PBEM ----- Turn 10.2 -------------
Some of the best role-playing I've ever seen happened this last week.
unfortuanely - it was all private stuff between two or three players.
I'm posting this as a turn so we can get on with the game. Our beloved
CO really does have an announcement, but his player is incredibly busy at
work right now. I'm going to excercise GM privilege and make his
announcement for him. It IS fair to chew me out later for omissions and
errors, and for saying the wrong things.
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(People start waking up and crawling down the passageway to sick bay.
A general announcement says that there is an all-hands muster at 14:00.
The doc and the engineering robot carry the totally incapacitated
back to their cabins and lock them in.)
At around 13:30 or so you begin to gather in the rec area. Ranks are
noticably thinned.
Nishu scratches his head. "I've been to a lot of parties in my time,
but I've NEVER seen anyone get this blitzed. I wonder if something was
wrong with the refreshments?"
"What about Fritz?" asks Etienne. "Fritz Severin."
[That's really `Fitz' btw -- Richard]
Nishu looks sheepish. "Um, I'm not sure, sir. I thought I heard someone over
the intercom yelling about calisthenics on the cargo deck, but I couldn't
tell if that was him or somebody else."
"Anyway - we are secure in jumpspace. Engineering reports no problems with
grid. Current ETA at midpoint is roughly 152 hours. One quiet week in jump,
the refuel stop - leastways, I assume that's why we'd be popping out in deep
space - and another week after that."
"I believe Bortai Narayanan left ship before we jumped, something about family
matters."
"I don't think we actually have to refeul. We have enough H2 left for one more
jump, although I'm not sure how big a one."
(Hssssssssssssssssssssssssssss...CLick...Click...CLICK...cli.........Hssss)
[a very low background hiss comes on the Engineering Comm dots,
communicators, etc.]
"Uh, Chief? This is Zben. I found that annoying click in the comm
channels.... There was a bug in the system". [In the background is
heard surpressed laughter, from someone else in the room]. "I mean, a
Real bug, y'know, with eight legs and all that? It welded itself
across a power lead in the Comm relay.... Ummmm, request permission to
seal room and spray with Bio-hazard Away?" [The background laughter
is no longer surpressed; someone is Very Amused...]
<no click :->
"Johann here, there are some administration things for engineering that we'll
have to take care of. Most important are evaluating the number of engineers
need on each of our vessels and work out which of us that takes care of which
ship. Vouf, Zben, Fritz, how many engineers would you think is needed on each of
the ships? Take different missions like standby, orbiting, insystem transfer and
jump into account. We'll talk about this, say, 15minutes after the muster ends.
Also, I never heard from anyone but Vouf, Zben and Fritz, Are the rest of the
team asleep? 4 men and a robot sounds more like an bad holo sitcom than a
engineering team."
Amidst the still-partially-hung-over bustle in the Rec Room, the door
opens at precisely 1400 hours and Bhyarrvouf comes in. His normal
loping crouch has been replaced by an easy, arrogant saunter, and his
grimy Engineer's coveralls are nowhere in sight. In their place, he
now wears a flashy black and silver uniform with metallic trim and a
number of ribbons and patches in an unrecognizable ranking scheme. He
looks around the room once, and pauses to nod to each of the Team
Leaders, with a wry half-smile to Dr. Van der Merwe. He steps over to
Dr. Abuko and whispers, "I'll speak to you after the muster. But first
things first." Without waiting for an answer, he turns away and
lightly bounds up onto the podium, where he stands stiffly at parade
rest, approximately two meters behind and to the right of where
Commander Ger will stand to address the crew....
Almost immediately Count Ger strides in from the other end of the room.
Stepping before you he pauses only briefly to look over the remnants
of the crew.
"Well, we haven't much time for meeting like this. You can see for
yourselves how the ranks have thinned. I won't bother with the roll;
It'll sound like we just lost a battle, not had a party.
First, as you might have noticed, we now have an executive officer.
It's no longer necessary for me to stand both port and starbord
bridge watches. 'Vouf's PRIMARY responsibility will now be on the
command team, and secondary responsibility to engineering.
(In game terms, this means you can send mail to Mike, instead of
Dan, who is terribly busy for a few months. Otherwise, the command
structure is unchanged. RJ)
We should be re-entering normal space in 6 hours. We should emerge
in deep space, about halfway to R-alpha. Our orders say we should
meet a refuelling tender, and a troop carrier with whom we can make
some personnel changes. I have four resumes so far: one scout, one
engineer, one armsman, ... and a [he _almost_ pauses] lawyer.
Tursnkaad's errand boy, Ian Thomas, will be put off when we dock.
Apparantly he was only here to pass some information to the lawyer.
While, in a crunch, he might be useful, I doubt he'd do us a lot of
good stuck, in a coma, in a cabin.
Dr. Van Der Merwe. Get whatever resources you need, and put the rest
of the out-of-service characters into a slow, or stasis, or cold-sleep.
I don't want them using resources, dieing, or who-knows-what. While
you're at it, find out why no one is waking up - or dieing either.
You can draft whatever you need out of the science teams for it.
Next, just before the party, Seargant Hammer found a locator beacon,
a very sophisitcated one, hidden in one of the passageways of the
Alcyon. It was probably put there during the initial loading. Who
ever did it is, in all likelihood, either no longer on the ship (one
of the Turnskaad stevedores) or is not now awake. In any case,
all of you should be on your toes. No telling what it was used for.
I'll take a few brief suggestions whether to attempt disinformation
or to simply destroy it.
As soon as we pick up our new crew and passenger, we'll need a really
brief get together to discuss the next phase of our mission, and
pass along the new watch bill.
As always, my cabin door is open. If you've got any troubles, bring
'em forward, then we can solve 'em.
Dismissed."
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As predicted, the Alcyon enters normal nothingness at 18:00 on the nose.
At 18:05, sensors report uncloaking of a small ship about 200 seconds
away. At 18:05:10 an automatic ID query is received and acknowledged.
At 18:10 the Alcyon is alongside the "Ramir" a scout with some
Zhodani-like design features. Lieutenant Alfeche of the Ramir indicates
that refuelling is to commence at 18:30; the tender will auto-uncloak
at 18:20.
At 18:13 the troop carrier/corvette "Anslinger" uncloaks and approaches.
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GM mode on:
I'm cutting off the turn description here so you guys can do your
engineering and crew transfer things.
Honestly, I'll try to get a new list of players/characters/addresses
out real soon now... (Hopefully tonight).
Richard Johnson
[email removed]
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