Episode 410: Search and Rescue

Synopsis; Transcript coming soon--Maer

Air Date: 24 Aug 2010
Present: Kim, Maer, Terri, Andy, and Bobby

Monday, 28 July 2521
Kuiper II class, Summer’s Gift
Parliament, Deadwood
Blue Sun (Qing Long) system
0930hrs, local time

We clean ourselves up from our recent adventure on The Victoria and take stock of what we’ve achieved. We’ve rescued Carson Collings, Ensign, and he fills everyone in on what he knows of El Raton and of Kim Dyson, Oliver Dyson’s son.

It turns out that Collings was part of the crew that El Raton had on his ship, the Neptune (formerly the IAV Alabama), and was there when the treasure ship, the IAV Dove, was found in the Orobouros of Blue Sun. Collings wanted out of El Raton’s trade—which was basically pirating via fake Alliance inspections of passing craft—and took his share of the treasure and parted company with Neptune and her crew. Collings did not have faith that El Raton would leave matters in such a state and so he hid his share, a bundle of paper bills amounting to a fortune, in the Evidence lock box in the Sheriff’s office in a sleepy fishing village on New Canaan. Normally the lock box would be rotated out on a regular schedule by Federal Marshals on circuit duty, shuttling the evidence of crimes to the labs. However, now that the Alliance and its Marshals are no longer operating in Blue Sun, the box would never be picked up and Collings share discovered. It would simply sit in the evidence room of the Sheriff’s office, waiting for a pick-up that would never come. It should still be there if we go to it.

Mind, it might involve breaking into the Sheriff’s office after hours and tampering with a locked evidence box must surely incur nasty legal consequences if we’re caught, but other than that, it seems pretty simple. Easy money.

As for Dyson’s son Kim, all Collings can say for certain is that Kim seemed desirous of staying on with El Raton and did not leave the Neptune when Collings did. Absent any evidence to the contrary, Kim Dyson may very well still be with El Raton’s crew when next we meet them. The trick is how to arrange that meeting?

Collings does not want to run into El Raton. He wants to claim his share of the treasure and go to the Core and clear his name: he’d left Alliance Navy service without leave—technically he went AWOL and the intervening time has transformed his absence into desertion and treason—and if he can point to El Raton as the cause, he may be able to exonerate himself. He’ll have to avoid El Raton to do it, because he doesn’t think he’ll survive meeting the man again.

Joshua offers to Borrow Collings for the meeting with El Raton, saying we could disguise Collings as someone else in our party. Nika refuses the offer, preferring to draw El Raton to us using other means. She is not comfortable with the Borrowing skill set and does not like the risk it imposes on Joshua. No, we’ll just have to find another way to accomplish getting El Raton.

And we will have to meet El Raton. We have an obligation to Dyson to help him find his son. Dyson is paying us to do it and he’s a much-needed source of income. And that’s aside from the moral obligation to help the man.

Of course, we have to take Kim Dyson’s wishes into account. If he wants to leave El Raton’s crew but is being held against his will, of course we will mount a rescue op. If he doesn’t want to leave and is staying of his own will … Dyson wants to mount a rescue op to deprogram his son.

If Collings’s retrieval of his money brings El Raton to us, good. We can mount that rescue op. If not, it’s still good, we still get paid, and we’re still alive to come up with another way to get Kim back. Dyson offers to help Collings clear his name with the Alliance Navy. After all, he is not without resources or contacts. Collings accepts and we agree to take them to the Core.

But first, we need to start the ball rolling and get Collings to his share of the treasure.

New Canaan is a three-day journey away, given its position on the far side of Blue Sun’s star from Deadwood, but we still have enough fuel to get there. Not by much, mind, but enough. We take on what supplies we can, make everything ready, and lift off.

Thursday, 31 July 2521
Mystic, New Canaan
Blue Sun (Qing Long) system
0730 hrs, local time

Collings was a computer systems technician during his Navy career and when she finds out about this, Rina drafts his help in changing the registry board for Lagniappe. Collings agrees. Thanks to his career, both legal and illegal, he already knows all the usual mistakes people make in changing the boards, leading to their easy discovery and arrest, and he tells Rina how to avoid making those mistakes.

Joshua and Nika discuss the realities and risks of Borrowing. Or rather, Joshua reminds Nika that it is a viable option that he is willingly bringing to the table and Nika tells him that she dislikes it very much. She doesn’t like the fact it requires Joshua to change his face. And on strictly moral grounds, Borrowing on command for Blue Sun is something he’s trying to get away from, she explains, and damned if she’s going to thwart that by having him do it on her command. No, no way. Joshua counters her argument by saying he’s trying to reclaim the ability from Blue Sun by making it his, and the only way to do that is to use it for purposes he decides are worthy. That gives him an element of power Blue Sun consistently denied him. He urges her to keep that in mind and to leave Borrowing as an option.

Otherwise our flight to New Canaan is uneventful.

The fishing village is located in the southern hemisphere of New Canaan but isn’t on the charts. Once we’re in the right area, we have to scout for it via heat signatures. Collings helps us out on that score and points out the cove its located in once we zero on the heat. This section of New Canaan looks like New Zealand of Old Earth, all rocky cliff shores and shallow beaches.

We land and in minutes the Sheriff drives out to the LZ in her jeep to meet us. She’s an older woman, lean and spare, a brunette with narrow features and no-nonsense attitude. Her manner is friendly, however, and when we tell her we’ve got cargo for sale or trade, she’s glad and grateful. It’ll be more barter/trade than coin, she admits, but anything we’ve got is welcome. The Sheriff also tells us that she doesn’t allow any weapons in town. We’re free to walk about but not with weapons.

Rina asks if there is anything in town that needs fixing—she’s an engineer and has a workshop to fabricate parts. The Sheriff mentions that the generator at the Sheriff’s office is not working, could she look at it.

The Sheriff’s office is the place we need to find the cash, and Rina promptly gets her tools. Nika reminds Rina to leave her weapons aboard Summer’s Gift and Rina walks off wearing only half her usual suspects. Of course, she can sling a mean wrench and her fists are nothing to sneeze at, either, but those she can get away with carrying.