In reply to Misty (msg # 114):

"You....were...a...patient."
::Maybe they don't have the Hippocratic Oath where she comes from?::

He sighs.

"You're right. We don't have to like each other to do our jobs."
::Its why I never went for command track.  Difficult decisions like choosing who dies are too much for me.::

"My apologies if I have given offense." Which is not quite an actual apology...

He leaves, and you call up the data files on the others on the ship.


1. Captain (Temp) Able Benson: Tall, slim, athletic, baritone voice, commanding with ease.
Was Midshipman on the Druckner Haven when a still unknown alien ship attacked the ship, and nearly destroyed it.

2. Chief of Security Charles Dubois: 4ft tall and as much wide.  Buzzcut hair. Security conscious, curious about your weapon, he carries a PDE, a large box that moves air but while it could be rigged to shoot marbles, it was not.  Apparently.  Guard at time of Emmisary's death.
Other than a stated preference to build up the Navy to defend against Aliens,  nothing.

3. Chef/Medic Frederic Gaulois: A complicated, intelligent man.  Not a shooter, and a dedicated doctor.  In DnD terms, Chaotic Good, but pretends to be Lawful Good.  Also pretends to be Vewy French when acting as a chef.  Is a pro-Esper activist.  A man of many secrets. Anti-authoriatraian.
Pschy analysis: Mild Xenophobia.

4. Former Captain England: Very quiet in manner. Commanding. Lonely. Unable to see beyond her Prime planet upbringing so she assumes better motives of people than they may deserve.  Believes in crew as her second family.

5. Hugh Island, pretty boy, bedhopper, minor noble from poor-ish planet. Discreet. Saber training.
Analysis: As per most Islander nobles, they are offended by being third-rate in the Centauran System, let alone Human being subservient to Aliens.

6. Jack Kenner: Huge frame, large belly. Voice like thunder and caramel. Singer. Cares for the Stutterwarp.  Ship's Engineer.
Analysis: Personality difficulties with Patch and Hugh.

7. Nigel, Sensor Chief: Able to tap into sensors all over the ship at whim.  Has personal sensors that can pick up Misty's 'ware.
Analysis: 'Classified'....Sensor officers are frequently curious, intrusive, and asocial by nature which they can be trained to mimic more neurotypical humans.  Nigel is friendly to a degree to Aliens who he regards, but he has a deep paranoia.

8. Patch: Ship Techician; has some degree of dislike of Kenner on a professonal jealousy level.  Moves very fast.  Highly competent.  Grew up on the very poor moon, Diznoir, and was able by work ethic and very superior test scores to escape to the Navy.  Very loyal to the Navy in consequence.
Analysis: Unusually has no positive or negative opinion of Aliens.

9. Katherine Islands....well, you know.  She's in a cryobag in the medbay, too injured to be treated aboard the Marcus Caine.

10. Cyborg Marine> Classified.

   The files were interesting and gave me a couple places to dig for more information.  I took a few minutes to use some of my wipes to clean off some of the accumulated gunk from my neck, face, and hands.  Maybe it was caution, or maybe it was paranoia, but suddenly I didn't feel all that comfortable with the idea of changing clothing with a sensor happy guy like Nigel around.  I felt somewhat refreshed, so it was time to get back to work.

   I took a moment to replace the two fired nine millimeter cartridges in my Glock.  The mag still contained enough ammunition to shoot every remaining suspect aboard the ship twice, but leaving a partial mag in a weapon wasn't something I did.  Who knows, I might need to shoot one of them three times.

   I set off to find and talk to Benson, the temporary Captain.  Having lost friends to an alien ship attack might drive someone to attack any powerful alien in a case of misplaced revenge.

You find Captain Benson on the Bridge.  He's assisting and supervising the rewiring of some bridge screens with Patch and Jack.  He's as much keeping them apart as doing other things.

He looks harried. There are several open tablets on his chair.

When he sees you, he frowns, but quickly nods.

He takes you to the wardroom/cafe', and chases out the Marine and Hugh and Frederic.

He turns to you briskly.

"I have roughly, I kid you not, five thousand pages of data I need to review before I get to bed.  I was planning on taking my Captaincy exam in about four years. Maybe three.  I mean no offense, but make it quick."

   I smiled at my new lead suspect.  I wanted to get this over, too, but for a completely different reason.  I was starting to run out of suspects.  "I understand, Captain.  I'll try not to take any more time than absolutely necessary.  Rather than my asking a lot of questions, take a moment to reflect on what happened, then tell me what you know about the Roux Emissary's murder.  Any detail you can remember could help.  If I'm not sure about something, I'll ask for clarification."

   I got ready to read his thoughts.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:34, Thu 18 Feb 2016.

He thinks for a second, moving his lips.

"I was on the bridge, pulling watchstander duty by myself.  I heard some noise, but it took a bit for the Chief to get back to me, and by then the Captain told me to stay at my post.  Both sounded, ah, wrecked.  It was another fifteen minutes before I was able to leave my post, and find out what happened."

::So, I'm pretty useless as a witness.::

::This is a hard one. My top three candidates from the ability to use the marble are...
1. The Marine girl, but she denied it to me after we found out about the marble.  And she's just not that good a liar.  I can usually smoke them out.
2. Patch....Jack doesn't have the skill, but Patch could build something in an hour, and take it apart in ten minutes and you'd never know.  But, I just don't see him doing it.
3. Leaves me with my whack a doodle theory.  The Emmisarry committed suicide.  Those stalks are fast, and deceptively strong.

I need to get back before Patch and Jack get in another fist fight. Hope this interview is over soon.

"Any other questions?" he gives you a courteous smile, and starts to head twoard the door.

   He might have been done, but I wasn't.  "Just a moment more if you would, Captain.  Tell me about what happened on the Druckner Haven.  I'd like to know how something like that would shape a young spacer's opinion on say... powerful alien species."


Edited for colorization.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:57, Fri 19 Feb 2016.

Edit: Katherine Islands is in a cryobag in medbay; Corporal Luna Mills is recuperating in restraints in medbay; Nigel had his right thigh broken twice by Katherine, and is recuperating under Happy Fun in medbay. Edit ends.

He stops, forces a smile even as his foot taps.
::Drat. I thought I'd given her the slip. I really need to get back to work.::

Then as you ask about the Druckner Haven his face shows a gash of awful pain.Then its gone.
::There are no words, just images of fire exploding inside a starship; of screaming crewmen; of body parts sailing by in zero-g; of an overwhelming sense of helplessness.::

His voice turns monotone.

"The ship was attacked by an unknown alien ship with gravitic fluctuating weaponry while investigating a gravitational anomaly in the Sirken System.  No further contacts with this race are known, either by Humanity, or by Aliens who have semi-friendly or friendly relations with us. A Board of Review ruled that all crew and officers fought with honor and competence to the best of their ability, and awarded them the Distinguished Unit Cross of Valor."
::There are no words in his mind, except for what he says.::
This message was last edited by the player at 15:16, Fri 19 Feb 2016.

   That was... creepy.  Creepy means that the Acting Captain is still on my list.  After all, standing a solo watch means no witnesses to what you do.  Given what I just witnessed, Benson could very well be my killer.  "Thank you Captain.  I'm going over to see if I can talk to Nigel, then I will need to speak with Patch and Jack.  How long do you anticipate needing them on the Bridge?"

He seems to rebuild himself before your eyes, to turn back into the cheerful, and efficient XO, and the crushing weightof the Captaincy hits, and now he looks strained.

"OK. About an hour, or if its this short, I can simply send them out for breaks. At your convenience." He says as he walks toward the door.

You visit the medbay.  Gaulois is politely formal to you, and lets you see his patient alone ashe goes off to make lunch under his chef hat.

Nigel tells you to come in before you open the door.

"Misty, come in. Quiz me on my dastardly deeds done dirt cheap in killing the Emmiss, the Emmiss, the Plant."

You enter, and see that his right leg is covered in some cloth, and immobilied by braces.  He's got a loopy grin on his face.

"It seems I have an exxentric reaction to quote our Chef Dude, to a mix of bone accelerant and pain reliever shared by .000% of the People, by the People, for the People.  Or Doc=Doc deciced I'd be more useful if I were higher than a kite.  Say, what's a kite?"

   I couldn't help but smile.  This was either going to be easy with Nigel giving me everything I need easily or difficult with his thoughts so scrambled by his meds as to be unreadable.  If I had my choice...

   "It's a wind powered flying toy.  Since you already know why I'm here, go ahead and tell me everything you know about the murder."

"Abso-tee-lute-lee." His bright, dark eyes are now almost glowing, and his normal, fast-spoken approach is on fast forward.

"Murder. Query? Is is murder. Murder is defined as strking at the imago dei, the image of God, aka Man.  Is the Roux also imago dei?  Assume, yes, for hypotenuse, hyperspace, hypothetically. Run with it. Run very fast.  The Roux came to us.  We did not know they were there. Even I, champion in four seperate years of All-Navy Challenges did not notice. Hence, they could not be there.  If I do not see you, do you exist?" He closes his eyes. Opens them. "You are still here.  I was asleep. My alarm went off, some factor was out of alignment. Then I noticed the number of crew and such. Much. Dutch. Hutch. Chicken. Dumpling.....ah.....right. Number. It had been 11, now it was 10.  I saw where everyone was.  England was with Hugh. The Chief slept. The XO was uncertain where he was.  Strange. Deranged. Mange. Dog. Cat. Chipmunk.  Jack was back.  The full face of the moon, so beautiful, so gracious, full of power and glory walked among us like the night.  And in the aether, a ghost of sinister intent watched, and then it struck me down, and clouded my mind, but the Doc's kind boon hath liberated my soul so that I may sing...."

He takes a deep breath.

He does seem to be trying to be helpful, and its questionable how well he could lie in this state.  However, he does seem to be definitely not normal.  He probably does not have a lot of friends.

   Why does it always turn out to be the bad option?  This was getting me nowhere in a hurry.  I needed a more direct approach.  "Where were you when the Ambassador was murdered?  Did you kill the Emissary?  Who do you think could have killed the Roux Ambassador?"

"I told you I was in bed. Which was red, instead. With Lead, Uranium, and Gold we are..."

You hammer out the next question stopping his free associating.

"Course not. Why would I kill an alien, I'm an alien. No, I'm a teapot, you're a..."

Rolling your eyes, and clenching your teeth....

"I already told you." He looks puzzled.

   I was done here.  Free association is worth exactly what it claims to be.  I still had a couple of suspects to interview.  "Thank you for your help.  If I need anything else, I'll be back."

   On my way out, I made sure to stop by the Medic to see if he had any chems which functioned like truth serum.  It would be reassuring to be able to verify my suspicions with my form of justice before I allow the Roux to perform their form of justice.

He frowns.

"Ordinarily what you are asking about is strictly forbidden.  Its the same reason only Nigel has Full Sensors, and only limited Hard Record.  24/7 Justice and random truth drugging....well, it was tried a few times in history.  It...worked very poorly."

He sighs.

"Yes, I do. They are not foolproof.  And I would be willing to dose someone provided I was there as a witness, as I was with Nigel.  I don't know what he means by a sinister ghost, but walks in beauty like the night would be Luna Miles.  As to the XO, there is a temporary system lock to avoid recordings."

And you remember your initial impression of the Corporal as she left the wardroom.

You track Patch down.  He's threading new cable down the space between the interior and exterior hull. While laying on his back, and his head up into the space so that you can't see his face.  Despite that, his hands reach blindly and quickly for the needed tool or wiring.

"XO's orders. New wiring. Always something got to be done on these ships.  And if not, I got my hobbies.  Don't like to sit still. Get bored easily.  Why don't you ask me what you want to ask me, like how I brutally murdered the Roux Emmissary?  I mean, I could have done it.  Not that difficult either.  I can think of at least four ways I could have..."  He pauses. "Ahem. Captain says that I talk too much when I'm nervous."

He keeps on working with his hands at the same two and three times normal human speed.

   "Why are you nervous?  You're not the killer, are you?"  I started listening to his surface thoughts even though I didn't think he was the killer.  Still, I had the attention of the ship's gearhead and I wasn't going to waste the opportunity to learn how to misuse their technology.  "Tell me about the four ways and who else could make them happen."

::No way! Drat, need to calm down. Don't want to get dumped back on Driznoir. Breathe man, but keep working, keep working.::

"Ah....no." And then after a pause.  "I grew up on Driznoir in the small city of Nanding.  Before the System War, my grandfather was a prison guard for the system supermax.  Other planets paid us to take their worst.  War comes, political prisoners added.  War ends, some brilliant idealist says 'free them all', and suddenly half our population is hardcore.  Our only business was our prison. Driznoir has little resources.  For a Driznoirian, you have three choices, be a victim, become a thug, or get out by winning some scholarship or something.  I beat the Navy Admissions Board by 54 points above anyone else in history."

::And I'm never going back. The Navy is my home.  OK, telepath? Can you hear me?::

And he shows you images of a hellish childhood, and his first disbelief when he entered  a Navy ship and found unlocked food.  You see him realizing he's not totally trusted, but even in his vision, you see more than he does.  He's the Poor Genius and others in his Navy School go after him, but his innocence and his love of tech gets him thru.  He's got at least a little lack of politics. And then he shows you his worst fear....him waking up trembling in the middle of the night to realize he never left Driznoir, and his life in the Navy was a dream.

"Ok. I've got a half-dozen 'walkies', little drone bots.  Easy enough to rig a hammer to one, and then when the alien walks by, the bot jumps and hooks onto its bottom.  Later...thump goes the hammer, in goes the ball. Make a mark on the floor, pull the handle apart, put it back, leave.

Dart Chief Benson, do the door, take my one off launcher, do the deed, leave.

Release Premitovol gas throughout the ship.  Everyone but me experienceds memory loss, do the deed.

Climb outside the ship, go thru the outer shell, bounce a marble..."

You see in his mind exactly how he would do it.  In the process, pick up +@1 to Mechanics.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:19, Thu 25 Feb 2016.

   I pulled back when I was able.  I'm glad that I was just visiting.  I wouldn't want to live in Patch's mind.  "You don't have anything to worry about.  Someone with your technical expertise and drive can overcome anything.  Thank you for both your technical help on this case and for sharing your story with me.  I might travel to a thousand more places, but you should know that your story will stay with me every place that I go.  I'll let you get back to work now."

   I set off in search of my final person to interview.

You sense Patch is touched, even if unconvinced.

And you're off to find Jack Kenner.  He's in the stutterwarp chamber singing a nursery rhyme to it.  His voice echoes plaintively over the walls, and then steps lively through the amusing bits, and it seems as if the Big Ball of Weird in the center of the room does calm down? regularize?

Then he turns to you, and sighs with satisfaction before taking up a cup to drink.

"I would wish this was for the occasion of me entertaining a charming lady, but regrettably its not.  Ask your questions, investigator."  He sips and waits, a quiet, yet huge presence for the moment as he studies you.

   "Mister Kenner, I apologize in advance for having to bother you."  And, it was true.  I didn't want to bother the guy who, more than anyone else, kept the ship I happened to be riding in functional.  I did have a job to do, though.

   "I'll make this as quick as possible.  I've been questioning everyone aboard about the murder.  Think about this for a moment, then tell me what you know about your relationship with the Roux in particular and aliens in general.  I'd also like to know where you were during the time of the murder."

   I smiled what I hoped was my friendly smile.  "And if you did just happen to kill the Emissary, it would make my job a lot easier if you wouldn't mind confessing."  I got ready to read his surface thoughts.

::I was expecting this.  Hmmm.:: And already there is a distinct difference on many levels between Patch's mind which is highly detailed and fast forward and cuttingly quick in its logic jumps, and the more or less slow and mellow mind which has a tendency to see things in luminescent color fields more than words.

"I find aliens to be fascinating.  Several races place values like Humanity does on sonic manipulation, or song.  Unfortunately, I don't have much time to study them."

::A general sense of xenophilia is what you read.::

"the universe would be a poorer place without them, and the vast mysteries they offer..." He smiles.

"I don't know much about the Roux."
::Not sure I like them.::

"I was sleeping.::
::Well, trying to as I was trying to recreate how I cracked Luna's filewall.::

He chuckles.
"No doubt. Does that work?"
::Heh. I kill myself. Anyways, need more hot cocoa. Gaulois should have my pot ready."

   I smiled.  "Unfortunately, not as often as I'd like.  Thank you for your help.  If I have any other questions, I'll try to not take too much of your time."  I excused myself.  I needed to see the Captain... the real one... about a murderer.

You walk into England's outer suite.  She's in her uniform, but its loosened up, and she's somewhat owlishly observing a glass of wine.  Several nearby bottles and the odor in the air testify to a binge.  A glance at you, and she gets up, walks over to a bit of wall, tabs a button, and takes out a small device which she deliberately tabs to her arm once, then twice, then wit a sigh, one more time.

She puts the wine down, and the device, and then staggers, her face flinching with great pain.  Her whole body shudders, and sweat breaks out on her forehead.  Then she straightens up, wipes her face with a towelette, and goes back to her seat.

Her eyes are sharp again.

"I'm sober now. Why aren't you going to Captain Benson?" A small grin traces her face. "Or have you decided I'm the guilty party?"

   I winced as England sobered up.  That seemed like a bad waste of good wine, but then, maybe it was the other way around.  "I didn't mean to do a buzzkill.  I'm sorry that I have to harsh your mellow."  Still, I was here on business and it was good to know that England was as well.

   "I've conducted my initial interviews.  I have a suspect for a more detailed chemical investigation.  This interview is to be conducted under chemical truth enhancers administered by your Ships Doctor.  I would like you there as a witness."  I know that I don't know just how things work around here, so I took a breath, then continued on anyway.  "Chemical interviews may or may not be admissible under your judicial system, but this is not your investigation, this is a Roux investigation."

   I tried my best rich client greeting smile.  I never had a really rich client, but I had the smile ready just in case.  "Please ask the Acting Captain and the Doctor to meet us in the Medical Bay."

Her eyes shadow at your initial statement, but she says nothing, and puts it aside.

"Generally not, without specific approval, etc., but you're right. This is a Roux investigation.  I'm certain there are enough precedents that a good lawyer team could win your case in Prime's Primary Court if you needed it."

Suspicion then knowledge flowers in her gaze.  She stands and walks out.  A few minutes later, she returns.  "They are awaiting us. The Chief is outside the door."

She takes you to the medbay, past a grim-faced Chief, and into a room with the Gaulois and Benson.  Everyone is staring at you in utter silence.