Before we start moving towards the end of your film debut, need some rolls please.

Tepha or Ledo:  Investigate/Edu.  The other may help them

Rig:  Computer/Edu.  He can add a +2 to the roll

Two of the other characters (your call which): either Streetwise/Int or Diplomat/Int

Thanks

Tepha and Ledo work to discover the truth behind the Duchess but neither of them have much experience beyond standard public search engines.


12:58, Today: Tepha Pezal rolled 6 using 2d6-2.  Investigation/EDU -4 unskilled +2 help?

Rig seemed to have a solid plan ahead of him and yet dealing with an AI, especially one hit with a nasty virus, was never easy or straight forward.


12:59, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 8 using 2d6+6.  +2 computer +2  edu +2 bonus.

Despite his normal gruff nature, Ledo could really pour on the charm when he needed to.


13:01, Today: Ledo Typhin rolled 13 using 2d6+2.  +1 diplomat +1 int.

Silver was used to hitting the streets as an ex-beat cop but the vices she had available from the crew were a big distraction for her.


13:02, Today: Silver rolled 6 using 2d6+1.  +1 streetwise +0 int.

Tia lifts off from the ice ball.

The film crew grumbles as they are put back into cryo.

Relen and Gosh both ask to be able to send messages on the net.  Neither message is provocative.  Relen to his agent, telling him they're almost done with the project.  Gosh to his girlfriend, telling her to be faithful.  And then they have to pack their gear up into the hold.  Relen is specific about the storage of the hard copy of their film.  Ulie seems distracted.

But as the ship is preparing to enter Jump, Tepha you get the film crew into stasis.  Ulie and Calliope return to their quarters.

Maribel is pretty much sharing her room with you Rig.  She's a good distraction from the problems with Fritz.  You are pretty sure the program will work.  But you won't know for certain until you have one to two weeks worth of data.  In the meantime, you could maybe teach Fritz old space shanties from your merchant marine days if need be.

Tepha, you manage to put together a fairly extensive bio on the Duchess.  But nothing that seems to give any color into her interest in your crew.  The Reach doesn't have a leading noble.  The Emperor hasn't appointed one for several generations now.  Duchess Mora acts as the de facto Voice of the Reach.  But as to why she has security detail on Tia's burners...you have no idea.

Ledo, shortly after the ship enters Jump, you come across Calliope in the mess hall.

She's sitting there, frowning.  A deep kind of frown.  Like whatever she's thinking, she's not pleased about it.

She must be so far into it, she hasn't noticed you.  The actress blinks rapidly, as if you startled her, even though you're about half done making the drink you came in for.

"Oh.  Captain.  I'm sorry.  I..."  She clasps her hands together on the table and leans forward.  "Do you have a moment?  I know you're busy with the ship and all.  But..."

She sighs and then takes a deep breath.  "Captain.  I don't want to come across as paranoid.  But...how much do you trust your passenger Nero Madigan?  I'm...What can you tell me about him?"

Ledo freezes for a moment expecting the worst but then when Calliope asks about Nero, Ledo lets out a nervous chuckle.

"How much do I trust him? Well that depends on what I'm trusting him with. He is a spoiled noble obsessed with his video feed and seemingly oblivious around him. He was used by some eco-terrorists to get on board our ship and I'm pretty sure that some pirates are using his video feed to shadow our ship..."

He paused and sighed.

"He's not a bad kid, he's just very sheltered and naive. I looked at his feed and he is still obsessed with that Pansy Paws girl that had him wrapped around his finger. Anyone with sense would have realized she was using him but he is still fighting for her. That kind of loyalty can't be all bad, right?"

He paused and sat down across from her, taking an active listening position and giving her his full attention.

"What's on your mind? Where's this coming from? Did he do something that made you feel uncomfortable?"

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 7):

She sighs at your question <purple>Ledo<?purple>.  "Well no.  Or...not in the way you might think.  He wants me to pose as his girlfriend for some...complicated scheme with his family.

"But what really freaks me out is the coincidence."

She bites her lower lip for a moment and then lays her hands flat on the table.  She seems to have come to a decision.

"Do you know about the business with his cousin?  Hollie Madigan?"

She studies your face.  Waiting to see what you say about that.

Ledo's face goes stone still as she brings up Nero's cousin. He realizes he tensed but there was nothing he could do about it now.

"That's a really odd thing to bring up. Yes I know he had a cousin who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. What does that have to do with posing as his girlfriend at his grandmother's birthday party?"

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 9):

"Nothing to do with his offer to pose as his girlfriend.  Maybe."

She glances towards the hallway.  "I...I don't mean to burden you.  But...we're actually filming two movies.  Not one.  Ulie doesn't know.

"Our director, Relen, wrote a script based on the murder.  He says he has some information about who did it.  Anyway, he tried pitching the movie, but no one wanted to touch it.

"Thing is...it's a really good script.  I mean really good.

"When Relen got the job to direct this project, he talked me and Ergan and Wisco into filming his movie on the sly.  I know how that sounds.  But sometimes in film, you have to go about things in a roundabout way.

"Anyway.  We're pretty close to wrapping his project. But then Hollie Madigan's cousin shows up.  And wants me to go with him to some family party.  And things have been...weird...with the main shoot.  I don't know.  Things seem odd at the moment.

"I just want to make sure I'm not about to get in the middle of something I shouldn't have gotten into the middle of."

Ledo gave a sigh and tried to put as much reassurance into his voice as he could.

"After watching Nero for awhile I will say he is not some kind of mastermind moving pawns on the chess board. I think checkers or tic-tac-toe is more his style. It is quite the coincidence but I'm pretty sure it is just that. Nero is just another passenger going along the same route as you guys are. He didn't know you were coming on board and Ullie made the arrangements on your end on account that we were the only ship in the area. Come to think of it that was how we got Nero as well. Escaping right before a terrorist attack nearly blew up a spaceport kind puts you at the top of a lot of lists...good and bad."

Ledo stood up but lingered. He was still here if she wanted to talk but he did have places to go and ships to run.

"As for posing as his girlfriend...I can't offer you any advice about that. I'm sure it would be...interesting."

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 11):

Calliope laughs.  "Oh I'll definitely take a pass on the role of Nero Madigan's girlfriend.  Seems like a part that's just not worth the pay."

She shakes her head.  "My apologies for dumping on you.  I appreciate the insight.  It was just...the coincidence of it all.  It was unsettling.  Thank you Captain."

Your drink is getting warm Ledo.  As you head out, you see Ulie.  She's leaning against the wall like she was listening to everything the two of you had just said to each other.  She's frowning hard.

She meets your eye and holds a finger to her lips.  Shhhh she seems to be saying.  She turns and heads back towards her quarters.

We are in Jump.  I need to know what the duty roster is for the next couple of days. In other words, while the ship is in Jump, is anyone doing anything in particular?  And at any particular time?

Thanks

Rig remains busy working with Fritz to continue to get his computer virus "thing" wrapped up. This leaves Ledo, Tepha, and Silver taking shifts in the cockpit. Including Rig, two crew are awake at all times while the other two sleep. One remains in the cockpit keeping an eye on anyone else walking around or doing cockpit maintenance while the other person gets scrub duty replacing carbon filters or other basic level maintenance.

On top of that Ledo enlists BB to help with security. After the Nero stalker incident she becomes a bit obsessed with the idea that there might be a stowaway so while Nero is asleep she patrols the halls and checks the cargo hold for signs of disturbances and even tries to enlist "reclusive tech expert" Fritz and Rig to help her scan for any kind of tracking devices just in case. Some of it is just to feel productive while the ship is in jump but the photos at the hotel have her wondering if maybe one of the film crew is involved somehow.

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 13):

Thanks.

I am going to let you chose who is up and about during the following.

The estimated Jump timer stands at 3 days, 14 hours.  This has felt like a long jump for some reason.  Maybe it's just the fact that the time with the passengers is coming to an end.  At least the film crew.  Maybe it's some nerves about the Duchess.  Or maybe it's just the first time some of you have had to scratch your ass without having to worry about something major.

Well.  Besides the whole Fritz thing.

The timer clicks down to 3 days, 14 hours, and 12 minutes.

A red signal comes up on the cockpit comm.

There's a problem with the low berth.

A quick camera check shows the problem.

One of the film crew's androids is standing over one of the low berth cabinets.  It's punched through the glasteel case and inside.  It's just standing there, punching.  And punching.  Coolant and gore are clinging to the android's arm.  Blood is squirting out of the berth.

The vital signs for that berth aren't so vital any more.

Ledo jumped out of his chair and sprinted for the doorway. As he crossed the room he pulled his sword out from its sheath. After their recent break in by the duchess he had begun staying armed at all times.

"Who's awake? One of the androids just killed one of the film crew."

There were a few mumbled cries of confusion as everyone was waking up but he had drawn his lot with Silver and she was back near the engine anyway.

"On it."

Silver brought her rifle to bear as she charged into the cargo bay. She was well aware that there were more than one of the androids so she kept her eye out for signs of the second one.


"Dammit Rig, I thought you had buried them."

"Mmmmmm I did. They keep getting out somehow."

"Or someone is letting them out. Fritz, go through our security footage and find anyone who's been near those androids since we jumped."

In reply to Silver (msg # 16):

The android is standing where it was when you saw it on screen Ledo.  Standing over the same berth, punching in and out, like it's broken into repeating the same action.

Can do.

Let's see...

Looks like no one has been near it since Jump.  The android just got outta it's box, walked over there, and...well.  Started punching.

The other one seems to still be in it's crate

The android seems oblivious to everything else.

For once Silver showed a bit of restraint. Instead of just pumping it full of lead she looked for a crowbar or some other tool to sweep the legs from the android and knock it over. If it was in a loop it would stay down and just keep punching the air until someone more tech savvy could fix it.

If it did try and get back up then Silver would make sure it couldn't get up ever again.

In reply to Silver (msg # 18):

Turns out a crowbar isn't even necessary.  It ignores you as you push on it's shoulder Silver.  It topples backwards, landing on it's back.  It's arm keeps thrashing into the air as it dents Tia's deck a bit from battering it with it's elbow.

The passenger in the berth...Relen.  It's Relen...Was Relen...is long gone.  The android crushed from below his nose to just above where his ribcage used to end.  It's just one big gooey pile of cheap starship fare.

Silver makes a call to the nerds (i.e. Fritz and Rig).

"Alright the android is...taken care of? Looks like it had very basic programming as I knocked it over and now it is just punching the air. Any safe way to turn it off or should I just start beating it with a crowbar until it stops moving?"

In reply to Silver (msg # 20):

Hmmm.  If you could run a patch into it's data port from one of the ship terminals, I can hop in there and do it.

Rig, you know there should be a manual override switch somewhere on it.  You can go look at it to find it.  Or you could try to see if this model's specs are on the net...

To try to have Rig turn it off, he'd either have to go down there or make a Computer/Edu check.

Rig was hustling his way down there already after quick throwing on some clothes. Sadly he was getting good at dressing rapidly in the dark and with no time to spare.

"Alright Silver see if you can see a silver button at the base of the neck, where it meets the chest and shoulders. If you can press it that should be the manual override. The problem is you might have to hold it in for a little bit so be careful."

Rig had worked with droids and robots of various kinds. Despite his affinity for computers and engineering he preferred real people to artificial ones.


15:09, Today: Gary 'Rig' Rigan rolled 13 using 2d6+4.  computer/edu.

In reply to Gary 'Rig' Rigan (msg # 22):

The button is there.  ONce it's pressed, the android stops moving.

Ledo and the rest of the crew came down to assess the damage. Tepha nearly threw up seeing the damage and Rig had a hard time looking at the android while it was in close proximity to the carnage. Eventually Ledo motioned to Silver and they moved it around the corner.

"Fritz are you listening? Alright we need to start moving fast. Rig take this thing down to the core and find out who gave it the order to kill Relen. It was given specific instructions and you know they had to come from somewhere.

Silver, contact BB and the two of you are on security duty. I want the other android secured in a way that it cannot get out and I want the passengers on lockdown. All of them."

Ledo turned toward Rig catching his eye with a very stern look. He had known what Rig had been getting up to for awhile and had turned a blind eye to it because watching some movie folk didn't seem to warrant tight security but that had just changed.

"Remember what happened last time. Bored wife and pampered daughter turn out to be cyber assassins. We are now assuming any one of these people might pull out some kind of pistol or explosive or hidden weaponry and try to ram us all into the sun. No more fraternizing."

He had broke Rig's gaze to cast a harsh glance at Silver who sighed and nodded. She hated all this "hu rah" military bullshit but she was smart enough to realize Ledo had a point. Someone had just been murdered in their sleep and if that meant no more boozing and smoking on the sly then so be it. Better for a few weeks of work than a lifetime of dead in your sleep.

"Tepha, you're on security cameras and handling the passengers that are still awake.  The sudden militarization of the ship might rub some of them the wrong way and you'll be their point of contact. Do what you can and say what you can but this is now a ship on lockdown until we can figure out what the hell just happened."

He cast a hard glance around the crew catching everyone in their eyes. Gone was the friendly loveable rogue and here was the iron fisted Imperial Navy Captain rallying his troops for war.

Once everyone was in motion Ledo caught BB privately for a sidebar.

"You're the only one here with proper military training and bodyguarding experience. If you can do it discretely set up some of those spy cameras of yours around the ship hallways to see if someone is moving around but keep the cameras off the ship's network. If someone is moving about unnoticed they've compromised our computer system which should be almost impossible but when the Duchess had her men come in they were able to loop the cameras. We found them in the end but they almost got through. Maybe Duchess brought on a higher caliber of infiltrator."

He paused and conferred with BB about the secret footage of Nero's cousin's murder.

"There is every chance that this has something to do with that footage so keep a close eye on Nero. I just don't know why it was Relen..."

BB gave a sigh.

"I think I do. Nero was talking about how Relen was secretly filming the expose on the murder under the cover of this Dark Sun project. Apparently Oscar had offered that up in exchange for some credits. I think you're right, someone is trying to stop the movie from being shown."

"Who else knows about it?"

BB frowned.

"Well Oscar, sir. And the other actors. I can ask Nero again but it seemed to me that he implied everyone but Ullie knew."

Ledo nodded.

"So it is less of a question of 'why' and more a question of 'why now'. Get those cameras set up, we need to make sure this doesn't happen again."

Silver of course ended up with the "clean up" duty. It wasn't that she was squemish around chunks of body, far from it. It's that this would seriously cut into her smoking and boozing time so she privately cut a deal with Ledo that if she is picking up chunks of body into bags then she gets all the booze and all the weed while doing it and he relented.

Cleaning up a dead body wasn't too bad if you were blitzed out of your mind for the really bad parts of it. Maybe she went a little too far and she was pretty sure some of the bags of Relen also included a few pints of alcohol she had vomited up but hey, who was going to know. It's not like they needed an autopsy or anything.

The first thing Rig did was re-arrange the cargo containers to once again fully barricade the other android in. Without the help of a cargo crane the doors to its container were buried under tons of metal and trade goods and if it did have some kind of secret assassin programing embeded into it, it would have to punch its way through multiple steel shipping crates to get to it. Hopefully someone would notice the noise long before then.

The second task was carefully separating the corrupted android's head from its body and enacting the diagonstic failsafes so the rest of it was completely lifeless. No horror movie "the killer isn't actually dead" antics here.

Then it was time to do a deep dive into the head of the droid to figure out just how the hell it had gone from storage to punching apart the director. Just thinking about the carnage he had seen made Rig squemish. It reminded him of the few industrial accidents he had seen. Someone getting their arm caught between the wall and a runaway cargo crate was all too common and quite a few dock hands ended up with artificial limbs. Just because there is lower gravity doesn't mean something like momentum no longer exists.

Focused he got to work with Fritz operating as his helper. Worried Fritz might get contaminated mostly Rig had fritz keeping the ship running smoothly so Rig could concentrate solely on his investigation. Even Sister Mary got put aside and deep down Rig was suddenly worried that perhaps this "too good to be true" nun was just that, too good to be true.

Ulie sends a message to you Ledo and Tepha

Received order to stay in cabin.  Understood.  Everything OK?  Something we need to worry about?

Maribell sends you a message Rig.  Staying in lockdown.  Is everything OK? You're not hurt are you?

Rig, the analysis of the defunct android is surprisingly straight forward.

It looks like a delayed command was sent to the android while you were all still on the last planet.  The command was triggered when the android's internal clock hit a certain time.  It was then instructed to get out of it's crate, walk over to Relen's tube, and...well. You know the rest.

THe command was sent via a private comm line.  Tracing the comm line back, it turns out to be Ulie's private comm.

Rig had checked over Ullie's phone before and passed that along to Ledo. Ledo sent a message back to Ullie while they were doing their investigation.

"Ullie, while you were filming did you lend your comm out to anyone else? You said you were having problems with it, did someone borrow your phone? I'm seeing a security breach that is tracing back to it..."

Better to keep everything calm until they were further into their investigation.

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 29):

Ulie comes on line.  "My comm?  I had set it down on one of the props when we were striking one of the sets.  When I came back, it wasn't working.  I thought the cold musta zapped it.

"Whaddya mean 'security breach'?"

Ledo sighed. That must have been when someone had gained access to it.

"Alright when and where. We'll try and pull details to continue our investigation. At this time just stay put and we'll get this thing sorted out."


The idea was to try and focus on this comm issue. If they knew when and where perhaps there was video of it or they could interview the others to try and suss out the killer who implanted the commands into Ullie's comm.

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 31):

I can check the log in the android's memory.  It shows the command being entered 4 16 at 1:12 EDST.

That would fit about the time Ulie borrowed your comm <puprle>Ledo</purple>.  Checking your own comm's log, you can see she asked to use yours about an hour after that, at 2:07 ESDT.

The film crew would have been on the last location shoot then.  So there wouldn't be any security cam footage from nearby buildings you could hack into.  And you weren't taking video surveillance At least I do not recall you stipping that when you outlined your security procedures

Interviews might be your best bet.

Ledo was expecting that. It was rare that an investigation like this could be wrapped up neatly. While he had never had to handle a murder investigation when he was captain of hundreds of individuals crimes like assaults and theft would pop up here and there. He was used to having a security team to do the overall investigation but was familiar enough with procedures to have a process in mind.

Just as he was about to speak though he recalled that Silver was once a police officer. From what he gathered an interesting side venture to avoid the gang she had once been part of. That had blown up in her face like most of her other career paths but if anyone on their ship was qualified to lead an investigation he figured it would be her.

"Silver, do you think you can handle the investigation? Maybe have Tepha join you while..."

"Wait...I have to clean up bits of brain matter and figure out who did it? What the fuck, man. Why do I keep getting the shit jobs?"

"Well...you used to be a cop, right?"

Silence from Silver. He was right although she was never a very good cop. She bit her lip and as a sour look passed on her face.

"Fuck. Alright but on one condition. If I'm running the investigation I'm doing it my way."

"As long as you find out who did it and don't get us sued or arrested do whatever it takes. We're not the police, we're just a group of Imperial citizens."

Silver started to nod as a smile crossed her face.

"Yeah...I can work with that. Alright someone else can take over my duties. I can't be a detective part time."

Ledo gave a sigh and nodded.

"Sure but you had better make progress. For all we know there are more commands buried somewhere that might lead to someone else getting killed."

Silver smirked at Ledo, patting his shoulder.

"Don't worry Captain Bossypants, I've got it covered. Silver is on the case."

With that Silver turned around and strolled down the corridor. Once she had passed through a set of doors Ledo looked at Tepha with pleading eyes.

"Keep an eye on her. Make sure she doesn't end up pistol whipping our guests or something."

In response Tepha gave Ledo a quick peck on the cheek and silently strolled out after Silver.

Her head felt like a ten ton boulder had been squeezed into a five ton hole. There wasn't enough whisky on board to fix her hangover, namely because of how much she had put away getting it in the first place. Alcohol was a cruel mistress, luring you in with her tantalizing look and alluring taste before bashing your head in and leaving you bleeding out on the pavement with your wallet and ID missing.

Detective Silver took a hard drag on her cigarette before dropping it to the ground and crushing it under her foot. The crime scene had been cleaned up but the details had been seared into her brain. Nevermind she had been the one to clean it up, that was before she was on the case. Now it was a crime scene. She leaned forward and studied the glass of the cryo pod. It had taken several strikes to break but the android didn't feel any pain or any remorse, an unthinking murder machine that turned a human popsicle into crushed ice.

They had a victim and a murder weapon but the questions remaining were the big three: Who, Why, and most importantly Why Now.

Detective Silver walked the path of the android back to the shipping container it had punched its way out of. She tried to get into the mindset of an unthinking machine. Compelled to commit murder as if being ridden by Satan himself with...

<ahem>

Silver paused, looking up at Tepha and blinking.

"Ledo sent me to help. I've asked Calliope to meet us in the lounge so you can ask here about the afternoon film shoot where Ullie set down her comm."

Detective Silver glanced over at the femme fatale framed in the cargo bay doors. The captain's lady had curves in all the right places but time and work were starting to take their toll. How long would she be able to get by on her looks alone? Perhaps she was already plotting a way to bump the captain off and take his share of the...


"Silver? Did you hear me? Why are you just standing there, looking at me?"

This dame asked too many questions and...

"Do you want to reschedule the interview or..."

"Fuck. Fine. I'm going. We can talk to her or whatever."

As Silver stepped up the stairs she glared at Tepha.

"Just remember who's in charge here. Follow my lead or stay out of my way."

Tepha looked a little taken aback.

"I'm sorry I was just trying to be..."

The rest of the broad's words died as the door snapped shut behind the Detective. Silver had little time for a dame that didn't know her place. The captain must be worried about how things would go to put a babysitter in the investigation. Maybe too worried. Perhaps the captain had a thing or two to be gained by the death of....fuck...what was his name again?

Tepha gave Calliope a nervous smile as Silver stared daggers into the actress. The silence was quite uncomfortable and any time Calliope or Tepha had tried to talk Silver had shot a threatening glance at anyone trying to relieve the tension.


Finally after a minute of this awkward staredown Tepha decided to just ignore Silver and start the conversation.


"Calliope I...we asked you here because..."

Tepha tried to ignore the withering look thrown her way by Silver. It was so intense that Tepha stumbled.

"I...there has been an accident involving Relen and we just want to figure out if anyone would have any reason to cause him harm. We take things like this very seriously and if there are any conflicts we want to make sure they don't become a problem."

In reply to Tepha Pezal (msg # 35):

Calliope Quans.  If looks could kill, she could be booked for murder right now.  Skin like a perfectly poured draft beer.  Eyes that lure you in and then lock you there.  She blinks those big, soft eyes. Once. Twice.  Her head comes up.  Her perfectly red lips slightly parting.

"What? Relen?  Accident? Is he alright?"

She seems surprised. But then she's an actress.  But then isn't every dame?

Hey. You started it.  Really liked Silver's post by the by

"Hut Relen? Why..."

She shuts those eyes and takes a deep breath.  "He's dead right?  The way you said it..."

She looks over at you Tepha.  "Relen was...well.  I guess you know by now.  We were shooting a second movie using the main pictures equipment. Relen was promoting it on the sly.  I and Ergan and Wisco were helping him."  She hesitates.  "Ulie didn't know we were doing it.  We kept it very hush hush.  But...I think she found out.  The studio was bugging her about cost overruns.  And I think she figured it out.  She and Relen had an argument right before we left the last shoot."

Silver slammed the table to startle Calliope. Best to catch these dames off guard.

"We already know Ullie couldn't have done it. Who else was on the take, eh?"

Tepha shot Silver a confused look and Silver realized she needed to dial things back a bit. She leaned back and softened her voice a few notches.

"What I mean is who else would want Relen dead. We don't know this is about your little side project. Was he sleeping with anyone? Did he owe anyone on the crew money? Was he angling to take anyone's job?"

In reply to Silver (msg # 37):

Calliope jumps a bit in her seat like a shuttle with only the port side thrusters firing.

"I...I dunno. Relen is...I mean was...the director.  The only job higher than his was Ulie's.

"I...don't think he was sleeping with anyone.  He wasn't sleeping with me.  Honestly...he kinda struck me as being asexual. More about getting his movie made than anything else."

She thinks. "The crew does do a lot of gambling. I don't...I don't join them or anything. So I don't know for sure. But I think he did. Relen I mean.  I think he gambled with them.  I saw him sitting in on one of the games once."

She glances back and forth between the two of you Tepha and Silver.  "I don't...I don't know anything else.

"Uhm...do you know if the footage for the movie...his movie. Not Ulie's...Do you know if it's alright?"

Silver paused and looked at Tepha who shrugged.

"We're still checking on that. Alright one last question. What were you doing on 4/16 at approximately 1:15pm?"

Then as a follow up Silver scrutinized Calliope.

"Did you notice anyone acting suspicious? Hanging around Ullie when they shouldn't or poking at her phone?"

In reply to Ledo Typhin (msg # 39):

Calliope blinks.  "I don't remember exactly...I think I would either have been shooting a scene or in the cast tent.

"Hanging around Ulie? I mean...we were all hanging around each other all day.  Oh!  Wait.  I do remember hearing someone saying something...I think it was Levit.  He said something about Ullie's phone.  But I...sorry. I don't remember exactly what it was.  Oscar and Gosh were talking really loud and I couldn't quite hear Levit."

She doesn't seem to be lying.  Then again, she is an actor.

The dame was a dead end but nobody expected the femme fatale to give up the goods on the opening salvo. They had their lead, Levit, and they would run it down. Maybe they would catch Calliope in a lie but she seemed cool as ice and not likely to melt until they turned up the heat to eleven.

"Alright then. For now consider yourself confined to quarters until we can guarantee your safety. We'll have arrangements for meals if it looks like this will take awhile."

Once Calliope was shuffled back to her quarters it was time to pull at the thread she had delivered by bringing in Levit for the same questioning.

In reply to Silver (msg # 41):

Levitt's all packed up like a ration of soy protein in the freezer.  The curvy red-head thaws him up like she must do to the Captain when it's nighty-night time.  Within an hour, Levitt's all toasty warm.  All that's missing is the footie PJs and a mug of cocoa spiked with a stiff bourbon.

He looks all shaky when he spots the freezer Relen was in.  Though parts of Relen are still in the freezer.  So maybe it should be said in present tense.

Whatever.  The square is all shook up.

"Wha-What? What's goin' on?"

You've taken him back to the common room.  Now it's time to beat a confession out of this pasty faced wanna be.

Silver hid her smirk. So Levitt was going to play hardball. Well she could play hardball too. Silver waited until the mark was seated before she suddenly sprang to her feet, slamming the table with both hands to startle Levitt.

"Cut the crap, Levitt. We know you planted the code to kill Relen. We got your prints all over. So let's dispense with the bullshit and move right onto the 'why'. Who paid you to kill Relan?

Keep in mind we're outside every jurisdiction known to mankind. If you want to make this hard, we can get fucking hard."

To prove her point she slapped  a giant fuck-off combat knife on the table. It wasn't pointed at anything in particular but gripped in Silver's hand she could send it slashing out with a flick of her wrist.

Next to Silver, Tepha's eyes went wide with fear. This had definitely not been discussed earlier...

In reply to Silver (msg # 43):

Levitt's chair goes backwards as he lurches away from the knife.  He cracks the back of his head on the floor but manages to crab walk his way away a bit.

"WhatwhatWHAT what?  I-Relen's dead?  What's goin' on?"

He stares at you Tepha.  "Please don't let the crazy lady kill me!"

He looks back at you Silver>  "You like weed right? I'll give you my weed!  Please!  I wanna live!"

Silver jabs a finger at Levitt.


"You'll live if I want you to live! TELL US WHAT YOU KNOW!"

She bangs the table a second time for dramatic effect.

Tepha tried her best to regain control of things. Levitt, meet the good cop.

"I think what my colleague here is trying to say is that Relen was murdered and because of what we have heard you've become a main suspect. We..."

She emphasized that last point but glancing over at  Silver with a stern look.

"...won't be torturing you but you need to understand we have dealt with saboteurs before. If you don't cooperate with us I don't know what is going to happen so your best path forward is to be open and honest. If you have some kind of issue with Relen or even if you were paid to kill him that is fine. Well, not fine but at least we will know you won't be a danger to the ship or anyone else. If you lie or try to lie to us while I'm not a fan of it, it is safer and easier for everyone on board to just shove you out of an airlock. Please don't let it come to that. Take a breath and tell us everything. Where you were and what you did during the shoot. We've already done other interviews so make sure you stick to the truth. Everyone else has been very cooperative. We're not here to bust you for weed or even to pass judgement over murder. We just need to know what happened and why so we know the rest of the ship will be protected."

There were a mixture of lies and truths in there but overall Tepha was trying to be as honest and open as possible. If Ledo decided someone was too much trouble than it was easier to just space them. The risk of other sabotages like explosives hidden in the luggage or some kind of unknown hacking ability meant it might be too dangerous to even just hold them in the brig. Hopefully her calm and careful tone would keep Levitt from panicking too much.

In reply to Tepha Pezal (msg # 46):

Levitt does calm down...a little.  He talks to you Tepha, but still keeps shooting timid glances at Silver

"I don't really know what you're talking about. I didn't have any problem with Relen. I mean...yeah. He was kind of artsy fartsy and kept tellin' me he wanted Calliope to shimmer innocently and stuff like that.  Vague directions from the director are always kinda irritating, ya know? Like if you're captain just said "oh, let's just go to that star on the left" or something.

"But I've worked with much worse. I sure as hell had no reason to want him dead.

"As to what I was doing during the shoot...I mean. My job. I did the make up.  Helped Oscar run the sound checks.  Watched the power feeds for Gosh.  Patched up the tears in Ergan's costume.  The stuff I always do on set.  I don't know what this code is you guys are talking about."

Silver started to pull up the knife but Tepha laid a hand across her arm.

"Alright, so you were doing what you always did. Walk us through the shoot. Did you see anything odd? Didi you notice anyone acting suspicious? Did you see anyone hanging around Ullie or spending too much time on their hand terminal?"

In reply to Tepha Pezal (msg # 48):

Levitt wipes a palm over one eye and nods slowly after a moment.

"Uhmmm...lemme think.

"We got the scenes shot pretty much on schedule.  I remember Oscar and Gosh were arguin' about something.  I think Oscar owes a lotta money.  He keeps asking Ulie for advances on his salary.  No.  Wait a minute."

He frowns.  "No.  Gosh was angry cos Oscar had paid off the debt.  Which I didn't really get. Why would you get angry at a guy for that?  But...not my business.

"Lemme think.  Wisco and Ulie had an argument.  They don't get along.  But he did say she would be sorry about not casting him or something."  Levitt thinks a moment.  "Wisco's kinda had some bad roles lately.  And I think he wants to be in the next movie Ulie is slated to produce.  She kinda thinks he's washed up. I dunno."

He's quiet a moment longer and then absently nods. "Oh.  Yeah.  Now that I think about it, I did see her comm.  Maybe.  Anyway, I was gettin' some cord to patch a new feed for Gosh.  I was in the supply tent and I saw a comm sitting on the parts table.  I mean...it coulda been hers.  I don't really pay much attention to her stuff unless it has to do with my paycheck, y'know?"

He looks at both of you, ending with you Tehpa.  "Did I do good? Is the scary lady gonna cut me now?"

Silver narrowed her eyes and then stood up.

"You've told me something new, something that will let you go another round of interrogation. We'll be sticking you into the brig so we can cooberate your story. Tepha, wake up Gosh. Time to see if what he was saying matches up."

Why couldn't someone just confess? That would make things like this so much easier. Time to wake up another popsicle and see if they can give her anything new to use.

Gosh seems a little more together than Levitt.  He's one of those who comes out of deep freeze cranky, but he's not stupid enough to get snippy.

He sits at the table, glancing at the both of you Tepha and Silver.  He frowns when he hears the news.

"Really? Relen's dead?  Shit.  Guy owed me some credits too.

"You don't think I did it, do you?  I'd have no reason to.  Dead guys can't pay you back wages, now can they?  And he still owes me for shooting on his little side project."

Across the table, Silver cracked her knuckles.

"This goes a lot faster for everyone if you cut the bullshit. Didn't Relen pay you back already?"

In reply to Silver (msg # 52):

"Relen?  Pay me back?

"He paid us some for the side gig, yeah.  But not everything.  He was paying us on installments like.  And we each had some shares in the movie he was making."

Gosh shrugs.  "It's a good script.  Not sayin' I was thinking it'd be a major system blockbuster.  But Relen was gonna enter it into some contests.  And I think it's got a good chance at winning some prize money.  Also Relen said he had a publicity stunt lined up for it.  Would guarantee a way to generate some buzz.  So we figured, why not take him up on his offer.  We were gonna be filmin' on a movie anyway.  If there was a chance for an extra payday, why not.

"But I guess that ain't happenin' now.  So no.  Relen didn't pay us.  Or at least not me."

Tepha had seen Silver flail around long enough to step forward before Silver could begin brandishing weapons and threatening murder.

"Thanks for letting us know. If there is anything else you can think of that would be great otherwise we have more people to talk to."

Next to her Silver bristled at her show being cut early but at least held her tongue long enough for Gosh to be sorted out. As Silver began thawing out the next crew member Tepha put a stop to her.

"Stop. Stop! What are we doing here? What are you looking for? None of them are going to just confess to murdering him and unless we can dig up video footage nobody was paying attention enough to say they saw so and so playing around on Ullie's phone.

We're coming about this at the wrong angle. Let's run down the list and figure out who was even capable of doing this in the first place."

She pulls up the index of their passengers

"Calliope, Ergan, and Wisco don't scream 'tech genius assassin' to me. They're actors.

Levit does make up. Again not exactly prime suspect, right? Relen is dead so that leaves Zen, Oscar, and Gosh."

Silver gave a shrug.

"Or Relen. They said he was looking for a publicity stunt and getting murdered for his expose would definitely put his name out there."

She paused.

"Alright let's focus on Oscar next then. At least he has motive and means so I guess he should be a priority."
This message was last edited by the player at 23:57, Fri 28 Jan 2022.

In reply to Silver (msg # 55):

Oscar wakes up groggy.  Tepha,, you recall he did so previously.  He's one of those low berth passengers who don't really come out of cryo until their second cup of coffee.

He rubs his head at the news.  "Relen's dead? How'd that happen?"

Tepha took the lead this time, trying her best to hold back Silver from enacting yet another unhinged detective noir bad cop one-woman show.

"One of the camera androids was programmed using Ullie's phone to kill him based on a timer or condition. We've been interviewing everyone and, well, a lot of roads are pointing at you. Several others told us what they heard between you and your brother arguing about money. We also know that you were in the area when Ullie left her comms unattended. You had the opportunity, you had experience with the androids enough to do a simple program, and we've got a line on possible motive as a fight over payments. I want to help you, I really do, but you have to understand the history of this ship. We have had several instances of assassins and saboteurs bringing their conflicts onto this ship and as a result the rest of the crew does not take kindly to even the suspicions of sabotage. We don't have any care about what problems you had with the other passengers or what deals you cut, we are more worried about the safety of the ship so it is very important that you tell us everything. Be open and be honest now because if we catch lies and subterfuge later on the punishments might end up getting a bit more permanent. Right now the guilty culprit is going to be confined to the brig until we arrive at our destination. If this becomes a thing however the guilty party might end up leaving the ship, one way or another, long before we reach our final destination."

Tepha holds out a hand to help calm Oscar down.

"I don't want it to get that far. We don't want it to get that far so all you have to do is be open and honest and everything will work itself out. So first question, point blank. Did you use Ullie's comm?"

Oscar puts his hands up, palms facing you both.

"Whoa! Whoa!  Slow that afterburn!  I didn't kill the guy!  I mean...yeah.  He owed me some creds.  But not that much!  Hell, me an' Gosh figured our payday on his side project would be when he won that contest thing.

"No I didn't use her comm. Well.  Not since we've been on board the ship.  She used to have me upload stills from the movie...you know.  Her movie...but that was before we got on board!  And there's no way I coulda messed with her comm!  She changes the password every freakin' day!  It was a pain in the ass when I was doing that still work for her!  I'd have to ask her or Relen every fuckin' time what the passcode was!  She told me to stop with the still work cos the studio heads weren't even lookin' at 'em any more! Ask her if you don't believe me!"

He shakes his head.  "No one coulda got on her comm unless they had her passcode.  And I haven't known what it is for at least a month!"

Tepha nodded and rubbed her chin.

"So you're saying that Relen might have known her password as well? But isn't it also true that while you were doing still work you could have installed some malware to get access as well? Ullie was complaining about comm troubles around the same time as the killer codes was added."

In reply to Tepha Pezal (msg # 59):

Oscar frowns.  "You mean...I planned this like...months back?  Hell no.  How would I know we'd be takin' your ship and that Relen would be in deep freeze back then?

"And I don't know nothin' about her comm not working.  Go ask her about it why don'tcha?"

---

Checking the analysis that Fritz and Rig ran:

The problems Ulie was having with it was due to a virus that got uploaded to the phone a day before the shoot in question.  It was a simple bug designed to mimic a technical glitch.  It's a common practice run by dishonest software shops.  They'll spam viruses like that out on a broadcast to passers by, hoping someone will think their comm is on the fritz and head inside the store to either get a repair or buy a new comm.

The comm's camera was turned off.  So no way to tell who entered the program causing the android to run wild.  But it was definitely entered by someone who knew Ulie's passcode.  There's no signs anyone hacked in or overran the security barrier.

The program was entered in the day of the shoot.  About four hours into shooting.  From what <puple>Ledo</purple> recalls and the time table that can be worked out, it was sometime after Ulie borrowed Ledo's comm but before Gosh saw her comm on the supply parts table.

The footage of the film is still in the android, yes.  But it was downloaded the night after the shoot was done.

Hey Tepha!  I just found this.  It's from Mr. Relen.  It's a message that's tagged to get sent out after we exit Jump.

It's a message to the board running the film contest.  It's an entry form and a completed copy of his secret film.

He named the film Beauty is Cold

Gosh was put back into waiting with the others as the crew regrouped to go over the details.

"Alright, let's see what we have here..."

Silver gave her (very) colorful opinion about the interrogation with Tepha helping keep things on track. Rig delivered his and Fritzs findings of their tech analysis and Ledo put down the facts as he saw them.

"So someone who knew the password and understood the androids put in the program, didn't wipe the footage, and then it was automatically set up to enter the contest, is that right?"

Ledo rubbed his chin and then started shaking his head.

"That motherfucker. Think about it. If someone from Sang Rael or someone else was upset about that video being created they would have killed Relen and wiped the footage. Think about it. You're an operative, what do you do? You just quietly corrupt all the footage they gathered, right?

But no, the footage is going to be released and Relen's death is going to draw that much more attention to it. I...I think he killed himself."

The rest of the crew gave him varying looks of skepticism.

"Hear me out. Someone had to know Ullie's password and that narrows it down to three people according to the interviews: Ullie, Relen, and Gosh. According to Rig, by that point Ullie had switched comms and Gosh claims he no longer had access. Now maybe someone is covering their tracks but there are more subtle ways to kill someone than a messy android beating them to death. In addition he had already set up automatic entry into the contest.

Again that could be coincidence as he knew he would be in cryo sleep at this point but the android that someone had hacked for murder still has the video on it. So either he was murdered by someone who wants to publish that video, someone who didn't care about it either way, or he killed himself.

Now so far the only real motive I'm hearing could be over money but if they were about to win a contest or get a bunch of publicity for this video it would be a poor time to kill the potential golden goose, right?

I...I think he killed himself."

The crew debated about this for awhile. Tepha seemed uncommitted but ended up siding with her boyfriend anyway. Silver was convinced that it was Gosh. BB thought it was one of the Duchess operatives seeing as how they had already shown off to be expert infiltrators (they came onto the ship for a reason...) leaving Rig as the last vote as he didn't have any new theories to float.

"Listen...I...let's just assume it wasn't someone living on the ship and put everyone back to where they belong, okay? We aren't cops and this isn't really our problem anymore."

"Well, there is another important part that we tell. What do we tell the public? People are going to ask questions when the director of this bombshell turns up dead."

PR Tepha piped up now that it was more in her wheelhouse.

"Well, we should tell people the truth."

"Yeah but what is that truth? Are we completely positive he killed himself?"

"...good point. We could call it an unfortunate accident in transit."

"...leaving us with a bigger body trail. People might notice we're consistently showing up light on passengers."

"Could still have been murder."

"Right. Alright let's pro and con this. If we tell people he killed himself that will paint him as a crazy artist. It will draw publicity to the movie but it will become very muddled. If we tell people he was murdered or even hint at it through a 'tragic accident' angle it is going to cause his work to become that much more believable. His death might be the closer, so to speak, on getting public opinion to swing towards justice. I imagine if he killed himself that was the point."

"So, you're saying we can sway public opinion? Makes sense. Alright. Okay..."

Ledo was mostly just talking to himself as he formulated his next line of thinking.

"So do we put our finger on the scales...I guess that's the question, right?"

"I don't think it's a choice. I mean, if we don't say anything that is saying something...right?"

When the others gave her a quizzical look she shook her head and clarified.

"Sorry. What I mean is if we don't say anything that is going to push people one way. We don't have a choice, we are part of the narrative now so anything we do will alter things."

"A vote then? Not on who killed Relen but who we tell people did? I'd rather just tell the truth, dump the evidence we gathered and be done with it."

"Technically speaking, saying 'someone killed him' would be accurate even if he offed himself. What? Don't look at me like that. I'm just saying...technically true."


With a sigh Ledo rubbed his eyes. Since the attack he had been combing the ship for signs of any other sabotage, especially along the path that the Ducheess's infiltrator had taken and was just as tired as the rest of the crew.

"Alright, a vote then. We can say he was murdered to make people believe his stuff more. We can say it was an accident that probably won't do much either way, or we say he killed himself and it probably makes people think less of his work because he was crazy.

So let me just say, Sang Rael is bad. Really bad. They have been doing awful things behind the shadows of the Empire for years. Now it is possible they are working with pirates to do...something. This could really hurt them and if public opinion helps bring justice to the death of Nero's cousin then....I say we say that he was murdered. Maybe even go so far as to say he was likely killed because of the movie."

This came as a surprise to the rest of the crew as they had expected Ledo to stick to his 'tell the truth' routine. Playing dirty politics and spin wasn't his style but he seemed to really believe that pushing this footage was the right thing to do. Nobody could offer up any serious debate otherwise, except for Rig who half-heartedly suggested they should stay out of it entirely. In the end the crew unanimously decided to go with the murder angle.

"Alright lets finish this. Tepha, go tell the rest of the production crew that while Relen was murdered it was done while they were planetside so the murderer most likely isn't around anymore. We are still working on a motive but nobody else should be in danger.

I'll draft up a memo to the film festival explaining that the director was most likely killed to try and stop his film from being released."

Tepha shook her head.

"No, don't send it now. Wait until the film is aired. If they hear that now they might pull it."

Ledo thought about it for a second and then nodded and corrected himself.

"Right. I'll send it out when it airs. Maybe to the press as well? Tepha, when you talk to the film crew tell them to keep quiet until we get everything sorted out.

Silver, BB, Rig, we need to get that cyropod fixed and cleaned up.

Fritz, can you compile our evidence. The witness testimonies, the tech reports you and Rig created and also include any footage you have for when our ship was broken into by the Duchess' agent. Don't mention the Duchess but put that into our report as a possible culprit. We can use that as part of our release saying that a few days prior to murder our ship was breached by a highly skilled unknown agent. We fought them off but it seems possible they implanted the kill code then. Also....include any security camera footage we have of the attack itself. If we want to make it sensational...that will definitely do it."


So in conclusion:

1) Tell the film crew they are safe now and not to talk to anyone as we are working with law enforcement to hand over the investigation.

2) When the film airs, send out a packet of Ledo's "truthful but selectively edited" report that Relen was killed by an unknown agent and it was likely because of his film targeting very powerful people.

3) Included in that report is the raw data, testimonies, tech reports, and footage from the infiltrator from earlier showing them breaking in and Ledo shooting them and then leading them off the ship. No footage of them talking to the duchesses people. Also included is the footage (if available) of the android killing Relen.