Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Saturday was a long day for The Gryphon and I, but it was all things that we enjoyed.

In the morning, we dropped off Una at the pet sitter's so we wouldn't need to worry about her all day. The plan was to pick her up the next morning, bright and early.

We started out with a nice breakfast at the local diner and then took the train to Center City, Philadelphia, to see the annual flower show.

We spent most of the day wondering around, looking at and photographing the displays. This year there were some really fantastic presentations. The theme was Enchanted Spring, which led to some really creative interpretations.

For lunch we had sushi from a stand at the convention center, and for dinner we returned to the suburbs and ate at Bertucci's before making our way to the home of The Paper and The Cheshire cat for the evening's gaming session.

One of my favorites included a large goddess figure and several small niches with different sorts of artistic arrangements.

I'll share more photos from the flower show later in the week.

More from the 2006 Philadelphia Flower Show:

March 16, 2006 - It's Good-Bye

April 21, 2006 - Belated Flower Pics

Some people attended we hadn't seen in awhile, such as The Punster and his wife, and the Court Wizard, who was in from Chicago. He caught us up to date on the latest video game he's helping to design.

The participants this time were myself as Carmella Maylock, a cheval trader (or gypsy) who's been made the default ship's captain; The Paper as Katy Swenson, a 21-year-old adventurer from a rich family; The Dormouse playing Liang Tze, a Shaolin monk who is strongly opposed to deadly violence; The Gryphon as weapons expert Jenna Starfall; The White Rabbit as Alauzhi, a large female cat creature skilled with weaponry; The Martial Artist as Taiwan MacGuyver, the idiot savant ship's engineer and my character's second cousin, twice removed; The March Hare as Fader, a baron and reckless adventurer; The Punster as Kilroy, a brilliant scientist and engineer; and The Court Wizard as Katya, a 6-foot tall female ex-Marine.

The Gryphon and I had missed the last session, so The Martial Artist caught us up to date. They'd done some sleuthing and confirmed the local Mafia was involved in the firestone smuggling, and they'd even found out a name and location for the guy who was leading the operation.

They'd intended to confront him face-to-face, but The Cheshire Cat told us that there were too many players to handle that sort of scenario, so instead he suggested another direction. The crew of the Vandervecken were informed that the Mafia was gunning for them and for their own safety they had to leave the planet for a week for things to cool down. So the Vandervecken crew took their investigation to the mining colony where the forged platinum coins were originating, to try to determine how it was happening.

The space station where they docked was a rickety affair, and it didn't help that they'd been somewhat unnerved by a direct hit from an asteroid on the way through the asteroid field to the colony. When this happened, the asteroid struck the front of the ship, penetrating the grav mirror and doing minor damage to the armor. The Cheshire Cat said, "The front of your ship is pocketed with small holes, and Dick Cheney apologizes."

They disembarked and tried to figure out a plan. Carmella, who had been everything from an errand girl to a sales rep to an independent smalltime merchant in her brief 29 years, used her knowledge of business to determine how to find out information about the operations at the mining colony. So she contacted a sales rep and arranged a meeting. He turned out to be a Relant named Bryan. Relants are lizard-type creatures who make up a fraction of the Confederation.

To give the rest of the crew something to do, and to borrow from their expertise, they all came along. Of course, they'd learned from prior experience when they attended a formal party without any weapons that it was best to be prepared. This might have gone unnoticed had they all simply had concealed stunners, but at least one crew member decided to take the equivalent of a machine gun.

Therefore, they were met at the top of the elevator by the security chief. "We have a meeting with Bryan," Jenna said, taking charge out of habit, much to Carmella's chagrin.

"Do your weapons have an appointment with Bryan?" the security chief asked. "If not, I suggest returning them to your ship before entering."

So the rest of the crew returned to the Vandervecken and stowed their weapons (though Fader suggested sticking them all in his briefcase, an offer which was declined). Meanwhile, Kilroy stepped off the elevator and apologized to the security officer for the brashness of all those "young upstarts." He managed to smooth things over, and she even gave him her card. Everyone teased Kilroy about making time with her.

Once they returned, the business meeting went off without a hitch. Those who had merchant abilities rolled against their abilities, but only The Martial Artist and I succeeded, which means that The Cheshire Cat whispered to the two of us that if there was any sort of smuggling involvement on an official level, it was most likely through the sales force. Therefore, Carmella declined from mentioning the true purpose of their visit, asking instead about "business opportunities."

They managed to dig out the information they'd really been seeking, which was the provenance of the platinum coinage that were currently flooding the planet in the Svetl system where they were investigating the firestone smuggling. Turns out that they were regularly minting such coins for somebody named Marvin, whose contact information Bryan proffered.

They gathered enough information to conduct further investigations. What's more, they set up a deal to buy some metal. After all, the planet where they were conducting the investigation was metal poor, which could lead to great profits when they returned.

As other crew members ran down the leads, Taiwan and Carmella put their heads together about what sort of metal would be the best for them to purchase for resale. They secured a budget from Katie of $500,000 and, thinking of the great profit they were going to make, they each celebrated a pint of a special very strong alcohol that Taiwan had on hand. On Taiwan this had little effect, but Carmella, in sailor's terms, was three sheets to the wind.

Kilroy took the security chief on a date and honored the wishes of the Vandervecken crew not to bring her too far into the loop about the investigation, just in case.

Meanwhile, Fader talked to some government officials for the Treasury Department of the planet where they were conducting the investigation and discovered that they mint all their own coins and have no outstanding orders anywhere else. He said there was an order being picked up every six months by the Rorima, a.k.a the cheval traders the crew of the Vandervecken had befriended.

This information, once shared with the crew, was really troubling to Carmella. And the events of the evening would only become more so. Turns out there was a cheval trader docked at the mining colony space station that would soon be acting suspiciously. Their shuttle took off at a low speed in the direction of nowhere.

Now the crew of the Vandervecken knew that the most probable way the smuggling was taking place was that someone in the star system where the firestones originated was launching a small container of the gems into space in a nonpowered container which could then be scooped up by another vessel. Since there was a possibility, the shuttle taking off the direction of no clear destination in the middle of night seemed highly suspicious.

Through some calculations, the crew determined that they had a couple hours during which they could overtake the shuttle, since it was flying at such a slow speed.

In order to make her useful for a combat situation, Katya gave her a "sober up patch," which sobers someone up but, as a side effect, makes them feel the full effects of a hangover over the course of 30 seconds.

Then it got even hairier. The cheval trader ship undocked and flew towards the nine floating laser guns used as a defense by the mining colony. They could be targeted in any direction, and the cheval trader ship docked and appeared to have taken control of one of the lasers.

Now the game was afoot; there was no more time to talk. Jenna flew the Vandervecken directly towards the laser.

Carmella, who was on communications, since Katya was much more skilled with weapons, talked to the control tower and found out that not only did they know nothing about this sudden flight plan but also no longer had control of the laser. The laser began turning in the direction of the space station and the Vandervecken.

At their urging, the space station turned off power to the laser, but they said it would take about four minutes for this to take effect.

There was no choice but to fire to disable the laser. All those with any firing skills took positions at the Vandervecken's six missile guns and simultaneously fired. Fortunately, all six of them hit, disabling the laser gun.

Carmella hailed the cheval trader ship, who immediately surrendered and claimed to be the victims of a "reverse mutiny," where the captain had begun taking some actions that none of the crew supported, such as sending the shuttle on its course and taking over the laser.

With this in mind, the crew of the Vandervecken alerted the local security forces, which was admittedly meager, to keep an eye on the cheval trader ship and set off to intercept at the shuttle. Liang Tze had reservations, speculating it was a red herring. Turns out that he was right.

When you scan for life forms on a vessel, you basically scan for "bags of water," since that's the primary make up of humans. There were two such forms on the shuttle, which didn't appear to be moving. This could indicate they were either dead, dying or not human.

Sure enough, when Kilroy, Alauzhi and Katya boarded the shuttle, they discovered two tubes filled with water. No bombs. No containers of gem. Nothing else of interest.

So after disabling the shuttle, the ship speeded back to the mining colony. Turns out there were moving bags of water inside the structure that controlled the huge gun. The crew of the Vandervecken prepared to intercept them.

By this time, it was really late, so we agreed it was a good time to stop the game.

Honestly, Carmella is upset over this turn of events, since cheval traders appear to be involved. However, after discussing it with The Dormouse the next day, he said that perhaps they're not really cheval traders. After all, they know nothing about the captain. Plus, even though the order for coins was going to the Rorima, it doesn't make sense they would have been so helpful in the investigation if they'd actually been involved.

I suspect there may be more intrigue yet to be discovered.

Further adventures from Confed:

Confed adventures index

Copyright 2005 by Alyce Wilson

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