Kesser’s Return - Part 1

The Skylark’s crew finally makes time to test the teleporter disks that they acquired at Twilight’s Peak. Meanwhile, a mobile hospital is constructed for their cargo bay in preparation for their mission to the Jump-7 prototype Kesser.

Later, with the hospital loaded they head out to the Kesser with their escort, the Armstrong, and find that the Kesser’s journey through another universe has left it a very odd and disturbing place indeed.

We used Roll20 online virtual tabletop to connect with each other since we are now scattered around the country.

This note is from our August 6th, 2017 session and was mostly written by Carl and Kay with additional material provided by myself. I made the models in Sketchup and I rendered them in Twilight Render. The character portraits were done using Eve Online.

Continued from Barhopping in Shionthy.

Date: 024-1107 Imperial.

Location: Achilles Station in the Shionthy System, Regina Subsector.

Morning.
We did some last minute shopping as we got set to go to the Kesser. All of us but Sam purchased a set of recoil-less weaponry designed for zero G.

Kipensi: “For the record, this is what we bought:”

Constitution Arms Advanced Gyro Rifle: Developed from an earlier model Gyro Rifle, the CAAGR is designed for combat in zero and low gravity situations. It holds a 16-round clip.

This bullpup weapon fires a variety of special two-stage ammunition. The first stage is a gas propellant cartridge which fires the round out of the barrel, while the second stage is a small, yet extremely powerful, chemical rocket that brings the projectile to full speed.

There are five types of ammunition for the CAAGR: Armor Piercing Rod (APR), Shotshell, Safety, Explosive, and Tranquilizer.

Constitution Arms Advanced Gyro Pistol: CAAGP is designed for combat in zero and low gravity situations. It is, in essence, a large revolver that fires scaled down versions of the CAAGR rounds. Because of the revolver design, the user can load different rounds and select which one to fire by moving the cylinder. The revolver holds 6 shells.

The CAAGP’s recoil is extremely low and the weapon has a special integral stabilizer allowing it to be fired without penalty in low/zero gravity combat situations. Advanced Laser Sights are standard on CAAGPs. The CAALS is an improved version of the basic laser sight. A built-in microcomputer controlled feedback mechanism provides the user with the visual data needed to shoot with precision.

There are five types of ammunition for the CAAGP: Armor Piercing Rod (APR), Shotshell, Safety, Explosive and Tranquilizer.

We each get one rifle, one pistol, and one clip of each of the five types of ammo for the rifle, and one 6-round of each type of ammo for the pistol.

We spent 5,064 credits for each person out of the ship’s funds to purchase them.

Later we had a meeting with management at the J7 Foundation offices and got to meet with several of the people we would be working with on the mission.

Dr. Andrea Sikorsky

Dr. Andrea Sikorsky, drive systems expert, is going with us in the Skylark 2 to the Kesser. She has worked with Dr Markelson on the drive.

Dr. Helen Abraham

Dr. Helen Abraham, drive design team, able to affect repairs. She is friends with the Kesser’s crew, and wants to rescue them.

Dr. Ivan Onassis

Dr. Ivan Onassis, AI Designer. Created Julian, the Kesser’s AI. Friends with Sanja Balikrishnan, the Kesser’s computer systems officer. He reacts negatively to the idea that it’s Julian’s fault. The AI has anti-piracy software which leads Kip to speculate, what if the electronics to the cameras was damaged and facial recognition no longer worked. Could the AI have mistaken the crew for pirates under those conditions?

Dr. Ruth Redwood

Dr. Ruth Redwood, drive engineer. She was a MP in the Imperial Army; can assist marines and familiar with ship’s systems. Tends to think like a cop.

Sam Cohn

Sam Cohn is a muscular man who has short brown hair and gray eyes. He boxed in college and did some amateur boxing as well. He is very even tempered, but is quite willing to deal with a situation by using a punch to the face if needed.

He worked on building the Kesser and, as such, was selected for this mission. He specializes in electrical systems.

Heather Roam

Heather Roam: The ROV operator. Available to pilot probes and drones.

Talking some with the company people, we ask about what might have happened. The ship came out of jump in the right general area but wrong time - two days late. They had telescopes on the area, have not seen any ship approach or anyone leave. Socrates station is actually closer and they have also been tracking and have seen nothing.

There is a blind spot behind the ship, though someone would have to know exactly where the ship came out of jump to be able use it.

Talking with the engineers at the meeting we get:

1. They have only vague idea of how the drive works and only vague theories how Beta-space may have affected the crew.
2. Beta space may have a different flow of time.
3. There could have been a computer failure or life support problem.
4. Hull damage might suggest an explosion near the Kesser. There appear to be scrapes on the hull and there is one open hatch on the neck of the ship.
5. All hatches are manual and can be opened in event of a power failure.
6. There are a lot of cameras on the Kesser, we discussed trying to download all their video.
7. It probably has enough fuel to travel in-system but not enough to jump.

We need to get the security codes so the AI does not hate us and invoke the anti-piracy software when we board. With no response on the radio, we will need a physical connection with the ship to talk to the AI.

Anti-piracy software could, in worst case, kill everyone by decompressing the ship (we want to avoid that). If the problem Kesser had involved the ship thinking the crew were pirates, it could have been evacuated already and many/most dead already.

We got the security codes.

The ROV range is about 1 Km, so we have to get at least that close to try and access the ship from an outside interface connection.

We had a discussion about how to transfer any live crew to the Skylark 2’s cargo hold. The plan is to use the Armstrong’s gig. They should be able to get us an adapter to connect the gig’s hatch with the Skylark’s rear passenger hatch by morning.

We also talked about the Kesser crew, what they might do in various situations.

We talked about Dr Markelson, inventor of J-7 drive. He comes across as aloof, semi-paranoid, close with secrets. He is the only one who really knows whole drive system. Skorski has known him since she was his assistant at the university on back on Rhylanor.

Kip asks, “What if he’s a fraud? What if a person sabotaged the drive?” The J7 Foundation people react badly, overly defensive; they are apparently thinking the same fraud thing.

The meeting finished up in the early afternoon.

1500
We never actually tested the magic teleport-lifting pads that we got from Twilight’s Peak with organics, and figured this was a good time.

We did a live chicken and dead pig search and found that Achilles has a surprisingly large agricultural sector. They produce most of their own food and export it to several other stations here in the L4 cluster.

For privacy we took one disk to the warehouse where Sam was storing cargo and left the other one in the Skylark’s cargo hold.

After teleporting our cargo back and forth between the warehouse and ship, all seemed OK.

Kipenzi: “We determined that the effective space for transport is 1.5 a meter sphere. So all crew would have to duck to use it.”

025-1107  0400
Early morning, the loading of the cargo bay started, the J7 people start assembling the life containers and in short order (or so) we were set to launch off, with our "Coast Guard" escort ship, the Armstrong. It will take four days to get to the Kesser.

By about 0930, we were all loaded up and ready to go.

The Mobile Hospital in the Skylark's cargo bay

1013
The Skylark and Armstrong accelerate at 3G’s away from Achilles Station toward the Kesser.

We talked to Dr. Skorski, who will be our passenger on the way out, and some to the people on Armstrong. She can talk us through shutting down the drives and other stuff on the ship as needed.

Dr. Markelson worked with Dr. Skorski a lot, but kept some of the components secret and for him only. We find that some people were hurt trying to get into some of the secure areas/material, and rumor of one death from being nosy.

Skorski admits that she really doesn’t know how some of the parts of the drive actually work. She worked for several years on the drive project and hopes to rescue the crew. She thinks highly of Markelson and talks for hours on the subject. Said he was extremely secretive about components in shells and warned them against tampering, warned it could be fatal. Two people were injured getting into the shell and rumor that one was killed.

The other components are mundane: computer, power, etc similar to a conventional drive. The drive uses a great deal of power. The drive system is weird in that it produces an energy only Dr. Markelson seems to understand, at least so far. It sends energy that pushes boundaries of science and engineering. The energy changes the system at the quantum level. Her research was to refine non-key components. She is the foremost expert on the Markelson drive system and can dismantle it cleanly if needed.

The design of the Kesser has two arms sticking out of the engineering section with nacelles containing the critical drive components in armored shells. There are four components, two in each nacelle.

We discussed theories on “What Went Wrong”:

1. Drive system functioned in unexpected way, created super gate with years passing on the other side in the nine days it was gone.
2. The ship made first the transition successfully but was damaged and had to be repaired.
3. Something went wrong in beta space itself.
4. It came out somewhere and jumped back in again.

Kip added 5. It jumped, electronics damaged, AI couldn’t recognize faces from cameras and used anti-piracy tactics, or 6. Some crew member(s) was paid to sabotage ship and hand over tech to others.

In the days traveling out to the Kesser, we got to know the Armstrong’s crew via video conferencing:

Capt. Natalie Weaver

Captain Weaver is highly competent, cautious, confident and courageous, making her the ideal captain for this mission.

She began her career in space as a shuttle pilot and then worked her way up through the ranks, finally receiving command of the Armstrong one year ago. She has the confidence of her crew and is well respected in the Shionthy system.

She was an associate of the Kesser’s commander, Captain Clanson, although they were not on close personal terms. She also knew the other crew members of the Kesser professionally. She applied for the Kesser mission and was selected as part of the back-up crew. Because of this, she believes that she has a personal stake in the matter-she could have been on the Kesser and some other captain could be coming to rescue her. As such, she is especially dedicated to rescuing the crew and recovering the vessel.

Weaver has a strong personality and handles stress extremely well. She has spent considerable time in space and her mind is open to various strange possibilities. Because of these traits, she can handle strange situations better than most.

She has been tasked with the completion of the mission and will devote her energies towards that end. She always insists on professional behavior and proper respect for the chain of command.

Lt. Richard Obama

Lt. Obama started his career as a shuttle pilot and jumped at the chance to serve on the Armstrong. he still retains his commission as a reserve officer in the Imperial Navy and his military manner. The Captain rather approves of this.

Obama is a calm, level headed individual who approaches problems rationally and carefully. He can, however, make snap decisions in crisis situations and is usually correct in his choices. As such, he is an excellent first officer.

Obama regards the rescue mission as being of critical importance. He wants to rescue the crew and also wants to recover the Kesser. He is well aware of what the drive capability would mean for Shionthy and intends for that to become a reality.

Because of his military background, he considers the use of force to be a viable option. He has some basic training in combat and can assist the Marines, should the need arise. However, he does prefer to resolve situations without needless violence.

Because of his experiences in crisis situations, he is adept at handling danger and unusual situations.

Lt Sally Lee

Lt. Sally Lee grew up on Rhylanor, but while traveling fell in love with the mysteries of the Shointhy System. On her travels, her personal ship hit a rock, leaving her lost and with a nasty wound across her forehead. She managed to find her way to a small settlement and became fascinated with navigation. After college, she was recruited into the Shionthy System Navy and rapidly became one of their best navigators.

Lee is also an amateur photographer, but always buys very expensive camera equipment. She is always happy to give advice about the subject of photography. Sometimes her advice is good, sometimes not so much. When of duty, Lee is a thrill seeker and is willing to take great risks for a rush of adrenaline. On duty, she presents an image of calm professionalism. However, beneath that calm exterior is a heart that seeks adventure. She is not prone to panic, but can get rather excited about danger and has an alarming tendency to seek it out.

Lt. Kelly Graham

Lt. Kelly Graham is a tall, thin man who has gone prematurely bald. Often seen wearing Red Planet baseball caps. He became a fan of that team when he went to college on Rhylanor.

He is a very skilled engineer and feels most at home in two places-the engineering section of a ship and baseball parks. He has a methodical mind that approaches most things as engineering problems.

We also got to know Heather Roam, who we had met earlier back on Achilles.

Roam has red hair, green eyes and delights in bad puns. She competed in several beauty pageants when she was younger and is still quite the beauty. She divorced her husband a year ago when she learned he was cheating on her with another man.

When she was a child her mother, who had piloted military drones, introduced her to remote control vehicles. She certainly seems to have inherited her mother’s talent with remotely operated vehicles and is considered the best operator in Shionthy.

While her view is that ROVs should be sent into dangerous places rather than people, she is rather fond of her “pets” and prefers not to risk them. She always gives her ROVs names and, when no one is watching, paints faces and such on her “pets.” The Captain tolerates this sort of thing since Roam seems to pilot her “pets” even better when they have been given personalities.

We spent some time with Helen Abraham, Ivan Onassis, Ruth Redwood and Samuel Cohn who comprised the technical team.

As well as the medical team: Dr. David Rosenberg from Regina a specialist in space medicine, who teaches at Achilles Station, an expert in zero-gee effects on the body and highly inventive. He expressed that he was worried about the effects Beta space might have on the human body.

Dr. Ellen Li – a very empathetic individual and who has a talent for calming people. She is one of the top people in her field and, as such, was selected for the mission. While she is primarily motivated by a desire to help the crew, she is also interested in what she will be able to learn from the Kesser crew, assuming they survived.

Li’s main goal is to attend to the mental health of the Kesser crew.

Li is happily married and is looking forward to returning to her husband, Andrew Relkin. Andrew is a well-known painter.

Marine team:

Major Thomas Whitmore, parents were religious. A thinking soldier, prefers to resolve conflict peacefully.

The rest of the people on the Armstrong, Lt Brown, Lt Waters, Lt Winters, and the gunners we didn’t interact much with.

Kipenzi: “We have security codes to access cameras and AI but bandwidth keeps us from connecting to both at the same time. There are access ports on the outside of the ship near the hatches that we can jack into to talk to the computer and access the interior cameras.”

027-1107  0950
Radio from Socrates Control - there is ship approaching Kesser, about 30K tons, will get there before us. It is only decelerating at 1G, so is not likely military or pirate. It might be a freighter.

Kipenzi says, “The Kesser is only 600 tons, it could fit in their cargo hold if they want to steal the whole ship.”

1050
Socrates Control identifies the ship as the Whale, a gas tanker from Quixia Fuel and Gas Co. (QFGC). They say they are doing a rescue, as required by Imperial Law. A quick check on the computer says they have a shady reputation and are NOT a member of the J7 consortium.

They will get there about 21 hours before us. On the positive side, they can trip all the traps or AI troubles involved.

J7 is trying to resolve this, tell us all to "Stay on target".

Eventually we get a call from Dr. Henry Slate, our contact at J7: “The QFGC will dock with the vessel and will, no doubt, ransack the ship as quickly as they can. The QFGC says that they will transfer any survivors to the Skylark.”

“Your orders are to dock with the Kesser, receive any survivors and escort the QFCG people off the Kesser. While you are to secure the Kesser and the technology on board, you are to avoid any action that would start an incident, such as attempting to board the Whale by force or shooting any of the bastards.”

Later, QFGC on Socrates started broadcasting video from the Whale as they approach. Not great quality but better than what we could see from the telescope on Achilles. It shows that Kesser has several scars and pits, and some warping of the hull. One airlock is significantly pitted and scared. It looks like it might have been forced open from the outside although no one can figure out what kind of equipment would leave marks like that.

028-1107  1124
The Whale moved alongside the starboard side of the Kesser. The crew then attached an EVA line to the Kesser with a magnetic grapple. Two crewmembers cross over to the Kesser. This was shown on the last video that the QFGC released to the media. After that, they issued various vague and evasive statements about how the mission is progressing nicely and that everything is going according to plan.

45 Minutes later the Whale pulled away, no video of anything that happened. Don't know if the two crew members got back or not, and unlikely they were able to remove anything significant.

We got another communication from Dr. Slate, “As you know, the Whale sent two crewmen onboard the Kesser and then the vessel departed rather abruptly. Some have speculated that the QFGC was able to find what they wanted and have left to bring it back to their scientists. However, based on the layout of the Kesser and the complexity of the drive system, it seems almost impossible that they were able to remove any significant portion of the system.”

“There has been some speculation that the Whale suffered some accident and is racing back to the station before her systems fail completely. However, this seems somewhat unlikely. After all, they could have remained at the Kesser and waited for you to arrive to help them.”

“The most worrisome possibility is that the crew of the Whale found Dr. Markeleson and now have him on board. This would explain their rapid departure and the lack of communication from the Whale. The QFCG refuse to say anything, which merely fans the flames of suspicion.”

“We need to know if Markelson is on board the Whale. As such, you are to continue to the Kesser. We also want you ascertain what the the Whale’s crew took from the Kesser if you can.”

QFGC did not comment.

Sikorsky says that with the right keycodes they 'could' have gotten some of the components, but not likely.

There are four (4) components to the new drive system that were the 'secret, protected' ones.

Also speculation that someone on the ship could have had the time to remove the shells and was waiting to be picked up.

The Whale will get to Socrates at about 031-1107, 0630 if they follow their current course.

029-1107  2314
Late arrival at Kesser, pulled Skylark and Armstrong near Kesser, and prepared for boarding. Leon, Medicus, Kipenzi are our away team. Sam and Fig stay on the Skylark 2 with Dr. Skorski, watching the cameras and instruments. The Skylark maneuvers to the rear of the Kesser, above the plane of it’s M-drive; the Armstrong positions itself at the front of the ship, pointing down the spine also above the ship to avoid a collision in case someone starts up the Kesser’s drives.

Coordinated with Armstrong to get an ROV out and looking too. Ask them to look at the bridge area while the away team tried to access the AI and internal video from the connection near the rear (engineering) hatch.

Lt. Roam sent Space Crab Freddie over and looked in through the bridge windows. Pretty empty but for an almost human shaped blueish mist in the captain chair. The mist moved as we watched, went forward and passed through the window. Suddenly the feed from the ROV was cut off.

Lt Roam said that the ROV is not responding, but is still floating there, drifting. We speculated about it being someone who did not fully return from Beta space, or a Beta space 'being' and suddenly the complexity of this 'rescue' increased dramatically.

As this was happening, Kipenzi found an access panel to try and connect with the AI, and plugged in. The hull area looked to Medicus as if something (space squid?) grabbed the hull, but with some force other than kinetic.

Plugging in, Kipenzi tried to access the AI, and made initial contact. It ignored the greetings from Kipenzi and sent out a repeating "Help Me" signal.

Accessing the ship internal cameras, Kipenzi swiveled them around for as full a view of the ship as possible. Harsh interior usage, scars, marks and stains. No clear pattern to the damage.

Date stamp on cameras says 1110-063. Three years in beta space?

Deck 1 camera shows it pretty much untouched.

Bridge camera – shattered screens, damaged controls, faint blur around the captain's chair. Damage is sorta random, like a madman or animal would do.

Area 4 camera - faint rhythmic sound, see a figure in a VACC suit walking stiffly, name tag says Russell. Moved in and out of view.

Area 5 - Drs. Foster and Morricone at chairs, sitting in remains of VACC suits. Lines all over their skins, teardrop shaped. They don't blink or otherwise move except when the camera pans, they twitch, possibly reacting to the movement.

Area 6, Drive focusing control - The Camera is turned off, we cannot turn it on remotely.

Area 12 - We get a ‘camera damage, contact engineering’ message.

Area 22 - Looks like when ship left, low fuel but power plant is still online. The rear hatch is welded shut from inside.

Area 23 - Drive Access Room: and two suited figures floating obviously dead. We can make out the name tags of Zubrin and Pitzen. Welding equipment also floats in the room, but no hatches welded shut here.

Area 24 – Drive Access: Remains of two more crew, Pieces of people and suits pieces jammed into the drives, and some welding equipment floating around too. We can make out the name tags of Lewis and Medell. No hatches welded shut here either.

Deck 3 - Moving shadow, turns out to be horribly mutilated body of Captain Clanson, with 4 pistols and shell casings floating around. Single gunshot would visible on her head.

Cameras in areas 2 & 3 are dead.

Camera time stamp of figure moving show the video is live and not in a loop.

It looks like the gravity is off or has failed in most of the ship.

Captain Weaver says we should pull back as soon as possible. No arguments there, recovering to the Skylark 2 for discussion and evaluation of our options.

Looks like 2 people alive and sitting, one moving, some blue mist on the bridge.

Medicus can tell there is no life signs on his side of the engines. There are some anomalies on the energy sensors.

The Armstrong sensors are showing weird things at the quantum level, slowly shifting back to normal readings. As if it went to a different universe with different physical laws and is slowly recovering to ours.

Definitely time to regroup...

Kipenzi: “...and the Whale will arrive at Socrates Station on 031, about 0630. There has been no response from the vessel that we know of. I am beginning to conclude that stopping the ship from docking is a REALLY GOOD IDEA.”

Continued in Kesser’s Return - Part 2

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown” - H.P. Lovecraft

See Also: Dramatis Personæ, Skylark 2, Campaign Starts, The 2nd Adventure, The Chamax Plague, Horde, Shadows, Research Station Gamma, Twilight's Peak, Prison Planet, Leedor on Aramis, First Call at Zilla, Trade War, The Bloodwell, ANNIC NOVA and The Kinunir.