Obsessions

" As the rain and the sun and the earth are to the grain that grows, so is the Hegemon to His people. As the grain is to the rain and sun and earth that nourish it, so is the Hegemon to His people."

Juridicist Saying

2780.085-091
Highguard -> Riden
The run begins in the Highguard system, on the way to Nurl. Traffic Control wants to know what their final destination is (Riden), their registration (Crux), and why they're going to Riden (to pick up some art).

Traffic Control instructs them to please stand by for docking and the onboard inspection team. Inspection team? What? They've only been scanned at jumpgates before this. Apparently going to Red requires more careful inspection than traveling around in Blue. A team of marines asks for permission to come aboard; it is granted.

The team is led by Lieutenant Mason Waller; one of his marines says, completely unconvincingly, "It's Aunt Sharra! We didn't know this was your ship!" Yup, it's Vance. He can't do much socializing while on duty, but tries to find out what Sharra's been up to. Lieutenant Waller wants to see the shuttle bay first. There are the two working ships (the Elite shuttle and the Clarke's Honor), and the one blown-up fighter.

"Looks like you folks have seen some action."
"Yeah."
"Where'd this happen?"
"Right here!"
<pause>
"What system?"
"Oh, Tyrell's Folly."
In addition to the ships, Lieutenant Waller wants to see the ship weapons. The crew protests that they're not installed, but he figures that they could re-install them in a pinch if they needed to.

One of the marines tries to slip off away from the others, as they scoot around looking at things. He's quickly pounced upon, but when the crew realizes it's Vance, they stand down again. Vance hasn't had a chance to talk to Sharra in ages - he wants to know where the party is going - again, that would be Riden. Vance can see why the Lieutenant is grumpy - he doesn't have much love for the "neutral" traders. Sharra says she can't take sides. Vance is pretty dubious about this as a statement of philosophy, since as far as he's concerned there's the right side and the wrong side, but decides not to argue with Sharra over it. Sharra asks if he will be posted back home any time soon? No, in fact, he's about to be rotated in to the front battalion at Nurl.

Meanwhile, Max trundles around with the Lieutenant, and points out the Cassandra Lyrae paintings, to support the cover story of traveling to Riden for art dealing. The Lieutenant still doesn't become friendly, but he at least begins to find the story more plausible. Lt. Waller has been encoding a number of details on a data chip as he goes, and formally presents the chip to Eva. These things (the auxiliary ships, the ship-grade weapons) are registered to the Hippocrates, and the Hippocrates is required to have them in its possession when it returns into Blue space, or have a very good explanation why. Failure to do so will be grounds for a charge of illegal arms trafficking.

Finally, they make it through the jump gate, to be met by the rest of the Blue fleet on the other side. There's more scanning, and more asking of questions. Where are they going? (Riden) What's their business on Riden? (Shopping). This seems to be considered a little fresh, but the communications officer doesn't press the issue. The warning about having the ship weapons and ships in their possession when they return is repeated, and there's an extra warning about Nurl being dangerous, due to active ongoing hostilities.

After they've left the Highguard/Nurl jump gate, the party sends an encrypted email to Commander Branch via the protocols he's previously given them, saying that they have important business on Riden. A short while later, they're met by a "sentry vessel of the Brochoan Protectorate". "Is the Hippocrates currently conducting profitable trade?" The crew responds in the affirmative. In that case, the ship will escort them to the Red-held jump gate. It does so, at which point there's some radio traffic between the sentry vessel and the Red fleet by the gate to Riden; the sentry vessel breaks off at that point and wishes the Hippocrates good luck with their trade.

The Red fleet asks the same basic set of questions - what's their final destination? Riden. What's their business on Riden? Art collecting. What are the last three ports they stopped at? Ooh, this one is new. That would be, um, the Well, and Sanctuary, and um, the Well again. The Red communications officer notes that the Hippocrates is quite a heavily armed ship. Not at the moment, Eva is quick to point out, and suggests that of course they won't need their weapons in the Red Hegemony. Wilson is summoned to the bridge so he can drop his father-in-law's name if he needs to (he's not sure this is a good idea, his father-in-law doesn't actually like him), but it doesn't prove to be necessary.

As on Sanctuary, landing at the capital spaceport is not permitted, but there are starports nearby which can be used. Enquiries are made about places to carry out repairs - many of the repair facilities are busy with military repairs, but there are several on the far side of Riden which can be reserved for civilian repairs.

For the moment, though, the Hippocrates lands at a near-capital port. People scan the news for current events: Conventional wisdom suggests that the Red fleet will be drawing back to Riden, perhaps in a month or so. This will leave Nurl to Blue and the Gloryweb fleet, but exactly what that means is unclear. Viktor Marchant (the Hegemon's Heir) is at Tinara, for his safety. There are rumors that there have been some suggestions of closing the Highguard/Nurl jump gate, but the Hegemon has squashed all such talk.

If the Star is in the possession of the Red Fleet, the thing to do may be to talk to the Red Hegemon. Eva has a connection, but it doesn't work to request an audience, just to be summoned to one. So the thing to do is somehow get the word to the Red Hegemon that they're here, without having to work their way all the way up through channels.

Can Janzur meet with some of the Red Elites they're here? He's loath to do so - he isn't interested in talking to them any more. Jayla asks if he finds them more objectionable than he used to? Yes, he does. Why? Janzur replies, "They're presumably adequate for what they're doing, and I'm not sure that having this set of guards learning anything is profitable or necessary." Well.

The group rents a van (45 asters for the week, with extra insurance), as driving around a van with Sanctuary plates might be politically incorrect. Hotel suites are acquired, and Max declares them clean of bugs. Max considers the path to the Star - one path leads back to the unmarked highway exit they passed on the way in to the capital, one path leads towards the center of the city. Well, that's probably the choice between "Steal it" and "Ask for it." Having asked about the Star back in Tyrell's Folly, stealing it now might be hard to do without suspicion.

From his hotel room, Wilson is heard shouting into his video phone: "I am not a Blue flunky!" The party bursts into the room, and Wilson hangs up in embarrassment. Apparently his wife has been getting death threats for being married to a "Blue flunky". "Isn't she the one who wanted to be married but not married?", Eva asks. Wilson doesn't seem to think this is a fair description, and glowers. Hippocrates shooshes people away, and tries to find out more - but Wilson's only had the one phone call so far. Jayla doesn't think Wilson needs a bodyguard right now, so off he goes.

People check the web and the news to see if there's anything obvious linking Wilson to Blue Flunkyhood - nope, not really. Eva sends Phaeton an email to see if he's still in the system.

There's some dithering about what the plan is. The two obvious options are still "go through proper channels" and "steal it", but neither is looking like the obviously right course.

While people weigh the various options, Dr. Kye heads to the IPX office. He gets three demolitions permits, which let him legally buy explosives and then blow something up, for archaeological purposes, within ten days of purchase, in the Red Hegemony. The office, as always, is excited to meet him.

Meanwhile, "try and ask for it" is winning as the plan du jour - if asking fails, they can still steal it, and while they'll have tipped their hands, they were already tipped back with the fast attack fleet. The highest-ranking person to talk to, to get access to the Hegemon, is probably Wilson's father in law, Lord SanCostille. Perhaps they should wait until Wilson comes back, at least.

Max contacts his favorite choice among the back-side shipyards. They don't have cutting-edge equipment, so they're reasonably available.

Eva receives email:

"Greetings to the Loyal Sidekick of Phaeton's Loyal Sidekick Sook! Good to hear you're still alive and filling the airwaves with good bits! Unfortunately, Phaeton has been purchased by The Man and shipped to Tinara. Please click here to pay the 5 aster fee to express forward your email to Phaeton."
She forwards it.

In the evening, Wilson returns. As previously mentioned, Penelope (his wife) has been getting death threats, in anonymous emails. Can the party help? They head off to Penelope's apartment. She's somewhat nonplussed that Wilson told the entire crew about the death threats. He protests that they're his crew!

The letters are strangely... vague. They rant about Penelope being married to that Blue-loving Blue guy. How he does... pro-Blue things. There's no real particular incident that seems to be referred to. Eva thinks that the person writing the letters hates Wilson more than Penelope, even if it's Penelope getting the death threats. Ahah! It must be Lord SanCostille!

Hippocrates and Eva do some hacking, and follow the emails back to the encrypted government remailer. From there, it looks like the mail goes to the foreign ministry, where Penelope works.

Max asks Wilson and Penelope about people who hate him. He can't really think of any. There was the guy back on Tinara he shot some, but he was a psycho. And that was on Tinara. And that guy's still in jail, he thinks. As far as other possibilities, was anyone pressuring Penelope when everyone thought Wilson was dead? Well, there's always people who act interested. Maybe some of the people she works with, that she's rebuffed... she thinks that's very unlikely.

The messages started arriving about a month ago - which is when she learned Wilson wasn't dead. Is there anyone in her office that would know that? She told everyone in her office that Wilson wasn't dead... There's some suggestion of the police, or her father, but she doesn't want her father to know about death threats.

Well, perhaps some people should go visit the office. Max wouldn't mind a tour of the foreign ministry. And Jayla and Eva might have a good chance at spotting guilty-looking people. There's probably scanners such that the Hippocrates bot shouldn't go in (Penelope is surprised that he's an android, and suggests that Wilson is making it up). The plan is to stop by to meet Penelope for lunch, meet people in the office, and see who looks suspicious.

Dr. Kye buys his first test explosive, to "excavate" a junky little site several hours away from the capital. That'll be for tomorrow too; in the meantime, he stores the explosive in the IPX coat closet.

Jayla goes to visit the Brotherhood of the Word. After seeing that things are well with them, she asks about the prisoners they had mentioned on their last trip. They explain that several "members" of the Brotherhood are essentially political prisoners, being held for various forms of seditious speech against the current government, and their belief that the "true Hegemon" will return one day. Oh, there are actual charges against each of them (like disturbing the peace, or whatnot), but everyone is sure they're just political detainees and not terrorists or anything. Jayla considers paying them a visit.

Meanwhile, the plan is now to be Seen Mingling with various high civil servants or aristocratic families, and try and get the Hegemon's ear that way. Max thinks the Capital Theater is the one most likely to have the appropriate high mucky mucks - it's a posh theater, with an opening tonight. Tickets are bought from scalpers for the opening: Eva, Janzur, Max, and Cassandra go (Cassandra gets her own ticket). Janzur wears his formal Elite dress uniform; Max has a tuxedo, Eva has a nice dress, and Cassandra has an amazing exotic dress that she acquired on the Well:

The hyperstatic float-enabled multi-layered dress looks at first inspection like a vast collection of cream and white scarves and handkerchieves and gauzy things which seem to be floating magically somewhere in her vicinity, rather than actually part of any one garment. On watching for a while, the layers do appear to be subtly tethered here and there, and they don't tend to float more than an inch away, tops.
During intermission, people mingle at the bar. Cassandra goes into shmooze-mode (quite impressive for those who haven't seen it before), and introduces Max to everyone (mostly various artists and their patrons, but random politicians as well). Max is remarkably charming, as well, and a very pleasant time is had.

Eva and Janzur encounter Lord SanCostille: "I see the Hippocrates is on planet. Is he with you?" Lord SanCostille also suggests that "he" might want to actually contact his wife; it seems that Penelope hasn't mentioned it to her dad. There's some polite fencing about their adventures. They were involved in the toppling of the government on the Well? Indeed, although the details remain shrouded in mystery. Eva says that they are on better terms with the new First Citizen of the Well than they were with the last.

Back to the hotel, where Max declares the rooms to still be bug-free.

The next morning, Jayla ponders whether to go off to visit the people who are unjustly imprisoned. Janzur receives a message from Frederick (the Elite Guard that he and Jayla went out with a year ago). "Janzur - good you're back in town, we should get together, get some beers. Meet me at [a bar]." (Eva thinks this means he's trying to set up a meeting, but thinks someone is reading his mail.) And everyone gets an invitation to a formal reception at the Crystal Palace tomorrow evening.

Kye and Max purchase sensors, and head off to blow things up. One karma later, it's a successful experiment, though that takes care of them until dinner.

Sharra catches up with popular culture by watching TV all day, though she does pay special attention to news reports and the like. It seems that the Blue Hegemony is violating civilized rules of war left and right, but lucky our plucky Red soldiers are holding the line against their evil campaign of conquest. Sharra is saddened to realize she comes from such evil stock. Eva joins her and decides the news reports indicate that Red sure is losing out there at Nurl, and they're preparing the populace for the withdrawal.

Then, it's time for lunch with Penelope. Everyone gets visitor passes and troops up to her office. There's a lot of surprise that Wilson is there. Penelope makes sure to introduce people to Marcus and Hedley. Marcus seems to be disappointed that Wilson is back, but then, some of the other women seem to be cute and single. Hedley is also somewhat unhappy that Wilson is back (in a rival alpha-male sense), but seems to realize that Wilson will be leaving again.

Everyone starts heading out for lunch, but Jayla hangs back to talk to Hedley some more. She taunts him a bit about Wilson, how their relationship seems to work for them, even if it's unorthodox, and then hits him with an Epiphany. Hedley seems to realize that he's never going to get anywhere, as long as Wilson is around. Hmm. Now Wilson definitely needs a bodyguard.

At lunch, Penelope says, "See, I knew it wasn't any of them!" People try and convince her it was Hedley. She finds that unlikely. After some persuasion, though, she's convinced. She decides to go back and give him a piece of her mind, but is talked out of that as well.

Jayla takes this lull in the action to go to the prison and talk with the political prisoner about her philosophies. They seem appreciative.

There's more shopping for dresses for the reception at the Crystal Palace. Max arranges for ship restocking, especially for Hydroponics.

Jayla and Janzur head to the bar Frederick suggested. This isn't the usual Elite bar, apparently - though the mere existence of an Elite bar is deemed to prove Janzur right in his disdain for the Red Elite. Frederick waves them over, and the three chat. Frederick doesn't really want to rock the boat, since the Lieutenant doesn't like Janzur, but he did want to have a chance to talk. He works himself around to saying that the Elite need new blood - well, old blood, and he doesn't want to say anything bad against the Sentinel, but the current Elite leadership isn't winning the war. He concludes with "the Hegemon needs you!" Much for Janzur to think about...

Back to the Wilson plot. If Hedley is the bad guy, Wilson isn't psyched to leave the planet without dealing with him somehow. The plan, then, is to lure him into attacking, and leap upon him before he can do any damage. Wilson calls Penelope to discuss lunch tomorrow, and lures her into spelling the name of the restaurant out loud several times.

For the party, weapons will surely not be allowed. Can Janzur's plasma brand be smuggled in somehow? Sharra is chagrined to find that she has a frequency disruptor in her kit, but not a frequency modulator; it could jam the scanner, but not make the plasma brand look harmless. Hmm. Well, how about getting Frederick to get it in? Janzur drops Frederick an email. He's working today, but agrees to meet around dinner time.

At the restaurant, Kye, Sharra, Eva, and Hippocrates get a table. Max is inconspicuously a waiter who's covering Not Your Table. Jayla is out in the van, since Hedley's most likely to recognize her. Wilson takes the bus, and comes in and meets Penelope.

Out in the parking lot, Jayla spots Hedley skulking near Penelope's car. Hippocrates goes out, and records Hedley rolling out from under the car. Max also goes out (Hippocrates sees him, nobody else does), and decides that Hedley has disabled the car, rather than setting it to explode or anything horrible. Max hides under the car next to Penelope's, as lunch continues.

Wilson and Penelope finish lunch, and head out for the parking lot. Penelope heads for her car, while Wilson heads "back to the subway", until instructed by Janzur to loiter stealthily behind a bush. Penelope proves unable to start her car. How surprising!

Hedley pulls up behind Penelope's car, and is astonished to see her car trouble. Max surreptitiously puts a tracer on his bumper. Dr. Kye calls AAA to tow Penelope's car, but they won't be there for a short while. Hedley offers Penelope a ride back to the office; everyone else heads back to the van, which follows.

It's hard to see (and nobody thought to give Penelope a radio), but they appear to be arguing. A small object (a grenade?) is thrown out of the window. The van slows down long enough to let Sharra leap out after it, but then keeps following. Sharra reports in, laughing - it's a box with a diamond ring in it. Meanwhile, the car stops at the foreign ministry, where Penelope gets out and slams the door, and Hedley peels away at high speed.

Max's tracer reports that Hedley's car has gone back to the hotel the party is staying at. The van follows. Meanwhile, AAA shows up, but there's no one there to allow the car to be towed. They charge Kye (well, IPX) anyway.

Hedley appears to be in the lobby of the hotel, reading a newspaper. Eva lurks around nearby, and Max lurks even harder. Kye goes to the bar in the corner and gets a drink. Wilson heads in, towards the elevators, followed closely by Janzur.

Hedley stands up. "Wilson! I wanted to talk to you about... that... that thing! The, uh, thing." He puts out his hand, which Jayla tells Wilson not to take. There's an awkward moment, and then Hedley lunges, with - a pencil? Janzur pushes Wilson out of the way, and Hippocrates grabs Hedley's arm. Everyone feels a moment of contemptuous pity for this apparently completely inept assassin - a pencil? Really? but Max manages to scan and identify it as an injector, rather than a pencil. Well, that's good.

Hippocrates and Sharra keep him grabbed, Eva tries to persuade him into surrendering, and Janzur takes away his injector (Max determines that it's full of insulin. Ooh, yellow might not have worked against that). He eventually collapses, sobbing. Hotel security converges on the scene, and the police are called and provided with Max's tape of what happened. Meanwhile, Sharra goes back and fixes Penelope's car.

"We're full service good guys." -Sharra
Later, Janzur heads to meet Frederick for an early dinner. Janzur explains that the Lieutenant would surely not be interested in letting Janzur bring his plasma brand to the reception. Would Frederick be willing to get it in? Is there something in particular that Janzur's worried about? No, just generally worried. In the end, Frederick agrees that he'll bring the plasma brand, but that he'll only relinquish it under truly extraordinary circumstances.

Then, it's time for everyone to head off to the party. The Hegemon is not actually at the reception, and despite Janzur's paranoia, no combat breaks out such that the plasma brand is necessary. However, Eva is slipped a note that the Hegemon would like to talk to her and those members of her party that she deems appropriate, and the group is discreetly diverted there.

There are a few initial pleasantries, but then the Hegemon asks "To be blunt, why are you here?" They explain that they are looking for an object, that was briefly in their possession, then Memento Mori's possession, then in the possession of Strike Fleet Andrax, and then here.

What is it? Eva physically describes the Star. Well, what is it for? Eva says she doesn't know what it does. The Hegemon surveys the room, and determines that Elite Thereve and Hippocrates (who have not made their will checks by enough) do know what it does. Ah, it must be an Old Hegemonic thing. The Hegemon asks Elite Therive about it.

"Were you sent here?"
"What manner of sent?"
"If my ancestors thought I needed help, they could have sent a clearer note."
"It is the nature of such messages that they are blurred by the onset of time."
Back to the question of what the Star does. He asks again what it does, and Janzur concedes that it's for the defense of all humanity. Defense against whom? "Not whom, but what." The Hegemon begins to get exasperated, and mutters about pulling teeth. Defense against what? Eventually, the Flames are explained. Kye quotes the Lost Book of Telemon as evidence, much to everyone else's confusion (while there is Kye's archaeological data, it would need to be carefully edited to remove references to the bloodlines, which would be difficult to do in the Hegemon's study.). The Hegemon recognizes the text as a Juridicist text, and speculates that Janzur's Hegemon was a juridicist, and believed this to be necessary at this time? Janzur demurs - Vissarion was somewhat secular.

If, then, this artifact is necessary to stop these Flames, then it can be kept safe here until the proper time. There's some disagreement - it's not actually being kept safe here, something bad has happened to it. Well, that's somewhat disturbing - he finds out that it's being kept in the military psionic research facility.

He offers them authorization to see that the item is not damaged, before it is transfered to secure storage. Unfortunately, Vissarion said they should run it through the monitoring station on Juice, so the party does need to take it. Eva admits it has to be taken "somewhere in the Blue Hegemony". Where? To the monitoring station. The Blues aren't aware of it. The Hippocrates hasn't been mentioning its location because they're worried that Memento Mori might screw it up.

The Hegemon asks if the artifact could be used as a weapon, and looks carefully at everyone. Max thinks that it might remotely be used as a weapon, and leaks that a little, but it doesn't seem that anyone thinks that's its intent. Is there anything else he needs to know? "Don't tell the Terrans." He dismisses the group and says that he will have a decision to them by the morning.

The party proceeds back to the hotel again. Again, there are no bugs that Max can find. In the morning, a courier arrives with a warrant to enter the Psionics Research Facility and remove a particular item. Off they go!

The party is met by Dr. Dara Trivedi, who appears to be in charge; other researchers are Nareen (a Spartan-trained psi) and Noel Jaspan (their psionics engineer). Everyone but Sharra and Janzur introduce themselves. Dr. Trivedi is particularly excited to meet Eva ("Eva Thorssen? The Eva Thorssen? It's such an honor to meet you!") which is somewhat surprising. Noel Jaspan is described as the one most responsible for the construction of the Device - not the design, of course, but the actual building of it. The group is shown in to see the Device, which looks like a vastly complicated mad science chair, with the Star built in.

"Oh no... Oh no." - (who was this?)
Jayla tries to chat up Noel to find out what he thinks it does. Well, the boss gave him the plan. Dr. Trivedi? No, Dr. Cain... Well, that explains something, at least. Nothing good, though something. Dr. Trivedi explains how the device focuses psychic resonances into the subject. Dr. Cain hasn't authorized any further testings, of course. Is Dr. Cain in? No, no, they just missed him by a couple of days, but Dr. Trivedi will be sure to tell Dr. Cain that Eva was asking about him. She's so glad that they've been reconciled.

The warrant is produced. Oh, is it from Dr. Cain? No, just the Hegemon. Hmm. Eva switches tack, convincing Dr. Trivedi that the plan is in fact to move the entire lab to a new site (a glowing picture is painted of the new lab, with lots of space and equipment and extra techies).

Dr. Kye examines the machine, and announces that it's a "Hegemonator". It makes you the Hegemon of your people, whatever "your people" means. Just psychically, not genetically, but that was the original use of the Star, too. Max scans the Hegemonator plans, though they're somewhat incoherent and mad.

Over the course of the day, the lab is packed up, and the Star is carefully put in a padded shielded box. Dr. Trivedi calls for two trucks from the motor pool, to take things to the starport (the lab is "on the other side of the planet"). The party, and the lab employees, head down to the loading dock with the lab supplies, and start putting them in the trucks. The party manages to divert the box with the Star into being put in their van, which will go with the trucks; Nareen is assigned to babysit it. If Nareen and the box are going in the van, then someone will need to go with the lead truck - Max gets assigned.

Base security starts taking notice of this - they're pretty sure that there isn't a move planned for today. The warrant is brandished; the sergeant is pretty sure that this warrant is for the one item, not the entire lab. Trying to take the entire lab is unacceptable. Dr. Trivedi tries to assure them that the lab move is authorized by Dr. Cain, and these people are joining the lab team!

The security guys are sure it'll get sorted out, but nobody is taking the lab today. The party brandishes the warrant again - they want to take the Star. The scientists don't think breaking the lab up is called for; they won't get any work done. It's all or nothing!

The base commander comes out: "What the hell is going on here?" Dr. Trivedi's initial explanation doesn't clear anything up for him, as he's sure there's no new facility, and that the warrant damn well doesn't require three trucks.

Eva, Janzur, Jayla, Dr. Trivedi, and Nareen head with the base commander back to his office to call the Palace. The Palace makes it clear in no uncertain terms that the party is allowed to take the Star, and nothing else.

"They're stealing the star! Forget the Hegemon! Call Dr. Cain!" -Dr. Trivedi
Unfortunately, Dr. Trivedi is not willing to let the Star go without a fight. There's some confusion when Nareen mentally convinces Janzur that Dr. Trivedi is really Eva, and vice versa, but unfortunately Dr. Cain's loyal doobies are somewhat outnumbered; Nareen is shot, and Dr. Trivedi restrained by the base commander.

Out in the van, Max is considering making himself and the Star vanish while Noel keeps an eye on it - Sharra worries about the psychic interaction that might happen, though, and so he doesn't. The base commander seems unwilling to believe that Dr. Cain is a bad guy - he was such a nice guy! - but "Forget the Hegemon" is certainly suspiciously over the top.

"How many scientists do you know that everyone likes?" - Jayla
Heading back to the loading dock, the party pushes Noel out of the van and drive away with the Star. Back at the Hippocrates, Janzur sends a report to the Lieutenant of the Elite about what happened.

Puttering