I wasn't expecting this to develop into a 'long-term' plot, but since it covers more than just the one system, it'd wind up straddling several other threads. Made more sense to consolidate it all here.

You can have an occasional 'formal' group meeting from time to time or just post an exchange of data when you feel like it.

In reply to StarMaster (msg # 1):

I gotta bad feeling about this...

"That's just Nate. He makes everyone feel that way," Val quips.

"For some reason, he decided to take a nose dive into this investigation, so we just need to wait until he's ready to come up for air to give us his report."

"Any other thoughts on the subject?"

" we need to sort out whatever we want to do on planet before we have to hightail it." Sam Adds.

I think this was mainly about tracking down the Journalist and also just general research.

Sam has met the Journalist before so can follow that up again, others are welcome to tag along, though not all of us or he might get nervous - he already seemed a bit paranoid....

OOG: Surfacing, now that a bit of game time has passed
Once Nathaniel has mostly assimilated the available information about the encounter with the derelict alien ship, he pauses for a cup of coffee, then digs into the raw data that the report about the anomalies in the region was based on.

Assessing that he is about caught up with the currently available data, he reports to the group interested in researching the aliens. He goes into lecture mode.

"My assessment of the reports and sensor data from the derelict that Longshot encountered, is that the builders have access to technology several levels above what is known by any races or cultures that are being interacted with in known space. That is not just their drive system that apparently malfunctioned. The stasis pod, I wouldn't call it cold sleep, is well beyond anything I am aware of. Outside some extremely theoretical ideas, not even being experimented with in the labs. The way the entrance to the hold opened shows either extreme control of material, or even dimensional control. The apparent fuel delivery system, without any obvious orifice for dispensing is similar. I expect that when used properly, the opening would just 'appear' when needed. No iris or similar mechanical movement. I suspect it is good that it was not used. It is likely that the fuel supplied would be a lot more exotic than cryogenic hydrogen. The use of some form of artificial psionic projection for intra-ship communications shows advances in that area as well. The observed properties of the ship hull are another data point."

"One of those could be an anomaly. A chance discovery that advanced their technology in a specific area. Taken together would indicate that all of the their technological abilities are likely similarly advanced."

"The information available about the various anomalies that have been, and continue to be, reported in sector is not sufficient to form any strong hypothesis about a common cause. There is nothing in the data though, that would appear to contradict them being actions by an active alien ship with matching capabilities. One point of correlation, is that one of people transplanted from Coventry had a wrapped sprained wrist on Coventry. When delivered, there was no wrapping, and no indication of a sprain. Either enough time passed to fully heal with him unaware, or damage was directly healed."

"Some time ago, an analysis was done by an AI of possible scenarios for meeting a technological alien race. Those with an interest, or paranoia, in such encounters have kept it updated, and adjusted it to local regions. Here is the current version I pulled from the net that is specific to Reaver's Deep." He displays a summary on a wall screen.
OOG: See the next post

"When I started analysing the data, from the reappearance of those taken from Coventry, I was expecting to find some sort of minimal travel distance pattern. That is not apparent. If there is any sort of minimal energy logic in the sequence used, it does not seem to be related to the travel distance. This is now extremely speculative, but if the distance travelled does not correspond to the energy, or other resource cost, then they could be from very far away indeed. A possible reason for them showing up here, is our proximity to the great rift. Their drive system could make travel in 'really' empty space cheap. Reaver's Deep is an end point from that potential travel route, that does not immediately encounter more heavily monitored areas like the Imperium or Aslan Hierate. Insert disclaimer from that summary, about alien thinking, as well as the speculation about the long distance travel capabilities of the supra light drive being used."

"I can also present a scenario about how they could be from a lot closer, and still not been encountered previously. The local travel drive reported from the derelict seems to be based on projecting a gravity well ahead of the ship, and falling toward it. That would seem to have different operational parameters than the thruster plate commonly used. Specifically, it might not lose effectiveness when getting beyond about 1000 stellar diameters. Using that assumption as a base, they could prefer to not get close enough to stellar masses to be easily noticed. They could mine outer rubble belts, or ort clouds, where there would be little chance of them being noticed. Their society could live in what we would consider deep space. We can, and do, travel there, but it takes extra preparations, is not done routinely."

"Since, based on scenario assumptions, they are now travelling to populated areas, I have given some thought to detecting them, despite that all but sensor invisible hull. I speculate that that drive system, when in use, will produce gravometric distortions that can be detected. Some adjustment to standard astrometric instrumentation could do it. Possibly the more advance probe drones used to explore and map new systems can be tasked with the job. A significant gravity field that is not following standard physics orbital rules should be easy to pull from the data. I think it possible that they were detected, but that the data was discarded as instrumentation errors. I'm going to make some enquires in the science community, so see if I can get the raw sensor data, before it was filtered and cleaned up, for around the time period when Forbes showed back up on Duncinae."

"The collected data shows that 12 of the 100 escaped prisoners have shown up someplace within reporting constraints distance, but only 3 have any published data related to the experience. The common theme is being in a glowing room where they could not see walls or ceiling past the glow. Despite the glow, and maintaining a single fixed location, they could somehow see all 100 of the others. They did not know all, but recognized some."

"With that starting point, it is likely that careful questioning could identify more of the 100. Using the standard process designed to get witnesses to help identify perpetrators of a crime. At one point, I believed that could be an aid in estimating where other people would be dropped off. One of the report items was that each sophont was being returned to their home planet, and that each from from a different world. Other information contradicted that, including that 2 people were dropped off on the same planet 6 weeks apart, and neither had ever been to the world before. I now believe the other report was sensationalist. Still, knowing who each of the 100 are could be useful later. That would require locating, and getting the cooperation of, one or more of those removed from Coventry."

"Samantha, could you try to arrange contact with Carson Forbes through that journalist? If we don't talk to him, we have no idea what details he could add. My skills might be able to acquire additional details." Giving Jack a speculative look he says, "Though Jack's special touch might be even more effective."

"That glowing room, and the related description does not fit with what I expect for the real world. I am speculating on something like a shared dream. Or more grounded in the physical world, a hyper realistic virtual reality. A virtual world could account for everyone seeing everyone else without moving, but not the walls or ceiling."

'Professor' Harken pauses to take a gulp of coffee, then looks around to see how many eyes have totally glazed over versus showing any interest in the material presented.

Reformatted from Starmaster's "hospital bed overdrive"
Alien Encounter in the Reaver's Deep region

1. Point of Origin
   
   
   1. Somewhere in Reaver's Deep: 3%
      
   2. Beyond Known Space: 77%
      
      1. Near galactic: (83%)
         
      2. Distant galactic: (15%)
   3. Extra-galactic: 1.14%
      
   4. Extra-dimensional: .02%
      
   5. J-Space: 2.3%
      
   6. Other: 6%
      1. Future: (73%)
         
      2. Past: (26%)
   
   
2. Purpose/Rationale
   
   
   1. Alien thinking--partial
      
   2. Alien thinking--total
      
   3. Because they can
      
   4. Common motive without context
      
   5. Competition
      
   6. Destabilize local subsector
      
   7. Destabilize Imperium
      
   8. Experiment
      
   9. Joke/fun
      
   10. Not understood motive
       
   11. Retaliation
       
   12. Revenge
       
   13. Self-interest
       
   14. Self-preservation
       
       1. Food/essence
          
       2. Dying of the light
   15. Spontaneous
       
   16. Whim
   
   
3. Technology
   
   
   1. Communications
      
   2. Drive systems
      
      1. Maneuver drive
         
      2. Jump drive
         
      3. Alternate drive systems
         
         1. Dimensional shift
            
         2. Gate
            
         3. Slipstream
            
         4. Translation
            
         5. Wormhole
            
         6. Other
   3. Gravity mastery
      
   4. Material science
      
   5. Medical science
      
   6. Other
      
   7. Power systems
      
   8. Psionics
      
   9. Sensors
      
   10. Stealth systems
       
   11. Teleportation
       
   12. Transdimensional engineering

"Yes, it does seem highly improbable that these aliens are from anywhere in Reaver's Deep," Val agrees with the first point as she looks over the list.

"There's just been too much interstellar travel in the area over too long a period of time not to have run across them before now."

"On the other hand... who's to say we haven't?"

"Not to make things harder but it does occur to me that there might be another factor involved: hibernation... or whatever that would fall under. Maybe they go dormant after so many years of activity. Or maybe their planet and sun somehow work together to keep them from going anywhere for long periods of time. Maybe even some combination of the two?"

"As I see it, we can probably pick any one subject here and try to determine parameters or possibly eliminate it all together. For example, I'm pretty sure we can eliminate transdimensional engineering. We saw nothing like foldspace or rooms that were bigger on the inside than the outside. That's what we're talking about here, right?"

"Maybe just leave a tick next to it to indicate we might have to come back to it if we gain new data."

"Anyway, what do the rest of you think we should start with?"

"Oh, Sam and Nate... what do you hope to gain by talking to the journalist again? Do you think he has more knowledge that he didn't share?"

Nathaniel, nods at Valeska comments. "~~Someone is interested in the details~~"

"Sure, there are several scenarios where we could have run across them, or more likely, they encountered us, some time in the past. If there were any encounters, no news of it made it into the main info net. So most likely either our side of the meeting never make it back to report, or they saw us, but we did not see them. With the apparent high tech level, if they did not want to be discovered, the better sensors and stealth would allow them to see our ships soon enough to stay out of detection range."

"Agreed, any environmental or cultural conditions that limit their active presence would reduce the likelihood of being noticed. From that chart, another case should be noted. It is twice as likely that they are from another time as it is for them to be from Reaver's Deep. All of those origins are just possibilities, until we have additional information to base the numbers on. If you are a gambler playing the odds, then the best bet is beyond known space in the near galactic area. I'm not ready to put money down on any of them yet."

"I'm not ready to discard trans-D either, until I have a better explanation of how the hull went away to provide access to the hold. A theoretical way to achieve that would be to … shift? … rotate? … the material into or through another dimension. Dematerialize and store, or recreate when needed are a variation, but none of the other technologies in that list really account for the observed effect. That is assuming that the the hull was ever physically real in the first place. Is it possible to have a purely energy based barrier with the properties seen? Anyway, the choices seem to be down to transdimensional manipulation or other. The observed properties are far enough beyond technology we are using to make accurate categorization impossible."

"We can start by matching the observations to where they seem to fit the table. Which at this point is exclusively the technology section. I have not see anything yet to narrow down the options for point of origin or purpose." Highlighting the entries as a lists them, he continues, " Communications, Maneuver drive, Alternate drive systems, Gravity mastery, Medical science, Psionics, and Stealth systems all get a solid tick in my estimate. I expect Power systems as well, but did not see any evidence of that from the provided records. Unless that vanishing hull is an unknown effect from advanced gravitational manipulation, something from Material science, Other, or Trans-D as well. If that drone you collected is still in the hold, some of that assessment could be improved with some examination."

"Something else that could use a closer look. I said that no information about encounters made it into the main info net. That could be researched some more. To see if there are rumours or legends of strange incidents, especially from the lower tech worlds. Things that looked at the right way could have been these aliens doing some exploration and evaluation. The large scale transplanting of 100 people to other worlds might be new, but stories of people vanishing from one place, then reappearing later, in the same or different location, could provide hints. Anything about temporary structures with that rock like surface could be indications as well."

"I don't care about talking to the journalist, other than as a step toward talking to Mr Forbes. Directly talking to Carson might provide information to add to that list of observed effects, and possibly identify individuals from the 100 that have or have not been dropped off on a planet yet. I don't know if there is information deliberately not shared or not, but asking some question might turn up things he does not realize he knows. Something observed that had no meaning to him, but from a broader context could be useful."

In reply to Nathaniel Harken (msg # 8):

Jack's mumbles to himself. "One club and a rock gooddd. Two clubs and two rocks better. Smack two rocks against each other... make sparkee, sparkee. We now have FIRE"

Sam let Nate talk and then added "Perhaps we should start with gathering more data before we start trying to rule things in or out. For example - get a timeline of when the prisoners dissappeared from Coventry and when they appeared on what planets. That would give us some data to work on to work out how fast they travel, which gives us an angle on possible technology. You seem to be aiming for the big questions, Nate, without even having the basic data"

ooc
sorry, been out of the loop on this for a while with the hiatus due to STarmasters illness, and also other things in RL, so if we have covered that I apologise, but I don't think we have a clear time line in terms of on day x 100 convicts dissappeared, on day Y first one appearred on Planet J etc - and I think that would be useful as outline by Sam

Nathaniel thinks, "~~Didn't I mention that in the details?~~"

OOG: Here is the raw information that I have from Starmaster. I did not get 'actual' absolute or relative dates. The best information seen so far is that they have been dropped off at one week intervals. Which implies some significant supra light capabilities. Also not in the supplied raw data, but would have been in the research that Nate did, is which planets they were dropped off on, in which order. At this time at least, (conversation outside of the details) Starmaster does not want to create that level of detail. The 'conclusions' we can come to from the data is that there is no obvious pattern. The aliens are being alien. With that lack of pattern, I am also *assuming* that some those deliveries were more than Jump 6 apart. Also assuming there could already be more than 12 dropped off, with the extra(s) too far away for notifications to have reached us yet.

OOG: Typo in there I think, "did not ALL know each other, they didn't recognize some", should be "did recognize some"

Nate scans the index of files stored from the research, then displays the one with the best location and date information. Several of the dates are tagged with a qualifier that expands to 'Some time prior too', when the person did not immediately announce their presence. He says, "Here is the location and approximate arrival dates from the collected news information. There could be errors, as well the noted approximate dates. This could include additional sensationalist reporting, like the discrepancy mentioned earlier. I could find no pattern in the sequence, but, allowing for date discrepancies, it appears to be about one week between drop offs, regardless of the distance. Impossible for a single ship using jump space technology. There is not enough time to include getting from jump limit to planet and back to limit, refuel, or any maintenance. And check out the travel distances.

As far as when this really started, that is another question to ask Carson, if we get the chance. When was it that he last remembers being on Coventry? That could need some interpretation. With the level of technology being enforced there, he might not know the date on our calendar. We should be able to narrow it down pretty close by matching to other events. Like the name of people recently exiled to Coventry, and when they arrived. Or how long it was since the previous care package delivery.

The intent was not to definitely rule anything in or out. It was to match what makes sense given the current information, and adjust that as more data is acquired. Being a bit more rigorous, we could create estimates of the implied technology levels in different areas, with confidence levels. For example, I have high confidence both the derelict and active alien ship have something 'better' than jump drive for supra light travel. That gives a high confidence they have some TL17, with less confidence for each higher TL. Similar for the other technology areas. There is probably some variation from the scale we are used to seeing, but With the current data, my own estimate is at least TL20 across the whole range.

Ways of getting more data is really what I would like to discuss, starting from what is known and implied by the existing evidence. I have a couple of ideas for detecting a ship using the sort of projected gravity based maneouvre drive indicated by the derelict. I'll be following up after this meeting, to see if the drive presence was recorded by some sensors, but not recognized as a ship. From when Carson reappeared."

ooc
Nate might have mentioned it in details, but as a player, long posts are hard to read and pick out the details. It may be fun for you to write the lectures, but like many "students" would tell you, they are not nearly so interesting as you think to "hear"

Looking through my notes some additional details may be relevant and that Starmaster may have forgotton

Starmasters words
"Invermory (and Duncinae in general) has a record of everyone that has been 'sentenced' to Coventry. It is unclear how they knew that exactly 100 people had disappeared from the planet, but presumably they have some sort of monitoring system to record what's going on as well as who dies.

The first indication was when one of those people appeared on Dakaar. The news item was toted as PRISONER ESCAPES FROM COVENTRY DEATH CAMP. According to the interview he gave, he was on Coventry one day and the next day he was on Dakaar. It's unclear how much time passed between disappearing from Coventry and reappearing on Dakaar, but does seem to be about a week. The man's recollection and lack of a relevant date on Coventry makes that uncertain.

Since then, others have appeared on Fulton, Ranald, Kingston, Traneer, Luushakaan, Dutrisaal, Grendal and Gaargir. Only one per planet, though, and not all of these came forth immediately. There's apparently no extradition between the Confederation of Duncinae and the other places, particularly in regards to 'political' prisoners who all claimed asylum.

The news has been mostly suppressed in Duncinae, or else spun as pure fiction with the people showing up as imposters. Those 'missing' were reported as killed on Coventry in an rock slide that wiped out a village."

The Journalist with the Publication All Seeing Eye is Farrell Morgan; his byline is The Amazing Morgan.

Carson Forbes approached him - but may not be a real name

Carson mentioned a Bren Culver, who had been send to Coventry about 7 years ago. Re-appearred on Dakaar (- probably the person in the article mentioned above)

Irena Katsukas appearred on Dutrisaal is a rich heiress who had a boyfriend who didn't reappear with her, and has been trying to find him (She may be willing to pay us to try and find him)

There were an equal number of males and females in the 100

All the relocations we had heard of so far happened before we encountered the Alien ship - which may mean the derelict ship was the one being used, if none have happened since. Though my analysis suggested there were probably at least 2 ships

Sam looks at Nates list and ponders a bit, then adds "SO what we want to do is try and persuade V and Walter that a good trade route might take us through some of the closer planets, so we can try and talk to more of these returnees. Maybe even go back to the Alien ship we found and do more analysis on it. We also need to think about setting up up some monitoring of news feeds wherever we touch down to see if any more stories come out. That might be something for TAMI." Sam gets up

"OK, I'll get in touch with my contact and try and set up another meet, as well as try and track down Forbes. I think the first might help with the second... possibly"

Sam pulls up her personal comm and starts typing a message to Farrell to arrange a meeting

OOG: I checked the post. Nate had not mentioned the specifics. I was avoiding it, because I did not have the details myself. The research would have had it, but Starmaster's information did not include it, so I/Nate was 'hand waving'.

Re long posts: Sure, Nathaniel is long winded when wound up on a topic. Partly my own compensation for the difficulty in doing proper interactive conversation in PBP. This case was really more lecture like, in that he was delivering results after doing some investigation. Including getting caught up on things that are old news to the rest of the crew. The posts about the encounter with the alien ship are from 2017, but it is new to Nate.

That confirms an expectation. It should be possible (bureaucracy allowing) to get information about who has been sent to Coventry, to match to those being returned, including identifying the others seen in the glowing room.

Dutrisaal seems to be a typo. Searching on travellermap.com does not find that system, but I see Dutrissal.

Starmaster has expanded the list a little to 12 showing up, and added Duncinae as a specific destination (presumably Forbes, or whatever his real name is). Also, 1 system received 2 drop offs, 6 weeks apart. So currently 10 specific systems, 12 deliveries, 1 known duplicate. That leaves 1 person and (maybe) 1 system not accounted for. 2 ships could account for the duplication, other than 'alien thinking'. Those known deliveries are all closer to Coventry than I expected. With 100 people, I was expecting it to be wider ranging. Maybe more people are going to be dropped off later in the same systems.

To Sam's comment, Nathaniel nods, then says, "Monitoring news, and talking to other rescued people, or should that be abducted? could add some details. And I wouldn't mind a stop at Gaargir. Both Sharik and I have family there, and might have good luck getting assistance in making contact. It also has a relatively small population for someone to hide in. That could go the other direction too, if the Naval Base has taken an interest, and has decided to lock down further information."

"Unless the IISS is being extra generous from your … donating? … the alien ship to them, getting access to it could be a problem. I expect they have it all wrapped up. If they have had time to get the resources in place, it won't even be there any more. Where ever it is, every qualified technician and scientist with sufficient clearance that is within range is likely drooling over it. … Well maybe not. Keeping its presence quiet might mean a much smaller select group."

"If that ship was involved in the transportation of the people from Coventry, then the alien thinking is real alien. Your records do not show any indication of people from Conventry being aboard. Only the one "stasis" pod from the collapsed water domes, plus the scout that got trapped before you got there. So the ship was not in the process of doing any Coventry deliveries. It was either not involved in that, or had already finished what it was doing. Or going for extreme alien thinking, was supposed to meet up with a "mother ship" to pick up the next person to deliver."

"Any research would seem to be a fairly long term project. The needs of the ship itself must come first, so Concorde, and a high tech overhaul need to be kept in the near term plans. I have no information yet about Longshot's plans past that." He thinks, "~~Having access to DMD could help too.~~"

"Multiple passenger ships would account for some of the things seen, without resorting to extreme levels of travel capability. Instead, it requires deliberate planning to synchronize the timing of the delivers. If multiple ships were transporting people without that planning, there should be cases of people arriving at different locations at almost the same time. Not those 1 week intervals."

"That does point out a missing item for the various alien encounter scenarios. How many ships are there? A single exploratory scout ship is a lot different than a fleet that is moving into or through the region."

"Uh … … If Tammy is going to monitor the news feeds for us, she should also have the information I have just been going over. I was going to have her help me organize the records of the ship for review, but was told it was not available in the records she has access to."

"Anyway, that seems to be the information available at this time. I'm going to send some messages to see if Forbes arrival home was noticed in sensor data, but not recognized as a ship."

OOG: My idea; gravitational microlensing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...ational_microlensing This is already being used to detect distant planets. My understanding of the math is incomplete, but I think that works better for fairly distant objects, where the light has enough time/distance to bend enough to be noticeable. I project with the advanced technologies available in the game universe, that it will work over (much) smaller distances. Small changes in the apparent brightness and position of background stars when a gravity source passes (almost) in front of them.

Nathaniel uses both his own contacts in the science community and research from the info net to find out which groups might have sensors capable of directly or indirectly noticing gravitational disturbances in the local system. With that, he starts making calls and leaving messages to see about getting access to some historical raw unfiltered data for a research project on sensor noise. "COMMS >>>The past 4 months should be good. I'll take more if it is easy to add. Simplest would be to get it before we leave port, but forward through the mail system works too.<<<COMMS"

The problem with getting more data on the reappearances is the time lag of jump space travel... it can take months for that data to show up on the Net, Plus, most of the people don't want to go back, disappear into the woodwork, or just don't register as a significant presence.

A crawler program can wade through all that obscure data and isolate any anomalous item that could conceivably fit the parameters.

To that end, another dozen reappearances register with less than a 1% chance of being an actual event... and even that's because of weighting it.

Reappearances probably occurred on: Caithness, Skye, Diablo, Kingston, Lanixohn, St. Denis, Botany Bay, Datinar, Solomon, Carter, Lanyard, and Wisu.

Running the data through the algorithms now indicates that there had to be at least three ships involved and that each ship was able to travel faster than Jump-1. Cover the distance in... 3 days?


Carter Forbes is his real name; he's on record as having been sentenced to Coventry for 'sedition'. According to Morgan, he's now gone underground, but some fast-talking does get you a second interview under super-clandestine conditions. You can call him 'Dar' now.

Ask whatever questions you want.


The derelict alien ship's location was turned over to 'the authorities' so it's not likely to still be there.

ooc
Slightly confused - second interview with Morgan? Or First one with Carter? ANd who is called Dar?

In reply to Samantha Kilgore (msg # 15):

Carter Forbes. Whoever he is. ;-)

Second interview with Carter Forbes who is now going by the name Dar.

Looking around, and being very careful, Nate says, "Something I am not yet allowed to talk about seems to fit here. Have any of you encountered something lately that reminds you of the head-ache causing alien communications system?"

"Well, if Tammy is going to monitor and filter the news feeds for us, she is going to need as much information as we can provide."

Still being careful he turns to Jack, and says, "I wonder if what the Captain described as your special Concorde sensors can be used to detect if this Dar has been externally influenced. Would there be something detectable if his memories are not as accurate as he thinks? A … medically … induced confidence in them?"

OOC:
I view that lag as the information propagation wavefront. It normally expands down the x-boat routes, then out from that. Some of those new locations do not have clean x-boat routes to Duncinae, which will slow it down. There is not much x-boat connectivity in Reaver's Deep. It is at least 2 non x-boat jumps to get from the Confederation of Duncinae to anywhere other than the Grand Dutchy of Marlheim. Many of the other groups with internal routes have similar problems at the edges to get to the next 'Island'. Nathaniel was accounting for that in several posts with references to how old the data was, and how much else has happened where the information has not reached us yet.

The rest is mostly of interest for Starmaster, unless you want to see Nate's (over) thinking and speculations. Speculations with little enough evidence that he as not even mentioned it.

To this point, it is not clear if Nathaniel could be at the actual meeting with Forbes/Dar. He is not directly known to the journalist, likely even less by Dar. Only his public bio with science and advocate backgrounds might be known.

There are several lines of questions that Nate is interested in (from Investigate skill mixed with others) to see if some information can be improved and added to. These are not all questions to directly ask. They are lines to follow, to see where they lead. The questions here are representative, only to show areas trying to get more information about. Specific answers not needed or expected. Some tentative related conclusions based on the lines of questions is what I hope for. Since this is not an interrogation of a suspect in custody, can not demand answers. Need to keep it friendly and curious (Curious Nate has lots of, friendly he needs to work at a bit. Maybe excited and interested will do. Nate does 'focused interest' very well). As a preliminary, get what bio is available for Carson Forbes, to see that can be used as a hook when talking to him. From the 'real name' and related, that could already by available. Is there any potential overlap in backgrounds and interests to talk about?

General introduction questions, For all, avoid and interrupt anything that relates to politics or sedition. What did he do on Coventry? A job of some sort? Was there an economy? organizations? guilds? How fast did news travel (those ultra lights that Nate does not know about could tie to that)? Nate has some interest in that from sophontology, but not digging for much detail. Keep relaxed.

Questions intended to narrow down when he was last on Coventry. Using things like how long ago some very recent person or group arrived on Coventry, or how long since the latest delivery of luxury goods. Information from that delivery run (that Nate does not have), is that the drop point is moved each time, so a drop location and time could pinpoint the date quite accurately. Assuming that information on the previously used drop points is available afterwards.

Check working assumptions about how fast people were collected. When he was on Conventry, had he heard about any people already unexplainably missing? How spread out is the population? How big is the population? The 'public' fake news about the landslide mentioned a village. Is that accurate? people live in villages about that size? For the people recognized, do they seem to be from a small region, or spread out? For those not recognized, does their style of dress have clues about where they lived?

See if can get information to deduce more about the technology. Questions about the room and glow. The current information has several 'suspicious' aspects. Geometrically, the only way I can visually everybody seeing everybody else without turning their head, is a circle. Or in 3D, the surface of a sphere. Nate's current conjecture is that the room was not real. It was either a technological virtual environment, or psionic construct of some sort, where the usual physical rules do not apply. Questions to narrow down the probabilities. Confirm current information that Dar 'knows' there were 100 people in the room, and could see them all. Does he just 'know', or did he count them? Was it easy to count because maybe he was a little taller and could see that they were standing in a 10 by 10 grid with him at a corner or along an edge? Could not see past the glow, could not see the ceiling. Could he see the floor, and peoples feet? If so, describe the floor. How near did people seem? How much detail could he see of peoples faces and what they were wearing. Did he see someone with a bandaged wrist? Could he see anything of himself? Feet, shoulders, more.

Collect more information about the people in the room with him. Get the best descriptions possible, using the same techniques used by investigators to get descriptions from witnesses. Include descriptions for those recognized, as a cross check on the level of detail. Try to chart where people were relative to each other in the room. To be compared to other information if we later get to talk to another person that was there.

In reply to Nathaniel Harken (msg # 18):

Jack scratches his jaw. "First thing is. Is this Dar a Noble or a Political type official. My ""equipment"" has safeguards. Even in exile or has held such office."

Nathaniel responds, "Well technically, he was convicted of sedition by the local legal system. We should be able to determine career path from his bio. I want to look at that anyway, to see if there are some common topics of interest. To help get the conversation started."
OOC: GM?

Curious, he asks, "What sort of research is required to use that equipment? From my background, I know a fair amount about it's possible capabilities, but not so much on the rules you need to follow to use it. That varies some depending on who … educated you on its use."

"Oh, and do those same constraints apply when the intent is to see if someone else externally influenced the subject?"

In reply to Nathaniel Harken (msg # 20):

Jack replies as if he has recited this repeatedly "It will not prevent scans from being performed. But it will come up in my check up. "

Nathaniel opens his mouth to comment on that, then snaps it shut again, thinking, "~~Makes perfect sense from what I know, have deduced, or inferred. The top ruling class does not want themselves, or the rest of that ruling class to be scanned. Ever. The onus is put squarely on the operative to make sure that does not happen, so they must satisfy themselves first, then satisfy any reviewer of their due diligence, then if it turns out they are wrong, they are still in trouble. Without a VERY good reason. Really that constraint is targeted to strongly discourage any operative from doing scans on their own initiative. The only 'safe' scan, is one they have been ordered to do by the rulers and their authorized representatives. Slick, logical, … and nasty.~~"

"~~It does make me wonder more if the conclusions that could be made from my research data are really new. I'm glad I was very careful not to state what that analysis shows, limiting it to data. Scans in close proximity to, not even of, young minds are an obvious candidate to open channels that could develop into a full psi ability.  Basically triggering 'reflexive' stretching of a muscle so that it does not atrophy from lack of use.~~"

After a moment, he says neutrally, "So we check the profile. Carefully."
This message was lightly edited by the player at 02:22, Sat 15 Apr 2023.

Hence my confusion - as far as I recall, Sam hasn't met Carter Forbes once yet

But happy to meet him for the first time and go from there.

If we are meeting him for the first time, then I guess it is up to him how many of us meet him,a s he will have met none of us - So NAte could tag along as well possibly.

In reply to Samantha Kilgore (msg # 23):

Jack raises his hand. "However....Concorde does make a fine mind reader. What a GREAT gift for Vonon that would be. Don't know if we have time to file thru the Red Tape though"

Nathaniel contemplates Jack's choice of words, and wonders what is going to be possible, while looking up the available profile information for Carson.

It was actually the second interview with the Amazing Morgan. With our questions, he agreed that a face-to-face meeting with Carson Forbes a.k.a. Dar was warranted. It takes some wheedling and perseverance to get Dar to agree, but again, those unanswered questions convince him.

He has no delusions about the gov-police being able to find him, particularly if he gets careless. His choice of meeting place is a busy public park where events are happening.

Carson Forbes was an accountant; not a Noble or Political Type. He was single, but not a Player. Didn't party much but was a sports fan. Drank wine rather than beer. "Punctual, reliable, competent" were words used to describe him.

Sam, Jack, and Nate can all go.

As good as Sam may be, she doesn't spot Dar until he makes contact with them.

Ask away.

Waiting for Dar to show, Nate checks out the events at the park being used for cover for the meeting. When Dar identifies himself, he glances at him, then deliberately puts his attention back on the event he had been watching, saying casually, "Long time", with a tilt of his head toward Dar.

At a natural break, he looks around, then positions himself to see one of the activities, while listening and talking to Dar. He looks Dar over, thinking, "~~So how does a totally non political, non ruling class, reliable, no waves, accountant get arrested for sedition? Not something to ask, but curious. Possibly totally bogus, but he found something in the books that displeased somebody with the right connections.~~" He waits a moment, so see if Sam or Jack want to start off.

OOG: Not what he is really wearing, but Nate has his investigators hat on, wearing his lab coat  over his Diplomat suit:)

Sam smiles at Dar and says "Hi there. Thanks for meeting us. How do you want to play this walk and talk? Or just sit here?"

There are four separate events going on simultaneously: Pirate Day (everyone one is encouraged to dress, act and talk like a pirate), A Taste of Summer (local taste-testing cuisine), Community Care fund raiser, and Medieval Fair. Lots of people and costumes.

"I suppose never is a long time," he responds to Nate's words.

"You could start by buying an ice cream... or three," he answers Sam. It's unclear if he's dressed as a pirate, a medieval character, some ethic cuisine representative or just a community worker... though can clearly pass as any of them. But he's pushing an ice cream cart and at least posing as a vendor.

"It's for a good cause... supporting the community. There's never enough funding to go around to all the things that need it."

"I have no idea what's going on and it all happened so fast that I never had a chance to panic. Some of your questions intrigued me. Still not sure I want to know what happened, but it'll bother me the rest of my life if I don't."

Nate chuckles, "Sure is. We'll have to try to do this more often. Couldn't be any less."

"OK, what flavours you got there?"

He steps up to look over the selections, but continues talking to Dar, while keeping an eye out for anyone else getting too close. "We've got more questions than answers. What answers we do have involve a lot of wild speculation. We're hoping that your answers will help narrow that down some."

"To summarized, there have been several unusual incidents in the region over the past few years. A bunch of people having their vacations cut short without notice is only one of them. Analysis of the available data puts a high probability on an external, previously unknown agent. The data also has … intriguing … hints of working tech that is normally only discussed as maybe theoretically possible. Or in future fiction."

Nate points to one of the ice cream flavours, and says in a poor pirate voice, "Arrgg, I believe I'll try that tharr one". He looks at Sam and Jack and adds, "My treat, me hearties". He pays for 3 ice creams, then steps aside to give the others more room and continues in a normal voice, "I'd like to put some limits, some lower bounds, on what that tech is capable of. If we have time, I'd like to try to determine just when you were picked up for the return trip, but first I'd like to ask about your travelling companions and accommodations."

"My info is that there were exactly 100 travelling together. Do you just know that, or did you count noses? Were you in a circle, or some pattern that allowed everyone to see everyone else?"

He accepts his ice cream, then shows his hand-comp to Dar and asks, "Do you mind? For notes. Local mode only."

"No, don't mind the comp. What are they going to do--send me back to Coventry?" Dar says. "Hell, at this point, I'm not sure they'd do that. Dangerous for them to tell Coventors that escape is possible."

"That was one of the questions that got me thinking about it. The image I got was as if I was looking at the group... including myself... through a CCTV about 19 feet high. Everyone was standing 2-3 feet apart, yet I could clearly see everyone just as if I was standing right in front of them. That's why I recognized six of them."

"I did Philo Nance's taxes two years ago. Margot Sullivan was a local Councilwoman. Shev was a bartender at the Chelsea Club. Rovan Zor is a footballer whose autograph I got. Cherinda Galt was a reporter. Monty the Mooch was a car salesman in those rubber duck commercials."

"Not sure I help you with the timing, For me, my last image of Coventry was early spring."

Nate uses the social gesture of taping his ear to indicate taking a call, in case anyone is paying attention. He activates the hand comp, looks out over the park, and slips the DDR over his ear and eye, Muttering, "Pirate needs an eye patch anyway".

Quickly recording the mentioned names, he checks off 'external viewpoint' in his speculative notes, then still looking across the parks says, "As if? Could you see where the edges of the image were? See anything that was not part of the display? For example, your own shoulder in peripheral vision. You had an equal view of everyone. Did you notice anyone with a bandage on their wrist? Like from a sprain."

"In that view, where were the people you recognized? Where were you?"

"You recognized only people you had known from before 'vacation'? Not people you met while there?"

"I was hoping to narrow down the timing because of the deliveries. Do you know how long before that the most recent shipments arrived? People or goods. How well was information about that known to everyone, and you in particular? How fast and accurate does information spread?"

Nate's curiosity about the overall socioeconomic environment has him add, "From being there, do you have a feel for what the total population really is? I am not sure how much to trust the reports I've seen."

He samples the ice cream.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:32, Sun 30 Apr 2023.

In reply to Nathaniel Harken (msg # 32):

Jack nods to Nate for the ice-cream. Considering what has happened with this crew and what is happening now. Jack orders a Rocky Road... and keeps listening to Nate and Dar.

Sam indicates a mint choc chip and eats it. She keeps listening, but turns slightly so she can get a view on anyone approaching, and says to Jack "Can you watch the other direction? Just in case anyone gets close enough so we have to switch to talking about costumes or something similar"

In reply to Samantha Kilgore (msg # 34):

Jack winks at Sam and looks for anyone getting close

"The 'image' I had was just of a bright light shining on everyone... though, now that you mention it, there were no shadows," Dar answers. "There was nothing visible outside of the light. No, I didn't notice a bandage, but I also can' honestly say what anyone was wearing. I don't think anyone was naked... no, definitely had clothes on."

"I was standing somewhat to the left of center. We weren't in rows or columns... just kind of mingling about, all facing forward. Those I recognized were scattered about."

"Ah, maybe that's it. I thought some of the others looked familiar, but didn't know them personally. They may have been other citizens from Coventry."

"Well, there are now 7 communities scattered about the drop zone, each about 1,000 people. At least, that's my understanding. Supposedly, the leaders have communicators, so everyone knows when the drops will be made. Rather than everyone making a mad scramble for the supplies, each community takes its turn retrieving them and then distributing them to the others."

"No one knows when the next group will join us. It depends on how many dissidents are processed in the previous months."

At Sam's comment to Jack, Nate nods slightly. Watching out for eavesdroppers was part of the reason for looking across the park. As well as pretending to be on a call. He has another couple of bites of the ice cream while listening.

Nathaniel thinks, "~~7000 ish total population?~~

Nate checks off another couple of items from his notes, 'no shadows', and 'no detail'. Deciding to change tack slightly, he says, "Mixing that with the general reported information, you saw the whole group, standing still, about arms length apart. You also saw each person like they were right in front of you. You could see faces in good detail, but were not noticing much of anything else about individuals. Barely aware that they had clothes on, but not what that consisted of. Even for yourself. You had no desire to move, maybe did not even think about being able to move. You did not hear, feel, or taste anything, not aware of time passing. Just observing the image. Not really aware of your own body, other than what you could see in the image. When you were seeing an individual, you were not seeing those beside or behind them. There was enough overlap though, that you could tell were an individual close up was in the wider view. You mentioned not having time to panic, but I suspect that, at the time, you were so … unconcerned with the situation, that you did not even consider that panicking was appropriate. Is that accurate?"

"Did you choose to look at specific people, or were they being shown to you, like the credits at the end of a holo? Have you ever used a full immersion game, or maybe a sim where you could see what it was like from the point of view of your favourite sports celeb? Would the image you saw be something like that?"

OOG: This should be Jack, but … Nate "feels a great disturbance in the Force".

Continuing without StarMaster. I'll see about channeling him.


Nathaniel thinks, "~Right, decisions need time. Before and after.~", and checks off the no senses, no emotion items in the notes, and highlights the no time entry. He says, "That's probably about all I can learn quickly about your time with the group. More would need a long debriefing session like in some of the spy thriller holos."

"How about when you left Coventry, and when you arrived here. For your last memories before the group, where were you? Were there others around to notice if you just vanished? In an outdoor space, or in a building? Then again for your first memory after the group.  Sitting down? anyone else in view? Maybe any security cameras?"