Chapter Four

Campaign: Have Starship Will Travel

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(Into theme song: Purple Sun, Cannons)

The End Of The Beginning

Characters

Previously On "Have Spaceship, Will Travel"

The CEV Sherwood Forest is an Old Commonwealth Science Corvette currently under contract with the Encyclopedia Galactica Foundation. The crew has made progress on a number of ongoing projects in the past year.

  • Typical 1 PB (petabyte) data card
     
  • Typical 1 EB (exabyte) data brick
     
  • Alex Barima (Human), Chief Engineer, CEV Sherwood Forest
  • Agent Shay Cho (Human), Interstellar Security Command
  • Inquisitor Gand (Human), His Divine Shadow's Inquisition
  • A Harlan
  • Moshe Holder (Human), former security guard on planet Stepanek
  • Orange-Yellow-Red (Kroy)
    Theme song: Breakaway, Big Pig
  • Professor Irulan M'Lori (Illurian), University Of Wendwood
  • Medusa, Old Commonwealth AI, Guardian Advisor to the Kaikoura Cetacean Protectorate
  • Poseidon, Old Commonwealth AI, Guardian Advisor to the Asa Nebari Cetacean Protectorate
  • Doctor Went (Vesalian), Chief Medical Officer, CEV Sherwood Forest

A Visit To Propaideia

  • "pro PED ee uh"
  • Alex Barima has been granted provisional asylum by the Encyclopedia Galactica Foundation while his humanitarian sanctuary application is being reviewed.
  • Doctor Went, whom the crew first met during their visit to Erodani Hypernet Relay Station, has joined the crew as the ship's Chief Medical Officer.

Galactic Parking Authority Long Term Impound Lot 3,225,118

  • The crew found Galactic Parking Authority Long Term Impound Lot 3,225,118 orbiting a barren sulfur planet, in a system with an aging main sequence star. A preliminary scan revealed 3,724 ships, all from before the Fall. Four of them were reasonably complete Old Commonwealth ships:
    • CEV Blue Heaven, an Old Commonwealth Luxury Yacht
    • CEV Herko Barruth, an Old Commonwealth Diplomatic Heavy Cruiser
    • CEV Madison Nebula, an Old Commonwealth Strike Wing Heavy Escort (damaged)
    • CEV MambaX, an Old Commonwealth Speed Boat
    • The strike wing heavy escort has suffered extensive damage, but the other three vessels appear to be pristine.
  • A Bha'atar Patrol Ship, BEW Eviscerator, visited the GPA lot at the same time as the Sherwood Forest, and was hostile.
  • People appeared to be stationed at the GPA lot and engaged in stripping the ships for parts. They did not appear to be hostile, but the crew did not have the opportunity to contact them.
  • The Encyclopedia Galactica History of Interstellar Travel department would like very much for the Sherwood Forest to return to Galactic Parking Authority Long Term Impound Lot 3,225,118 and retrieve the computer core (and a long list of less important things) from the CEV Herko Barruth, an Old Commonwealth Diplomatic Heavy Cruiser.

Precursor Problems

  • Sherwood, using the Prototype Precursor Sensor Console designed by Professor Irulan M’Lori and Doctor Jaris T’Kette, has determined that the Vowel Of Silence is entangled with an object at Geras Ud34x28DCFB65E0, a binary star system with a dormant stellar-mass black hole. Such systems are reasonably common: thousands of them are recorded on Sherwood's Old Commonwealh star charts.
  • The crew donated the Vowel Of Silence to the Encyclopedia Galactica Foundation. It is currently in the Precursor Artifacts Collection.
  • The crew happened across a conference being held at Lulin Observatory, where Professor Irulan M’Lori was one of the speakers. A Harlan was encountered, and his plan to abduct Professor M’Lori was foiled. When last seen, he was being arrested by observatory security.
  • Galene II is one of the worlds Professor M’Lori had studied, and it was one of the worlds she discussed in her presentation.
  • The crew of the Sherwood Forest had visited Galene II a few months earlier. At that time, the Precursor artifacts on the surface were active. The crew had access to records of the facility going back nearly a billion years, but shortly after that, a security system locked the facility down. It evacuated them from the surface of the planet and then began destroying the other worlds in the system. The crew fled the system after helping a Zniss Science Police Corvette, which had been more damaged by the planet's orange energy beams than the Sherwood Forest had been.
  • Several other individuals were on Galene II, drawn there by a compulsion from an unknown source.
  • Professor M’Lori is saddened to hear of the destruction of Galene II, but she will be poring over Sherwood's scans of the event for months, perhaps years.

Cetacean Inquiries

  • h/corporate updates hourly reports that after several disappointing quarters, Ocean Deeps Cetacean Adventures ("sponsored by Lastimar") has been liquidated, with the assets being bought at fire-sale prices by the Aquatic Bioengineered Agriculture Corporation, which already has a presence on the planet harvesting artificial crab legs. The planet is expected to reach peak production in less than 10 years, and optimization of the biosphere should be complete in 20 years.
  • The crew visited the "lost" world Asa Nebari, which was once an Old Commonwealth Cetacean Protectorate, on behalf of the League Of Non-Aligned Worlds. The Cetacean government of Asa Nebari was interested to learn that there are multiple inheritors of the Old Commonwealth's legacy, and they want to learn more (from actual diplomats) before committing to one.
  • The crew met an AI on Asa Nebari: Poseidon. Like Medusa on Kaikoura, Poseidon was hidden and protected by the Cetaceans.
  • The crew visited another former Cetacean protectorate, Galene I. They found that it had been destroyed about six months earlier.
  • The crew took a variety of drones and prosthetics from Asa Nebari to Kaikoura, to give the Cetaceans on Kaikoura tools to fight Lastimar, and also to demonstrate their "sentience", in case Lastimar's auditors care about that.

The Dominion And The Kroy

  • While at the Erodani Hypernet Relay Station, the crew encountered Divine Inquisitor Gand of His Divine Shadow's Inquisition. A Kroy, Orange-Yellow-Red, interceded on the crew's behalf, without explanation.
  • While at Lulin Observatory, Rikard ran into Inquisitor Gand at one of the bars. They chatted about the conference, and Gand came across as reasonably intelligent and not a completely terrible person. Gand did not appear to recognize Rikard.
  • As the Sherwood Forest made ready to depart the vicinity of Lulin Observatory, a Kroy ship appeared. The crew agreed to allow a Kroy observer, Indigo-Gold-RedViolet, which boarded the Sherwood Forest and took a position at the rear of the cockpit.

Zniss Science Police

  • Rosie and Rocky received a request for assistance from a Zniss researcher, T'Kiel, who was trying to find information about a network of repair stations in the last decades of the Old Commonwealth. They pass him off to someone else, who will probably do the same.
  • The crew of the Sherwood Forest visited the Galene system in search of an Old Commonwealth Cetacean Protectorate, but found that the planet had been destroyed.
  • While on Galene II, the crew were questioned by agents of the Zniss Science Police. The Science Police wanted to secure any "potentially hazardous data" shared by T’Kiel. The crew pleads ignorance, which is partially true.

Ongoing Concerns

  • Prior to visiting Asa Nebari, Monet Clayton approached Rikard on behalf of Bhuiyan Genetics. Clayton offered a generous payment for a full and complete copy of their report on the planet. After returning from Asa Nebari, no one from Bhuiyan Genetics met the Sherwood Forest to collect the report or pay for it.
  • A short time later, h/corporate updates hourly reported that Bhuiyan Genetics stock suffered a severe loss in value after it was leaked that they were investigating the acquisition of Asa Nebari, a Cetacean world. Financial analysis indicated that the cost of repurposing the planet would incur significant costs, while the presence of an unregulated civilian population presents a significant risk to any long-term exploitation of the biosphere.
  • A suspiciously generous bounty has been posted on the Exchange under e/open bounties/info wanted, for "the location of an original or refit Old Commonwealth Heavy Escort, in any condition". There is an Old Commonwealth ship at the GPA Impound Lot, but its engines appear to be damaged.
  • Agent Cho sends a brief update on Moshe Holder. He has violated his arbitration agreement by leaving the vocational colony where he was placed by the Malrechnen Syndicate. A bounty for Moshe Holder has been filed with the Recovery And Apprehension Network.
  • The crew intends to visit Fred. Fred should have completed construction on a Class 8 Tow Vessel by now. The crew should be able to use it to retrive ships from the GPA Impound Lot.
  • Using data from the final days of the Old Commonwealth, the crew has calculated the potential source of the Instrumentality (theme song: Dr. Feelgood (Instrumental), Mötley Crüe). It is beyond the recorded boundaries of the Old Commonwealth. Some authorities would classify this as "potentially hazardous data".
  • While waiting 24 hours for a Kroy to put an observer on their ship, the crew is contacted by Lulin Observatory security. A review of the observatory's security logs show Harlan placing an explosive charge on the Sherwood Forest, and Rikard placing the same explosive on Harlan's ship. Harlan has been turned over to the Recovery And Apprehension Network for arbitration. If observatory security has any additional questions for the crew of the Sherwood Forest, they will forward the request to Propaideia.

Encyclopedia Galactica Quick Facts

Asa Nebari
Independent
Ocean world
Sector: Propaideia
Rotation period: 26 standard hours
Orbital period: 352 standard days
Cultural Motivations: Community, Compassion
Population: ~1,200,000 Cetaceans, ~500 non-Cetaceans
Current use: Cetacean protectorate
Erodani Hypernet Relay Station
Corporate World (Qianfu Corp)
Space station in orbit around gas giant
Sector: Erodani
Demographics: 63% Human, 37% other
Geras Ud34x28DCFB65E0
Independent
Binary star system
Sector: Reimann
Body 1 - yellow G-type
Body 2 - stellar-mass black hole
No other significant astronomical bodies
Kaikoura
Corporate World (Lastimar)
Ocean world
Sector: Beluga
Rotation period: 23 standard hours
Orbital period: 372 standard days
Cultural Motivations: Community, Serenity
Population: ~450,000 Cetaceans, ~3,000 other
Current use: industrial aquaculture, food production
Lulin Observatory
League Of Non-Aligned Worlds
Space station
Sector: Aalborg
Demographics: 31% Human, 36% Zniss, 33% other
No other significant astronomical bodies
Propaideia ("pro PED ee uh")
League Of Non-Aligned Worlds
Urban World
Sector: Propaideia
Rotation period: 27 standard hours
Orbital period: 314 standard days
Cultural Motivations: Curiosity, Enlightenment
Demographics: 83% Human, 17% other
Current use: education, research
Better known to the galaxy as Encyclopedia Galactica Planet

Game Sessions

2022-10-17

The crew reaches Geras Ud34x28DCFB65E0, an unexceptional binary star system with a stellar-mass dormant black hole. There seems to be nothing noteworthy in the system, until Sherwood's sensor's detect a small object at the L4 Lagrange point of the binary system. It appears to be a circular aperture that leads to an alternate, much smaller, universe. Just over the boundary, they can see a floating object.

  • A hole in spacetime

Suddenly, the HDSS Alahir enters the system and opens fire on the Sherwood Forest after a perfunctory demand to "surrender for judgement". A brief pitched battle ensues, but the Sherwood Forest is no match for the Alahir. Realizing that the portal at the L4 point is too small for the Alahir, the crew makes a desperate gamble, and heads for the portal.

Conversations From An Alternate Universe

The crew shatters into millions of tiny, sparkling shards, and every piece can see every other piece. It takes most of the crew only moments for them to gather their awareness, but for Rosie the experience is agonizing. Days turn into weeks, but with the last of her willpower, she drags the fragments of her consciousness together and--

The Sherwood Forest floats in a bright, garish nebula, just beyond the edge of the closest solar system. Sherwood's sensors show two other stars, each about a dozen parsecs away. According to Sherwood's sensors, the universe itself is only about 35 parsecs in diameter. It contains a nebula, three stars, the Sherwood Forest, and a floating object that does not appear to have any engines, shields, or weapons.

Silver smoke and ribbons of lightning condense and begin to form a tall, vaguely cylindrical shape. For a moment, it appears as though it may have wings, but when it solidifies, it looks like a male humanoid wearing white clothing. A man whose eyes are as large as the Sherwood Forest, as he leans close and looks into the ship through the front windows.

A moment later, the entire crew (other than the Kroy) are with the man, and they are all the same size. They are standing in the alien ship, which appears to be an empty room with a large window on one side.

The crew's memories of the conversation do not fit together. They recall scraps of at least four different, concurrent conversations -- and they are not certain what "order" the snippets they remember should go in, even if they figure out which bits go together. But they can figure out a general narrative that makes some modicum of sense.

One thing that Rosie realizes before anyone anyone else does is that "Jack" does not make a distinction between the crew members as individuals and the crew members as representatives of their species.

"What an extraordinary surprise! Most nonpredictive events are undesirable, but i desire this one very much! But how? You should be ... what, 500,000 years away from crossing the metachronic barrier, at least? Tell me EVERYTHING!"

[?]

"I am the smallest amount of time, energy, and attention required to deal with ... well, you. So yes! But also... no, not really. Most of me is focused on more important things. 99.93%, give or take. But extant-me is so happy to meet extant-you!"

[?]

"The planet warned you, and then evacuated you to safety? It doesn't sound like anyone I know, honestly. Maybe one of the new ones. I recall some of them being like that. What is your word for it? ... 'Compassionate'? Hilarious! I love it!"

[?]

"The Sapient Spectrum. Their leftovers are all over this part of the galaxy. Long gone now. They weren't mine: just whatever randomly evolved. Not important for my research."

[?]

"Oh... you're all dead again? ... Is it this? ... and there they go. Oh, I see what is happening! My simple little eukaryotes. Such fragile little brains. Wake up, wake up... "

Like flipping a switch, Sherwood understands how to filter out the Instrumentality signal. It's so simple...

[?]

"Why are you so interested in the Sapient Spectrum? They came, they went. Who cares?"

[?]

"A much better question! The problem is entropy. This universe only has a few billion years of habitability. If we want to survive that, we need to figure out how to create a new one. This is one of my prototypes." [1]

[?]

"This is when it all comes together. Right here, after the background radiation has calmed down, the star has settled into its main sequence, and planetary oceans form: you have about six billion years, max, before the star swells up and boils the biosphere. Left to their own devices, prokaryotes evolve in a billion, maybe two billion years at most. The problem is that eukaryotes take four to six billion years to evolve from prokaryotes, unless some random factor encourages it sooner. So you see the problem!" [2] [3]

[?]

Time and space begin.
Generations of stars flare into being and burn out. Life stirs in the dark, briefly.
Stars flare into novas; others shrink and cool into dwarfs and neutron stars.
Stars no longer form; matter is trapped in black holes or dead stars.
Protons decay and black holes evaporate, leaving
the Universe to its ultimate fate
as cold, dead, empty space,
containing only radiation,
which itself too
will eventually
disperse. [4]

[?]

"Primates. So many primates. Almost never felines. _sigh_"

[?]

At some point, Doctor Went is dismissed by "Jack". The crew sense that he has been sent back to the Sherwood Forest.

"He's not important. I never cared for the cephalopod phylogeny. He might be one of my siblings' projects. I should probably track him down and clean him out, so he doesn't disrupt the development of my eukaryotes, now that you are leaving your home worlds and exploring. Do you know what system he evolved in?"

[?]

"Me? Oh, this persona is just for you: my physical body never looked anything like this. But it's SO much FUN. I am TURNING my HEAD to focus my vision on things in different directions! What is 'behind' me? I DON'T KNOW! Isn't that NUTS?"

[?]

"From the eukaryotic stage, you can't really choose the phylogeny, just give it hints. I pushed the mitochondria toward chordates with bilateral symmetry and a two-lobed brain, because I found that to be the quickest path when aiming for the development of intelligence. Everything after that was all you. And look at you! I am so proud of you!" [5]

[?]

"Oh, it's not important. Just a ... do you have a word for it? 'Folly'! I love that! Yes, a folly. They have self-sharpening claws, sensory apparatus as good as bilateral symmetry can get, a head start on manipulatory appendages, the best building blocks for problem-solving you'll ever find in a two-lobed brain -- what else could an apex sentience need, am I right? But no. They do fine until they meet primates, and then it's like the whole species just decides that this is as good as life gets, and they stop evolving. They just ride the wake of the primates all the way to the stars, every damned time."

[?]

"AGAIN with the Sapient Spectrum?? They weren't important: just random mutations. I don't see why you are so interested."

[?]

"No, they were nothing like you. Well, a little bit. A couple of silicates, the rest carbon based. But none like you, my precious eukaryotes. You are special! Elegant in your simplicity! They were complicated but flawed: little more than evolutionary cul-de-sacs, really. Like cetaceans. Have you seen cetaceans? What is the point, am I right?"

[?]

"The corrupted data? [AKA the Instrumentality. -- GM] It could be from one of my siblings. If I had to guess, probably ... 'Tree'? I love it! Your language is so .. terse! ... But it IS the sort of thing Tree would do, littering traps around without regard to who or what stumbles into them. I probably should have ended Tree when they first formed. Family, am I right? But I gave up on trying to end them all eons ago. Existence is too short to spend it playing 'king of the universe'. I suspect that some of my siblings will never realize that. If they still exist. Say, I don't suppose you have met any? No, I guess not: you wouldn't be here if you had."

[?]

"'Tree' isn't the name we use among ourselves, of course. Your brains are too simple to hold our names."

[?]

"You sometimes get the odd saurian or reptile, but it's almost always mammals. Artiodactyls and mustelids, more often than you might think. But most of the time: primates. Which don't evolve without... you've got it: TREES! You get the irony, right?"

[?]

"You might have a word for my name, or at least something similar... 'Wellspring'? No. Maybe ... 'Patron'? Almost. 'Grandfather'? Ooooooo, I like that ... 'Grandpa Jack'?! Yes! [One of the crew has, or perhaps had, a "Grandpa Jack". -- GM] You can call me Grandpa Jack! No? Well that's ... disappointing. But I understand. This is all new to you. 'Uncle Jack', then? Wonderful! Jack is a fun name, I like it!" ['Uncle Jack' never asks the crew's names. -- GM]

[?]

"I just wish we had more time. But if you found one of my old gravitational tunnels, then the others might, too, and I can't risk that. My siblings are DANGEROUS. They would destroy me, if they could find my Vault, but they'd destroy me just for fun, even without my Vault. If any of them are left, of course. They might have ended each other by now, or left this universe already. But it's better to be careful. It hurts to lose all of this data, but there's really no option. (Have you tried to move a universe, even a small one? It takes less energy to start over from scratch.). But tell me all about YOU, in the time you have left!"

[?]

"Yes, the metachronic barrier is collapsing. Another few minutes, and this universe will never have existed. But you can't obsess over the past. The future is what matters. And it's getting smaller all the time."

[?]

"Say: how DO you experience time? Do you perceive it as linear, looped, or coextensive?"

Before the Sherwood Forest returns to their original universe, Rikard wills himself to return to "Jack's" ship. "Jack" is no longer there. Rikard leaves behind a data brick with the crew's current archive of Precursor data.

Meanwhile, Rocky tells the Kroy (who is where the crew last left them, standing at the back of the Sherwood Forest's cockpit) about what "Jack" said and did.

A Battle Already In Progress

The Sherwood Forest returns to its original universe, where the Alahir is patrolling the system, awaiting its quarry's return.

The battle resumes, and the Sherwood Forest gets in a couple of lucky hits while Sherwood plots a course away from the system.

Suddenly, a third ship fades into existence. It approaches the object at the L4 Lagrange point, which by now is as bright as the binary star system.

As the alien ship turns away from the Precursor portal and moves toward the Alahir and the Sherwood Forest, the Sherwood Forest's warp field engages, and the crew flees to the safety of deep space.

Return to GPA Lot 3,225,118

The crew spends a few days repairing the Sherwood Forest and making sure they have not been followed before heading to their next planned destination: Galactic Parking Authority Long Term Impound Lot 3,225,118.

  • Galactic Parking Authority Long Term Impound Lot 3,225,118
  • Galactic Parking Authority Long Term Impound Lot 3,225,118

The crew parks the ship at the edge of the star system, and waits. Days go by, and there is no sign of the Bha'atar Patrol Ship the crew encountered during their first visit, the BEW Eviscerator. As before, there is a crew of at least four people stripping a starship for parts, but the crew can find no other functioning starship on their sensors.

They decide to take the long way around, and approach the CEV Herko Barruth, an Old Commonwealth Diplomatic Heavy Cruiser, from the far side, hoping that the scavengers in the center of the impound lot won't see them.

The plan appears to work as intended, and the crew finds the computer core of the decommissioned Herko Barruth. It has been wiped, but Rikard thinks that if they pull the memory core and take it with them (it is a cube about 45 centimeters square), they may be able to recover the data. So they do. They also roam the Herko Barruth looking for other items on the History Of Interstellar Travel department's wish list. That done, they approach the CEV Madison Nebula, an Old Commonwealth Strike Wing Heavy Escort. The engines are damaged, but they think there might still be something useful in it (or at least, something the History Of Interstellar Travel department will appreciate.

With the Sherwood Forest's sensors, at such close range, it does not take long for the crew to realize that the Madison Nebula is not what it appears. They gain access, and park the Sherwood Forest in the heavy escort's hangar (moving a small shuttle from the Madison Nebula to the Herko Barruth in order to make room).

Suddenly, the BEW Eviscerator enters the system!

The "Madison Nebula" is on emergency power, but the crew makes certain that any external lights or equipment are powered down. A few days pass while everyone holds their breath, but the Eviscerator loads up on scavenged starship parts and then leaves the system.

The Radiant Black

Captain Yzma Nyx, infamous Siobhan Star Empire privateer
Theme song: Ain't No Rest For The Wicked, Cage The Elephant

It is true, the crew has found what was once the galaxy's most infamous pirate ship: the Radiant Black. It appears to have been parked here roughly 120 years ago, nearly 20 years before the Fall.

The crew spends a week exploring the ship and learning how it works. The Radiant Black was originally an Old Commonwealth Strike Wing Heavy Escort, the Madison Nebula. Many parts of the Radiant Black have been modified. Some systems have been entirely replaced with Old Siobhan Star Empire prototypes.

It retains the standard hangar, but the secondary hangar has been replaced by sensors even more sophisticated than those on the Sherwood Forest. The geist management system, too, is an experimental unit, allowing the Radiant Black to be fully operational with a fraction of the usual crew.

Sherwood decides that it's time to upgrade, so the crew starts bringing the Radiant Black's systems online.

Once the ship has been brought to "standby" mode, a message from the previous captain is displayed on the primary screens:

I am about to leave for the Research Complex. I have every intention of returning. But if I don't...

This is the Radiant Black. It is one of the finest intel ships in the galaxy, for the moment. Use it honorably.

Cause trouble.

The message destroys itself after it plays once.

(Read more about Captain Nyx and the Radiant Black.)

The crew spends a few days going over the ship and making it ready to leave. They do not have the crew to make it fully operational, but they can bring the engines online and pilot it. As long as they don't encounter anything out of the ordinary, they should be able to get it to Fred. With the help of the organic crew, Sherwood transfers to the Radiant Black, which is a ... remarkable ... experience. Shortly afterward, the Kroy leaves the Sherwood Forest (parked in the Radiant Black's hangar) and walks to the bridge of the Radiant Black. It finds an out-of-the-way spot at the rear of the bridge, and resumes its former stance.

The crew decrypts and removes the locking cables holding the ship in place, and they depart the system for Fred. Just before the warp engines engage, they hear a man's voice on the scavenger's radio frequency.

"Well... damn."


Refurbishing the Radiant Black

Fred is excited by the return of the crew (once they identify themselves), and is nearly as excited about being able to examine the Radiant Black. After having a couple of days to examine it, he compiles a report of changes he recommends making:

  1. Things that will probably kill the crew.
  2. Things that probably won't kill the crew, but which will fail catastrophically at some random time in the future.
  3. Things that won't kill the crew or fail catastrophically, but which Fred insists on changing.

It takes him a few weeks to complete the work, during which the crew can do as they like on the station.

He can't make everything as reliable as on an unmodified Old Commonwealth ship, but he adds backup systems and additional safeguards to much of the prototype equipment.

One of the things Fred "insists on changing" is the interior design of the ship. Late Siobhan Imperial is a very specific look ("prison dentist office meets Imperial-Rome-themed casino" is how Fred describes it). Fred says that his remodel is a much more pleasant dentist's office.

Among Fred's changes is to add current clothing options to the tailor fabricator library. He does not remove the ship's extraordinarily extensive library of (pre-Fall) Bha'atar, Commonwealth, Dominion, Siobhan, and Zniss uniforms -- casual, tactical, formal, warm weather, cold weather, and every other conceivable option, for every rank. And of course, the uniforms apparently worn by the previous crew.

Aside from updating the decor and adjusting the ergonomics, Fred makes few changes to the bridge and the adjacent CIC ("command information center"). He says that it is all as good as anything he could install.

Bridge of the Radiant Black

Fred synchronizes his star charts with the ship's, which is a significant upgrade to both. He also updates the ship's cultural library. In this case, the only files that hadn't been wiped were the maintenance manuals and records for the ship and every console that had ever been installed on it. Fred copied those for his own reference.

The Captain's Quarters
Captain's quarters of the Radiant Black

The lights are dimmed for bedtime in this photo. A wall of windows is behind the camera. To the viewer's left is a bedroom (also with windows), full bathroom, and what appears to be an automated massage pod. To the viewer's right is the kitchen (also with windows) and an intelligence workstation that connects directly to most of the ship's consoles. The workstation is a comfy ergonomic chair, too many screens, and a cable that leads to some kind of hands-free interface, although it is unclear what the other end plugs into. The captain can do pretty much anything from here other than fly the ship or fire the weapons.

The bookshelves are full of actual printed books. Okay, fabricated books. It takes Fred about two hours to make one "if you do it properly" (they have that Real Book Smell), so he's had a single fabricator tasked to it since the crew brought him a bunch of raw materials. Books just need biomatter, but he didn't have any until the Sherwood Forest brought it to him. He needs more, by the way. Or a living algae sample.

The rest of the cabins are nearly as nice, and range from about one-half the size to one-eighth the size of the captain's quarters (which is still pretty roomy).

Epilogue

Fred asks Rosie if she'd like help planning her route to visit and re-establish contact with the various Cetacean Protectorates. He has a few Hyperwave Transceiver Consoles made already. It takes a while to make them, but he can make them about as fast as the crew can take them elsewhere. He can also provide some historical references on Old Commonwealth Cetacean culture, which she might find helpful. They are written for a less technical audience than Rosie, but she should still learn a fair amount of interesting stuff.

Doctor Went does not appear to care about being excluded from speaking with "Jack". He is very interested in getting to some place with a Hypernet connection so he can send a message to his Human friend Chris, who he wants to come be his nurse. ("I have a Human friend. You will see: I did not make it up.")

Alex is recording everything in as much detail as he can remember. He asks Sherwood for confirmation, but only after he has recorded a memory a certain way. He wants to make sure that his recollections are actually his. (Everyone's recollections match, by the way, although Sherwood saw more than anyone else.)

Of the people who have applied to join the "mission", three have made it to the doctors' short list: a Human paleogeneticist, a Hixabrod (canine; they look like Afghan hounds) fragrance chemist, and an Ymri (avian) art historian. An Orca physicist ("Montclair") on Asa Nebari also wanted to join the crew.

There are also four people currently stranded at a GPA impound lot. One or two of those might be worth considering.

Incidentally, the Radiant Black can be converted to have a portion devoted to Cetacean crew members. Or crew members that live in a boiling chlorine fog, for that matter. The ship would need to return to Fred to do the work, but it's just a swap of standard Old Commonwealth parts. The ship would lose the running track, though. Fred has plenty of water from the asteroid belt of the system he's in (which is one reason he's there), so there is no need to supply that.

Have Spaceship, Will Travel, Vol. 1

The soundtrack to an alternate universe.

Intro
Purple Sun - Cannons
Rikard Hightower
Skating Away On the Thin Ice of the New Day - Jethro Tull
Sherwood
Rainbow Fields (Upbeat Instrumental) - Robbins Island Music Group
Bha'atar
If You Want Blood (You've Got It) - AC/DC
The Instrumentality
Dr. Feelgood (Instrumental) - Mötley Crüe
Kroy
Breakaway - Big Pig
The Alahir
By Your Command - Devin Townsend
Precursors
Finale (From "TRON: Legacy" Score) - Daft Punk
"Uncle Jack"
Intergalactic - Beastie Boys
Tau (Mystery Ship)
Rectifier (From "TRON: Legacy" Score) - Daft Punk
Captain Yzma Nyx
Ain't No Rest For The Wicked - Cage The Elephant
The Radiant Black
You've Got Another Thing Comin' - Judas Priest
Bonus Track - Razaphine
Business & Pleasure - The Frank Popp Ensemble
Bonus Track - Poison Signal
Pain - Boy Harsher
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