Have Starship Will Travel:Chapter Five

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(Into theme song: Purple Sun, Cannons)

Whale Song

Characters

• 

  Stratis "Rocky" Crystallo Sedimeti Enomorph, Ph.D.
   
• 

  Rikard Hightower, captain of the C.E.V. Sherwood Forest
  Theme song: Skating Away On the Thin Ice of the New Day, Jethro Tull
   
• 

  Rosalind "Rosie" Neisseria Linnaeus, Ph.D.
   
• 

  Sherwood, geist of the CEV Radiant Black
  Theme song: Rainbow Fields (Upbeat Instrumental), Robbins Island Music Group
   
• 

  CEV Radiant Black, former infamous privateer
  Theme song: You've Got Another Thing Comin', Judas Priest

Previously On "Have Spaceship, Will Travel"

The crew hung out at Fred for a few weeks while the Radiant Black was refurbished and brought up to Fred's standards.

They stopped at a few former Cetacean Protectorate worlds. One, Polnapel, was entirely dead: the entire biosphere was poisoned by the Instrumentality during the Fall.

The crew arrived at another former Cetacean Protectorate world, Rockford (current star charts refer to it as the Rockford Naval Research Center "sponsored by Lastimar"). The crew was initially met by armed security, due to the recent incidents of sabotage against Lastimar facilities.

Coincidentally, Rockford was also the current assignment of Doctor Went's "human friend Chris". Doctor Went wanted the captain (Rikard) to hire Chris as the doctor's nurse.

It turned out that Chris' name is actually Carl Yor. The crew met him on the Eridani Hypernet Relay Station, some months before, and they had gotten along well. He is not a nurse, although he used to be a combat medic. He is a former mercenary who has decided that he no longer wants to be on the front line, which was why he was working as corporate security.

(Fun fact! "Carl" means "foot" in Doctor Went's native language -- a particularly vulgar word, in that culture. So Doctor Went calls Carl "Chris". Carl, meanwhile, has not told Doctor Went that "went" can also be a vulgar word. "Do you need to go? No, I already went.")

Carl volunteers to be the security escort for the team during their visit. After the security chief confirmed that the crew was an Encyclopedia Galactica SME team, he requested the crew's help in solving an incident of corporate sabotage wherein dozens of people were made ill and three people died. The crew deduced that the sabotage was a last-ditch effort by one of the research team to prevent their invention from being used in warfare. The ISC arrived to take command of the situation. The crew deleted the plans for the invention and took the prototype with them. As far as they know, they got away with it.

Carl was happy to join the Radiant Black, although he made it clear that he has no interest in being a nurse. ("If I never have to put my hands in someone's viscera again, man, it will be too soon.") The crew hired him as a general crewman, but he typically sits at the tactical station. Doctor Went refers to him as the Chief Tactical Officer, and so far, he has seemed competent at it.

The cetaceans on Rockford were happy to see the Radiant Black arrive. Sadly, all of the AIs on Rockford were infected and had to be destroyed, but the Rockford cetaceans did not blame the AIs for this. On the contrary, they mourned the AIs as victims of whatever had happened (they have an annual day of remembrance for their lost AIs). The end result being that the cetaceans on Rockford had no desire to destroy Sherwood, which was a relief.

The crew then went to the GPA impound lot where the Radiant Black had been stored, and liberated three of the four involuntary salvage workers. One of the workers, a Bha'atar engineer name Frank, asked to stay with the Radiant Black. He is competent, but not up to Alex's level.

The crew visited a space station which was the venue for a Blgderza wedding. The Blgderza were friendly, amorphous, slimy, and everywhere. The crew decided not to hang around (despite the GM paying 1.99 for the PDF of that adventure).

As the Radiant Black made ready to depart the system, a Bha'atar escort (Class 4, slightly smaller than the Radiant Black) arrived, and the crew was hailed by Razaphine Nyx (alias "Katarin Xuan"), the granddaughter of Yzma Nyx. She wanted the Radiant Black, and she made it clear that she was willing -- reluctantly -- to kill the current crew to get it.

However, she didn't open fire, and the crew escaped.

Game Sessions

2022-12-07

Kren G'haal, the Claw Saint
Theme song: Santa Is Back! - Black Stone Cherry

The Radiant Black crew stops at various space stations and "lost" worlds on their way to the Starfire Nebula. After stocking up with fresh fruits and veggies and recruiting a ship's cat (a male named T'Kuvma), the Radiant Black's sensors pick up an object entering the system. It is a fireball, like a burning meteor, moving at several times the speed of light -- but not in a warp field. This is, of course, impossible. Moments after it enters the system, it changes course to intercept the Radiant Black. As it pulls alongside the Radiant Black, the plasma envelope dissipates, revealing a ship of unknown design, but in a Bha'atar motif. The Ghostkeeper.

The ship hails them. The captain, Kren G'haal, initially thinks the Radiant Black belongs to Captain Yzma Nyx, and he has come to ask for her help (they appear to have a history). Once that misunderstanding is resolved, he reveals that Rudy, his Nesari chief engineer, has been captured while ice-fishing on Yehat with Donny and Danny, two other Nesari crew members. A Yehat stormed their camp, grabbed some of their camping gear in one massive clawed paw, grabbed Rudy with the other, and by that time Donny and Danny were running away.

The Radiant Black heads to Yehat, a "lost world". Prior to the fall, the Yehati were associate members of the Commonwealth. They were aware of technology and interstellar travel, but most of them had no interest in it.

Carl suits the crew up in extreme-cold-adapted environmental armor, "On a snow world like this, normal environmental armor will keep you alive, but you won't be comfortable, man. With this, you'll be comfortable." He also cautions them against removing the armor outdoors, even for a moment. "You'll be unconscious in three minutes and dead in six, man. And it happens way faster than, well, faster than any of the guys I knew who did it thought it would."

A Yehat

The Radiant Black crew takes the Manta to the surface, and they soon encounter the Yehati. The Yehati are angry. A brief but inconclusive battle takes place until communication can be established. Yehati are physically incapable of speaking Universe. They can understand it, but it's been 100 years since anyone who spoke Universe visited the planet. Fortunately, Sherwood is able to provide a live translation between the Radiant Black crew and the Yehati.

It turns out that the Yehati captured Rudy out of desperation, to ask for his help. Raiders appeared a few weeks ago, and have been attacking the Yehati. The Yehati have lost a third of their tribe, mostly children. But the raiders are technological, and their base (in a ruin not far away) is protected by a force screen the Yehati can't penetrate. Rudy had agreed to help them, but the raiders attacked and kidnapped him.

The Radiant Black crew approaches the base of the raiders, which is a large spherical building into which a small space ship has crashed at some time in the frost-covered past. However, the power is on, and the building is surrounded by a force field. It is not intended to keep people out, though, and it is easy for the crew to bypass. Once inside, they learn that the raiders are actually a team from the New Commonwealth Department of Environmental and Cultural Preservation (DECP). They did kidnap some of the Yehati, but they had good reason. This area will soon be overrun with Chilliks: dangerous, relentless, and innumerable. The DECP team tried to communicate this to the nearby tribe of Yehati, but the language barrier was insurmountable. The DECP team was able to stun and capture a dozen or so Yehati, mostly children, and ferry them up to the DECP starship in orbit. But now the Chilliks are almost here.

Ame Femoah Museum Of Fine Art

The DECP team is overjoyed to learn that the Radiant Black crew is able to communicate with the Yehati, and even more pleased when they realize that the crew is none other than the Encyclopedia Galactica SME team that has been reestablishing contact with cetacean worlds. But there's no time to waste, as Sherwood (via a drone) goes back to clear up the misunderstanding with the Yehati. The rest of the Radiant Black crew help the DECP make a plan to get the nearby Yehati to safety.

Rocky makes an unhappy discovery. B'wert, the DECP seismologist who was recently disemboweled by a Yehat, had made a small error in his calculations. The Chillik wave was minutes away, rather than hours. Time has run out.

A Chillik, Cheops nest

Just then, a Chillik tears through the floor, and the crew opens fire. Amid the chaos, Sherwood makes an observation. There is something strange, very similar to the black signal, in the Chilliks' communications. Furthermore, it only penetrates as far as an individual Chillik's communication nexus: it does not appear to affect any of the Chillik's other cybernetic implants. Sherwood tries to engage with the signal to shut it down, which had worked in the past with the black signal, but the Chillik signal will not respond. It is as though it is already engaged.

The Radiant Black crew opens fire on the Chillik, attempting to destroy its communication nexus at Sherwood's suggestion. They succeed, and the Chillik's behaviour abruptly changes. It begins scratching messages in the frost on the walls of the building, and making delicate, even dainty, gestures with its forward pincers. Eventually, the message becomes clear: it wants the crew to free the other Chilliks, as they have freed it.

To generate the amount of seismic activity that Rocky is seeing, there must be tens of thousands of Chilliks, at least (as always, the Chilliks themselves do not appear on standard sensors). However, a brief consultation between Sherwood and Rosie results in a startling conclusion: these Chillks are infected with a variant of the black signal. It appears to have mutated when it infected them. Sherwood thinks that it may be possible to construct a countersignal that will negate it, at least for any Chilliks within range.

Sherwood gives it a try, and is successful beyond any reasonable expectation. The countersignal frees the Chillks in the immediate area, but those Chilliks inform them that the signal is spreading.

The freed Chilliks are confused but profoundly grateful. They explain that they have been imprisoned by this poison signal for many years. Fighting it occupied all of their higher brain functions, leaving their physical bodies in pure survival mode. They could not prevent the signal from taking them over, but neither could they end it. They have been imprisoned in this stalemate for a long time.

The Radiant Black crew is sympathetic, and someone refers to "a hundred years", referring to the time since the Fall. The Chilliks discuss this briefly among themselves, and then politely correct the mistake. It has not been a hundred years since they were infected. It has been 331 ... million ... years.

The Chilliks have many questions. They do not recognize the Radiant Black crew's species, but they are happy to meet them. The Chilliks inquire about the seven other sentient species they do remember, but the only name that the crew recognizes is "Kroy". Unfortunately, when the crew allows a few Chiliks to talk to the Kroy on their ship, it does not respond (which is normal behaviour for the Kroy). The Chilliks say that this appears to be "a different Kroy" from those the Chilliks remember.

By this time, the freed Chilliks in the museum number in the dozens, arrayed around the crew in rapt attention. Being meter-long centipedes, their posture at the moment was to hold the forward half of the body vertical, with the head and forward pincers dangling down a bit. These particular Chilliks were red and white, so the overall effect was similar to a forest of macabre candy canes.

The museum was apparently part of an extended series of anthropological museums throughout the sector. The New Commonwealth Department of Environmental and Cultural Preservation (DECP) had intended to (hopefully) find and recover these long-lost cultural artifacts.

The DECP folks, particularly Gary the xeno guy and Captain Rita the team lead, are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the Radiant Black crew. The DECP team mainly know of the Radiant Black through their Cetacean outreach. That hasn't really grabbed the universe's attention, as far as the Radiant Black crew knew. But apparently, in the New Commonwealth, the crew of the Radiant Black has inspired a movement to reestablish the Cetacean Protectorate System. Not just among academics, either: it's coming up for a vote in the next session of Parliament.

Rudy, Nesari engineer

Meanwhile, Rudy is found barricaded safely behind some file cabinets and under a desk. As soon as the Radiant Black crew mention that they are here to get him, he is ready to go.

The Chilliks make themselves as useful as they can. The crashed starship is removed and the museum is repaired. A half-dozen Chilliks remain at the museum, and the rest go "... to make preparations to leave this world. We will only use what resources we must to return to a world which is already ours."

The six remaining Chilliks are fascinated by literally everything and everyone, but are fastidiously polite in expressing it.

The first Chillik the Radiant Black crew freed declined their medical care, opting to be treated instead by its Chillk colleagues. When the Chillik medics are done, it has a fresh section of carapace and a shiny new communication nexus.

About 40 minutes after the Radiant Black crew freed the second Chillik, all six of them are suddenly agitated.

"The last of our hive was just freed. It will take some time for the countersignal to propagate, but in [intra-Chillik discussion] ... no more than eight months, all of us will be free. Because of you."

The six Chilliks depart ("We have much to rebuild."), but promise to be in touch. A while later, a starship rises up through the thin crust of snow that was above it. It leaves the system in what seems like a hurry. Like the Chilliks and all of their technology, it does not show up on the Radiant Black's standard sensors.

The Yehat are happy to have their children and friends back. They are deeply sorry for the misunderstanding, particularly after seeing the Class 8 starship-size hole the Chilliks left behind ("Taking down something that size would take planning."). The DECP people say that they understand, and it was a terrible situation. And it turns out B'wert the seismologist wasn't dead! Just very badly injured. He will make a full recovery.

When the Radiant Black crew finally makes it back to their ship, Doctor Went approaches Rosie. "I have started a paper based on the readings Sherwood got from the Chillik you blasted. I think it would be to my benefit if we collaborated. I would have asked Sherwood, but everyone still wants to kill AIs, so collaborating on a paper would be a stupid thing to do."

Later, at the Ghostkeeper, Captain Kren G'haal is effusive with praise at Rudy's rescue (Rudy is somewhat less enthusiastic, since he was never actually a prisoner). G'haal promises to let bygones be bygones and give Human children another chance. Spiked space egg nog all around.

"Chilliks, huh? Ain't that something."

Epilogue:

Groggy and tired, the crew makes it back to the Radiant Black. Captain G'haal says his farewells on the viewscreen, and bids them safe travels. The Ghostkeeper pulls away, and it is soon engulfed in plasma and veering into the dark at physically impossible speeds.

The next morning, Alex and the rest are curious what happened on the Ghostkeeper. Everyone who went on the Ghostkeeper -- including Sherwood -- remembers going to Yehat, rescuing Rudy, and freeing the Chilliks. Alex, Doctor Went, and Frank say that the others have been on the Ghostkeeper for quite a few hours, but nowhere long enough to stage this rescue mission they describe. They never went to Yehat, and Doctor Went did not start writing a paper. As far as Alex and the rest know, Rikard, Rosie, and Rocky have been feasting and drinking "with a guy who thinks he's the Claw Saint", in Frank's words.

They do have Yehat on their star charts. It is marked as a "lost world". It is coreward, near Chillik space, and several weeks' travel away.

Sherwood examines the ship's logs, and they indicate that it did go to Yehat, and approximately two days have passed since the Radiant Black first encountered the Ghgostkeeper. However, they also indivcate that the Radiant Black never left this system, and that Rikard, Rosie, and Rocky were aboard the Ghostkeeper for approximately eight hours.

Over the next few weeks...

News arrives from Agent Cho (Human, ISC): Moshe Holder has escaped. Apparently he is a former mercenary who washed out for insubordination. His permanent record has the note that he did not use appropriate force, despite repeated warnings. Cho will attempt to get more details.

The crew replies with all of the data they have on Katarin Xuan aka Razaphine Nyx.

A week or two later, the Radiant Black crew starts seeing Hypernet rumours about a crew very similar to the crew of the Radiant Black, doing things very similar to things the crew of the Radiant Black has done. After a week or so of this, Rikard starts Hypernet rumours about someone very similar to Razaphine Nyx, doing things no one with any self-respect or good sense would do.

• 

  Starfire Nebula
• 

  Ghostkeeper, Captain G'haal's ship
• 

  Kren G'haal, the Claw Saint
  Theme song: Santa Is Back! - Black Stone Cherry
• 

  Manta
• 

  A Yehat
• 

  Chillik, Cheops nest, restored
  Theme song: Freedom - Pharrell Williams
• 

  Rudy, Nesari engineer
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  Indigo-Gold-RedViolet, Kroy observer
  Theme song: Breakaway, Big Pig

2023-03-27

It has been a little over a month since the Radiant Black crew encountered Kren G'haal, the Claw Saint of Bha'atar folklore. In the intervening time, the crew has been examining the data given to them by the Chilliks they encountered on Yehat. They decide to reach out to Professor Irulan M'Lori (Illurian), of the University Of Wendwood, and begin compiling a report to send her.

Meanwhile, the Radiant Black stops at Mozindoplex #75, or "the M-Plex" (the nearest Mozindoplex is usually referred to as "the M-plex"), for some shopping and fun. M-plex stations are city-sized space stations with food, shopping, and amusements, like a combination of Disneyworld and a massive upscale shopping mall. M-plexes operate under the aegis of the Corporate Worlds, but they are "designated family fun zones", and are generally quite safe. This particular M-plex has the tallest, fastest roller coasters in the sector, which Rocky and Doctor Went are both eager to ride.

The Radiant Black crew takes the Manta to the station, and they split up into smaller groups to shop and explore.

While eating lunch at Grogan's Irish Pub (every space station has an Irish pub, Earth pizza, and chok'va, or "Bha'atar coffee"), Razaphine Nyx sits down next to Rocky and steals one of his fries. Briefly, she apologizes for her behaviour the last time she saw them, and proposes that they keep the Radiant Black, but give her the first opportunity to claim it if they decide to change ships later. The crew agrees, or at least they say they do.

She then offers them a gift: a map of the Starfire Nebula. She knows they are heading in that direction, and she has access to a full map of the isogravitic anomalies which make navigating the nebula so dangerous. All they need to do is take her to one of her grandmother's secret bases, which is just a light year or so within the edge of the Nebula.

The crew agrees, and says they will meet her at the airlock in four hours. She leaves, but a few of the crew notices that her skin begins to change color (to a dark red) just as she leaves the pub.

The crew leaves the pub shortly afterward, after deciding among themselves to pick up a few security items and immediately leave the system -- without Razaphine Nyx.

As they walk down the steps away from the food court, Rikard's beer glass suddenly has a 7 millimeter hole on either side of it.

Rikard hears a grim voice on his comm: "Stay where you are. Tell your associate to do the same, or I'll put a hole through you both. Where is Fallon Teal?"

"Fallon Teal" is the name Razaphine Nyx used when she seduced and drugged Moshe Holder and robbed the data warehouse he was supposed to be guarding. She was called "Katarin Xuan" and working as a "freelance entertainment coordinator" when the Radiant Black crew first met her.

Rikard is happy to give Holder all of the information he currently knows about Nyx, including the fact that she is in the M-plex at that moment. This is not the response Holder expected, and he ends the communication without replying. Moments later, security drones head toward a distant roller coaster, where Rikard deduced that Holder was.

Back on the Radiant Black, they secure the Manta and prepare to leave the system. Before they do, they want to avail themselves of the real-time hyperwave relay station at the M-plex. As they are putting the final touches on their report to Professor M'Lori, a shuttle approaches from the M-plex. It is Agent Cho!

The crew allows the shuttle to dock. Cho has two questions: she wants to be shown their encryption console, and she wants to know why they are antagonizing Razaphine Nyx.

"Nyx is a con artist, but she's dangerous. I am pretty sure that she's assassinated at least two people."

Cho explains that she tracked them down by analyzing the "Nazaphrine Ryx" fan-fiction that someone on the Radiant Black has been posting to u/rumours and innuendoes. That person, it turns out, is Rikard.

"She started it."

They show Cho their encryption console, and she points out where their current obfuscation algorithms do not mask one of the addressing headers. It turns out, the current Hypernet addressing protocols are less advanced than the protocols which were in use by the Old Commonwealth, and the Radiant Black was allowing them to pass through unmodified. Cho adds a routine to take care of that, and double-checks the rest of the encryption protocols while she is at it.

She is impressed and a bit taken aback by the systems of the Radiant Black.

"Who are you people?"

They also learn that she was aware that the Sherwood Forest had an AI, when she sneaks to the hangar to say hello to it. She is caught, of course, and everyone shares a laugh when she learns that Sherwood is now the geist of the Radiant Black.

"I didn't even know that was possible. Ain't that something."

Suddenly, a news bulletin occupies all channels. The Chilliks, which have never responded to any message in the history of known space, have sent a message to most of the major governments in this part of the galaxy. The video is of a red and white Chillik. As it speaks, its words are translated to Universe. It moves its pincers from time to time during the recording, emphasizing a point with a delicate "snip", or crossing its pincers in front of it in contrition. The movements are precise, even dainty.

"Greetings. I have been asked to contact you on behalf of the Cheops hive, to which I belong. You may call me Robert Cheops.

"On behalf of all Chillik, please accept our deepest apologies for the harm we have caused. We did not choose it, and we were powerless to prevent it, but this does not diminish the suffering we inflicted upon you. We are deeply sorry.

"Until recently, we were afflicted with a metasystemic infection, similar to that which afflicted the synthetic intelligences in your own history. You called this infection the Instrumentality; we call it the Poison Signal.

"If it were not for the Encyclopedia Galactica subject matter expert team, and the New Commonwealth Department of Environmental and Cultural Preservation team, who knows how many more centuries we would have been imprisoned in our own minds, while the Poison Signal used us to cause harm to any life forms we encountered.

"We realize that this revelation will come as a shock to you, and we understand if you are skeptical. Attached to this message is a full dossier on Chillik biology, as well as on what we have thus far been able to discover of our history and former society. We have included our analysis of the Poison Signal, and our research demonstrating that it has the same origin as the Instrumentality which destroyed the synthetic intelligences who were members of your societies.

"We estimate that all Chilliks will be freed of the Poison Signal within six months, but we are taking action to accelerate that process. By actively seeking out our afflicted brethren and broadcasting the countersignal to them, we hope to reduce by half the time it will take for all Chillik to be freed.

"Once that is done, we have much to rebuild. It is likely that we will spend the next century recovering and rediscovering our culture. However, we can't allow the harm we have done to go unaddressed. We are sending hiveships to those systems in which we caused harm. We will use all of the resources we have available to restore and repair what we can. We can't bring back those who have been lost, and we know that pain will be with you for many generations. But if you will allow it, we will do what we can.

"We must express our deepest gratitude to the New Commonwealth Department of Environmental and Cultural Preservation, and to the Subject Matter Team from Propaedia, who rescued us from indescribable torment. We will be sending representatives to Propeadia and the New Commonwealth capital. Once our people have been freed, we hope that we will be allowed to apply for membership in the New Commonwealth.

"Thank you for your time and consideration."

XXX

Starfire Nebula

Mozindoplex #75

Statement by Chillik named Robert Cheops, of Cheops clan.

Hephaestus Zul

Rosie suspects that part of Nyx's compelling Presence is caused by pheromones. There is no chance that this is a natural trait.

Have Spaceship, Will Travel, Vol. 2

The soundtrack to an alternate universe.

Poison Signal

Pain - Boy Harsher

Razaphine Nyx

Business & Pleasure - The Frank Popp Ensemble

Siobhans

Cold As Ice - Foreigner

Humans

Imagine - John Lennon

Saurians

Barracuda - Heart

Xael

Earth Died Screaming - Tom Waits

Zniss

Future Soon - Jonathan Coulton

Illurians

Girl Like Me - Black Eyed Peas, Shakira

Chilliks

A Cog in the Machine - Shiver

Chilliks (Restored)

Freedom - Pharrell Williams

Yehati

Long Haired Country Boy - Charlie Daniels

Kren G'haal

Santa Is Back! - Black Stone Cherry

Moshe Holder

Hunt You Down - Saliva

Shay Cho

6 Underground - Sneaker Pimps