Prison Planet, Conclusion

Where the adventurers finish up on Keanou and travel to Rhylanor for some R & R.

This note is from the February 9, 2014 session and was mostly written by Carl with input from Kay and I. The renderings are mine, done in Sketchup and Keryketha.  The coin images are from JTAS issue 9.

Continued from: Alien Legacy, Part 2.

Location: Over the Planet Keanu in the Lanth Subsector.

Imperial Date: Sometime in -283,113.

In human terms, the hunter was beyond genius, possessed of a mind of vast and subtle capabilities. In another lifetime, it would have been a writer to rival Shakespeare or a scientist to eclipse Einstein. Its artificial brain encompassed whole worlds with a single thought.

In human terms, though, the hunter was a manic obsessive, its whole great intellect and prodigious physical ability all wholly focussed towards its quarry. It was forged in a ringworld a dozen jumps away along with a thousand siblings. Most of those siblings were dead now; the hunter had listened to the century-late radio echoes of their death cries across the gulf of stars. The war had consumed them, and the hunter had consigned those memories to deep storage as unimportant.

In human terms, the hunter was a machine, a robot starship dispatched by mysterious masters for an unfathomably lethal purpose. It was a thing of cold metal and technology, a living weapon.

The hunter shared one thing with humans – a sense of pleasure at the kill. It scented its prey on the planet below, and spat a single bolt of annihilation groundwards. The target – a scout ship - vanished in a flash. Sensor beams probed out again and found other targets; for a nanosecond, the hunter contemplated a second disintegrator burst, but decided against it. Microfactories along its flanks birthed a swarm of lesser drones and hunter-killed probes, ranging in size from a shuttle to a dust mote. The swarm descended on the desert world below to kill the last few survivors, while the hunter powered down to wait for its prey.

A subjective aeon passed.

The hunter awoke as a flood of neutrinos passed through it. A ship had jumped in, a quarry. The hunter’s weapons systems lit up like atomic fire and a beam of death scythed through the newly arrived ship. It took longer for the light-speed beam to cross the space between hunter and target than it took for the hunter to detect the enemy ship, decide to destroy it, lock weapons and fire. The hunter lingered a moment longer, glorying in the kill and contemplating the expanding dust cloud. It noted dispassionately one of its probes had yet to return, but deemed it an acceptable loss.

In human terms, the hunter moved in a direction that does not exist, and vanished.

An objective aeon passed.

009-1104
Keanu Starport and Circle City

As we waited for the crisis at the prison to be officially concluded, we didn't squander our time.

Fig and Kipenzi patched their damaged VACC suits, and Sam made the rounds of all the cargo sellers. The port was in more of a mess than its usual, the Scout Service was scanning cargo for the virus and the starport computers were down. While no cargo could actually be bought or loaded, Sam made the rounds of the other traders on foot.

Just to be on the safe side, Kipenzi bought another VACC suit. Hers had been melted by laser fire from the robot in the alien installation, so the repaired one was put into the crew locker as a spare.

012-1104
The quarantine was lifted, and slowly the trading began to commence to start to get sorta going back to normal. Sam was all set and we had no problem getting the hold filled satisfactorily, even if it took another week.

Two more ships landed once they got clearance: The Elbek, the 600 ton passenger liner with a news crew aboard and the rumor of a reprieved prisoner to be released. The Aouyayu (say the fast five times), a 100 ton Aslan ship landed soon after.

That afternoon, a shuttle from the Children of the March (recall that was the Imperial Cruiser enforcing the quarantine) landed at the prison, and returned to the ship with Talbot Vinge aboard. Our friendly relationship with the prison staff got us the inside scoop. Vinge was taken up for questioning.

I Must confess, for posterity, that we were a little bit concerned about how he might answer some of those questions.

013-1104
We learned from the Elbec (friends in the right places never hurts) that the released prisoner was Garin Row. A Dinomn journalist convicted of murder, he was reprieved and a news team from his previous (and no doubt future) employer had come to get him and the story.

Kipenzi: "We are carrying gasoline? Keanou doesn't even produce petrochemicals."

Sam: "I got a deal from one of the other ships."

014-1104
As Sam was marshaling a little of the slowly arriving cargo into the hold, an Aslan spacer knocked on the back door of the Skylark. Htyelea, male half of a trading mission, wanted some help and got our crew as a recommendation of 'people you can count on'. His first wife, Seiouou, had a deal arranged with a spice vendor but was injured in a ground-car accident and was unconscious in their auto-doc. He was not the money handler or primary negotiator, and was concerned that his deal might be compromised (cheated).

The best spice comes from Romar in the Glisten subsector, and its price matches its reputation. One of the Aslan clans within Darrian Confederation had sent a small mission to Keanou to purchase some of their dust spice to see it if an acceptable alternative to Romar Dust Spice.

Htyelea has got no clue about money, doesn’t have access to his ship's funds (i.e. he can’t pay us) and he is afraid that he might start a war. He can only offer his clan’s gratitude as an honor debt for this service. Sam, always ready to wheel and deal, was happy to help.

After a pass through the market to get the real numbers on spice, Sam went and met with the merchant, Luni Lamurra. She was all set to revise the deal in her favor, but a dose of Sam's negotiation skills put her back on the straight and narrow, and she actually revised the deal a little in the Aslan's favor once Sam was through with her.

In lieu of money, we received a totem of an Aslan Honor Debt. We weren't quite sure exactly what that meant, but it must be a good thing.

In other news, the Fulacin spaceport was open again but not at full operation. The parent company, MagnetoDynamics, was under some Imperial investigation and internal restructuring. I guess when you partner up with a Zhodani star fleet, your business model might need some work.

015-1104
We learned that Talbot Vinge had died, probably of a stroke, under interrogation. Since we learned of it through the grapevine instead of at the point of a Imperial Navy SWAT team, we figured he hadn't talked about us. He died under interrogation before the toxin or whatever it was that Medicus put in his system did him in. Hope the Navy doesn't catch too much grief for the death.

019-1104
All the cargo was finally loaded, and we were all set to go. The Elbec with it's news crew had departed a few days earlier. Seiouou, the Aslan Trader's wife is better. Medicus offered to check her out but they declined.

020-1104
Finally launching out from Keanu and sent the bio-war viruses into one of the main star, sidetracking three days for a nice fiery demise, using a probe to assure accuracy. Four days after that we reached jump distance and jumped for Tureded.

027-1104
In jump space bound for Tureded.

During this jump, we tried to make some sense of the artifacts we had recovered from the alien base.

First, we were able to date the devices to about 285,000 years back, some time after the Ancient War, but still very old.

They date to shortly after the Ancients wars but before known non-Ancient space-faring races, so we’ve got another first here. – Kipenzi

The clicker device from the space suit was a remote controller of some kind, but other than that it emits some electronic signal, we got nothing.

The device we got from the hydroponics area was even more indecipherable. Absolutely no clue for now.

On the other hand, the tablet responded to touches to the glyphs on it's surface and we were able to get a video to display. It showed a sad story.

Starting with a green and healthy looking world, shimmering starships and a gray skinned being, it showed ships arriving and shooting energy beams, destroying the planet.

Cut from there to ships taking off, one landing at a planet almost certainly Keanu, and the alien staring out at the plains.

It appeared that they had encountered something that followed them home, but nothing we could recognize as alive. Dark geometric shapes with much higher tech. the grey aliens woke up something in the darkness that followed them home. - Kipenzi

There was also a map of some of the Spinward Marches, and we identified some places they were sending ships.

• Quopist, in Lanth subsector: 7 million people live there now, part of the Imperium, in Lanth subsector, 5 parsecs from here.
• Carse, in Lunion subsector: well-developed, low pop 6,000 people, mostly desert world.
• Harvoset, in Lunion subsector: 90 million population, Imperial desert world.

We are seeing a pattern here: their original world was green and had water, their colonies are on desert worlds and underground - Kipenzi

Extrapolating back, we estimated where they likely came from, and if we were right and our system information for now was correct, it appears that the original planet was destroyed. The Ancients could destroy planets, and they date from shortly after the end of the Ancient wars.

Armitage Trout, an archaeologist living on Keanu claimed that the faint rings around Keanu were from a space battle, and maybe it really is from the colonization ship. We put checking that out on the possible list for our future times.

034-1104
Out of jump space into Tureded. Sam on the sensors noticed an asteroid a mere 50,000 km from us.

A transponder let us know there was a mining installation belonging to Maverick Corp. there.

Moving from the 100-planetary diameter limit, we headed on down to one of Tureded's three ground ports.

038-1104
Jump out for Rhylanor.

045-1104
Into Rhylanor system, and a day later down to the planet to a berth with a nice suite for our comfort.

We had some plans for the time on Rhylanor: carousing, classes, more carousing. But as well as that stuff...

Checking out the VACC suits that Kipenzi and Fig patched up, we found out they were both done quite well, and very suitable for use as spares.

Things to buy:

• Another small VACC suit for Fig, with the arm and hand mods.
• Replacement probes
• Repair the holographic projectors
• Get a logo.
• Replace the Autodoc
• Double check the ship guns
• More ballistic cloth underwear, and spares
• and definitely not least... pay off the Skylark

:) :) :)

Also, I heard Leon purchased a psy-shield helmut, does he know something we need to know? – Kipenzi

Classes underway, but still time for some other activities and fun, including a very persistent tour guide robot that wouldn't leave Kipenzi alone, and a visit to the archaeology department of Rhylanor University.

057-1104
Kipenzi and Fig, after the crew discussed it and decided, took the tablet and a video of both language/writings (Fulacin and Keanu) to people who might be able to make some sense of it. We had decided to tell them that both videos came from installations on Fulacin and the tablet from a cave on Keanu, and asked them to keep us posted on what they learn. Likely, since we travel a lot, that would mean we will come back and ask... The university said that the languages and aliens are the first examples they have of these, so no chance for translation yet, another first for us.

Coming back from the university, Fig and Kipenzi learned (again) that a shortcut can be the longest distance between two points. They wound up in a darkish alleyway, and were about to turn around when they heard sounds of a fight ahead.

Advancing slowly, they saw a big man and a fast gymnastic woman fighting. They decided to move up and stay out of it as long as it was fair (who knew enough to do anything else) but stop any real beat down or injury.

The fighters noticed them shortly afterwards, and with yells of "This is not over" both the combatants departed, moving well. Kipenzi and Fig backed up to the main passage, foregoing any more shortcuts.

058-1104
The entire star port was shut down completely for about 6 hours, with no explanation beyond "unspecified security reasons".

061-1104
Signs pointing to the "Cornucopia Fair" led us to a free trader who had set up a fair in his hold. Forbes Lloyd, the captain of the Cornucopia had gotten several merchants and spacers to set up booths, and we got a couple of little decorations. Sadly, after 4 days the Rhylanor authorities figured a way to shut it down, and no doubt Forbes was off for another port, to reopen another day.

065-1104
A public announcement that Emperor Strephon had appointed Dulinor Astrin Ilethian to archduke of Ilelish Domain on the other side of the Great Rift, for supporting Strephon’s reforms. Most of the nobility who opposed the reforms also opposed his elevation.

070-1104
We finally got a hint about the port closure, rumor on the street being that there was an Ine-Givar terrorist with a bomb, but the plan was thwarted by local law enforcement. Maybe those two people fighting? - Kipenzi

Sam had an unusual encounter with a clerk named April Apobanu in one of the many paper-pushing places that he handles so well for us, but got it smoothed over. Who knows, we may need to remember her name – Kipenzi

073-1104
Leon, at one of the several more sophisticated events that he goes to, had a nice encounter with a journalist, Emma Sheng, from the Rhylanor Imperial Courier and made a good contact for the possible future. He was his usual reserved but polite self, and didn't give away any secrets.

Sam had a little shakeup at the ship, as a 1000 ton cargo hauler, the Stellar Equity, pranged the adjacent wall and shook things up a bit.

080-1104
Sad news. Sir Yaricht Fruenelle, racing in the Spinward Point to Point, disappeared during a jump in the Abyss Rift area. An area with three red zone planets and almost nothing else but empty space.

085-1104
Out carousing, Kipenzi was involved in a bar fight, but was uninjured. She definitely needed the alcohol dry cleaned out of her clothes.

088-1104
Just as we were considering where to take our trading, wheeling and dealing, we got a visit from a local merchant. Bernie Moussei, owner of Rinara Curiosities, had heard we were reliable and trustworthy, and asked to charter us for a delivery to Aramis. He had a small (10kg) package for his nephew's birthday, and with a Jump 3 capability we could get it there in plenty of time.

With an offer of 800,000 credits, and all the cargo bay to use besides, we took his contract.

This sounded possibly too good to be true, so Medicus checked all the computer systems available and Sam spoke with his port contacts about Bernie, and we learned that he is a reliable merchant, but they couldn't find anything predating 10 years ago. In other words, this guy doesn’t exist before 10 years ago, a little like Sam - maybe -Kipenzi.

That was not a deal breaker, but we vowed to be very cautious with this deal.

Delivery of one small box of coins to his nephew...heading to Leedor, the main (and only) city on Aramis.

089-1104
Launch from Rhylanor.

090-1104
Into jump space for Jae Tellona.

During the jump we pulled out ALL our snooping gear to check out the package.
Sure enough it was a package of coins, but mostly just relatively uncommon. Bordering on rare, but didn't seem to be worth the cost of shipping, so closer looking was in order.

Two of them were, on veeeeery close inspection (NOT opening the package, just good equipment and patience) hollow, and one had a tiny plastic sheet inside.

Two of the coins appeared to be from about 2600 years ago, valuable for sure but still... 800K just to deliver???? We promised ourselves to be extra careful on the delivery and afterward.

097-1104
Out into Jae Tellona space, with Sam immediately picking up a small cargo container on the sensors floating in space about 10,000 Km out. We have had mixed results with cargo containers in the past, but we got close enough for Kipenzi to rope up and go over. No traps detected, but closer scanning from a different angle gave us the impression that the cargo was some kind of ammunition, artillery shells or the like.

We put a beacon on it and notified the Navy. Later they told us it was in fact artillery shells filled with nerve gas, i.e. WMDs – good thing we decided to hand them over. No salvage rights or finder's fee for us. At least we got a thank you.

101-1104
Jump out for Heroz, passing the Stellar Paradise liner arriving from Rhylanor as we departed.

108-1104
Into Heroz and in port. 100 ton Scout ship MacBeth says, "Hi".

112-1104
Jump out for Aramis.

119-1104   
In the Aramis system, and down into Leedor mid morning on 120-1104

Continued in: Leedor on Aramis, Part 1

See Also: Dramatis Personæ, Skylark 2, Campaign Starts, The 2nd Adventure, The Chamax Plague, Horde, Shadows, Research Station Gamma, Twilight's Peak, Prison Planet.