The cast:
- Brace (Brainer): the ship's pilot and also a spook, that despised part of humanity touched by the weird. He has extensive psychic powers. Shiv hates him.
- Midnight Storm (Skinner): teenage post apocalyptic rockstar who has been sleeping around without understanding the consequences.
- Nightingale (a.k.a. "Gale") (Angel): the ship's doctor hunting her brother Bluejay.
- Vivek (Savvyhead): drug dealer/maker who experiments with his own product.
Taking Care of Business, Part 2
"Okay, I want an explanation," Farley said.
The assembled crew looked around and shuffled their feet for a minute before Midnight and Brace began to explain things.
"Stop!" The Captain ordered. "Gale, you give me the rundown."
Gale stepped forward and relayed the events, especially the deaths and woundings, as she understood them. Brace, Midnight, and Vivek in turn added their details of the stowaways and sabotage.
"Okay, Bigs, Brace, and Midnight. Do a sweep of the ship from top to bottom. Make sure we've found everyone and everything. Ula, you are ship's cook for now. I'm sure Bullet left some recipes on the ship's computer."
"Farley!" Ula protested. "You know I'm a terrible cook."
The captain rubbed his brow. "Main Stream, you've been known to brew some great stews. Will you take over?"
The ashen haired merchant looked up. "May I remind you that while you are Captain, I am a paying passenger. You can't assign me a job. I've got my own business, my own contacts, and means of my own."
She is kind of a book dealing version of Inara.
"Ula, you are cook," the Captain concluded.
"Why don't you come over tonight?" Tally asked.
Midnight Storm finished putting away his guitar. "Sure. What brings this on?"
"I think you deserve a nice home cooked meal for keeping our spirits up with your music." She leaned in close. "Also I think we could both enjoy something other than the sludge Ula has been serving up."
"Sound good."
Later after Tally's son goes to sleep, the musician considered putting the moves on her. As he leaned towards her his side and neck ached. "Tally, I think might go get some rest. I'm still pretty banged up."
Nightingale woke up, cleaned up and dressed like any other morning. She jogged down to the medbay, snagging some food and water from the mess hall along the way.
She opened the medbay door. The contents of her medbag lay strewn across the floor. Her vials of drugs were gone.
Gale stumbled back. She glanced around the room, hoping that some of her supplies were left behind.
She has no stock.
The doctor collected her things and locked up the medbay. Grimly she headed for the drive chamber to find Brace and share her frustrations.
As the door slid open to the drive chamber, the sounds of heavy breathing and Sun's passionate cries hit Gale. Gale briefly glimpsed Brace and Sun before stammering out "Sorry" and closing the door.
Gale hurried down the corridor away from the drive room for a minute before pacing back hesitantly. She shuffled and fidgeted for over a quarter-hour until Sun exited the room.
Sun tries not to look at Gale as she heads past her.
"Sun, I uh, need your help," Gale said.
"With what?"
"Someone broke into the medbay. Could you check that it is securely locked?"
"Someone went through your stuff?" Sun looked directly at Gale her eyes narrowing. "We have a thief?"
"Maybe, I guess. I just want to make sure it doesn't happen again."
"Theft is wrong. I'll make sure no one else can open that door. Any idea who it was?"
"No," Gale said. "But Sparky might have seen them."
The women walked over the med bay. As Sun examined the door itself, Gale brought up the video footage.
Sun wandered over. "It wasn't exactly forced but someone hacked it. Only someone with technical expertise could pull it off. I know I didn't do it which means Vivek, Bigs, and Shiv are our suspects."
Gale points to the robot's monitor. "Sparky was in sleep mode so we only have a low resolution video."
The screen showed a blurry figure moving about the room.
Sun leans in. "He's too small to be Bigs or Shiv."
"Vivek where are you?" Gale blared over the comms. She banged on the door outside his sleeping quarter and grow room again.
The comms crackled to life. "Do you want me to call him?" Brace asked.
Gale sighed. "Sure."
A half hour alter Vivek crawled into the drive chamber. He moaned and curled into a ball.
"Vivek get up," Brace said.
"No."
"I need you to answer questions."
"Everything hurts. Go away."
"This is my station!"
"Hey what's going on down there," Farley shouted from above. "Is that Vivek? Call Gale. She's been looking for him."
Gale entered the bridge a few minutes later and climbed down to the drive chamber. After shining a light in the drug makers eyes and taking his pulse, she announced, 'I thinking he is withdrawal. Vivek you need help. Let me take you to the infirmary so we can handle this properly."
Vivek nods weakly.
As she helps him up, she finds her missing stock in his satchel. She stows it and guides him to med bay to detox.
Brace trails along. "If you don't mind I think I might join Vivek. These burns from Bullet are taking forever to heal."
"Fine. But you are both going to spend time resting and not getting yourself even more damaged."
"Come in, come in," Tia said. "I hope you are feeling better."
"Much better. Better than Vivek and Brace. Gale tells me they have another week of bed rest." Midnight Storm grinned. "So what is it you wanted to talk to me about?"
Tia's husband Morrel led him to the back of their spartan cabin. "We have a request. But first let me explain this."
He pulled a tarp off a large boxy device. A long metal antenna emerged from its top and a strange tapping noise emerged from a grill on its front. Midnight felt a pattern to the noise, a message perhaps.
"What is that?"
"That," Tia explained, is a long-range receiver. It is picking up a message in an old code. It could be from a Golden Age ship or space station!"
Morrel continued. "We want to find the source of the signal. And we need to stay on the Starlight to do so. But we've already spent most of our funds getting this far. Can you help us?"
"I think so," the young man said. "I think I can convince Farley to let you stay on."
Later he convinced Farley to let him try a hand as cook in exchange to for letting the passengers stay another leg.
Farley told him, "if you're better than Ula, I'll do it as a favor. Give it a try tomorrow night."
Ula happily took the night off and Midnight set to work.
And failed to Act under Fire...
The next day after an even more disgusting meal than Ula's typical serving, Midnight admitted defeat to Farley. "I'm not ready to be a cook. But I promised Tia and Morrel I'd help them on their trip. Here's some of my savings. I'll pay for their passage."
But in the end I guess Gale and Brace's vision didn't amount to anything. Or maybe with people not failing enough rolls (and coincidentally nacrostabbed) artificially making things worse wouldn't be fun.
Two weeks later the Starlight entered the debris field of an ancient war zone. They carefully relayed their authorization and list of tradeable goods to hidden satellites amid the wreckage.
The reply pings followed the old pattern, designed decades ago to protect Megaton from reaver threats.
Then a laser communication came through. "This is the White Guard. Prepare to be boarded."
Farley ordered the ship to a stop. A small craft approached them from behind the blasted hull of an old troop transport. Expertly piloted it gently docks with the Starlight.
The crew meet the White Guard in the main cargo bay. Three people in white armor emerge.
The leader doffs his helmet. "Commander Kriss. We will search your ship for contraband."
As the other soldiers quickly search the ship, Farley asks, "What's going on? We've never been searched out here before."
"New protocol by White," Kriss answers. "It shouldn't be very long. I recommend you resume your usual activities. I will alert you when we are done."
The White Guard joined the crew for dinner that evening. Most people chose to remain quiet. Krill questioned Farley about their recent activities until satisfied, then he too lapsed into silence. Brace however attempted to draw the attentions of the female guard beside him.
"So what is a capable woman like yourself do her spare time," he said sliding a hand closer to hers.
She remained stone faced.
Brace persisted with complements while trying to make physical contact.
Rather reply, she stuck a fork into his thigh.
As he bit down on the pain, Brace opened his mind. What were they hiding? Instead of a vision, useful or otherwise, he saw nothing.
The White Guard have a custom move with respect to Open Your Brain.
Slipping through a gap in the hull of a Golden Age cargo ship, Starlight passed batteries of automated weapons and reached Megaton's docks.
Brace slipped them into their birth. Linkages with the larger "ship" took over. Computer systems and power became reliant on Megaton. Without proper authorization from inside they were now part of the base.
The crew entered the docking bay and passed through the weapon detection system. Only Vivek experienced any trouble. He had to try seven times until he finally disposed of all of his weapons.
On the other side Commander Kriss sent them through a decontamination shower due to Midnight's comment about the Krypton Dioxide poisoning the previous night.
After that they moved to their assigned quarters.
"Hey where's my glove," Brace asked, towelling himself off.
"Why are we not being allowed onto Megaton already?" Vivek added.
The White Guard were gone however.
Midnight Storm activated a communication terminal. "We are missing a glove and want to know when we can get out of here."
The voice on the comm answers, "You must stay in quarantine for a full day until you are clear of possible biological contaminants. The glove is an unauthorized device. You can talk to security when you are ready to leave about its return."
Dinner that evening was good at least.
During the night, fierce nightmares torn through Brace’s dreams. He felt the need to eat and rip into flesh. At times he felt like he himself was a reaver. He woke clawing at the air with Vivek staring at him.
"Bad dreams?"
"Yes, You too?"
Vivek nodded. Neither of them slept the rest of the night.
Grumpy and frustrated, the crew emerged into the Megaton marketplace.
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