Those Who Stare In The Black, Game 14: Covert Offers
Saturday 21 Oct 2519
New Edinburgh Spaceport, New Edinburgh
Aberdeen, Kalidasa (Xuan Wu) system
Afternoon into Evening
Captain Allyne Stone is getting worried. His doctor, Oksana Vernadskaya, has taken injured passenger Jacob Marley to a nearby hospital facility under guard by the Port Authority. It's been hours since she'd left and the good doctor isn't answering her comm. At first, Stone isn't too worried. Oksana is more than capable of taking care of herself and her patient. However, once night arrives without word from her, Stone contacts Port Authority for a sit-rep.
Who? they ask. When? Where? No, we didn't send anyone to escort your crew or passenger off your ship. The people you're looking for are not in our custody, sir. Never were.
Stone counters with shipboard video taken of the uniformed men who arrived and left with Oksana and Marley.
Port Authority: Not ours.
Shit.
Stone officially reports Oksana Vernadskaya missing on the spot, along with Jacob Marley and refuses to let the matter rest until the Port Authority agrees to look for them. Furthermore, he asks Port Authority to run an identity check on the men captured in the vid. The results come back—they were former employees of Port Authority but are employed no longer and are reputed to be off-planet. Port Authority will look for them as well as put an APB on the missing doctor if the good Captain wishes.
Yes, the good Captain wishes. Thank you. Stone cuts the channel. There's little else the Port Authority can do via official channels. Stone gets busy calling his unofficial contacts, using his good name and connections to find Oksana.
Meanwhile, Verity starts feeling ill. The combination of long hours and stress over recent developments and hacks has taken its toll: she can feel the flu coming on. Xiu likewise is laid up, if for different reasons. She's out for the count recovering from her flashback episode in the hold. Stone does the best he can, pulling a near all-nighter making calls with his contacts and checking on his crew, making sure they're comfortable.
When morning dawns, Oksana has not returned and Xiu wakes, asking where she is.
Sunday, 22 Oct 2519
Location unknown
Oksana wakes up in a canopied four poster bed in an opulent bedroom in the Russian style. Not only is it in the Russian style, it's a close recreation of her childhood room at home. Even the nightgown she wears is Russian.
Internal check: well rested, no injuries, nothing wrong with her senses. She can smell breakfast food wafting in from somewhere, hear the subtle muted sounds of a living household, and see sunlight streaming in through the room's large window bay.
A tap sounds on the door. Getting out of what is inarguably the most comfortable bed she'd enjoyed in years, Oksana dares answer it. A maid, as Russian as the décor, curtsies and bids her good morning in the doctor's native tongue. She sets a tray laden with Oksana's favorite breakfast on the table in the bay and withdraws, telling her to ring the bell when she has finished eating.
Startled, Oksana returns the good morning in Russian and thanks the maid. Once she's alone, she cautiously sips the coffee and waits to see if it's drugged. Ten minutes later, she's still conscious and possessed of her faculties. Oksana eats quickly, and finds a folder under the plates. Inside are flimsies, news feeds of the Miranda Wave, Alliance reaction and political actions.
There is also a sealed letter, with printed masthead on real paper. Ebenezer Scrooge, it announces. It's addressed to her. Opening it up, she finds a handwritten letter. The writing is familiar. It is a formal introduction to the company on the masthead, with an invitation to trade information on the current political and social situation of the Verse. It also claims the Alliance has perpetrated some rather nasty deeds with regard to Miranda and troop movements. Despite the language and the seriousness of the contents, the last page of the letter ends with a personal note: Starfish, I want you to be the liaison between the Captain and Crew of Space Otter to join our endeavor.
That word again: Starfish. And Oksana realizes just who wrote that letter. She puts it down and makes a quiet search of the room. If she's wrong, she needs to know what she's got to work with and possibly against whom.
A check of the window shows her she's several stories above ground in a multistoried house facing a manicured lawn with a drive running through it. She's far outside the city limits. Green rolling hills stretch off into the distance. The barest thread of blue marking the ocean graces the horizon. Sunlight glints off miniscule ships arriving and departing at the horizon's edge: the spaceport. There is no balcony or other convenient way to the ground from the window, so she leaves it to continue her search of the room.
She finds her street clothes, laundered and pressed, hanging in the large walk-in closet along with several sets of clothes obviously chosen for her in her size. She dresses in her street clothes. If she had to make a run for it, it would be in something she can reasonably fight and escape in. Her pocket contents are stashed neatly in a bedside table drawer. Her comm is one of those items and she immediately turns it on.
Bridge, Space Otter
Midmorning
The comm beeps and Stone jumps on it.
Allyne: (Nonchalant) Space Otter, Captain Stone speaking.
Oksana: Captain? Trace this call.
Allyne: (On it.) It's good to hear from you.
Oksana quickly answers his questions: yes, she's fine; no, she's not sure where she is but it's some distance from the spaceport. The trace shows Oksana's comm signal is getting bounced, making it impossible to triangulate her position. He relays the information and reassures her that he has people looking for her. Before they can make further plans, someone taps on Oksana's door and she tells Stone to keep the channel open. She turns the incoming volume down all the way on her comm and stashes it in the drawer, leaving it open a crack to eavesdrop.
It's just as well she's stashed that comm, because the person beyond the door is none other than the former Commandant of ADF-037, where she'd been held prisoner. There's no mistaking the man. She knows him: David Russell. She addresses him by a different name.
Oksana: So you are Ebeneezer Scrooge, now?
David: For now.
Oksana: All this … (gestures at the room, the house) … is hardly necessary. If you wanted to talk to me, you could have simply …. (shrugs)
He apologizes but explains. He's been working behind the scenes following Allyne Stone for some time now as a possible candidate for his network. Stone's reputation and contacts would make him a valuable asset. When he found out that Stone had hired on Oksana … well, that stepped the timetable up a bit. It was an unlooked for bonus, having her as part of Stone's crew, one he was thankful for. Would she be willing to act as liaison? Yes. Very well. Please set up a meet. Oksana strides over to the drawer and pulls out her still-active comm.
Oksana: (to Stone) Did you get that?
Stone: Nothing til now.
Realizing that they'd jammed the comm's signal while it was hidden, Oksana quickly explains the situation. Stone agrees to meet after he's had a chance to look into the company behind the masthead. David agrees to the terms and reassures Stone that he will send Oksana back to the ship as a gesture of good faith. Call concluded, there's nothing left but taking her leave.
Oksana tucks the flimsies and the letter on her person and David walks her out to a waiting luxury car. Looking up, she can see the house is a grand one, multistoried and every inch top quality. She pins him with a look.
Oksana: The next time you want to talk to me, it will be over dinner and flowers.
She turns and gets into the car without waiting for his answer. Her comm pings as the car pulls away. It's a text message: Tuesday 7PM 24 Oct. She pings back: Yes. Answer sent, she engages the driver in some talk. How long has he been working for Mr. Scrooge? Some time. How is he as an employer? Traditional. Honorable. Principled. Are you married, Oksana asks him next. No, he answers. Does he make a habit of hiring the unmarried then? No, some he's hired are married, some have families. How does he care for them, she asks. Well, he answers , then respectfully declines to say any more on the subject of his employer.
Oksana sits back for the rest of the ride. It's smooth. Like the house and everything else she's seen so far, it's top quality.
Allyne Stone is waiting for her on the tarmac as the car pulls up at Otter's berth. The drop floor lift is down, ready to take them both up. Stone thanks the driver and when the man drives off, the captain and the doctor ride the lift up into their ship. Once safe from prying eyes, Oksana pulls out the flimsies and the letter and gives them to her Captain.
Xiu is relieved and happy to see Oksana but immediately voices the same sort of questions silently plaguing Oksana: If this is a job offer, why the ruse? Why not approach openly? What's the man really up to? The engineer pores over the flimsies, especially analyzing the reports on the Alliance military movements. She discovers a pattern: the movements of current day look like an expanded version of the Alliance's push early in the Unification movement.
Of course, this makes Xiu suspicious. The Feds won the Unification War. Why the new push for Unification?
Stone has his own questions. Who is this Ebenezer Scrooge and what is his connection to Oksana? She tells him a little bit from her past, stating they'd met in the war.
Stone: Is he trustworthy?
Oksana: Yes.
Stone: Do you trust him?
Oksana: I'd trust him with my life.
Stone does his own research on Ebenezer and comes up with enough to convince him to at least consider the offer. He tells Oksana he'll accept the offer only if he has the ability to refuse any jobs that conflict with his own principles. Stone will not compromise his values. Does Oksana think this will be acceptable to Mr. Scrooge? Oksana says she will ask. Mr. Scrooge is taking her out to dinner three days hence. She can tell him then.
Tuesday, 24 Oct 2519
Evening
Stone busies himself with lining up cargo and possible passengers for our departure, whenever that might be. Xiu spends her time working on the gat and various projects around the ship. Verity recuperates in her cabin and on the bridge. After seeing after her crew's health needs, Oksana judiciously shops for her evening out.
The night arrives. She's decked out in something suitably elegant, in an opera coat and heels. A very classy car drives up to the ship and Scrooge himself gets out from behind the wheel. Stone escorts Oksana to the car via the drop lift. As the introductions are made on the ground, Verity trains the outside cameras on them from her perch on the bridge. Xiu hangs eyes and nose over the lip of the drop lift, spying on the proceedings. From everything Oksana's told of the gentleman over the past few days, he was on the Fed side of the war, definitely on the Alliance side, and Xiu doesn't trust him farther than she can throw him.
So, spying.
For his part, Ebenezer Scrooge sees the young woman watching. He pulls out a handkerchief and sneezes mightily into it.
Scrooge: Sha-SHOO!
Xiu goes out like a light. Scrooge put her under using the code phrase Marley used on her.
Oksana calls him on it immediately: He is never to do that to her crewmate. Ever. Again. Stone lets his doctor upbraid her date while he checks his engineer. She's fine. Just asleep. She didn't fall to the tarmac, not having pushed far enough over the edge to do her spying. Stone gently pulls her over his shoulder and carries her back to her quarters. Oksana stands her ground until the Captain has the young woman safely aboard and the ship is sealed up tight.
The lift shuts. The servos whine to silence.
Scrooge offers his arm to Oksana. She relents and takes it. He hands her into the car and drives off into the night. Dinner is at a fancy French restaurant. Seating is handled personally by the Maitre d'. The food is excellent, the wine perfectly paired. The conversation is light and by mutual agreement has nothing to do with the ugly topics of politics or business. Dinner extends to dessert, which extends to a walk along the city's waterside promenade, which in turn leads to a trip into something more private.
When Oksana doesn't come back to the ship that evening, Stone isn't alarmed. As his liaison with Scrooge and company, he trusts Oksana to take care of herself. Morning is soon enough to take care of business.
The game ends on Oksana's return the following morning with the news: Scrooge is ready to discuss terms.
HOW TO SPEAK CHINESE[edit]
Cào nĭ mā = 操你妈 = tsow nee mah = (lit.) f*ck your mother; (coll.) motherf*cker Sound clip (click on individual characters, then the arrow button to hear them)
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