G-001: Previously on Dominion Space…
Previously on Dominion Space…
Following their respective adventures, as detailed here, Lia and Oliver depart Zarg’s World for Mundo Zargo aboard Karmen’s Spanial.
Oliver establishes a routine and Lia resumes her own shipboard habits.
- Lia reviews her messages
- Clarifies some history with Cinna and Raina
- Karmen awards Lia her Merchant Spacer’s ticket
- Lia tries to persuade Kort to stay with Spanial.
- Kort indicates he won’t stay, but feels genuinely appreciative of Lia’s attempt.
- Oliver meets with Gregar
- There is some initial nerd-bonding over Oliver’s glasses project
- Oliver installs the software update in the Hopper while Gregar looks on
- Oliver slips leaving the Hopper but gregar steadies him and he avoids a potentially nasty fall.
- Gregar confesses to Oliver that he’s unhappy about letting Oliver access Spanial’s computer systems
- Oliver indicates, without discussing specifics, that he’s not working for the Vizierate by choice
- Oliver finds a storage widget in the ‘busted box’
- Lia picks up that Karmen wants to talk to Kwint about something without Kort knowing about it
- She makes some progress on her perfume project
- Oliver begins work on the storage widget
- Oliver extracts and views the video file from the widget he found
- Which is a video from a vacc suit camera showing a combat aboard a ship with the alien Yarg
- Gregar asks Oliver to audit the ship’s systems
- Ipan helps Lia with understanding the suit telemetry file that was packaged with the Vid
- Lia talks to Gregar about what Ipan found
- Also on her opinions regarding men
- Lia asks Kort to withhold the Vid from Zayaire, but he gently refuses
- In turn Kort probes her for her thoughts on Oliver
- Oliver completes his work on IT Project #72
- Oliver discovers that the ships’ systems have several modifications that allow the crew to do things without leaving an audit trail however, this comes at a cost of a huge security hole
- It turns out the crew are not fully aware of the capabilities or risks of what they have had put into the ship
- Oliver works on a security fix for their backdoor, coming up with a dongle-based approach
- Karmen asks him to see if he can crack the Money Card reader she salvaged
- Oliver decrypts the data from Argyle’s Project #72 – details of organised crime on Pristine
- Spanial arrives in the Mundo Zargo system
- Karmen, Kwint, Ipan, Kort and Lia fly ahead to the planet in the shuttle
- Lia is dropped off at the Highport and the others continue down to the Grasslands Estate
- Lia checks some local news, noting among other things that the Agricultural Bureau is hosting a big conference at the Crystal Coast Resort and everyone is speculating over who will be appointed as the next Governor of Mundo Zargo
- Lia goes to a meeting with Farbello
- He quizzes her about her interactions at the party where they met, stating interest in possible ramifications for the appointment of the new Governor of Mundo Zargo
- They engage in wordplay, in which he reveals something of his true self, then he takes Lia back to a suite in the Vizierate tower, where he engages her services
- Lia receives and sends a message to Raina
- Among other messages, there is one from Jonathan Befiker – a proxy for Zayaire, asking if she is free
- She says no
- Lia goes shopping, which adventure includes a free cutting of a succulent plant from an enthusiastic cafe owner
- Lia returns to her hotel to await Spanial’s arrival at the Highport
- She arranges to have lunch with Lexi
Note: During Lia’s lunch with Lexi, Lia has a timeline split
- She notes to Lexi that she has been contacted by Jonathan; Lexi expresses some concern
- She observes Lia is confronted with some difficult choices between her loyalties
- She tells Lia a little of her history, and her philosophy, which seems to be one of free-market capitalism
- Lexi also reveals that her cover is as a mid-level Bureaucrat
- Lia shares a little of her own past
- Lexis asks Lia about her experience as a ‘White Tag’ and the rest of the conversation remains to be determined.
- Jennie asks for Oliver’s help with sitting watches
- During their first watch change, she tells him of some research work she’s doing into a specific problem with Hyperspace navigation and Oliver helps her analyse her data and she believes she’s found something about how to plot safer jumps under certain circumstances
- Oliver checks his messages, discovering correspondence from his parents and from Dicard
- Oliver notes that his mother is currently stationed at Captree
- Oliver researches Argyle’s music data blob searching the music files for hidden data, when it occurs to him he hasn’t done the same with the vid files
- He checks them and finds nothing, seeking Gregar and Prrri as sounding boards for ideas on a hunch
- Assisting him with his thinking, he focusses on Sundown on Starmist as the only vid file that shows obvious signs of Argyle working on it
- Gregar says he hasn’t seen it and Prrri remarks casually that there is already a copy on the ship’s entertainment system
- Oliver checks out said file and… discovers within it a copy of the Argyle Notebook for which he has been searching – Huzzah!
- Having celebrated in Olivery style (ie not at all) he returns to work; Jennie expresses concerns about not having heard from Karmen
- Spanial arrives at Mundo Zargo Highport
- Lia returns to the Highport, checks her messages and returns to the ship
- Oliver tries to get in touch with the shuttle, only to be advised that Grasslands Down is in security lock down
- Oliver discusses the matter with Jennie, Gregar and Prrri, the others note that Lia has had the most contact with their employer; Oliver messages Lia
- Lia returns to the ship on receiving the message
- She tries her help-line number (despite Glover having warned her not to use it while on Mundo Zargo) and is shortly connected dirtectly to Zayaire
- Zayaire offers to expedite the Spanial crew out of the facility if Lia and Oliver – who he knows of from Kort – do a favour for him, and he asks them to come to the Crystal Coast Resort
- They agree and, bringing Prrri along to act as lookout, make their way to the resort
- On the way they stop to buy some suitable clothes for Oliver, with Lia advising – it’s possible Oliver has never looked so well-dressed in his life
- There are a number of travel options and they opt for a tour aerostat, which freaks Prrri out when it flies over the ocean, however, he is able to control himself
- Arriving at the resort, Lia and Oliver meet with Zayaire, his proposal is as follows
- There is an Overlordly Envoy on Mundo Zargo who will decide the successful candidate as the next Governor, Zayaire’s name has been proposed, but he is in a fix: He doesn’t want to be Governor but he can’t risk turning down a nomination for political reasons
- If Lia and Oliver will agree to try and find out what the Envoy is thinking, he will expedite Karmen and the crew’s way out of the Grassland facility
- If they come up with actual hard data, he will reimburse them and provide a bonus if they can prove they influenced a decision in his favour
Crystal Coast Resort
Having accepted Zayaire’s job offer Lia and Oliver have decided to find rooms at the conference centre, aiming to get some rest before they begin to investigate their target:
Overlordly Envoy Solomon Reks-Factori.
What would they like to do now?
That’s an epic sounding module name! Love it.
Oliver will stand up and start to head to the reception, granted Lia travels with him.
I also lend support to the name of this module. Nicely done Sir!
Lia will indeed travel with him. She will keep a look out for anyone watching them.