Conspiracy

The Deepnight Revelation and Frank Wild refuel and resupply at the system of Urene in the Voidshore Two sector. The planet is a dry world with a small ocean, but has plenty of sea borne life – including whale-like creatures which turn out to be quite tasty. A message buoy was left here by the other ships in the Solomani fleet, which stated that they were heading to a nearby star cluster, and would wait for the Frank Wild there. If it didn’t turn up in four weeks, they would assume it was lost.

Whilst the Frank Wild is landed on the planet’s surface, the political officer Lt Carstairs investigates an incident where someone tried to access the missiles in the missile storage. Ten of them are nuclear, most of the rest are either standard missiles or probes drones. It seems that nobody actually got to the warheads. Though the passkey of the gunner Officer Lisa Taylor was used, she claims that it wasn’t her. But her key does get used by others for ‘efficiency’.

Meanwhile, the Deepnight’s Red Team are quietly plotting combat scenarios where the Deepnight has to take on the three Solomani vessels. The Deepnight is much faster, and can take a lot more damage, so even without it’s spinal mount, it would have the advantage in a fight.

Publicly though, the best of the diplomatic chocolates are broken out, and games of Lob Ball are held down on the planet’s surface between the two crews.

Kirk, the Deepnight’s XO, gets a call from the bridge of the Frank Wild from the Terrain which has taken over the XO position. Apparently Lt Carstairs has received word from one of her crew that two of the crew are about to do something very stupid. They have a Themobaric bomb from the stores, and are planning on taking it up to the Deepnight on one of the Pinnaces. They have already got to the Pinnace, and are prepping for liftoff.

The Deepnight uses its remote control to shutdown not only the Pinnance, but the other smallcraft landed near it. The Solomani are left to negotiate the two mutineers surrender. Eventually, one of them leaves the ship with their hostage, leaving one remaining on board.

By now a boarding team from the Deepnight have arrived to take her into custody. She tries to get to the pinnace’s engine room, but the internal airlock doors are locked. The internal gravity plates are briefly switched to negative-gravity, throwing her against the ceiling, then back against the floor, to try and stun her. However, she has a remote detonator for the bomb, which goes off, taking out the Pinnace’s engines and herself. Fortunately, it doesn’t get past the ship’s hull.

For the Deepnight, it was a lucky thing because she rolled really badly on her explosives check. Her plan had been to vent the liquid hydrogen from the fuel tanks, to cause an even bigger explosion. But locking the internal doors had prevented her from doing that.

What to do next causes a somewhat heated discussion between the players. One wants to lodge a formal complaint with the Frank Wild. The other wants a more diplomatic approach. Eventually, after the discussion cools down, they are in agreement that both can be done. Lodge a formal complaint to show that process is being followed, and that the conspirators aren’t just left off, but wrap it up in diplomatic dress. The Frank Wild’s command staff did the right thing, and will be allowed to prosecute those involved. For now though, the other conspirator will be confined to the brig.

Though there is shock about what happened, it seems to actually bring out the resentment that some of the Solomani crew feel about apparently being ‘taken over’ by the Vilani crew out into the cold light of day. Though things had been apparently improving on the surface, there had been an undercurrent of resentment towards the ‘Vilani’ coming in with a bigger ship and ‘rescuing’ them. Some of the crew still saw the initial boarding action as an act of aggression, even though there were no casualties.

With the resentment out in the open in such a drastic way, it allowed for a bit of introspection about where it led, it actually seems to improve things. The leadership checks made by the Captains to try and peacefully resolve the matter hadn’t had an immediate effect, but also helped bring the entire crew into seeing the Deepnight not as oppressors but as companions in their journey.

There is a funeral, and the pinnace is stripped of useful parts.

Leaving the planet is delayed, which isn’t great because they need to catch up with the rest of the fleet and they were already three weeks behind. However, the astrogators come up with a plan to take a short cut via a system with a Kuiper belt. Refuelling there will take longer, but it will cut out about three jumps.

So they head onwards, and soon estimate that they are probably ahead of the Solomani fleet. They arrive at Delta Psuden over three weeks ahead of when they expect the Solomani arrive. There are three worlds with life here, though no gas giants. This provides a variety of food sources to choose from. Whilst waiting, the crew try to use the grave plates from the stripped Pinnace as elements in a game of Push.

Just before they came out of jump, Len Henga gave birth to a boy.

Eventually though, two Solomani vessels come out of jump within a couple of hours of each other, and it is time for the fleet to meet up.