Mutineers Timeline, Season Two

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Dec 22, 2519- Crossroads-- Repairs are done. Arden has finally managed to get his brain scan and discovers two things. One--he has a second pineal gland in his brain, which he can't explain or understand the purpose of. Two--the Alliance has declared a system-wide quarantine of Blue Sun to contain the 34 Tauri E Transmissible Spongiform Encephalitis (TSEB34), inaccurately called the "Reaver Disease", and the quarantine will be kept until further notice.

We lift off Miranda with a repaired and revamped Summer's Gift and head out for the nearest Cortex Repeater Station so Jake and Rick can broadcast the vids they've captured dirtside. Somehow, word of Miranda has to go out, the news has to keep coming. Brian is still unconscious, strapped to our new ward in med bay. Harry and Shyla are aboard as well, going out into the Black with us. Our plan after we broadcast our vids is to make our way Coreward to get Brian the care he needs.

We get intercepted 55 hours after take off--on December 24th--by the Longbow Class PDF Decatur, formerly the IAV Intrepid of the Alliance Navy. Decatur orders us to heave to and prepare for boarding. We obey. We are met by men in NBC suits and are subjected to a round of exams thorough and invasive enough to necessitate sedating Rina lest she kill someone, and after the results are in, we are declared free of the TSEB.

We learn a few other things. When the quarantine was lowered on Blue Sun, the Alliance pulled all her ships out, leaving the system defenceless against domestic troublemakers. The system's inhabitants quickly devised their own navy, the Planetary Defence Fleet (or PDF) to take up the duties the Allliance abandoned. In some cases, the very ships the PDF acquired were Alliance ships cut loose when the crew showed signs of the TESB. Those that succumbed were dealth with, those that survived severed ties with the Feds, taking the ships with them. Fuel Magnate You Ge of YouGo Industries has thrown his resources and fuel to the PDF and its ultimate goal: the liberation of Blue Sun by leveraged negotiations, backed up by the PDF.

We also learn that Shyla and Harbinger have been working with the PDF, investigating goings-on in Blue Sun. When Shyla is given command of Decatur upon her return, she asks us to join her. We are given 24 hours to discuss it amongst ourselves and after much wrangling between the anti-war/anti-killing half of the crew and the more Resistance-minded, we agree to straddle the fence: we will run blockades with Summer's Gift for the PDF but retain our autonomy to come and go and do good with our ship as we see fit.

Progress - 23 Dec 2519
Second_Miranda_Wave (aka the "Christmas Eve Wave") - 24 Dec 2519
Rubicon - 27 Dec 2519
Naissance - 28 Dec 2519
Baklava - 12 Jan 2520

Jan 19, 2519- Obstinacy-- We arrive on Boros to visit Nika's sister, Nala, and to sell our cargo of mules. Christian stays with the Gift in Vanderburg and the rest of us fly in our shuttle to Nala's ranch. While there, Nala tells us that cases of the TSEB have shown up in the cattle on Boros, leading the Feds to institute mandatory testing of everyone's herds. Those herds that test positive have been slaughtered to keep the disease from spreading, as are any other herds that have been shown to have come in contact with the infected animals. The testing and the slaughter of infected herds have caused some ranches to go belly up, causing even more distrust and ill-will towards the Alliance. The Alliance's draconian measure of killing off healthy herds that merely encounted the infected ones has also sown distrust and ill-will between the other ranchers. Complicating matters is the unavoidable mingling of herds on the range--the range isn't fenced in and the practice of grazing several ranchers' herds in common is still prevalent.

The evening we arrive, the Sheriff pays Nala a visit and makes a request: could Nala go to a neighbor's ranch and get the man to allow Federal testing of his herd? Cletus Kurpinski has been adamant against following regulations and the Sheriff would rather have the matter resolved peacefully without involving the Federal Marshals. Should the Kurpinskis remain recalcitrant, the Marshals will arrest the ranchers, test the herd, and if the tests prove positive, slaughter it. Such an outcome would bankrupt the Kurpinskis and stir up resentment.

Nala says she'll consider it and when the Sheriff leaves, she confides in us that some of her cattle have been pinched by Kurpinski and if his cows are infected, Nala stands to lose the ranch thanks to the current slaughter policies. Could we please ascertain her cattle are not with the Kurpinskis' and please talk some sense into her neighbor? We agree and ride out into the winter night, tracking her wayward cattle onto the Kurpinski spread and into a box canyon where he's holed up with his herd and his family.

We make it halfway in before we are run off by his sons and their rifles. We ride back and fly in the shuttle to the canyon. We drop off Rick at the mouth of the canyon so he can go on foot to inspect the herd for Nala's cattle and the rest of us go on to land the shuttle at Kurpinski's front door. We're met with rifles and suspicion, even though Nika is known to Grandpa Kurpinski and it's only Arden's offer of medical services as a doctor that gains us entry. It turns out they need a doctor, the Kurpinski grandson, Lem, is sick. Dizzy spells, clumsiness, forgetting things. Arden runs a cursory test and it looks as if the child has the early stages of the TSEB. We offer to take the child to proper medical care, but the Kurpinskis are reluctant to allow it--to do so would mean losing the child for good through Alliance Quarantine measures. Recalling what Shyla's told us of Rim hospitals refusing aid to those stricken and sometimes outright killing the patients, we arrange to test the child to confirm the diagnosis and smuggle him out to facilities on Hera. He would still be separated from his family, but at least he'll have a chance to live. There are some experimental drugs that might help him survive the disease. It's a slim hope to offer the Kurpinskis, but it's better than none. They agree to let us take Lem. They refuse to let the Feds test the cattle, nor do they agree to let us airlift their other women and children out with us. They're taking a stand against the Feds and they'd take it kindly if we left them to it.

Rick comms us with two pieces of news: Nala's cows are not in the Kurpinski herd and there are ships inbound for our position. We fly out, pick up Rick, and go back to Nala's to inform her of what's happened. The next morning, we fly back to the Kurpinskis and find their home a smoking ruin, the entire herd slaughtered and the Kurpinskis nowhere in sight. Two Alliance craft are parked out front and we are warned off. We make no trouble but state we're making a neighborly call and fly out of there. Since Nala's herd is safe from known association with the Kurpinski cattle and Christian's called to tell us he's sold our mules, we have no reason to linger: Lem Kurpinski still needs treatment. After Arden picks a kitten from Nala's barn cat litter, we lift off for Hera, where we believe we can find proper medical help for Lem.

Jan 23, 2520 - Gibraltar Blues -- We land on Newhope at Gibraltar, only to find the city and the port in an uproar from food riots. Jake, Rick and Rina find themselves caught up in the riots while shooting footage and have a couple of close calls with the police and a Reaverized individual as they try to get back to the ship. Meanwhile, Christian and Nika arrange cargo with the on-world Russian Mob and take on a moneyed young passenger who is more than he appears.

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