Gypsy Moth begins accelerating to the putative intercept point as fast as her drives will carry her.  Even through her excellent inertial compensators, small shudders of acceleration can be felt as the crew pushes the ship's drives to their maximum rated output.

Dataink is quickly established with station ops on Box 2.

FRS Reims is reporting her position through the datalink as over a light second ahead of Gypsy Moth and accelerating at 5G.

The track uploaded from station ops shows the two rescuers reaching Suzain's cone of possibilities:

Day 007 - approx 0600 - FRS Reims
Day 008 - approx 0900 - Gypsy Moth

OOC: a really, really good astrogation check might spot a minor error or two in the station's plot and shave a little off the intercept time.

Station ops also uploads Suzain's deckplans (see separate thread), operations concept, and crew manifest.

Concept of Operations
FRPS Suzain, FRPS Sonne, and FRPS Pioneer shall depart Espiaux system on or about 250/5741 and proceed via systems 0821 and 0924 to system 0825, utilizing deepspace tanking from Sonne where necessary.  Expected arrival of lead elements in system 0825 is on or about 305/5741.

The exploration group shall conduct thorough survey of system 0825 and preliminary exploration and survey of systems 0525, 0726, and 0727 as time and resources permit, as directed by the team leader.  Priority shall be given to system 0525 if possible.

The exploration group shall return to the Espiaux system no later than 065/5742.

FRPS Suzain Crew Manifest

Team Leader             Fiona Honit
Pilot                   Aaron Asher
Astrogator              Claudette Eubanks
Engineer                Geoffrey Igman
Engineer                Xavier Xey
Medic                   Laura Vipperman
Steward/Gunner          Terrence Juliard
Deck Hand/Gunner        Tara Taylor

Mission Leader          Talun Sargant
Biologist               Roland Rypien
Chemist                 Deidre Paquette
Planetologist           Neil Ahrens
Xenologist              Tomir Sargant


Jacques, you personally know Fiona Honit, Geoffrey Igman, and Xavier Xey.  Fiona Honit is extremely competent, but reserved and difficult to get to know.  You have served with her in the past and found that under her exterior she cares deeply about the people on her team.  She is also a very experienced exploration pathfinder.  Geoffrey Igman is very well versed in almost all the disciplines of engineering and is passionate about it.  He is very kind and you have never heard him utter a bad word towards anyone.  Xey, on the other hand, is a life support specialist with a Corps wide reputation as a practical joker whose jokes often border on cruel.

Doc, you know Talun Sargant, Roland Rypien, and Neil Ahrens.  Dr. Talun Sargant is a well-known planetologist who has authored several academic papers on the subject of outer system crust formation.  Dr. Roland Rypien has been working space exploration science for over four decades and was on the team which selected the first biological ecosystems for seeding on the colony world Marsoui.  Dr. Neil Ahrens is an inner-system, magnetic fields guy.  He is generally unassuming and polite.  You know Tomir Sargant is Talun Sargant's younger brother, but have never met him.

Jack didn't think much about the Doc's snarkiness when he and Dani arrived on the bridge. It was something his Army brother would have said - shitty and pointless and it didn't warrant a response. Besides, they were moving now, and fast.

He responded to Danica's remark about jump plots with a simple "Indeed," and began running possible routines. He had already roughed in calcs for Ozawa and then on to Tupolev so he let the Vauclain routines run and added St. Croix, Alsace and Rabaul. That would be enough for now; over the next couple days he could work in the other foreign worlds within range.

Once the ship was away and everyone had a chance to acclimate to the high-G maneuvering, Jack keyed the ship-wide comm. "Attention all crew, this is the Bridge. Until further notice there is to be no sharing of staterooms. Including our new guest, Dr. Keefe, we have exactly enough staterooms for single occupancy. When we reach Suzain, we will revisit the stateroom arrangement if we need to provide rooms to any of her crew. The VIP suite near the bridge shall remain unoccupied. Please choose your staterooms and move now if need be. Thank you, that is all." He sent Dagala a private text: Please choose a stateroom on passenger level.

Jack turned to Danica. "I'm hoping that helps keep the tension down. No one's really had a break since lift-off at Alsace..."

He reviewed the dossier on Suzain, wondering if it was Fiona's voice they had heard in Xiu's office. He didn't recognize it at the time. He let the memories run for a bit then the astrographic calcs brought him back. He started going over everything again, determined to shave 7 minutes off their time to intercept.

OOC: 10:08, Today: Jacques Keveloh rolled 12 using 2d6+3 with rolls of 5,4. Check station intercept calcs.

@Ref: Am I correct in assuming that Suzain was operating in Jakhonst subsector? Trying to understand the hex designations in the Ops report. Thanks)

In reply to Jacques Keveloh (msg #2):

OOC: Suzain and her cohorts were operating in both the unnamed subsector directly to rimward (India alphanumerically) and Jakhontsk.  0924 is in Jakhontsk, while the other systems listed are not.

Looking at the station's plot, Jacques notices it presumes a straight shot through the cone.  Jacques realizes that if Gypsy Moth starts turning as soon as she enters the cone, she can reduce the amount of time needed to match vectors.  It won't get Gypsy Moth to the search area any faster, but could cut time needed to intercept Suzain if they find her.

The voice on the distress call is definitely not Fiona's.

They're starting a rescue op and Jack's worried about crew accommodations? - Doctor Jones seriously wonders about Jack's competency.

The quip about 'there is to be no sharing of staterooms' certainly would have him hot under the collar - in other circumstances.

Jim keys the ship-wide comms, "Jack, we need to discuss the use of the lower decks before we go scattering everyone whilly nilly around the ship. Suzain's been out in the unknown - standard quarantine procedures are gonna apply. If anyone's alive after our damn pussyfooting around they are staying isolated till we get back."

He couldn't help but bring up the delays again - it was a good thing he had that shot.  Though he was still fuming he didn't outright want to get in words with Jack over some trivial rooming issue, and he sure as hell didn't want to take charge, far from it.  But everyone else seemed to have their priorities completely out of whack.

Besides, the security guys left a mess - but then, maybe Jack ordered them cleaned while they were farting around...

"Jack, I'll meet you and everyone not actively doing something in the Lounge." <click>

"That's the crew Lounge." <click>

In reply to Dr. Jim D. Jones (msg #4):

OOC: Seriously? 

Jack can't help but stare a bit incredulously at Danica as Doc's message comes across the ship-wide comm. "And here I was trying to do something nice."

He checks the status displays to see where Doc was keying from and isolates that channel. "Very good, Doctor. When I have a moment I'll see you there."

He turns back to Danica as he keys a message to the general mailbox of Box 2. "By the way, I'd like to finish up that Nagel thing as best we can before we get too far out. If you have any contact info, I'd like to address our sudden departure and try to salvage that booking if we can."


Jack sent a quick note to Peter Kubatkin apologizing for the sudden departure, wished them well and promised to buy them drinks next time they met. After that, he sent the most professional and courteous note to whomever of Nagel's staff Dani had info for, explaining the emergency (without sensitive details) and assuring them they could make the trip in three to four weeks, once they were back on station. We understand that circumstances may require you to choose another carrier, the note concluded, but I am sure once you experience travelling on Gypsy Moth, little else will do.

He sent it on, checked all the scopes and sensors, made sure Danica had whatever she needed and left the bridge under her care. "Sending you a revised intercept plot for once we arrive in the target area. Let me know if you need anything. Seems I need to go talk to the Doc."

As he entered the passage leading deeper into the ship, he threw over his shoulder, "I'll let him know you're a little bit busy. Hopefully it won't piss him off."

In reply to Jacques Keveloh (msg #6)

Thera followed the instruction to make her way to the crew lounge for discussion of the rooming. She idly wondered if Jack had suddenly become aware of the Doc's 'arrangements'.

When she'd checked on Casey to make sure she knew how to handle high-G emergencies, she'd wondered if the new medic's compliance with Jim's invitation was what she really wanted. She'd dropped a friendly "...if there's anything, anything at all, you're not happy about, you come and talk to me, ok?" into the girly chat. It wasn't the first time she'd offered a shoulder to a naive young girl.

Of course, Jim hadn't overtly asked Casey to share his bed, and in any case, if the girl was happy, it was nobody else's concern. It was just... Too many girls were too polite to say no.

She shrugged it off. She'd offered to talk, the rest was up to Casey.

Certainly Thera would be happy with a cabin to herself. Not that she had a problem with Prisa, but space was all too often at a premium aboard ship and, until intercept, this was promising to be a milk run. She wasn't expecting any klaxons hurrying her to her turret, and those passenger cabins were very well appointed...