The One that Got Away

"How far can you see?
In space, a billion miles.
On a planet, to the horizon - a dozen miles or beyond.
Beneath the ocean - a few feet beyond the tips of your fingers.
All the rest is mystery."

-- Storyteller, dolphin anthropologist, AS 2721

2783.038–58
Gateway -> Highguard -> Juice

People begin to get ready to leave Gateway. Akito returns to the ship after some errands, and has a sense of foreboding when approaching his stateroom. Ruthie and Linnet are clearly up to something sneaky, as he spots them hiding behind a door. He slips in behind them through Ruthie's room and startles Linnet. She screams. Suddenly, a dark shadow passes over the ship, resonating in everyone's soul! It's very creepy and then it's gone. Ruehan is suspicious, but thinks it seems to have Linnet's psi signature on it.

"Akito to bridge. That was just a little prank gone awry. Everything's fine." -Akito
"A dark shadow drifted across my soul. That's not 'fine'." -Kith
Hippocrates and Mirris reassure everyone over the intercom that everything is fine, and then Mirris heads down to Akito's room on a pretext of getting lemonade; meanwhile, Ruehan takes Linnet off to have some more psi lessons.

The doorbell at the airlock rings. As always, Ciernan answers. It's a guy in a suit, very tall and dignified-looking. He introduces himself as Sir Vaughn Rijn, and he has a message to be given into the hand of Lady Sharravellis Wade. Ciernan escorts him to the conference room, confirms that Sharra is in the tubes, and lets the messenger know that Sharra is unavailable. Sir Rijn says that her Majesty expresses her regrets at missing their last meeting and invites Lady Wade to attend on her Majesty at her earliest convenience. Ciernan says he'll pass the message along, sees the guy out, and checks the room for bugs. Then he puts a message in Sharra's mailbox and puts the matter out of his mind.

Given that there are no leads on any plots to accomplish, Hippocrates suggests going to Craterrock and looting Strategos Nomarche's orbital base more thoroughly.

The Hippocrates takes off, Akito at the helm, for the Riden jump gate.

"Please do not look out the windows. You always see interesting things that disturb you but do not advance your knowledge." -Hippocrates
Akito triggers the standard Peril announcements for jump space, and off they go.
"Let me know when there's about half an hour left in jumpspace." -Sophia
"Er, um, I'm not going to do that." -Akito
But he does let her know anyway, and Sophia take the opportunity to look out through the walls with the x-ray glasses she's been working on. The fact that Akito's closed all the porthole windows doesn't impede her. She thinks she can almost see the details behind the universe, but she's not quite close enough.

Arriving in Riden and heading to Nurl, there's a request for their crew complement and approximate cargo value from red customs. Hippocrates asks to see the relevant customs laws, and gets a copy, contemplating trying to declare diplomatic immunity from customs. Legally, they only have to answer if they're carrying anything hazardous, but they have to not lie if they do answer. Everyone decides that this is part of some sort of Trap, trying to lure them into answering incorrectly and thus getting in trouble. Hippocrates tells the customs guy that he doesn't have anything on the hazardous list and declines to answer beyond that. The customs guy asks if he could please have a number for total value for his form? It's for a statistical study. Hippocrates declines to give him a number, still sure that it's some sort of trap.

People ponder what's going on with this. Ciernan thinks it's Dylanna, because it seems like part of a plan to try and crack down on whiterunners.

Hippocrates takes over the helm from Akito, and the jump to Nurl proceeds without incident. Kith still wants to look into hyperspace, but since she's one of the few people who bothers to ask permission first, she doesn't get to.

Entering Nurl, a Blue shuttle meets them, greets them perkily, and asks for their registry and point of origin. Hippocrates, still feeling his electronic oats from defying the previous customs official, tells him "Dude, we're the Hippocrates." The shuttle says oh, of course - Ms. Wade has expedited clearance through the blockade to New Light. The other ships move out of their way. There is a brief panic - what blockade? No, er, not a blockade, a blockage, it's just traffic for customs checks, not a military blockade.

Well, this is odd. Both Red and Blue have some sort of extra customs going on? People revise their suspicion from it all being a trap for the Hippocrates personally, to it being some horrible nefarious plan of someone else's. The shuttle pilot thinks that the orders here came from the Minister of Trade, and that it's some sort of last gasp of the Cabinet.

People vaguely recall that there was some sort of message for Sharra, and pester Ciernan until he mentions it. The "sorry I missed our last meeting" part of the note is deemed Very Suspicious, because Donella didn't miss Sharra at the wedding, and when has there been a chance for a meeting since? There must be a rogue fake Sharra running around trying to set up meetings! Katya tries "contact familiar mind" for Sharra, but she's not in the system as far as Katya can tell.

The Hippocrates heads for New Light to investigate the Renegade Sharra or the Nefarious Customs Forms, or something. Once they reach the system, Hippocrates gets in touch with General Hornberg, and finds that there are standing orders to escort the Hippocrates to the planet. Not in the house arrest sense, just in the make sure nobody gets in their way sense. Hippocrates fusses about the "missed meeting" part of the message to General Hornberg, but Hornberg thinks all the authorizations are legitimate. So it's coming from the Hegemon, or at least the Foreign Minister, he thinks.

Hippocrates is still concerned - maybe this is some sort of distraction to lure them to New Light when the important thing is happening somewhere else? Can Hornberg get them a channel to Donella? Well, he'll get them a channel to the palace, but it might take a moment to get to the Hegemon herself. They get put through straight to the day secretary, who says to tell Miss Wade that she can come by at her earliest convenience and that meeting she requested will be set up for her. Hippocrates demands to talk to the Hegemon, now. The party gangs up to browbeat the day secretary into summoning Donella.

Some more time passes, and Donella appears on screen. "Captain Hippocrates. Good to hear from you once again. You didn't have any trouble landing?" She says she'll be happy to see all of them soon, about the thing Sharra was talking to her about.

Ruehan tries to psychoanalyze her, and gets a bonus fortune die (Ooh! That must mean she's in trouble!) He thinks she wants to stop talking about any of this right now.

"I put my hand on Hippocrates' shoulder..." -Ruehan
"Mind links don't work on him." - Ciernan
"I'm not! I'm just putting my hand on his shoulder." -Ruehan
Everyone continues to fret on the trip down to the planet. The popular theory is some sort of Terran machination, whether Donella's been brainwashed by them or is being threatened by them or... well, something Terran, anyway. Mirris puts her money on Stone in particular.

Once landed, they're given a scheduled meeting at the palace. It seems like the thing to do is go and spring the trap, even if it isn't clear what it is. Maybe Sharra has a thwarted jilted lover who is trying to kidnap her! Though nobody can think of any.

Then, it's off to the palace, in full paranoid mode. Sophia brings her X-ray glasses. Kith holds down Sense Motive. Ruehan holds down Sense Psi. Donella proves to be in the throne room, with various petitioners and a couple of Elite. Shortly after they're announced, Donella has her chamberlain set up a private room for her to meet them in. (Ruehan notes that one of Donella's Elite does have some psi in the danger-sense flavored area).

Donella makes her apologies to the court and hurries into the side room to meet the group. The Elite secure the doors. There's still some worrying about behind overheard, so people start searching for bugs while Donella talks. She explains about having dropped by Highguard to visit the seven friends the group remembers, but one of them wasn't there, which was a shame.

Eventually, Ruehan puts up a mind link to her and gets a better briefing. The "eldest" of the seven incubator children, Peter, has been replaced by an identical duplicate. Except that no one there believes her; they just think she's crazy and imagining things and that she can't tell one two-year-old from another six months later. The last time she saw the children was six months ago, and they were all fine then. Other than the people at the compound where they live, very few people know about it - the King of Highguard, and Dominick and Gabriel von Torsten. And the party.

Anyhow, can they please help her, and not tell anyone? She can give them a bunch of letters to deliver and missions to run so that they have an excuse for charging all around the Linked Worlds at her behest. The compound where the children live is described as "a highly secure summer camp for toddlers" - as with the rest of Highguard, no tech is allowed.

Still worrying about Terrans, the party wonders whether there's any Terran spies outside in the court.

"Michael's purged the court four times; the only bitey shields in the palace are mine."
They ask her about the increased customs at the various borders, but Donella doesn't seem to know what they're talking about, or necessarily think it's very important. This makes it all seem even more nefarious, as someone's doing it without her say-so.

The party heads out again; when the door opens, the day secretary is there, and Donella makes a point of telling them that they should drop by at any time and they'll be welcome. She hands them a bunch of letters to be delivered - pretty much one for every planet.

"It's been a long time since we did a mail run." -Mirris
"Yeah, the mail is always boa constrictors." -Hippocrates
Ruehan tries to ping Minister Wade about the new customs questions, but he's not on planet. Can the deputy minister help? He'll send the customs regulations package over. Ruehan tries to press him for why the changes were made, and sees through his pretense of "good for trade, good for jobs" to "it's part of the minister's secret plan, which I don't actually know." Ruehan needles him a bit about how unfortunate that he doesn't get to be in the loop, and finds out that Minister Wade is on Nurl. Ruehan reads the regulations package - it appears to be designed with an eye to collecting information, not trying to change anything in particular (i.e. it's not designed to hamper whiterunners in particular).

Mirris files a name change form, changing her name from "Mirris Auden" to "Mirris Heart".

Then, it's off to Highguard! In preparation for a lot of mind-reading, Mirris apologizes to Akito and says she's going to have to forget what he looked like before the Morden incident.

Hippocrates and Sophia stay in the spaceport, in case some sort of ship needs to be tracked. Everyone else heads out to "case the joint". Ciernan smuggles a neutrino headset through by having a passing seagull carry it. Before people get too excited about looking up Alexandra (the neo-Eva clone), Katya says that her intuition tells her it's Stone and not Cain, despite the timing. Linnet and Ruthie ask if they can come, and get told no.

Ciernan calls up a deep fog in the forested area as people sneak towards it, late at night. Ruehan turns into a smeerp in Ciernan's pocket, and Talia agrees to carry Kith in (which seems to involve her mysteriously falling unconscious and waking up somewhere else).

Katya doesn't sneak very well, but Ruehan and Ciernan notice that the guards have heard her, and Ruehan mind controls them to think that the noise was in a different direction. He also mind controls himself a bit on that, and confuses Ciernan.

The compound has a wooden palisade around it, and a number of rangers patrolling the woods outside. Inside, there's a small lake with a dock, a long building, and three other buildings. Each of the buildings has a guard or two at the corners, giving them a pretty good field of view of the area. Talia scouts and reports back to Kith.

Ciernan makes the fence part, which Akito thinks is totally cheating, and so jumps over. Either way, the group gets into the wooded area behind the lake, reasonably well hidden from the guards. A quiet voice from behind the group informs them: "Grandmother Kith wants you to know that there are children sleeping in the long house. There are no patrols inside the fence."

Mirris heads around one direction to investigate the non-long houses, while the rest of the party sneaks to the longhouse. There's one room with a lantern lit, and it has seven non-sleeping minds (plus a couple of small animals) in it. Ruehan tries to read the kids' minds, and determines that they're trying to tell each other spooky stories.

Ruehan reads the memory of one the guards - he was assigned here personally by the King. He believes that the kids are poor orphans of one of the King's political enemies. Mirris extracts the background of a different guard - he's one of the King's elite troopers, and he's not happy with the fog, which is making it hard to watch for intruders. So far, the guards seem legit.

Mirris climbs through the window of what turns out to be the troop bunkhouse. Akito calls Talia on her stolen headset - can she bring Kith over? Kith doesn't want to sneak, so she shuts her eyes, and Talia knocks her out again and brings her. Once awake again, Kith sneaks up to the window and puts the kids (who really don't have a lot of body) to sleep; Ruehan sneaks up after that and reads their memories.

Meanwhile, Mirris creeps out of the bunk room full of sleeping guards, and into the room with the night sergeant. He manages to get his sword drawn before she abominatesmakes him her friend. She heads out "to the privy".

Ruehan thinks of all the kids, the two "oldest" (not that they're seriously older, but the ones that were decanted first) are more different than the others; one looks like Peter (but isn't). Reading the memories of the kid that looks like Peter, his surface memories are of growing up in this compound and knowing the other kids (though he knows them better now). Hidden beneath that are memories of growing up on an island, where the "house" was half the size of the whole island. Wherever it was, it had technology - there were more lights at night than here. He remembers falling in the ocean and getting pushed up by a sea-monster (a dolphin, Ruehan identifies), and then being yelled at and taken into the house by a guy with one of the bracelets that Stone's people wear.

The other older kid, Valentine, doesn't have any secret buried memories, but she and Peter generally seem smarter than the other five. Valentine seems nicer than faux-Peter, though, who seems somewhat obnoxious.

Mirris reports back - the other buildings are the guard barracks, the facilities for the compound, the kids' house, and the staff house, and rejoins the group by the kids' house.

Under cover of Kith-induced sleep, Mirris sneaks into the room where all the kids have collapsed, and snips hair samples from each of them. She hands each wisp of hair to a different person to keep them from getting mixed up. Katya mind-reads each of them, so she can have "contact familiar mind" on them for later.

The group heads over to the staff building; Kith stays behind, hiding under a bush so the guard doesn't see her if he turns this way. Once over, Ciernan asks Talia to get Kith, but Talia can't seem to find her between the hiding and the dark and the fog. Talia makes some footstep-noises to try and spook Kith, but Kith is dutifully silent and hideful, and that doesn't work. Eventually Talia is reduced to whispering "Kith?" - Kith makes a Creek-wildlife noise Talia recognizes, and she promptly gets knocked out and carried over to the other group.

Ruehan reads the memories of the sleeping staff - nobody appears to be a Terran plant, and only the headmaster knows that the kids are actually Donella's secret heirs. He knows that they cannot be permitted to leave; if anything goes horribly wrong, and as a last resort, they are to be killed first. Then, checking the guard barracks, all of them are loyal King's men.

Well, that seems to be it for the clues here - there doesn't seem to be an inside man, but the security is inadequate to tremendously powerful people. The only useful lead is Juice, so that's the next stop. The party sneaks back out (Ciernan has to throw a deer at the guards to distract them), and heads back to the spaceport.

Meanwhile, Hippocrates has been doing his best to fill in for a detective around the starport, but hasn't found anything particularly suspicious. When the group returns, Katya sketches Peter for him, and Hippocrates can confirm with some of the customs workers that they remember the kid - he came in looking all excited and inquisitive, got tuckered out on planet, and then was sleeping when he left. They remember the ship he came in on (from Juice), but not the one he left on. That was about eight weeks ago.

Then, it's off to Juice. On the way through Nurl, Ruehan tries to reach Minister Wade; he only gets his secretary. The secretary seems willing to try to get specific answers, but Ruehan seems more interested in a general justification from the Minister about what he's doing and why. Minister Wade doesn't call back in the couple of hours before the jump to Juice.

On the way down to the planet, the crew downloads planetary maps from the Department of Ecology, which has the locations and interior maps of all major and minor islands to a precise location as of six months ago. The crew contemplates who they can go to for help. There's the city they helped save. And there's Seeker and the Cetacean Institute. And, one karma later, there's an excited Milesian at the starport who is totally psyched to see the Hippocrates. Akito talks to the Milesian ("Terrans! We knew they were coming back!"), who will try and track down the appropriate sort of island for Akito.

While other people make phone calls, Katya takes Martya to the beach for a bit.

Ciernan calls the Cetacean Institute and asks for Seeker.

"You're a little late." -Seeker
"Do you know where we're going next?" -Ciernan
"That is pretty much why you called." -Seeker
Unfortunately, Seeker can't give them a latitude and longitude, but he says that their path leads through terrible criminals, with many forces banding together against them. Hmm. Ciernan figures that's Swimmer and his eco-terrorists. The Milesians report that Swimmer has a lot of money now, so that ties together.

Kith talks to the Jaylaites - they're working on a lot of cleanup work, one island community at a time, to try and trim the seaweed mats and repaint and so on. They don't have any news that sounds like an obvious lead.

Mirris starts web searching and satellite searching, and comes up with the current locations for the mapped islands. Based on the vague descriptions, she narrows it down to the top 88 islands. Ruehan rules out eleven based on the visuals and his memories from the faux-Peter. Hippocrates talks to the local military about the eco-terrorists - most of the current terrorist action is down below the 33rd parallel, which brings it down to 27 islands in that part of the globe.

The Milesians tell Akito that there's a dolphin terrorist currently being held; Hippocrates calls the military back to offer the crew's help in interrogation. This is one of the few people that hasn't heard of the Hippocrates, so he gets told to send the interrogator down and they'll test him out. Ruehan, Mirris, and Kith head over to the detention center.

The lieutenant basically wants to see what they can do, so Kith makes him receptive, Ruehan reads his mind and Mirris extracts his background. He's pretty impressed, and sends them on in (as well as making a note to change the combination on his safe).

The Milesians are doing their own searching on the island, and call back to ask Akito if the trees are deciduous or conifer. Ruehan remembers that they're green, as he's never been keen on trees. Akito guesses they're palm trees, anyway.

The interrogation begins. The dolphin has no bitey shields, which makes things pretty simple.

"I'm an unjustly imprisoned dolphin. Who are you guys?" -Thug
"That's not important." - Ruehan
"That's not important." - Mirris
"I'm Kith." -Kith
Where is your base?
It's the whole ocean, though the munitions and supplies are stored in an underwater depot near the South Pole. (Here's where).
Who are the human contacts?
A couple of people on the inside on the big island. Here's some names.
Where is Swimmer?
Anywhere he wants to be! But he shows up at the stash once a week to check it.
Where's the new funding coming from?
Swimmer made a dark pact with the devil. (Some humans)
Who/where?
Humans that are screwing over other humans. He doesn't have the details.
How does he contact the other terrorists when he needs them?
Here's some phone numbers. Normally they meet up, though.
What plans are in the works for the organization?
Stealing from the army base, providing security for the evil humans, sinking fishing boats, suborning techies.
Where are the evil humans?
They have a floating island. Thug doesn't know where.
How can he reach any of the dolphins providing security?
Call this phone number.
How to they recognize each other?
There's not that many of them. Mostly they just know each other.
How much security do the evil humans have?
The dolphins do water security, and have torpedoes; the humans have anti-aircraft missiles, and you can't land on the island.
How many are there?
55 or so dolphins.
Anything else about the island of evil people?
It's on pontoons, not veggie mats.
Kith drops a geas of "all life is sacred" on him, and the interrogators head off. Ruehan briefs the lieutenant on the basics, excluding the details about the evil-humans base. He's impressed, and gives them the use of some military boats and scuba gear. Mirris mentions the Emerald Knights.

The detail of pontoons lets the Milesians narrow the field down to six; Mirris guesses down to three, and "could have air defense" gets it to two. Both are private islands.

"We could just sail up to one and if we don't get shot by dolphins, go to the other one." -Ciernan
Linnet and Ruthie get permission to come on the assault on the island! Hooray! (Though this is actually inefficient for Ruthie, who normally can decloak mid-mission when she doesn't have permission). They get given shield belts, and a spare shield belt to put around Peter if they rescue him. Linnet asks Akito if she has to fight honorably; Akito says yes.

The Milesians report back - the good news is, they figured out which island. The bad news is, the Terrans probably know that you're coming, because they hit bitey shields. Joe has a little psi, and got bitten.

Akito has some mad ideas about jumping out of the Hippocrates into the ocean, but that could be trouble with the anti-aircraft missiles. So boats it is. Ciernan summons up a storm, and the boats head for the island. (Boat crews: Akito, Talia, Linnet, Ruthie; Ciernan, Ruehan; Hippocrates, Mirris, Kith). Mirris makes some guesses as to the most likely place for Peter to be.

Some long while of boat travel later, dolphins attack! Linnet misdirects some of the attacking dolphins and Talia vanishes some of the others, leaving that boat unscathed. The Ciernan and Ruehan boat distract some dolphins with mass hallucinations and animal control. The Hippocrates/Mirris/Kith boat hits theirs with geases and torpedo-exploding magnetism. In the end, none of the boats sink before reaching the island, some with more damage than others.

The party charges in, and there is much pummeling.

Akito spends an action telling a guard to surrender - Linnet is worried that fighting honorably means she'll have to too, but, luckily, Akito's orders seem to go for everyone. Mirris gathers the background of the guards, and learns that High Lord Stone is here - he's usually in the playroom with the kid or the secure bedrooms.

Ruthie's babysitting instincts tingle, and she heads for the TV room, where, sure enough, Stone and Peter are. The combat overflows into the TV room.

Not long into the fight, speakers around the complex say, in Noah's voice: "High Lord Stone, I see your plan to maintain security has failed. Deal with the intruders or I shall."

Two prisoners in the brig on the other side of the island shout for help, and the various Emerald Knights notice that there are people in distress there. Akito grabs Peter, who is squirmy enough to nearly get away. But then Kith puts him to sleep, so the squirming stops.

Stone tries to hit Hippocrates with his monofilament whip - Akito jumps in the way and takes the damage. Hippocrates magnetically grabs the whip and fuses it to his power armor. Stone tries to grab Hippocrates instead. Ciernan hammers all the guards with lightning. Akito gets Hippocrates away from Stone. Ruehan turns into a gith, and claws Stone.

Noah is not impressed: "The High Lord Stone has failed. Now he shall know my judgement. Warriors of House Stone, if you kill even one of the intruders, I shall save you from this fate." At which point, the island blows up, shattering into pieces. Ciernan falls down, though Kith heals him back up again.

The minions shoot at Ciernan and Hippocrates, hoping to be saved; Ciernan falls down again, but still won't stay down. Stone gets in on the plan of trying to kill Ciernan, but Akito takes the damage instead.

The pieces of the island start sinking underwater. A lot of people aren't so good at swimming, though Linnet is; she grabs the drowning Ruthie. Kith gets to a boat. Hippocrates is sinking, but manages to magnetically grapple himself to a boat.

Talia grabs Akito, and pushes him underwater, into the dark and watery depths, with little explanation: "Trust me!" Akito does trust her, so moments later they finally get to a depth where there is insufficient light, dark chi enfolds Talia and Akito, and they step out of the shadows by the brig. Akito is impressed.

One of the minions gets to a boat; Stone gets into that one. Ciernan acquires the third boat, and lobs a gas grenade at Stone's boat. Having little throwing skill, he successfully hits the ocean nearby, but that's it.

The prisoners (who will prove to be two Juice politicos scheduled for brainwashing) are rescued from the brig, just in time for that portion of the island to sink. Talia's scarf falls off, and Akito takes a round of stun. Ciernan blows up Stone's boat with ship-scale lightning. Kith throws a rope to Ruthie and Linnet, and they get pulled into the boat.

Dolphins attack! Ciernan gets one of them to go after Stone, and hits him a few times with lightning himself. Eventually, Stone falls unconscious, and is last seen sinking to the bottom of the ocean being pummeled by a dolphin.

It doesn't take much longer to get everyone into a boat, and outdistance the dolphins. Victory!

As the boats head back to the Hippocrates, two breaking news stories come over the radio.

Good news:
The Juice navy has raided the ecoterrorist supply depot, and captured most of the remaining eco-terrorist dolphins, including Swimmer.

Bad news:
The personal transport of Viktor Marchant, the Red heir, has exploded upon exiting the jump gate from Gateway to Riden. Preliminary indications are of structural implosion due to reconfiguration before jump exit. The Red Navy is at the scene, but no survivors are expected.

Puttering