the coldest part of the year yet. Temperatures are changing fast,
with the desert cooling faster than the forest.
Shark wonders what the centipedes do when it's
cold. They could fly over the Palace and find out, as well as
checking if they are warm-blooded -- he would be surprised if they
aren't, and more surprised if he couldn't tell. He is sure these
carapaces are engineered, not evolved naturally, and there is no
reason for these creatures to have all these adaptations.
So everyone goes into their respective training,
Nightshade spending time out here until the storm has abated.
Mich continues to work on his new gun, and also
studies the repair equipment that was delivered from Blue Cross.
That equipment comes with instructions, but with no information on
how any of it works, of course. He just has to hook up a connection
with the ship's computer, and then let it go to work. It is
self-powered and autonomous, and all he essentially has to do is
press the button that says "Repair the ship". It will then talk to
the computer to determine the state of the ship, and then deploy
whatever objects it needs to effect the repairs. It has various
elements which lock in place to do their work, little autonomous
drones that go out and do stuff, and so on. It is also
self-repairing, but it is possible to damage it to the point where
it won't work any more. It isn't fast, but it will eventually repair
everything.
Of course then Mich turns it on to see if there's
anything on board it thinks should be repaired. There is some
equipment in the Mechanical Shop that is showing signs of wear;
there are two systems in Sick Bay that are operating at 98%; there
is a ding in a chair on the Bridge. Depending on the threshold Mich
wants to apply, there are a number of things that could be repaired
if he wanted. But in general everything on the ship is in excellent
shape.
The gcarrier is of course not black tech, and the
system will not repair that. Now if Mich could get into the computer
a full description of how it should look down to the atomic or
subatomic particle level, it would do the repairs. He also
recalls has an atom-by-atom scan of an alien artifact from a
long time ago, that contains some kind of star map, that they handed
over during that matter with Trow Backett.
Kalida works on her home study course from
Marquis Marcus Crestworthy, and manages to get the footballs to
flutter. Shark gives her a display that she can use for feedback,
and that helps a lot.
Before they start those activities, however,
Lucas Fuentes takes the pilot seat and moves over to the Palace,
parking the ship there. The last time they were here was on
258-1123, which was 11/1573, at the end of summer.
As far as Shark can tell, everything is exactly
the same as it was before. He runs the sensors on record for a
while. He also checks the sensors, and finds nothing but the usual
background noise, including the new guests. The three footballs
allow him a pretty good triangulation, but he wants a fourth for
full triangulation in three dimensions, since the sensors are not
directional. Mich will build Shark another one, and does so with
improvements. He resolves to make a full computer model of the
footballs so they can be repaired automatically too.
The weather does indeed clear up today. It is
clear, wind light, and the temperature about -3.
Lucas takes them close to the starport, and then
Mzrk "Zel" Avnchnzl takes the away team down in the Launch. There is
about 3 meters of snow on the ground there now.
Shark checks the sensors to see where people are
on the ground. Most of the people are fairly stationary in the
building, but there are a couple of people outside the front door
moving around with the occasional sudden burst of energy. None of
those are the odd activities Shark is checking for; he is sure the
people outside are melting the snow. He asks Robert Morris to
monitor communications with the orbiting patrol ship, as he's
expecting them at some point to send down transport for the
survivors of the wreck.
With Zel piloting, Kalida, Misha, and Teri land
in front of the starport building in early afternoon. Everyone is
appropriately armed.
Almost but not quite enough snow has been cleared
for the Launch to land. Zel sets it down on the packed snow where
the ramp can reach the cleared area. He considers that a better
situation than balancing the just the ends of the craft on snow.
The two people out front stop what they're doing
with the weird equipment -- something with a horn-like protuberance
pointed at the snow -- and greet the arrivals. They obviously
recognize them and the Launch, and ask what all the fuss was about.
Misha explains that someone substituted an
explosive for Blockade Bourbon.
The locals offer the opinion that it is not good
at all. After all, you can't drink explosives.
These explosives were not meant to drink, but to
kill, Misha tells them.
"Oh, that's OK then. Come on in and have some
bourbon! Or hot drinks, if you prefer. Come on in, come on in!"
Bombarded with small talk, the away team are led
into the starport building.
Misha explains that they are probably not staying
long, as they need to do some business with the Gravella.
This clearly impresses the men, but they say that
the train to Crow isn't running at the moment because of the snow.
It will probably be a couple of days before they can get it going
again.
Misha is not too concerned about that. They can
simply pop over to town in the Launch. But before that, they can
certainly take a little while to sample the bourbon here.
To the left of the main entrance hallways is a
bar/kitchen/restaurant room. The men from outside lead the team in,
wave at Mabel at the bar saying, "Bourbon for everyone!" and return
to the outside leaving the team under her care.
At one end of the room are eight people in
ill-fitting local clothes, who they recognize as the survivors they
rescued.
Misha starts the investigation. He wants to find
out if any of the locals know anything about the man who was waiting
to deliver the Blockade Bourbon crates here.
They tell him that he came down in a gcarrier
about two weeks ago.
That's inconsistent with the man's story in every
possible way. Far
traders don't carry a gcarrier, unless it was in the cargo
hold, and he said he'd been here a lot longer than that. "Where is
the gcarrier now?" Misha asks.
Apparently it took off again, after dropping him
and the boxes off here. Again, pretty much the opposite of what he
told them.
"Didn't you think it was strange that they were
bringing Blockade Bourbon?"
They do. But then again it is a starport here,
there's no accounting for foreigners. The gcarrier had some markings
on it, just like everything that lands here, but of course they
didn't recognize them and they don't keep records.
Misha asks if they had a camera recording it.
Why would they have a camera?
"In case someone came asking questions."
"Why would somebody come asking questions?" asks
Mabel. "We don't get anybody like that out here."
"Some people ask questions when they drink," says
Misha.
"Oh, yes, that's true. But they're not usually
questions about what it says on the outside of some thing. We don't
get people asking those kind of questions at all."
"Who's the guy out front? Is he always out
front?"
"No, he's clearing the snow away, at least enough
to land on. It's going to be cold enough it's not going to go away
by itself. But the storms are over now, so it should be all clear
until it starts warming up again."
"How much traffic do you get?"
"Here? Well, the train goes forward and back of
course. Once in a long while we get a ship. There was a lot of fuss
the other day, we had a small ship thing come in and that guy was
here with the cases and stuff and he just vanished." Mabel looks
over at Zel and says, "One of them looked a lot like you."
Zel says, "I get that a lot. I have one of those
faces." He has noticed that the locals are not treating him any
differently from anyone else. It's a welcome change from some of the
places he's been, that's for sure.
Misha asks Mabel, "So how have the offworlders
been treating you?"
"Oh, they're fine," she says. "They're warming
up, getting some good food into them. That makes a big difference,
don't you think? I don't think they feed them well on those ships,
all that package stuff, you don't get any real vegetables, and
goodness knows what they do for meat up there."
Misha takes his drink -- which he is not actually
drinking -- over to the tables where the offworlders are sitting,
and strikes up a friendly conversation. He asks them how they ended
up in that situation.
They says they not sure. Those were pretty old
ships anyway, but the pay's good. They get extra for being in a
hazardous zone. They say they're waiting until the weather clears
before they can arrange to be picked up. The snow has to be cleared
out some more for the communications to work prooperly. But it's
nice here, they say.
The offworlders have various drinks, a lot of
bourbon, some of the hot drink they serve here, and one of them is
drinking the local wine and clearly regrets his choice. They seem
comfortable and happy.
Misha asks them about the extra pay.
They get an extra 120% on top of union rates, they
say. Their ship crashing certainly supports them being in a
hazardous area, doesn't it?
Misha asks how they like their bosses, and if
everyone on the ship is a contractor.
The bosses are fine, they say, and they're not
contractors. Everyone on the ships in this system is a Tukera
employee, or rather technically employed by Vemene.
What happened when they had to bail out, asks
Misha. Was there a warning?
There wasn't any warning, they say. They had a
maneuver drive blow up, completely blew out the pod and blasted it
off. The whole ship was thrown off balance and they were going down.
One of them says, "We were thrown into a deadman's tumble,
and when I was trying to recover using just the one drive, we were
already bouncing off the atmosphere and getting drag that was
killing us. Balance was off, center of gravity was off, it was
pretty clear I couldn't hold it. Yeah, that's right, I was indeed
the pilot. Thank goodness they told us to get off too, because that
was going to come down hard."
Misha goes around the table, asking what their
various positions were. They're all enlisted ranks, mostly general
spacehands; one engineer, an astrogator, and
of course the pilot. "So the order went out everybody abandon ship,
and everybody hit the pods?"
"That's right. Everybody should have hit the
pods. But none of the brass are here, hope they made it. Did you see
them out there?"
Misha shakes his head. "So who were the brass?"
"Captain Rivers, Chief Peters. Kind of funny, the
Chief gave the order to abandon. We aren't sure where the Captain
was at the time."
All that sounds plausible to Kalida and Zel.
These ships weren't that good when they were new, and that would
have been a very long time ago. A crew of about 15, probably, they
could well have been running short-staffed. If one of the maneuver
pods broke off, that would have been enough mass to cause a reaction
with the rest of the ship and throw it into a tumble. If it kicked
it the wrong way, it could easily have de-orbited it, and with the
ship hitting atmospheric drag in a tumble it would have been hard
even for a skilled pilot to pull it out. Lucas could probably do it,
but this guy probably isn't a crack pilot anyway, not in this job.
For an average pilot, it would definitely have been time to hit the
pods.
They say the ship had a crew of 18, "If you count
the pongos."
That's not a term familiar to Misha. The Vemene
crew apparently use it to refer to the security guys: where they go,
the pong goes. Apparently all they really did was sit around playing
cards and eating.
The ship had a total of about eight pods
altogether. The don't know if the pongos or the officers made it to
the pods. They are a bit worried about the Captain. They hadn't seen
him since before the accident, for all they know he could have been
in the drive unit that broke off. Most likely though, he'd have
picked up a pod near officer country.
As for their future, they don't know what they'll
be doing until the regular rotation goes around again. They might be
stuck on this world until then, since they obviously aren't needed
on the other ships. They don't seem too unhappy at that prospect.
Misha asks them if anything odd happened
recently.
They say there was a bunch of smugglers came in,
and they shot them out of the sky. Any blockade breakers
normally get intercepted further out, especially since they'd be
coming in low on fuel. This time they were small and numerous, not a
single ship. This was really unusual. The smugglers never got a shot
off, but maybe all that fuss weakened some structure in their ship
that failed later.
Everyone except Misha is sure these guys are on
the level. They have no reason to be making anything up, just a
bunch of enlisted sailors hanging out in a pub. Misha is certain
that they have rehearsed this story and its delivery, even the
back-and-forth way they told some of it. He is highly suspicious.
Kalida quietly reminds Misha that the remaining
crates with explosives are still here. He walks over to Mabel and
asks where the rest of the crates are. She tells him they're in the
cloak room, just across the hall. Misha tells her they're probably
also explosives, and says they'd like to take them off their hands.
She is all too happy for him to do that.
Teri says she can handle that. Explosives are her
specialty, and at Misha's insistence she agrees to make sure they
are actually explosives before she destroys them. She confirms they
are, and says they are booby-trapped if anyone tried to open them.
Chances are they are probably rigged to explode under specific
conditions that would be found on a ship, such as a certain
gravitational profile. She says she'll carry them out to the woods
and blow them up there. She starts right away; it'll take her about
20 minutes to do it with the appropriate precautions.
While she's doing that, the others go out to talk
with the snow clearing guys. They tell the same story about that guy
as Mabel did: he arrived on a gcarrier with the crates and some
personal effects. Does Misha know if he'll be coming back to his
room?
Misha says he won't be coming back.
They tell him about how he vanished, then
realizing that they are talking to the people who did that. They
must be Imperial
Cops or something like that! They had better search his room then,
there might be clues! Mabel will show them, just ask her. It was odd
that he would stay two weeks here at the starport, after all, but
then it was a bit unusual for a blockade runner to land here.
Usually they don't leave from the starport. Misha wins their
confidence enough to tell him that there's a farm about 20km
northwest of here that is where they usually load up. They thank him
for coming in and clearing this up. Explosives in bourbon crates?
That's criminal!
Mabel does indeed lead them upstairs to a fairly
small room in the back, looking away from the landing field. She's
heard they were spies, which Misha denies -- which of course just
confirms it for her. Then he tells her that they work for the
Marchioness.
That really impresses Mabel -- "I hear she's
quite something," she says -- and she's all too willing to help them
however she can. Anything they need, she'll take care of it.
The room is very neat and tidy, too tidy really.
There is a large suitcase in the corner, a closet with mostly dark
suits and trench-coats, and toiletries. It's probably the same
tailor as the person who hired Zel that brought him here in the
first place.
They search the room very carefully, and discover
some gauss pistol ammunition in the sock drawer, and then find that
underneath the bed are attached a number of plastic cases. Misha
suggests that they shouldn't touch them, but that Shark and Teri can
come back later and examine the room. There's no rush, however, they
can do this later.
Misha goes back downstairs and asks Mabel how
long that room had been rented -- how long had he paid up?
Mabel doesn't seem to understand -- she says he
was staying here. Then she realizes what Misha means, and says, "You
don't pay to stay here! This is the starport!"
He tells her that he'd like the room kept locked
up for a few days. Mabel agrees readily, delighted that there is
something she can do to help.
Misha, Zel, and Kalida emerge from the starport
building to find that Teri is chatting with the guys outside, being
shown the snow clearing equipment and helping out with her laser.
They board the Launch and Zel takes them downtown, off to visit the
Gravella.
Like last time they were here, they start their
visit to Crow at the railway station, since the Launch won't fit in
the city streets. On the way, they pass a sweeping laser mounted on
a high-tech vehicle on the railroad tracks, clearing away the snow.
It looks like it will be several days at least before the way is
clear to the starport.
While the platform is clear, the areas around the
station are covered in three meters of snow. Zel settles the Launch
on the snowbank where the ramp can lead steeply down to the
platform. It's tricky to descend; Kalida slides straight down it,
but fortunately Misha reaches out and grabs her, conducts her to the
bottom, and sets her on the platform.
Someone further down the platform sees them, and
rushes up to the Marchioness and welcomes her profusely. He leads
her to the Royal Waiting Room and says he will send for her carriage
immediately.
The Royal Waiting Room looks like its name.
There's no sign on the door, but inside it is decorated in gilt with
lots of heavy carpets and ornate furniture. Across the town, bells
are ringing to signal the Marchioness's arrival. They wait.
Eventually there is a clatter from the town side
of the station, and the Gravella steps into the Royal Waiting Room.
The man is wearing an elaborate jerkin embroidered with trees and
bottles, he has a small wooden crown and a cape, and is carrying a
staff. The head of the staff is very delicately carved into a tree,
with branches and even leaves in extraordinary detail. He is wearing
striped purple and yellow hose over bright red shoes that come to a
point. He bows theatrically and says, "Welcome back. Your carriage
awaits."
Kalida acknowledges him politely, and they walk
out to the waiting carriages. The two ornate wooden carriages are
being drawn by not actually horses, but horse sculptures with wheels
on the end of their feet. The Gravella gestures the Marchioness to
the first carriage, which has room for about a dozen people.
Elaborate wooden scroll-work announces this carriage is for "Her
Ladyship the Marchioness." Most of the team pile into that carriage,
but Teri climbs up beside the driver.
Crow looks quite like the ideal of an ancient
medieval town, without all the filth. The streets are about six
meters wide, with wood and stone buildings. There is a lot of snow
in town, although it seems to be kept somewhat under control on the
main streets. A lot of the side alleys are still full with snow.
The carriages set off through the streets. People
come out of the buildings and wave as they go by. They approach the
center of the town, to a building that is more a manor house than a
castle, although occupying a similar prominent position. The
carriages pull up in front of the gate to the courtyard, and stairs
silently and smoothly descend for them as the door opens for them to
exit. Carpet has been laid down for them to walk into the building,
since the snow has not been completely cleared.
The building is like a Great Hall, with ornate
carvings and decorations. It's quite low tech, although there are
touches of high tech around and it's clear the builders were
familiar with that.
On the walk in, the Gravella and the Marchioness
establish that this is an informal visit that does not need a full
banquet. The Marchioness says they are not staying long; they are
concluding business here for now and so will be leaving soon, much
as she appreciates his hospitality.
The Gravella, for his part, expresses his
pleasure at every visit by the Marchioness. He asks if she'll be
leaving the world, and hopes she will be returning soon.
The Marchioness explains that they will be making
their way towards the commission on the Nakege situation,
and trying to take care of Tukera.They had discussed taking some
Blockade Bourbon to collect the funds they need.
The Gravella says they will be glad to provide as
much as she wants. He doesn't even blink when Kalida says they want
600. They can load it directly into the Launch from the main
Distillery building, he says. They will load it up for her whenever
she wants. Zel will start on that right away. The Gravella calls
over a servant and tells her, "Six hundred cases for the
Marchioness," and indicates she should arrange transport for Zel
back to the station and go with him.
Zel doesn't get the fancy carriage. He gets a
cargo cart with no horses, a horseless carriage as it were, which
takes him back to the station. He clambers up the ramp into the
Launch without any difficulty at all. The woman with him is a little
more unsteady, but makes it all the same.
The main Distillery building is by the lake. The
woman directs him there, and Zel lands right in front. There are
only a few centimeters of snow here where it's been cleared. She
tells him to get the Launch ready to receive the cargo, while she
goes into the building to arrange it.
Very shortly, people start coming out of the
building carrying cases. The boxes look very familiar to Zel, but of
course last time they didn't contain bourbon. He checks with Shark
on board Nightshade, who from his sensor scan assures him
the contents will not explode without fire. Zel thanks him, and
starts directing the load. It will leave plenty of room to walk
around, and of course there are the six seats in the back that won't
be affected.
Meanwhile back at the Great Hall, the Marchioness
asks the Gravella if, assuming they could break the blockade, he'd
want to keep Nakege isolated? Does he have a strong opinion
on whether it should remain an Amber Zone, or
perhaps convert it to a Red
Zone?
The Gravella simply trusts the Marchioness to do
what is best for Nakege.
The Marchioness tells him that there is a new
Seneschal at the Forest Lodge, Beatrice Drakenfoll, who will be
taking care of Imperial interests here. The Assistant Seneschal
still retains his position.
He is pleased that her presence is increasing
here. It's a good sign for the future, he says.
The small business concluded, the Marchioness
takes her carriage to the Distillery. This ride takes a while, since
some of the streets are not well cleared. The Distillery is a little
way outside the town itself, on the outskirts. They are still
loading bourbon into the Launch when the carriage arrives there.
It's early evening when everything is loaded. Zel
takes them back to Nightshade, and Lucas takes them off
towards the Forest Lodge for dinner while the bourbon is unloaded
and stowed.
The names given by the survivors match the
records from the Tukera ship. Once they get back to civilization
they can check the official and find out if they actually died or
not. The fishy thing is that the Chief gave the Abandon Ship order,
and they hadn't seen the Captain for a while.
Kalida's plan is to head to Jewell first,
to check on the commission date and location -- it's most likely to
be on Regina,
as the local administrative capital, somewhere toward the end of the
year -- and perhaps deal with a few matters there too. They want to
make their money before the commission meets, but not pay off the
debts before the meeting itself.