Contacted by the Admirality, very last minute, to join Captain Sabian (old friend) on the Handbasket. Meet at the Imperial Palace, send bags to Arund Downport (at Arrish). ------------------------------------------------------------------ Systems in the ring: Gakuudi, Anula, Iggarir, Mia, Arish Amra, Murcia, Nudi Zi (no gas giant), Khisan, Kashikka. ------------------------------------------------------------------- We spend part of this run `practicing', including personal combat (hand to hand, melee, etc) and practice ship combat. We meet, get our mission, and head off. The mission is to inform the Arish Embassy on Iggarir of an incoming Virus fleet, recently encountered in jump, and bring (covertly) a large cache of weapons to be used by the embassy to convince Iggarir to fight (maybe defesively) the Virus fleet. While we're en route, we're suddenly pushed out of jumpspace by a very strange ``black cloud'. We're pushed out near the vicinity of Amra, a gas giant, with a large ring of debris around it. Investigation makes us think that the ring of debris is actually the remains of the Virus fleet. We spend a while doing recon and salvaging high tech from what looks to have been a number of large mothballed ships from an Empire fleet. ships: Clockwise 1 cruiser that attacked 2 twisted Tigris 3 cruiser with internal explosions 4 cruiser missing left 2/3 5 Tigris-sized cloud of vapor 6 destroyer that self-destructed on us 7 (ex) lab ship 8 beowulf free trader (internal explosions) We also discover a `black globe', with much ensuing investigation. We find a fish, hyper-decaying metal mesh, with an odd sphere inside. Later we find an odd cube-like construction. Sheryl investigates the hell out of it. ------------------------------------------------------------------ fuel scoop is broken; caught a chunk of debris. Daring mid-flight rescue-repair attempt causes much excitement and a small amount of lost cargo. ------------------------------------------------------------------ land on Igarrir, get incredibly quaranteed due to Virus contact. Long, complicated search/review, wherein Serrano proves to the Igarrir people that she's more paranoid and competant about Virus than they are. The Arrish Embassy is contacted because of the, ahem, delicate nature of some of the cargo (large amounts of heavy weapons), which is (retroactively) sealed. LifeFlight picks up our passenger, and I go and consult a little on what I found; in exchange, they loan me use of their labs for a bit. We check into the Saborian. I get a local cellphone (start making collection). ------------------------------------------------------------------ Mitch, Jugger, and Celeste get into alley fight with `cyberpsycho'. Mitch minorly injured, Jugger seriously injured, Celeste unhurt. Publicity is generated, but the public story is that they were merely on-scene and giving minor assistance to the police (actually, they did basically everything). Captain Johnson (from Squad 13, special purpose squad for dealing with such things) meets us, seems greatful and helpful. picked up personal computer and medical supplies [out of pocket; so far] also picked up selection of new movies and `refreshments' [yandros:2000/01/08-19/55:33-EST] Date at beginning of run: 068-1297 Tomorrow morning, we're offloading tech salvage sold to Arrish embassy. Tomorrow night, Celeste is meeting with a cousin of hers to talk about arranging for her cousin's daughter and governess to be taken off planet surreptiously. Entire crew is invited. Dinner tonight with (Police) Captain Johnson (Squad 13) for dinner and drinks at Dempsey's Turns out to be a cop bar. Relaxed atmosphere. Talked about interviews (apparently Channel 4 was badly mangling Mitch's words) Squad 13 occasionally gets requests for things that they can't handle due to being local (like, people trying to move around the planet). Wonders if we'd be interested in some referrals. We say various flavors of `yes'. estimates of costs for upgrading ship medical equipment: 2k to refill supplies and upgrade existing equip. (spent from pocket) 10K to upgrade med bay to make it suitable for general scientific research, specifically med, bio, and chem. Jugger's contact finds out that the Handbasket is being actively sought out for some cargo that it was supposed to have delivered to the Floating City. Mafia is heavily implicated. Cross-checking makes it seem likely that this is related to a found note from the old Captain. Something about a race of some type, from someone named Alfonso. Private to Jugger. Dinner: Heirkintuth, fairly large, mostly circular 3 story fine restaurant. Much preparation for getting good clothing for the group, including getting Jugger and Serrano to carry less stuff. Dining with Lord James Thompson. I carry a pistol for Jugger, which I check, and a first-aid kit for Serrano, in a rented tux (mine are all at home). Christina (pre-teen) and Emma Longwood (older woman, governess) join Lord Thompson. His story: Virus fleet has convinced people to NOT go to Arrish, so there aren't any passengar ships making the route, and Christina's boarding school starts soon (sooner than we can get there, but close enough). He's worried that a certain unpopularity of his might rub off on his daughter, which is also part of the concern. Departure scheduled for: 073-1297 Later, Serrano gets a letter: ``the Handbasket owes us 100,000 credits. Bring it to 26th and Waverly 3pm tomorrow. We can find your family if we need to.'' Jugger's contacts get us a conversation with the relevant people early the next morning. Jugger takes lead on call, and we talk. Eventually, we get the hint that they're looking for illegal drugs, and that we should look for. We convince them that we don't know what they're talking about, so they give us soem time to find out. We pick up (good quality) chemical sniffer, and search ship. Eventually find nasty in frankenberth. Seal it in biohazard bag and then get distracted by: We find a previously-blank monitor on the bridge displaying a natural-language computer system seemingly named Haepheustus (4.2.2). It had just finished an operation on the hull (the hull chameleon system seems to be on now). We investigate a bit, including Alan taking lots of notes on his computer. The system seems quite intelligent, and it knows our names and positions. It starts responding to free-form questions and requests not included in the command list. It seems to be able to display images as well as text, and is probably connected to all of the important systems in the ship. It doesn't seem to know when/how it got here (earliest job on record started around when we began the jump to Igarrir), and it refused to show us (Mitch) its own precise location. Date at end of run: 070-1297 ------------------------------------------------------------------ *** Missed run *** Repaired fuel scoop. Bought new load lifter, with trade-in of old. Picked up cargo. Dropped off Sphinxian White. Passengers: Christina Thompson, Emma Longwood (Celeste's relatives) Passengers: jumpspace boy (Eddie Armitage) , gravgirl (Silvia Armitage), and businessman (Daniel Brentworth), a startup working on small-scale countergrav. Boosted from Iggarir, for Arish, scooped up raw fuel for processing. Heph announces: ``JOB CONCLUDED'' and ``SHIPSYS 8 HACTIVE'' Alan finds nanite under electron microscope. Heph claims to control them. There's no support structure, which makes this ``Ancient-level tech''. Sabian asks Heph to search computer for files referencing `Remus'. Lot of `crud'. Also found a bunch of `trader' data for a company called `CryoMax, circa old Empire. Remus is name of a pair of captured planets in Iggarir system (other is Romulus). An old company, CryoMax Limited, had an office on Remus that the old captain had found. Some random lightbulbs burn out on the bridge. Random pockets of cold appear around the ship. Stuff in Celeste's room disturbed. Medbay is trashed (no fingerprints/evidence, only small things are disturbed, though -- large objects left undisturbed). Investigation so far shows nothing. Questions comes up about psi-powers. Alan lets people know that he believes strongly that psi powers exist. Jugger gets 2 TL8 10mm snub autopistols, which can shoot tranqs. short range is 4m, but low kick, so can be used with low strength. With shells (10mm HEAP), large punch. Ammo is distinctive, even by feel. ------------------------------------------------------------------ [yandros:2000/02/05-14/51:27-EST] Ghost stories to alleviate worries. Checking around the ship. More `ghost-like' activities, including burnt-out bulbs, and Celeste's bed was made, without leaving behind any trace. Jugger decides that it's either a ghost or a psi. Alan asks Celeste if there's any history of activity in that family. Celeste responds that the house where Emma and Christina live is supposedly haunted. Bingo. The labship medical papers are in large part `about' cryosleep, specifically about long-term, highly-survivable cryosleep. They include a paper by a `Richard Duvall' of CryoMax. Talk to Emma about psi; we decide that it's Christina, but Emma is pretending that it's Emma. Decide to try to be nicer/spend more time with to Christina. Two episodes now: floating eyes (for, like, 15 minutes), smoke men. Come out of jump: 080-1297 ------------------------------------------------------------------ 082-1297 (I believe, forgot to check with Rob) We're in-system at Amra, examining again the `fleet remains'. We're here for salvage, and to help the space cadets run some experiments. Jugger talks much with Christina. Eventually, we set up Emma to get her to let us take Christina into space (and make the doc look nice). She goes into dead ship, and gets freaked out. She can `sense' it, somehow. ``It's a bad ship. I want to go.'' Later, we go to scoop fuel at gas giant. Power goes out -- apparently Christina turned off the reactor because she was having a dream of being on a `bad ship', and so she `turned it off'. We're restoring power, and another ship drops out of jump near ours -- a crazy move. Starts hailing immediately with distress signal `Signal DK'. Virus alarms kick in; we're under attack. We attempt to contain, think we succeed, but failed. Sheryl manually cuts power (with saw). Switch Heph's interface to intercom, use h-active laptop to probe for infected systems. Heph seems capable of *purging* virus infection. Jugger talks to Christina, explaining about the `bad ship' and how it would be nice if it were `turned off'. Eventually we fight off attack, and manage not to crash into gas giant -- but not by a lot. (Celeste pulls off daring virtuoso piloting maneuvers with such fine grained control as ``Captain, please tell Heph to tell Alan to tell Sherly to fire the main thrusters for 2 seconds.'' The other ship turns out to be very damaged Beowulf free trader (we were missing one), not maneuvering at all, heading into the gas giant. Game stopped with following questions unanswered: - Heph wants to know which systems we'd like to make H-Active now. - Alan (others?) want to know if it's possible to use ship's weapons to knock the Beowulf into a trajectory that would allow us to salvage it (possibiilty of another jump-2 crystal). If we decide that we can't, then we want to shoot the crap out of it (well, Alan wants to shoot the crap out of it), with Christina watching. ------------------------------------------ No notes for Wednesday March 1 run -- get from Pete. We have a little combat with the Virus ship as we get close, it using a wierd weapon mounted in its cargo bay. It misfires and toasts itself; we think in an effect similar to the twisted Tigris. We land at Arish, and get thoroughly searched, checked, debriefed, briefed, etc. details of contract, company, etc. later. New mission is multi-jump to get reactor upgraded. ------------------------------------------ On Arish, we deal with prep for new mission, including getting the KillerMold off the ship (to the gov), getting the Actinium dust analyzed, getting two robots/ROVs for the ship (Heph), getting more laptops (used), reestablishing contacts for Ahab's murder, research, psi, getting Jump/Empire data, armor. New mission recap: going to new (secret) colony on Murcia, to swap reactors. From there to Iggarir, and back. Round-trip is going to be /at least/ 8 weeks, with dummy flight plans to cover visit to secret base. ------------------------------------------- Jump from Arish on 110 Jump into Amra on 117 * Encounter /Dry Wind/ * Encounter /Sharp Knife/ salvaging Tigris. Captain Alan Scott, Jugger's old Captain. The /Knife/ crew visits. They've been here for 30 days, and are about to leave. Jump from Arma on 118 Jump into Murcia on 125 * move to Murcia Gamma I, meet colony. * colony admin is ex-marine, Cindy Lockwood * hoping to find hidden bases, to match the pair of crashed ships. * Colony Engineer George Lockwood, agrees with reactor swap * Colony Doctor at beta site; colony nurse here. ---------------------------------------------- We share news, trade goods, etc. I help Nurse Kevin Masters examine a single case (Jason Charmichael) of what seems to be chicken pox (a bit surprising in isolation). Turns out to be a probably-non-contagious variant of chicken pox. We have dinner, a mixture of native and imported plants (Alan has a little too much). Survey mission goes missing right before storm. We go after. We find aircar, 2 dead bodies, nasty monster. Short altercation, we go back. Get help unloading bodies/people from a couple people -- calmer one is Daniele. Celeste's recollection of the creature. greyish. either 4 or 6 legs. flanged head. insanely fast. 10-15 long, 5-6 high. Teeth, eyes, tail, bilateral symmetry. strong smell, memorable, can't quite place, like some spice. Hit with 1 9mm and 1 7mm round, no noticable effect (but we didn't get a chance to see it). ----------------------------------------------------- We discuss creature, plans for dealing. Tentative plan is to visit again, check out site, take small livestock, possibly drugged, to offer/bait creature. Jugger determines storm to be about 1 day. run cables, proceed. Next day: Matthew is recovering nicely, except that he seems to be coming down with what seems to be shingles. We question Jason, and find that he found and was bitten by a small (~5") gray lizard, six legs, funny bulb on head. We get directions there, and go visit. We find clearing, rock, and some small creatures. We set trap, and head to cliffs. Quick scan with IR reveals nothing. Chicken-bait gets its attention. With some antics, we kill it (Mitch laser). Creature: not cyberenhanced, has chicken-pox disease. verterbrate, area that burned up (along back) had something in it. Spicy scent, mostly gone by the time we get back to the colony. Three eyes, including third on retractable tentacle. Very well protected front; armor, protected eyes, etc. I managed to save a small sample of the flamable material. Unfortunately, it explodes during analysis. Site B does not return on time. We perfrom quick IQ analysis (involving chainsaw), and determine it to be about as intelligent as a dog, this taking about an hour. We head out. We find site; it's partially toasted. Been attacked by at lesat one grendel. Tents flattened, aircar gone. Tracks from grendel all over. Jugger's investigation finds one dead body, long dead. 4 others dead from creature, from investigation. 1 dead body in cold chest, 1 remains, part of dead body, 2 big splash of blood. data crystals in tent with med equip and chest. ID by belongs, assuming they're in their own tents; includes dr. dive schedule. Rough guess, most died yesterday/day before. Also find specmin jar with something white. -------------------------------------------------------------- morning of 128 More investigation of site B. Find doctor's log. Interesting part: 1 week ago, hit with storm. Afterwards, Stan came down with shingles (not clear how). Next day, find interesting stuff in _Lady Mac_, while exploring, back at site, Stan is swarmed by dog-sized hornets. He's stung, but no one else hurt. The `hornets' scatter in response to a few shots in the area, heading off to the Northeast. Sting seemed to have some sort of paralytic poison, turns out to inject a larvae of some type. Peter, Tina, and Henry go after `hornets' in air car on 125; they're never recorded as making it back. Stan dies the next morning, autopsy reveals larvae (currently in jar). Follow aircar. Find stream with lizard, with large hole in side, as if something went in/out. Lots o' small lizards are eating on it. I go down on a rope, with a vibroblade from Jugger, and cut out the section that I hope contains the speed bag, and manage to bring along a small lizard as well. After a bit of hijinks, I get the lizard off, and the chunk of meat in the back, but don't manage to knock out the small lizard. We find the aircar, crashed. Make a battle plan for recovering, send Sheryl down. Hornet comes out. We shoot, Jugger hits, it dies. Sheryl recovers aircar, although it's still crippled. We recover two bodies (male and female), but don't find the third. We leave. On our way out, we get contact from Heph; turns out to be some sort of `Quantum Spatial Anomaly' in the area of the clearing/site, which interferes with Heph. We return to collect more data. Turns out to be a hemisphere, around the opening, centered inside the hill (which doesn't seem to be natural). We leave, return, scout for Henry, no luck, head back. Return to site B by late afternoon, back to the colony by late the next morning. * Larvae native? WIERD. totally foreign, no matches to my stuff. Looks maybe created/modified. * Lizard native? seems likely * Check lizard sack? (mostly emtpy 3cc's of fluid) * Is lizard dependant on water? amphibious * Weak spots? from the front * Reproduction? third eye. likely lay eggs * Digestion? digested people, likely carnivore * Stan autopsy Stan? (cause of death, and disease) COD: eaten from inside, disease look same and native We debrief with Cindy and Matthew. It's currently 129. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Turns out that the colony can afford to pay us replacement costs for our aircar. We discuss ethics of biotech and lizard-serum. Ship will have reactor core in 2 days. We help them with defenses. Murcia Gamma C was known to be inhabited before Virus came through. There are some people living in the remains of what is believed to have been a large civ wiped out by Virus (back then). They're up to internal cumbustion, barely. It's 131. We get research results, reactor installed. Reactor seems to function beautifully. Investigation of hill. Send in the ROV... Large number of `egg holders' of indeterminant material, looks pseudo-organic, pseudo-technical. Some of the holders have eggs, large, black, egglike shapes. Some of the empty holders have remains of what was probably the `viens', but no `shell pieces'. Investigating a second holder, something jostles the ROV. Heph turns to investigate, camera is toasted, we pull out. We find some `goo' and a couple eggs. three-claws, duclaw. ovipositor is very strong -- broken through non-armor metal. deposited `egg'; seems like larvae. `goo' contains a large number of various paralytic agents; probably enough to effect roughly everything. Later, we follow one out of the hill, around a bit. It catches a deer-like creature; impregnates. We collect shortly later, put in frankenberth. We go back, send in the ROV. It gets us a chunk of plant/metal, and some whitish sap. It is now 132 ------------------------------------------------------------------ We set up some plans... * time-bomb jury-rigged from grenade * n emergency flight plans for ship * loud beep/flashing signal from Heph to laptop * chunk o' meat I carry: 9mm autorifle, grenade launcher, 10mm tranq pistol, bag, camera, flashlight We go in. Walls look organic, with lumps of various sizes. Slightly viened, does NOT look like it's carrying something. Celesete touches wall with gloves; they're firm. We examine egg. The egg itself is black (maybe even milblack). The support struts are slightly warm, as is the top. Only barely the bottom. Sheryl checks; the struts carry a varying current; we record the changes for a short while. long investigation of tunnels. We find a hive-like structure laced with organic/electrical cables and `black eggs' with holders. We look around, find some larger eggs, a huge central room with hundreds of these eggs, and a large gourd-like structure with 4 lobes that we later decide to be a reactor/power source of some type. We'll later notice a different type of egg in this room (3-prong holder instead of 4 or 5). There's an attack by the 4-prong-egg creatures (monkeyhornets) and 5-prong-egg (metalbears). Celeste is seriously injured by both, and implanted. We pull back to the ship. Review of the videotape reveals the 3-prong creatures, Sheryl mentions that 3 of the 4 gourd lobes are `grey and squishy'; theory is that this is the power source, and it's dying. We talk about the destruction of the hive. We get, (bear, two hornetmonkeys) ------------------------------------------------------------------ [yandros:2000/04/27-17/03:35-EDT] Talks about ethics of `distributing' bio-salvage. Report back to Cindy, tell her everything (but Heph). Celeste crashes. Ferry her people over to site B to recover equipment and check out site. Beth leads the divers, recovers the stuff. We return to site A. It is now 133 We jump from Murcia to Iggarir (jump 2!) We don't explode. We ask Heph to examine the data crystal from Arrish to the Arrish Embassy. During jump, Celeste seems to have some precognitive dreams of some malevolent presence, first nearby, then attacking the ship, then attacking ME. Also, we notice that the jump drive settings have been changed slightly. We investigate and set up monitoring. Later, during bridge watch on 138, Celeste hangs out on the bridge, and notices that, according to her, at some point near the end of watch, I get up and start staring into the screen which is displaying jumpspace. Apparently I was `out of it', staring into the screen. When Celeste wakes me, I notice, briefly, the same three-eyed image in the jumpspace dispaly that I noticed when travelling with Christina. ------------------------------------------------------------------ It is now 138. We discuss the incidents, and I point out that I could have changed the jump drive settings and then erased the computer records. We decide to continue watches normally, but not interrupt me this time. Oh, and Jugger changes the display from jumpsapce to a random starfield pattern. 139. Apparently, I develop that `blank' look, change the display, stare into the jumpspace display for a while (2-4 minutes), then start playing with the computer. Disable logging. Use holotable to sensor-scan surrounding area. Stare at it for a while, from different places. Change secondary displays to display jumpspace. Go around to all the other consoles, controls, etc. -- change them all to display jumpspace (different versions). Reset jump drive settings to something dangerous -- then I woke up. Settings seemed to be deliberate. The course is probably deadly, but not quickly so -- there are faster ways to kill us with the jump drive. Mitch and Celeste are working on figuring out interesting things about the course. I ask Sheryl to come with me to MedBay to take some `standard' samples from me -- nothing interesting. Discussion ensues about the possible effects of the course changes. That night, *I* have the nasty dream about the creature, three eyes, amorphous, reaching for me. I wake up, suddenly, nasitly. I walk over to the bridge, talk to Mitch, recoard what I can. The next morning, on watch, I space out again; Celeste wakes me almost immediately. We talk about my dream. The next day, we're still in jump. Sheryl finds recovered data crystal with details about how jump increases psi powers; higher jump, more power! It's nice to find some real, hard evidence that doesn't involve scaring/poking/prodding people! This is great news! That night, I have another nightmare, although with no memory of details at all. Sheryl is in my room. We chat. During the day of 141, I have bridge watch. Instead of computer games, I spend my watch reviewing the data crystals that Sheryl found. I dazeout anyway. Celeste wakes me before I can do anything. We double up on watches; around 17:00 we pop. We arrive about 1day normal travel from Josana Downport. We recieve a male voice on the emergency channel signing an old Empire love ballad. It seems to be coming from out-system. We contact Iggarir, they tell us that they're not sure either. they suspect Virus, but they *always* suspect Virus. Biotech salvage: we give some to Arish, and try to sell them the rest of it. Iggarir is seemingly unhappy -- no non-military jump-capable ships. Josana Downport is only relaying to us via satellite. We debate not landing. We then land (142), and make our way to the Saborian. The press are waiting; Mitch plays them for a while. Several notes await us, including an unmarked black envelope containing a folder sheet of black paper. Inside, addressed to Capt. Mitchel Sabian, and a set of coordinates in Gakuudi. 151-1297, , Signed, Capt. Black. We discuss the race -- what is it, do we want to do it, can we win it, etc. -------------------------------------------------------------------- It is now 142 (~6pm). We decide to leave early the next afternoon, so we split up and try to get stuff done before heading out to the race. Mitch and I visit the Emassy to see Ambassador Delgado. Jugger gets caught in a sting. We deal. Mitch now has real-world experience bribing a cop. Much hilarity ensues. early the next afternoon, we leave Iggarir, meet with the Leviathon (where I hand over the materials), and then jump for Gakuudi. We decide to mask our jump signature. ----------------------------------------------- missed run: bump into _Earth Whiskey_ in jumpspace, chat with them. Captain CJ Winters (mom) and Jamie Winters (son). asked them some questions about the race. They mentioned that using computers is not allowed during the race. We have an Observer named Carter Jones. Someone misjumped on the way in. _Black Pride_ exboat tender from the old Empire, with 3 System Defense Boats. Each racer picks a coin randomly, and the race is point-to-point, collect your coin without disturbing others'. The coins are apparently copies of artifacts found on Droin/Chirper worlds. (Droin are an old alien race, quite strange, all planets redzoned. They hand-built their own jumpdrives, supposedly. Chirpers are semi-intelligent relatives of the Droin. Winged, faintly lizardish, big eyes.) Started at Gakuudi delta. Proceed around the asteroid-ring, pick up the coin and crate with mining equipment. Proceed to Gakuudi Beta, mine required ice, figure out location of next coin. Khhedheh, molybdenum mine near Lookout Point. Find coin, head out to jump, to Tisani, near Igarrir. It is 153. Turns out that the coin is at on a lunar penal colony. ---------------------------------------------- missed run. Group retrieves final coin with constructed powergliders from spare parts, Sheryl and Mitch are H-active. ----------------------------------------------- IT's now 162. on Iggarir, in Floating City. Not yet sure of the race standing. Captain James Ahab Luis Tiev sensor Jeremiah Sanchez astro/gunner Sutton Cross Engineer/gunner We get local cellphones, rooms at _The Lion's Den_. We go mad-shopping. We get lots of stuff, including another camera, scuba gear, ultralight, and climbing gear. Jugger and I go looking for psi-related databases. We find a contact that has something that I can examine. Racial research: Somewhat spotty, because Iggarir had racial purges as well as psi and tech (looking for scapegoats for Virus) Droin: 3-5' tall. Most Droin do not show signs of having or using jump drives, but their worlds are parsecs apart. Chirpers: almost identical genetically to droin. sub-intelligent. There are stories of Droin having jumpdrives not of Imperial design, supposedly built by hand (impossible). Found of the number 6. The coins were significant to the droin, but the significance is not currently known. Bipedal, reversed knees, have wings, and some can fly in light gravity (conflicting stories). K'kree: militant herbivores. eating meat considered an abberation. travel in herds. resemble centaur roughly. Don't do much spacefaring because of the herd nature. pretty strong Aslan: feline, territorial, aggressive, expansionist. Hivers: wierd. 6-legs. radially sym. walk on 4, use others and head and tail. not familial at all. Talk via combination of sight sound and smell. Vhargyr: lupine. lack coherency. Considered ``probably a pirate''. Empire interacted heavily with the Vhargyr (they wanted to travel). They redzone'd and avoided Droin planets; no record of why. The lab ship is named the Zandillar. We give them jumpspace data and part of warped Tigris plate. Part of the crew of the Earth Whiskey arrives. They lost their Captain (CJ Winters, survived by engineer, son Jamie Winters). The Rogue Churna hasn't been seen since jumping too close to the gas giant. The Earth Whiskey, The Rogue Churna, The Aldor Corwin, The Grandelara, The Sweet Ambrosia, The Lilliana, The Nymph, Daddy's Boat, The Just Doesn't Stop, The Draco, The Pony Express, The Zandinelle?, The Morningstar. We Won! This is the first time `in some years' that he's invited an Arrish-registered ship. By custom, winner gets an extra day to pick cargo. Prize is 3 largish suitcases (irridium, 550k). Meeting with Captain Black: over in Anvla (other side of the ring), a scout went to visit, found something odd. According to the remains of the sensor logs of the scout ship, they saw a large pyramid shape on the surface of a supposedly uninhabitted planet. Nuudi Zi had an imperial base with a ``fair amount of data'' at one point. He gives us a crystal with the relevant data. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Missed run. The party picks up a displacement ton bound for an asteroid (actually, an outer moon of the outermost gas giant) in in outer Iggarir named Oashrear. It turned out to contain a gene sequencer. We get there and find some miners, a geneticist (Dame Louis somethingorother), and some spies. We hear rumors of strange plant, missing people, etc. Heph detects anomoly. The party makes knowing noises, and the geneticist talks more than she should, and we find a familiar `giant attack plant'. Has a metal structure under Xray, and the `woody' parts look like plant-ship-hull. Reministent of the gourd, looks pretty strong, seems to be growining into the edge segments of a 2x1x1 rectangle, roughly, with leafy fronds all over. The fronds moved, in a possible defense action. Mitch goes to check out the place the seed was found, and finds an ice wall instead. Sonar indicates nothing but ice. Seems natural except that it wasn't there before. The plant is digging roots into the ground, and there's lanthinum in the asteroid (too deep to mine profitably). ------------------------------------------------------------------