|
"The cautious grasp their power tightly with both hands. This is a mistake, for it leaves neither free." - Ozymandias, "Advice from my Enemy", |
2780.140 - 160 Bastion -> Crux -> Pierogi -> Bastion -> Crux |
Maxwell Sinclair, You have created somewhat of a reputation for yourself as a serious man. I wish to discuss a business proposition, that would require your particular skills. I can be reached at <e-mail address> on Crux. I await your convenience. Kels RoucheMax tries to look up Kels Rouche in the local Bastion records - there's nothing specifically Bastion-based, but there's a mention of him in a flame by a guy who was screwed over by him, on Crux. Sophia finishes work on a new toy, springing from her thoughts about the Hegemonator. No one volunteers to let her test it on them.
Then, it's off to Crux! During the jump transition (it turns out Janzur took a class in piloting at the Academy! He's been holding out on people!) Jayla ponders whether she's in contact with her followers elsewhere. She is, still, sort of. But it's odd, as if they're behind a window or are upside down, or something. She decides to not actually try and Visit them from jumpspace.
"Sparky Cola will always be at the cutting edge of holographic fish technology." -Dr. KyeMirris can't sleep - next door, First Frost of Autumn is arguing with his parents about something he perceived that they say he shouldn't have been going and looking at. Mirris wonders again whose clever idea it was to put her in the cabin between the Tinoori and Jim. Maury, meanwhile, is in the lab pondering the data he got from Jim being simultaneously electrocuted into oblivion and eaten by Ruehan (good old-fashioned science), when he notes some raised voics in Engineering. With his keen Ultrasonic Hearing, he can identify them as Corwin, Deirdre, and Gerard. When he goes into Engineering, they're at attention in case he needs anything. He just asks them to go and fight somewhere else. Corwin glowers at the other two, and off they go.
Mirris and Sophia chat about her newest experiment. Does Sophia always experiment on herself, Mirris wonders? Sophia admits that she's the easiest volunteer to find, and people are a little nervous about some of her toys - she mentions the "decreation gun" as one example. Mirris realizes she has some laundry to do, she doesn't want to test that one. Sophia explains more about this one, which takes bits of people's natures out and puts them in other people's.
"What are you going to take out and put in? 'cause if it's memory, I'm your girl." -Mirris
"Don't cross the Sparky people. I think it's like a weak form of White, I'm not sure." -SophiaThere's some discussion about Dr. Cain and the wedding plan. The most popular mad theory is that Dr. Cain is going to capture Dr. Kye, switch brains with him, shoot his old body.
"But Eva will end up married to Dr. Cain. So it's not all bad." -Dr. KyeThe people having the conversation about the Hegemonator are reminded to shut the door to not confuse the Vircans.
Finally, the ship reaches the Crux system. Max spots an unpowered ship, a good distance away from the jump gate. It does have one life sign, though. The engine areas are damaged, but they look like they've been damaged for a long time. And there are lots of sensors, in very strange configurations - Max thinks that surely they'd interfere with each other. Sophia takes a look, and starts to get the gist of the setup.
"You should never put those two things pointing at each other, because you'd get all this interference, unless you had a third... hey! that's brilliant!"Max calls over to the ship to see if it needs assistance. The guy on board is pleased to hear from him.
"The Hippocrates, you say! Ahah, we're finally getting somewhere! Put Dr. Kye on!"As someone fetches Dr. Kye, the other guy continues to lecture. He can't work under these conditions, and he's glad someone is taking his complaints seriously. Sophia is bouncing up and down, eager to talk to him. Max wants to know the name of his ship - the guy is a little startled to hear that these things have names. He's not sure where the name of the ship is written down. But he is Professor Roland Hedley-Martingale - Max can call him Professor Hedley-Martingale.
Dr. Kye asks what his status is. He complains that he still doesn't have a staff. Dr. Kye assures him that this will be remedied shortly. Excellent. What is the status of Dr. Hedley-Martingale's experiment? It's all set up to run. Dr. Kye instructs him that he'll be bringing over some "temporary staff". Dr. H-M is concerned that they do take direction? Many in Kye's organization don't seem to. Dr. Kye asks for Dr. H-M to send the specs for the experiment over. Dr. H-M says Dr. Kye should send the staff, and they'll just run it! Dr. Kye explains that some of the staff are a little... slow... and may need more time to come up to speed. Ah, well, of course.
After a little while, the Hippocrates receives an executable, hedley-martingale.exe. Hmm. Mirris takes a look at the program. It looks like, if it were run, it would overwrite the OS with a (very well-written) PDF-viewer and display a PDF. She extracts the PDF without the rest of it. The document is "A Radical Proposal for Probing the Secrets of the Omphalos Dust Nebula", by Professor Roland Hedley-Martingale, quantum archaeophysicist. The history at the end of the grant indicates that he's submitted it to a large number of institutions, only to have it rejected from all of them, until it was finally picked up by IPX. Despite his title of Professor, he doesn't seem to hold an actual chair at a university. He's more of a "professor-at-large", then.
Janzur, sensing utter destruction in the works, declares that there is
to be no letting another Mad Scientist on the ship. Sophia gets into
a space suit and packs a bag of science stuff, including her
space-time physics notebooks. It seems safer to send the
Dancer, er, the Diversity, over:
Janzur and Mirris remain on the Hippocrates.
Jayla, Kye,
and Deirdre go over on the Diversity but remain on board there
in case of trouble.
Maury, Max, and Sophia go over on the
Diversity and disembark onto Dr. H-M's ship.
Docking with the other ship is a bit tricky, as the airlock has been converted into a strange sort of sensor. However, everyone manages to get in eventually. Dr. H-M has heard of Dr. Symphony-Hayes, and is very impressed that she's part of Dr. Kye's staff.
"It's an honor to meet you." -Dr. Symphony-HayesThere is some complaint that Dr. Kye was lax in briefing Sophia about having hired Dr. H-M. Dr. H-M explains the data multiplexing he'll be performing - essentially, taking all of the input from the vast plethora of sensors he's hooked up, and integrating it together into one grand unified data stream. Max's job will be to make sure none of the sensors explode from overload or interference, during the event. And, he specifies, the ships nearby will need to be perfectly still.
"Yes, I know." -Dr. Hedley-Martingale
That raises the question - what happens if a ship comes through the jumpgate during the experiment? Well, the ship itself will be far enough away that that won't be a problem, but the activation of the jumpgate itself would be catastrophic. Hmm. Well, that's a problem. Is there anywhere else that would work as the site of the experiment? Yes, the exact other side of the system would do (Jayla thinks this would both be safer and get better data). Unfortunately, Dr. H-M's ship has no working engines, so it's going to have to be moved by the Hippocrates.
Since it will be hard to get the other ship to land without taking all the sensors built into the landing gear off again, a mad plan is implemented to put the sensor-suite ship in the Hippocrates' docking bay, turn off the artificial gravity in there, and then webbing it securely in with bungie cords.
Maury tries out another new probability manipulation talent, and Janzur gets to use the best of three rolls in maneuvering the Hippocrates to pick up the other ship. This succeeds, with only a single bent antenna in the process.
(Meanwhile, Max answers Kels Rouche that he'll be on Crux for a little while soon.)
Dr. H-M is very impressed by the bungie web. Who is responsible for it? Just look! The whole shuttle bay could be a resonating cavity! And then the ships wouldn't have to stay still! Dr. H-M offers Dr. S-H tea, while they discuss the sensor setup. Jayla comes along to talk mad science with them too - she seems to have the terminology, but not the inner fire, or the particularly mad parts.
Dr. H-M asks after the "delicious" device Sophia is carrying - it's her inner essencizer! Has it been tested? Sophia laments the lack of experimental subjects. How about that engineering chap, Dr. H-M suggests.
"Well, everyone here fulfills a vital function..." -SophiaAfter some hinting and making of sad eyes, Dr. H-M agrees to be a test subject for Sophia. Her first attempt to suck out his essence doesn't seem to get any, though it's not clear why (is it trying for psi, and he doesn't have any?). A second try fills her essencizer, and then she instills that essence into Mirris. The immediate effect of this is that Mirris understands the sensor project experiment, but Dr. H-M doesn't.
"Except Dr. Kye!" - Maury
(Meanwhile, Max gets an email reply - contact Rouche when he gets to the planet, and someone will meet him at the spaceport.)
Jayla asks where he's been doing his work (the Red Hegemony). Has he done any work with Dr. Cain? Ah, the evil genius? No, he hasn't met him. Dr. H-M is told that he's a visionary, but in a twisted sort of way. Jayla warns him that Cain may have mind control abilities, and suggests darkly that Dr. Cain might try and "convince" him to become Dr. Cain's grad student. Well, that's a scary enough fate to deter even Dr. H-M from wanting to talk to him.
Maury suggests calling in the Tinoori to see if they can notice anything different about Mirris. Mirris vetoes that, as she's worried that it'll look like she (or Sophia) is Mucking With Worldview.
Jayla ponders whether to do the experiment inside the hold or out of it - it seems likely to be a different peril either way. Janzur and the three Elite-in-training stay on the Hippocrates, while everyone else is on the sensor ship for the experiment. Maury and Jayla buff Mirris and Max, and the scanning begins.
As things progress, the Hippocrates is hailed:
"Greeting, noble Hippocrates - It is I, Elmer Triconian! I have come, as requested."That would have been bad, had the sensor ship been outside. As it is, Janzur tells Elmer to be Very Very Quiet and not move. Jayla's a little worried, though - she thinks a bunch of somethings, somewhere, just died, but can't figure out any more than that.
The data storage unit is filled with data! Mirris can't quite recall why she wanted it - but is horrified that there's no built-in backup capability. She rushes it back to the computer room to back it up. Maury hears that Elmer is here, and teleports up to the bridge to talk to him. He's been working on getting the drydock for the Inopportune Moment - Maury tells him to carry on.
Jayla's still worrying about the millions of voices crying out in pain and then being suddenly silenced. Visiting her followers on Bastion indicates that Bastion hasn't suddenly been destroyed or erupted into riots or anything. Hmm.
Dr. H-M looks at the data - it's fascinating! Where did they get it? From the sensor experiment - but that's not important right now. Time to analyze it! Sophia and Roland seclude themselves to analyze it.
Max looks for information on Kels Rouche, and determines that he's in the Organization, though not at the top levels. A made man, rather than a capo. There's some discussion of whether or not Ozymandias is upset at the party in particular - he probably doesn't know that Max has the omega-disk in the lap desk. But they did end up with the footstool, which Elmer... acquired... to give to Ace. He was probably mad about that.
Dr. Hedley-Martingale and Dr. Symphony-Hayes brief Dr. Kye about the results of the experiment. Stripped of the hand-waving and mad science, the essential details are that there was a gross shift in the physicality of the dust nebula, 8383.5 years ago, and that the approximate center of the nebula shifted from near Rupert's Hole to near Crux. Dr. Kye thinks that "8383.5 years ago" is too long ago to be an interesting date. Dr. Hedley-Martingale is offended - anyone can do recent archaeology. He's pushing the borders of understanding!
Kye, Maury, and Gerard go to pick up the analysis of the Puritan Book of the Hegemon from the Rosicrucian Academy. In addition to a transcription, they have provided an analysis of the symbology:
There are two sets of symbologies present in this object. The first is a complex set of political and military iconography, which are strongly tied to the fallen Hegemony. This symbology is not particularly crafted - it is a representation of a state of things, and is descriptive rather than proscriptive, is noun in flavor rather than verb. The second symbology is much more strongly crafted. The symbols are emotional in tone, and verb rather than noun. Symbols of the first type - Star, Hand, Ship, Chain. Symbols of the second type - Judgment, Command, Faith, Duty, Loyalty. The second set of symbolgy, as I have said, was crafted, and appears to have been crafted to link the first set together into a powerful structure, with deep resonance in the psyche.Meanwhile, Max, Janzur, and Jayla go to meet the contact for Kels Rouche. There's some discussion of what the group wants to get out of the transaction ("Cash!" -Maury) - there are questions that they might want to know the answers to, but will Rouche answer them? And the guy wants to hire Max as a detective - that usually involves payment in cash rather than in information. They meet a guy in a suit with a fedora, who drives them out of town to a nice, mildly fortified-looking, estate. The trio is escorted in, and then the guard offers to have Janzur stay outside with him.
Rouche would like Max to find the precise location of an object - he's willing to pay half now and half upon receipt of the exact location of the object. Or, if Max provides the object itself instead of its location, he'll pay another half again. Max would like to know more about what it is - Rouche is a little loath to tell him without an agreement in advance. Max agrees that he will either accept, or speak to no one about the matter.
Rouche accepts these assurances, and explains further. There is a man named Davros Matir, who was a member of the Organization until he retired. He is retired, with no connection now to that group, and thus there should be no danger to Max on that front. Matir possesses a small object of art: a wooden disk with an omega on it.
Max notes that there are more than one such disk in existence. Rouche raises an eyebrow: "You are a more serious gentleman than I have been led to believe." Does it matter which disk Max finds? Technically no, Rouche says, but some may cause more trouble for him.
The disk was given to Matir eight years ago; he retired from the Organization five years ago. Rouche gives Matir's address to Max, who asks if he may confer with his comrades. He, Jayla, and Janzur have a brief conference in the hallway.
Jayla ponders the choices. Max can bail now, without any great physical danger, but he will have made an enemy. On the other hand, he can proceed, in which case, things get... complicated. And how much to ask for is also an interesting question. The object is presumably not quite priceable. On the other hand, Max's services as a detective are generally extremely priceable. Kye, back at the ship, examines Max's disk again (he has more psi talents than he did last time he tried), and thinks that there are on the order of half a dozen of them, and they're tickets to something.
Max wonders some more about what to ask for. Could they ask for a random favor to be determined later? The Organization doesn't really do random favors; they could become "friends" of Rouche, or the Organization. As for cash, 5000 asters (x2 or x3) as a base price is probably as much as he can reasonably get. Lower would be generous; higher would be gouging, or would imply extra-coolness about the acquisition (for example, if he takes it out of his pocket now, that's extra cool). Maybe Maury should teleport in with it! Well, first, that might cause some consternation with Rouche's security, and second, it's a ticket - does the party want whatever the ticket will get them into? The immediate feeling is to keep their ticket for the moment, investigate Matir, and then decide later.
Max accepts the job, with the additional clause that he can't necessarily tell which disk he's locating, so as long as he delivers a disk, he'll get paid. Rouche clearly thinks he's up to something (well, he is!), but isn't sure what. He asks for 3500 asters up front, 3500 on location or 7000 on delivery, and they shake on it.
The nearest disk, Max thinks, is back towards the city. Back on the Hippocrates, the desk gets locked in the brig (bad desk!) since that's where the working psi damper is. Max heads off to Matir's house to do Actual Detective Work, while Jayla heads to the Pierogi suite in the Hall of Envoys. Pyotr is there - Dmitri, Anya, and Vela are all on Pierogi. Max determines that Davros Matir lives essentially alone - he has one servant, whose job is cooking, cleaning, and security.
Meanwhile, Cassandra is down in fabrication, thumping things. Maury gets sent down to help her make a frame for her self-portrait. Normally Hippocrates helps with this, but he's recompiling. The Elite-in-training (briefly nicknamed the Janzettes) are still arguing, nearby, about whether Janzur is telling them something or not. No, he's not ready to tell them yet. They could ask... no, they're not going to ask.
That's about it for the day.
The next morning, Max and Mirris troop around, looking into whatever information they can find out about Kels Rouche and Davros Matir and Gareth Beauvalt (the original owner of Max's lap desk). All three are or were involved in Ozymadias' syndicate, but Rouche is a young up and comer, while both Matir and Beauvalt are old guard and "retired" as much as people in their position can be retired. In the old days though, the two of them were close confidants of Ozymandias.
Maury, master of mad plans, suggests that the way to meet Matir is to stage a drive-by shooting and save his life. That seems a little overboard, so that plan is quickly vetoed. What does Matir do now? Gardening, long walks, and weekly card games. Lacking Kith to meet him through gardening, or Ace to insinuate himself into the weekly card game, the plan defaults to "run into him on long walks."
(The suggestion is made to leave Max behind to keep looking, while the rest of the party goes to Pierogi. Luckily, they don't do this.)
Mirris and Sophia go watch a play on the common - it's something martial and victorious, like Henry V.
"Are you actually interested in drama, or did you just memorize stuff to pick up chicks?" - Mirris to KyeThis provokes Sophia and Mirris into thinking that perhaps they should buy a sperm and egg bank for Vircus. Though the outworlds really aren't the place for it.
"It's all about genetic diversity" -Jayla
Maury talks to Gerard who asks him about the Hegemon. Maury claims to have met the Hegemon and even saved her life once. Gerard seems impressed and thoughtful as he wanders off, wondering when his day might come.
Max arranges to be going on approximately the same walk as Matir. He catches up to the bodyguard first, and says hello - he'd like to talk to the guy's friend. The bodyguard says his friend doesn't like to be disturbed. After some futher back and forth, Matir calls back "Antonio, stop your yapping with that man and send him up here", and Antonio does so, with a glare at Max.
Max wonders if it would be possible to chat with Matir about the organization he retired from. Matir grumbles that he's "not gonna write no books". Max brings up the disk - Davros didn't want no part of it then, he doesn't want no part of it now. Max admits that he has a disk too. Matir is a little surprised that a youngster like Max has one. Max wants to know what it means. "It means you're making a play, for the whole shebang," Matir explains. Ozymandias didn't pass them out to just anyone. But Matir didn't want to make a play for it, he wanted to retire.
Max wonders some more about his own disk. He has one, and he has a friend who wants another. Matir thinks that's a bit odd. He's going to help his friend make a play for it, while making a play himself? Young'uns these days.
"Antonio, in the old days, did we do this sort of thing?"Matir admits that he gave his disk to his sister - but she's dead now. She was on Pierogi. Max seems to think that's not an insurmountable problem - he's from the Hippocrates.
"No, sir, we didn't."
"Hippocrates making a play, then?"Matir explains in a little more detail how it works: you take the disk, and you show it to the Eyes. You have to do it yourself, or you got no business making no play. And, hopefully, someone'll have the backbone to come try and kill you, otherwise it's not a proper play. Matir also comments that once Max starts making the play, Matir can't talk to him any longer. He's not involved in that sort of thing now.
That's about it for the chat, so it's time to head to Pierogi. Max notifies Rouche that the disk is off planet, and it'll take a little while to acquire. Is there a deadline? Rouche doesn't want this to drag out for months, but there's no strict deadline.
The party recalls their agreement with the loa: "The party will bring people here who are able and willing to act for the loa, and the loa will allow people back on the planet, though anyone who comes must bury the dead. When the murderers are brought here, the loa will judge fairly. However, no one may enter the capital until their deaths have been paid for. Troth is pledged." Thus, everyone concludes, the sister must have lived in the capital. Sure enough, when Max looks up her address, she did.
The Hippocrates heads to Pierogi. The ogral is still there, and has some ships docked with it. One is the supply ship for the Sinclair expedition - the party confers with it.
"Has everyone done their duty?" -supply ship(Dr. Kye thinks this is all wrong. The appropriate thing to do with dead bodies is dig them up, not bury them!)
"If you mean calming the loa, yes." -Jayla
"I mean burying someone. Everyone's buried someone?"
Dmitri's headquarters is apparently outside the capital, and many of the nearby towns have been dealt with, but there are some still being worked on. The Hippocrates lands near one of these, everyone buries a set of bones, and then they proceed to Dmitri's headquarters.
Maury gives Anya the psi theory report, and Jayla briefs everyone on the battle at Bastion. Max explains that he wants to enter the capital. Well, that would be something he'll need to speak to Dmitri about.
Everyone is shown in to see Dmitri - he looks much like he always did, or perhaps a bit stronger, but one obvious difference now is that his eyes have gone totally black.
Having heard about the council on Bastion and the possibility of striking at the Tarn staging area, Dmitri requests transport to Bastion. Jayla asks if he would still be in contact with the loa like this? Yes, he would be. Hmm. Jayla ponders whether they should agree or not - it will definitely complicate things politically. She says they will need to think about this. Dmitri is most displeased, and tells her to decide. The party confers outside.
Jayla thinks bringing him will influence the current political conference, and will make reaching further political agreements more problematic. Like getting involved in the Organization power struggle, it's not so much high-energy as just... complicated. Maury, in a surprising display of moral authority, says that he's essentially the government of Pierogi, and that the party really can't say no to bringing the government of Pierogi to the conference of the outworld governments. Well, hmm, that's probably true.
The party heads back in, but first they intercept Vela to ask her about Dmitri. Did he agree to... this? Whatever arrangement he and the loa have? Yes, of course, Vela says. The loa wanted someone who would help it pursue its vengeance, and Dmitri offered.
Then, it's back to talk to Dmitri again. Jayla says that Dmitri probably won't care, but the reason they decided to take him is that he's the government of Pierogi, and should be present at the conference. Dmitri considers this for a moment, and nods. "You are right." Is that Jayla was right about him not caring, or right about being the government? It's not clear.
Max brings up the question of going into the capital. At first Dmitri seems ready to deny him, but then a thought occurs to him.
"You... are Max..."Nobody is happy with this as a solution, least of all Janzur, who thinks this flies in the face of his mandate to keep his companions safe. Some assurances of safety are asked for - Dmitri says that Max will not be physically harmed. No one finds this at all reassuring. After some questioning, Dmitri comes around to saying that what he wants Max for is "remembrance." Oh. Right. Max has that ability to live through the past events somewhere. Max decides this is something he has to do, but Jayla gets permission to help his ability to stay sane.
"You and you alone may enter the capital. I will accompany you."
Janzur eyes Dmitri, wondering how hard it is to kill a loa, and how fast he'd have to chop Dmitri and how long that'd last. Dmitri eyes him with the faintest of smiles, as if to say "Ah, you understand." Janzur asks if Dmitri is still in there, and if he can talk to him. This is permitted. Dmitri shuts his eyes for a moment, and when he opens them again, they're normal-colored and Dmitri looks sad and tired instead of grim and inhuman.
In the future, Janzur says, he will want to come and find Dmitri, and ask him if it was worth it, and he would appreciate it if Dmitri will give him a truthful answer. Dmitri shakes his head - no, nothing will be worth it, ever, since his planet died. But he may ask again, nevertheless. Janzur frowns. So anything this thing wants to do will be okay? No, Dmitri says, but does not expand upon this. Hmm. Well, there seems nothing more to be said there. Dmitri shoos everyone out so the loa can possess him again.
In about fifteen minutes, Dmitri-as-loa comes out again. Max is as prepared as he can be for the ordeal, and the two enter the city. Max is permitted to get the disk first - it's mounted on the wall in the sister's apartment. Then, the loa "loans" Max more psi dice than he's ever seen before, and he gets to experience the life of everyone who lived in the capital, culminating in their death by yellowliner. All of the things they hoped for, wanted yet to do, a city of lives, all cut off in a moment - one after the other after the other.
Some time later, Max stumbles out, looking very stunned. He's given tea ("Sophia is still pushing tea. Maybe she used the shtick transfer device on Kith!"), and Jayla talks to him a while about what he's gone through. An hour later, Dmitri and Vela show up, packed for transport to Bastion. They aren't permitted access to anywhere beside their staterooms, the mess hall, and the conference room. They mostly keep to their rooms.
Kye tries to scry the second omega, but it's mostly the same as the first. Three would be better.
Jayla warns her followers to warn the political conference of the incoming loa, and Bastion gets warned of the standard hazardous materials as soon as they enter the system. The Hippocrates is also met, near the jump gate, by the Elmer's Gold. Elmer is quite proud of himself for having arranged for drydock facilities for the Inopportune Moment, despite all of the complications that it entailed. However, now that that's all sorted out, he's going to the conference too.
Dmitri and Vela are dropped off, and the conference's skald is briefed on Dmitri's potentially quite powerful psi abilities. Then, it's back to Crux.
An appointment is set up with Rouche - again, Max and Jayla and Janzur go, and Janzur gets to wait outside the study with the other guard. Max reaches into his jacket to take out the disk, and Rouche waves him to stop. Rouche takes out a handkerchief, and carefully takes the disk from max, using the handkerchief, so that it can't be seen. He then checks privately, to ascertain that it's really what he wants, and pays Max the remaining 7000 asters. However, he has another offer for Max:
"As you have proved yourself both helpful and ... serious, if you would like to stay around, there's something you might be interested in."A short time later, another gentleman comes in, past Janzur (who thinks that he seems pretty much unarmed and harmless). He introduces himself as Davrin; "I am the eyes, I see for the King". Rouche picks up the token, and holds it up for Davrin to see clearly. Davrin says "You are admitted." Is there anything else Rouche needs? No, no, nothing else, Rouche declares hurriedly. Davrin leaves. Then so do Max, Janzur, and Jayla.
There's some consideration as to whether Max should try and "go for the whole shebang", or if someone else should. Mirris wonders who would be bad choices - well, Sophia wouldn't be good. And Janzur is both very yes and very no. Does Max want to run the mob? Mirris wonders what his retirement plans are after he saves the world. He'd kinda like to travel around - that might not work well with running the Outworlds Underworld.
Max goes and talks to Matir one last time. He can't tell him the whole procedure - he's retired, he doesn't want to get involved - but he's clear that there's more than one test that a contender will have to do, and the sooner they declare themselves, the sooner they can get started on the tests.
Janzur finally starting to hear about what his elite in training have been up to around the ship and calls them all into his office for a talk. They claim there are no problems, but after some prodding admit that they are fairly confused by the situation. Janzur decides to lay it all out for them straight. The fall, the flames, the three lines, everything. They take it well, (though it seems they'd take almost anything well while Janzur's standing there). Finally, they adjorn to think on all of this new information and what it means.
Dr. Kye arranges for an underwater explosives test.