Episode 603: Trust, But Verify
The next few episodes will be in synopsis form in order to get the backlog out of the way. If y'all need more detail, you know where to find me.--Maer
Air Date: 26 Jul 2011
Present: Andy, Bobby, Maer, and Terri
Friday, 23 Oct 2522
Durance class, Equinox
En route to Persephone
We’re making good time. We should get to Persephone on or around the 24th.
The crew gathers to discuss what we’re going to do with Sims and his intel package. Rina suggests waving her old employer Omar Tennison for his Browncoat contacts. It’s possible he can help us with the fundraising to buy the package from Sims.
Joshua asks how we can prove what the intel is and how we can determine its value?
On the other hand, can we convince Sims not to sell the package to the highest bidder? No. He wants money.
We send Joshua to ask Sims just what he has. He Reads Sims and sees the image of a device like a kid’s toy in the man’s mind. It’s pink (!) Joshua asks Sims if people will get hurt by the info. Sims says probably, but he doesn’t really care. He goes on to ask if we’re still bound for Kore at Eavesdown.
Yes. We are.
Joshua leaves and draws the image he’d gleaned from Sims’ mind so Rina can examine it. She IDs it as a GameGirl. It’s a 3D reality ‘enhancer’. It overlays video game tokens/characters over the real world s seen through special gaming goggles, leading you through the game.
We hold another crew meeting to discuss our new findings. Do we sell it? Find a buyer? Can we ask Sims how much he could be bribed to NOT sell it?
Rina waves Omar.
Joshua asks Sims if we can convince him not to sell so as to keep people from being hurt. No. Joshua says he’d rather no one got hurt but if Sims had to sell it, please sell it to the Browncoats. The interview ends inconclusively.
Saturday, 24 Oct 2522
In orbit around Persephone
Omar waves back. He’s arranged for medical emergency landing privileges for us. It should expedite our getting through traffic control as an unflagged vessel.
Thanks Omar. You’re the best.
Sunday 25 Oct 2522
Kore, Eavesdown Docks, Persephone
White Sun (Bai Hu) system
We land with only a day’s delay. Once on the dirt, Joshua and Sims leave the ship to fetch the device from storage.
Rina comms Omar to be ready and she, Nika, and Arden drive to Omar’s Garage. They’re pulled over by the Feds three-quarters of the way there. It’s practically a replay of what happened to Joshua and Rina on Boros.
We’re driving an unregistered vehicle, the Feds inform us. We’re scanned and informed of the charges against us. Arson. Embezzlement. Animal Cruelty. Outstanding warrants on us …
Surprise: they won’t arrest us. We have 24 hours to report to the DMV to register our vehicles and to go to the Control Office to get our ident cards. The records—as we can see—are crammed with errors, with crimes attributed to the innocent or to the wrong criminals entirely.
We are let go but our car is booted. We walk the rest of the way to Omar’s.
Sims takes Joshua to a storage facility. Inside the unit is a box. It’s the Game Girl. Joshua puts on the goggles and looks around.
Sims has a Naval Insignia floating over his head. When Joshua looks outside, he can see everyone has a symbol attached to them. Businesses have descriptions. Restaurants have menus.
Sims explains the symbols and the fact that the Game Girl is tied to the Cortex and everyone’s records. The important fact is—this info is drawn from well before the Long Quiet and the database is buried so deep it wasn’t lost, unlike all the others.
On a hunch, Joshua has Sims put the goggles on and look at him. Describe what you see, he asks. Sims sees info on Rex Wise, Lt. Cmdr of the Alliance Navy.
Meanwhile we’ve arrived at Omar’s and he lets us in. He fills us in on the craziness that is going on with the records. It’s the Flood, he says, and it happened quite recently. Public records—like crimes, vehicle registrations, etc—they’ve all been messed up and it’s going to take some time to figure out who’s who and what’s what.
Back at the storage unit, Joshua asks Sims: Are you a crazy person?
Everyone returns to the ship and when we’re all assembled, we each recount our excursions.
Kiera gives the Game Girl a try.
That same evening …
We go back to Omar’s. We explain what we’ve got. We also debate Sims’ fate and his agenda. Omar wants to talk to Sims, who’s back on our ship.
We go back to Equinox and have a video conference with Omar in our conference room. Omar is patched through and Sims reveals that he and Omar ROLLED US. It was a test and the device was a fake. They and the Resistance want to recruit us.
Really? You couldn’t have just ASKED us?
Monday, 26 Oct 2522
The next day we go to the police station and get our idents through the expedited line as instructed. Our car will be unbooted, they promise us. Idents in hand, records cleared of bogus criminal charges, we return to our ship and the business of cargo hauling … only now we will have the occasional job to do for the Resistance on an as-needed basis. Sims will be our contact.
We get a cargo job to take us to Beylix in Red Sun, thanks to our new connections. Two men, Rico and Motts, are taking perfectly legal auto parts to Beylix and need passage over. It’s a 16-day trip to Beylix from Persephone and we lift off on 26 Oct 2522. ETA Beylix: 11 Nov 2522
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