In reply to The Boss (msg # 64):

I never interviewed someone before. Heather? Alwin? Questions for Boris? We might start going in this direction more in the future, We'd need an expert salvager that can teach us too. Can you do that Boris?"

At 30 he is young enough, he's in his prime.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:58, Sun 14 June 2020.

In reply to Horace Wymp (msg # 65):

"Heather might be right too, Astrid and Dan. Astrid is short term but can teach a lot, Dan is young and fresh and has the necessary skills. Boris knows how to use the skills. All three for short term to see how things work out? Boris isn't likely to stay long and Astrid will likely retire after a year or so as well."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:04, Sun 14 June 2020.

"Can we afford all three?" Alwin asks, his questions primarily directed at Heather.  "Do we have to pay out a certain minimum even if this turns out to be a bust, and is that on us or ICS?"

In reply to Alwin Brandle (msg # 67):

"Hmmm, good question, Heather, what can we afford?"

Heather does some checking.

First, the ICS is quite insistent that this happen as soon as possible.  They offer to pay for an additional person if the ship does not have all the crew it needs.

"Yes, of course, but we have to leave quickly, please."

They are very afraid that given the importance of this discovery, they will be shut out if this takes too long.

"We've heard.. the Navy has already requested additional ships.  But they're just as likely to blow everything up.  You know that."

You can take them up on this.  Or, you can let them hire one and you hire one or two- but it will reduce your income for the job.  Short term hired crew tend to be expensive, because the people who work through the "gig" economy don't have a steady income and cost more.  Still, even with two it can be profitable.  Just not as profitable.

In reply to The Boss (msg # 69):

"You're hired Boris, as long as you don't mind teaching others to salvage too, we'll hire Dan and Astrid too, Dan Permanently, Astrid, as long as she wants to be a spacer again."

"We can afford the three of them but I suggest only taking one on as a permanent crew member. With three salvagers we can go with ICS and negotiate a bigger payout for the job. How about you hire our crew whilst I handle the deal with ICS. We need to move fast so letting them stew a bit has worked in our favour. They're more likely to give in to the concessions I add as part of our contract."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:12, Fri 19 June 2020.

In reply to Heather MacKenzie (msg # 71):

"You're all hired. We have a big job and we need a few extra hands. Find yourself a cabin"

The representative from the ICS who arranged things will not be the person from that agency going with you.  No, that was just someone who handles their arrangements.  An executive assistant.  For the ICS, this is fairly big, and is a "first contact" situation, a dream for anyone who works in the field of alien intelligence  (first contacts actually come along only once every decade or so).  They are hiring the Albatross, so they provide three people, one very experienced scientist, a woman with the kind of long straggly hair that says "brushing is
just a distraction from my research" and two younger assistants, one male, one female, who seem positively overwhelmed with excitement to be doing this.

Now with a full complement and then some, the Albatross can depart Blaiseport.  Neither of the two younger "hired space hands", Dan Corto and Boris Iligov, are familiar with what the ICS is, but Astrid has been around long enough to know about them.

They don't have much to do during the departure, the Albatross crew can manage that all on their own, so most of them hang out in the aft lounge, watching Merlin slowly shrink in the distance behind them as the ship gets ready for warp.  This part, really, takes only two.  One can manage in a pinch.

Astrid finds a way to meet with the Albatross gang when the ship is enroute, just after takeoff.

She's hoping the ship's crew is already on top of this, but she's not going to take chances.  "You know who these people are?"  Astrid Tomley asks.

By the sound of it, it's a rhetorical question.

"The ICS, who are they? They have credits we have time, is there something bad about them Astrid?"

"I wouldn't say bad", Astrid replies.  "They're all very Merlinish, peace, love and understanding.  It's hard to get bad when you've had that beaten into your head since you were born."

"I think... odd.   And this is about an alien intelligence, that's clear enough, there's no other reason why the ICS wants to go to an uninhabited system in the Frontier.  The thing with aliens... I've encountered a few... they don't even think like we do.  I know the ICS is supposed to be all about this, but how do they know what they're doing?  Slip ups can be... well, did you ever have a dog?  There's a creature we're closer to than any alien, but half of it's brain is dedicated to its nose, and it lives in a world of sensations and experiences we cannot even imagine.  They say the Mimosans experience some things we would just call concepts as real, tangible things.  I guess what I'm trying to say is... the ICS, if they're right about this, is looking to get into some very weird stuff."

******************************

The system control station in Merlin asks some last questions before the ship goes to warp- the routine things, including destination.

The advice the ICS scientists has is: there's no reason to lie.  Everything is entirely legal.  The Navy hasn't interdicted the system.  We're going to do ICS related research.

The salvagers concur.  One of the things about alien artifacts is an absolute lack of legal jurisdiction by any human organization, even the Commonwealth itself.

"Is there something evil or nefarious about them? Or just a bad feeling?"

In reply to Horace Wymp (msg # 76):

"Reply to them with the entire truth but volunteer nothing Mister Wymp, Get ready to enter jump space Alwin, you have the con when word comes across, give us a countdown. Lay in the course."

In reply to Einar Karvonen (msg # 77):

Horace answers all the questions asked but volunteers nothing, when they give permission, he conveys the word to Alwin and the captain.

We have permission to jump Mister Brandle, starting countdown and jump in five, . . four, . . three, . . two, . . one, . . jump!

Alwin pilots the ship into jumpspace, eager to get underway for this particular endeavor.

"Evil, no," the older spacehand says.  "But do you know how some people will almost certainly touch something that has a Wet Paint sign on it?  The ICS will do that in the name of research."

And yet, it is the ICS that knows where to go...

The scientist in charge of the little ICS detachment aboard the Albatross is Magda Simikos.  She gives Alwin the destination- an uninhabited, unimportant system, unnamed, except for its old catalog number, HD 84121.

Unimportant, but the star is unusual, and that's how Magda found it.

"The Navy ship.. that frigate... didn't encrypt the transmissions they made as they returned from the battle.  It may be that the system was damaged.  They broadcast some images showing the fate of that Carinan heading for a planet.  It could be any planet in the galaxy, but we know it is near, because the frigate was not gone from Merlin too long, and we know it was a rare blue-white subgiant star from the light spectrum in the images.  Those are young, hot stars, uncommon, and there is only one such star in the region.  That is the primary star of the HD 84121 system.  That is where our Carinan ship, or at least a portion of it, made a descent that was at least partially controlled.  It did not mean to crash.  The images clearly show course corrections."

HD 84121 does not host any habitable planets.  It is much too young a system.   It is so young that it is also a "dirty" system with extensive dust belts.  Give it a hundred million years or so, and gravity will clean these up. For now.. it just complicates sensors, when the dust blocks a sensor from its target.   The planet the ICS is aiming for is terrestrial sized, but certainly not habitable.  It is young, volatile, and cold, with seas of methane-ammonia slush.

In reply to The Boss (msg # 80):

"Pump Magda and the other ICS folks a little, get to know them so we have some insight into them. If you want to, I won't order you to be a cheap spy." he says with a grin. "Brandy?" he holds a nippy bottle out to her.

Astrid accepts the brandy, with a look of interest.

"This is the sort of thing a spacer brings out when he's trying to make a deal or ask some kind of favor," she says.  "But you're not asking a favor, here.  I'm as curious as you are, especially with what they told us.  Carinans... machines, they've always sent machines.  If they are right about this being more than machine, or they aren't, either way it's a dangerous, delicate thing.  It landed on a planet.. or it tried to.  They don't usually do that.  And with that ship, if they're right... here let me show you something."

Just about every ship, the Albatross included, has a standard library of other ships and objects encountered in space, frequently updated.  It includes some of the better known alien vessels.  Even the Carinans, though encountering them is not advised.  For them, technical information is very sketchy.  Every meeting involves someone fleeing or shooting or both, and no one ever acquired a complete one.

Astrid finds a diagram of the ship type the ICS mentioned.  "Junkyard B".  As with all Carinan vessels, known only by code names assigned by the Navy.

It's an ugly, ungainly looking thing, with a number of antennas and odd protuberances.

"That thing isn't a transport," she says.  "But they do recover things and carry them.. back, we guess... just like salvagers do, and for the same reason.   Two centuries ago their ships ran rings around ours, now ours are faster, of course they want to learn all they can.  So it's got all those antennas to collect data, it's got drones and recovery arms... it's a robot carrying smaller robots!  But it's not built to land.  And Carinan ships destroy themselves.  It was aiming to hit that planet, and then it got other ideas.  It's not luck.
 Do you know how hard it is to aim at a planet and then NOT crash into it?  The ICS people are right, this... whatever... is a game changer.  If a ship like that managed to get down even partly intact, it is not getting up again.  But we don't know what it can still do. This really might be something best done by the Navy.  But the ICS... they can't help it.  They have to touch the wet paint.  So we have got to be very, very careful."

"Why doesn't the navy just interdict it and recover it themselves? It's like the navy is inviting the ICS to stick their noses in. I'll turn a copy of everything we get over to the navy though."

Einar looks over the personnel records/applications of the three new crew members. He wasn't sure why they needed all three temporarily, but decided not to question it as long as ICS was footing the bill. Set course and jump and Albatross was on her way.

Astrid takes a little time with her new "mission", she can't answer that last question immediately.  But two days into the five day journey, she is able to report back.

"I looked up the Navy deployments and they're spread pretty thin in this sector.  It's a backwater as it is, and the presence of that 'erratic' Junkyard had them spread out keeping an eye out for an attack.  They're not going to leave any inhabited worlds unprotected, and with that frigate out of commission they don't have firepower to spare.  So they called for help.
 I have no doubt that when it arrives, they will follow along right after us and conduct their own search.

"That’s probably why the ICS was so intent about leaving as soon as possible, get there before more Navy ship’s arrive.  And get this.. the real reason the other salvage company that wanted to hire your ship doesn't have a ship available?  They told they have two ships but both were tied down with mandatory maintenance work?  That was true but half true.  That maintenance work came up suddenly, both ships were inspected and got Fix It Now orders the day the Navy frigate got back.  So the Navy thought they would keep the salvage folks at home.  Your ship, with it's landing capabilities and being new to the sector, you slipped through a crack, and they knew it, and the ICS knew it.  They both jumped."

"They must have both deduced the landing location, and that world is half covered in seas, and as soon as they realized what kind of ship this is, that was it.  This thing can set down in water… probably could set down in a methane ammonia water bath."

"If the salvage company hadn't been so cheap we'd have gone with them. We have to pay the bills."

The journey to their destination is five days long.  During that time, they learn a little of the philosophy of their odd but academic passengers.

The ICS is frequently accused of having weird old "mystic" views on the matter of consciousness, but this does not seem to be the case with the scientists aboard.  They talk a little about their work, and they seem thoroughly grounded in science- especially computer science.  This makes sense, as it has long been suspected that Carinans might be sentient machines, and so studying their consciousness is a job for computer scientists, at least in part.

From her point of view, consciousness requires deep analytic complexity, and whether that is achieved through meat or machine is irrelevant.  Carinans are most likely conscious because they analyze and think, and therefore must have a concept of Self.

Perhaps, soon, they will find out.  Five days after leaving Merlin the Nellie Bly enters the HD 84121 system.  The star is much larger and brighter than the sun, and the light has a bright and uncomfortable feel, like a bright white LED bulb.

"Perhaps we made the right choice after all, The Imperials would just cover it up and deny everything."

We are now far beyond Merlin, and jump into a new thread.
HD 84121