Session Four: Explosive Situations
General Summary
Last time, six pirate fighters silently approached the Morningstar as it was docked to the Sorghum. Who is where? Angelique has locked herself in her cabin. Sand is caring for Boyd Korvas is in the cockpit of the Morningstar Ramiel, Jack, and Gabriel are aboard the Sorghum, returning to the Morningstar with the useful items the found in the cargo hold. Six pirate fighter-craft are approaching. As Korvas checks the readings from the inbound ships, he sees that used exclusively by the Storm Rider pirates. "This is bad." He mutters before toggling the crew coms, "Guys, we're about to have company, and not the good kind!" Jack, Ramiel, and Gabriel begin to run. While treating Boyd, Sand notices a recent scar on the madman's side. Something is implanted there, a blinking red light shining through the gaunt flesh of Boyd's abdomen. "Boyd, what's this." Sand asks. "Oh, That's ... That's my surprise! Ha-Ha-Ha. That's a surprise! He-He-He. When the pirates kill me, they go BOOM! Ha-Ha-Ha, He-He. I'll get you!" Boyd rants. Sand calmly walks to the intercom system. "Korvas, you need to come to medical right now." Sand then turns to Boyd, "Boyd, we're going to turn that off." "No, no, no, no. That will make it go off. The ship will go off big! It's tied to my heart. When my heart stops, or I get far enough away, the Sorghum goes BOOM!" "The Sorghum goes boom, or you go boom?" Sand questions. "We're on the Sorghum, so we all go BOOM!" Boyd says, almost vibrating with anticipation. Korvas joins Sand and Boyd. "What's going on?" Korvas asks. "Korvas, Boyd. Boyd, Korvas." Sand says. "You look tasty!" Boyd says. "Do you see that flashing light in his abdomen? It's going to make the Sorghum explode when we get it away from it, or he dies." Sand explains. "Um, okay. Hi Boyd, glad we could rescue you. Again, another rescuee?" Korvas sighs. "Boyd's the ship's engineer." Sand says. "Yeah, I fixed the ship real good!" Boyd cackles. Korvas examines Boyd trying to find a solution. Airlocks or cutting Boyd open to get at the deadman's switch are the first few thoughts to cross his mind, but the problem of an exploding Sorghum, and the approaching pirates, delay his initial plans for this uninvited guest. Gabriel, Ramiel and Jack come bounding into the Morningstar, cycling the airlock behind them. Walking into the discussion of what to do with Boyd. Sand quickly explains the situation. Gabriel carefully examines Boyd's trigger device with his powerful synthetic mind. Sand goes to check on Angelique. He finds her in the kitchen area. She is a bit frazzled, but is trying to prepare something. After checking Boyd's bonds. Ramiel retrieves "Atropos", his heavy assault rifle, from his cabin. He casually waits in the common area. Mentally prepared to end Boyd's life when the need for the Sorghum's explosion is necessary. Jack goes to the cockpit to prepare for departure. Korvas follows Jack to the cockpit and sending the Sorghum's schematics from his wrist pad to Gabriel's. Jack quickly disconnects the Morningstar's docking ring from the Sorghum. Undocking without a hitch, he begins to bring the engines online. Gabriel's voice comes across the intercom, "I believe leaving is premature. One moment, please. Calculating." Gabriel determines that the deaman's switch in Boyd has a one kilometre range before it will automatically trigger the bomb in the Sorghum. He then turns his attention to the Sorghum's schematics. He determines that the blast radius would probably be about five kilometres. Marigold Devices are very volatile. Gabriel talks to Jack again, "Jack, I've done my calculations. The trigger distance is one kilometre. The blast radius is five kilometres. How fast can you accelerate this bucket?" "Fast as you need, man." Jack says with confidence. But he knew that the Morningstar can't pull that acceleration without some help. "Sand?" Jack called into the intercom. "Sand, did you say this guy was a genius mechanic?" "Engineer, yeah." Sand responded "Get him down to the Drive compartment." "Sure, no problem." Sand says as he unbinds Boyd's restraints. "Come on Boyd, we've got a job." "Make something blow up?" Boyd says with an uncomfortable eagerness. "Yes we're going to make something blow up, just not this ship" Sand said soothingly. "We will make pirates blow up. Would that make you happy Boyd?" Gabriel questioned. "Yes it would! Do you know the best thing about blowing up pirates? ... You kill them with an explosion, and it cooks them at the same time!" Boyd said licking his lips. "You're not allowed to make dinner." Sand said while trying to usher Boyd down to the Drive compartment. Sand explains the need for greater acceleration to Boyd as they go. Boyd's eyes shine with an eager light. Gabriel follows after to observe. Meanwhile, the pirates are closing in. Jack estimates the will be in weapons range in about five minutes. Jack maneuvers the ship to put the Sorghum between them and the pirates. Korvas attempts to hail the pirates. Using the threat of the Sorghum's potential explosion, he buys some time. The pirates take up over-watch stations outside of any potential blast radius, covering all angles of egress. Also limiting the number of fighters that can immediately intercept the Morningstar if it attempts to flee. Jack continues to fly defensively around the Sorghum. Sand, with Boyd, and Gabriel, complete over-charging the Transition Drive. The Morningstar bucks under Jacks hands as he watches all the power setting red-line on his control panels. The ship practically vibrates with power. Jack adjusts the ship to his exit vector. He aims the Morningstar at one of the pirate fighters. Korvas rewires the computer systems to aid in Jacks control of the bucking beast the the Morningstar has become. They pass the one kilometre point. The Sorghum explodes brilliantly. The Morningstar continues to accelerate away from the blast wave. But the explosion was bigger than expected. The pulse wave that hits, takes out the ships communications array. Korvas can see the face of the fighter pilot as the Morningstar rockets past. The pirate ship does take some damage, but turns to give chase. Sand runs up to the cockpit and takes the copilot seat. he activates the turret controls and begins firing to dissuade pursuit from the pirates. Gabriel attempts to get Boyd to assist with repairs on the communications array, but instead learns that Boyd has another bomb in his chest. Gabriel calls Korvas back to consult on the new problem. They discuss the problem over personal coms with Ramiel. They decide that the best option is to flush the mad engineer out into the void. Ramiel talks Boyd into putting on an envirosuit and accompanying him to the small vehicle air lock at the upper rear of the ship. The pirate fighter tries to catch up with the Morningstar, but because of Jack's excellent piloting, Sand's persuasive turret fire, and the damage the pirate sustained from the explosion, they pull away and out of sensor range. Ramiel has pointed out something of interest to Boyd in the shutter hanger which absorbs the madman's attention. Ramiel says he needs to get more tools and exits the bay, closing the airlock door behind him. Sand leaves the cockpit to go tell everyone that they're safe. He checks in with Angelique. She tells him that Gabriel and Korvas were near the Drive chamber, and Ramiel and Boyd had headed up higher in the ship. Sand goes to tell Gabriel and Korvas that the ship is safe. Gabriel attempts to enlist Sand's aid with the repairs on the communications array, but Sand heads off to tell Ramiel the ship is safe. "Ramiel, Sand is inbound." Gabriel messages Ramiel over his personal com. "Got it. Thank you." Ramiel responds. Sand arrives at the vehicle bay just as Ramiel finishes sealing the airlock. Ramiel turns to the control panel to begin cycling the shuttle bay doors to the outside. "Don't kill him. We need him!" Sand exclaims. Ramiel stops and turns to Sand. They discuss Boyd's fate. Sand tries to convince Ramiel of the need to help the poor mad fool. Ramiel calmly explains the need to remove a threat from the ship. Boyd does cartwheels in the shuttle bay. They realize the impasse they have reached and dive for the controls at practically the same moment. Maybe it was the bulk of Sand's battle-suit, or maybe Ramiel's keen battle senses, but Ramiel got to the controls first. The bay doors on the top of the Morningstar began to open. The pair looked up to see Boyd's helmeted face pressed to the window plate of the airlock. Boyd smiles at them as he drifts out into the void of fold-space. He even does a few more cartwheels as he goes. Sand goes to the kitchen to get a cookie. Korvas goes to his cabin to right a press release. Ramiel goes to the Transition Drive chamber to see what the damage is. An uncomfortable hum is coming from the Drive. Many indicators are in the red from the earlier overclocking engendered by Sand and Boyd. He calls up Gabriel to come and assist him in calming the Drive before something else goes wrong. They return the Drive to it's original condition, and maybe just a little better than before. After that, Gabriel spends some time repairing the communications array. Five days later, the Morningstar picks up the broadcast from a severely out of date Fold Beacon for the Koltar system, signaling their arrival at their destination. "Everybody. Grab your bucket if you need it. We're gonna go out of fold-space. Now!" Jack announced over the intercom as he transitioned out of fold-space into real space. Our crew is ahead of schedule. Jack's navigation has gotten them here in ten days as opposed to the 18 days it would have taken by sticking to the safe beacon path. The Morningstar approaches Koltar IV. Koltar IV is a rocky world with a trace atmosphere that contains just enough oxygen to make your death by asphyxiation excruciatingly slow. Jack follows the coordinates that were on Mr. Gregori's data crystal, taking the ship into the planets atmosphere. The ship soon approaches very large metal hanger doors in the side of one of the larger mountain ranges. Korvas retrieves the pass code from the data crystal and transmits it to the base. The huge doors slowly open. A puff of air escapes before a light force-shield activates, keeping the breathable atmosphere inside the base. As the doors open the crew can see the inside of the facility, a few hundred meters wide and maybe a hundred meters deep, with a small secure airlock on the back wall. Jack spots a couple of places clear enough to land. everywhere else they can see is covered with several piles and stacks of random items scattered about the landing site. The crew gears up to retrieve Mr. Gregori's package. There is a brief conversation about stealing from their employer as Jack lands the Morningstar. Examining the site, it looks like a recovered and modified mining complex. At the back of the open space is a secure airlock. The instructions from Mr. Gregori direct them to go through the airlock. Korvas stays aboard the ship. Jack stays just outside the ship. Ramiel, Gabriel, Sand and Angelique approach the airlock. The secured airlock is locked and quite secure. There is no pass-code for it on the data crystal. "Do we have a pass-code for this lock?" Gabrial coms back to Korvas. "Just hit enter." Korvas responds. Gabriel attempts to open the secure code-lock, but nothing works. "We need you here, Sir." Gabriel coms back. Korvas reluctantly walks the 30 meters from the ship to the airlock leading deeper into the mountain. Without seeming to expend any effort, Korvas quickly disengages the security system, and cycles open the airlock. Six small spherical globes rise on hover-fields from various places surrounding our adventurers. Red lights emitting from them as they scan the interlopers. The unmistakable buzz of defense lasers warming up emanating from the spheres. Tune in next week!
Rewards Granted
+1 step on the Morningstar's next speed test.
