Episode 303: Pericles Station, Part 3
Are we talking about being a long-term charter, or a ship on retainer? Or what?
Faria: I’d like to know the ship has… a steady hand. I’m not convinced of that yet. But perhaps I will be, by the time I get to Blue Sun.
And with that, the conversation by silent accord turns to small talk. Arden suggests a friendly chess or poker game.
Arden: So do you play chess?
Faria: I could probably play chess.
Arden: I just learned how to play poker.
Faria: I’m never much a one for gambling.
Joshua: I’ll go make dinner.
Rina: I’ll go help you.
Joshua: (quietly) Thank you.
Rina: (muttering) Jesus Fuckin’ Christ…
Faria: Now, now. When you’re in front of a Shepherd, it’s not polite to blaspheme like that.
Rina turns around with a glare:
Rina: Well, quite frankly as far as I’m concerned, the jury is still out about that.
Joshua: Oh, whoa, whoa…
Faria: Are you questioning my principles?
Nika: Your Shepherd-ness is what she’s questioning.
Oh. Well. Right. Joshua gets Rina out of there, Nika announces she’s going back to the bridge. Arden smoothes the ruffled feathers as best he can.
It looks like Pericles Station can’t get here fast enough. And perhaps sensing the crew’s uneasiness over the subject, the Shepherd refrains from bringing up any more existential conversations.
Thank God.
Saturday, 19 Oct 2520
Twenty days out from Rockhaven our long range sensors pick up the beacon from Pericles Station and we gratefully lock on the signal. It’s not as crystal clear as it should be but it works. On approach our sensors also pick out a Tohoku class cruiser and the cruiser hails us. It’s Pericles Station and as we draw close enough to eyeball it, we see the station is the Tohoku class ship, all skyscraper towers and flat base. A floating city in space.
Kinda.
Recalling the names of the original six Tohokus that were taken offline, we know that Pericles was not one of them. So why are they sitting like a decommissioned duck in the water? We don’t have time to think much further on it before our sensors pick up on the distressing fact that they’ve locked weaps on us.
No joke.
Nika very scrupulously adheres to the approach vector Pericles assigns her. Keeping an eye on our sensors, we spy another ship, a Longbow Class…and it’s a name we’ve seen before. It’s IAV Yamato, the ship that Mike had been prisoner on during his transportation to Hera and whatever it was that they did to him there. As usual Rina notes it in her ship spotting log, albeit with understandable loathing. It’s a good distance away, beyond medium and short range weapons distance. We manage to dock without incident.
We’re met by people smugly dressed in Pericles station uniforms. They are originals, in that they are not altered Alliance Naval uniforms, not PDF, they’re not anything we’ve seen before. Apparently Pericles is now independent of either military party and their uniforms show it accordingly.
There is relatively high security in place and we are warned not to bring weapons onto the station. When Arden asks about the current political situation of Pericles Station, the staff inform us that it is an independent space station. They are not affiliated with any organization. Other than the fact that they are wholly owned by the You-Go Corporation.
Ah. You-Go Gas, of Blue Sun system, the industrial mogul who has thrown his support to the Decatur and others of her stripe. They assert, however, that they operate independently of all political institutions.
Interesting.
When Arden asks if they handle trade between the Verse and Blue Sun system, the response is they are a space station, they don’t negotiate trade, and all ships are welcome.
Well, with the exception of military vessels.
We look around at the de-militarized ship we’ve docked to. No, really. They are a fully civilian vessel. They might be more heavily armed than the usual civilian vessel, but….It’s a rough world out there, Rina suggests.
Yes, exactly.
And we get down to business. Because of the unstable political situation, the cost of business has gone up. Fuel is 2x the regular cost here. The 7-day docking fee is significantly higher, too, at 30 credits. As it stands, we cannot afford to refuel Summer’s Gift to full. We bring her up to 600 fuel hours instead. It should be more than enough to power a pulse and cover the distance needed to reach Highgate, 10 days away.
While we get those matters squared away, we’re told we can log our databooks into Pericles’ cortex system, which is regularly updated from throughout the Verse. In fact, the station would be happy to offer us a discount on our docking fees to upload any information we might have and a 5-credit discount for answering a survey. Arden right away offers up his research on TSE and its treatment.
Rina: Gee, Library of Alexandria much?
Staff: What?
Nika: (to Rina) Don’t.
The staff goes on to reassure us that despite Pericles’ deep space location, they have quite a variety of services and goods on offer. Joshua is in need of a wardrobe and we’re assured there are several venues where clothing can be bought. There is even a supply of fresh fruit and vegetables aboard for purchase. Aden inquires about veterinarian services and the staff smoothly tells us it will be looked into for us. They are sure there are people skilled in veterinary medicine on board but this is the first time anyone’s actually inquired as to their services.
If we cannot wait, we are free to do a little looking ourselves on the station’s internal cortex. All their wireless systems are fully compatible and any Cortex capable devices we might need to hook up to it via our ship should work fine. Nika inquires how they’re sending messages? Is it via ship, since the Cortex is down?
Staff: I assume you haven’t had a whole lot of contact since the Long Silence. There are a number of options that are happening. We are participating in a sort of—they’re calling it the Pony Express, where all ships are asked to carry a databook and plug into whatever starport they go into and spread information that way. It’s the Verse’s slowest possible Cortex. In addition, there are coded message systems that are transported this way as well, so that if you, for example, left something on Londinium you could code a message, plug it into our cortex system and then if there’s a ship headed that direction it would transport it there. So even if you were headed, say, in the opposite direction…I don’t know—to Blue Sun or Georgia—you could get where you’re going but your message would get to Londinium. It would take weeks, but it would still be faster than [going to destination and then Londinium].
We decide to send a message to Christian by this method, to tell him what’s going on. To date, he doesn’t know we’ve acquired a new ship and skeleton crew for Morningstar. Won’t he be surprised?
Is there any payment for carrying messages for the Pony Express?
There have been options looked into, but Pericles offers it as a free service and so far, ships have been carrying the messages voluntarily. Others carry our messages, we carry theirs…it all sounds fair, doesn’t it? The assumption is that everyone has something to gain from this and so there’s no reason not to.
Any news of Parliament? Wasn’t there some sort of coup and re-coup?
Staff: Well, it’s really not my concern. We’ve been out on our own for quite some time here and it’s true that we’ve only been a month that we’ve officially been a civilian operation, but in that time I’ve has lost all interest in what goes on there.
But he’s sure there are people who could fill us in plugged into the station’s local cortex. And there are plenty of bars and taverns on the station—always a hotbed of gossip and info. And we can always use the local cortex to arrange the hiring and pick up of cargo.
The staff member entreats us to enjoy our stay and to remember to adhere to a few simple rules:
- No weapons. Pericles keeps pretty tight security.
- Animals need to be checked through customs.
- Any other rules can be reviewed in the usual places before going abroad on the station.
Are we doing the monthly maintenance on the ship? Flushings and refuels? Yes, and the biological systems, too. (Because of Orbit’s hidey hole…) Then the station needs access to the ship. The staff assures us that no one from Pericles would open up personal lockers or anything like that and we are free to lock down any areas unauthorized personnel cannot go. Nika announces she’ll stay aboard while this is done and start hunting up cargo.
As for the animal we have on board? Orbit is still with us and though she’s improving, she still needs feeding via eyedropper. Orbit is nicer than she used to be, but she’s also more dependent and everyone on the crew has been taking turns holding her and feeding her. Because he is less mobile than the rest of us, Orbit has been frequently seen cuddling up in the Shepherd’s lap and the man seems perfectly fine having her there.
Rick and Faria walk off the ship, saying something about seeing some old war buddies on the station. Meanwhile the rest of us get that maintenance job underway and catch up on the news that Pericles has managed to snag via the Pony Express.
- From Blue Sun: The PDF in Blue Sun has been conscripting Alliance Navy ships and sailors into the PDF. The justification sited: since there is no central authority the PDF is now in charge. Smaller ships have been outright taken under threat of scuttling.
- From Blue Sun: The Quarantine has been effectively lifted, though there are still people suffering from Prion Disease and there is still considerable concern over it.
- From Georgia: News that Meadow and its moons has declared their independence and are defending themselves against all comers.
- From Georgia: There is still a strong Alliance Naval presence in Murphy where Hera, Aphrodite and Shadow orbit. While there haven’t been active clashes between Murphy and Meadow, the Alliance Navy isn’t rolling over and letting people do whatever they want.
- From Georgia: There have been regional conflicts, notably from Athens, Kerry and Ezra, throwing a little political might here and there and possibly trying to form political alliances. There’s wrangling over which planet is more important over the other two.
- From Georgia: Neighbors Newhope and Three Hills have declared independence but have asked for Alliance Navy protection.
Huh? Independent but demanding Alliance Navy protection? Do what, now? Talking to people on the station recently from Georgia, they tell us that the entire system is basically up for grabs, with natives declaring independence here and the Alliance Navy holding down there. What Newhope and Three Hills are doing is declaring independence but offering the Alliance Navy special concessions like free port services, free refuels, and such like in exchange for recognition of their independence. - From Red Sun: Virtually all of Red Sun is strongly in support of the Wu Bah (The Five Hegemons). Apparently the people who’ve thrown in with the Wu Bah have demanded greater privileges for doing so, like greater autonomy.
- From Red Sun: St Albans was bombarded from orbit. St. Albans is the sole planet from which the Quantum Dipoles for the Qupie Dolls can be extracted naturally. No one is claiming credit for the bombardment and it is unclear who is behind it.
- From Red Sun: The moons of Himinbjorg have resisted Wu Bah domination and have formed a quasi-confederacy of semi-independents. They have also discouraged any traffic into their area. The Unwelcome mat has been rolled out on their doorstep.
- From Kalidasa: The two factions haven’t been making much in the way of inroads there. The two smaller factions, the Califate and the Barat are still up and running. The Barat are based out of Vishnu and Heaven and their moons, and are ethnically East Indian. The Califate is comprised of Djinn’s Bane, Angel, Delphi, and New Kasmir, and they are offering protection with their own ‘navy’ and have declared themselves open for business.
- From White Sun: White Sun is busy with its own little Cold War right now. The Navy is saying no one is allowed to do anything aggressive. They are now a peacekeeping force in the Core. The Wu Bah and the Mandarin-Tories are the main political parties. There is still significant political unrest and there are still minor acts of terrorism. The Wu Bah and the Mandarin-Tories have been going into the stricken areas of their political rivals and offering humanitarian aid to win sympathy for their side.
- From White Sun: The majority of the Wu Bah elite, though widely dispersed throughout the system, hail from Sihnon and they have just managed to convince the captain of the Tohoku class IAV Sun Tzu to support their party, thereby gaining a mobile base from which to project their power.
- From White Sun: The Mandarin-Tories are based in the old Parliamentary retreat town of Windsor on Londinium, where they hold a fully functional Parliament which nobody listens to.
- From White Sun: Two paramilitary groups have arisen: The Redcoats and The Star Alliance. They’re basically showing up in Core planets offering their services in tandem or as an alternative to the Alliance police force and infrastructure.
It looks like the Alliance monopoly has been broken and everyone’s now a free agent and offering his services. However, most people you talk to feel that this is going to be a very temporary thing, that as soon as a deal is brokered with the government, there will be if not the Sino-Anglo Alliance and the planetary factions of the current moment, then at least two political parties and back to business as usual. The Alliance hasn’t formally picked a side in this political conflict and the general consensus is that once the Navy announces which side it’s on, it’s all over. Because no one stands a chance against the might of the Navy.
However, the Navy hasn’t come through everything so far unscathed. Due to the breakdown of shipping and manufacturing, it has had to broker deals in order to keep supplies and fuel for her ships. Pericles Station was one such deal: in exchange for constant fuel from You-Go, the Navy turned over her Tohoku class ship in trade for civilian use. No one knows how much of the Navy will be intact, much less how effective it will be, if such deals go on indefinitely.
And that’s basically all the news that’s fit to ship.
When Arden submits his medical information to the station for everyone’s use, his name generates significant buzz with the medical staff on-station.
Med Staff: Wait, you mean you’re that Dr. Arden, the one who helped find a cure for Prion Disease?!
Arden: Um…I guess?
Nothing would do but that Arden come aboard and give a presentation of his findings and explain it. They don’t know what his schedule is like, but they’d like to have him explain the process so they can rework their systems to get it to work? They’ve seen some of the baseline schematics, but they’re practically drawn in crayon by some mad scientist on St Albans, who’s dead….
((Wait. Dr. Kell Lawrence is dead? When did that happen?))
Arden agrees to examine what the med staff has put together and see what he can do to assist. They would love to have Arden come and lecture the doctors, too. Arden states he has a small lecture fee. The staff replies that they can possibly come up with an honorarium, yes.
Arden wants to know how he became such a celebrity. The staff tell him that they’ve read his papers. Papers? You know, the papers Arden wrote with Dr. Kell Lawrence on St. Albans. Lawrence was the one who actually cured someone with Prion’s Disease. Arden corrects them, saying that Lawrence developed the treatment that would hold the Prion Disease in abeyance as long as the treatment is continued.
Which is as close to a cure as you’re gonna get.
Still, the staff would love to have Arden come over and explain it. They have a quarantine ward with Prion sufferers on-station. They were mostly Navy personnel and given that Pericles has the best medical facilities in the area, it made the most sense to transfer them here. At the moment there isn’t much the staff can do for them, but if Arden would present his findings and teach the staff…? Please do come. They would be happy to arrange a tour of the facilities if he’s interested. If he needs an honorarium, they have a small fund for it but it’s not much. They could talk to the Director of the Station about it and see what they can negotiate.
Arden readily agrees to do what he can. The medical staff is grateful and state they will do whatever they can to help. They are at his service. Arden asks if they can expedite Orbit through quarantine. A cat? Yes, probably. Could they get a vet to come to Summer’s Gift to examine Orbit? Of course. Can they schedule Arden to give his lecture two days hence?
Sure.
He can’t imagine that the Shepherd, in a hurry though he is, would object to disseminating desperately needed medical knowledge. We’re going to be here for at least two days for maintenance and if need be, Nika’s agreed to wait a couple days beyond that so Arden can get this done. Faria comments that he had no idea that Arden was so esteemed in the medical community, but agrees to the delay.
That settled we get back to the business of stocking our ship and making ready to continue to Blue Sun.
Joshua goes shopping for food and Rina accompanies him during a break in the maintenance. Nika starts searching the local cortex for cargo. She plugs in our destination and our available cargo space into the search engine, along with our payment requirements, and waits for the results to come in. The bulletin boards don’t indicate what other ships are charging for hauling and Nika inquires with the station as to a ballpark figure for the going rate—she has no wish to undercharge or undercut anyone, neither does she want to gouge or be taken advantage of.
The response is inconclusive—the station doesn’t dictate to the ship captains what they can or cannot charge for their services. The station only decides what they will charge for theirs. If that has an effect on what the ship captains charge for their services in response to meeting those charges….well. That’s the free market system working for you. As a result, the prices are changeable and hard to nail down.
The search engine results come in: a cargo going to Highgate. It’s 50 tons of mining equipment. They are willing to pay us 75 credits if we go the standard 10-day route but only 50 if we take a longer one. Our expected departure date 4 days hence is compatible with their timetable. Nika signs on the deal and makes arrangements for the cargo transfer.
Other results: Two passengers interested in going to Meridian.
Oh, hey. Meridian. We know that place. We were there before, with Johannes Volker III. That’s where we met the Doctor and David Uniapon.
Joshua speaks up that he knows Johannes Volker III. They’d met at the Academy. Volker was the second in his class. The first in class was a teen-aged girl, by name of River. Talk briefly touches on how the Academy finds its pupils, what happens if the pupils don’t make it through training. Or what happens if the pupils are not found and receive no training at all? Do they go insane? Do they have a choice to accept or refuse the training?
Rina checks her message drops like always, even though the access is limited to what others have brought via the Pony Express. Nothing shows up that pings her radar. When Nika checks for messages, she finds one addressed to Summer’s Gift.
Seriously?
Yup.
It says:
Respond to this address because I am concerned about repaying my debt.
No name is attached.
Nika responds:
Leave msg @ Pericles Stn. Will pick up as able.
And the messages keep coming. There is one for Arden from Valerie Sampson:
Traveling to Blue Sun. Wondering if our paths will intersect again. I have some more information.
She leaves a local cortex address on Meridian. Arden sends his reply:
In Blue Sun now. Heading to Highgate. Unknown when we’re able to make it to Meridian
A message for Nika from Kramer on Decatur:
Thought you should know Connelly has fully recovered physically. Mentally, I don’t know. There’s something different. See us when you get a chance. We make the various ports in Blue Sun when we can. We tend to resupply at Highgate most frequently.
Nika tells no one of the message but sends back a reply stating our ETA to Lorngard on Highgate.
There is nothing from Christian waiting for us. And that’s the end of the messages.
The station staff actually do find a vet and he makes a house call. After examining Orbit, he states that the cat is in reasonable enough health, but there’s probably damage from the freezing process. Her lifespan is probably shortened. An uncontrolled freeze is rarely without its consequences. We can expect similar effects as in human cases. He warns us that her fur will fall out from the cell damage and that we should keep her warm. Joshua finds a spare sweatshirt to line a basket, making a bed to keep Orbit warm.
We thank the vet for his time and efforts and he packs up his bag and goes on his way.
Arden takes leave of us to go on that hospital tour he’s been promised. Things look familiar enough, since he’s already been on a Tohoku class ship before—the Trafalgar, albeit under less auspicious conditions. This time around it’s rather pleasant. In point of fact, he thinks he’s back in the same section where we’d first run into Joshua. It’s been converted into an isolab for Prion patients. The staff has been doing its best but they’ve mainly only been able to treat the symptoms. They’ve been trying to keep up with the latest of information but they’re not on the cutting edge of the research. Til now, of course, now that Arden is here to help expand their knowledge and their ability to care for their patients. Arden repeats his offer of giving them copies of his medical research and it’s accepted. The doctor guiding Arden says that they have been keeping the patients stimulated in order to stave off the stupor that befalls them which seems to precede…things. Would he like to examine any of the patients or would he rather observe through the protective glass?
During the tour, a young woman doctor approaches them, a Dr. Ronni Rava. She’s been following Arden’s work. She says she’s been trying to convert some of their equipment into the device that Dr. Kell Lawrence used with success on St Albans, but it looks as if Lawrence used…mining tools? to make his equipment. However, she thinks that they’ve succeeded in making something that would work on Pericles. She’s no engineer, she’s a doctor, but she has been focusing on medical technology. They haven’t dared tried the equipment out on patients yet, but since Arden has actually used one of these things with Lawrence, perhaps ….could Arden take a look at what she’s done? Arden says that he’d only assisted Lawrence but would be happy to do what he can to help.
Rava leads Arden to an area where there are several cryo-chambers, and they are occupied. Rava tells him that these patients have already progressed to the violent stage of the disease and have been sedated and put into cold sleep. They will be the first round of patients to undergo treatment with the new equipment once it’s running. She doesn’t like the idea of medical experiments, but…if they could cure them doing it, it would be the best thing. She talks on, saying that there were a few things about the set-up that she’s not entirely sure that she’s gotten right…. She shows Arden the equipment in question and he admits that without the specs in front of him, he’s really not able to tell if there’s anything the matter with it.
As he finishes his admission, a faint klaxon sounds across the med bay: Code Orange. One of the patients in the isolab has turned violent and in the glassed in bay where he’s been treated, you can see him looking angry and unstable, wobbling on his feet. A male nurse hugs the wall, wide-eyed and wary, unable to get past him to the exit. There’s blood. The nurse has been wounded.
Security personnel with guns are already coming down the corridor but Arden, of course, steps in to get the nurse out of there. The patient is rambling, talking to himself.
Patient: …not gonna make me one’a you…
Arden grapples with the patient, gets him down on the floor just as one of the security team shoots his gun. It’s a riot gun, made to shoot ‘beanbag’ rounds and as luck would have it, Arden moves the target out of the way at the worst possible second. Instead of the round hitting the patient, it hits Arden square on the forehead. A puff of greenish smoke drifts upward on impact, powder dusts Arden’s face. Arden’s stunned, everything goes to slo-mo and all the lights in the place leave trails across his vision. He hangs on to the patient. Secondhand gas from the beanbag affects the patient enough to render him quiet enough to handle.
Not so with Arden. Everything is going very very slow. He watches people approaching at a snail’s pace, sees Rava grabbing at the guard who’d fired the round, berating him—What are you doing? We’re Doctors, dammit!
Arden’s head clears and he feels more in control of himself. In his grasp, the patient’s struggling weakens and stops. The patient passes out and Arden staggers up to his feet. He makes sure the nurse gets his arm treated, then looks for a chair to sit down. As he does, he notices the others looking at him strangely, as if there were something wrong.
Very very wrong.
They’re looking at him as if they can’t believe he’s still standing up. They whisper to each other. How’s he doing that? He took a round full-on in the face. And he’s walking!
Doctor Rava approaches Arden. Slowly. So very slowly. And says just as slowly:
Doctor Rava: Do-oooooctorrrrrr Ar-rrrrrrrdennnnnnn.
Arden: Yeah?
Doctor Rava: Wha-aaaaaaaaatssssss wrrro-oooooonnnnnnnnng?
Arden can only assume his senses have been affected by the drugged round, making everything go slo-mo. He finds a chair and sits down. He catches his breath and notices his hands are vibrating, like in a tremor.
This isn’t right, is all the time he has to think before he hits the floor unconscious.
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