Transitional Connections

    Saturday, 086-1114:
A Pre-Dinner Dressing Down
     Shortly after lunch and getting dressed, the crew gathered and hired a car to move them to the shuttleport.  The Cr 30 fee was paid by Colinne when the portCar pulled up.  There was, then, a brief bit of waiting after they got to the port.  In a "surprise moment", they were caught by a courier from InstellArms.  That woman had a sealed case carrying what Mikah found were the crew's upgraded comms units.  Moments were spent where the originals were handed out and each member of the crew returned the temporary comms they'd been using during the upgrade work.  Finishing the exchange, the crew moved on from the portCar to be led to the dock the navy shuttle was using.

Before they arrived, they were called from the port to be told the shuttle INS Irzad Kadaa was standing by for their arrival.  Reaching the port, they were welcomed aboard the shuttle and settled in for the four-hour ride to the carrier.  After they launched, Fesic planned to spend the time napping, but first spend some time connecting via the shuttle to the system-network.  With that, he looked up Admiral Irsiism, to learn what he could.  Finding the news feeds about the shutdown, Fesic decided to create a network-pseudonym and add conspiracy theories about what had happened?  Seeing many claimed the Imperial Navy was behind things in order to declare martial law for a yet to be understood reason, he saw many suggestions and blossoming ideas why they would do that?

Aiden asked the others if they wanted to have a stent practice during the run?  When the others agreed, Aali, Aiden, Colinne, Jocelynn, Rol and Zimzod sat in as close a circle as they could to begin.  Sekea settled in to read the local system news and see if anything came up on the interstellar front?  As he read, Sekea saw a lot of data on the recent restart of systems, but got nothing from interstellar sources.  Eventually, he took a nap, as did Mikah too.

Nearing the end of the ride, the shuttle's crew woke those sleeping and let the others freshen up to be ready to dock with the carrier.  Those who'd been part of the stent practice had also relaxed and napped or jumped into personal interests after it ended.  On the passenger cabin's forward view screen the flight crew let the crew see the carrier ahead of them.  The Mikaka class carrier was massive, and able to haul four non-interstellar battleships through jump.  The carrier also had fuel tankage enough to jump out two parsecs and back if needed.  The ship was more massive than the four battleships she carried.  Add to that the fuel needed to supply the carrier's fighter squadrons and the approach was a sight few non-naval sophonts would see in their lives.

In system, at home port, the carrier stood alone while her battle riders patrolled the system.  And, if she was a sight at a distance, that was nothing compared to the approach.  Aligning with one of the carrier's flight bays, the shuttle crew let them watch as the maw of the open flight bay grew before them.  Soon enough, they were slowing and while the pilot prepared for a 'safe speed' entry and landing in the small craft bay.  At their landing speed, they could see the rows of 50 ton, 2-man Sylean Class fighters.  Again, the experience was one very few non-military would ever see in their lifetimes.  Getting nostalgically excited, Fesic imagined the carrier's defensive batteries and hoped they'd get a tour of the vessel.

Finally, they were down and secure while the shuttle crew came to help them gather and prepare to debark the craft.  With a set of steps placed outside the hatch, Mikah and Zimzod led the others out into the bay.  Seeing them exit, the couple saw an assembled honor guard come to attention as a formation.  Looking past the formation, they saw a 'welcoming committee' that didn't include Admiral Irsiism.  When Rol made to exit next in the gravChair, Fesic stepped alongside him.  Seeing Sir Rol, the formations came to an even more firm stance of attention, affording him the additional honor granted any awardee of the Starburst For Extreme Heroism.  Not adding how his recent death had happened.

Next came Jocelynn and Aali while Jocelynn stared daggers at Rol.  Jocelynn also moved fast enough to keep as little distance between herself and Mikah, because she was Mikah's body guard.  Behind Jocelynn and Aali, the rest of the crew followed out in pairs.  When they each arrived before the welcoming team, the senior officer introduced himself as Flag Captain Kaguuir Likuu.  That meant he was the Captain commanding the squadron Admiral's flagship.  He would receive orders from Admiral Irsiism and then command the ships of the squadron when in battle.  Other navies might give this officer the title Commodore.

The Flag Captain then introduced a number of the officers under his command on that carrier before asking them to join his team to go meet the Admiral and his officers.  Having been dwarfed by the suddenly massive space of the small craft bay, Mikah's crew were surprised again when they left that cavern to step aboard an electric bus-like vehicle for the ride to meet the Admiral.  They realized the size of the ship allowed for passenger transports to get crew from place to place, riding through companionways as large as those in space stations.

When they arrived outside the compartment where the dinner would be held, they saw the door had two armored marines posted as sentries.  Mikah was the first to step through the portal and into the greeting line before her.  At the end was Admiral Irsiism, as expected.  But one of the other officers was Admiral Garna, who had said he was the Squadron Executive Officer when he'd ceded control of the system to her after the system restarts had begun.  Next to that Admiral, stood a Commodore Mikah hadn't met and she wondered why a junior officer was in the line?

Again, Mikah got much of the welcome and respect while there was a slight increase in both for Rol.  With some of the officers, Rol joked, "Rumors of my death have not been exaggerated".  After the greeting line and introductions, the officers began to settle down and look for seats they'd obviously been assigned beforehand.  Before she could ask about seating plans, Admiral Irsiism asked, "Lady Mikah.  I wonder if you could join me and some of my officers in the adjacent conference room?"  Admiral Irsiism also invited Admiral Garna and the Commodore from the greeting line.  Irsiism led them into the room, which held only an undecorated table and five seats.  Before Mikah could ask about the extra seat, a man in a civilian suit came into the room.

Shutting the door, that man introduced himself as Minister Dagishan Sazii Makha, from the Seneschalate of Count Kybe Sokne of Ghandi.  That surprised Mikah and it seemed both Admiral Garna and the Commodore were also caught unprepared.  When they were all seated, Admiral Irsiism turned to her and said, "Lady Mikah, I asked you to join us as an observer in respect to the nobility in-system for these actions." in a formal tone.  Not sure what the man was on about, Mikah nodded and answered, "OK".  Turning to Admiral Garna, Irsiism continued his formal tone, saying, "Admiral Garna.  Your ship, the Ka Damgi, was the first of our three vessels to return to active state after the ordered shutdowns."  He canted his head in Mikah's direction while speaking, making it clear he meant the shuttle she'd been on as one of the three craft mentioned.

Mikah noticed Admiral Garna tensed as he nodded and answered, "Yes Sir.  That is correct."  Accepting that, Admiral Irsiism continued, "Admiral Garna, when Lady Mikah's ship came active and back on comms, you ceded control of all Imperial military forces to Lady Mikah.  Is that not correct?"  Even more tense, Garna nodded as he said, "Yes Sir.  I thought that was the appropriate thing to do."  Nodding to recognize what Garna had said, Admiral Irsiism said, "Unfortunately, that was not the correct thing to do."  Irsiism then turned to the Seneschalate officer asking, "Sir.  Would you please explain to Mister Garna what the proper procedure is for the passage of military authority in an Imperial system?"

Responding to the request, Minister Makha thanked Admiral Irsiism for inviting him to join the meeting.  Turning to face the man, Makha said, "Admiral Garna.  As you are fully aware, control of Imperial Naval and military forces are never ceded to any Imperial Nobleperson just for the sake of Imperial nobility.  If that person is also a Naval officer of any rank and the ceding of control is appropriate, control of those naval forces can be ceded to that naval officer.  Not as a member of the Imperial nobility."  The man continued, "That is the standing position throughout the Imperium, including here within the County of Ghandi."

Minister Makha turned back to Admiral Irsiism when he finished, and Irsiism picked up the narrative.  Looking at the man, Irsiism said, "Admiral Garna, you have willfully and incorrectly ceded military assets and control to a civilian authority and I would now like to hear you explain why you felt that action appropriate?"  Admiral Garna was obviously very nervous as he explained it had been Admiral Irsiism himself who seconded Lady Mikah's orders to shutdown all computers and power plants system wide.  Admiral Garna continued that since it had been Admiral Irsiism's order, he didn't feel he had the right to second guess Admiral Irsiism's order.

Hearing that, Admiral Irsiism turned to the Commodore and asked, "Will you now play back the communications data I asked you to capture?"  Nodding, the officer placed a playback device on the table and hit the switch to start it playing back the recording.

    The first thing they heard was Mikah's voice as she identified herself and demanded to speak to the senior-most
        person in station command

    Next, they heard the voice of the station's executive director, demanding who was wasting the time of himself and
        his people?

    Mikah's voice returned as she told him to shut up, sit down and listen.

    The director again demanded who she was, and Mikah called out all her titles in an official tone.

    Mikah then explained, "From what we can tell, your computers have turned against you, or are just not responding.
        You have to turn them all off.  Every single power source has to go cold."

    The director answered, "My Lady, that would take hours."

    Mikah next demanded, "And, are you going to survive if you don't do what I said?"

    Mikah continued, "I am a Lady of the Domain of Deneb.  I am ordering this under the authority vested in me by the
        Arch Duke of the Domain, under the authority given to him by the Emperor himself."

    Mikah finished, saying, "I am literally two degrees of separation from the Emperor himself and you will do what I say."

As they listened to the exchange, it was very clear Mikah had 'traced the line of her authority' without making claims under the authority of the Arch Duke or Emperor.  Still, her statement had carried a lot of power and the fact they could hear the director begin giving orders bore witness to the affect of her words.
    Next, they heard Admiral Irsiism identify himself and demand under who's authority Mikah's orders were being given?

    Mikah repeated her titles as she explained who she was when talking to the director.  She also told Irsiism the same
        reasoning when Irsiism asked for the reason behind the orders

    Shortly after that, the recording carried a loud and firm broadcast to all ships in the system, coming from the fleet
        flagship in-system ordering all ships in-system to shut down all energy sources until they were cold.  They would
        then wait until they saw the Ghandi Prime Station lights resume, since the station would shut down too.  Any ships
        not complying with the order would be brought under fire if needed.

    Finally, the order was echoed five minutes after, by the largest of the battleriders outside a distance across which
        they felt the AI could have leapt.

While listening to the exchange, they never heard Admiral Irsiism "agree" with Mikah.  They also never heard the Admiral state that any ships should "follow the orders given by Lady Mikah.  What they heard was that the Flagship reiterated the same order under the authority of the Naval command.  That made it clear that what Mikah said could be viewed as a "Suggestion" where the order from the Flagship had been a "Command".  So, it was clear that Admiral Irsiism had not seconded Mikah's order.  It was a subtly many civilians wouldn't catch, but Admiral Garna knew he had no rock to stand on.

After a brief silence, Admiral Irsiism said, "Admiral Garna.  You heard me give the order.   You heard me order naval forces to follow Lady Mikah's instructions.  Not her orders.  I never ceded control or authority to Lady Mikah.  No Imperial Navy officer should ever cede control over Imperial Military forces to any member of the Imperial nobility except where they have the proper military rank and position to receive that authority."  Turning back to face Admiral Garna, Admiral Irsiism said, "At this point, you are officially reduced in grade to Commodore, and your rights as a member of the Admiralty are stripped."

Turning to the Commodore who had been Admiral Garna's executive Officer, Admiral Irsiism said, "Commodore.  You are now my executive officer, however you are not promoted to the grade of Admiral.  That promotion may yet be made after a proper investigation of this incident and the proper examination of your career and performance.  Despite that limitation, you are now expected to step up as my executive officer.  You will take command of the divisions and ships Admiral Garna formerly commanded.  Is that understood?"

Without pause, Garna and his former Executive Officer answered, "Yes Sir."  Then, calm as if he were offering tea, Admiral Irsiism stood, smiled and said, "Let's have dinner.".  Following the Admiral, they all returned to the dining hall to see the others had taken their seats and waited on them.  Mikah could see that she was to sit at high table where Zimzod and Rol were already waiting.  The rest of the crew had been seated along a side of one long row of tables while they faced naval officers facing them on the other side of the tables.  Officers from other commands sat at various other rows of tables filling out the compartment.

When the Admiral had asked Mikah to step into the other room before everyone had been seated, Rol decided to make small talk with the crew and milling naval officers while trying to figure out who would be told to sit where?  He hoped he could ask questions which would help him catch up on current events beyond those the crew had been involved in.  Sekea also jumped in, introducing himself to the officers who didn't recognize who he was.  What he learned, very quickly, was that each of the officers was told they would have the chance to meet Lady Mikah and her crew and each had found the time to read up a bit on all members of the crew.  Including Sekea himself.

That saved Sekea a great deal of time.  Much of the conversation he dealt with either centered on actions like the shutdown or questions about his impressions shifting from service aboard naval vessels verses civilian ships.  He was also often asked his opinion of Lady Mikah and her crew, since he'd only joined them some three months before?  Sekea admitted they'd been on many adventures as a crew, but admitted what they did was far more chaotic than his experiences in the Navy.  Sekea also admitted he'd seen Mikah's crew thrust into a number of events beyond their control, but which they had to find some way to manage none the less.

Sekea felt that was sufficiently vague to not lead to anything firm while also conveying enough of an answer to force anyone after a given point to also be very specific in their questions.  Once they did that, Sekea felt he could firmly answer some of their questions while dancing around, or refusing, points that may or not be freely answered.  Over all, he was doing his best to casually chat and make friends.  Colinne was happy to answer any questions she was asked while also working to subtly suggest investigating software events like the rogue AI into conversations.  On the edge of that, she would build in some hint at her need for high-end tools to chase such viruses down.  Like powerful decompilers.  Of course, she never used those words specifically.  But, she suggested a lot.

Finding himself in a disorganized group of Naval officers, Aiden did what he always did in such parties.  Feeling much more comfortable with the known quantity of military officers, instead of less defined civilians, Aiden dove into the meet and greet.  He gave his name to those who asked, answered a few questions that were always nearly the same and move on to meet more people.  Maybe, if he was lucky, find someone he connected with and could spend his free time talking shop with.  Whenever Aiden did try to mine information, and asked what was new in the region, he was reminded his crew was "what was new".  That hurt his attempts to get into underlying opinions and impressions.

With Mikah doing secret things behind closed doors, Fesic set himself the mission of finding any gunnery officers in the crowd.  When he did find some of his former fellows, Fesic checked up to see if any of the scuttlebutt had come true since he'd left Imperial service a year and a half before?  What he learned was that any "rumored newer tech" was still on the drawing board.  And, any advances to have made it past design were being built into newer ships which had not made their way out to the empire's edges, like the Spinward Marches.  Of course, there was always hope along with the on-going rebuild of the sector's naval forces following the war.  But, "there was always hope" meant there were always more rumors than fact.

Fesic also knew there would be drills.  Life aboard any naval vessel was always a well-oiled structure of clockwork operations constantly shattered by randomly called drills at all hours of the day or night.  Because of that, Fesic hoped he could talk his way into participation on any potential drills or competency trials that came up while he was aboard.  He even confided he might be able, as a visiting VIP, to handle the firing boards.  Sadly, that was shot down.  And while he wasn't told "why" that was, it was because he'd been out of the service far too long to be trusted with not slowing down their performance when their division commander had to discuss their performance with the Old Man and the XO.  No gun-horny Silly-vilan was gonna hurt their battery performance numbers.

While the others moved in on the officers, Jocelynn scanned the compartment for where they had a bar set up.  Not planning to drink heavily, she still wanted to get something to sip on while they waited to be seated.  That didn't stop or slow the various officers who'd come to meet any of Mikah's crew and a number of the officers had the same idea she had when the doors to the room had opened.  Scanning the likely crowd of people wanting to ask her questions, Jocelynn suddenly noticed a uniform that stood out.  Adding to that, the officer was wearing collar brass she'd never seen before.  Taking control of the wave of small talk and chatter, Jocelynn pointed at the insignia and asked, "I've never seen the rank before.  What is that?"

The older woman wasn't surprised with the question and explained she was a Commodore from the Border Worlds Confederation Navy.  Specifically, from the Hofud Planetary Navy.  Having served most of her career aboard either home fleet ships or in cooperation with ships of the Sword Worlds fleets, her home world had left the Sword Worlds and allied with the Imperium.  So, as a cooperative project, she was "being shared" with the Imperial fleets and serving aboard the carrier while learning how to work with Imperial officers.  That was a bit of a surprise for Jocelynn, because they'd been shooting at each other only five years before.

Because Jocelynn had served aboard the Regina's Storm and spent time fighting on the Lanth front, that would have been quite literally.  When she asked where the woman had served, the officer said she'd joined the Hofud Navy at a time of shifting politics where the world of Gram was rising back towards control of the Confederation.  She also shot a snark at the idea because Gram had always been hawkish on war with the Imperium.  As she spoke, it seemed Jocelynn could feel the sour grapes the woman had from her homeworld's decision.

Late in 1106, as things began to shift, she said she'd been part of the Hofud officer corp. who'd protested the idea of banding together to attack Imperial worlds - "Again".  She said that was because they feared losing to Imperial fleets - "Again".  But the protests were squashed before any possible news of them reached Imperial ears and gave warning that the tides of war were rising in the Confederation.  The "final stone" fell into place when the government of Sacnoth signed on with Gram.  Since the two worlds were often at odds and prevented unity, this was a move that drew the Sword Worlders together to fight "as one".  Again, the woman's tone was a bitter mix of sins repeated.

She spoke of being held back by her politics until their Navy needed officers who could do more than hate the Imperium.  Still, the Sword Worlds had been designated to take Lanth and cut off reinforcements from the Imperial worlds spinward of the Lanth void.  Not only did that not happen, but halfway through the war, they started hearing about Imperial raids in force against their homeworlds!  By then, Imperial fleets from the Lunion and Glisten subsectors had managed to drive in on their fronts and cross the Sword Worlds borders.  Added to that injury was the insult that the Sword World fleets Sacnoth had directed against the Darrians had failed to do anything except lose all three Entropic worlds!

With the war then more than three years old, things snapped and the ships from Hofud mutinied against the Gram command, left their combined fleets and returned to Hofud.  At the time, she'd quickly moved from Lieutenant Commander to Commander, and been given command of a smaller warship.  Rebuilding what was left of the Hofud Navy formations, the leaders of their world sent messages to Imperial positions saying they had renounced war against the Imperium and were willing to follow any orders from the Imperial naval command.  When the war finally did end, Hofud's government joined the other worlds who officially separated from the Sword Worlds Confederation and formed the "Border Worlds Confederation".

While they talked, Jocelynn realized it could have been accurate that their ships had fired on each other because the Storm "had" been fighting in and around the Lanth system in 1109, and had even helped drive Sword World ships from Imperial space while the 213^th Imperial fleet drove into the Confederation to put Imperial boots on enemy soil!  During that period, the Storm had fought to re-establish and hold the Imperial border and Jocelynn's unit were part of dirtside battles in the Imperial Asgard system, interdicted by Imperial edict for more than a century.  While Jocelynn never found out why the system had been interdicted, she and her team were sent to dig out Sword worlders who'd fled there and dug in.

In comparison, the woman said she'd never been considered "a valued officer" and her ship had been relegated to commerce raiding and blocking supplies from reaching Lanth.  Her work was primarily in ship's systems support and damage control until the mutiny.  When the woman mentioned the names of a few Admirals from the Gram war fleet leadership, Jocelynn recognized the look in her eyes and knew the woman was imagining gunning those Admirals down.  Jocelynn also chose not to mention she earned an MCUF during that part of the conflict, not wanting to rub in what was likely a period of bloody loss for the officer.  In the end, they exchanged information so they could keep in contact and ignored the looks of envy from the other officers who'd hoped to add Jocelynn to their list of allies.

When they did sit down, Mikah's crew were on one side of a pair of tables and officers they'd learned were the command staff of the carrier sat on the other side.  Aali sat across from one of the carrier's engineering officers, to keep up the conversation they'd started during "drinks".  Zimzod had politely traded small talk with various officers before being led to the High table along with Rol.  Rol, himself, had been very popular with many people asking questions about the events in Regina, before his death.  That was a predictable "fan group" basis because he'd achieve so high a level of reward for actions that were tragically heroic and apparently selfless.  Every officer there wanted to have Sir Rol as a political ally.

When Mikah and the officers came out of the conference room, a number of the crew were surprised to see a man in civilian clothing they'd not noticed before.  As some eyes went one way or the other, Aali, Aiden, Colinne, Mikah and Rol noted that one of the Admirals and a Commodore who'd been in the conference room had stepped away from the tables where everyone else was seeking a seat.  While they watched, they saw an enlisted crewman step up from where he'd not been noticed in the gathering.  The man handed the Commodore a small box, and the crew watched as the Admiral was told to remove his rank insignia and replace them with the insignia of an Imperial Commodore instead.  The officer looked very upset from what they could see.  That done, the enlisted man, a senior Petty Officer, left the compartment and the former Admiral found a seat at one of the "lesser tables".

Dinner And A Range Of Shows
     After everyone was finally seated, the meal was similar to a state dinner or diplomatic event.  Everyone present had significant rank and a role to play aboard either of the ships involved.  While officers of the carrier got to sit opposite members of Mikah's crew on a table very close to the high table, Upper echelon officers from other ships who'd been invited shuttle aboard were on other tables and mixing was allowed to give everyone a chance to, at least, meet the guests.  On High table with Mikah, Zimzod and Rol, Mikah finally learned the name of the Commodore taking Garna's place.  He was Commodore Salsesne Hefrioc, now in command of the Imperial Battlerider Ua Larlaun.  Mikah managed to congratulate the man on his sudden rise to command despite the circumstances.

Ironically, at the crew's table, anyone who asked about the Admiral who'd apparently been demoted got little from the Imperial officers.  Each was willing to go so far as admit he must have done "something" to have earned the public treatment he'd gotten but no one wanted to put themselves in the line of fire by guessing.  Making a point at high table, Admiral Irsiism had Rol on his left side and Mikah on his right.  Mikah had Zimzod on her right, and Rol had Commodore Hefrioc on his left.  While they didn't speak much about the demotion of Garna, Rol had overheard Mikah's congratulations and gotten the gist of what happened in the conference room.

Getting to the meat of what Mikah wanted as the food was served, she asked Admiral Irsiism if the fleet's officers had learned anything new in investigating the AI?  The officer admitted it was early days, especially since there hadn't been any chance to get an image of the virus.  That meant the most they had was a hope that the two light-second gap kept distant ships clear while the shutdowns had done their job.  He said his technical leads pushed the hope the virus had been starved out and no random computer systems with the memory and processing power to store the virus had been left accessible to the program.  Mikah was bothered that, while the man sounded very confident, he also was more certain than she liked that the program was no more than a virus connected to an expert system.  He did not seem to want to accept that it could have been an actual, and sentient, AI.

The Admiral added that much of what came out of the event would be complaints which would be raised in the courts.  Merchants on the station would sue for lost earning potentials.  Trade ships with schedules affected would sue for loss of commerce, or fines based on delays.  People injured in the panic, or who suffered damaged or lost property would sue for what they could get.  And, much of it would be directed against the station while an adventurous few would launch doomed law suits against the Navy for not preventing the event.  He did compliment the Imperial people of the Ghandi system with being wonderfully inventive when it came to making up reasons to sue.

He said his people were already working on presenting their reports to give step by step descriptions of how and when the Navy learned of the situation, along with what following steps were taken to respond to the crisis as their awareness and understanding shifted and changed.  He'd also given orders and his commanders were constantly analyzing the continued outcomes from the crisis, and moving forces to locations which threatened to become stress points.  The people there either stepped in to lend a hand or provide assistance in hopes they could keep the pressure down and not have to move in to arrest or detain citizens.  Additional security had been given to a number of locations to discourage those of an 'adventurous sort' from doing something stupid.  In a final sour grapes, he admitted the snakes in their legal firms were having a field day.

More directly, he said they had people along with the station's people looking and the workshop Mikah's crew had found, along with everything in the space.  And, especially the box Mikah admitted opening.  He also said he had technical specialists working with the station security teams to try and identify anyone who might have visited the compartment, now they knew what to look for.  Sadly, he admitted any security cameras in the area were not well located to even identify possible traffic in the area.  So, there was little that was helpful from that end.

Less than seriously, Mikah half-joked, "Maybe you should declare martial law", then giggled.  The Admiral actually laughed at that while admitting that wasn't an option in the situation.  Nodding, Mikah said she and her crew had given his people and the station everything they knew on the lab and the AI, but also said she had more information that should be delivered in a less public setting with some of his other officers.  When the Admiral asked how she would characterize the conversation Mikah wanted to have, she only said, "Classified".  Nodding, the Admiral said he'd set that up for some time after the meal.

When he asked Mikah if there were other officers she wanted to attend the meeting, Mikah said she expected his executive officer should be there.  But, she mostly wanted the intelligence officers from his team to be there.  nodding, the Admiral said he'd set up the meeting and let Mikah know when and where it would be.  While they talked, Aiden had been talking with the senior officer of the carrier's mainday flight crew.  That man had sat across the table from Aiden.  Aiden was interested in comparing the officer's experience flying massive capital ships with his flying smaller craft.

At the same time, Aali was sitting across from the carrier's chief engineering officer.  While they talked about systems, Aali suggested a tour of the engineering spaces.  The other engineer suggested their engineering spaces were large enough they'd might as well see the whole ship.  Talking about that idea, Aali admitted they'd have to stay aboard overnight if they wanted to tour the ship.  Soon enough, Aali told Mikah about the idea and Mikah said they could do it while considering she'd have to call the station to move the meeting with the Count and his people.  When she agreed and the Admiral said he'd set up staterooms and changes of clothing.

Spreading the word, Aali told the others about the overnight and Jocelynn realized she'd have to call her InstellArms concierge to change the meeting they set up for the pell 'droid.  Especially since the carrier was so large, they'd likely spend the entire next day touring the ship's spaces before sharing another dinner aboard.  Then, they'd boarded the shuttle to return to the station and hit the rack.  So, any appointments would have to be two days or more later.  Before making the call, Jocelynn let Sekea and Aali know plans were being changed.

Seated at the high table, Rol had been handling a steady stream of traffic from the carrier group's officers.  The special attention he was receiving was not only based on his having been awarded the Starburst for Extreme Heroism, but because of his death nearly four months ago fighting the assassin.  While some just wanted to chat with him, others hoped to make more lasting links that would help their careers.  Making things easier, most of the questions Rol faced were about his death fighting the assassin.  That meant he didn't have to talk about things the crew didn't want to discuss openly.

The story of his death was both straight forward and all on the public record.  They'd happened on a dying man and learned he'd been an investigator for the Ministry of Justice.  They'd been investigating what little they'd gotten and found the man's ship in the downport.  During that, they'd been attacked by the assassin and he'd fought back.  While fighting the man, Rol admitted he'd realized their attacker was very well trained, and he could only do his best.  Then, he'd gotten stabbed and said the lights went out shortly after that.

At the crew table, Sekea realized he had the resources of the carrier's primary command crew within reach to take advantage of.  Speaking to the carrier's command navigator, Sekea said it was always one of his desires to face new challenges in interstellar navigation.  Thanks to that, his crew had gotten permission to fly into the Sonthert system and he wondered if the man had heard anything about the solar system?  Another officer nearby overheard and said he'd worked aboard another ship, part of one of the interdiction fleets, before being reassigned to the carrier.

The officer, a Lieutenant Commander, said he'd been transferred based on his skills plotting jumps using non-standard maths to arrive in unknown spaces.  When Sekea nodded, the man put in plain galanglic because he was used to having to do that.  He explained he was very good at using the known masses of any system's bodies to develop nav-targets above or below a system's ecliptic to both avoid setting off sensors and allow faster approaches to target worlds or moons.  When he saw Sekea actually understood that, he admitted he'd not always plot the correct side of the system, which meant a second jump would be needed, but he got them close enough for assault enough of the time, and didn't often give the enemy warnings when he missed.

Still, he said he'd been a junior navigator working with the teams that plotted jumps into and from the Sonthert system.  During those times he'd spent on station, the man said the Sonthert system was quiet and showed no signs of being unusual.  After a moment of thought, the officer said the only odd thing he remembered was that ships in the system would sometimes pick up strange signal emissions they couldn't track or decipher.  The signals were never detected in the same spaces, or detected on any specific time schedule.  Early attempts to chase the signals down led to nothing and were eventually given up.

When Sekea asked about pirate activity in the system, the officer said that did happen periodically.  He then explained that, as Sekea knew, a solar system is a vast area of space.  Even if you closed in on the bodies in-system.  So, he said pirates would jump into the system every so often knowing they'd be tracked, but hoping the ship's of any interdiction fleet would be too far away to catch them before repairs or other work could be done.  Then, they'd jump away before responding forces could catch them.

Of course, choosing target locations in the system had to be based on conditions that could be guessed.  That meant fleet intelligence were constantly working up risk points to which in-system interdiction flotillas would dispatch task forces.  So, there were engagements from time to time, but not often.  When the man said the skirmishes often happened on the outer edges of the system, Sekea said his crew had permission to visit Sonthert's outer worlds.  So, he wondered if any of the skirmishes the man remembered might have happened in the area of Mynbou and the outer gas giants?  Nodding, the officer said if a fleet commanded by the admiral he'd served under were in-system, Sekea and his crew could almost count on running into a lurking Imperial task force.  Smiling, Sekea thanked the officer.

Colinne also sat at the table and considered the officers sitting opposite her.  Relaxing before engaging, Colinne decided it was time to risk a light read of their surface thoughts.  Elsewhere in the compartment, both Mikah and Zimzod got that familiar buzzing in the back of their heads when Colinne went fishing.  Colinne had to first filter out the many minds and harshly broadcasting thoughts in the room around her.  Calming the noise, she "tasted" the energy of the targeted minds and saw they were all focused and aggressive.

From the surface thought she started getting, it seemed they all hoped to learn some political or social trick for their own advancement.  And, while she started tasting the emotions, looking for any sense of danger or hate Colinne hit a sudden wall.  A wall of psionic shields!  Startled, Colinne had to think quickly to keep both her concentration and control of visible reactions.  Visibly, the Lieutenant Commander was a gunnery officer, who would be expected to lead one or more batteries of the ship's weapon systems.  The other thing Colinne could see was that the man's eyes had gone wide while she could feel him trying to contain a sudden feeling of panic.

Colinne knew a badly trained telepath would want to leap in, do a deep read of his thoughts and find out why he was panicking, but that would mean sitting in place for a minute or more while concentrating on the man.  And, doing that would certainly be noticed by the others in the crowded compartment.  Especially where she was one of the target visitors, and many of their crew were looking to get her attention.  So, a deeper read of the man's thoughts was out of the question.  Before taking any action, Colinne realized the officer had been part of the cluster Fesic was speaking to, and only turned to her when she did her scan.  Not certain which direction the situation would go, but certain they both knew they were each psions, Colinne tried to avoid panic by asking, "Is anything wrong?" in a friendly but concerned tone.

Colinne could only guess the man was working to force his panic down and bring his mind back under control before turning the moment of crisis into a disaster.  Next, in what he'd tried and failed to make sound like a confident tone, he said, "Wrong?  No.  What could possibly be wrong?"  Hearing that, Colinne could tell without psi-use the man was rattled and had not yet gotten control of his thoughts or emotions.  Trying the friendly approach again, Colinne openly said, "I'm sorry.  You seemed a bit upset."  She mostly hoped that her manner was open and welcoming enough that the man would perhaps think she was not the psion he'd felt.  That would help him regain his calm.

Standing suddenly but not violently, the man said, "I'm sorry.  I think I need to leave the compartment."  Not giving Colinne a chance to react, he turned his back on her and started walking towards the compartment's main hatch.  Colinne knew a few very urgent things.  First, she knew she had no idea what the officer would do with his knowledge she was a psion.  So, she was under active threat until she could lock that down.  She also knew the junior officer was frightened and not likely to be thinking straight.  But, she couldn't call out to the man and create a very public scene in hopes of getting him to return to speak with her.

Knowing that letting him leave and doing nothing would entirely surrender her fate to his uncontrolled actions, Colinne decided she had to follow him and keep him in sight at the least.  Doing that, she could look for a chance to re-engage as they moved.  Considering any benign gambits, Colinne went with the most simple, and moved as quickly as she could to get into conversational range before asking him to show her where the washrooms were?  The value of the request is that others in the compartment would have heard her, so the officer couldn't refuse her without raising eyebrows himself.  So that gambit trapped him in social convention.  Realizing that and obviously being unhappy about that to her, the man accepted and said he would show her the way.

Standing with a look of resignation on his face, Colinne knew the balance she had to worry about was how far she could push him before he became willing to admit he had psionic talents just so he could accuse her of the same and be done with the nightmare he found himself in.  Colinne had seen others in the same trap, who were no longer asking 'how to escape' and only wanting to end the mental torture they'd lived under since their talents had blossomed. 

Getting to the compartment hatch, Colinne had been preparing to jump right into an opening comment when they were alone in the companionway until she stepped through and saw armed marines guarding the outside of the hatch.  That was a security demand protecting the large gathering of command officers during the party.  Nodding a friendly acceptance at the marines, Colinne could feel the officer was gathering himself much better.  The officer held his hand up saying, "This way" while also beginning to walk along the same direction.  Colinne was relived he didn't try to simply point in the direction and leave her.

Colinne felt things had finally started going better as the Officer led her around a turn in the corridor.  Then, suddenly and a bit forcefully, the man spun to face her and seemed to glare at her while straining his mind.  At the same moment, Colinne's psi-shields snapped up thanks to hours of practice and training when the man tried some kind of mental assault!  The power of his attack was no match for her shields, and Colinne simply stood and held against him while waiting for his energy to run low.  Realizing she could bat his attack away and wasn't attacking him in return, the officer stepped back and demanded, "Who are you?"  Happily, the corridor they had turned into was empty.

Considering the situation, Colinne saw she could play it clean with the man, because he was trying to understand the situation he was in.  In a calm voice, she told him, "I am Dame Colinne Paan, and a former Imperial intelligence agent who worked as a spy against the Zhodani."  She paused to let that sink in before finishing, "I am no threat to you."  Nodding, half in surprise and half in doubt, the Officer came to attention and formally asked, "Are you going to have me executed?"  Colinne wasn't surprised with that reaction since much of the Imperial population would have expected her to use her side arm to kill a discovered and covert psion on the spot.  Especially if they were discovered by another covert psion, who would have to protect themself from being discovered.

When Colinne firmly said, "Hell No!" in a friendly tone, the man became more confused and demanded, "Why not?"  Colinne told him, "Because I don't think like a bureaucrat and I'd advise you to be careful how you use your psi-talents or you will end up in trouble."  Accepting her claim she'd been part of the Imperial Intelligence "and" been an active psion, the man became hopeful for the first time in perhaps years, and asked her if she could direct him to someone who could help him as an untrained psion?  Colinne remembered a number of comms links she'd been made to memorize for just such situations when she'd joined Lady Mikah's crew.  The code she gave him could be x-mailed to key systems like Regina, Rhylanor, Mora, Lanth and others.  This would make those teams aware of his situation.

Colinne could now feel the relief the man was feeling as he gratefully took the information she offered.  He was even a bit surprised when she told him he could share that with other psions he may know who were in the same situation.  Colinne had understood that units would be dispatched to investigate the situation, and confirm those who were x-mailing were honestly untrained psions who'd suffered a talent blossom without support or education.  Returning the favor as much as he could, the officer then asked Colinne if there was anything about the ship or her officer corp. that she and Lady Mikah's crew needed to know?

When Colinne asked if there were other psions he knew of in the crew, the man admitted he'd run into others who had talents activate without warning in the years he'd been in the Navy.  He also sadly admitted he'd seen some talents become very obvious in public spaces and had to stand aside while the spacers around them beat or hacked them to death.  While he knew of a number more than that who'd managed to hide their talents, they had mostly wished each other well and avoided each other.  That protected them in case one of them made a mistake and exposed the others by association.  He also explained that was why he'd reacted the way he did when she suddenly scanned the group he was in.

Colinne apologized for the situation while she also wondered just how powerful a psion the man was?  Of course, the only way she could learn that was to ask his permission to scan him while he kept his mental shields down.  When he gave her permission and did his best to keep his mind open, Colinne was able to see the man was a reasonably powerful telepath and also had a "Very" strong telekinetic talent.  The difference between the two talents was likely due to his lack of training and she could guess he'd also become a very powerful 'teep' if he were properly trained.

Worried a lot more about what the man might do if he lost control and "threw something" with his mind, Colinne said she urged him to send the x-mail code she'd given him so he could protect himself.  She told him that it wasn't a bad thing to have psi-talents, but there were unfortunately strong social discriminations since the Psionic Suppression Wars.  She also told him that sending the x-mail should not only offer him more protection, but should also get him some training in how to use his talents.  She did say that he'd likely be removed from the Imperial Navy, but should be able to return to that service after he'd been trained.  Done with their exchange, both Colinne and the much calmer gunnery officer returned to the dinner until things died down.

Fesic had 'set up court' with the gunnery officers from the carrier and some senior gunnery officers who'd shuttled to the carrier from other ships.  Happy to enhance his own reputation while educating those who asked, Fesic was glad to "puff up" his own part in trying to solve the problem while describing what happened to the listening officers.  While he talked, and played his actions up, he did his best to catch the eyes of any of the female officers in the group.  From time to time as he talked, Fesic shifted back into shop talk that let the others speak up and participate, giving them chances to join in with the group.  Not far from Fesic's group, Aali was sharing time with officers from the carrier and other ships.

When the evening came to an end, everyone in the crew were told they'd each have an ensign assigned to lead them to the staterooms assigned to them.  Each would have their own stateroom, which was a significant luxury on a warship.  The ensigns would also take measurements and draw proper clothes from their Quartermaster, for the crew to wear the next day.  The rest of the evening was an education for the crew.  The staterooms they were shown to were surprisingly more "snug" than those they had on even the Dawnstar Horizon or Hotel California.  Still, they had all the "needed" amenities.

After getting the access codes for their digs, they then asked about evening entertainment and recreational spaces aboard the ship?  They were told that the ship's crew had permission under varying circumstances to clear certain compartments and set up spaces throughout the ship.  While there were dedicated compartments, like theaters, officer's clubs, enlisted clubs and more, the Captain permitted compartments to be "cleared" and have spaces set up like casinos and other entertainment activities.  Just so long as it was firmly known those spaces had to be able to suddenly be re-set for their duty purposes in the event an alarm is raised.  Even if the alarm was a drill.

With that understood, and an ensign to guide him and keep him from getting lost, Fesic said he wanted to go to an officer's club and find a cute officer to dance with.  The ensign said he could lead Fesic to the club, but couldn't guarantee the interested of any female partners.  Fesic also found himself walking into barrier after barrier.  No matter where he went, standing orders had security post armed protective troopers in the space.  It was also very obvious they were civilians and not military members.  And, added to that, there was the barrier of the celebrity surrounding each member of Mikah's crew.  So, there were many conditions that encouraged a separation between the ship's crew and their guests.

Before considering anything else after being assigned her stateroom, Aali called Jocelynn on her comms.  When Jocelynn answered the call, Aali asked if she'd seen Colinne talking to one of the naval officers towards the end of the dinner, and briefly leave the compartment with the man?  When Jocelynn said she had seen that, Aali asked if Colinne had told her anything about what happened with the man?  Jocelynn said Colinne had not told her anything and Aali asked, "Is she alone in her stateroom?"  Because they were all adults, neither woman would have had a problem if Colinne decided to invite the man in, but they weren't sure what had happened, or how far things went?

Jocelynn considered she could call Colinne on the comms, as Aali had called her, or ping her wirelessly using her stent.  Making her decision, Jocelynn put Aali on standby and called Colinne using her comms.  When Colinne answered, Jocelynn said she'd seen her leave the dining compartment with an officer she said she felt had been "off kilter".  Because of that, she asked Colinne if "everything was OK"?  Colinne told Jocelynn everything had worked out well enough and explained in a nutshell what had happened.  When Jocelynn asked if Colinne had "invited the man to visit her stateroom", Colinne laughed and said the man hadn't been her type at all, so she was by herself.

Understanding the situation more thanks to her own psionic blossoming, Jocelynn could only imagine what the man was going through.  She told Colinne to call her if she felt she needed more hands to help the man, but Colinne said she was certain the issue was as much under control as it could be.  With that, they cut the call and Jocelynn updated Aali on what she could say.  That, of course, avoided any comments on psionic talents.  With her curiosity satisfied, Aali was glad things worked out and they cut the line.

After Sekea had been assigned his stateroom, he reached out to the navigation officer he'd talked to about the Sonthert system and invited the man out to talk over drinks.  When the man agreed, they went to one of the officer's clubs nearby where the crew had been assigned staterooms and settled at a table to chat.  There, Sekea talked with the man about a number of his recent experiences before bringing the conversation around to the artificial intelligence his crew had encountered.  While they talked, it was very obvious the officer thought Sekea and his crew had been mistaken about the nature of the software.

The officer suggested what Sekea had thought was an AI was just a very advanced "Expert system" which had been grafted with a virus.  When Sekea asked for more explanation of that, the officer said companies and computer designers with money could buy expert systems to manage processes and work hardware in a way that "appeared" to be self-intelligent but weren't.  And, if someone had the money to buy both systems that would support their plant software and the app itself, the most expensive expert systems could fool a great many people into believing they were self-aware.  It was great for customer service.  If someone had such an expert system and combined it with a nasty self-reproducing virus, he felt that was exactly what such a software package would look like.

The man did say he respected Sekea's opinion because he'd actually 'been there' and interacted with the software.  So, it was hard for him to try and judge the facts based only on what Sekea was describing.  Still, he felt this sounded like what every AI-based Trivi-Horror production sounded like.  He also described the expert system he had loaded on his duty station computer.  He even chuckled when he described how long it took new junior officers to acclimatize to the program and realize it wasn't sentient.  He also asked how skilled Sekea was as designing and diagnosing the performance of such systems, and Sekea had to admit his skills were minimal in that area.

One thing the officer did not address was a position Sekea had taken where he believed the AI or software had specifically been intent on navigation.  That was because Sekea described the "entity's" desire to get out and explore one it was freed from its confinement, but then appeared to assume the 'desire to explore' suggested it was originally built as a navigational device.  While he kept it to himself, the officer figured, if anyone had been imprisoned and escaped, they would first want to explore the spaces newly available to them.  Still, when Sekea suggested it might possibly be some sort of prototype which gained intelligence, the officer admitted it was 'possible'.  But repeated he didn't think it was realistic.  Both agreed they were disappointed an image of the software wasn't captured for study.

When Sekea asked about ships having disappeared from the system, the officer wasn't sure what he meant?  Sekea then explained that he wondered if the AI could have gotten on a ship and forced it to jump out of the system?  The man pointed out that would not be "disappearing".  Ships were arriving in the system all the time, and after the shut down and restart, any of the ships outside the 100 Diameter limit could freely leave if they wanted, without notifying anyone.  So, there was no way to determine if any ship that had been present during the event had jumped out of the system willingly or not.  Some ships filed flight plans and some did not.

Many merchant ships followed prescribed trade routes, so they would always be in a given port on a given date, unless something happened to delay their schedules.  So there would be no "ships disappearing" unless they never arrived where they were scheduled to be.  And, that was called a "Misjump", just like the events surrounding the King George.  That liner had left the Lanth system on 355-1113 and "should have" arrived here in the Ghandi system on 362-1113.  Instead, due to the still unexplained misjump, the King George emerged from jump space on Holiday-1114, and seven parsecs off course!  And there was a huge history of misjumps that existed long before this AI incident, so they were not related.

In her stateroom, before she went to sleep, Jocelynn called InstellArms and told the answering operator she wanted to leave a message for her concierge.  That technician was happy to help with that, especially since the comms code for the carrier's network had shown on the incoming call, ranking the call as "High Priority Military".  There was even a moment of "controlled reaction" from the operator when they realized it was a member of Lady Mikah's crew calling from the carrier, which was unusual.  Jocelynn left a message they were guests of the Admiral and would be tied up with events aboard the carrier the next day, so she had to reschedule the planned meeting to discuss the pell android.  Jocelynn also speculated that they might not be able to meet until the 88^th day, just to be safe.

When Fesic's night started winding down, he started looking for those he wanted to add to his contacts.  And, of course, every person on the carrier's crew wanted to be able to claim they could simply call up Sir Fesic at need because he'd added them to his personal network!  So, there was a mad bit of rush and bother as he added quite a number of contacts to his comms list.  Of course, Fesic figured it wouldn't be a big deal since he wouldn't be in the same system as they were fairly soon.  So, he wouldn't have to worry about constant comms traffic from them.  Still, he later got a lesson on that as he tried to get some sleep.

What Fesic hadn't counted on was that people wanted to be able to count him as a connection they could prove and validate.  So, where anyone could add a contact named "Sir Fesic", one could only validate the connection by sending a message to that contact and having "Sir Fesic" respond.  So, as things settled down on the carrier, and Fesic tried to get some rest, there was a large wave of pings from his comms with various versions of "It was very nice to meet you and I would very much like to work with you soon." from the very many people he'd added.  It very quickly got to a point where he simply used an automatic app to stamp each message, "It was nice to meet you too - In service to the Imperium".  He then turned off both the sound and vibration alerts when messages arrived so he could get some sleep.

    Sunday, 087-1114:
Wandering Through Ship's Spaces
     After fading to sleep, all the crew were out cold at one in the morning when alarms blasted them all awake!  Ship wide, the alarms woke crew and visitors alike, and a calm and steady voice began the follow on announcement.  A steady male voice said, "This is a drill.  All Day-Side operations officers and crew will man their stations.  All personnel will prepare for armed action.  This is a drill."  Jocelynn considered making sure her stateroom portal was locked as she remembered drills like this in her previous life.  As a marine, if she'd not actually been on duty, she'd be flying through the passages to get from her bunk to the squad's morgue, to snap into her armor and move to the armory.  And, each time, she'd be clawing at everything around her so she could be armed, armored and ready for orders in a new record time.  Because her commanding officers Were watching and timing everyone.

The former Navy members of Mikah's crew recognized exactly what was happening, and some had even launched from their beds before stopping at the hatch.  Reminding themselves they were visitors aboard and didn't have a station to man.  Some of the former scouts could only curse the fucking navy fools even though they'd had both drills of their own and "hazing".  Any of the crew who'd served aboard capital ships would know they only had a limited time before they'd hear the warning, "Transitioning to Combat null".  The bridge would only immediately switch to "Emergency Null" if the ship were actively drawing fire and needed to make emergency maneuvers.

In real combat situations, the bridge would also assure all stations manned and crew ready before warning the crew to, "Prepare for Combat Void".  That meant they were preparing to void the ship, so any strikes that penetrated the ship's hull didn't cause explosive decompression.  Because of that, each of the visitors were happy they'd brought their vacc suits with them.  They'd also noticed, when assigned their staterooms, that the beds all had "over-webbing".  A standard on starships, people who flew between the stars were warned if not trained to use the webbing and other safety features.  While Fesic and some others got into their vacc suits, 'just in case', everyone went back to bed.  Some fell right to sleep while it took others to get over the "adrenaline bump".

When Rol had issues getting back to sleep, he decided to relieve the gravity in his stateroom and float under the netting.  In her stateroom, Jocelynn decided to do that right off, instead of waiting to see if she'd have trouble sleeping.  Rol took his time checking the settings in his stateroom, and noticed a previous occupant had marked one setting as, "Experiments in becoming a bio-missile".  Rol chuckled because that person had obviously had a sense of humor.  When they finally woke to a 9am "alarm tone" in all their staterooms, they found two notifications on the stateroom alert boards.  One stated a box had been left outside their hatch with their loaned "day wear".  That came with a plastic wrapping into which they could put their clothing from the previous day for laundering.  The other had a link to where they should go when ready, to have their morning meal in a nearby Officer's mess.

Along the walk, Mikah's comms buzzed and she saw it was some administrator from the civilian port's Central offices.  When she answered, the Admin introduced himself and said they recognized Mikah and her crew were aboard the carrier.  After she confirmed that, she was asked when she expected to return to the station?  Mikah told them she figured they'd return to the station sometime later that day, but was unsure how long the tour would take.  After all, the carrier was a very large ship.  Nodding, the admin said, "The Count of Ghandi has sent his compliments and would like to meet with you and your crew, along with members of his Seneschalate.  Can we let them know you will be available tomorrow to set that up?"  When Mikah agreed with that, the admin thanked her and they cut the line.

Having a very different experience, Jocelynn made her way to the officer's mess when a very alert, very eager and perky concierge from InstellArms called her.  Bowing to the inevitable, Jocelynn wished the man a good morning and hoped the call would be quick enough to keep her from trying to find a way to one of the carrier's missile batteries.  Not getting directly to the reason for his call, the man first congratulated Jocelynn on being invited aboard the Imperial fleet's in-system flagship.  Jocelynn almost grit her teeth and said, "There was a drill at one in the morning." as if she hoped that would "politely" push the man to get down to business.  The man only nodded sympathetically and said, "That sort of thing will happen on Navy ships, I'm sure."  Jocelynn only nodded and reminded him she was a veteran and knew these things.

Moving from that to push things into "getting business done", Jocelynn explained that she and her crew had been invited aboard the carrier to speak to Admiral Irsiism.  Because of that, she said, the four-hour transit meant they couldn't return to the InstellArms site for the meeting they'd planned and would have to reschedule that.  Because of that, Jocelynn wanted to see if they could plan to reschedule the meeting on the 89^th day of the year.  Nodding, the concierge told her they were good with changing the meeting date.  He also told her to call them when she was certain what time frame was needed and they would help her set things up.  Hearing that, Jocelynn thanked the man and the call ended.

After their morning routines and connecting with their assigned Ensigns, they made their way to the officer's mess. There, they were introduced to a Lieutenant Commander waiting there for them to gather.  While moving through the ship, they noted there were more than one space devoted to food service for both officers and crew, because of the size of the crew.  The Commander told them they'd begin the tour shortly after breakfast, and the tour would include a lunch-time meal with some of the officer corp.  They would then continue their tour until it ended some time before the dinner meal.  They would have free time aboard the ship to revisit locations of interest and ask more questions, if they wanted.  Then, they would join the Admiral for dinner before they'd have their cleaned laundry returned to them and board a cutter for return to the station.

After eating, the crew were introduced to a senior engineering officer who reported directly to the carrier's Chief Engineer, and led to a conference room.  There, the officer called up images of the layout of the ship and described the scope of the tour they'd be given.  The stops were designed to show off as much of the ship as a group could see in one day.  A point was made that they would stop for lunch along, and as part of, the tour so they'd get to see how so large a crew were fed during extended operations in space.

When they were asked if anyone had specific requests, Rol said he would like to spend some time visiting Marine Country.  The Commander told Rol they could certainly visit the sections of the ship devoted to the carrier's marine compliment.  He also said they'd be able to visit both the armory and "the morgue", which it was explained to non-marines was that space within the armory where combat armor were stored, maintained, repaired and managed.  Fesic suggested visiting some of the ship's batteries to "check out their firing rate".  After he was asked what he meant, he was told they could certainly step in during one of the drills which would certainly be called.  During that time, they could watch exercises designed to measure and maintain combat efficiency.  Mikah also said she wanted to visit the ship's medical services.

Leaving the mess compartment, the Commander told Mikah that the Admiral would have his people gathered to speak with her after the tour, during their scheduled free time before evening chow.  After that, they were led onto one of the carrier's internal personnel movers to go to the ship's command compartments to start.  Because the bridge of any large ship was a cramped and boxy space, they'd start their tour in the ship's command and control spaces.  The CiC not only had stations for management and control of all the ship's systems and sensors, but also had specialized stations for additional operational needs.  On the Flagship, the ship Captain not only had their CiC but that CiC was integrated with a second "Flag CiC", which was entirely in a different location aboard the ship.

From the Flag CiC, the Admiral and his staff could manage the squadron and, along with that, the ship.  The Admiral had additional command assets, such as Intelligence and Strategic elements.  Those shift the focus from "direct tactical work" to strategic and regional awareness concerns along with other directives.  That meant the bridge crew were free to manage their posts, identify threats and carry out their orders, the staff of the CiC could examine the situation and sensor data more deeply, to help both the Captain and Admiral hone their tactics or the squadron's over-all strategy.  And, despite the fact it had just a bit more space to work in, the crew there kept their mouth shut.  And those on the tour took up room the crew didn't want to give up but followed their orders.

One of the main differences between the bridge and CiC were spaces devoted to the projection of holographic display tanks.  The displays were used to refine and investigate sensor readings, model tactical positions and model actions and responses along with strategic options.  Holo-tanks were available from smaller units for detail management to larger tanks to track and manage battlefield awareness.  Aali and Sekea had handled command shifts in spaces like those, and both Aiden and Fesic had sat shifts in either the bridge or CiC during their careers.

From there, the tour led from space to space throughout the carrier.  Spaces like the fighter and small craft maintenance bays held the crew's attention because they could see inside the craft being worked on.  They were all more than a bit surprised to see auxiliary compartments in marine country large enough to actually hold parade formations for the company of marines assigned aboard.  That granted the company a vast luxury of space aboard any combat vessel, not the least a capital ship.  Of course, the space was multifunctional and allowed for combat exercises and even more.  Added to that, the marine compliment shared a split-armory with the Navy's space.  Added to that, the marine armory had additionally secured space for their morgue and their high-security weapons storage.

Including the FGMP's Zimzod was reminded he couldn't have.  Jocelynn enjoyed that moment trying to taunt Zimzod yet again.  While Zimzod just brushed it off, having come to an understanding with the universe about the weapons, Fesic did his best to try edging up to "get a closer look".  He quickly found his path blocked by one of the armorers and couldn't get nearly any closer.  While Jocelynn toyed with the idea of being almost able to touch them, Aali snarked, "And they're not inflatable either" in a dry tone that still got laughs.

Mikah was enjoying a look at the carrier's medical intake unit when the Commander leading the tour got a call on his comms.  After that call, he suggested they might want to clear the space in an unhappy tone.  The officer then started herding them to the exit when they were suddenly confronted by an on-coming group of medics guiding a gravGurney with a patient on it!  While they approached shouting things like, "Make a hole!", Mikah got a glance at the patient and decided the victim was in very bad shape!

When Mikah said she could assist, while she'd also gotten out of the way, it was an event the medics were not prepared for.  Not certain who she was, but also not ready to discount they'd run into a doctor while entering the medical services, there was a pause to understand if the stranger could help?  Finally, when one of the medics said they needed an actual doctor, Mikah answered, "I am an actual doctor." in a flat tone.  Responding doctors coming from inside the space were calling for the medics to keep the gurney moving when the Commander waved them to continue.  He then told Mikah they had staff doctors who could take care of the case.

Mikah shrugged and accepted that, but felt sorry for those other doctors.  From what she saw, the victim had suffered massive blunt force trauma.  Whatever fell on the victim had crushed the entire right side of their pelvic girdle so badly she doubted even she could reconstruct or work to repair the damage.  Added to that, the victim's entire right leg was a loss.  It would have to be replaced by a cloned limb, transplant or prosthetic if they could save the person following the pelvic portion of the wounds.  The surgical team would be spending many hours on this person unless they died from the massive traumatic injury.  From there, the Commander moved them on to a space within the ship where they had large lateral-running hydroponic systems.

Set into a number of paths through the corridors in that part of the ship, they almost created the idea of park paths on a world's surface.  When asked, the crew out managing the planters at the time admitted the installation helped manage air recirculation, but were not large enough for anything more than spice growing.  The units had to be specially designed to seal and survive being in damaged and voided parts of the ship after combat.  And a great deal of work had to be done to keep sections of the ship from suffering side effects.  One of those was the release and possible buildup of condensation and moisture which could even affect unsealed or damaged electronic systems.  So, while not learning a great deal about it, they did learn that keeping plants on starships added whole new issues with maintenance and management.

Visiting the space, Fesic had the most questions and did his best to learn as much as he could.  Still, when his questions suggested a hint of "how much of this could I do?" Aali reminded him of Terin's misguided ideas about growing cash crops in his stateroom.  One of the carrier's crew members also mentioned that live plants and very small maintenance crews led to bad things.  Some of those crew then explained how quickly unwanted moisture can start building up and invading ship systems until you start having electrical failures and other glitches.  The message they worked to give Fesic was that 'winging it as an amateur' would most likely end badly.

Along the tour, they'd stopped at one of the multiple meal halls and were served a meal that turned out to be "entirely consumable" and no more.  During that stop, they learned a great deal on how foodstuffs were brought aboard, stored and disseminated throughout the ship.  How drinks and many foodstuffs were brought aboard "dry" and either re-hydrated or even "printed to create texture" before being used as ingredients to serve the final meals.  How there were also networks of paste-extruding systems providing snacks or casual food items.  While Rol wasn't the only person interested, and everyone except Rol and Colinne shuddered when they covered paste-based food, some were ready to suck down the forgettable meal and move on.

Another thing they noticed while moving through the carrier's spaces was the diversity of the crew.  The carrier crew had a fair number of Vargr crew.  A surprising number of Aslans served aboard, especially in the marine company serving as ship's troops.  While there were no hivers aboard, Fesic did mistake a small topiary in the shape of one, and asked how many of the plant-based life forms served aboard?  In the end, the crew had spent a lot of time that day moving about and seeing many of the behind-the-scenes activities of life on a carrier.

At Loose Ends
     A few hours before the crew would start hitting the mess halls for dinner, they ended the tour and Mikah was asked who from her crew she wanted to be part of the coming meeting with the Admiral and his people?  Mikah considered before telling Aali, Colinne and Jocelynn to come to the meeting.  Hearing that, Zimzod added himself to the group.  That gave the others ninety minutes to two hours of free time while the meeting happened.  Paired with an Ensign, Fesic went hunting one of the more senior members of the hydroponics team to ask how he could mimic some part of their installation.  And, the man laughed at his aspirations.

The man told Fesic one of the reasons their system worked was because they had a large volume of air into which they could dissipate the moisture and outgassing of bio-gasses.  He also did his best to explain that the much smaller space aboard a 400-ton starship would amplify the problem of managing moisture.  That meant not constantly managing the humidity could lead to buildups in moisture that could threaten electronics in that area while also promoting the growth of molds and other medically threatening outcomes.  In the end, the man suggested Fesic look into a sealed terrarium-like desktop fixture at best.  To stay on the safe side.

Riding his gravChair about, Rol couldn't do anything "really adventurous".  So, he told his Ensign that he'd like to hit an officer's club and chat with whoever.  This was well knowing that he'd make a splash in any location like a rock in a pond anywhere on the ship.  While he felt he was used to the condition by that time, he hadn't considered the magnifying effect of being stuck in a set of compartments from which he couldn't just walk away when things got uncomfortable.  On top of that, he would never have even partial control of the discussion.  Once any group or crowd took over, then public opinion would control the conversation.

Considering his options, Aiden asked his escorting Ensign where would be the best place on the carrier to sit with members of the crew?  Perhaps, scare up a game of poker or some other challenge.  Hearing that, the Ensign told Aiden the Admiral had given permission to set up "recreational casinos" in some of the ship's multi-purpose spaces.  He also issued an order relaxing non-fraternization between the officers and enlisted.  That said, the officer asked if Aiden would like to visit that space and sit in on some games?  Aiden was certainly interested, because his time aboard so far had been spent in the company of officers.  So, this was a chance to mix with the enlisted men too.

When Aiden got his chance to sit in on a few games, he hoped to get some ideas how the crew felt about their recent and planned port calls along with any thoughts on their politics.  As he'd known, the carrier squadron had fought as part of the 18^th Fleet during the war.  The carrier had been put in for a year's refit and repairs.  After the work, and replacement or reassembly of the crew, they'd had some pleasantly quiet years.  So far, it was a welcomed boredom.  They did admit to some moments of excitement from time to time but nothing important.  When Aiden asked if they'd seen any trouble spots, he was told there were none.  They were especially happy that one of the spots had been handled by their crew and the Ardeni, according to the news.  So, after losing Cr 50 to those playing against him, Aiden only learned the crew of the carrier were much more relaxed.

Told of his free time, Sekea had the idea to visit the ship's shopping and entertainment spaces.  When he asked the others if they wanted to join him, Sekea found the others had their own interests.  Still, Aiden asked him to buy him an official 'ball cap' with the ship's name on it and Sekea said he would.  What Sekea saw when he was brought to the compartments were similar to the casino and other spaces.  They could very quickly be folded down and stowed when action was expected.  So, like fields of flowers that rise briefly from bone-dry deserts after rare rainfall, open assembly and operational space has sprouted entire departments of goods to buy, along with crew who could earn commissions selling the items.

After an hour wandering through the offerings, Sekea saw a lot of actual items on offer.  Adding to that, the impromptu corridors had displays with items that were in cargo, but still for sale.  Those items would be delivered to a crewperson's bunk if there was space allowing for it.  Some devices could be delivered to function spaces where lockers would secure things not currently in use.  The crewperson could then go to that space during their off-duty time, and use their goods.  Of course, if a crewperson was transferred from the ship, they'd have to pay for any goods they wanted to bring with them that were over naval limits from their own accounts.  Limits would also keep any single crewperson from buying goods that exceeded cubic "liter storage levels".  In Sekea's case, they promised anything he bought would be placed on the shuttle he'd return to the main port on.

Listening to the restrictions the carrier crew had to deal with, Sekea admitted that also reflected some of the limits he had with the space in his stateroom.  Still, while he looked at the gear on sale, Sekea wandered into a section named "Para-Professional Equipment".  Added to the usual data on each item, there were "allowances" listed if the items bought by a crewperson related to one of their responsibilities on the ship.  So, a buyer may have the right to put the purchase at their duty station.  Or, be granted more storage space closer to their duty station, bunk or other location.  And, because those items tended to be professional tools, they also tended to be very expensive.

The device Sekea saw was called an "Artist's Factory", and it was listed as a Tech Level 15 device.  That meant that anything he wanted to buy to support the device had to come from TL 15 factories, so future shipping could become quite expensive.  The main device was a two-inch by two-inch by ten-inch long "brick" on a surface on which the artist would work.  The user would put "finger cap" controls on their fingers so the device could sense how the artist moved and manipulated their fingers.  The actual work space would then be holographically projected in front of the artist, so they could select the desired material descriptions and measurements as a holo-displayed work piece.

Based on the printing material supply cartridges he had to buy separately, the device base unit could extrude the finished artwork in any of those materials allowed by the supply cartridges purchased.  So, the device was an extreme extension on a 3D printer.  While a 3D printer could produce a rod, tool or instrument, this could produce images painted on canvas, or documents written on paper or vellum or any other exotic materials.  With the proper supplies, ceramic, glass or many other materials could be used to create artwork.  Even materials that looked entirely natural.

When he wondered if the device would be useful to him that answer was a limited "yes".  Thinking back to when the ship had been on Arden, he remembered they'd encountered the travel passes.  With the device, he could scan and print the material the passes had been printed on.  What he couldn't do, with or without the device, was inscribe the passes with the correct data to make a pass valid.  He'd eventually seen enough passes to be able to make up a pass that "looked" real.  But, he had no way to decode the images on the passes.  So, if an officer scanned the pass, it would set off all the alarms.

And, that was the same with any item he tried to forge in the future.  If it was a static piece, like a painting stolen from someone, or a statue, then he could scan and print a copy.  Microscopic level tests would be needed to prove the new item was a copy.  But, if he wanted to forge an official document, he would have to know all the details needed to create a valid item.  If he were on a world that had a low enough tech level, where computerized or advanced items were not used, Sekea would still have to learn what any forgery would need to "look real".  On the more advanced worlds, he'd have to hope those using his forgeries would be able to get passed barriers without those forgeries being tested.

Sekea also knew he had to buy supplies for the device, and figured most of his work would be used creating small insignia and documents.  To be able to create those, he also bought four supply cartridges for the closest set of materials to cover those needs.  The base device cost him KCr 50 and the cartridges cost an additional KCr 20.  While he bought it, Sekea was really certain no member of the ship's crew had bought one of the devices if not to do things needed for their job.  If he'd have asked, he would have been told that some Petty Officers in the ship's security division had bought them and used them to create "on demand" tokens to distribute during various operations.

The crewman helping Sekea was so surprised he was buying the artist's factory that he suggested an "add on" item to use with it.  Priced at KCr 20, like the cartridges, it was a stick-spindle device Sekea would be able to mount original items on to scan into memory.  The stick folded out, and also extended a panel on which any original material could be placed.  The panel would then spin at a controlled rate that insured the piece would be fully and properly scanned.  Again, it was more powerful than a 3D printer because it could "taste" the materials the original was made from and indicate what supplies were needed to make copies of an existing item.  Hearing that, Sekea spent the extra cash on that too.

Next, Sekea went looking for a ball cap for Aiden.  He quickly found caps like what Aiden wanted, which were emblazoned with the name "INS Kaarshur".  Seeing they cost Cr 5 each, Sekea decided to splurge, and buy one of the hats for everyone in the crew.  That cost him another Cr 45 for the 9 hats.  When he made the payments for everything there was a brief amount of paperwork to be done so the device and cartridges would be delivered to the shuttle for him to take back to the station with him.  Then, he was done and on the way back to meet with the rest of his crew.

Behind Closed Doors
     This time, they didn't just use a side office for the meeting.  Mikah and the others were brought to the Flag CiC where they gathered with Admiral Irsiism and his team.  That let them directly access their working databases and even project non-classified data or interpretations up in the holotanks or display screens.  Walking into the space, they could see it was both more spacious than the Captain's CiC and more packed with goodies and devices.  They could also see there were several teams the ship's Captain didn't have the services of.

The most active team they were introduced to were the Admiral's intelligence team.  There was a smaller scientific team that advised the Admiral on viability and access.  Two more teams were represented but not introduced as they sat down.  When asked what she wanted to talk about, Mikah said she wanted to explain what happened in detail, and impress on him and his people why her crew were certain the issue was actually an artificial sentience.  She also wanted to make him aware of two previous events he might not have been advised of before this situation.

Mikah hoped adding the two older reports would link them to the events that had happened on the station.  She hoped that, when considered together, the combined weight of claims would lead to serious consideration.  Especially because she felt the authorities she'd reported to didn't seem to take the idea of actual sentient AI's seriously.  Accepting that, they got right in to having Mikah give a detailed 'step by step' through everything that happened.  At times, she had Jocelynn and Colinne explain what they felt and experienced.  On some points, she asked Aali discuss the 'nuts and bolts' of what they'd experienced.

Mikah also made it clear there had been nothing to warn her that opening the box she had might lead to a crisis.  Since they were not involved in investigating her, they did not question or challenge that point.  Still, they were aware she'd used that as a basis for why she'd felt opening the box was safe, according to what she told the station authorities.  The Admiral was glad that was someone else's problem.  In the end, and before she got into the two additional incidents, the unstated opinion of the Admiral's team was the same as had been discussed with Sekea at the party.  This sounded very much like a very convincing Expert System had been "grafted" onto a virus and the "ES" had been programmed to help the virus connect to as many computers as possible.  So, at the moment, they didn't believe a true sentient program had been encountered.

Next, Mikah explained that Jocelynn and Colinne had not been members of their crew during their visit to the Equus system, but Zimzod and Aali were.  She also admitted the primary contacts who'd encountered the sentient replicant android were no longer with the crew.  After explaining that Sir Terin had died in the Tremous Dex system, Mikah was disappointed to have to admit "Sir" Munarshu was in prison on Regina, despite the negative light it would cast on the story of the android.  Still, Mikah made her best effort to explain what she'd been told, step by step.

Finally, she and Zimzod explained how they'd been in the D'Ganzio system while neatly side stepping all the issues with who'd gotten them to carry the cargo, or that they delivered the android, etc...  Then, she explained how alarms started ringing on the station they were berthed in.  Mikah then walked the story forward with Zimzod's help and Aali's expert commentary.  Mikah also said that video evidence captured by Zimzod's battledress were also turned in to the D'Ganzio and Imperial authorities after they'd managed to destroy the android and get the station back into a stable orbit.  Because both Ghandi and D'Ganzio were in the Lanth subsector and defended by squadrons of the 18th fleet, one of the intelligence workers said it would be much easier to investigate.  She even told the Admiral they could query the ships in-system to see if any of them had been shuffled in from units that had been in D'Ganzio space at the time?  Or, officers who'd been aboard ships in that space?

Either way, the Admiral did ask Mikah if she was certain this was not a case of an expert system that seemed to be sentient?  Mikah admitted that was possible, but still pushed for an investigation and it now seemed the people on his staff had a level of interest, since it was possible there was real data available from the D'Ganzio incident.  Some of them had even pulled up fourteen-month-old news reports from the system covering much of what Mikah claimed regarding the station itself.  A review of those reports didn't show any suggestion what had destabilized and damaged the station, but the damage had been so heavy the station had only been re-opened just short of two months ago.

Considering that, the Admiral could report the issue to fleet command and request an investigation.  The Admiral admitted he had no power to start an investigation himself.  And any naval investigation would have to be launched by the Imperial Naval investigators.  If they found something real to base further investigations on, any charges developed would then be seconded by either the Imperial Ministry of Justice or any one of the Imperium's intelligence services.  Hearing that, Colinne could have risked a hidden smirk if she wanted, based on the parts of her past that even Mikah and Zimzod didn't know.

The Admiral admitted that he wouldn't likely hear the results of any investigation his reports might spark.  That's because the "silo" that contained the work done by warships didn't intersect with the work done by the investigators.  So, there would be no answers to any of the actions they were taking at the moment unless it hit TAS News.  Adding to that, the Admiral admitted there might be investigations on-going in both the Equus and D'Ganzio systems at the moment, because those kinds of investigations would take time.  So, a year and a half after things started in Equus, with a local government Mikah thought might not be cooperating, Imperial investigators could still be drilling for any evidence.  And they'd not tell anyone they were even looking.  When the Admiral asked for any tangible evidence, Mikah said they could give them the data from Zimzod's battledress and he agreed that would be a start.

Mikah agreed with that, and also said she could organize her three reports into one and send the organized data to authorities in the Rhylanor system.  That way, if the Admiral's fleet command didn't care to do the work, someone in that system might.  The Admiral said he could have his team formalize her reports and send them as official claims.  He added that he could send them to the Sector command in the Mora system, and the sector strategic collage in the Macene system.  The Admiral also admitted that what Mikah and her people claimed was troubling, but there was still a lot that is open to interpretation unless it was proven.  And it would be much more than troubling if she could be proven correct.  Nodding, Mikah thanked him when he said he would forward her claims to the various sector commands.

After they finished the meeting and gathered up the rest of Mikah's crew, they went to one of the Officer's mess halls for dinner.  As the evening before, the Admiral joined them and they were the center of attention even though there was no high table.  Finishing their meal, the crew were escorted back to the flight bay to board the shuttle.  Aboard the craft, the crew checked on their returned laundry from the day before and Sekea checked for his packages.  After everything was confirmed and ready, they settled in preparing for the launch.  Rol, Aiden and Aali decided they'd like an after-dinner rest.

Mikah relaxed after spending some time listening to the news feed.  While there were no stories breaking from the interstellar feed, there was a lot about the investigation of events leading to the station shutdown.  There were many assurances it wouldn't happen again, but very little to say why it had happened?  Or shed light on anything else related to the situation.  While Mikah listened, Sekea made his way to her and told her about the 'Artist's Factory'.  He also suggested some ideas for how the device could help him create items to support the crew in the future.

After talking to Mikah, Sekea pulled out the data crystal and loaded the manual to his hand computer.  That protected him against losing the chip if he were not careful or something happened during the transit, or after.  Sekea then spent the hours in transit reading about and understanding the unit's functions.  An important capability he learned of was that the sensors of the unit could be used to sample any source material the user could present.  The properties of that material could then be saved, and applied as a property to anything the user was making.  The example in the manual was used to scan starship passage floor tiles and then use them to create "floor tile coverings".  The example showed how to scan masonry brick or stone.  The manual then showed how to create brick or stone-faced covers for a ship's gravitic tiles.  The covers wouldn't affect the ship's internal gravity control, but would give the internal spaces the look and feel of that brick or stone.

Of course, Sekea hadn't bought the supplies to mimic stone, brick or building materials.  He'd bought supplies for documents including paper, vellum, flimsies, and more.  That included different inks, additive waxes and paints including acrylics and oils.  Sekea saw he should be able to reproduce many classes of the less exotic two-dimensional or raised-print art or paper objects he might encounter.  Especially documents made from less than exotic forms.  That still included embedded sensor-detected items like security micro-wires, etc.

Sekea found another surprising feature hidden in the manual's appendix.  Because the unit was nothing more than a highly advanced 3D designing and printing system, there was a discussion on connecting the output to normal 3D printers.  Like the printers they had in their ship's engineering.  That meant that Sekea could design and print more normal items using those printers which wouldn't have the exact quality of an original, but would still work as one.  So, he could scan a blade and print out duplicates.  The blade may not have the same temper lines or visible structure patterns, but would still be usable in combat.

Added to those limits, if he printed the blade on the ship's systems after scanning a high-density steel weapon, the printed weapon would only be of standard density for a printed item.  If he'd had the proper supplies and some add-on devices, he could create a result that was "more dense" than normal, but would never be able to mimic the extreme high density.  Still, the ability to send output to the ship's printers meant he wouldn't have to spend the thousands of Credits to order and have different supply materials shipped to him.

Colinne used the time to work on some of the smaller apps she was designing.  Fesic was interested in Sekea's new toy for other reasons.  Fesic wondered if data captured from a hand scanner could be fed into the device to create keys on worlds where the tech was below that allowing for electronic locks.  Or, if scan data could be used to create a model of locks that would allow him to "see the insides" or disassemble the lock.  That would help him learn how to defeat locks if he had the time to capture the data and come back at another time.

While Fesic was also happy to talk about what he'd learned and seen with the hydroponic displays, and the risks of moisture in sealed environments like starships, Sekea wanted to learn what he could of his new toy during the free time.  Soon enough, Fesic decided to take a nap.  Jocelynn decided to choose a quiet corner of the passenger compartment and meditate.  She also spent some time practicing her shields and working her telepathic talents trying to understand them more.  Of course, that meant Zimzod and Mikah had that 'buzzing' in the back of their brains that warned them psions were active in the space.  But they knew who the psions were because their crew were the only people there.  And, they doubted the shuttle crew would be covert Navy psions.

After checking out the available private spaces, Zimzod did his best to lure Mikah into one of the shuttle's freshers to play?  With nothing better to do, Zimzod launched into his physical therapy for a while before relaxing and catching a nap.  While working out, Zimzod razzed Rol for not getting out of the chair and getting moving.  Rol only answered, "Really?  You're a disgrace to the corps. if you don't take rack time when you can find it."  Zimzod could only laugh because both points of view were right according to a marine.  Still, he called Rol am malingerer and other names while he did his work out, keeping Rol from getting the sleep he wanted.

Soon enough, the shuttle's crew came through the cabin waking people and helping the crew get ready for arrival.  A steward helped Sekea re-pack his purchases and all the others gather themselves and their gear to debark the shuttle.  They also had to decide if they wanted to return to the ship or the hotel suite?  Talking about that, Aiden mentioned that he'd noticed the android there was still preparing meals, because they might return to eat on any day.  After a short discussion on their options, they eventually landed at the station's shuttle port and returned to the hotel suite.  Except for the gear and clothes they'd moved back to the ship all their gear was there waiting, except Rol's.  Since he'd never lived in the suite, he had only the one laundered change of clothes.

Jocelynn, Sekea and Aali knew they had to reach out to InstellArms the next morning and set up a meeting to talk about the Pell 'Droid.  And, Mikah knew she had to call the Count's Seneschalate and set up a time to meet with them.  Jocelynn also said she'd want to talk to the cargo broker.  When Rol started talking about being prepared to cook breakfast the next day, Sekea told him they'd rented an android to cook their meals.  Rol heard that and just scoffed while Seke said Rol could program his recipes into the 'droid and relax.  Rol mused on about 'the Human touch' and then dramatically declared, "You've not had eggs until you've had them My Way!"

Figuring she had some time before going to bed, Mikah called the Count's seneschalate to see if she could get a jump on setting up a time for them to meet?  When she got an operator, she found the Count had made his schedule flexible, to meet with her crew as soon as they were able.  Accepting that, Mikah set their meeting for 1 pm the next day(Monday the 88^th).  Mikah then told Zimzod, Colinne, Aali and Jocelynn about the meeting.  Jocelynn considered when she could set up their meeting with InstellArms and decided, like Mikah, not to wait for the next morning.  When she'd called the night before, Jocelynn had told her concierge she wanted to have the meeting on the 89^th day.

Calling him back, the man was very pleased she and the crew were back on the station and was happy to help her with anything she wanted to ask about or buy.  Jocelynn said they had other meetings the next day so she wanted to sit down with them the day after, at 2 pm.  That meant she's be free to go with Mikah to meet the Count on Monday and go to InstellArms on Tuesday.  When that meeting was set up, Jocelynn cut the call and decided to give the broker a call.  Answering the call, the man gave Jocelynn a general rundown of what he'd been seeing in the market.  While there were some deals that could be made in generic domestic and imported manufactured goods and vehicles, he wondered how Jocelynn's captain would feel about carrying "sensitive" cargos?

Briefly considering what the broker meant by "sensitive", Jocelynn said she was ok with the idea, but would have to check with her captain.  After saying that, Jocelynn backpedaled a bit, asking how he was defining "sensitive"?  Pausing before answering, the man said, "Cargos you'd have to deliver to specified people in a system and perhaps preventing them being investigated before delivery."  Jocelynn knew how Mikah would feel about the idea, and heard stories of the bad things that had happened to the crew, but still wasn't ready to just say "no".

Jocelynn admitted, "I would personally be interested but I know my captain would say 'no'."  Right on that, he asked, "How would you feel about pulling a fast one on your captain?"  Jocelynn said she certainly wouldn't do that, and then asked what systems were involved when he said there could be good money in it.  Answering the systems question, he pointed out Jocelynn had said they planned to go to the Lanth system next.  Jocelynn then asked if the cargos were large or small and he told her some systems had laws against "advanced" manufactured goods.  Like outlawing advanced scanners that could easily defeat locks and keys on mid-tech worlds to stop that tech from overwhelming their security.

He continued that an extremely advanced computer from one system might be an amazing tool in a lower tech system, but might also be "import blocked" by law in lower tech systems.  Such a unit "could be" used to break laws or create illegal advantages in lower tech systems, or places where laws limited what populations could own.  Despite that, few of the people who wanted to buy them had illegal uses in mind.  As a final example, the broker said there were collectors from world to world who were looking to add items as common place as weapons to their collections.  In that case, a ship's crew could possibly be arrested just for bringing a example of the device in-system to sell to such a collector.

The broker pointed out that there might be shippers who had access to markets for collectors or those wealthy clients who wanted restricted technology for personal use.  And, where the payoff for restricted goods was very high, the share a ship's crew could earn was also much higher than the pay offs for standard cargoes.  He then admitted that was not the case so much with Dame Jocelynn's last pay day, but he stressed that they'd gotten very lucky too.  When Jocelynn said she'd talk to her captain and see what happened, he accepted that and reminded her there were always wealthy people who wanted their toys, and who would buy more, so they could share toys with their friends.

Jocelynn had to consider the irony of considering what was essentially smuggling when she had, in the past, spent many fun and entertaining hours ripping apart ships suspected of doing the same.  She knew they had to not only avoid being caught, but also keep the people dealing with them quiet, so no suggestion gets out that they were involved.  At the moment, as far as Jocelynn knew, their ship's reputation suggested they'd never carry improper cargos.  But she also knew she'd not investigated that.  And, she had no idea how many people had talked about Mikah's last ship carrying the android, or any other covert cargos.  So, she had no real understanding of how the universe viewed their ships honestly.  And she did know that reputation has a large piece in deciding if they will be stopped for "intense" customs searches?

Pushing the broker back to the markets of unquestioned trade goods, Jocelynn asked what he'd found and the broker reminded her of the issues handling speculative trade with Lanth.  The world was both an industrial and garden world.  They had the tech and a culture that drove manufacturing and industry to seek clean modes.  So, factories on the surface were as clean as possible, with agriculture forming belts around those centers to help clean the air and water even more.  More factories existed in orbit, so they could make and sell their own manufactured goods while feeding themselves and other worlds.  Another issue was that where buyers found a thing they liked, they often wanted a steady supply of them instead of a 'one-off' from a speculative trader.

When Jocelynn nodded, he reminded her no world was a rock standing alone.  While they might make and sell goods like vid units, or other consumer-friendly goods, they might need other classes of more industrial or manufacturing based consumer goods.  Like ergonomic office chairs, desks and office furniture.  So, everyone had something they needed even if you couldn't paint them with a single term.  He also pointed out there would be manufactured curiosities and luxuries which refused to be accurately guessed at.  A celebrity's single comment could send high-end products flying out of warehouses in a system and a ship carrying a hold full of them might see the kind of profits Dame Jocelynn had when they arrived in Ghandi.  But, public fads like that were highly unpredictable.

Voicing an old line whose birth was lost to Human history, the broker said sellers also had to be careful.  "Bringing a new and alluring pet into a market may cause prices to spike, until the sellers learned the pets would out-reproduce the market."  The warning was that any luxury or curiosity could be dangerous to bank on.  And where sales numbers didn't exist, or swung wildly from high to low and back again, there was no way to guess what a cargo bay's worth might sell for until the final profit or loss was on the books.

When Jocelynn asked about raw materials, he reminded her those weren't being mined in the Ghandi system.  They were being trans-shipped through Ghandi and the ship that brought them in to sell was looking for a profit.  That meant anyone buying the cargo to sell somewhere else was paying that ship some or all of their desired profit and then having to sell the cargo for even more at their destination.  So, they'd not be paying as low as they hoped to buy a cargo and then "have to" get their customers to pay even more so they could make their profit margin.  On top of that, chance and circumstance always had their say, just like Dame Jocelynn's experience with the radioactives.

The broker admitted he was watching the radioactives market to see if it had come back down to normal because he was still helping other clients do their best with rad-sales.  So, there was still money to be made in radioactives in the system.  And when they are ready to leave, they might find prices on those radioactives had dropped low enough they could buy a cargo to sell in Lanth for a profit.  Especially because radioactives were a type of good that Lanth didn't produce themselves.  Ending the call, he would keep looking and call her if he found any "amazing deals" while she'd call him to check in from time to time, and let him know when they "had to" have something.  And, as she disconnected, Jocelynn had to wonder how many other crews he'd "call first" about any amazing deals he found?  The man was, of course, out for himself most of all, and that didn't mean he was a friend.

While Jocelynn talked to the broker, Aiden pulled out the manual for his brand-new training suit and started reading up on how to use it.  In his bedroom, Sekea was unpacking his new toys and then took up the hats and went from bedroom to bedroom handing out the hats.  Each was blue and emblazoned "INS Kaarshur" in white.  While he passed out the hats, he also suggested they go out and have a late-night drink.  Mikah's answer was, "Drinks on you?  Certainly!"  When the others agreed, they went out for a drink.  Knowing Ghandi was a port system and they could run into naval crew on liberty, they chose not to wear the new hats so they wouldn't accidentally get into trouble.

Moving to the lifts, they went looking for one of the smaller bars in the hotel.  Given the hour, Fesic decided to stick to soft drinks, but did pay attention to the specialty drink umbrellas when they were served in drinks.  One had surface-mounted micro diodes showing a bedraggled man strewn on a beach because the drink was called "the Castaway".  Once the drinks hit the table and the server activated the umbrella, the diodes started repeating an animated loop of the man begging, "Save me, I'm a castaway!"  Seeing that, Fesic got excited and told their server, "I don't want the drink, but I want that umbrella!"  The server promised to get him one and left the table.

When the server came back with his umbrella, Fesic asked about other promotionals the bar had.  After a chat with her boss and some back and forth about having to pay "something" for the items, the woman came back with three more umbrellas.  The first, was for a drink called a "Burning Hot Core", which went down between "smooth" and "flaming sooooooooth!", and was also served heated, with an amount of caramel flavoring mixed in.  The umbrella's animation did its best to suggest the ignition of a fusion reaction inside a reactor.  Next was an umbrella for a drink called "The Hot Rocket", which showed a rocket giving off energy waves before it turned into a line of light suddenly out-thrusting and passed a nearby comet and an umbrella showing a craft making a neat landing on a runway, served with a whiskey-based drink called "Smooth Landings"

Eventually, Fesic would have paid Cr 10 for his soft drinks but added Cr 7 more for the umbrellas.  the rest of the crew paid of their drinks and they went back to the suite.  Rol did a bit of stent training on his own before finishing his night with more physical therapy.  He found he was doing better at prying himself out of the chair and walking a bit before bed when it was time to sleep.  He was able to transfer his weight to his legs and carefully cross the bedroom and back.  Still, he was getting better since he'd been unable to do that at all in the nights before.

    Monday, 088-1114:
Tours, Toys And Physical Terrorism
     In the morning, Aali set her alarms to wake her so she could connect to the systems and androids while checking the operating and system reports.  Mikah woke up Zimzod and made for the bedroom Rol had moved into so she could check on his progress.  As they walked, Zimzod asked of she'd brought a whip with her and she said Rol'd like that too much.  While they got Rol up and walking with the androids help, Aali called Mikah to ask if she had any idea why the Count wanted to meet them?  Mikah said she was guessing it was about what happened on the station.  Mikah admitted they knew very little, but said Aali could help explain what happened on the stents.  Mikah also said she could give support that they had no warning opening the box would set the AI free.

Sekea finished reading the data on his art factory through the morning.  Colinne considered the dinner two nights before, and recalled how some of the crew had uniforms or other order ID gear.  Thinking about those, she figured she had time and could use a lapel pin at the least.  Not sure where to get them, Colinne logged onto one of the terminals in the suites and started looking for information on them.  What she saw first were references to an "Order house" supporting Knights of the Order.  Doing some more reading on the Order House and ephemera of the Order, Colinne learned she could only get pins, badges, uniforms and other gear at the Order House while in the Ghandi system.  The net-page also offered Colinne the chance to speak to or text a representative of the Order.  When she chose to text with a representative, the person who answered her said he was "Sir Phlio Elyand".  She introduced herself and Sir Phlio asked how he could help?  Colinne said she was a member of the Order and had been looking for items like a lapel pin.

Sir Phlio welcomed her as a sister member and asked if she'd visited the Ghandi station Order house?  She said she hadn't and he recommended she visit.  They talked about how she would visit and how long it would take?  He said she could call a car and get there in half an hour.  "Or", he paused with a taunting smile and said, "we could send a car for you and get you here faster."  When Colinne asked about buying lapel pins, Sir Phlio said they could sell her those, but again recommended she visit the Order house.  She could then get a better understanding of what the facility had and meet other Order members.  Nodding, Colinne asked them to send a car and told the others she was going to visit.  Aiden, Sekea, Jocelynn and Fesic agreed to go with her because they'd all been inducted into the Order nearly two months before.  Grabbing their gear, they waited until Colinne got a call the car was close and would arrive on one of the grav vehicle platforms!

That surprised them because they'd only seen portCars and other vehicles on tracks outside security units.  And, they'd only seen ground units.  What they saw when they went to the hotel's landing skirts was a gravCar honing in at high speed while flashing what they'd later be told were the Order's colors.  It seemed they had a friendly relationship with station security.  They watched the vehicle come in to a proper "dead stop" landing showing whoever flew the craft had..."Skills".  Another person opened the passenger compartment and invited them aboard.  As soon as they were seated and strapped in, the man introduced himself as Sir Aslakhin Raliri.  Sir Aslakhin jerked a thumb at the driver's compartment where a wiry petite redhead drove and said, "She's Dame Aiggar Uster."

Closing on the Order House, it seemed to be a two-level structure accessible from one of the stations more up-scale concourses.  Beyond being in a higher rent district, the facade of that section of the concourse seemed to be of better quality than the neighboring facades.  And, it seemed a bit more ornately decorated.  When they got close, the Knight driving the car pulled off another high speed "dead stop" landing in front of the house entrance.  Despite the trip in, the real surprise was when they walked into the Order house.  The architecture of the space seemed to project a half-cone on its side and filled with office and support space structures, expanding toward the distant back wall of the space.  The interior space had open architecture office structures filling it.

A sloping ramp led deeper into the space and crossed down past flat-floor office blocks leading off to the left and right.  They could only assume there were stairs and lifts in each of the side blocks, where wall openings gave some view into the architecture.  So, the space was visually so much larger on the inside than on the outside, and they could also see lifts that went down under what they could see!  While they stood and took in the sight, Sir Phlio walked up to Colinne and said, "Dame Colinne, welcome and thank you for coming.  He then welcomed the others, and asked them to step to a desk where he checked each of their Idents to confirm their Knighthoods.  If he reacted to the fact they'd been Ennobled by the Arch Duke himself, and with permission and in the personal presence of Prince Lucan, Sir Phlio didn't show any reaction.

Next, they had each of the group sign the Order house visitor book, which was more of an electronic document.  They next asked each of them if it was their first time visiting the Ghandi Order house and each said it was.  When they asked if those in the group had been to any Order house, Jocelynn and Aiden said they had.  To Colinne and Sekea, they explained what they knew Jocelynn and Aiden already knew.  The Order houses had started as forward and field supply and support houses for those in the Imperium's early Chivalric Orders.  As they became more established, they provided members of their specific Order more and varied services and options.

Finally, where worlds moved towards membership in the Imperium, the more powerful or well-funded Orders would establish houses in those systems.  Often enough, the new Order houses would be a welcomed source of income as Knights came to set up or explore the culture around new houses.  And, often enough those Knights that came increased the chance visitors might identify issues and become part of the solution.  Another quality of the Order houses was that they served to draw rare and expensive resources out from the center of the Empire to the frontiers.  Part of that was to help individual Knights live as well as they hoped to while far from their home worlds.  Another value was to allow Knights to bring guests into the Order house for meetings and other events where they'd be exposed to the treasures of the Imperium.  It was one of any ways Imperial Knights could turn the heads of locals.

The houses supplied everything from lodging and food to supplies and information and even the ability to collect a rapid force in the event some hostility was expected or violent element had to be dealt with.  And the money behind the Order houses came from donations from brother and sister Knights in the Order as well as internal sales and some stipends from the Imperial Government and local organizations which had been served by each Order house.  Added to that were the investments recommended and managed by brother and sister Knights of this and other Orders.  So, very quietly, the Chivalric Order houses of the Imperium were quite a powerful force in the Imperial financial networks.  Those funds also fed Chivalric charitable organizations locally managed by the staff of each Order house.

As they explained this to Sekea and Colinne, Aiden actually spoke up and made a Cr 1,000 donation to the Order, for which he was graciously thanked.  They also offered the group a tour of the facility, which not only gave them an overview of the facility and what it could offer, including 'member only' shops providing rare or expensive goods and some luxuries at drastically reduced costs for their members.  After the descriptions, the tour lived up to everything suggested.  The rooms were not luxurious, but certainly high quality.  The other facilities were surprising and well beyond any of the services provided by any other hotel they'd ever seen or stayed in.  Added to that, a number of the services on offer were free of charge!

The house's meeting facilities included public meeting rooms in which Knights of the Order or visiting Knights from other Orders were welcome to relax, meet, talk, catch up on the news or just get to know each other.  These were often places Knights could go to when they needed help, or to hire legal or professional services too.  While the open spaces were not really "secure", the conversations could be brought into private spaces.  For a Knight of the Order, closed meeting rooms were free, but had to be booked.  Knights of other Orders could book them for small fees and the rooms could be enclosed so they could be accessed by outsiders from the concourse.  Those would be rented at significantly higher fees to approved non-chivalric clients.  Of course, all the private meeting rooms had services like projection, computer network and the works.

The house's dine in restaurants were all very high end, but charged at or below street prices.  Even for service delivered to the rooms.  The meeting rooms and other spaces were often stocked with fine wines and other complimentary luxuries.  Especially items which were prohibitively expensive because they couldn't be grown or cultivated in the subsector or even the domain.  Of course, they also had a members-only vender section in their building, where members of the Order could buy uniforms and other Order display items.  Those came in the obvious usual forms and could be bought in the form of nearly any promotional item too.

Coming to regalia, Colinne wanted a chest badge and lapel pin, which they sold her for Cr 15.  Sekea wanted a uniform made for him and was told that would cost Cr 250.  He also wanted an Order Chest badge and lapel pin, which cost Cr 15 total.  Aiden got a lapel pin for Cr 5.  Jocelynn got an Order uniform and lapel pin for Cr 250 and Cr 5.  Jocelynn also wanted a cloth patch, though she wasn't certain what she wanted it sewn to?  Someone joked she could have it sewn onto one of the blank ball caps they'd gotten in one of the InstellArms boxes and everyone laughed.  She got the patch for Cr 10.  Fesic already had a chest badge he'd bought on Denotam.  So, he bought a suit and a lapel pin and, just to do as Jocelynn did, he bought a cloth patch.  That was despite the fact he had even less an idea what it would be sewn to than Jocelynn's clue?  That cost Fesic Cr 265.  Fesic even then bought a hat matching his uniform, for Cr 10 more.

The last area which they led the group to were a set of sellers who had shops and offered goods and services to only those allowed into the controlled space.  The first shop was a clothier, where each of the group picked up packets with their badges, pins, patches and hat.  That was also the place where each person who'd ordered a uniform had to step into the measuring spaces.  In those private spaces, they stripped down to their undergarments and, helped by someone of the same gender, got into the body scanners.  After being scanned, the body model would be used with the established patterns to create a properly fitted uniform of the Order.  That could be tailored if needed after it was completed and tried on.

Done with that shop, they were told the uniforms were being printed and created and they'd have a chance to try them on and have any minor tailoring done before they left the Order house.  Next, they came to a shop which had food stuffs, drink and snacks from some distant worlds based on the tastes of those Knights that had spent time in the Order house.  As long-term visitors or even working in the facility.  There were enormously expensive goods and goods from moderately distant worlds as well as foods from outside the Imperium.  There were also a healthy supply of items from nearby worlds simply because Ghandi had a lot of through traffic that came with common snacks and favorites.

It also seemed a "mark of brag" that Order houses distant from Terra could offer genetically Terran coffee beans at all.  In the case of this Order house, the price for a pound of coffee was KCr 50.  While Fesic mentioned buying a few bags and selling them on the open market, and got heavy frowns from the resident Knights, Sekea looked for items from Carse.  He was surprised to find small supplies of Meldo juice and Salted Carse Halibut Jerky snack packets.  Sekea bought a Six Pack of the juice for Cr 2,000 and a bag of the salted dried halibut for Cr 1,000.  After Sekea bought a slice of his childhood to enjoy, they took their purchases and moved on see the next stop was a weaponsmith shop!!  Seeing the place open and waiting for clients, they all moved in to sit down and talk about having a custom weapon made for themselves.

    Monday, 088-1114: 10 am
Where everyone is at the end of the session:
     Mikah, Aali, Zimzod and Rol: Working in the suite before having to dress and meet with the Count of Ghandi
     Colinne, Jocelynn, Aiden, Fesic and Sekea: Visiting the Order House Weaponsmith

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Next: Discoveries, Convictions And Understanding