The full story of EIR TERMINUS. This story was run from February 5th to April 2nd 2022 and was originally posted on the Clockworksun Stories Discord server.
This story is 28 updates long, plus an epilogue, spread over 91 standard pages with a total of about 28,000 words.
Note that some reaction counts may not be exact, as voters may have changed their reactions between the close of voting and the time this story was scraped from the server.
Note that some reaction counts may not be exact, as voters may have changed their reactions between the close of voting and the time this story was scraped from the server.
@Story Notifications
Howdy folks; here we go again with some story writing! I'm still not sure if these four prompts will be the last ones, but given how meaty most of them are, we've got time to figure that out.
As usual, starting prompts are retired after four times on the docket. The number of times a prompt has been up is listed next to its name, as well as the anticipated length.
(4?) [NOVELLA] Eir Terminus
Science Fiction / Heist
The Future - Space/Kronwaë
Ellie Lynran is a “hunter,” a highly skilled thief/assassin/spy/whatever else for hire. Her job isn’t an easy one, and it’s never predictable, but damn does it pay well. Plus, you meet the most fascinating people. Together with her handler Mel, she can usually be found taking on complicated, dangerous contracts. Today, however, an old friend she hasn’t seen in years gets in contact asking if she knows anything about a particular salvaged wreck that everyone seems to be after...
[This story is canonically part of the main Kronwaë timeline.]
[This prompt has been significantly rewritten (again (again)) so its number on the docket is a little suspect. If it ages out, I might put it back on.]
(3) [NOVELLA] The Man in the Maroon Suit
Horror / Mystery
Present Day, the dream world
“I never used to remember my dreams. That changed, a couple of months ago, when I first met Him in a nightmare. Tall, thin, grinning in just the right way to seem totally unhinged. I called him the Devil. I’ve encountered him several times since. Always hunting me while I sleep. I can never wake myself up when he’s too close, and I dread what will happen if he catches me. But that alone isn’t what makes me glance over my shoulder when walking down the street. It’s that I saw him yesterday in real life.”
[This story is not significantly related to the Kronwaë timeline, and may not even be part of the main canon.]
(4?) [NOVELLA] Eir Terminus
Science Fiction / Heist
The Future - Space/Kronwaë
Ellie Lynran is a “hunter,” a highly skilled thief/assassin/spy/whatever else for hire. Her job isn’t an easy one, and it’s never predictable, but damn does it pay well. Plus, you meet the most fascinating people. Together with her handler Mel, she can usually be found taking on complicated, dangerous contracts. Today, however, an old friend she hasn’t seen in years gets in contact asking if she knows anything about a particular salvaged wreck that everyone seems to be after...
[This story is canonically part of the main Kronwaë timeline.]
[This prompt has been significantly rewritten (again (again)) so its number on the docket is a little suspect. If it ages out, I might put it back on.]
(3) [NOVELLA] The Man in the Maroon Suit
Horror / Mystery
Present Day, the dream world
“I never used to remember my dreams. That changed, a couple of months ago, when I first met Him in a nightmare. Tall, thin, grinning in just the right way to seem totally unhinged. I called him the Devil. I’ve encountered him several times since. Always hunting me while I sleep. I can never wake myself up when he’s too close, and I dread what will happen if he catches me. But that alone isn’t what makes me glance over my shoulder when walking down the street. It’s that I saw him yesterday in real life.”
[This story is not significantly related to the Kronwaë timeline, and may not even be part of the main canon.]
(2) [NOVEL?] First Contact
Intrigue / Politics
The Future - Space/Kronwaë
One day, a sleek starship descends on a remote planet, inhabited but not spacefaring. A being emerges, saying that they are the federation representative of the sector and they need a native to come speak for their planet in front of the galactic senate. Seemingly by chance, our protagonist is chosen to be the first of their species to fly off world. But things are not simple or easy in the federation’s core worlds, especially for someone without any knowledge beyond their own planet. Double especially when they start uncovering a scandal of galactic proportions.
[This story is part of the Kronwaë canon, but is not significantly related to the main timeline.]
️ (1) [NOVEL?] All Falling Apart
Adventure / Existential horror
Near-future - a planet like the Earth (Kronwaë)
Everything has gotten worse lately. Resource shortages, global political turmoil, climate disasters, and now it seems like portions of the planet itself are simply sinking into the ground. It’s all falling apart, and no one knows what to do to fix it, or if we even can. Our protagonist must decide how to proceed in this seemingly-doomed world, whether that means struggling to save it, desperately trying to escape, or something else entirely. One thing’s for sure: there isn’t long left.
[This story is part of the Kronwaë canon, but is not significantly related to the main timeline.]
(Winner: )
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Eir Terminus it is, and not by a slim margin. Alright! Rather unusually, you’re not going to get the opportunity to pick our protagonist, setting, or most of the other traditional options found in previous starting choices. Instead, I’m going to ask you a few somewhat vague questions that will make more sense later.
What happened to the Aesop device, the mind-controlling superweapon that Ellie tried to steal in her last big adventure?
- It was destroyed, along with all plans for its manufacture.
- It was destroyed, but the plans were stolen by an unknown entity.
️ - It was not destroyed, but methods were developed to counter it.
What happened to Marus Joley, the rich, maniacal ettri inventor who created the Aesop device and tried to kill Ellie?
️ - Ellie killed him and control of his company passed to a vice president.
- Ellie humiliated him by thwarting his plans, but he maintained control over the company.
- He (begrudgingly) made peace with Ellie and gave up trying to murder her, maintaining control over the company.
(Winners: , ️ )
- It was destroyed, along with all plans for its manufacture.
- It was destroyed, but the plans were stolen by an unknown entity.
️ - It was not destroyed, but methods were developed to counter it.
What happened to Marus Joley, the rich, maniacal ettri inventor who created the Aesop device and tried to kill Ellie?
️ - Ellie killed him and control of his company passed to a vice president.
- Ellie humiliated him by thwarting his plans, but he maintained control over the company.
- He (begrudgingly) made peace with Ellie and gave up trying to murder her, maintaining control over the company.
(Winners: , ️ )
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1
and @Story Notifications because I forgot
@Story Notifications
Okay, so the Aesop device was destroyed, but not before the plans were stolen by an as-of-yet unknown entity. Additionally, Ellie managed to kill Mr Joley in the chaos; control over Joley Enterprises fell to a vice president. She’s probably even more of a wanted criminal now, but at least isn’t being hunted by Joley himself.
Now, the last two questions before we get started. You may want to re-read or at least reference The Crystalline Sun if you don’t recall what the deal was with Hane Mining Corporation and the crystal hearts. Handy link: https://clockworksun.com/work/stories/crystalline-sun
Was Hane Mining Corporation able to recover the broken crystal hearts from the Crystalline Sun?
- No. Not yet.
- Yes, but they’re damaged. Perhaps beyond repair.
❤️ - Yes, and they’ve managed to piece them back together. Mostly.
Where is Ellie, and what is about to go wrong?
️ - Lying low on a planet well outside the galactic core, about to run into a surprise Federation patrol.
- In a metropolis on a coreworld, in the middle of an operation and about to run into a rival bounty hunter.
- In hyperspace on her starship with Mel, and they’re about to run out of milk.
(Winners: , )
- No. Not yet.
- Yes, but they’re damaged. Perhaps beyond repair.
❤️ - Yes, and they’ve managed to piece them back together. Mostly.
Where is Ellie, and what is about to go wrong?
️ - Lying low on a planet well outside the galactic core, about to run into a surprise Federation patrol.
- In a metropolis on a coreworld, in the middle of an operation and about to run into a rival bounty hunter.
- In hyperspace on her starship with Mel, and they’re about to run out of milk.
(Winners: , )
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@Story Notifications
Scene 0
“Mel!” Ellie shouted, thumbing the intercom button and getting flour all over the wall. She winced and switched hands, brushing it off and pretending she had used the clean hand to start with. “Mel! You there?”
There was a brief delay as the starship rolled gently to one side, the inertial dampers compensating and almost completely canceling out the movement. “What? What’s going on?”
“I can’t find any milk! Do you know if we’re out?”
The ship rolled to the other side and brilliant pink-purple lights flared outside the windows as their hyperspace bubble shifted to match. “No, but I can come look. I swear we just had a full gallon.”
“That’s what I thought!” Ellie washed her hands and wiped off the wall as Mel walked down to the galley from the bridge. They were currently in the middle of a hyperspace jump, so the autopilot was in control and she didn’t really need to be up there; she had just been double checking after some unusual movement. The ship rolled again. Very strange, but not as important as the milk situation.
Mel stepped into the kitchen and laughed at Ellie’s distraught expression. “You started making a - what is this, a cake? - without checking to see if we had all the ingredients?”
“I never claimed to be good at baking.”
Mel nudged her shoulder as she passed and opened the fridge to look around. “You’re adorable. Hmmmm... Nope, it’s gone. Can’t believe we went through that whole jug that fast.”
“Well, now what am I supposed to do with all this?” Ellie gestured with both arms to her mixing bowl and ingredients, arrayed haphazardly across the counter and surrounded by spilled flour.
“Uhhh...” Mel poked through the fridge and cabinets. “Yogurt? Nope, out of that too. Evaporated... who has evaporated milk but not regular milk? Oat, rice, huh.” She stood up, closing all the doors. “Man, we’re really out of everything. When’s the last time we stopped for provisions?”
Ellie shrugged. “A while ago?”
“Well, I can’t find anything. I guess as a last resort you could try water and maybe some butter, but it’s probably not going to work that well.” She paused, looking over the ingredients on the counter. “Also, we don’t have any eggs and I’m surprised you haven’t noticed that yet.”
“Ugh!” Ellie smacked her face with her hand. “I’m so dumb.”
“No, no, you’re just... uh, you’ve got a different set of skills!” Mel had to hold back more laughter. “To be fair, you know I suck at baking too. Remember that time I tried to make cookies for O’rok? The starport guy in Nerinsk?”
“All you had to do was follow the instructions on the package...” Ellie whispered, remembering the flames.
“Exactly. Hey, why don’t you cover that bowl up and I’ll go see if there’s a system we can stop by real quick to pick up some more food?”
Ellie saluted. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Oh, stop it, you dork.”
...
Qaniit lay down on his bunk and sighed, his eyes already sliding closed. It had been a long, hot day, but now he had gotten some food, taken a shower, and the freighter was safely in hyperspace, jumping to a system called Gamma Veox. Sandeek - the crew’s leader and captain of the ship - said he had a contact there who would be willing to buy the derelict wreck they had dug out of the sands of Ujee IIa.
A frown wrinkled Qaniit’s brow as he thought about the wrecked ship again. They had carried the thing into orbit and parked it in the freighter’s cargo bay. Some of the sand had been blasted out of the broken-open cockpit on the way up, revealing more details of the interior. And, well, the long-dead freeze-dried husk of the pilot. Its features had been mostly stripped away by vacuum exposure or atmospheric entry, but its hands still held a deathly lock on the flight controls and its empty eye sockets still focused on something in the far distance.
The crew agreed that it was, to put it succinctly, creepy as hell.
Qaniit couldn’t help but think about the long-dead creature, still gripping the yoke and staring into the wall of their darkened cargo hold. He had seen his fair share of horror movies, at least in the two years since his arrival in the greater galactic community, and he knew what happened to unwitting salvage crews who carried ancient possibly-cursed corpses back to civilization.
“...”
He got up and locked the door to his room, then returned to bed. It would be fine. If there was one thing he had learned from his time among the stars, it was that myths and fairy tales were just that. Ghosts, zombies, and curses weren’t real.
He turned off the lights and tried to get some sleep.
...
What system did Mel find where they can stop to get food?
- A rural planet that only sees a few starships a month.
️ - A metropolitan planet with hundreds of active spaceports.
- A deep space convenience station with nothing but a few comm buoys nearby.
Qaniit is awoken later by...
- The emergency alarm as the ship loses main power and makes an uncontrolled exit from hyperspace.
- Impacts on the shields as someone attacks the freighter.
- Nothing in particular as all is well. They’re about to arrive at Gamma Veox.
(Winners: , )
- A rural planet that only sees a few starships a month.
️ - A metropolitan planet with hundreds of active spaceports.
- A deep space convenience station with nothing but a few comm buoys nearby.
Qaniit is awoken later by...
- The emergency alarm as the ship loses main power and makes an uncontrolled exit from hyperspace.
- Impacts on the shields as someone attacks the freighter.
- Nothing in particular as all is well. They’re about to arrive at Gamma Veox.
(Winners: , )
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@Story Notifications
Scene 1
“While we’re here, we might as well fill up on warp fuel, right?” Ellie finished spinning down the engines, switching over to only auxiliary power. “You want to stay here and fill up while I go get the food?”
“Sure. Just make sure you remember everything you need, okay? We’re on a schedule.”
“I got it. How long do we have?”
“About an hour if we don’t make any other stops. Just don’t get distracted and we’ll have plenty of time.”
Ellie gave a thumbs up, clipped on her shield medallion and holsters, and popped open the main door to head out. She wasn’t expecting a fight, but you couldn’t be too careful.
Mel followed her down the steps to stand on the ridged metal of the dock, but then headed back towards the starship’s underbelly and access ports. Ellie walked away from the craft instead, gazing up at the brilliant blue-white star filling most of the sky. Dozens of little specks moved across its surface, each one a miles-long tanker scooping building-sized chunks of charged stellar gas for processing and refinement elsewhere. Nearer to her, a half-dozen oblong satellites equipped with solar panels floated with loose tethers attached to the main station currently housing their ship. Comm buoys, she knew, each one forming a single node in the impossibly complex galactic network of FTL communications linking all civilized space. The things were brutally expensive to replace and popular targets of pirates or other scoundrels due to the pricey electronic components contained within. Clearly, someone had gotten fed up with this set being stolen and had attached them to the station.
The station, of course, was primarily a maintenance outpost for the tankers operating in and around the star, but it served other customers as well. Sun-divers - daredevils who chased solar flares in starships equipped with powerful heat shields - were a visible presence, but Ellie also made out a number of ordinary civilian craft just like her own. Well, maybe a little less kitted out than her own, but she certainly didn’t feel out of place here.
She stuck her hands in her pockets and walked along the concourse, smiling lightly. There was something special about stations like this, where everything was made out of glass and transparisteel to provide unparalleled views of the sun and starry void beyond. She had traveled all across the galaxy for almost a decade, but sights like this never got old.
She passed by a handful of aliens standing around and talking about their latest sun-diving expedition, then entered the convenience mart. There was a big sign branding it a subsidiary of “Geco Energy,” the company that owned the station. The “Geco” part was an acronym for “Gamma Energy Company”and unrelated to the homonymous animal, but that didn’t stop them from using a stylized lizard as the logo anyway. It was kind of cute, she supposed.
Ellie went about her shopping quickly, sticking to the list she and Mel had written up before arriving. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary caught her eye; everything was just bland, boring spacefood. No fresh fruits or veggies, but she was at least able to find something that resembled milk and a carton that proclaimed itself “essentially eggs.” Her exocortex assured her that the product was fit for human consumption, so she decided not to worry about it too much. She’d eaten worse for sure; that’s what the digestive cyberware was for. Thankfully, she had talked Mel into getting - hang on.
She narrowed her eyes, one hand straying to her medallion. Someone was staring at her. Ellie focused, using her cortex to run a scan until - there. She turned to the left, catching sight of a youngish man in a faux leather jacket. He was holding a cereal box and staring openly at her, a puzzled look on his face. Ellie didn’t recognize him at all.
“Hey!” she called, waving at the man. “What are you looking at?”
The man shook his head and looked away, then approached her. Ellie toggled her shield on, feeling marginally safer as the transparent lattice of blue hexagons flashed up, then faded back to invisibility. “Woah,” the man said. “No need for that; I’m not looking for a fight.”
“Well, what are you looking for?” As a wanted criminal across much of the civilized galaxy, Ellie had gotten used to bringing her shield up first, then asking questions later. “Do I know you?”
“I... I’m not sure.” The man scratched his head, confused. “My name’s Jack; Jack Starchaser.”
Oh brother. If that’s your given last name, I’ll eat my gun.
She stayed quiet, waiting for him to continue. After an awkward pause, he did. “Uh, anyway, you seem really familiar. Have we met, miss...?”
“I have no idea who you are,” Ellie said flatly. “Now, if you’ll excuse me-”
“The Last Dance! The Eir system! I swear - so familiar! It’s on the tip of my tongue...”
Oh. Oh hell. Now she remembered. Ellie had met this buffoon briefly in the Last Dance nightclub a few years ago now, where she had been searching for cybernetic implants to steal. She had tricked him, cut open his chest, ripped the implant out of his heart, and left him half-dead and drugged with a memory-blurring serum in a private room.
Honestly, she still felt kind of bad about it; that had been one of her very last cybernetic thefts from ordinary people. She had changed since then. Less “random acts of near-murder and thievery,” more “actual contracted jobs.” At least with her current employment, she could blame the client for any moral quandaries. And with her current fame, she could turn down missions that made her uneasy.
Jack had noticed her expression change. “Ah! You remember something! Come on, remind me! How did we meet?”
- Don’t tell him, end the conversation, and bail.
- Lie; suggest it had been more of a... normal encounter.
- Find some way to remove him. KO or kill; he just can’t be allowed to alert the Feds until Ellie and Mel are out of this system.
- Tell the truth and apologize. It’s been a few years and they’re both adults; they can talk it out.
(Winner: )
- Don’t tell him, end the conversation, and bail.
- Lie; suggest it had been more of a... normal encounter.
- Find some way to remove him. KO or kill; he just can’t be allowed to alert the Feds until Ellie and Mel are out of this system.
- Tell the truth and apologize. It’s been a few years and they’re both adults; they can talk it out.
(Winner: )
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9
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@Story Notifications
Scene 2
“Jack Starchaser...” Ellie muttered, both pretending she was trying to remember and also actually trying to remember who she had been that night. No good; it had been years since then. “Ohhhh, Eir! Right.” She adopted a sort of half-sultry, half-annoyed tone. “We danced for one song, you told me you loved me, then immediately ran off with a busty redhead in a straw hat. I’m pretty sure everyone involved was completely hammered; might explain your fuzzy... recollection.” She did remember the redhead being present, or at least thought she did. Maybe that little element of truth would help sell the lie.
Jack rubbed his chin, thinking. “Straw hat, redhead... Huh. You know, I think I do remember that.”
“Great. Glad I could help; crazy we ran into each other here. Now if you’ll excuse me...”
Jack reached out a hand as Ellie turned away, as if to grab her arm. She pulled back, glaring. “Woah - sorry, sorry! Look, I was just wondering if you had any more information on that girl. Y’see, I... I’m embarrassed to admit it, really, but I woke up the next morning with no memory and missing an implant. I think maybe she was the one who stole it? Do you remember anything else?”
Ellie felt her heart rate rise, just a little, as he got closer to the truth. “Look, buddy, this was years ago. It’s a miracle I even remember the straw hat, considering I was wasted too. Now, can I go?”
“Yeah, yeah. Sorry to bother you.” He rubbed his head as she quickly walked away, still muttering to himself.
Lousy stupid goddamn cheap-ass memory serum, Ellie grumbled to herself as she paid for the groceries. “Total erasure or your money back,” my ass. Why the hell didn’t I just kill him back then? She wiped both hands down her face, sighing. Because you’re better than that, right? Because you’re the “good guy” now. You can’t just go killing people who inconvenience you. Just like you can’t go around stealing implants from random civilians. A pause. But I wasn’t back THEN and it would have saved me a lot of trouble NOW.
She jammed the carton of “essentially eggs” into a bag, still arguing with herself. Dating Mel had really done a number on her over the past two years. A few years ago, even when working with Mel as her handler, Ellie had never really cared that much about collateral damage or the ethics of her actions. Her dad had been an assassin; he had cared a lot about his family, but was willing to do some pretty extreme things to provide for them. Like, well, contract killings. She had learned a lot from him.
But that all began to change when she started catching feelings. It had started slowly; brief blushes and asking Mel questions just to hear her talk. But as she learned more about her handler and they started meeting up in person - against the normal hunter code - she started to really think about her dad’s work in relation to her own.
He had killed a lot of people. She had too.
It wasn’t like Mel guilt-tripped her; she had been a handler longer than Ellie had been a hunter, and had guided hundreds of thieves and murderers to steal and kill. She wasn’t exactly innocent either and had never gotten upset with Ellie’s actions unless she put herself in unnecessary danger.
But still. After their trip together to the beaches of Alpha Theta Brue II - and the lengthy conversations deep into the night - Ellie had thought long and hard about her dad, his work, and her own job. She wasn’t him, and as much as she respected and loved him, she didn’t want to be him. So she started to change. Used the stun setting on her gun when she could get away with it. Stopped taking direct assassination contracts. Didn’t go out and steal implants from presumably-innocent civilians.
She still killed people, of course, but fewer. Ellie still wasn’t convinced she was a “good guy,” but maybe she could get there. With Mel’s help, she was making progress.
“...” Ellie shook her head and picked up her bags. How long had she been spacing out? It was well past time to get going.
She headed out of the convenience mart, keeping an eye out for Jack or any station security officers. She didn’t exactly trust that he wouldn’t put it together, especially since she had been so thoroughly compromised. She hadn’t given her name to him, but her face was on wanted posters across the galaxy and she hadn’t bothered to put on a disguise for such a brief outing. Hopefully that hadn’t been a mistake.
Luckily, it didn’t look like anyone noticed or cared about her at the moment. She headed back to the ship, plopped the bags at the base of the stairs, and went to find Mel under the craft.
Ellie swatted her girlfriend’s red ponytail playfully. “Hey, you. Almost done?”
Mel spun around, almost stumbling back into the fuel line. “Ellie, please don’t sneak up on me like that!”
She raised her hands. “Sorry. Jumpy much?”
“Uh, yeah. I’m monitoring local comms,” she said, pointing to her left ear and the near-invisible earpiece within. “There’s a Federation patrol boat scheduled to arrive in about twenty minutes; I was about to call you.”
“Feds? Out here? Did they say why?”
“No idea. I’m only listening in on system arrivals; they don’t have to file reasons with their flight plan.”
“Hmmm...” Ellie grabbed onto the fuel line, helping Mel unlock it from the access port. “I wonder if it’s got anything to do with the guy I just ran into in the store.”
“The guy?”
“Yeah, some guy I stole an implant from and left for dead a few years ago. He didn’t seem to remember me, but it was real close.”
Mel nudged her. “Sloppy work. What kind of discount memory serum did you use?”
“I know, right?”
“Anyway, we should get out of here.”
“Agreed.”
- They’re able to jump to warp before the patrol boat arrives.
- They’re able to take off, but are still calculating the jump when the patrol boat arrives.
- The patrol boat arrives ahead of schedule, before they can take off.
(Winner: )
- They’re able to jump to warp before the patrol boat arrives.
- They’re able to take off, but are still calculating the jump when the patrol boat arrives.
- The patrol boat arrives ahead of schedule, before they can take off.
(Winner: )
2
7
1
@Story Notifications
Scene 3
Minutes later, Ellie was at the controls and piloting the ship past the station’s perimeter. Mel was at the nav computer, programming in the jump coordinates. She frowned and looked up as she finished inputting the route and the drive core began to slowly spin up. “It’s going to take a bit longer than normal to plot a course; apparently there’s a nearby storm that’s interfering with hyperspace travel. That might be why it was so bumpy back there, actually.”
“Okay, how long is ‘a bit longer than normal?’”
“Like ten minutes? We’re not going very far; Strillia is just a few hours away.”
“Ten minutes is still enough time for that patrol boat to show up.”
“And do what? We’ll be here for like two minutes tops before jumping out. What are they going to be able to do, if they even recognize us?”
Ellie thought about that. She wasn’t wrong. “Ha! Alright, maybe we’ll give the feds a wave as we head out. I wonder if they’ll ever give up.”
“Maybe they aren’t here for us? Could just be a routine patrol.”
“That just happened to show up a few minutes after I ran into ‘Jack Starchaser,’ fake star captain extraordinaire? I think it’s a safe assumption they’re here for us.”
Mel smirked. “Jack Starchaser? Is that his actual name?”
“Pfft; I don’t know. I hope not, but maybe... Maybe his parents were just really hoping their kid would become a generic B-list adventurer?”
“Heh. I wonder what his siblings would be called...?”
The conversation continued in this vein for several minutes and a number of increasingly-unlikely names before a new contact appeared on the scope. Mel glanced down to check it out, but didn’t even have time to look up the ID sequence before it broadcast a system-wide transmission.
“Attention all vessels: this is Galactic Federation patrol craft A-0328. A total jump restriction is now in effect; do not attempt to leave the system under any circumstances. Any craft with spooled hyperdrives, disengage immediately or you will be prosecuted.”
Ellie glanced down at the drive core readout; fully spooled and at 90% jump confidence. Another minute or two would be sufficient. “Well, Mel, do you feel like disengaging the hyperdrive today?”
She giggled, poking through the Federation vessel’s registration. “Maybe after we’re done with the jump, but not right now. We’re kind of in a hurry.”
“But we’ll be prosecuted!” Ellie cried, faking anguish. “Oh, how could we ever-” She was interrupted by a blinking direct communication request. “Huh?”
“It’s the feds. They want to talk. Should I answer?”
“Oh, why not? Put ‘em through; we shall dazzle them with our class.”
Mel smiled briefly at the thought of either of them having class, then accepted the transmission. A very nervous-looking man appeared on their viewscreen, wearing the standard boring grey uniform of a Federation space officer. He seemed almost shocked that they had actually accepted the transmission and wasted several seconds pulling himself together.
“Well?” Ellie asked, waving at the camera. “What did you want?”
The officer cleared his throat. “Ahem. Uhm, Ms Ellen Lynran and Ms Melody Alborn, you are hereby charged with-”
“Yeah, yeah, we know the list by now. You can skip this step. Look, we all know that you can’t catch us before we jump out of here and that you can’t track us through hyperspace. So why not just cut out all the boring stuff and come up with a new approach?”
“...Such as?”
Ellie blinked, surprised he was even considering listening to her. “Well, uh, you could... just let us go? Stop trying to catch us? Look, we haven’t even done anything federally illegal in the last year! Don’t you have more dangerous targets to go after?”
Mel tilted her head, but didn’t say anything. The officer seemed confused. “What? But the two of you just destroyed that mining facility in the Gamma Veox system a few days ago! Killed hundreds of people!”
“Uh...” Ellie looked at Mel, who shrugged, wide-eyed. “No we didn’t? We’ve been in hyperspace for the past week coming back from the outer spiral.”
“But - but there were direct eyewitnesses... No, of course you’d be lying! You’re a federal criminal! Now, disengage your hyperdrive and give yourselves up or face the full extent of galactic law!”
Mel nudged Ellie. “Hyperdrive’s ready. You want to get going?”
- “Yep. Let’s go.”
❓ - “Hang on...” [Try and get more info out of the officer. The more votes for this option, and the more questions asked in #story_discussion, the longer they’ll stay. Keep in mind that staying too long risks attack from the patrol boat.]
(Winner: )
- “Yep. Let’s go.”
❓ - “Hang on...” [Try and get more info out of the officer. The more votes for this option, and the more questions asked in #story_discussion, the longer they’ll stay. Keep in mind that staying too long risks attack from the patrol boat.]
(Winner: )
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Scene 4
“Yep. Let’s go.” She gave the officer a little farewell wave. “See you later; better luck next time. For what it’s worth, we actually weren’t involved in whatever that was.”
“Wait-”
Ellie clicked the jump lever into place and the massive white star blurred into invisibility as they dipped into hyperspace. The transmission immediately cut out as they were suddenly several billion kilometers outside of its design range. They could potentially call him back using FTL comms routed through the buoy network, which worked even in hyperspace, but why?
“So about Gamma Veox...” Mel began.
“Yeah, what the hell? We get enough trouble for things we actually do; we don’t need to get framed for stuff we didn’t do!”
“I agree.” Mel poked at the terminal, already scrolling through news articles. “Says here it was a Hane Mining Corporation R&D facility located on Gamma Veox I a bit outside of Primina. Looks like it was a bombing; someone snuck in and blew up a bunch of structural supports, causing the whole thing to collapse and kill most everyone inside. Eyewitnesses - that’s all it says; doesn’t specify who - identified you as being the saboteur. ‘Be on the lookout,’ ‘Inform the Federation,’ blah blah blah. I wonder if any other reports have better descriptions of who thought they saw you.”
Ellie frowned. “HMC, huh? Weren’t those guys contracting for Joley Enterprises? Maybe the new CEO isn’t as indifferent to us as we thought?”
“We haven’t heard anything from him in the past year - basically nothing since we took out Mr Joley himself. I guess it’s possible, but seems kind of unlikely?” A short pause. “Hm. None of these have any sources on who these ‘eyewitnesses’ are, or basically any more detail at all. There’s actually a surprisingly low amount of coverage for what’s described as a famous federal criminal destroying a major corporation’s facility right next to the biggest megacity on a galactic coreworld. You’d really think there’d be an announcement from the planetary government at least, but there’s nothing outside of municipal.”
“You think something funny’s going on.”
“Well, yeah. But beyond the obvious of ‘someone’s framing us.’ This whole thing’s being downplayed all over; I’m not even seeing any reports of a police investigation!” She stood up, closing the terminal. “This is weird. I’m gonna get ahold of a few contacts and look into it a bit more.”
“Sounds good. If something weird’s going on with us, Joley Ent, and the Feds, we need to be on top of it. I’m not letting another Marus Joley come after us. The first one hurt us enough. Hurt you enough.”
Mel smiled and gave Ellie a quick peck on the cheek as she moved past. “That’s sweet, but I’m not the one whose brain he blew up, or who was tortured in prison for two weeks. We need to be careful for both of us.”
Ellie held up a finger. “Technically, I blew up my own brain, and it was a brilliant strategic maneuver.”
Mel smirked. “If you want to get technical, I blew up your brain, except it was just your exocortex, there was no explosion involved, and then you fell out a window.”
“On purpose.”
She had to laugh. “On purpose. I admit it was a brilliant strategy, though.”
...
Qaniit had survived the trip. The long-dead pilot hadn’t crawled out of its sand-encrusted tomb to eat the crew’s brains. The ancient craft hadn’t harbored some deadly pathogen. It hadn’t fallen apart or vanished in transport. In short, nothing bad had happened and they had arrived on Gamma Veox I safely and on time.
Now, Sandeek was out negotiating with the mysterious buyer he had found, leaving the rest of the crew to their own devices in the city of Primina. Most of them had already left the ship, equipped with their credit bonus for the trip and eager to squander it. Qaniit, however, had already sent most of his bonus away to the people of his village. What remained would be enough to live on, but not enough to go crazy in a coreworld megacity. He sighed, wondering if he could be doing more for them.
Qaniit had once been a simple man: a hunter, fisher, and builder among his small tribe living in the snow of a backwater world that no one from the greater galaxy had visited in centuries. He had no idea there was other life among the stars, and no way to reach it even if he had known.
That all changed a little over two years ago, when a bounty hunter by the name Ellen had crashed her ship in the tundra. Qaniit and his tribe had helped her pursue and kill her target, and in exchange they asked to be taken to space on the captured ship. Ellen had agreed and dropped them off on a tropical planet where they could do simple labor and hospitality work to save up enough money to enter the galaxy proper. Then she had left.
She hadn’t exactly counted on the culture shock.
It turned out that many in the tribe hadn’t actually wanted to go to space, but simply didn’t want to be left behind. Qaniit and several others were able to adapt, got off their initial planet, and now worked a variety of more interesting and higher-paying jobs, but a fair number were not and stayed put to work the fields as they always had. Many wanted to go back, but no one knew how to get to their home planet nor how to describe it in enough detail for a pilot to chart a course. There were trillions of stars in the galaxy; how did you describe directions in space?
So Qaniit and the others who had adapted still sent money back to the villagers left on their “temporary” tropical planet, trying to make things easier for them. Maybe one day he could find the hunter who had started this whole thing and ask her for their planet’s coordinates. That was the only way Qaniit could think of to get back. He knew her full name by now, of course: Ellen Lynran was minorly famous across the galaxy after her brazen defiance of Joley Enterprises and the whole mess with the Aesop device. It’s just that there were certain difficulties trying to contact someone who was constantly on the run.
He could still sense the wrecked ship in the cargo bay below, or at least he fooled himself into believing he could. It was still maddeningly familiar. Why? What about it? He just couldn’t put a finger on it.
- Go look at the crashed ship. Try to figure it out.
- Try again to get a lead on Ellie or some way to contact her.
- Ignore these superstitions; go find some of the crew and explore Primina.
(Winner: )
- Go look at the crashed ship. Try to figure it out.
- Try again to get a lead on Ellie or some way to contact her.
- Ignore these superstitions; go find some of the crew and explore Primina.
(Winner: )
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@Story Notifications
Scene 5
Qaniit walked through the quiet corridors to the ship’s cargo bay, slipping into the cavernous space and making his way to the wreck tied down near the main doors. The pilot was still there, as was the sand. Nothing had changed since yesterday.
He stepped closer and took in some of the fine details, trying to avoid the empty gaze of the pilot while examining the scored, scorched metal that formed the hull. It had been blasted by sand and atmosphere, but the wrecked ship’s name was still visible in faded paint: Atlas.
That was the part he found familiar. But why?
He rubbed his eyes, staring at the name. On a whim, he unclipped the translator from his ear, disconnecting it from the contact lenses that allowed him to read any language as well as listen. An upgrade to the default translator package, but a relatively popular one.
He could still read it. The name Atlas was written in his native language. An older form, sure, but the same shapes and still perfectly legible. Somehow, this ancient ship had its name written in glyphs from a middle-of-nowhere backwater planet that no one had ever heard of. And it had ended up crashed on a desert planet presumably light years away?
He clipped the translator back on, blinking twice as his vision re-adjusted. A dim memory surfaced: an old legend his mother had used to tell.
Long ago, so the story went, a group of travelers from across the sea came to the land of ice. With them they brought many wondrous things: objects that could create light and heat with no fuel, boats that could travel on land as well as water, and an atlas that cataloged all the stars in the sky. The story went on to describe these people as blessed with incredible technology, but cursed with arrogance because of it. As winter approached and settled across the land, they relied on their incredible items to survive instead of accepting the help of the locals - his people - and living in cooperation with the natural world. In the end, their technology failed from the cold and many died; those who survived the winter traveled back across the sea, never to be seen again. The moral was something along the lines of living in harmony with nature and never relying fully on technology. Qaniit had certainly screwed that one up, he supposed.
But the word “atlas” stuck out at him. It had always been “atlas” specifically; never “map” or “chart” or anything else. Maybe, if those people had been from space instead of across the sea...?
It didn’t seem likely, but it would at least explain the language.
Qaniit poked around the ship for another few minutes, trying to recall anything else, before he heard the crew door slide open and footsteps sound on the metal floor. Feeling almost like he shouldn’t be here even though he was a member of the crew, he didn’t speak up and instead concealed himself behind the wreck until whoever it was got what they came for and left.
Sandeek’s voice rang out in the cavernous room. “It’s just over here. Behind those boxes... there ya go.”
A different man’s voice, smoother and higher, responded. “Ah, very interesting. Certainly looks authentic, but of course you must know how easy fakes can be made these days.”
“No fakes here! This is the genuine real deal: one antique wrecked ship direct from the sands of Ujee.”
“Forgive me if I don’t take your word for it completely; I have to be quite thorough in my line of work. Would you mind if I examine it more closely? No damage will be done to the object.”
“Knock yourself out; it’ll check out on whatever scan you care to run.”
Qaniit carefully maneuvered himself around the wreck as Sandeek and his conversation partner walked around the other side, trying to keep out of sight. At this point, being seen would just be awkward since he hadn’t made himself known at the start. A stream of quiet beeps floated through the air from some electronic device.
“Incredible. Mr Sandeek, you certainly are a man of your word. This is, as you said, the real deal.”
“I’d never try to swindle a company man like yourself,” he grouched. “I’m as honest as they come.”
“Well, Lockheed-Bolte thanks you for your choice in coming to us with this find. We would be more than happy to buy it off you for the previously-agreed price.”
“Sold! It’s all yours!”
“Excellent, excellent. I will call in a transport immediately; it should be here in less than two days. And, one more thing, Mr Sandeek.”
“Hm?”
“Keep this wreck a secret, if you can. Don’t spread the news, and definitely don’t speak of our involvement, even amongst your own crew. But if anyone else comes to purchase or investigate it before we come to pick it up, let them, don’t mention us at all, and inform me immediately. We will pay you the original price plus double whatever they’re offering.”
“Uh, okay. I can be discreet.”
“I appreciate it. It has been a pleasure doing business with you, Mr Sandeek. I will contact you directly as soon as the transport is ready to pick up the wreck. Again, do not mention us at all. Inform me of any other potential buyers, or in fact anyone interested in it at all.” A pause and some clinking sounds, like credit chips exchanging hands. “There will be more of this coming as long as you cooperate.”
“Not a problem, sir. Hope to hear from you soon.”
“You will. I’ll show myself out.”
Qaniit peeked out from around the ship as the other man left, catching sight only of a taller figure in a smart navy suit. He couldn’t even be sure what species the man was; humanoid for sure, but actually human? Maybe.
- Talk to Sandeek.
- Stay hidden until he leaves too.
- This is fine; just normal business dealings.
- This is not fine; it’s super shady.
(Winners: , )
- Talk to Sandeek.
- Stay hidden until he leaves too.
- This is fine; just normal business dealings.
- This is not fine; it’s super shady.
(Winners: , )
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@Story Notifications
Scene 6
Well, that’s a little concerning. Qaniit stayed out of sight until Sandeek also left the room, muttering something under his breath as he went. What do they want with anyone else who shows an interest in this thing? And not even telling the crew? Nothing the representative said had been technically illegal, but all together it told a shady story. Especially since the man apparently represented Lockheed-Bolte.
L-B was primarily a galaxy-wide weapons manufacturing corporation, pumping out instruments of death for anyone who could afford them. Everything from knives and pistols to starship-size missile batteries and city-vaporizing fusion bombs could be found under a Lockheed-Bolte brand, but they weren’t archaeologists. At least, not that he knew. It didn’t make sense for them to be interested in this ship.
He shook his head. Not his place. Qaniit had come a long way since his first venture into the greater galaxy, but the number one lesson he had learned was when to keep his head down. Unless this mysterious L-B representative threatened him or the rest of Sandeek’s crew, there wasn’t any reason to jump out and get involved. Too much risk; not enough reward.
But he was definitely going to keep his eyes open for anything else.
...
“Thank you, Mips. You’ve been very helpful.” Mel gave a little half-bow as she stood. “But, if I can ask, why did you insist on meeting us in person? We could have done a holocall from our ship.”
An arrangement of illuminated orbs near Mipsreka’s “head” pulsed slowly as they spoke in a deep, calm voice. “It is the will of the Tapestry that you are here, now.”
Ellie huffed quietly. Mel continued to lead the conversation. “Of course, but do you have any idea why the Tapestry willed it so?”
The quarite hummed, their whole body seeming to shift to a slightly different color. “Yes. You are required to be here, now, so that you are not there, now.”
“There?”
“There. Above. Look outside; look up.”
Mel glanced at Ellie, who shrugged and walked over to the balcony. “Fuckin’ Mips,” she stopped herself from muttering, because that would be rude. All quarites were like this to a degree - the cone-shaped, long-lived aliens had a penchant for religion and philosophy - but most weren’t into it quite as much as Mips. Ellie had never been into the whole “will of the universe” thing; the “will of the universe” couldn’t stop a bullet or make money to pay for warp fuel. Just a bunch of superstitious nonsense. But Mips had some good intel sometimes, so she put up with it. At least Mel didn’t seem to mind doing the talking.
“Woah. Uh, at the risk of sounding cliche, you better come take a look at this.”
Mel headed over too, looking up at the sky. “Wow. That is a big ship.” She squinted, trying to make out more details of the massive, blocky cruiser against the blue sky. “I hope it’s not here for us.”
Mips followed them to the balcony, sliding slowly along the floor on their membranous foot - like that of a snail. “It is not. At least, not yet.”
“Federation?”
“This craft belongs to Lockheed-Bolte. It is here for other purposes, but it is still better for you to be here and not there.”
Ellie frowned. “Why? We don’t have any beef with L-B; just Joley Enterprises. Why would they care about us?”
“Aside from the multitude of Federation patrols accompanying the cruiser? Because they are here, at least in part, to bury what you have come to excavate.”
“The facility,” Mel stated. “Of course! Hane Mining Corporation is a subsidy of Lockheed-Bolte! They contracted with Joley, but they’re owned by L-B.”
“Hold up, I’m not - you’re saying probably the biggest weapons corporation in the galaxy is trying to frame us for destroying their facility? Because you-” she pointed at Mips. “You said they’re trying to ‘bury what we came to excavate.’ So if we’re here to dig up the truth of who actually destroyed it, then...”
“Yes,” the quarite confirmed, placing a tendril on the railing. “They are here to cover it up, among other things. You must act quickly.”
“Hang on; two questions.” Ellie held up both hands in a “stop” gesture. “First: how do you know all this? And second: what ‘other things’ are they here to do?”
“I know much, because I watch the Tapestry as it is woven. If you had the patience to see without your eyes, you-”
“I don’t know why I even asked. What ‘other things,’ then?”
Mips hesitated, several stalks near the tip of the cone drooping in an expression Ellie’s translator was unable to grasp. “I do not know, but I am certain it is related. Nothing good can come of this.”
“I’m certain you’re right.”
[Ellie and Mel can stay together and focus on one task, or split up to try and tackle both.]
Ellie will...
️ - Investigate the destroyed facility.
- Figure out what else L-B is doing here.
Mel will...
️ - Investigate the destroyed facility.
- Figure out what else L-B is doing here.
(Winners: ️ , ️ )
️ - Investigate the destroyed facility.
- Figure out what else L-B is doing here.
Mel will...
️ - Investigate the destroyed facility.
- Figure out what else L-B is doing here.
(Winners: ️ , ️ )
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@Story Notifications
Scene 7
Ellie pulled the hoverbike to a stop and kicked it into standby mode, allowing it to descend until it rested gently on the ground and the gravlifts could disengage. She hopped off, turning to help Mel grab their packs. “So, where is everyone?”
The ruined facility had been built into a cliffside before the bombing. Now, much of the rock had slid down to leave a crumbling hill in its place. Police tape and “no entry” signs in a variety of exciting colors dotted the area, but there were no actual law enforcement officers, corporate agents, or in fact anyone at all.
“Not here, I guess. I mean, this place was destroyed almost a week ago - it sort of makes sense for there to be no one around.”
“You think we beat all the people on the cruiser, then?”
“It did just show up. They’ll need some time to get organized and get on the ground. Probably not too long though, so we better hurry.”
“Right.” Ellie walked closer to the collapsed slope, blatantly disregarding the signs and tape. “Hmmm...”
“See anything good?”
“It’s pretty sealed up, all right. We’re probably not going to be able to just walk in. But...” She peered up at the upper levels of the collapse, using her exocortex’s enhanced vision mode to compensate for the glare and distance. “I think the debris is thinner up there. Might be able to dig our way into an upper level.”
Mel approached as well, holding a little bowl-shaped device that she pressed against the slope. It hummed and displayed a series of images on the screen. “Imager says the main entrance was probably...” She shuffled several steps to the left. “Here. We could just dig through here; it says there’s an air pocket behind.”
“How thick is it? Actually, give me that thing. I want to check up there.”
“Couple of feet at least.” Mel handed the device over. “Be careful; don’t fall.”
“When have I ever done that?”
“Done what, fall? Like twice a mission, usually.”
“No, be careful.” Ellie tugged on a pair of binding gloves, double checked the concussion pads wrapped around her torso were tight, and started up. The gloves immediately had trouble with the loose dirt and dust - they were designed to bind to solid surfaces and provide perfect handholds, but that only worked when the exterior surface was stable - metal, rock, glass, or something like that. Loose dirt just bound to the gloves and then came away with them uselessly.
Still, she wasn’t about to give up and pressed on regardless, essentially just free climbing without much help from technology. Thankfully, the slope was shallow enough that she made it up with only two close calls and one minor bruise on her shin. The subsurface imager hummed again and spit out another set of results. “Looks like I found a window up here,” Ellie called down. “Only a few inches thick; I bet I could blast it open pretty quick!”
Mel glanced above her, shading her eyes. “And risk bringing the whole pile down further? It’s probably safer to just carefully dig through the main entrance and keep it supported.”
“But slower!”
“But slower,” she agreed.
️ - Dig in through the main entrance, stabilizing the pile with stasis beams. [Slow but safe. Enters the facility on ground level.]
- Blast in through the upper window. [Fast but more risky. Enters the facility on an upper level.]
- Set a shaped blasting charge and see if they can blow off a large portion of the debris. [Fast. Dangerous. Opens up multiple levels of the facility.]
(Winner: )
️ - Dig in through the main entrance, stabilizing the pile with stasis beams. [Slow but safe. Enters the facility on ground level.]
- Blast in through the upper window. [Fast but more risky. Enters the facility on an upper level.]
- Set a shaped blasting charge and see if they can blow off a large portion of the debris. [Fast. Dangerous. Opens up multiple levels of the facility.]
(Winner: )
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@Story Notifications
Scene 8
“Come onnnn; we need to hurry before L-B gets here!”
Mel glanced to either side as if confirming no one had snuck up on them. “Alright, fine. You’re the field expert. Just don’t bury the whole thing.” A pause, then she backed up to stand with the bike. “Also, I’m going to wait over here. Just in case.”
“Probably a good idea!” Ellie shouted. “Ready?”
“Basically!”
She gripped onto the slope with one hand, then drew her gun with the other and set it to concussive mode, maximum power. Toggled her shield on and waited the few seconds as it initialized and flashed into view before fading back to invisibility. This could get messy. She aimed at an angle so any deflection would bounce away from her, squinted her eyes nearly shut, then pulled the trigger.
Her hearing cut off abruptly as adaptive sponges in her ears automatically sealed to protect her eardrums from the shockwave. A wave of loose rock and dirt blasted away from the slope. Without her other arm to stabilize it, the gun bucked and nearly launched itself out of her hand. Ellie breathed shallowly as the dust cleared and her hearing returned, trying to assess the damage.
She had blasted a sizable chunk of debris out of place and revealed the upper few inches of a glass pane. An overhang of solidified dirt hovered just above the window, threatening to crash down. Ellie considered the situation, then clicked the gun over to cutting mode and began carving through the window. She kept a careful eye on the overhang - another concussive blast would probably cause it to come down on her head.
A few careful minutes later, a square section of the window had been pushed into the facility, along with a shower of dirt and debris. Ellie slid inside before calling down to Mel. “Got it! You coming?”
“Uhhhm...” Mel looked up at the steep, unstable slope.
“Come on, I’ll throw you a rope!”
A few nervous minutes later, Mel had made it up as well and the two of them stood in a nondescript darkened hallway. The ceiling bulged and had even collapsed in a few places; debris flooded the area. Clearly it wouldn’t be safe to spend too long here. “So, what are we looking for?” Ellie asked.
Mel cautiously advanced and tried a door. Unlocked but stuck; she had to shoulder it open. Just a small office behind. “Anything useful. We want to know what they were doing here, why it might have been destroyed, and who might have done it. Plus why someone wanted to frame us for it.”
“Aye aye.” Ellie saluted. “We should split up; it’ll be faster that way.”
“As much as I hate the idea of separating, you’re right. We don’t have time.” She started poking through the desk in the office she had found. “You want to head down and see if there’s anything on the lower levels?”
“Will do. Be careful.” Ellie kept her gun drawn and powered, though she couldn’t exactly explain why since everyone here would be dead, and squeezed down into the partially-collapsed staircase. It was a tight fit and she had to leave her bag upstairs, but she managed to make it three floors down before the collapses got too bad to continue. She wormed out into what would probably be the second floor, exocortex in night vision mode, and carefully stalked forward.
Something shuffled in a nearby room. Ellie blinked in surprise; there shouldn’t be anything alive in here. Maybe it was a particularly enterprising rodent. She clicked up the power on her gun, double-checked the shields, and carefully moved towards it. “Mel?” she whispered into her communicator. “I hear something down here.”
“What do you hear?”
She made it to the door. The sounds stopped. Ellie held her breath and reached out for the handle.
The door crashed open, knocking her hand out of the way. A tall, emaciated humanoid figure howled and lunged for her. Ellie fired, carving a burning hole through its side, but it didn’t go down. It smashed into her, sending them both tumbling to the ground, then howled again and tried to bite at her with dozens of sharpened teeth.
Ellie screamed something approximating “ZOMBIES?!” before regaining her senses and fighting back. Zombies weren’t real. This person was a gauruvian, a lizard-like species with powerful jaws that could easily kill her if they managed to get a good chomp on something vital like her neck. They were emaciated and aggressive because they had been trapped in these ruins for days on end. As for why the gunshot hadn’t killed them...?
Well, she had to admit she didn’t have a good answer for that one.
“Zombies?!” Mel asked in her ear. “Do you need help? What’s going on?”
- Attempt to kill the gauruvian. [Ellie is at a serious disadvantage in melee against this strong, armored species, especially if her gun isn’t effective.]
- Attempt to stun the gauruvian. [Use the stun setting on her gun; try to overload its nervous system. Will be hard to get a good shot from here.]
- Attempt to reason with the gauruvian. [Might be hard to break through the murderous rage.]
- Call for backup; try to not die until Mel gets here. [Won’t be easy to stall for a minute or so.]
- Try to break its grip and get away. [Won’t be easy; these things are very strong.]
(Winners: , - tied)
- Attempt to kill the gauruvian. [Ellie is at a serious disadvantage in melee against this strong, armored species, especially if her gun isn’t effective.]
- Attempt to stun the gauruvian. [Use the stun setting on her gun; try to overload its nervous system. Will be hard to get a good shot from here.]
- Attempt to reason with the gauruvian. [Might be hard to break through the murderous rage.]
- Call for backup; try to not die until Mel gets here. [Won’t be easy to stall for a minute or so.]
- Try to break its grip and get away. [Won’t be easy; these things are very strong.]
(Winners: , - tied)
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@Story Notifications
Scene 9
“Yeah, if you - hng - can!” Ellie strained against the gauruvian, unable to aim her weapon with both hands occupied keeping its sharpened teeth away from her neck. “Gauruvian; I - whoop!”
The thing slipped out of her grip and slumped down heavily, pinning her left arm with its shoulder. Ellie could feel teeth on her skin for a fraction of a second before she managed to kick its body over and turn the fall into a half-roll. Arm still pinned under its weight, she didn’t have a lot of options to get away, though at least it couldn’t try to bite her from this angle without losing the pin.
“On my way,” Mel said. “Hang on.”
The gauruvian sliced out with its free hand, its serrated claws thankfully getting caught in Ellie’s reinforced synthweave jacket before they could pierce into her side. She had her weapon hand free and maybe two seconds to use it. Think, think. Regular shots don’t work, but what about...
On a hunch, she clicked the gun’s firing setting over to “stun” and squeezed the trigger. A powerful jolt of electricity arced through the gauruvian’s torso, arm, and - wait a minute - Ellie’s arm that was still pinned under its shoulder.
She woke up a minute later with a headache and muscle spasms. Mel hovered over her in dim lantern light, concerned. “What happened? Are you okay?”
Ellie accepted her hand and sat up, glancing back to note the gauruvian lying unconscious behind her. “This guy jumped out. I stunned him, but, well...”
“Managed to get yourself too?”
“Maybe a little. It’s fine; I’ve had worse.” She managed to stand up with some help. “What I’m really curious about is what he was doing here. And, well...” She gestured to the still-smoldering gunshot wound. “How that didn’t kill him.”
After one last check to make sure Ellie was actually okay, Mel knelt down and examined the gauruvian. “I’m no doctor, but that looks like a normal shot. Very close range, but that would make it even deadlier. I guess it probably didn’t hit anything vital, though.” She hesitated. “Maybe? Do you know where gauruvian organs are?”
Ellie shrugged, lifting the man’s head up to check for injuries. “Hang on, what’s this?” She turned his neck to the side, revealing a tiny silver port behind his left ear. “Exocortex access port. You got cable and a scratcher?”
“Only always. Let’s see what you were thinking about...” Mel retrieved a thin black cable from a pocket, plugging one end into her phone and the other into the gauruvian’s access port. A connection attempt flashed up on the screen. “Hang on just one minute... and we’re in. This guy’s cortex had a documented exploit since version 1.0. Never patched.”
Ellie reflexively put a hand behind her ear, covering her own access port. “And you’re sure I’m set up for auto updates, right?”
“You want me to try and hack you after this? We can find out!”
“No, no! That’s okay! I’ll just double check when we get back.”
Mel smirked, then frowned, then blinked several times uneasily. “This data doesn’t make any sense. There’s nothing here but one command repeated a million times: just ‘Kill all intruders’ written on every spare byte in this poor guy’s head. I can’t read the neurons too, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the organics were the same way.”
“Mel,” Ellie asked carefully. “Does that remind you of anything in particular?”
“The Aesop device,” she breathed. “It’s the same pattern I found in your head when Joley mind-controlled you. Just one command repeated endlessly. But the Aesop-”
“We destroyed it. And Joley’s dead; I’m sure of it. So how...?”
“And why? What’s the point?”
“Well. I think we’ve definitely found something important at least. Somehow, the Aesop device is involved. That must be why someone’s trying to frame us; we destroyed it last time, so maybe they want it to look like we’ve recreated it and are using it?”
“But why just leave this one guy in the ruins?”
Ellie thought about that, but didn’t come to a conclusion before the gauruvian groaned and started to stir. “Oh no you don’t.” She clicked down the power a little, then zapped him again until he stopped moving. “I don’t know; it doesn’t make sense. We’re still missing a lot of info.”
“And what do you want to do with this guy?” Mel asked. “We can’t just leave him here. Right?”
- “Oh yes we can.” [Just leave him here.]
- Kill him. Simple, easy, and makes sure he can’t make trouble or reveal their involvement.
- Take him captive; bring him back to the ship.
[And then...]
- Keep searching for clues, focusing on this level.
⬆️ - Keep searching for clues, but go back up first.
⏪ - Leave now, before anyone else shows up.
(Winners: , ⬆️ )
- “Oh yes we can.” [Just leave him here.]
- Kill him. Simple, easy, and makes sure he can’t make trouble or reveal their involvement.
- Take him captive; bring him back to the ship.
[And then...]
- Keep searching for clues, focusing on this level.
⬆️ - Keep searching for clues, but go back up first.
⏪ - Leave now, before anyone else shows up.
(Winners: , ⬆️ )
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@Story Notifications
Scene 10
“... Right.” Ellie thought through the headache. “Let’s take him with us. Maybe we can get more information out of him in a more controlled environment?”
Mel stared at her. “I think that stun knocked the sense out of you. How are we going to get him up the stairs? Back to the spaceport? Through security and onto the ship? Where are we going to keep him?” She paused a moment. “Or did you just want to take him back to Mips and see what they think? I don’t think they’re going to have much interest, but you never know...”
“Uh-” Mel was right, of course. They would have to answer some very awkward questions trying to get him through the city, to say nothing of having to keep him knocked out or restrained. And it wasn’t like they had a prison cell on the starship. “The plan is a work in progress,” she settled on. “But maybe-”
“But maybe nothing. Look, if we can’t even get him up the stairs-”
“We can though!”
“Really? Alright, prove it.” Mel reached down and hauled on the gauruvian’s legs, dragging him towards the stairs. “Come on, help me out then.”
A few minutes of struggle confirmed it: they couldn’t get him up the stairs. At least, not without widening the passage or cutting something off. His shoulders were much broader than Ellie’s or Mel’s, and gauruvians in general were larger than humans. They had hardly made it down in the first place even after leaving their bags upstairs; he just wasn’t going to fit.
“Well?”
“Alright, alright,” Ellie grumbled. “You were right, as usual. We’ll leave him here.”
“Not going to kill him? What if he wakes up? What if he tells someone that we were here?” Mel squeezed her way into the staircase and Ellie followed.
“Well, he’s clearly not getting back upstairs; we just proved that. And given how much of his exocortex is just ‘kill everyone’ directives, I don’t think he’s much for conversation anymore. We don’t need to kill him.”
“Wouldn’t it be sort of a mercy killing anyway? He’s mind-controlled and probably going to get squashed when L-B eventually shows up. Either that or die of dehydration. Not very pleasant.”
Ellie frowned, looking back, but shook her head. “Nope. Not my target, not my kill.”
“Why, Ms Lynran, there’s those morals of yours again!”
“Sometimes I can be nice. When it suits me. Now, let’s see what else we can find before L-B gets here.”
...
“None of this makes sense!” Ellie complained, shuffling aside another damaged data cartridge displaying nothing but an array of colorful blocks on her screen. “It’s all either broken or astronomy! What would a mining company want with detailed stellar survey data?”
Mel plugged in another cartridge, frowned, and tossed it aside. “Maybe they were looking to expand into scooping? It’s basically mining-adjacent, at least.”
“Well, yeah, but why a whole R&D facility for something that simple? Other companies have it figured out pretty well by now, and even some independents! I just don’t get how-” She squinted, reading blurry text through a coating of dust. “-‘multilayer stellar chromatography’ has anything to do with Hane Mining Corporation.”
“Well, keep gathering data. I intend to find out.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Ellie went through several more cartridges and several more pages of excruciatingly detailed reports on the composition of stellar gases before standing up and announcing, “I’m going to go make sure no one’s here yet.”
Mel nodded as she paged through another report. Ellie walked to the window. She just felt a little... discontented here. Gathering intelligence and analyzing data was Mel’s game, not Ellie’s. Her speciality was infiltration, thievery, assassination; that kind of thing. It wasn’t like she didn’t think this was important or anything; she just felt a little useless. Like Mel couldn’t rely on her. Like she was being a bad partner.
She blinked and refocused on the outside. Like she was being a bad spotter. Four large gunships were flying in from Primina to the east, going too low and slow to be passing overhead. They were aiming to land here, and the one in the rear carried a large cylindrical canister - about the size of a shipping container - instead of a passenger compartment. Probably something very dangerous and very explosive. Not good.
“Mel,” she called. “We gotta go!”
“Trouble?”
“Four gunships, one with a bomb. I think L-B’s here.”
She joined Ellie at the window, watching the craft descend towards their bike and the buried facility. There was a chance they hadn’t spotted the bike yet, but there was no chance to get to it and away before being seen. “What are we going to do?”
[A reminder of Ellie’s and Mel’s strengths. Ellie: combat, stealth / blending in, acrobatics. Mel: intel, negotiation, data analysis / manipulation. The three gunships can probably carry about a dozen people, plus equipment.]
- Run for it now, before they can land. They might shoot at the bike, but Ellie’s a good driver. Mostly.
- Walk out to meet the gunships; convince them that they’re here on official business.
️ - Wait for someone to come inside, then ambush and steal a disguise. They brought four gunships; they can’t be here to just blow it up. Right?
- Hide, wait for them to do whatever and leave, then run for it. Ideally before that bomb detonates.
(Winner: )
- Run for it now, before they can land. They might shoot at the bike, but Ellie’s a good driver. Mostly.
- Walk out to meet the gunships; convince them that they’re here on official business.
️ - Wait for someone to come inside, then ambush and steal a disguise. They brought four gunships; they can’t be here to just blow it up. Right?
- Hide, wait for them to do whatever and leave, then run for it. Ideally before that bomb detonates.
(Winner: )
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@Story Notifications
Scene 11
“Did you not hear what I just said? We need to leave. But...” She trailed off, glancing between the bike and the approaching gunships. “Actually, this could be a good chance to learn more about what they’re doing. Maybe we should stay put and hide while listening in on what they’re saying. You think you can get on their comms?”
“You’re really optimistic about my computer skills, aren’t you? But sure, I’ll try.” Mel tapped at her phone, working on connecting to the frequency that would be used by L-B’s comm devices. “Also, if we’re staying here, we need to make really sure that we’re long gone before that bomb goes off. I don’t particularly want to be vaporized today.”
“Not a problem; I’ll take care of evac.”
Mel kept working on the comms while Ellie watched the gunships. All four of them touched down just in front of the collapsed facility. Eight technicians spilled out, followed by four guards. The techs immediately hustled over to the bomb to get it unstrapped and rolling over to the base of the facility, while two guards went to check out the bike and the other two stood watch.
“Anything yet?” Ellie asked.
“No; it’s not as easy as you’d think. They’re not running old RF-band devices; they’re using modern standard network traffic. It’s all encrypted. I don’t think I’m going to get in anytime soon.”
“Well, that’s okay. I’ve got a backup plan.” Ellie grabbed a plain matte sphere out of her bag, tapped it against her phone to pair it, then chucked it out the window to land near the gunships. A few seconds later, the onboard microphone activated and speech began filtering through the connection.
“Wait, why didn’t you just do that in the first place? You know I’m not good at hacking things.”
“It can only listen to one area. We won’t be able to hear what the techs are saying when they move the bomb up.”
Mel nodded and they both peered out the window while listening.
“Hoverbike’s unregistered; probably some urbex kids,” said one of the guards. “What should we do about it?”
There was a delay, as if someone were speaking over their earpiece. “That’s the other reason,” Ellie whispered.
“Okay, will do.” The guard gestured to their buddy and they both walked back to the gunships. “Not worthwhile,” they explained. “Just gonna let the bomb take care of it.”
One of the other guards joined in. This one was larger than the others and had dull grey skin; likely a grull. Ellie blinked several times, feeling her eyes twitch uncomfortably as her vision zoomed in to confirm this. She hated the sensation of optical cyberware, but damn was it convenient. Grull were hardy, loyal warriors, ideal for guard duty. However, they typically weren’t very creative and had trouble with concepts new to them.
In this case, the grull guard seemed unclear on the purpose behind their visit. “Can someone remind me what we’re doing here?” he asked, gesturing at the bomb. “This place is already blown up pretty good.”
One of the other guards - this one a gauruvian - responded. “Base says to blow it up; we blow it up. Any other questions?”
“I’m just curious why,” said the grull. “Seems like we shouldn’t have to blow up something already blown up.”
One of the gunship pilots poked their head out of the cockpit. An umian, apparently: teal skin and thick, gel-like hair strands. “I heard we’re here to get rid of the evidence of what this facility was doing.”
“And what was the facility doing?”
The pilot shrugged. One of the last two guards joined in, this one seemingly human. “Look, maybe we don’t know what we’re doing here, but did you hear about the other team?”
An assortment of shrugs and negative responses. He continued. “They had four whole squads on escort duty just to pick up some wrecked ship. Four squads! We don’t even have one squad here; what do they need four for?”
“Maybe it’s somewhere really dangerous?” the grull suggested.
“Nope! It’s just outside the Primina spaceport. Apparently there’s some scavenger crew selling it off. Weird, huh? Wonder what they’re up to.”
Some assorted mutterings. No one seemed to have any idea. Ellie glanced at Mel, wincing as her eyesight returned to normal. “Scavenger? Spaceport? You getting this?”
“I’ll find out who it is as soon as we’re done here. Might want to pay them a visit; figure out what’s so important about this wrecked ship that L-B needs it so badly.”
“Still, if they’ve got not even one squad here and four squads on the other mission, what in the world do they need a full cruiser for? That thing could hold thousands of troops!”
“Well, they are a corporation, not a standing army.”
“Makes it even weirder! Why do they even have a military-style cruiser?”
“Joley Ent has cruisers; maybe L-B is doing the same thing.”
“Hmmm.” Joley Enterprises had previously held five cruiser-class capital ships; thanks to Ellie and Mel’s exploits about a year ago, they were now down to four. The company used them for blockading systems and exerting pressure more than actual combat, but Ellie had always found it strange that they bothered at all. Cruisers were brutally expensive to crew and maintain; typically only very wealthy systems could field one at all, so most of the galaxy’s capital ships were registered to the Federation. It just didn’t seem like it made business sense, but now here L-B was with another one. Oh well; Ellie wasn’t an entrepreneur. Maybe she was just missing something.
“Got it, let’s go,” said one of the guards over the phone. Ellie refocused on the gunships and frowned. The technicians had finished setting the bomb in place, propped up against the base of the facility, and were quickly moving back to the transports. The guards were following along and all the gunships’ gravlifts began to spin up. Clearly, they were ready to leave.
“Time to make our exit too,” Mel suggested. “Really not keen about that bomb, El.”
- Get back on the bike and gun it as fast as possible.
- Try to distract the gunships and keep them in range to delay the blast.
- Climb up and over the hill instead to put a bunch of rock between them and the bomb.
(Winner: )
- Get back on the bike and gun it as fast as possible.
- Try to distract the gunships and keep them in range to delay the blast.
- Climb up and over the hill instead to put a bunch of rock between them and the bomb.
(Winner: )
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@Story Notifications
Scene 12
“Alright, let’s move it.” Ellie secured her bag, re-checked the concussion pads, and carefully slipped through the window onto the unstable slope just outside. “Ready?” she asked, helping Mel through as well.
“For what? To climb back down?”
“Nope!” Ellie bent down, then sprang powerfully forward off the slope. “We’re in a hurry!” she yelled, plummeting towards the ground. Mel didn’t have time to respond before Ellie hit the dirt with a gunshot-like crack as the concussion pads detonated, protecting her against the fall. She rolled to a stop on solid ground at the base of the slope, only a few dozen feet from the bomb.
“I’m not sure about this!” Mell shouted from fifty feet up. “You make it look a lot easier than it is!”
“You’ll be fine! Hardly feel a thing!” Ellie glanced back towards the gunships. They had almost made it out of the valley and would be out of the bomb’s range very quickly. “I don’t mean to rush you, but...” She trailed off. “Okay, I do mean to rush you. We gotta go!”
Mel closed her eyes, whispered something, and jumped for it. Ellie watched tensely as she prepped the bike; despite her strong words, there were some risks associated with concussion pad falls. Especially if you weren’t experie - ESPECIALLY IF YOU MISSED! She gasped as Mel crashed into the slope, having not covered enough horizontal distance, and tumbled the rest of the way down after the pads had detonated from the first impact. She rolled to a stop much like Ellie had, though significantly more covered in dirt and scratches.
Ellie rose into the air and quickly drove over. “Mel! You okay?”
A muffled groan. “You said it wouldn’t hurt.”
“Only if you don’t hit the slope halfway down!” Ellie reached down, took Mel’s hand, and pulled her onto the bike. She was scratched up and bruised, but it looked like the biggest damage was to her pride. “Sorry; maybe we should have just climbed down.”
“I probably would have fallen off anyway,” she grumbled. “At least this was quicker.”
Ellie gunned the bike and they accelerated away at a rapid pace. “We can review concussion pads back on the ship. As long as you’re okay and we make it out before detonation, I think we can still call this a win.”
“You know what they say about landings you can walk away from, I guess.”
“That’s the spirit!”
There was a blinding white flash from behind them. Then, an instant later, a bone-rattling BOOM so loud that Ellie swore she could still hear it through the protective sponges. The bike pushed forward, shoved from behind by the shockwave. Ellie had to fight the controls to keep it from pitching down and throwing them both over the handlebars while simultaneously spinning into a sideways roll. Still, she managed it and within ten seconds, the worst of it had passed.
“Ellie, look.” Mel tapped her shoulder. She looked.
The hillside was gone. The facility had simply been deleted from existence, along with everything else within a few hundred feet. Beyond that point, grass and topsoil had been stripped away, leaving bare rock charred black. The back of the hoverbike was scorched, the rear gravlift sputtering and partly melted. Protection from their shields had prevented any damage to the rest of the craft or the riders themselves.
“Holy shit,” Ellie stated bluntly. “You think they fuckin’ got it?”
“I know Lockheed-Bolte is a weapons company, but... that’s excessive. What the hell was so important in there that they needed to just vaporize a hillside to get rid of it?” She shuddered. “I’m glad we got out of there when we did. If we had been much closer...”
Ellie drew a finger across her neck. “Blek. Christ.” She hesitated. “You, uh, still think we wanna go after these guys? With their cruisers and crazy mountain-deleting bombs?”
“Well, someone’s trying to frame us for this. Maybe it’s L-B, maybe not. I’m not saying we fight them directly, but maybe just sneak around a bit. Gather some intel. You like sneaking, right?”
“I do,” Ellie admitted. “Okay, let’s get out of here, regroup, and then maybe go talk to that scavenger by the spaceport.”
...
“Mr Sandeek, one more thing.”
“Yeah?” Sandeek paused while going through the suitcase full of credsticks.
“Our agreement from earlier. We would like to extend it further, in case anyone comes by asking about this in the future. You will find an additional sum enclosed for this service. Acceptable?”
“Of course, sir. We’ll be in touch if we have anything to report.”
“Very good, Mr Sandeek. We shall take our leave, then. It’s been a pleasure doing business with you and your crew.”
The tall man, who Qaniit now knew was a gaunt, skeletal, bat-like naxisant, turned to leave, directing the truck containing the wrecked ship ahead of him. Sandeek waited until the L-B procession was out of the hangar before exclaiming, “Lads, we are set for years! There’s enough in this case to upgrade the ship, pay for fuel and food, and have more than enough left over to grant every being here a generous bonus!”
There was some scattered clapping from the crew, which grew into a more cohesive cheer as Sandeek stirred it up. Qaniit didn’t join in, still feeling uneasy about Lockheed Bolte’s involvement. But, if the bonus were as generous as Sandeek said, he might be able to really do something about his village. Maybe it had been a good idea to keep his mouth shut. Everything seemed to have worked out so far.
Three hours later, he nearly fell over in surprise as Ellen Lynran, the bounty hunter he had been trying to locate for the past two years, strode confidently into the hangar, walked up to Sandeek, and asked him about the wrecked ship.
[There are a lot of ways Qaniit can get involved here. Specify in #story_discussion and select some basic approaches here, one from each block.]
❗ - Interrupt; get involved in the conversation.
- Stay back and listen.
- Try to prevent Sandeek from reporting Ellie to L-B.
- Don’t reveal he heard anything about the agreement.
- Demand that Ellie help him get back to his home planet.
⤵️ - Still do that, but in a more roundabout, less obvious manner. Bring it up as an aside, for instance.
(Winners: , , ⤵️ )
- Stay back and listen.
- Try to prevent Sandeek from reporting Ellie to L-B.
- Don’t reveal he heard anything about the agreement.
- Demand that Ellie help him get back to his home planet.
⤵️ - Still do that, but in a more roundabout, less obvious manner. Bring it up as an aside, for instance.
(Winners: , , ⤵️ )
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@Story Notifications
Scene 13
“Hang on, who are you and why are you asking?”
Ellie glanced around the hangar. The rest of the crew was scattered around, most casually listening in but not actively paying attention. “Name’s Lera,” she said. “I heard you might be selling an old wrecked ship and I might be interested in buying. So, are you?”
“Eh, sorry,” Sandeek said, shrugging. “You’re too late; I just delivered it earlier today.”
“Really? Who bought it?” Ellie already knew, of course, but she wanted to gauge how forthcoming this scavenger would be.
“No can do. Seller’s honor; I can’t reveal the identities of my clients.”
“Alright, Sandeek, here’s the deal.” Ellie brushed one corner of her jacket aside, as if by accident, to reveal a sleek grey pistol. “I know you just sold this thing to Lockheed-Bolte. I want you to tell me what this thing was, why they were interested, and anything else they told you. Okay?”
“Listen, lady, I already said I don’t reveal the identities of my clients.” He motioned behind him and a few of the burlier crew members stepped away from the ship threateningly. Excellent. “So how’s about you just turn around and leave, and we’ll forget this ever happened.”
Ellie frowned. She didn’t see any shields on them, but they had the advantage of numbers. She might be able to take them if it came to a fight, but it would be a close thing and there wasn’t the time to spend another few days in the hospital patching up more gunshot wounds. “Look, alright, maybe you don’t want to talk about your clients. But how about the wreck itself? Surely that’s not top secret.”
Sandeek pondered this. “I guess it isn’t, but you’re not being terribly friendly. Why should we help you?”
Maybe I overdid the tough act. It’s hard to get it exactly right. “You’re scavengers, right? Well, I do a lot of exploring. How about a location with a lot of stuff to pick up?”
“Maybe, maybe.”
“Julpes system, third planet, about a 25 Mm orbit. It’s a trashed defense platform towed there from Slaucolt after an upgrade. Everyone seems to have forgotten about it. Could be worth a look.”
Sandeek shrugged again, but more eagerly. “Could be, could be. Alright, Lera, we can talk.” He leaned back a little. “We found the wreck on... where was it again? Ujee IIa, right. Desert moon, wraithbeasts. If you’re such an explorer, you’ve probably heard of it.”
“I have.” She had, actually. Never been, but she had been to Ujee II itself, the moon’s parent planet. The place sucked, to put it bluntly. Too hot, hardly any civilization, and she had gotten shot there. Pretty badly, too. Would have died if Mel hadn’t been there to help. Not that Sandeek needed to know that.
“Of course. We dug it out of the sands. Seemed like it had only recently crashed there, based on the crater, but the ship itself is-” he paused to emphasize the next word - “OLD.”
“How old is OLD?”
Another shrug. “Very. We’re talking tens of thousands of years or more.”
“But the galaxy has only had FTL travel for like a thousand years.”
“Yep. That’s why it’s so crazy, right? But anyway, even the pilot was still in there. Dried up and cooked like jerky, but still there. I’m sure whoever bought this thing will be able to get a treasure trove of historical data out of it. Not me, though; I’m a simple man. Best to leave science to the scientists.”
Ellie rubbed her chin, thinking. The recovery of an ancient starship from far before when it should have been possible was of course a momentous discovery, but why was L-B involved? Could they make weapons out of it? Had they recently activated a new historian division? How was it related to that facility and the Aesop device?
Her phone vibrated twice in a specific pattern. “Well, you’ve been very helpful. Thanks for the information; I’ll be off.”
“No problem at all. See you around.”
Ellie turned to leave, but paused near the door as she heard footsteps close behind her. She glanced over her shoulder to see a tall, lightly tan man approaching. Didn’t seem to have a weapon. Looked nervous. “Can I help you?”
The man struggled to speak, then blurted out, “You don’t remember me?”
“... Should I?”
He stepped a little closer and lowered his voice. “Friend Ellen, it is Qaniit. From years ago. You lifted my people into space.”
- “Oh! Right! Looks like you adapted pretty well, then.”
- “Oh. Right, I remember. So what did you want?”
❓ - “Uh... Who?”
⁉️ - “Uh... I think you’ve got the wrong person. I’m Lera, not Ellen.”
(Winner: )
- “Oh! Right! Looks like you adapted pretty well, then.”
- “Oh. Right, I remember. So what did you want?”
❓ - “Uh... Who?”
⁉️ - “Uh... I think you’ve got the wrong person. I’m Lera, not Ellen.”
(Winner: )
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@Story Notifications
Scene 14
“Oh! Right! Looks like you adapted pretty well, then.” She paused, inviting him to explain why he had started the conversation.
“I wanted to give you some more information. You know, since you helped us back then.”
“Oh, okay. What do you have?”
“The person from Lockheed-Bolte who bought this ship, he brought many warriors with him. They took it away in a large container, as if to be loaded onto a starship.”
“The cruiser,” Ellie murmured. “Not exactly news, but nice to have confirmation, I guess. Is that it?”
“No. The man also required Sandeek to contact him if anyone asked about the wreck or tried to buy it.”
She frowned. “You mean like I just did.”
“Yes.”
“Okay, so L-B’s going to know someone was asking around. Great; we’ll need to move fast. Is that it?”
“Well, I was going to ask him not to report this as soon as we were done talking. So maybe they will not know. But there is one more thing...”
“Very kind of you.” Ellie glanced over her shoulder as her phone vibrated again. “Listen, I’m kind of in a hurry-”
“I will be quick. Friend Ellen, you remember my home planet, yes?”
“Vaguely? Snow, ice, crashed a ship there.”
“Would you be willing to share the coordinates of it? You see, none of us know how to get there anymore and it does not seem to be on normal charts.”
Her phone vibrated several more times. Ellie backed up to the doorway. “Uh, sure. No problem. I’ll figure it out and get back to you when I can.”
“How will you-”
“Just gimme your phone, okay?” Ellie reached out and tapped their phones together, confirming the transfer. “I’ll send it to you. Now, I really need to go.”
“Thank you, friend Ellen. I-”
“No problem.” Ellie darted out the door and ran down the hallway, quickly emerging from the hangar secured area into the spaceport proper. Thousands of people of all species milled around, checking in or out or gathering luggage. She pulled up her messages, scrolled quickly through, then sighed in relief and went to meet Mel just down the concourse.
She had a mysterious green-blue smoothie and waved to Ellie as she arrived. “Hey there; you’re late.”
“Yeah, sorry. Got held up by someone I knew. Why’d you text me so much? I thought you were in trouble!”
“Just wanted to keep you updated on all the cool stuff I found. Such as...” She leaned a little closer and lowered her voice. “I got the scan data and some security footage from their ship while you had them distracted. Nice job with the tough guy act, by the way.”
“One of my many talents. Anything good in the data?”
“Not sure yet. I haven’t had much time to look at it. But from what I saw on a quick overview, there’s a powerful energy source buried somewhere in the wreck; that could be what L-B is after. It must be pretty strong to have lasted so long.”
“Maybe. Listen, the person I ran into said L-B told the seller to notify them if anyone else asked about it. So it’s possible they already know we’re poking around. I’m pretty sure it’ll be on the cruiser by now, so if we’re going to do anything stupid like try and steal it off their capital ship, we better go fast before they jump out of here.”
Mel stirred her smoothie. “Do you want to do something stupid like stealing it off their capital ship? What would that accomplish?”
“I don’t know. At minimum, it’s something valuable enough for L-B to be going to a lot of trouble for, so I bet we could sell it on for a profit. But maybe we’ll find out something more about who’s framing us and what this has to do with the Aesop device.”
“So let me get this straight: your strategy to get us out of trouble for crimes we didn’t commit is to actually commit crimes?”
She shrugged. “Can’t disappoint the feds; who would they put on the wanted posters then?”
“... Alright, but only if you have a good plan. As you said, this is a pretty stupid idea to start with.”
[This is just the general outline of the plan. More choices will come up during its execution.]
- Quietly attach the ship to L-B’s cruiser while it’s in orbit and tag along to their eventual destination through hyperspace.
- Find some L-B employees in the spaceport, steal their outfits, and sneak aboard the cruiser as crew members.
- Sneak on board through cargo containers to stow away in the hold.
- Sneak an FTL tracker onto the ship, then follow it through hyperspace to its eventual destination.
[I estimate we are probably about 1/3 to 1/2 through the story. This one won’t be a novel; promise.]
(Winner: )
- Quietly attach the ship to L-B’s cruiser while it’s in orbit and tag along to their eventual destination through hyperspace.
- Find some L-B employees in the spaceport, steal their outfits, and sneak aboard the cruiser as crew members.
- Sneak on board through cargo containers to stow away in the hold.
- Sneak an FTL tracker onto the ship, then follow it through hyperspace to its eventual destination.
[I estimate we are probably about 1/3 to 1/2 through the story. This one won’t be a novel; promise.]
(Winner: )
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@Story Notifications
Scene 15
“I’ll explain, but we need to head back to the ship real quick. Need to pick something up.”
...
Elsewhere, a man with ghost-white hair growled at his microscope as his hand slipped again and another miniscule fragment of crystal missed its destination. He stepped back, took a breath, rubbed his palms together, and tried again. This time the piece slotted into place. A laser flashed out, fusing the last bit of the whole together. He stepped back and stood up, staring at the now-completed crystal heart without the aid of a microscope.
The man clicked a switch on his desk. “Honar? Send in another one.” He stepped back to take a sip from his thermos as his servant replied affirmatively.
Re-assembling the heart seemed an impossible task. He had been lucky to even gather the fragments he now held, after years upon years of painstaking, brutally expensive recovery operations by Lockheed-Bolte and Hane Mining Corporation in the aftermath of the explosion at the Crystalline Sun. But even with every single fragment - every single molecule accounted for - the thing refused to work. He knew it had power; oh yes. It just refused to cooperate.
A few minutes later, the lab’s door slid open and a brutish grey grull stepped in, leading a perfectly ordinary-looking umian woman. She still wore a flashy red dress, her gel-like hair done up with accentuating ribbons. Her expression was entirely vacant. Much easier that way. “Thank you, Honar,” the man said. “Please stay for a few minutes, in case you need to carry away another body.”
The grull nodded and sat down on an almost comically small plastic chair. This room hadn’t been designed with people of his girth in mind.
“Please, help yourself to any refreshments if you wish. I know we’ve been working late quite often recently.”
Honar tilted his head and stood up again, wandering over to the table. “Boss,” he said, reaching for a bag of chips. “Why are you in such a hurry? No one even knows we’re here.”
“That is where you’re wrong, my friend.” The man typed a short code sequence into the desk and a little drawer popped a few inches out of the metal. He slid a key into the lock, then pressed a finger to a reader beside the physical core. Two beeps and the drawer slid the rest of the way open, revealing a small blue metal sphere. He picked it up carefully, almost reverently. “I have it on good authority that Ms Lynran and Ms Alborn picked up the trail and are on their way here presently.”
Honar actually jumped at that, glancing around the room as if Ellie would step out of a locker and shoot him down. No one was there besides the umian, still staring blankly into a wall. “Here, boss? They’re coming for us? Shouldn’t we... leave?”
“No. Dear, sweet Honar, no.” The man clicked a button on the sphere and thin blue lines glowed on its surface. He connected it to a port on his bracer with a simple cable, then typed in a short sequence. The umian blinked and her eyes cleared somewhat. “I will explain in a moment; please relax and observe.”
“Uh, sure thing, boss.” Honar returned to his seat, crunching on a handful of dull yellow chips.
The man addressed the umian. “Pick up the heart.” Blue lines pulsed on the sphere.
“Okay.” She walked forward, reached down, and picked it up. Nothing happened.
The man grinned. “You see, Honar? Progress.” He addressed the umian again. “Take the heart into that glass box. Close the door.”
“Sure thing.” The umian did as ordered, then stood calmly in the box.
The man tapped a few buttons on the desk. A panel in the floor slid open and a thin metal arm rose into view, grasping a tiny vial of silver-white liquid. “Take the vial. Do not drop the heart.”
The umian picked up the vial. Her left arm - the one holding the heart - shook slightly.
“What are you feeling? Describe it for me.”
“The heart is pulling on my hand. It wants the liquid.”
“Good. Do you feel anything in your body? Think carefully.”
The umian closed her eyes for a moment, focusing. “I don’t think so.”
“Drink the liquid in the vial. Do not drop the heart.”
“Okay.” The umian put the already-open vial to her lips and downed the thing in one swallow. Her eyes opened wider.
“Quickly. Tell me what you feel! Describe it!”
“I - I... It hurts. It-” The umian doubled over, still clutching the heart as instructed. The transparent crystal began to glow. “Aah... it hurts it hurts it hurts IT HURTS IT HURTS AAAAAAAAAAAAAA-”
The umian collapsed. The heart clinked to the floor. Honar crunched on a mouthful of chips. “Is... is it over?” he asked, trying not to spray food onto the floor.
“Not yet. I don’t think, at least. Watch carefully.”
The umian twitched. The man leaned forward. Honar gasped and pointed. “Boss, look!”
The man rounded the desk and ran to stand next to Honar. A small bulge had formed in the umian’s skin about midway down her abdomen, the point closest to the heart. The bulge grew before suddenly tearing and releasing a splatter of dull blue blood onto the floor. However, mixed with that blood were streaks of brilliant silver. The puddle spread towards the heart; the man held his breath.
Silver-laced blood touched the heart and was absorbed. A tinge of color returned to the crystal. It didn’t shatter, not like the previous dozen attempts. The man breathed out. “It worked. It actually worked. I can’t believe it.”
“Boss, I’m gonna be honest: I have no idea what just happened.”
“I know you don’t, Honar. I know you don’t.”
- “So let me explain.”
- “But that’s okay. Let’s clean this up before it gets any ideas.”
- “But that’s okay. Now, about Ms Lynran and Ms Alborn.”
(Winner: )
- “So let me explain.”
- “But that’s okay. Let’s clean this up before it gets any ideas.”
- “But that’s okay. Now, about Ms Lynran and Ms Alborn.”
(Winner: )
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@Story Notifications
Scene 16
“But that’s okay.” He paused, watching the heart. “Now let’s clean this up before it gets any ideas.”
“You want her with the others?” Honar asked, dusting his hands off and standing up.
“If you please. But do be careful of the heart. I need to remove it before it’s safe.” He tugged on a pair of thick gloves seemingly lined with ceramic plates, then bent down to retrieve the heart. Its crystal was now slightly shot through with blue streaks and a tiny sparkle of light pulsed near the center. “Go ahead, Honar. I need to make some observations; I’ll be with you shortly.”
“You got it, boss.” Honar reached down and slung the umian over his shoulder, adjusting her body so blood wouldn’t get all over the floor. The man frowned and tapped at a keyboard as he regarded the heart.
Honar emerged into the hallway and walked nonchalantly towards the airlock. As soon as he left the lab, he could hear loud dance music thumping through the walls from the main floor just a few doors away. He had to admit, it was a bold move to be using the back rooms of the Last Dance nightclub to research dangerous and mysterious artifacts. It was even more bold to be abducting and experimenting on patrons, using the club’s less than stellar safety reputation as cover for the disappearances.
Still, it seemed to be working. Honar hadn’t seen anyone besides occasional dark-clothes, no-nonsense security agents in his weeks here, except of course when he went out onto the main floor for breaks. Oh, look, there was one now. “How’s it going?” he asked, nodding to the agent as he walked past. They didn’t respond. None of them ever did. Didn’t stop him from being polite, though.
Ah, there was the airlock. Honar stepped in, dumped the body on the floor, and turned to leave before cycling it to expel her into space. He was already thinking ahead to what to have for dinner and what to read before bed toni- “AGH!”
Something grabbed his ankle. Honar yelled and jumped back, his training kicking in as he activated his shield and unslung his scatterlaser in one smooth motion. In one second flat, he had kicked the corpse to the other side of the airlock, taking aim as his shield came up.
She didn’t move.
Honar stood, tense, for nearly ten seconds as nothing continued to happen. He carefully shuffled forward, then prodded the body with the barrel of his gun to flip it over. Its eyes stared blankly at the ceiling, clearly dead.
“... Huh.” Maybe he had just set it down weirdly and caught his ankle on its hand.
He backed up to the airlock door, gun still trained on the body, and felt for the switch with one hand. Retreated into the main body of the station, closed the door, and started the cycle. Finally relaxed, put his gun away, and deactivated his shield. The outer door opened and he watched the umian spin away into space in a blast of air. Dead and gone. No need to worry about it, surely.
The man jogged up, clutching a heavy pistol in one hand and the blue metal sphere in the other. Two agents trailed him at a distance. “What’s going on, Honar? I heard shouting.”
“Oh, uh... nothing, boss. I got rid of the umian, like you said.”
“Is it really nothing? We stand on the cusp of an unknown future. I need to know if anything strange is going on.”
He hesitated. “I... uh, I thought she grabbed my foot when I was throwing her out the airlock. Maybe I just dropped the body weird, though. It’s probably nothing.”
The man frowned deeply. “It’s never nothing when working with these hearts. Please hold.”
Honar stood perfectly still, his unease growing, as the man fiddled with the blue sphere. Circuitry flashed and glowed. The frown grew more pronounced. “Everything okay, boss?”
“The device still has a connection to that umian. Its implant runs off spare electricity from the nervous system, so if she were dead, it would have lost the signal. Something is still alive out there.”
“In... in space, boss?!”
“Perhaps. I’ll check again in a few minutes, in case it’s just residual, but I wouldn’t put anything past this heart. It seems to know what we’re trying to do with it.”
“But it’s just a rock. It can’t know anything.”
“Oh, Honar. There’s so much you don’t know.” The man sighed. “And I wish I could tell you, but you wouldn’t understand.”
“You’re probably right, boss. I’ve never been good at the whole ‘thinking’ thing.”
“All the more reason for us to stick to our respective strengths, then, right?” The man deactivated the sphere and locked it away in a secured pocket on his shirt. “Now, I’m afraid we need to discuss our next move before turning in for the night.” He gestured to the side, leading Honar slightly further away from the agents and lowering his voice. “Two of the most successful bounty hunters in the galaxy are on their way here and we need to have a plan to defeat them. They likely aren’t aware of the full extent of our work yet, and they may not even know we have the device-” He patted his pocket. “-but they will quickly put it together once they arrive.”
“So what are we gonna do, boss?”
“That’s what I hoped to discuss with you, Honar. You say you aren’t good at thinking, but you belittle yourself. You have as sound a tactical mind as many battlefield commanders. So, you tell me. What are we going to do?”
[These choices are only initial ideas. Honar and the man will refine their plan as the man reveals more information and as the situation evolves.]
- Run away. The hunters can’t beat what isn’t here.
️ - Ambush. Set up a diversion and attack while they’re distracted.
- Full assault. The hunters are competent fighters, but direct combat isn’t their strong suit.
- Hide, pretend everything is normal, then escape and destroy the station while they’re on board.
[Or suggest something else! Obviously, Honar and the man will not choose a dumb plan likely to make life easy for Ellie and Mel.]
(Winner: )
- Run away. The hunters can’t beat what isn’t here.
️ - Ambush. Set up a diversion and attack while they’re distracted.
- Full assault. The hunters are competent fighters, but direct combat isn’t their strong suit.
- Hide, pretend everything is normal, then escape and destroy the station while they’re on board.
[Or suggest something else! Obviously, Honar and the man will not choose a dumb plan likely to make life easy for Ellie and Mel.]
(Winner: )
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@Story Notifications
Scene 17
“Well...”
...
“Disengaging jump in 3... 2... 1...”
The gentle purple-black of hyperspace blurred into lines, then stars, as the ship decelerated back into reality. Ellie was already at the window, staring at the bloated red star that formed the centerpiece of the Eir system. Two terrestrial planets and three frozen gas giants orbited here, but all at an extreme distance too far from their sun to support life.
Of course, that didn’t mean the system was empty. Hovering at about 100 Gm from the star was a band of mineral-rich asteroids, the remnants of some long-ago collision between rocky stellar bodies. Many, if not most, of these asteroids had been mined out by now, leaving behind cavernous, empty shells. And so of course, someone had built a space station in one of them.
Quite a few of them, actually, but the Last Dance nightclub was by far the most popular. It was also an utterly baffling destination for Lockheed-Bolte’s cruiser.
“I can’t believe we’re here of all places,” Ellie complained. “I just ran into ‘Jack Starchaser’ like a few days ago! What kind of a coincidence is that? And what the hell are they doing at a nightclub?”
“Not much, it looks like.” Mel gestured to the scope. “The cruiser is just sitting there.”
“Well, we are a few hours behind them. They probably did whatever they were going to do, and then...” She paused, considering. “But why are they still here, then? Do you think they know we’re following them?”
Mel shrugged. “Maybe? We were pretty careful to stay out of scan range, but if they noticed our beacon, it wouldn’t take a genius to figure out that someone’s following.”
“Why not just destroy it, then?”
“To catch whoever’s following? Set a trap?”
“See, that’s what I’m worried about.” Ellie frowned, pacing. “We’re missing a connection here. The wreck, the Aesop, the nightclub, who’s framing us and why.”
“You want to just call it? We could just leave. They can frame us all they want; we’ve been avoiding the feds for years.”
“... No. I’m curious now. I want to know what’s going on. We’ll just need to be careful.”
“I’m curious too.” Mel tapped at the console, guiding the ship closer to the station. With all the other traffic around, they would be hard to spot. “You know, even before I was a handler, I read a lot about history. The beginning of the universe and all that. How, even though we’ve got all this technology, we still don’t understand where everything came from. And a starship from long before anything like it should have been possible really raises some questions I’d like to answer.”
“You think we’re gonna find capital-G God in a wreck from thousands of years ago?” Ellie slid a brace of flexible, transparent polymer over her head to wrap around her neck and handed one to Mel. “Here, in case we’re going up against the Aesop again. Don’t want to get brain-jabbed.”
“Good point. You should cover your port, too. Just in case.” Mel tapped just behind Ellie’s left ear. “And... no, not really. But we could learn a lot about where everything might have come from. I just hope L-B isn’t going to damage the wreck for whatever they’re going to do with it.”
Ellie poked through the drawers to find a lock-out cover, which she clicked into her access port. A shiver. Always felt weird to have something jammed half an inch deep into your head. “I kind of doubt they’re after it for the historical value. Maybe we can steal it and give it to someone who’ll appreciate it more.” A shake of her head. “But no, not now. We’re just looking for information first.”
“Plus, it’s probably still on their cruiser and we’re not going there any time soon. Not in this ship, at least. We’ll get blown up before getting anywhere close.”
“It is a little imposing, isn’t it?” Ellie glanced at the heavy lines of the massive ship hovering menacingly over the station. Dozens of powerful turrets and cannons sat idle in their mounts, glittering in the light of the star and awaiting a target. “What is it doing?” she whispered. “Just sitting there?”
- Go in disguised as normal patrons and mingle. Don’t draw attention.
- Go in disguised, then change to staff disguises and explore. Don’t draw attention.
- Go in disguised and sneak out of the main area. Find something interesting. Don’t be seen.
(Winner: )
- Go in disguised as normal patrons and mingle. Don’t draw attention.
- Go in disguised, then change to staff disguises and explore. Don’t draw attention.
- Go in disguised and sneak out of the main area. Find something interesting. Don’t be seen.
(Winner: )
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@Story Notifications
Scene 18
“Okay, you ready for this?” Ellie asked. “We’re gonna have to play most of it by ear since I have no idea how it’s changed since I was last here.”
Mel gave a thumbs up. “It’ll be fine. Let’s do it.”
Ellie nodded, took a deep breath, then stepped through the automatic door into the Last Dance. Immediately, she was assaulted by a wall of noise and heat. The place was packed, enormously loud, and lit by an uneven mixture of spotlights, colored glamor lighting, and dim indirect fixtures. So not much had changed. “Come on, let’s go see if we can find a server to tail.”
Mel had never been to a club like this; she had grown up in the decaying concrete towers of Nerinsk on Olornth VI where there had been nothing like it, and in the time since she had gone offworld with Ellie, they had mostly been on the run in the galactic rim. Sure, there were plenty of seedy clubs out there, but nothing so garishly in-your-face as this.
People of all different species mingled, talked, drank, and danced. She caught glimpses of humans and other species she knew - reptilian gauruvians, teal-skinned umians, mole-like ettri, and so on - but there were plenty of representatives from species she had never even seen before. Six-legged insectoid creatures laughing with a group of floating, jellyfish-like beings. An amorphous blob of slime bubbling into its drink next to a being that resembled an enormous lobster. A human-looking creature with a too-wide mouth that reminded her of a shark’s, dancing with a being seemingly made of hard-cut blocks of prismatic crystal.
“You never see crowds like this out in the rim,” she whispered to Ellie. “I had no idea there were so many sapient species! Well, I mean, I did from reading about it, but... you get the idea, right?”
“Mid-spiral systems are crazy,” Ellie agreed. “In the coreworlds, you usually don’t get places like this because everything’s all bureaucratic and under the Federation’s thumb. But in the rim, there isn’t usually the infrastructure or credits to build ‘em. Here, you get that weird mix. Stay on your guard and don’t let anyone get too close.”
She tried to keep an eye out for anyone suspicious, but there were just too many people to watch. Ellie had a tight grip on her hand as she forged a path through the gathered crowd, but how was she supposed to not let anyone get too close when she had to literally shove people out of the way to keep up? Occasional aliens of all species watched them as they passed, looking up from drinks or conversations momentarily to scope out the newcomers. Hopefully they didn’t stand out too much. Mel was grateful to note that Ellie had been right about their outfits; neither her synthweave jacket and jeans nor Mel’s slightly more formal blouse and skirt stood out.
They also both wore fake faces, flexible gel masks modeled after various people Ellie had scanned in her earlier travels. No fake fingerprints today; the club didn’t have that kind of security. But as a last component to their outfits, they both wore their shield medallions and guns as inconspicuously as possible. Ellie had hers in obscure pockets on the inside of her jacket, while Mel could feel the metal of her medallion bouncing against her leg under her skirt. Not ideal, but she could still activate it through the fabric and it absolutely was not visible.
Finally, they broke out of the main body of the crowd and had a moment to breathe between one of the dance floors and a bar. Ellie squinted at something Mel couldn’t see in the dim, strobing light. “I see a server over that way. He’s doing a round of tables, then will go back into that door. Passes by a railing overhanging that lower level; I bet we could yank him over and into that little alcove pretty quietly. Get his outfit. Think that’s a good plan?”
Mel stared into the confusing mess of visual noise. “I can’t see any of what you just described, but yes, I trust you. Sounds good.”
Ellie laughed. “When are you getting that exocortex like you said you wanted to? It’s been a year at least! Or at least eye augs.”
“I’ll get around to it! I just never seem to have time for brain surgery with all the crazy plans we keep making.”
“Alright, alright. Okay, I think we should head over in about twenty seconds to meet up with him properly. Just stay put and don’t look approachable until th... hello? Can we help you?”
A tall, broad, blue-skinned humanoid with feathery antennae and six-fingered paws for hands had wandered up to them; a kacek. Typically friendly and laid back, but there were always exceptions. Mel had been chased down and almost killed by a kacek bounty hunter three times over the past two years before they had finally gotten away. At least, so they hoped.
This one looked different, though. Less grumpy, fewer scars, a little slimmer. “Hello there, my name Vigla’og. You pretty. Want to dance?”
“W-who, me?” Mel stuttered as Ellie glanced nervously back towards the server.
“Yes!” the kacek exclaimed happily. “You know traditional kacek dances? I show you!”
[Any of these reactions will make sense in context, if chosen, and will become part of The Plan™️.]
- Ellie: “Sorry pal, she’s taken.”
- Mel: “Uh, n-no thanks.”
- Mel: “O-okay.”
- Ellie: “You should go! It’ll be fun; kaceks are really good dancers!”
(Winner: )
- Ellie: “Sorry pal, she’s taken.”
- Mel: “Uh, n-no thanks.”
- Mel: “O-okay.”
- Ellie: “You should go! It’ll be fun; kaceks are really good dancers!”
(Winner: )
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@Story Notifications
Scene 19
“Yeah, no.” Ellie stepped in front of Mel. “Sorry pal, she’s taken.”
“Oh, very good! I mean no harm; you two have good time!” The kacek performed a complicated gesture with his hands that roughly translated as a polite goodbye, then turned to wander back into the crowd.
“Th-thanks.”
“I got your back. And your front.” Ellie winked and glanced back to confirm he was actually leaving. “You can have a lot of fun with the right kacek, but uh... not tonight. And probably not until you’re rocking a little more confidence in yourself. Anyway, let’s move. We have a server to strip.”
“Do you have to say it like that?”
“We have a man whose clothes we need to steal?”
“Ellie.”
“Fine, fine. Just follow my lead and don’t look suspicious.”
They casually waded back into the crowd, heading for the balustrade Ellie had spotted earlier. Mel could see the server now, a frazzled-looking youngish human man making his way through a sea of tables. He was a little big for them, but as the taller of the pair, Ellie could probably fit into his clothes okay. A little baggy, perhaps, but what could you do?
Ellie pulled Mel into the alcove and whispered to her. “Okay, when he walks by, I need you to grab his ankle. You don’t need to knock him over; just get his attention and get him off balance. I’ll handle the rest. Good?”
Mel nodded resolutely.
“Great. Then get ready, because here he comes.”
Just as predicted, the server walked quickly next to the railing with an empty tray, heading back to the kitchen to refill. Mel waited carefully for the right moment, then reached up and yanked on his ankle with both hands.
At the same time, Ellie jumped up and hooked his belt, wrenching him to the floor. Already off-balance from Mel’s pull, he tumbled off the upper level and into their alcove, crashing to the lower floor with the tray landing on top of him. Ellie leaned down, placed her gun against his neck, and unloaded a short-range stun blast to knock him out for a good several hours. He jerked twice and then fell still.
Mel glanced around. No one seemed to be paying attention. “I think we’re good.”
“Perfect,” Ellie replied. “Alright, keep watch while I change. And no peeking!”
“Ellie!”
“Sorry, sorry, you’re just so fun to mess with.” Fabric rustled and she continued with, “It’s okay; you can peek all you want.”
“...” Mel could feel her face growing warmer despite herself.
“Not like you haven’t seen it all before,” Ellie murmured smoothly.
“We’re on a mission!” Mel hissed. “Focus!”
“Alright! Hey, so we’re going to need to get you a change of clothes too, unless you want to stay out here as a regular patron. I think there will be some spare uniforms in the back; how do you want to play this?”
↩️ - Ellie goes to get a uniform and brings it back out for Mel.
- Ellie escorts Mel into the back to change there.
- Mel stays in the main area while Ellie scouts the back.
(Winner: )
- Ellie escorts Mel into the back to change there.
- Mel stays in the main area while Ellie scouts the back.
(Winner: )
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@Story Notifications
Scene 20
“I think we need to stick together. Can you pretend like you’re taking me into the back for something?”
“Well I won’t have to pretend on that part! It’ll just be what that something is. Okay, I’m ready.”
Mel turned around. Ellie was dressed in the server’s slacks and suit coat, her guns and shield medallion concealed under the jacket. The outfit was definitely loose on her, but it wasn’t too bad. Hopefully not noticeable on at least a casual inspection. The server himself had been shoved deeper into the corner, Ellie’s original clothes layered on top of him for additional cover.
“Well? How do I look?”
“Uhm... Fine?”
“Aw. Well, that’s good enough, I guess. Not every disguise can be brilliant. Come on, let’s go.”
They made it through the serving door and into the kitchen with a few embarrassed smiles and a few mumbles of “taking her to...” that then trailed off into inaudibility under the background noise. A few staff members exchanged questioning glances, but no one actually challenged them. Ellie led the way out of the kitchen and into the dimly-lit, much more space station-like back hallways of the club, closing the door and then smiling broadly.
“That went well! Now, where do you think they’re keeping more of these suits?”
Mel glanced at the hallway, then her phone. “Floor plan says... that way?”
“Works for me. Lead on.”
As they walked, Ellie started to notice some things that seemed out of place. Empty heavy duty crates, usually reserved for reactive chemical reagents, stacked in an untidy pile near an exterior airlock. A surprising lack of any real staff members. Traces of a vaguely shiny substance on the floor that her exocortex identified as having a faint heat signature. Still no staff. She frowned. “Hey Mel... Do you feel like something’s wrong here?”
“Hm? We’re almost there.”
“Yeah, keep going. It’s just...” She trailed off, unsure what exactly was the matter. A portion of the exterior hull creaked in a highly unsettling way. As the only barrier between them and the vacuum of space, it making any noise at all was unsettling. “I don’t know.” She slipped a hand beneath her jacket to rest on her shield medallion. “Something’s not right.”
“Want to get out of here?”
“No, no. It’s probably nothing. I’m just paranoid. Alright, let’s go.” She opened the door into the locker room, fully expecting to have to justify Mel’s presence again, but... “There’s no one here either?” she wondered aloud. “What’s even the point of a disguise if there’s no one to fool?”
“Maybe they’re at an all-hands meeting or something?” Mel picked a suit out of a locker that fit much better than Ellie’s did. “Might as well change anyway; we came all this way.”
“Right...”
A minute or so later, the two of them emerged from the locker room. “So, where should we look now that we’re ‘authorized’ to go anywhere?”
Ellie thought for a moment. “The other staffroom? I really want to know what happened to all the employees. There should be some of them around here.”
“It is a little weird. Okay, let’s go.”
“While we’re at it, did you notice those chemical crates by the airlock? What’s a nightclub doing with whatever was in those?”
“Food? Drinks? Weird alien sex stuff?”
“And there was - shh! There it is again!”
Another creak from the exterior hull. Then a quiet but distinct impact. Then another. It sounded like... “Is someone knocking on the hull?” Mel whispered. “From the outside?”
Before Ellie could answer, running footsteps sounded from around the corner. She pulled Mel into a nearby cleaning closet and pulled the door nearly shut, watching a shielded agent with a beam pistol dash past. Another followed close behind, this one with a flamethrower. A weapon like that couldn’t pierce shields with the flames directly, but many less restrictive shield grades wouldn’t stop the heat. Enemies would still get cooked.
That still didn’t make it any less of an absurd weapon for use in the cramped corridors of a space station where a fire would be very bad news for everyone on board. Ellie glanced at Mel and raised her eyebrows in a questioning motion.
️ - Follow the agents. Stay out of sight.
- Follow the agents. Ask them what’s going on, as a member of staff.
↩️ - Go the opposite direction as the agents.
- Continue with the original plan; find the staffroom.
(Winner: )
️ - Follow the agents. Stay out of sight.
- Follow the agents. Ask them what’s going on, as a member of staff.
↩️ - Go the opposite direction as the agents.
- Continue with the original plan; find the staffroom.
(Winner: )
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@Story Notifications
Scene 21
The two of them slipped out of the closet once the agents had passed and continued across the station. “They’re certainly in a hurry,” Mel whispered. “And did you see that flamethrower?”
“This is really unusual,” Ellie replied. “This station doesn’t have security like that; its reputation is pretty accurate. That’s someone else running around the back with a weapon that could cause some serious problems for everyone here. L-B?”
“Maybe. Hang on, we’re here.”
Mel pulled open the door to the staffroom, revealing it was empty as well. Dull red lights shone from various display screens. “All staff: evacuate immediately,” she read. “Do not alarm patrons; customers will be evacuated after all staff are clear.”
Ellie put it together. “The cruiser; this whole thing is a trap! They’re going to-” The door clicked. She dropped to the floor, pulling Mel with her. A blast of laser light flashed overhead, shattering several screens.
Ellie jumped to her feet, shield flashing up, and drew both guns. Mel followed a second later and the situation slowed into a standoff.
A grull with a scatterlaser, backed up by two suited agents with beam pistols, stood just outside the door. He spoke into a comm link. “Found ‘em, boss. Right where you said from the cameras.” He paused, then continued. “Okay, will do.”
Ellie spoke up from behind the table she had flipped over for cover. “Well? Going to explain or just keep shooting?”
“Hang on,” the grull muttered. “Boss, can you hear us?”
Another pause. Ellie peeked around the table to see the grull struggling with a little wrist-mounted projector. Both of the agents still had their guns trained on the table and were well-covered behind the wall. No opportunity to take a shot. “You, uh, need some help with that?” she called.
“No, no, I got it.” The grull poked several more buttons and a more level voice became audible. “Got it, boss! Go ahead!”
A man spoke through the projector. “Ms Lynran, Ms Alborn. A pleasure to meet you, though regrettably not in person.”
“Great, cool! And you are?”
“A scientist. I am investigating some very peculiar properties of some very peculiar artifacts, and you are here to stop me.”
Ellie glanced at Mel, who shrugged. “Uh, we are?”
The man stayed silent for several seconds. “... Are you not? Why are you here, then?”
Ellie blinked several times, confused. This wasn’t going the way she had expected. “To figure out who told the media that we blew up a research facility on Gamma Veox? We’re being framed, y’see. Wanted to, uh, stop that.” She hesitated. “We followed the cruiser here. If it’s totally unrelated, then I think this is all just one big misunderstanding...?” Another pause, thinking. “Are you with Lockheed-Bolte?”
A much longer pause this time. Ellie peeked around the table again to see the grull standing awkwardly next to the door as the projector on his wrist glowed. “To a certain degree,” the man eventually responded. “You’re saying someone is framing you for the destruction of the Primina facility? That was purposefully demolished just recently. By L-B!”
“Well, yeah. Before that; it blew up twice.”
“Of course; it was damaged by a haywire experiment earlier... what?” A pause; someone spoke indistinctly in the background. “Unbelievable. These ‘eyewitnesses’ who claim to have seen you; utter nonsense. I’m not certain who they might have been, but it certainly wasn’t anyone from Lockheed-Bolte. We’ll set the record straight.” In a muffled voice, he instructed, “Jep, get in contact with Gamma Veox. Figure out what happened.”
Ellie stared at the wall, utterly nonplussed. “Was this whole thing actually just a misunderstanding?” she whispered to Mel. “You think he’s telling the truth?”
“What about the Aesop?” she whispered back. “The guy we found in the ruins? That wrecked ship, if it’s related?”
“Ah, the Aesop. Good point.” She took a breath, about to address the man, but he spoke first.
“Well, if that’s everything, then I suppose we have no quarrel between us. Honar and the agents will escort you back to the entrance so you may be on your way. Or, I suppose we shouldn’t waste this encounter. You are hunters; are you not? I may have a job for you, if you’re interested.”
[Pick one choice from this block; this determines the general outline.]
- Well, guess it was just a misunderstanding after all! Accept the escort; head back and leave.
- Might be interested in the job; what is it?
- Don’t trust this guy. Wait for the right moment, get the drop on these goons, and turn the tables.
[Pick as many choices as desired from this block; this determines any conversation before the first-block choice. More votes -> Ellie + Mel care more about that topic. You can add more topics to this list in #story_discussion.]
- Ask the man about the Aesop device.
️ - Ask the man about the agents and guns.
- Ask the man about the missing staff.
- Ask the man about the banging on the hull.
- Ask the man what “peculiar artifacts” he’s researching.
- Ask the man about the wrecked ship.
- Ask the man why here, in this club?
(Winners: , > = = , ...)
- Well, guess it was just a misunderstanding after all! Accept the escort; head back and leave.
- Might be interested in the job; what is it?
- Don’t trust this guy. Wait for the right moment, get the drop on these goons, and turn the tables.
[Pick as many choices as desired from this block; this determines any conversation before the first-block choice. More votes -> Ellie + Mel care more about that topic. You can add more topics to this list in #story_discussion.]
- Ask the man about the Aesop device.
️ - Ask the man about the agents and guns.
- Ask the man about the missing staff.
- Ask the man about the banging on the hull.
- Ask the man what “peculiar artifacts” he’s researching.
- Ask the man about the wrecked ship.
- Ask the man why here, in this club?
(Winners: , > = = , ...)
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@Story Notifications
Scene 22
Ellie and Mel exchanged a quick look. “We might be,” Ellie said. “If you answer a few questions first.”
“By all means,” the man replied. “Would you prefer to discuss in more civilized positions, or remain behind that table?”
“If everyone puts their guns away. Alright?”
“Of course.”
Weapons slid back into holsters. Everyone kept their shields up. Ellie helped Mel put the table back where it had started. “First question,” she began. “Why here, of all places? A nightclub? Why are you doing your... whatever weird science you’re doing... here?”
“Privacy. The Eir system isn’t frequented by anyone besides patrons of this establishment, and management here was quite receptive to us repurposing some of their storerooms. I’m sure you can relate to not exactly appreciating the Federation sticking its nose in where it doesn’t belong.”
Ellie shrugged. “You got us there. Okay, sure. ‘Privacy.’ But why do you need it? You’re with L-B; surely the feds don’t care what you’re doing. What kind of ‘peculiar artifacts’ are you researching?”
“Oh, a little of this, a little of that. Bits and pieces from ancient history. If you followed that cruiser here, then you must know about the wreck it was carrying. Starships from before starships existed.”
“And the feds think studying history is a crime now?” Mel jumped in. “None of this is exactly against the law, or even particularly shady.”
“Well, you know Lockheed-Bolte’s primary industry, of course. I am instructed to... make use of these artifacts. Harness them into instruments of destruction. The Federation tolerates such science, but always keeps a careful eye on it. That is, if they’re aware of it.”
“What’s that banging on the hull?” Ellie blurted out, leaning slightly forward as if listening for it.
The grull - Honar, apparently - nervously half-turned to look. “Boss...?”
“Calm yourself, Honar. Perhaps this station is behind on maintenance. We should inform the crew-”
“Nuh-uh. Not gonna work, buddy. Something’s knocking on the hull. Your grull here knows that too. What’s going on?”
“You misunderstand. Honar, are you merely concerned about-”
“We know you have the Aesop device,” Mel stated calmly. Ellie shot her a worried look; she had been saving that particular revelation.
“Ah,” said the man.
“There was a man in the destroyed facility near Primina,” she continued. “Mind controlled to kill anyone on sight. If you actually want us to do a job for you, there had better be a really good explanation for that.”
Several seconds passed. No one said anything. Ellie slowly moved her hand down towards her holster. She clocked one of the agents mirroring her movements, stared him down, and casually moved her hand back up. So did he.
“Very well,” the man eventually replied. “I see you found one of the... mishaps. Honar, please show them number, say, three.”
“Three, boss?”
“Three.”
“Okee doke.” The grull reached behind his back.
“What’s number three?” Ellie asked carefully, both hands hovering just above her holsters. Both agents copied her. Goddamn competent henchmen. She couldn’t get the drop on them.
“It is this.” The grull moved slowly to not evoke any firefights, placing a hand-sized grey case on the table. “Number three is one of the experiments. It explains a lot. I will open the case. Okay?”
“Okay...?”
Honar clicked the latches on the case and there was an immediate burst of blinding light, coupled with a sharp retort like a gunshot and a sense of fuzzy static scrambling Ellie’s senses. She cried out and fell back, one hand covering her eyes and the other firing blindly at where the grull had just been. Flashbang. Fucking goddamn can’t believe I fell for aaAAAaaAA- There was a sense of instant, cooling relief as her exocortex’s self-repair subroutines kicked in and cycled her implants. Darkness for a few seconds as her eyes rebooted, then crystal clarity again.
“Mel!” She rushed over to help her up. The room was otherwise empty. “You alright?”
“I’m okay.” She shook her head, blinking unsteadily. “Really gonna get those eye augs this time.”
Ellie cracked a smile, but otherwise stayed serious. “We need to go. I guarantee they’re - AGH!”
The room rocked and both of them fell over. The lights flickered and several alarms started to wail. “GONNA DO THAT!” she yelled, struggling to pick herself up. “THAT’S what the cruiser is for; they’re-” She was interrupted by another explosion. “-shooting the station!”
- Run back through the main body of the station to the customer docks and their own starship.
- Find some emergency hardsuits and an airlock, then bail into space. Just get out quickly.
- Chase down Honar and the agents. They must have a way to get out and they can’t be that far ahead.
(Winner: )
- Run back through the main body of the station to the customer docks and their own starship.
- Find some emergency hardsuits and an airlock, then bail into space. Just get out quickly.
- Chase down Honar and the agents. They must have a way to get out and they can’t be that far ahead.
(Winner: )
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@Story Notifications
Scene 23
“Come on, let’s move!” Ellie and Mel picked themselves up and ran for it. There was no sign of Honar and the agents; presumably they had gotten out via a shuttle docked at a nearby airlock or something. No time to look for it and they would probably be gone by now anyway. There was only time to run before the station was destroyed.
The Last Dance was not outfitted for combat. It had shields, but only enough to protect against micrometeorites, solar radiation, and other naturally-occurring nasties. Nothing that would stand up to the guns on a full-sized combat-ready cruiser. However, the station did have one advantage that might save it, at least for a while: it was built into an asteroid.
Instead of constructing an entirely new spaceframe, the original designers had used the existing hollowed-out rock as a base and then built the station’s compartments, generators, and airlocks into it. Space rock was less sturdy than starship-grade steel, of course, but there was a hell of a lot more of it than if the entire thing had been made of standard materials.
Lasers ablated layers of rock and steel while plasma bolts vaporized large sections and physical artillery pieces shook the entire station with every hit, blasting enormous fountains of pulverized material into space. Thankfully, the primary reactor was still online (for now), which meant that the oxygen and artificial gravity generators were still active. Once that thing went down, they would be on a second clock with much more difficulty maneuvering.
They made it out of the back rooms and into the main area. Too-loud music still blared overhead, but it was mostly drowned out by the chaos of thousands of beings all pressing towards the exits. Ellie could already see several people lying trampled on the floor; the crowd would likely cause fatalities if it hadn’t already. Then again, everyone here would be dead anyway in a few minutes.
“Mel, you’ve got the floor plan,” Ellie spoke quickly, pulling her closer to the crowd’s fringe but not barging in yet. “Is there a less-obvious way to the docks?”
“Ummm...” She scrolled through the map. “Staff corridor, maintenance tunnel, another door... here! Yes, this way!”
They skirted around the edge of the crowd as the bombardment grew more intense, then slipped into an unmarked metal door hidden behind a potted plant. Immediately, the scenery changed from gaudy warm tones to dull, utilitarian grey. This section appeared to just be a connecting corridor to move from the main area to the docks more quickly, presumably for overworked front-area staff. It did have a window to keep things cheery, at least. Well, if staring into the twinkling blackness of space was considered cheery.
Now, however, Ellie could hardly see any background stars past the enormous cruiser hanging upside-down (from her perspective) above the station. Guns flashed and turrets rotated. The thing was a sight to behold; there were hardly any opportunities to see ships like this in action now that the Great Galactic War had ended. Not that it was exactly a good thing to see it in action pointed at her, but... you know. The spectacle was still impressive, regardless.
Every light on the station blinked off and was replaced by eerie, off-red emergency lighting. Ellie missed her next step and went careening into the wall as gravity suddenly stopped working. The background hum of the station’s ventilation system cut out entirely and yet another alarm was added to the pile - this one signaling a primary reactor failure. Thankfully, they were almost at the docks and could pull themselves along the walls to reach the manually-operated hangar door.
Ellie scanned the area, taking in the hundreds of people spinning wildly through the cavernous room with no hope of reaching a wall to redirect their momentum. “There!” she exclaimed, pointing. Their ship rested innocently near the outer airgate, currently unharmed and with a clear shot into the blackness outside. Unfortunately, several problems stood in their way.
They couldn’t just run to the ship, as gravity was offline. A single push in the right direction could get most of the way, but with the station’s atmosphere still mostly present, air friction might slow them to a stop before getting there.
There were hundreds of other people in the hangar, all also trying to get to a ship to escape. These people could definitely get in the way, and even if they didn’t, many would surely want to be rescued if Ellie and Mel made it to their ship.
Then there was the matter of the airgate itself, a shimmering barrier of transparent force that separated the air inside the hangar from the vacuum outside of it. The field was currently still operational, running on the code-mandated backup battery to prevent exactly this kind of disaster, but that battery was only designed to last a few minutes until the manual blast doors could be shut. No one seemed to be doing that, with all the staff missing, so in a few minutes, the entire hangar would be vented into space.
And of course, the omnipresent rumbling was growing closer. It seemed that with the generator offline, the cruiser was realigning its guns to fire at the docks. Clearly, no escape was desired.
- Try to push off and go directly to the ship.
️ - Try to bounce between objects and walls to get to the ship.
✈️ - Why are you worrying so much? Ellie’s got a jetpack. [This option will cause further complications.]
[Assuming they get to the ship, what should they do then?]
- Book it. Engage the hyperdrive, jump away to anywhere else.
- Hide in the asteroid belt. Power down and wait for the cruiser to go away.
- Take on passengers and try to evacuate the civilians to somewhere safer.
(Winners: , )
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@Story Notifications
Scene 24
“Okay, here’s the plan.” Ellie gripped Mel’s hand tightly and braced against the wall. “When I say ‘now,’ we both push off this wall as hard as we can, aiming for the bridge door. Okay?”
“You think we can make it all the way there without running out of speed?”
She eyed the distance. “Confident,” she lied. “This is nothing; air resistance isn’t as big a deal as you think.”
“Okay... Alright. Ready.”
Ellie scanned the area. Waited for a group of patrons to spin past. “And... now!”
They launched off the wall and flew gracefully through the air towards their ship. “Tuck your arms in. Reduce your profile. Like this.”
“Thought you said air resistance isn’t a big deal?”
“Not as big a deal as you think. Doesn’t mean it’s not worth considering!” They were already slowing down, passing through the mob of people fighting over ships closer to the doors. Someone drifted into their path, a hairy gremlin-looking creature with oddly curved limbs. “Hang on to me; just gonna...”
The gremlin-creature squeaked as Ellie grabbed onto it as they passed, spun the three of them around, then kicked off of it. The creature sailed back into the crowd, disappearing into the chaos, while Ellie and Mel continued on (mostly) their original path with a slight speed boost. With that, they emerged from the bulk of the fighting and simply drifted towards their ship.
A minute passed. The ship grew closer. Their speed slowed. Ellie was tempted to reach forward, but knew it wouldn’t do anything.
“You think our guns could fire us forward with the recoil?” Mel suggested, looking nervously at the ceiling. Chunks of rock were starting to rain from the roof. “If we’re careful?”
“Worth a try. Here, aim a little offset from me... Yeah, like that. So we’re pointing out in three directions and don’t go into a spin. Alright, ready?”
Mel blinked, noticing something. “We’re aiming right at the crowd.”
Ellie frowned, glancing between the ship, the ceiling, and the crowd. “Aim a little further out. But, well, not to sound insensitive but they’re all going to die anyway. That cruiser’s making sure of that.”
“No, I get it. Gotta put ourselves first. Ready?”
“Fire.”
Four shots in total, multiplied by three guns, got them to the door. Ellie saw at least two patrons spin away, scorched by laser blasts. Unlucky for them. The gunfire hadn’t helped the crowd’s panic either. Someone managed to get one of the ships flying and made a beeline for the exit, screaming away into space.
Thankfully, their starship’s artificial gravity was working fine and they could both run up the stairs to the bridge. Ellie primed the thrusters while Mel worked on subsystems and powered up the hyperdrive. They couldn’t jump away this close to the station, but they could at least start spooling it up. “What’s our plan? Run?”
Ellie swallowed as the cruiser appeared on her scope as the ship’s scanners powered up. “Yeah, run. What are we supposed to do against that thing?”
“Good plan. Run in what direction?”
“I’m not sure; can we - AUGH!”
Part of the hangar superstructure suddenly collapsed as an artillery shell from the cruiser tore through the roof. The airgate immediately failed as its frame snapped, venting the entire contents of the docks into space through two separate holes. People and ships spun into the void. Ellie and Mel were thrown around the bridge for several seconds before the ship’s inertial dampeners came online and the spinning slowed to a manageable speed. More plasma bolts crashed through the roof, pulverizing portions of the floor. Any people unlucky enough to have not been thrown into space were mostly vaporized.
“ANYWHERE; JUST GET US OUT!”
“Roger that!” Mel half-shouted, working on the hyperdrive. The shields came up in time to absorb a hail of debris from the destroyed station, then Ellie fired the thrusters and they shot off into the asteroid belt.
...
On the bridge of the cruiser, a grull ran up to a man with white hair staring into space through the viewport.
“Boss, we made it!”
“Ah, very good, Honar. You have done quite well today. Were you able to complete your special mission?”
“Yep! Got it right here.”
“Excellent. We have reached the terminus, I believe. It is time to end this.”
[What was Honar’s special mission?]
- Completely disabling Ellie and Mel’s nav computer.
- Rigging Ellie and Mel’s thrusters to detonate.
- Planting a bomb aboard Ellie and Mel’s ship. [This option is potentially deadly.]
[Is Honar ready to end this?]
- “Boss, are you sure that’s a good idea? You just got the heart put together...”
- “You got it, boss! I’ll get ready!”
❤️ - “Boss, do you hear that knocking?”
(Winners: , ❤️ )
- Completely disabling Ellie and Mel’s nav computer.
- Rigging Ellie and Mel’s thrusters to detonate.
- Planting a bomb aboard Ellie and Mel’s ship. [This option is potentially deadly.]
[Is Honar ready to end this?]
- “Boss, are you sure that’s a good idea? You just got the heart put together...”
- “You got it, boss! I’ll get ready!”
❤️ - “Boss, do you hear that knocking?”
(Winners: , ❤️ )
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@Story Notifications
Scene 25
“Boss, can I ask you a question?”
“Of course.”
“Why did you have me take this from their ship?” He held up a hand-sized slab of dense circuitry and wiring: the core of a nav computer. The component that allowed a ship to calculate safe jump routes and avoid drifting into a sun in hyperspace. “Why not just cut the reactor, or break the thrusters, or just blow it up? You know they got out of the station because of this, right?”
“Yes.” The man half turned and gave Honar a sly grin. “I have many plans, dear Honar. One of them involved putting an end to the hunters, but another did not. At the moment, it makes the most sense to keep them alive but in the system.”
“But why, boss? They aren’t going to help us; you heard them.”
“Oh, I think they will. At least, once they see things my way.”
Honar opened his mouth, about to ask for more clarification, then paused. “... Boss, do you hear that knocking?”
Several bridge technicians gasped. “Sir, look!” one of them exclaimed.
The man looked.
An umian in a torn red dress floated in space, just outside the cruiser’s bridge viewport. She clutched onto some handhold above the glass with one hand and knocked resolutely on the window with the other. A blue-silver blood mixture trailed from her abdomen, beading up and drifting in the void.
The man frowned. He retrieved the Aesop device from its hidden pocket, then stepped closer to the bridge glass. The umian’s vacuum-bloated head rotated to follow him, and the knocking slowed.
“Incredible,” he breathed. Then, to the Aesop and thus the umian, “Tell me what you want.”
The partially-frozen jaw moved, but no sound was audible. More knocking. The man furrowed his brow in thought. “Record that,” he ordered one of the bridge crew. “Once it’s done, run the whole thing through a decoder. See if the pattern matches anything.”
After nearly a minute, the knocking stopped. The umain pressed its head against the cruiser’s window. Several bridge technicians winced or looked away. The man placed his hand on the glass and spoke into the Aesop. “Am I speaking with the umian, or with...” He breathed the last two words almost reverently. “A Yhvram?”
Two knocks.
“I’ve done it...” he whispered. “It worked.”
“Uh, boss...?”
He thumbed the control button on the Aesop device, pressing it so hard his finger shook. “Tell me about the Cores. And about the Yhvra.”
Blue circuitry glowed. The umian began to knock out a complicated pattern. “You’re recording, right?!” he snapped at a nearby technician, who nodded. “This is the most important event any of you will likely ever witness. Make sure you catch everything.”
As minutes passed, the umian began to slow. Ice formed in its muscles and water boiled off into space. Tissues bloated into unusability until, finally, it fell still. Frozen and deflated beyond any ability to move, the creature’s grip failed and it drifted into space. The Aesop device blinked, finally registering a loss of connection. Whatever had been inhabiting that umian’s corpse, it was now gone.
But that wasn’t the end of it. The man winced, then shouted. He reached into a hidden pocket and quickly removed the clear crystal heart that had initially reanimated the umian, now glowing a brilliant white. He had to drop it and stumble back as the crystal burned his hand.
The heart hovered briefly in midair before erupting into an all-consuming flash of heat and radiance. Fragments of some unknowable cosmic song pulsed, just for an instant. A single second passed and nothing was left of the heart but a scorch mark on the floor, a fading afterimage, and the quiet echoes of that distant cosmic melody.
“Boss...?”
“Bridge crew. Copy that recording immediately! Send a full backup to my personal server at headquarters and get on that decoding as soon as possible. If you get any results, notify me immediately. As for the rest of you...”
...
“Really? Just missing?!”
“That’s what I said!” Mel’s voice was muffled from inside the nav computer housing. “Wires are cut clean through; this was a sabotage.”
“Fucking... just great.” Ellie pulled back on the hyperdrive lever, allowing the drive core to spin down. Useless at the moment and just wasting power. “Come on out; we need to think of a new plan.”
Mel extricated herself from the cabinet and shut the doors. “Think it was ‘Mr Scientist’ and his cruiser?”
“Seems pretty likely, right?” Ellie slapped another few sets of controls angrily. She mis-set one and had to come back to correct it, which didn’t help her mood. “Well, we’re not going anywhere fast. At least it doesn’t seem like they’re following us.” She sighed. “Got any brilliant ideas besides ‘limp over to the next system at sublight?’”
“How far is that?”
Ellie groaned and accessed the nav charts. A big red warning blinked in the corner, warning her about the offline jump calculator. “Nearest system with anything in it is... this one.” She pointed at the system’s name, an unpronounceable jumble of letters and numbers. Never a good sign; all the important ones had shorter, more memorable names. “Computer says... six years at sublight.”
“Okay, that’s not an option.”
“Yeah, you’re telling me. Goddamn convenient jump drives make me forget how far away everything actually is.”
Mel poked through the diagnostic reports. “Looks like the hyperdrive is operating just fine. Can’t we just pick a direction and jump, even without a calculated route?”
“I mean, we could.” Ellie poked at the charts, looking for a straight-shot vector that might work. “The issue with that is that, without the computer, we could drift off course or into something nasty. It does a lot of correcting both before and during the jump. Manual hyperspace travel is pretty dangerous.”
“Yeah, that’s what everyone says, but how dangerous, I mean?”
Ellie shrugged. “I’ve never risked it. Always had the computer plot the course.” She paused, looking down at the console and, more specifically, the full-strength network indicator. “Hang on, I think we’re missing an obvious solution here. We’re not out in the middle of nowhere with no network access; we’re in a mid-spiral system with comm buoy satellites literally a few hundred kilometers that way. We can just... call a mechanic?”
“... Huh.”
“I mean, it wouldn’t be fast and there’s the risk of whatever that cruiser is doing, but you have to admit it sounds better than jumping away blindly, right?”
[Ellie and Mel]
- Jump to the nearest system on an uncalibrated, straight-shot vector. [Fast but dangerous.]
- Call a mechanic and wait for repairs. [Slow but safe. At least, as long as the cruiser doesn’t do anything drastic.]
- Pick through the station’s wreckage to find a replacement part. [Moderately fast, moderately risky.]
- Search the rest of the asteroid belt for other stations or ships. [Moderately slow, moderately safe.]
[“Mr Scientist”]
- “We got what we came for. Prepare to jump.”
️ - “Prime the cannons and go find those hunters. We need to tidy up loose ends.” [Potentially deadly, depending on other options.]
- “Prime the tractor beam and go find those hunters. There’s one final step in my plan here...”
(Winners: , )
- Jump to the nearest system on an uncalibrated, straight-shot vector. [Fast but dangerous.]
- Call a mechanic and wait for repairs. [Slow but safe. At least, as long as the cruiser doesn’t do anything drastic.]
- Pick through the station’s wreckage to find a replacement part. [Moderately fast, moderately risky.]
- Search the rest of the asteroid belt for other stations or ships. [Moderately slow, moderately safe.]
[“Mr Scientist”]
- “We got what we came for. Prepare to jump.”
️ - “Prime the cannons and go find those hunters. We need to tidy up loose ends.” [Potentially deadly, depending on other options.]
- “Prime the tractor beam and go find those hunters. There’s one final step in my plan here...”
(Winners: , )
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@Story Notifications
Scene 26
“Okay, that’s fair. But how about poking around the destroyed station while we’re waiting? There are a lot of ships floating around there that might have a few spare parts. Could save us a lot of time.”
Ellie considered this. “I don’t want to get on the cruiser’s bad side, but I guess we can take a look. See if it’s gone somewhere else. You want to check the hardsuits while I get us closer?”
...
The man watched the tracking beacon slowly move across his scope. The hunters were being clever, firing their thrusters once and then drifting with that momentum towards the station’s wreckage in order to stay off his scanners. Unfortunately for them, Honar hadn’t just sabotaged their navcomputer. As long as that tracking beacon still broadcast, he could follow their every move. The same trick they had used to follow the cruiser, turned against them. How deviously ironic.
Still, there were preparations to make. He couldn’t reveal the Yhvram yet - he had lost the crystal heart and there was no progress yet on decoding the knocking from the possessed umian. That would take months or years to determine, and he would need assistance. Discreet, reliable hunters with a proven track record. He hadn’t been lying about that job; circumstances at the time had merely made betraying them and blowing up the station the best move at the time. Plans within plans; wheels within wheels. Playing along with Lockheed-Bolte was starting to limit his options.
Regardless.
“Honar, are the suits prepared?”
“Yes, boss! We’re all ready as soon as you give the order.”
“Very good. Captain Lee, you are in charge until I return. Keep the beam stable and the cruiser in position. If you receive a distress signal, hold your fire until we are clear and then destroy the hunters. I want to see dead bodies; we’ll need to be absolutely certain of their demise if worse comes to worst.”
“Sir.” The ship’s commanding officer saluted. “As you order.”
“Boss, what happens if we can’t get you out? I just think this is a little risky is all.”
“Some risks must be taken in the pursuit of greatness. And-” the man patted his pocket. “I have a trump card.”
“Well... okay, boss. I just don’t like you being in danger.”
“I will be perfectly safe, dear Honar. After all, you will be accompanying me.”
The grull puffed up a little at that. “Right, boss!”
“Now then, shall we get going? Captain Lee, engage the beam and inform the hunters they are being boarded.”
“Sir.”
Honar and the man left the bridge and made their way to the cruiser’s underbelly hangar, boarding a small shuttlecraft. As the grull powered up the thrusters and nudged the shuttle out of the bay doors, the comms crackled to life. “Sir, it’s Captain Lee. The hunters’ ship is immobilized and they have been informed as you requested. They have figured out that we hid a tracking device and are looking for it, but have yet to disable it. Just as a warning.”
“Noted; thank you, Captain. Honar, proceed.”
...
“Ugh; why is this ship so BIG?!” Ellie shouted, throwing open a set of cabinet doors to allow the scanner easier access inside. A wavering hum, but no beeps. The tracker wasn’t in here either. “Why didn’t we think of this? And where the hell is it?!”
Mel’s voice filtered through the intercom. “Uh, I don’t mean to alarm you, but there is actually a shuttle approaching. Looks like that wasn’t a bluff.”
“Alright, no, that’s great. Focus, Ellie, think.” She thought for a few moments. “Right, yes, this is good. A shuttle means they want to talk, and wanting to talk means we have something they want. Even better, it means they want to be discreet; otherwise they’d just use normal comms.” She hesitated. Or it means they want to capture us, she didn’t say aloud. But that’s still okay. Well, better than just being blasted into stardust by those cannons, at least.
“So, do you not want me to shoot them? The guns still work.”
- “Oh, yeah, go for it. I mean they can’t be expecting us to just sit here, right?”
- “No, there’s no point. Even if we blow up the shuttle, they’re just going to shoot us back with much bigger guns.”
(Winner: )
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@Story Notifications
Scene 27
“No, there’s no point. Even if we blow up the shuttle, they’re just going to shoot us back with much bigger guns.”
“Want me to spin up the hyperdrive? I think this might be a good time to get out of here, computer or not.”
“Not until we can get rid of the tracking beacon! And probably the tractor beam, too. Trying to jump while stuck here could rip us apart.” She hesitated, thinking as the shuttle pulled close for docking. “Keep looking for the tracker and maybe start spooling the drive; I’ll stall whoever’s on the shuttle.”
“Will do; good luck.”
The airlock hissed. Ellie raised her shield, ducked behind a corner for some cover, and prepared to stall. The grull from earlier emerged, leading a man with white hair. He seemed unconcerned; confident. No one else appeared. The man was unarmed and the grull was only one person. She could potentially get the drop on him and take them both out, though what that would accomplish was questionable with the tractor beam and tracker both still active. Best to play along for now.
“Ms Lynran,” the man said. He was clearly the voice from the projector earlier. The ‘scientist,’ as he had said. “Meeting us alone? Where is your partner?”
“Busy.”
The man shrugged. “Of course. So are we all. I’ll try to keep this brief.”
“Will you really?”
“Ideally. I’m well aware that every delay shifts more advantage to you. Locating the tracker, breaking free of the beam, spooling an uncalibrated jump. I currently hold all the cards, but in a few minutes that may very well change. So, yes. I will keep things brief.”
“Well, you’re doing great so far!”
He smiled lightly. “I’m sure you’ve heard that sarcasm is the lowest form of humor.”
“Really? I thought it was puns.”
“... I would attempt to play along by engaging in a pun, but there’s really no time. Ms Lynran, I am here to offer you some information, a token of sincerity, and a deal.”
She stayed quiet.
“First, the token. Honar?”
“You got it, boss.” The grull kept hold of his scatterlaser with one hand, then grabbed something out of his pocket and tossed it to Ellie with the other. She knelt to pick it up: a hand-sized slab of densely tangled circuit boards and wires. The missing core of their nav computer.
Ellie stared at it, confused. “...What?”
“As I said, a token of my sincerity. If Ms Alborn isn’t too busy, I might suggest she install it. I’m certain you will want to make use of it shortly.”
Still keeping an untrusting eye on the man and his grull assistant, Ellie spoke quietly into her microphone. “Mel, it’s the grull from before and he brought the scientist. They gave me the nav computer core back. Can you come pick it up and install it?”
A surprised affirmative. Ellie backed up a few steps and set the core down so Mel wouldn’t have to get within line of sight of these two. Just in case. “Okay, what else?”
“Some information.” He took a careful step forward and spread his hands. “Lockheed-Bolte wanted us to kill you. I think we have made it quite clear by now that we could have, but didn’t. Yes?”
Ellie muttered something approximating “maybe.” Mel appeared in the hallway behind her, snatched the nav computer core, and darted away after a worried glance.
“Good. Here’s another piece of information. Honar?”
“I hid the tracking beacon inside the airlock,” he said. “Right over here.” He kicked at the side of the heavy door.
“What are you-?”
“And one more.” The man pressed lightly on one of his pockets. “I have a ‘friend’ on the cruiser who can disable the tractor beam in a matter of moments. No one will know why.”
“... Are you offering to betray L-B? Why? What do you want from us?”
The man leaned a little closer. “I wasn’t lying about that job, you know. Unfortunately, it was critical to put on a show. The flashbang, the bombardment, the trickery. I do have a need for discreet, reliable hunters with a proven track record.”
“You killed hundreds of people with your little ‘show.’”
“Oh, please. Don’t pretend like those people meant anything to you either. You’re the feared bounty hunter Ellen Lynran; you have a much higher body count than me.”
Ellie stayed quiet, her gaze drifting to the floor.
“So, what do you say? The two of you kick us off your ship, disable the tracker and tractor beam, then jump away to space unknown. And then, in a few days, I’ll have a job for you.”
“Do we have a choice?”
“Of course!” The man’s expression darkened. “You could refuse and one of two things will happen.” He dipped two fingers into the pocket from before. “Either you will have a sudden change of mind and agree anyway, or...”
“The Aesop won’t work on me. I’ve beat it before.”
He shrugged. “Then you may feel free to test your skills against the cruiser.”
“Mel, you get all that?” Ellie whispered. “We don’t have much of a choice, right?”
“I got like half of it; I’m buried in wires up here. I trust you to do what’s smart.”
“Oh, and one more thing. In case you were considering ‘accepting’ my deal and then reneging on it? Well, you can try. But I have essentially unlimited resources, and I will never be this lenient again. If you think the Federation is bad, try running from the full force of Lockheed-Bolte and everyone who has ever been touched by this little blue sphere.”
[This is a branch point. One option will lead to a final scene, then the epilogue, while the other will lead to two final scenes, then the epilogue.]
- Accept the man’s deal, have him disable the tractor beam, and jump away.
- Take out the grull and the man, steal the Aesop, and disable the tractor beam with it. Jump away.
(Winner: )
- Accept the man’s deal, have him disable the tractor beam, and jump away.
- Take out the grull and the man, steal the Aesop, and disable the tractor beam with it. Jump away.
(Winner: )
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@Story Notifications
Scene 28
“...”
“Well? What will it be?”
“... Fine. You have a deal.”
“Very good. I believe I have your contact information already; you are quite famous, after all. I’ll be in touch. Honar?”
“On it, boss. See you later, hunters.” Honar let the man lead the way back into the airlock, then knelt and kicked a small metallic object out into the main body of the ship. The tracking device.
“The beam will be disabled in approximately one minute. Don’t miss your window of opportunity to jump away.” The man gave a theatrical little half-bow, then closed the airlock. There was a brief shudder a few seconds later as the shuttle disengaged from their ship.
Ellie stared after him for a moment, then set the tracking device on the floor and carefully blasted it apart with a precise low-power shot from her gun. “Mel, spool the drive. We need to be ready to go in less than a minute.”
“You got it.” There was a slow clanking noise under the floor as it began to spin up. “Where are we going? I haven’t got the computer fully hooked up yet; there are too many wires. It says long range calculations are still offline.”
“Do a microjump away from the sun. I don’t think we can spin up the drive enough for a full jump in a minute anyway; we just need to get out of the cruiser’s range. Buy some time to finish repairing the computer.” She headed up to the bridge to meet up with Mel. “Hopefully we shouldn’t hit anything if we just aim towards empty space and don’t go too far.”
Almost exactly sixty seconds after the man had closed the airlock, there was a much larger shudder as the tractor beam disengaged. Ellie gripped the hyperdrive lever, tapped through the “override” options on the three screens of warnings about the computer, then pushed it forward just for a second before pulling it back.
Stars blurred into lines, then snapped back to points of light. Warning beeps sounded across the dashboard, including an unhappy alert from the drive core itself for a premature disengage, but the ship was still in one piece and nothing had exploded. The cruiser was now over a hundred billion kilometers away: still in range of FTL scanners, but far outside of conventional readings. They wouldn’t be able to locate the ship without another burst of hyperspace energy that would only be generated by jumping out of the system for good. Safe. For now.
Mel checked the scope. “We did it! We’re clear!” She swept Ellie out of her chair into a hug. “Whatever you said to them, it worked. Now we just need to finish up the computer and get out of here for good!”
Ellie squeezed back, but she wasn’t as elated. This wasn’t over yet. And it didn’t feel much like they had won at all.
Epilogue
“Sir, there’s a priority 1 communication coming through for you. It’s the board.”
The man turned away from the bridge windows. “Very well. I’ll take it in the situation room.”
“Yes, sir.” The bridge technician checked their screen. “We’ll be ready to jump in about seven more minutes, by the way. Do you want us to wait until-”
“Notify me when we’re ready. This won’t take long, I’m sure.”
“Boss, do you want me to come with you?”
“No, Honar. The board is quite particular about their meetings. Please wait just outside.”
“Okay, boss.”
The man entered. A few moments passed, then a projector lit up and the holographic images of several older businessmen appeared around the room. All human, all male, all born on Earth. Lockheed-Bolte continued to land lawsuits for the lack of diversity in its leadership team, but the company had more than enough resources to continue ignoring the problem. What were systems going to do, not buy their weapons? Of course, the man had met them all before. Pompous assholes, each and every one.
“Dr Zaes,” said the centermost board member: the chairman. “We have heard of your success, and your failure.”
Another board member picked up. “Surely you must admit your mistake now. The hunters refused to help, nearly killed you, and escaped from even your most advanced warship. You must stop trying to recruit them.”
“Of course.” The man bowed his head. “I was mistaken; they are unsuitable for our purposes.”
There was a murmur of approval from the board. The chairman continued. “The galaxy has no shortage of hunters. We will be able to continue our work even without these particular individuals. Of course, your own time is too valuable to spend pursuing them; we can simply let the Federation handle them.”
“Chairman, if I may.” The chairman nodded his permission. “Ms Lynran and Ms Alborn were only involved at all due to the... confusion surrounding our former facility on Gamma Veox I. They are a consistent threat; simply examine their records. We should avoid antagonizing them further. If there is no reason for them to get involved, they will not interrupt our work.”
Mutters among the board members. “We shall discuss this later. For now, describe your research progress. We have heard there was a recent breakthrough.”
“Somewhat. I was able to repair and power the crystal heart by allowing it to absorb life force from a test subject. However, we had to evacuate shortly thereafter due to the hunters and were unable to complete the tests. The heart itself was lost, presumably destroyed, but not before revealing a hidden pattern that could lead us to further developments.”
More mutters. A board member interrupted the chairman. “The heart is destroyed? How is this a breakthrough; we have sunk billions of credits into its recovery!”
“Not to worry, sir. If the pattern works in the way I predict, we will no longer need the hearts. And even if we do, we recovered an additional wreck that should contain another. There hasn’t been time yet to uncover it, but I am certain we are still on track to deliver all promised results on time.”
“And what of your... Yhvra theory? Anything to report in that area?”
The man hesitated for just an instant. “No. Investigations into the concept of Yhvra may be a dead end. We are currently focusing on the pattern instead.”
“Hmph. Very well. You will continue your project as scheduled. There must be, at minimum, preliminary results in your next report. We expect a prototype design in four months in order to secure continued funding.”
“Of course. It will be done.”
“Very well. Be on your way, Doctor. We will discuss how to handle the hunters.”
The man nodded. The holograms dissolved. He breathed out, slowly. Pulled the door open. “Honar, the timeline has been accelerated somewhat. Please assemble a team and get the heart out of that wreck as soon as you can. Don’t damage anything.”
“Sure thing, boss. How’d the meeting go? Were they mad?”
“No. It went nearly exactly to plan. Just need to implement an alternate phase to generate some preliminary results for their fancy prototype.”
“Well that’s good, isn’t it?”
“It is.” The man stopped, frowned, and looked around. “Honar, please inform Captain Lee to change course. We aren’t heading back to base quite yet; we need to investigate Ujee II. I have a theory regarding the wreck that could save us a lot of time if correct.”
“Okay, boss. But are you sure you want me to tell him? The captain doesn’t like me very much.”
“I would tell him myself, but I need to try something on the recording immediately, before I forget. That Yhvram is the closest thing we’ve ever found to a lead in this chase and we cannot let it get away.”
“You got it, boss. Good luck with your research.”
“Thank you, Honar. Good luck with the captain, and the wreck.”
...
Several weeks later, Qaniit stood in a home made of tightly-packed snow. He didn’t need to wear a heavy fur jacket like the two other people in the room, as he had a thermal regulator strapped to his thigh. His starship - well, not his, but Sandeek’s - hovered in orbit and the landing craft sat a mile away, getting buried in snow. He was different from those who had stayed behind. Very different.
“Elder,” he began, addressing the ancient woman ensconced in furs who sat on a block of ice like a throne. “When I was away, I learned of a... star boat that had crashed many, many eras ago. I saw this boat’s wreck, and on its side was its name: Atlas. I could read its name in our own language.” He wrote the glyphs in the snow to demonstrate. “Like this. I was reminded of the old story, the one about-”
“The one about the travelers from across the sea.” The elder interrupted as she leaned forward to read the glyphs. “I know of it. Those people who had an ‘atlas that catalogued all the stars in the sky,’ hmm?”
“Yes, elder. I was just wondering if... just maybe, those people were not from across the sea after all, but from... across the sky? Or beyond?”
“Hmm...” Qaniit fidgeted nervously as the elder scrutinized him. “I do not know. This tale is older than me. But of course, there are always rumors...”
He sighed and bowed his head. Of course she wouldn’t know. It was a fable, passed down through generations. “Thank you, elder. I am sorry for wasting your time. I should be-”
“Wait! You wish to seek the truth?”
“Um, yes! I do!”
“Venture to the south, across the little sea. The island there is where these people were said to have come from. Of course, the cliffs are far too steep for boats to reach and the waves far too treacherous, but with your sky boats...”
“Of course! We will investigate and return with the truth!” Qaniit jumped up, thanked the elder with much more enthusiasm, and ran back to the hoverbike just outside.
Sandeek himself leaned against the bike’s frame, arms folded and waiting for Qaniit to return. He straightened up. “You look excited; I take it your elder had good news for you?”
“She did!” Qaniit hopped astride the bike and motioned for Sandeek to do the same. “I have directions to the southern island where we may find these people’s remains! There may be more relics or clues there!”
Sandeek laughed. “Ah, Qaniit, what a fine adventure you’ve handed us this time! An uncharted planet with a hidden civilization and maybe even some more ancient starships to uncover? If we dig up even one more of those things like we sold to L-B, we’re set!”
“That is the hope! And perhaps to learn more of my own planet’s history.”
“Ha! Well, there’s no time to lose, mister archeologist! Buckle up and let’s get moving!”
With a buzzing hum, the hoverbike lifted up and shot off through the forest, fountaining a wake of loose snow like wings behind it.
<3
Conclusion
Hey, thanks for playing! It’s good to see that Ellie actually did remember to get those coordinates to Qaniit after all, and that Sandeek’s not too upset with him (if he actually did confront him about the L-B deal). Plus, what’s going on with the recently-identified Dr Zaes and the Lockheed-Bolte board? It certainly doesn’t seem like he’s being entirely forthright with them regarding the hearts or the Yhvra (whatever those are!). Very odd...
Anyway, more information on the crystal hearts keeps surfacing. It seems they continue to be important and mysterious even into the far future. Would be nice one day to get an actual answer on exactly what these things are and how they work, hey? Well, maybe next time.
So, what’s next?
As per usual, if there are questions / suggestions, or if you just want to discuss the story, you’re welcome to do so. Some things can’t be addressed directly for spoiler-y reasons, but you never know unless you ask.
After that, I’m pretty sure I am going to proceed with the “wrapping things up” phase from the conclusion of HENRY. The Kronwaë timeline is caught up with where I’ve planned it out as of the end of Eir Terminus. Obviously not everything is fully resolved, and there’s more to write about in between Making a Difference and Eir Terminus, but I think I’m mostly satisfied at the moment. I will probably continue it at some point in the future, but I’m not urgently pushing to do so.
That means that, while I will continue writing and finish out the current prompts on the board, I do not presently intend to add any more. This server will thus conclude after the three remaining prompts (though since two of them are novel-length, it’ll still take a while for that to happen). If anything changes while writing those, this decision may be revisited. You can, of course, let me know your thoughts on this if you have any.
In a few days, I’ll be archiving the current #story_updates channel and creating a new one for the next story. The new set of starting prompts will be up probably next weekend-ish, after which we’ll get going with the next story as per usual. There may be some interruption or delays in the next month or two due to Life Stuff™️, but maybe not.
As always, thanks for your continued support and engagement, and I hope you stick around for the next one!
~ Shaun / @Star Captain Blah
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