Friday, 1114-121:
Mid-Afternoon
Turning Plans Into Real Action
As the day moved towards dinner, Mikah was just waking up in her continuing effort to earn Zimzod access to an autodoc at a downwell hospital. She planned to continue that until the day Zimzod would fight Ealekheieaahaiw of the Clan Khtaeiyousta'aaah hlea'airl.(Kit-ay-oust-a H'l-ay-air-l) That was scheduled for three days from then, on the 124th day of the year. Zimzod was been in his own hotel room researching the weaknesses of Aslan warriors while Rol got done with his daily physical therapy in his own hotel room. In the berth, Aali had been working out and Colinne was working on the intruder software, Aiden played with one of his drones, Fesic was practicing computer skills and Sekea was taking what on-line medical brush up classes he could find.
Jocelynn was managing the newly arrived team from the Lanth Freight Forwarding and Enterprise Management Company, who were preparing for the job while waiting for permits from station central to be approved. Part of the plan was to use foam dispensers to create radiation-containment shelters in which they could open the malfunctioning cargo containers. The cargo would be removed and shifted to new containers to re-store the cargo loads. From what Jocelynn could see, a key difficulty would be using the freight lifting arms off their support vehicle to move things in and out of the shelters. That would be managed by the giant Virushi.
The LFFEM team first provided Jocelynn with their papers and work order, before setting up to get working. While they did that, Jocelynn called Aali over and asked her to join in watching the working crew. That was not only because Aali was the ship's engineer and an expert in the tech being worked on, but also because Jocelynn had seen the effect Aali's involvement had with the station officials and engineers. For their part, the LFFEM techs could care less, because this was one job out of many and they just had to get it done with nothing more to prove. After they finished, the station testing and permitting teams would certify the work was done correctly and they'd already have been paid and moved on to the next job. Starship crews trying to be annoying was just part of the job and Jocelynn would be disappointed at their lack of reaction to Aali.
With time passing while the women watched the team, Jocelynn got a call on her comms. She answered to find it was Mr. Coul, the project manager handling work on their ship at the yard. Jocelynn asked the man what he needed and was happy when he told her he'd crunched numbers the work proposal for their ship modifications. Very pleased, Jocelynn was hesitant to leave the berth when he asked if she wanted to come to the yard to talk? Jocelynn said she had things she had to get done at the berth without mentioning wanting to watch the cargo workers. Still, Mr. Coul said he could present the proposal over the comms so Jocelynn invited Aali to listen in and told the man to go ahead.
Mr. Coul first reviewed the agreement to install the plumbing for the 'drink station' in the ship's lounge for which he'd quoted an initial price of Cr 15,000. He then took the liberty of adding in the "ten percent above costs" agreement he'd arm-twisted Jocelynn into accepting to get them to do the fuel shunt work. So, that was on the books for Cr 16,500. Mr. Coul then explained the shunt installation had three 'reconstruction' components to consider. His people would first have to cut open the hull to access the ship's fuel plumbing and tankage before any work could be done. That opening would then have to be repaired to close up the hull after the work was done.
Next, teams specialized in managing cryogenic fuel transfer and storage would have to cut their way into the plumbing to get past tanks and plumbing in the way to reach the best point to install the fuel shunt system the crew wanted. Of course, all the new plumbing, the shunt and the electronics would have to be cryogenic-certified. Once that was done, their people would have to restore the tank and plumbing work they'd had to remove to access the installation location. They could then repair the hull as mentioned earlier. The hull components would cost Cr 200,000. Compared to that, the plumbing system would only cost Cr 4,000.
Mr. Coul then explained the staffing he planned to assign to the project and said that would cost them Cr 20,000 for the job to be completed in three weeks' time. Hearing that, Jocelynn's heart and stomach dropped because she wanted to be quit of the Lanth system and their bureaucrats as soon as they could. Adding the better part of a month to their planned stay time didn't please her. When Jocelynn asked if he could speed up the project, Mr. Coul wasn't happy. Still, he did the research and math before telling her he could add extra workers and shifts at an additional cost, and get the work done in 11 days. When Jocelynn asked what that would cost, he said it would raise the manpower charges from KCr 20 to KCr 50. Hearing that, and knowing the ship had the money, Jocelynn gave him the go ahead. Adding everything together with the 10% "bribe", the total cost for the work came to Cr 295,900. They would, of course, subtract from that the KCr 10 binder fee the ship had already paid, so Jocelynn released the remaining Cr 285,900.
The work on the ship was now scheduled to end on the 132nd day of the year. Not pleased but happy they'd have the fuel shunt, Jocelynn thanked the man and cut the comms. She considered updating Mikah on what was being done but realized she'd just be waking up to have her first meal and get ready to spend another night working with the hospital's emergency department. Besides, Mikah was no longer in command and Jocelynn didn't have to update her except as she would the rest of the crew. So, while she needed to make a general announcement, she didn't owe Mikah an individual call.
After his morning physical therapy, Rol had shifted to his communications training. While Jocelynn and Aali watched the cargo workers and talked to the shipyard man, Colinne had seen Fesic was looking up computer exercises. When she asked him about that, Fesic just said he wanted to practice his skills and not let them fade. Colinne considered how she could help him. While she was decompiling and investigating the intruder software, Colinne wanted to keep a lid on that. She'd had to find a way to get a decompiler powerful enough to break into that package, and didn't want to simply share that. She also didn't want to share the intruder software because any mistakes made with it could release it to the wild. Especially since she still couldn't confirm it wasn't covertly trying to x-mail home with updates that would have intelligence agents dispatched to take it away from the crew.
Colinne had only joined the crew in the Denotam system back on the 18th day of the year and, shortly after, been told about their "lock picking software". Colinne had only decided to try and take apart the lock pick program days later, and learned she had no decompilers powerful enough to crack it! She was most surprised by the many digital tentacles she could track as the program spawned them, but could not find any "Main" process. She'd watched the package fire off spawned subprocesses faster than rabbits bred. She'd set up secure virtual sandbox computers to catch data the program sent or received from the main virtual box to a secure box. Colinne worked to understand what was happening but realized the work was going to take quite some time.
The code self-distributed armies of sub-processes, and Colinne was shocked when she saw them spawning onto the other test rigs she'd left vulnerable. The more she tracked it, the more she saw it wasn't just a lock pick program. It was an intrusive package made to detect and "explore" every identifiable connected data system. Digging deeper into the processes on her isolated systems, the basis for "invasion" in each accessible test rig seemed to be digital nerve centers. Very surprisingly, they were extremely efficient micro-machine-code thumbnail apps. Those spawned worker-bee applications to carry out activities. At the same time, they seemed to rely on fractured libraries distributed as fragmental data across any invaded system. So, the 'design specs' for the aggressor applications were spread and hidden in the gaps in storage data sectors!
Picking a single function the package had, Colinne saw it was a surprisingly dangerous process. From logs and sniffers, she saw it self-activated subroutines and scanned through the entire virtual system she was using it on. After crashing all processes on the virtual box, Colinne spent days understanding it before reactivating it. By the 55th day of the year, she'd realized what was called "lock picking" software didn't simply analyze and open locks. It worked to connect to every other port to find every system it could connect to. It would then try to leap-frog to every connected system. If left running, the package could push functions into every system on a ship or station. Colinne couldn't predict what it would do then, and she didn't want to find out by surprise either.
What that meant was that finding "code blocks" to read and determine what they do would be incredibly difficult. Where she found a process working, she would have to dig into the active registers it used to see if she could find the register addresses it was referring to. Annoying her even more, the minute she started finding those, she also found they were changing! An adaptive technology programmed into the applications forced the software to jump from one to another then another register bank randomly on a random basis!
That meant she'd certainly have to spend weeks, if not months, tracing addresses in search of code fragments. After enough of that 'whack a mole' work, she felt she "should be" able to start documenting what each code class might do. With that, she hoped she'd be able to write out what that code block actually did. And after she had enough code blocks written out, she could then figure out what the sub-sections of the program did?
Another issue Colinne found as she worked was that the program seemed to have been married to an extremely capable virus-like "seeker-infector" engine. She traced the activity only because she had sealed off her sand-box systems. So, there were very few processes running and she knew and could track and tag every one of them. With that, she could track the processes down bit by bit. She found she had to be very certain that she constantly checked her security. That was because the software - which she was now calling "intruder-ware", was very capable of not only getting loose, but also seeking out and invading every port or connection to get out of her secure box. Colinne had even done some tests locking down her sandbox computers to see how well it could defeat the security measures. The program was remarkably adept at finding holes.
The more Colinne worked with the program, the more she was convinced the intruder package had to be espionage-ware. In fact, she was even more certain the program could well be a black-ops level package. From what she'd seen, she could run the program and wait. As it ran, she was certain the program would eventually invade every operating computer on the system, from as basic as the key/voice security pad at a ship's hatch. In fact, the crew had been connecting the package to many computers without even realizing the invasive extent of the package. What Colinne still couldn't figure out was what that was? Another question was how long the process would take?
The software seemed able to carry out multi-layer penetration. simultaneously compromising User OS, device firmware, robot and android brains. That included ship systems including life-support controls and sensor arrays. The software could move between layers without triggering alarms. Using the software interface, a hacking expert system could connect with optical datalinks, neural stents, smart materials and cybernetic implants. Even treating biological/technical hybrids as hackable systems. So, when used by a trained operative, it was an apex intruder system. Aali had also found data deposits suggesting the package could cross optical links. Or even infiltrate neural links like the stents she and others in the crew had, and suggested whatever data repository the device maintained could already hold a map of her neural stent and its connections.
Sadly, she was already in deep and well into what she considered the "spaghetti code". Not that the code was badly written. Just that there were few reference points that were, themselves, hard to understand. And addresses were effectively encoded or hidden. Other problems included the fact that tracing internal process jumps was nearly impossible. Following the process flow without primary processes was like hunting invisible birds with solid-core rounds instead of birdshot. Then, they'd gotten the Zhodani officer's armor during the madness on Ghandi. Jocelynn made it clear they wouldn't be able to get their best price selling that unless they could hack it to learn how it had been captured. And that meant the suit's computer had to be hacked first. Colinne had finally managed to get into it with the intruder package, but had to shut that down so they could get past customs entering the Lanth system. It was because of that Colinne had decided to start learning a bit of Zhodani.
Sekea had set up his artist's factory to feed in the blocks of Carse Fire Tourmaline and translucent pale-green Peridot to shape them and was waiting while the machine did its work. He was very pleased he could connect attachments that came with the system to both blocks. Based on the design, using one of the virtual chess board schematics from the ship's virtual games, the system would cut sections from the raw blocks of gemstone and then shape individual pieces from those sections. The machine process began by cutting quarter-inch thick half-inch squares from each gemstone block, which would be fitted together to create the chess board itself. He would have to find a quarter-inch thick board to mount that on as a firm backing to keep the board from coming apart through usage.
After that was done, the system would start shaping the individual playing pieces. Done checking the progress, Sekea sat and checked the manual to see how he could have better used different settings for future projects. When he was done with that, he looked about to those in the berth and asked who wanted to take part in a group stent practice session? Hearing that, Fesic filed the computer practice recommendations from Colinne and said he'd join in. Aiden also joined Sekea and Fesic. When it came time for dinner, Aali ordered delivery in for Cr 30, Aiden ordered a Cr 40 meal while Colinne had pho delivered for Cr 10 to eat at her keyboard. Fesic ordered in for Cr 40 and Jocelynn wanted a sushi-like meal. Lucky for her, Lanth was 90% covered by oceans and seafood was plentiful so she got a surprisingly high-end meal for only Cr 30. Sekea's order was Cr 40.
In her hotel room, Mikah ordered Cr 80 of room service while Rol's room service came to Cr 50. Zimzod's room service came to Cr 30. From there, Mikah cleaned up, dressed and relaxed until she had to go to the berth with Zimzod for the cutter ride to the hospital. Again, Zimzod paid the Cr 15 cab fee because the ride was to benefit him. During the ride, they discussed that this would be the last night he'd be in the autodoc, and he'd spend the night before the fight preparing. Aiden relaxed before he had to fly the two downwell, and loaded his SongMaster, to play with while he was alone in the cutter before bed. Lucky for him and the crew, the horrific harmonics he was creating had no damaging effects on the cutter's systems.
After dinner, Aali sat in the berth and both watched the cargo workers and relaxed with entertainment vids. Before he had to fly Mikah and Zimzod downwell, Aiden relaxed. Colinne planned to see what Zhodani-language vids or movies she could find just to gauge how much she could parse out from the dialog. As she was preparing for that, Jocelynn quietly asked her about psi training and the two women moved into Jocelynn's stateroom to do that. Fesic floated the idea of a poker game but no one jumped for that. When no one else joined in, he sat with Aali and watched vids. Alone in his hotel room, Rol practiced stent work on his own.
Like Fesic and poker, Sekea asked who wanted to play chess? When he got no answers back, he first re-checked the progress of his artist's factory then went back to data mining the books he'd gotten on noted forgers in Lanth's history. Zimzod also relaxed until he had to ride to the berth and fly downwell. After getting to the hospital, he relaxed and slept as the medical device did it's work. Happily, he was nearly 100% healthy just two nights before his scheduled fight with the Aslan warrior Ealekheieaahaiw. Into the evening, the LFFEM crew wrapped up for the day and said they'd return the next morning.
While Colinne helped Jocelynn through psi exercises, she asked about using her psi talents to help Zimzod during the coming fight. Jocelynn felt she had a better answer, since Colinne hadn't yet set up the comm dot sets she'd bought. Ironically, the time had never been there to set up her own personal data network. Like Jocelynn, Colinne had her weapons and armor as well as electronic toys and even a high-end drone with AI Expert search and recovery programming. Because of that, Jocelynn recommended Colinne configure her network and use that to broadcast audio and video to Zimzod via their team comms.
Saturday, 1114-122: A Walk In The Park As she had for the previous days, Mikah finished her shift and then went to recover Zimzod from the autodoc before heading to wake up Aiden in the cutter for the flight to the station. Fairly early, the crew from LFFEM returned and got back to work. When asked, the foreman said they expected to finish up late the next day. Rol had also taken a taxi to the berth from his hotel for a Cr 15 fee. Aali offered to run a stent practice for anyone who wanted to join in and both Sekea and Aiden joined in when he arrived from the planet. Jocelynn and Rol also joined the stent work. Sekea checked the progress on his chess set then dove into practice with his electronics skills. Mikah paid for a Cr 15 cab back to her hotel to sleep. Fesic grabbed Colinne's recommended computer exercise list and worked on that. Zimzod went back to studying Aslan combat styles and weaknesses while preparing for his fight.
When Jocelynn's comms went off during the stent practice, she wanted to just growl, "What?" as she answered. The caller said he was the Clan War Leader Rekhea Yotla, and he was calling about the promised walk thru of the battlefield on which the challenge would be fought. He said it was time for him to walk them through the battlefield if they had the time. After Jocelynn agreed and said she'd call Zimzod, the war leader sent her directions and a map of the battlefield. Zimzod hired a taxi to the berth so he could be there when the war leader's transport arrived. Colinne joined them, to eyeball the battlefield from an intelligence point of view and they were taken to be flown downwell. Rol and Fesic also rode along. They landed in a recreational wilderness reserve in which the clan had gotten permission to host the "war".
While riding to a shuttleport reserved for the Clan spacecraft, the war leader explained his clan leaders had worked with the world government to cordon off the reserve so they could carry out the fight. The spaceport and airfield would still operate, however there would be significant restrictions on any intentional sightseers moving into the area. The stadium and farmlands would be closed to the public and restrictions were placed on public media and news reporters. Those restrictions supported the contract the crew and clan had signed with TAS, giving them the rights to filming and distribution. Officially registered filming drones would be marked with flashing lights and other ID.
To keep things entirely fair, the war leader said each combatant would board an aircar in the local spaceport. The aircars would then move into the battle area and drop each combatant in a random location where they would remain "blinded" by a remotely-secured "hood" until the aircar left the location. The hood blinding the combatants would then be released and they would have all the time needed to find and engage their opponent. The battle would be over when one kills the other, forces him to submit or entirely incapacitates that opponent. This was not meant to keep the combatants unaware of where they were personally, but preventing them learning where their opponent was located during the deployment.
While wandering the mildly forested area of the field, the war leader discussed the gear they expected to see fielded and made it clear they expected Zimzod to be in battledress. For that reason, he said Ealekheieaahaiw would also be wearing battledress for which he was combat qualified. That comment gave them their first hint this was not a clueless battle-happy nube. The war leader also said he was aware Zimzod's battledress had a grav-harness augment. He warned that using the system for its obvious movement and search advantages also came with the marked disadvantage that it would likely let Ealekheieaahaiw's sensors paint his location unless care was used.
During the jaunt, Colinne took many recordings as they discussed little technical ideas like the use of speed during the fight to blur aim. With both Jocelynn and Zimzod being trained and experienced combatants, Colinne hoped to use her vids to bring Rol into the discussion after they got back to the berth. Zimzod did ask about Ealekheieaahaiw's likely tactics and was told the warrior would most likely seek to close in on Zimzod quickly. He would likely sense an advantage during close in combat and would seek that out. When Zimzod asked, he was told the quickest way to get a kill was a shot to the head. Of course, that was a shot that was often very difficult to make.
From experience, Zimzod also knew he had a good chance to take out any battledress-equipped opponent if he could put rounds through the suit's back. Even a spray of fire against a trooper's back could take them out because the suit's computer boards lived there. Like he'd experienced when a nomad with an armor composite cutter on Jae Tellona had cut into his suit and burned through the computer boards. Damage the right sections of the small but modular chip-boards could entirely shut down the suit. That was what happened to Zimzod and if Zach had not released the emergency catches, Zimzod would have suffocated to death immobilized and locked in his suit. Zimzod admitted it was something you got trained on but rarely remembered or thought of in combat. So, that was a nugget he figured Ealekheieaahaiw might not think of. But, getting an Aslan warrior to turn his back on you was also very unlikely.
When it came to Ealekheieaahaiw, they learned he'd served with one of his clan's cadre units during the Fifth Frontier War and had served in their military before the war. His unit had seen combat on various worlds fighting Sword World invaders. All the Clan's units in contact had been recalled for defense before the world had been cut off by the Sword Worlds. Because of that, Ealekheieaahaiw's unit had been deployed to defend against that force too. During those actions, the Aslan unit had been assigned to work cooperatively with a Human-Imperial unit. Those units were caught in the field when Lanth was cut off and heavier Sword World forces landed.
While Aslan survivors managed to break back to friendly lines, the Human troops were either killed or captured with a small number of them actually defecting to Sword Worlds service. The failed operation splashed back on all the survivors and the Aslan warriors involved were declared Rukhtiywe. That was the last social level before a Aslan would be declared ya'uiya(Outcast). Because none would pay to ship the former warriors to an Aslan world and they could not simply be kicked out into Human society, they were all scattered to menial tasks that would earn them meals and a mat to sleep on. It was because of that Mikah, Jocelynn and Fesic had encountered him bussing tables when they went to the Feast of Khu restaurant. In the end, Ealekheieaahaiw had served in clan arms for six years and had the experience to show for it. The war leader didn't comment on how his intellect let him bend the clan to his will once allowed to arm himself again.
Knowing how the crew had their gear, comms, computers and such laced into a tactical network, Jocelynn decided to ask if that would be allowed under Clan rules of Honor? Considering the question, he said the first restriction would be that none of those watching the battle could direct Sir Zimzod to where Ealekheieaahaiw was. If Sir Zimzod used a drone, they could help keep him aware of data coming from that drone, because he could see that himself anyway. The war leader did say his clan wanted two referees with himself and Sir Rol included. Jocelynn realized that meant Rol wouldn't be able to sit in and advise Zimzod. Since having an off-site tech adviser had not been asked about when setting the conditions, he said he would bring up the question with his clan and advise Jocelynn.
One thing Jocelynn wondered about but avoided asking was how likely it might be that the Aslan had psions who might work with their warrior? From her reading, she'd learned that psionic talents were rare to the Aslan and so they were very suspicious and disapproving of psions. She felt that even mentioning the talents or asking about their people could raise suspicions and distrust. At the same time, she realized a very basic survey of those involved using a 'detect life' psi-scan would tell them who in a given room was psionic. Considering that, Jocelynn thought about having a second dinner to gather all the Aslan and Humans where she could detect life. And, the more she thought about it, the more she felt Colinne might better be able to do the scan since she was much better trained and had more power. Moving with that, Jocelynn started thinking about calling such a dinner together for that night or the next. She also wanted to talk to Colinne about her idea.
Fesic hadn't said much as they toured the battlefield. When asked why he'd come with them, he joked that he wanted to better know the betting odds. Of course, he was asked if he'd bet against Zimzod and said, "You always bet on the home team!" and added, "You dance with the one who brought you." Joking odds, Fesic said he'd bet Cr 10 on the very long odds Ealekheieaahaiw would only "mission kill" Zimzod while also betting Cr 100 that Zimzod would kill the warrior outright. Fesic even opened his comms and asked if the others in the crew had encountered any betting pools targeting the battle? None had heard of such a thing and, when he heard about it, Aiden decided he would run a betting pool with five options.
His first option was that Zimzod would kill Ealekheieaahaiw outright. Next, Aiden allowed that Zimzod would 'mission kill' the warrior. That meant dealing enough damage the warrior could not effectively fight back at all. Third would be the very rare chance the two would simultaneously kill each other. The last two options were that the warrior would mission kill Zimzod or kill him outright. Jocelynn admitted the double kill scenario would be bad ass and the war leader agreed. Despite the fact they knew the Lakht, who held the world as his land, would have preferred Ealekheieaahaiw to be killed, the war leader was very good at playing polite but neutral as their time together passed.
Meanwhile, Back In The Berth After the stent practice in the berth, Aali looked for and watched Aslan one on one combat and competition vids. After the group in the berth had a call from the field about what they were learning, Aiden had to decide on what odds he'd offer any better. Aiden figured he'd offer 1:1 odds on the Aslan warrior winning. He felt Zimzod winning outright would be more of like 4:1 odds. Aiden felt odds on the 'double kill' would be 30:1 and the odds Zimzod would achieve an 'effective kill' would be 10:1. In the end, Aiden felt Ealekheieaahaiw achieving an effective kill would be the hardest of all, and he gave that 20:1. That meant Fesic's bets would pay off Cr 200 for the warrior effectively killing Zimzod and Cr 400 if Zimzod killed the warrior outright. So far, no one was breaking Aiden's bank.
Aiden decided to keep the pool within the crew until he could call the lawyers and ask how they felt the Aslan would react to it? Mikah slept through the morning while he'd been doing that Sekea had continued working on his electronics exercises only to take a break just before lunch and relax. When Aiden did call the lawyers, he asked what the Aslan reaction would be to betting on honor duels? He further asked if they participated in such betting or found them offensive? The lawyer who'd taken his call only answered asking why he was calling legal experts to ask about Aslan cultural aspects? Still, when Aiden persisted the lawyer recommended he ask the clan's war leader because that warrior was with the bulk of his crew walking them through the battlefield.
When it came time for lunch in the berth, Aali and Aiden ordered in for Cr 30. Colinne ordered a Cr 15 meal while Sekea spent Cr 25. Downwell, the war leader continued the walk on the large battlefield, though he said he had other tasks to handle later. While keeping her eyes on the cargo workers Aali also poked around on sites from the station's non-secured pages to see what interesting things she could learn. She even poked deeper from time to time, just to see if she could defeat less than sensitive security sites.
Aiden decided to look into rentals for the next day or so and then perhaps set up a zero-g operations session? When he called the Chivalry clearing house, he was given a new comms code to dial up. Connecting to that number, Aiden was asked how much he had to spend and how long he thought he'd need their facilities? When Aiden ignored the funding question and said he was looking for a space for three hours, they realized they were talking to someone who had no idea what he was doing. They then told Aiden they rented their warehouses for half-day and day long periods at the least. Aiden, who had done this more than a few times but failed to remember the procedures "every time" said he'd like to rent a space for half a day.
The man who obviously didn't like repeating himself then asked Aiden how much he was looking to spend again. Surprisingly, the man was pleased when Aiden said he wanted to spend about Cr 2,000 and asked when Aiden wanted to book their space? Again, bass-ackwards, Aiden had asked about getting space and only then thought to ask the others who was interested in taking part in zero-g practice. While he had the rental man on the comms. Waiting. Of course, it never struck Aiden to consider how many people he annoyed with his lack of thought.
Not willing to waste his time with a person who might just be a lookie-loo, the man on the other end cleared his throat and asked, in an insistent tone, when Aiden wanted to rent his space. Again. Accepting that he'd talked his way into a box, Aiden said he wanted to rent an empty warehouse for the next morning while figuring that gave him time to ask the others before then. The man on the other end nodded and offered him a rental from 7am the next morning until noon. Without bothering to remember that he still had to fly Zimzod and Mikah dirtside and wouldn't return to the station until 9pm or possibly later, Aiden agreed and made the payment.
Done with the call, Aiden decided to drum up interest in joining him the next morning and it wasn't until he called downwell that Jocelynn reminded him he'd be down on the planet until Mikah and Zimzod got back to the cutter. So, he wouldn't be on the station at 7am much less ready to do zero-g workouts. Aiden realized she was right and just had to accept that his "failure to think" would cost him hours of practice. In the end, Rol and Fesic signed on to join Aiden though the pilot never did ask the Aslan war leader about betting. Sekea considered going with Aiden and the others but wasn't sure how soon the artist's factory would finish its work and figured he'd decide in the morning, and continued reading up on criminal methods.
After lunch, Colinne got her hands on the battlemap and spent the afternoon trying to examine the space with the eyes of a hunter and come up with hides and other tricks she could offer Zimzod. Helping her with that, the Aslan had given Jocelynn and Zimzod a link to an interactive site on the world's recreational network. They had shared that with the folks on the station so Colinne could use that too. They saw that map was updated weekly and accurate to the square meter so it had amazing detail for them to use. They were also told the site would be shut down hard the next morning but there was nothing to stop people from flying into the site overnight to grab "good seats".
In a restaurant, Fesic ordered a Cr 55 exotic dish. Colinne called Jocelynn and Zimzod asking them to meet up with her when they got back to the station so they could go over her findings and discuss her ideas. Meeting at a high-end restaurant, Colinne spent Cr 75, Jocelynn spent Cr 100 and Zimzod spent Cr 80. Rol found a place to have an Aslan meal for Cr 50. In the berth, Sekea ordered in for Cr 30, Aali ordered in for Cr 80 and Aiden for Cr 60. Waking in her too, Mikah ordered Cr 80 room service.
Talking "Stragedy" And Tactics Sitting down around the virtual map, they had already discussed the hills and ravines scattered through the area. All three admitted there were obvious points of advantage, like the high points on hills in the E-4 part of the grid or along the ridgelines generally running north to south through the D, E and F 2 and 3 squares on the map. Smaller ridges existed in the B-2 and C-3 squares. They also agreed that being up on top of a hill led to the risk of being highlighted against the horizon. Zimzod might have the option of reaching a raised position before the Aslan warrior could see him raised along the horizon, but then could be pinned there because leaving the hide could also expose him to targeting. So, heights were not the simple answer.
Putting him on top of a hill also cleared all the other clutter between him and the Aslan sensors that would be hunting him. That meant there were also tech issues to consider. The two ravines offered an option to lure the Aslan in. If Zimzod could find a way to do that, he could hope to get a covered position on the ravine's rim and rain fire down on the warrior. Of course, how he could lure the warrior in wasn't an answer that would come from the terrain.
Another consideration was the stadium. While walking the battlefield, the war leader, suggested Ealekheieaahaiw might work to get into the corridors of the stadium. That could force Zimzod into a room to room fight the Aslan warrior felt gave him the advantage. Zimzod had to admit that tactic would pretty much nullify all their long arms unless they could get into the longer corridors circling the arena seating entries. When asked, Zimzod said he hoped to get atop the hilltop ridge he saw on the map and lure the warrior in closer so he could rain down fire. When asked, "What if he couldn't", Zimzod suggested he might try to insult Ealekheieaahaiw's honor and lure him back out.
He was warned that he would have to be very careful if he tried that, on three counts. The first count would be having to identify his location while he called out insults. The second was that he could easily make a mistake and hurl an insult the clan felt was general enough for them to react. The response to that would be an insane escalation of the crew's situation. A third count was that he would appear to be afraid to go in and dig out the warrior. If he showed himself as a coward, the response would, again, be very bad for him, if not the entire crew.
Zimzod said he felt he could stick to insults like claims the warrior was too much a coward to fight out in the open. He hoped that by using the claimed cowardice of the warrior as a fulcrum on which his insults balanced might keep him from being judged. He also assured them he planned to keep any insults he hurled specific to the warrior and his failed tactics, aim or other personal characteristics. In that way, he hoped to enrage the warrior to the point he stopped making thoughtful or reasoned decisions.
Zimzod also suggested there was always the chance to lure the warrior into the small valley formed by two ridgelines in E-3, between which a river ran. Again, that depended on a lot of things including the willingness of the warrior to do what they hoped for. The obvious issue response to a lure into the area was to take the top of one ridge of the other in hopes of finding Zimzod there and forcing him into close combat. If they ended up atop opposing ridgelines, they could then end up in a shootout at range, where the weapons and skills would weigh the odds in either direction.
Since Zimzod was psi-tolerant, Jocelynn had no issues asking Colinne about checking if any of the Aslan had psi-talents. She wanted to know that because she'd proposed the idea of an off-site advisor for each of the combatants. Because of that, Jocelynn wanted to be certain none of the Aslan could eavesdrop on them mentally. The unfortunate truth was that if Colinne or Jocelynn tried that gambit and one or more of the Aslan was psionic, they would feel the attempt and everyone would be outed to each other unless they created a diversion to keep from being noticed. And then, if that diversion worked.
One idea would be to have Jocelynn raise a toast the Aslan would revel in while Colinne meditated and waited for that moment. Then, Colinne could try to release the barest hint of energy to detect life for everyone in the space they were gathered and hope none of the Aslan noticed. She also worried about causing someone with a latent talent to suffer a psi-blossom too. Not very likely at all, if a sudden stress-situation was caused, it was a remote possibility. Other tactics they talked about were borrowing drones from others in the crew. Of course, that left other tactical considerations like Zimzod deploying the drones without giving away his position.
While the three talked, Jocelynn's comms began to buzz. Answering, Jocelynn saw the broker was calling her and her mood suddenly lifted in hope. True to its nature, Mie Ver-bwhep got right to the topic and told Jocelynn he'd managed to get a good price selling their cargo of Crystal and Gems! The ten-ton lot of cargo they'd paid Cr 142,500 sold for Cr 240,000! Which also meant they had to pay Mie Ver-bwhep another Cr 24,000. That meant they'd gotten a "gross profit" of Cr 73,500. Sadly, they had spent Cr 1,468,637 in the Lanth system so far. That meant they were still Cr 1,395,137 in the hole. And that meant they had to sell the radioactives for more than MCr 5.5 if they wanted to earn even a 1 Credit profit. Not to mention, they had two weeks more to spend on Lanth and had to buy gear and supplies for Sonthert.
When Jocelynn updated Mie Ver-bwhep on their progress re-packaging their cargo of radioactives, the Bwap blocked her and told her it would not get involved in that until the cargo was recertified. So, it clearly said they should not contact him on that until they had gotten that process handled and were able to legally sell the lot again. Despite that, Jocelynn was still recovering from the wave of crap they'd faced since arriving in the system. So, Jocelynn signed off that call and she and the others returned to the berth.
Before she'd had her dinner, Aali had been told by the LFFEM team that they were wrapping up for the day and would finish their work the next day. Aali thanked them and reported that to Jocelynn before eating her dinner, then shifted to watching vids and relaxing for the evening. Aiden relaxed after dinner until he had to fly Mikah and Zimzod downwell. Still, he packed his gravitic workout system so he could work out and relax in the cutter while Mikah worked and Zimzod slept in the hospital's autodoc. He also brought some vids to watch.
Colinne sparked up her Zhodani language software but was half-invested in that while she obsessed over Zimzod's coming fight. Fesic paid some attention to his computer practice but mostly watched vids. Jocelynn wanted to advance her plan to test the Aslan waters for psi-talents. So, she called one of her clan contacts and asked to speak to one of the higher-level females she'd dealt with. She got through the clerks and gatekeepers saying she wanted to set up a dinner the next night to celebrate the camaraderie of warriors and the joy of battle. That finally got her through to the administrator herself. After Jocelynn explained her invitation, the woman said she liked the idea and would get back to Jocelynn the next day.
Jocelynn also checked in with the LFFEM team after the call and was told they'd finish their work the next day. Good with that, Jocelynn went back to learning as much as she could of Aslan culture. After waking, Mikah went through her daily routine before spending Cr 20 to go back to the berth and hang out. She relaxed there until she and Zimzod had Aiden fly them to the hospital. Rol had returned to the berth and cooked the group appetizers before relaxing and looking for a movie to watch. Sekea also watched the movie and Zimzod was in the berth organizing his gear for the fight.
Sunday, 1114-123: Changing Priorities With the expectation LFFEM would finish their work with the radioactive cargo, Aali wondered how soon they might sell it while going through her daily routine. Before breakfast, Aali put some extra effort into her workout then moved into the berth to watch the LFFEM working crew. After flying the cutter downwell, Aiden had worked out then gone to sleep until Mikah and Zimzod got back to the cutter. After cleaning himself up, Aiden flew then back to the station and berth before he reminded everyone he'd rented a warehouse for zero-g practice. Before anyone left, Jocelynn told everyone about the dinner she was trying to set up that night. Both Aiden and Fesic grabbed their teaching suits and they and Rol called a cab to get to the rental late. And, because it had been his idea, Aiden paid the Cr 35 taxi fee.
Waking and doing her morning routine Colinne added a basic fighting kata in. After that, she sparked up her Zhodani language class. While waiting for the calls she expected, Jocelynn sat with Colinne privately again to talk further about the idea of psi-scanning the Aslan. That was because Jocelynn wanted to do her best to make sure the scan didn't go sideways. Since his Artist's factory had finished many of the pieces he'd programmed in, Sekea planned to clean up and polish each piece, setting the squares aside to assemble the board.
Coming up with an idea to leverage the local community, Sekea started posting pictures of his work on the station web. Doing that, he hoped he could connect with the local crafting community and get tips and recommendations. What he didn't expect to get were offers for the chess set once it was created. Of course, that came along with the nastier comments and down-side posts. Zimzod arrived back at the berth knowing he didn't plan to return to the hospital after that night. The first thing he did was order in a large and tasty breakfast for Cr 50. After that, he planned to ask who was up for a stent session?
When no one joined him, Zimzod practiced with his stent on his own and then considered grabbing a taxi to join Aiden and the others in their Zero-g session. Because he'd missed out on much of what Aiden's group likely would be doing, Zimzod called the Chivalric help line and asked to find inexpensive warehouse space for himself. As late in the morning as it was, the tech Zimzod spoke to said he'd have to get back to the Knight on his request. Waiting on that call, Zimzod watched vids and waited while it was coming close to lunch time.
In their warehouse, Aiden and Fesic were taking part in zero-g gymnastics where Rol was helping them learn and learning a bit himself. Both Aiden and Rol were on the ground at the moment while Fesic was gliding twenty feet off the deck when all the power in the warehouse seemed to fail! In complete black, Rol could see nothing at all. Aiden and Fesic could see because their teaching suits each had a HUD, and that gave them limited vision. That made things worse for Fesic because the grav field was gone and he could only react in shock as he fell to the warehouse floor!
The software of his teaching suit was designed for this and tried to force his body into a "belly-forward" arc while moving to cross his arms and block before his head hit the floor. Sadly, thanks to Fesic's own reaction, the arms didn't quite block the force as his belly made contact with the ground and snapped his head forward. Fesic barely felt the pain of impact before he was knocked out cold. Aiden's attention had been riveted to Fesic's falling form so he didn't notice the hints of movement in his peripheral vision while Rol only heard the crash and demanded, "What just happened?"
When the lights came back on, Aiden could see the helmet of Fesic's teaching suit had shattered and he guessed Fesic's bleeding nose was broken. It took a few heartbeats more than Rol to notice the loose circle of black-dressed people armed with submachineguns surrounding them! Each figure they could see had a kerchief covering much of their face and they were far enough from the Knights that any charge would be shot down before a fist could strike. Rol had considered that as one of the figures ordered, "Lie down on the floor with your arms spread out!" in a booming and commanding voice. Without other options, Rol and Aiden did as ordered.
While two of the figures rushed forward to eventually blind and bind them before searching for electronics, and as he lowered himself to the floor, Aiden activated his comms and said, "We're being snatched from the warehouse!" At the same time, Rol, activated his comms and said, "Kidnapped. Armed group. Being taken." When Aiden received a kick to his head, his training suit helmet ate most of that force. Rol wasn't that lucky, though the force he was kicked with was less than he would have expected. Not concussed, he would still have a headache for a few hours and a lump upside his head.
The twin voices urgently calling in at the same time bade it so difficult that Aali got nothing from the flood of sound from her comms. Colinne was able to parse that both Aiden and Rol were speaking and also made out the words "kidnapped" and "warehouse". Jocelynn heard Rol and Aiden making noise and ignored it, figuring they were just stupid enough to have accidentally turned on their comms. Like Colinne, Sekea made out the words "kidnapped" and "warehouse" and knew Rol and Aiden were the callers. Zimzod recognized Aiden and Rol, and heard "warehouse", "kidnapped" and "armed"! In the moment, Sekea was the only person who immediately wondered why Fesic wasn't also calling in?
Jocelynn's first impulse was to call station security and demand permission to arm her crew so they could act, but that would only have delayed any actual investigation while they argued. She also thought about calling the lawyers, but that would have been a waste of time, since the lawyers would not act in the moment to investigate or resolve the situation. What she needed to do was to call station authorities and get them to immediately act on what was a kidnapping in progress. If she could get them moving and give them information about what was happening and where, they might even move in to foil the attack before it was completed. In the warehouse, they were stripping Aiden out of his teaching suit and had found and removed Rol and Aiden's comms, hand computers, etc...
Sunday, 1114-123: Shortly before lunch Where everyone is at the end of the session: Mikah: In her hotel room, asleep and not aware of the comms squawk Aali: In the berth reacting to a comms squawk from unknown parties Colinne, Jocelynn, Sekea and Zimzod: Reacting to a comms squawk from Aiden and Rol Aiden and Rol: Being kidnapped from a warehouse during their zero-g practice Fesic: Unconscious on the ground in a warehouse after a fall and injury
_________________________________________________________________________ Next: Pending the November Session