After leaving the Sorcery Chamber, our heroes spend some time on the bridge, discussing their plans, while noting the ship's gradual progress on the map toward Tesliem (skirting by the very unfriendly-looking mark of Gormenghast). The matter of the sorceress-turned-wraith is topmost on their minds, and they spend some time arguing about how to deal with it.
Officer Cranston wrestles with his sense of honor and obligation - the conflicts between his assumed role as a captain of a ship in some bizarre fantasy world he's still coming to grips with, and his position as an upholder of laws that might not have any bearing here anymore. Although he's reluctant to treat this world's inhabitants as "just VNPCs," it would seem that even if he considers the wraith to be real, she's a bloodthirsty creature, who might slay many to feed her own hunger. Nonetheless - if this creature must be destroyed, he eschews stealth or trickery: only some sort of execution would satiate his sense of honor, as uncomfortable as it might be.
But, before they resort to such a thing, they discuss the possibilities of simply containing the entity, while they decide what to do with it. Randall brings up a holovid series, originally from before he was even born - "Ghostbusters 2020." Sadly, Jason confirms that he has no technology with which to construct tachyon decelerator packs, and Inari isn't even certain such a thing would affect the undead of this world. Jason, however, suggests that since this ship has electrical power, a Faraday cage might be a possibility with some work. Or perhaps these strange crystals might be used to contain ghosts. No answers, however, are readily forthcoming.
The discussion shifts to the matter of whether the wraith might be bound in some way - especially if she's attached to a still-physical cloak. Alas, Inari's knowledge of the particulars is limited: the nature of undead is that they are rarely "run-of-the-mill." Powers of individual ghosts vary, as do the means required to thwart them. The chamber in which she resides might or might not be used to hold her in place; a sorceress's chambers, after all, typically have wards in place (as Inari explains), but they are generally designed to keep things out - not to keep the occupant in.
In the end, it looks as if they all have a bit of work and research to do. Inari takes a break partway into the conversation, so that Akiko can return (and so that "out-of-character" matters can be discussed freely). Jason heads off to experiment with what gizmos and crystals he can get his hands on. Akiko gives Holly and Randall a brief tour of the ship to explain a few oddities she had learned of from Jason - about the ship's "redundant electrical system" - and at last Holly returns to magical experimentation, while Randall resigns himself to digging through ship's manuals and records to get any tips he can find on how to deal with the Empire of Stars, and whatever they might find on Tesliem.
Meanwhile, back in the Sorceress's Chambers, Holly returns to the scrying orb, hoping to avoid the notice of the wraith, in order to see if it will respond to her....
Acutely aware of the 'sleeping' wraith in the corner of the room, Holly actually whispers to the crystal ball as she asks, "Do you have an instruction manual for using the Vindictive's magic circle?"
The crystal ball comes to life, suffusing the room with the power of its glow. The wraith, fortunately, lost in "meditation," just continues to hover in the corner, its robes rippling as if blown by an unfelt wind.
Translucent window panes pop up, hovering in open air, looking remarkably anachronistic for the surroundings - or, rather, just like the standard Avatars LLC corporate workstation theme. A little digitized squirrel (two-dimensional) hops about, in a "Searching" animation, as folders pop up with relevant topics.
Akiko timidly follows into the room, looking at the windows, but frequently sparing a glance to the wraith in the corner. "I guess you know what you're doing," she whispers.
"Nice to see you again, Ratatosk," Holly whispers to the squirrel search icon. "As for knowing what I'm doing.. well, I'm working on finding out how to know what I'm doing," she notes to Akiko.
Still more folders pop up. "Empire of Stars Concept Art - Sorcery." "Beta: Mage Class." "Beta: Bard Class." "Beta: Wizard Class." "Beta: ..." It just keeps coming up. The squirrel continues to dig away at acorns/folders. The sheer amount of information is intimidating.
"Narrow search by keyword 'Vindictive'," Holly suggests to the crystal. To Akiko she whispers, "This thing offered to change itself earlier. Do you think we can make it into something portable?"
Akiko starts to answer, but she's cut off by a low moan that quickly turns into a piercing wail from the wraith in the corner. "It comes. THEY COME! THE LIGHT, CURSE IT, SO BRIGHT!"
Meanwhile, folders start to blip away - even a few that looked as if they had some fairly promising titles.
"What?" Holly bursts out. "Did they find us because of the crystal? And while you're up... why do I look like I've got a blacklight aimed at my face all the time now?"
The squirrel suddenly changes its search parameters, and pulls up a folder on "Sorcery - Aura / Power Level Indicators." In it, a few images pop up - screen shots? - of sorcerers of great power, with glowy eye effects, flying hair, et cetera.
"Oh, thanks Ratatosk," Holly says offhandedly, and then keys her comlink. "Guys? I think something has spotted us. Something aligned to the Light. Might want to go check."
"Unless Moire was just having a nightmare," Holly mutters so that only Akiko can hear.
On the comlink, Randall's voice comes back clear and calm, "On my way to the bridge."
"Ow! What? Great," Jason grumbles over the link. "I'll send RIU to investigate..."
Akiko frowns, clasping her hands over her ears in a vain effort to keep out the wailing. So far, the wraith doesn't seem to be making any effort to become a danger again, at least, but she's still far from pleasant company.
The would-be sorceress returns to the magic circle and sits in the middle of it. "Okay, we'll just have to.. uh.. improvise," Holly says. "Still think Inari and I could make the ship invisible from here?"
Akiko nods. "Just give me the word."
On the comlink, Randall says, "So that's what the magic detector was for."
Into the com, Holly says, "Okay, I'm going to set up to try and make us transparent, just in case. This could be a group coming to check the breach in the barrier we made, or it could be the demi-god or whatever that was used to help set it up in the first place. It's up to you guys to talk whatever it is into not swatting us, okay?"
"Run up a white flag," Randall advises over the link.
The wraith continues to wail and moan and seethe with vague threats at the Light.
Holly hmms at the suggestion of a white flag. "We could make the ship shine like a beacon instead I suppose," she tells the others.
"Let's do it, Holly," Randall's voice advises. "I've got three Light sources en route to Gormenghast, they've got company. They're heading for Gormenghast."
"If either of you get us killed, I'll haunt your ghosts," Jason grumbles into the com. "Whatever happened to moving quietly?"
"Okay, you got it," Holly says. "Oh, keep in mind that Akiko and I are not official Player classes, so if you think we need to maintain cover say you're escorting defectors or something."
"Looks like... A fourth light, pretty faint. If that's not dust," Randall adds. "They're too far out to hail just yet."
"Can Inari amplify a light spell, or is that going to actually mess her up?" Holly asks Akiko.
Akiko frowns. "I don't think Inari can do such a thing. And regards the invisibility - it's technically you who would be amplifying Inari's power - allowing it to affect the entire ship. Inari in and of herself shouldn't have any ability to make powers of the Light more powerful. At least ... that'd be awfully unlikely."
"Okay, my Light spell probably can't cover the whole ship, but I'd want it facing the right direction to be seen," Holly says, looking over the complicated magic circle. "I should be able to use a part of the circle to transmit the spell to a specific area, right?"
Over the comlink, Randall's voice softly reminds Holly, "Be prepared for hostile actions. Good luck down there."
Akiko nods, and stoops down, pointing out the portions of the pattern, and running through how it corresponds to different portions of the ship (even if, visually speaking, there's not much obvious correspondence).
"Randall which side of the ship is facing the right direction?" Holly calls over the com.
"RIU can't detect the Light folks at all currently, I so don't think they can readily see us. Are you sure we should be bringing attention to ourselves?" Jason asks in the comm.
Outside the sorceress's chamber, the sounds of scraping metal can be heard, as something heavy is dragged along the corridor's flooring.
Some whirring machinery can be heard as Randall replies, and a faint clunk. "Nothing on periscope. They're forward of us, off the starboard bow. No, I'm not particularly sure, Jason, but we're thirty days out of Ithalbar, and we've got a long way to go. I'd as soon not pass up a chance of getting some help."
"They must have magic detectors too," Holly says. She's already visualizing her spell, and ready to cast it. "Just tell me where you want the searchlight, Randall, or else tell me to scrub it, Captain."
There's a light rapping on the door to the sorceress' chambers. "Jason's undead removal service. You frag 'em we bag 'em!" quips Jason's voice outside of the door.
"Akiko?" Holly says to the younger woman, as Jason knocks.
Akiko nods, and goes to the door, taking care of it so as not to disturb Holly's preparations.
Randall's grin is invisible over the comlink. "Aim it six o' clock, Holly. Let's do this."
"Welcome to the Grand Opening of the Ozymandias War Time Museum and Gift Shop," Holly intones, touching the appropriate area of the circle. "Just follow the searchlight!" she says, pumping about five times the normal energy into the spell.
"Hey," Jason says as the door opens. He's leaning against a rather heavy-looking metal frame and looking a bit winded. "You're looking decidedly un-foxlike today. I approve," he adds with a tired grin. He leans a bit to the side and gets an idea just where the whining wraith is and nods. "Feel like helping collect a pet wraith?"
The magical circle lights up around Holly as if a spotlight were located directly beneath the floor, with pinpoint holes following the geometric lines and obscure sigils. Then, the light expands, filling the chamber for a brief flash - but then the light focuses into a laser point that shoots out and reflects off of several crystals positioned around the room, before shooting off through a crystal receptacle set in the top of one wall.
Akiko shrugs. "I think Holly here is already past Inari's power level. It's not like the fox was needed."
The wraith, meanwhile, shrinks back. "LIGHT! IT IS INESCAPABLE! IT INVADES EVEN MY SANCTUARY! DIE, CURSED LIGHT!"
There is quiet over the radio, and then Randall speaks up. "Your enthusiasm is commendable, Ms. Trudeau, but you may have overdone it a tad."
"Hey, they're a long way off, so a bigger light is good, isn't it?" Holly replies.
Randall says dryly (over the comlink) "They may have seen that on Cauchemarem. The problem is, they may well have seen it on Gormenghast. After you're done in there, I'd appreciate it if all hands would report to battle stations."
Dark energies swirl around the wraith, and out of the corner of her eye, Holly can see faint lines sweeping out, marking an area of effect that encompasses the entire room and out into the corridor: it's an area effect spell. Based on the overview she got from Inari earlier, and the diameter of the spell, and the cues of energy level, it looks as if it's a "blast" effect, energy type unknown (but probably evil), with boosted damage, and boosted area of effect. And it's about to go off, with everybody at ground zero.
"Oh.." Holly starts to say, and then switches to an attempt to cast Dispel before Moire's blast goes off. "By the power of Thomas Alva Swift I block thee!" she intones, producing a TASER gun that she fires at the wraith.
Unfortunately, the wraith's fear and rage is so strong that the jolt from the conjured taser gun seems to have no effect. With a bloodcurdling scream, the wraith unleashes tendrils of darkness that shoot into the room, bypassing material objects entirely.
The blast sizzles as it encounters flesh. Even though Jason makes a heroic grab for Akiko to haul her behind the framework to shield them from the blast, the darkened bolts go right through the metal, unimpeded. The pain is excruciating, searing through nerves in the most tender of places, not entirely unlike having a drill boring into one's teeth.
It also makes Holly's hair stand out on end.
"Aaaaaaagh!" goes Jason in a rather un-heroic yell when the pain hits. He drops down to his knees, wincing. After two deep breaths, though, he says, "Akiko, help me shove this cage into the wraith. Maybe we'll be lucky and crush it."
With a surprising adrenalin-rush of strength, brought on by pain and desperation, Jason and Akiko shove the metal cage across the room toward the seething wraith, even as dark tendrils continue to lash about the room, driving pain into their bodies with every unfortunate sweep. The wraith makes no move to dodge, so intent is it upon its screaming and lashing out blindly with raw power: the robes are pinned behind the cage, the sleeves flopping about wildly.
"Someone set that robe on fire!" Jason yells!
RIU finally zips into the room, to his master's side, wings flaring brightly after weaving through the corridors of the ship.
"Aha!" Akiko cries out triumphantly, but then she grimaces when she sees that the wraith might be inconvenienced, but doesn't seem to have been conveniently crushed. She rushes back behind the dressing screen. "I'll be back!" she promises.
The wraith continues to scream and flail about violently, but the tendrils of dark energy fizzle out for the time being, and the pain subsides - at least until the next volley.
Sitting in the circle still, Holly smolders, in both the angry and literal sense. "Okay.. that.. grrr," the woman growls, and says, "The Curse of the Electric Mummy upon you, Moire the Malevolent!" The floating roll of electrical tape appears once again.
The comlink clicks on. "Light sources have paused."
The electrical tape shoots out, whipping around exposed cloth, weaving its way through the metal framework. The wraith's insubstantial form might be able to avoid such things - but so long as it is anchored to a material robe, and that robe is pinned to the wall, it has no hope of evading.
Jason fumbles in his pocket for his butane torch. "Wraith linked to robe. If robe burns maybe it'll kill the wraith," Jason tries to convince himself. He flicks the igniter on the torch and tries to set the rope sleeve on fire!
The butane torch licks at the edges of the cloth, but doesn't so much as singe it. It's as if there's some sort of insubstantial protective field around it - like some sort of spell. Or maybe it's just fire-resistant.
"Right, the smart person knows when to just get out of the way," Jason tells himself and dives away from the cage. "RIU, light that undead wench UP!" he orders.
RIU zooms in, taking full advantage of the fact that his target is pinned and entangled, so he can get up close and make it personal. The little dragon seems to be positively fuming at the pain it felt its master going through. He opens up his mouth, which glows and crackles with blue energy from within - and then shoots a beam point-blank into the wraith's distorted, shadowy excuse for a face beneath its electrical-tape-tangled hood.
The wraith's form briefly lights up as electrical energies shoot outward through the robe. "THE LIGHT! CURSED LIGHT! WHY CAN'T I ESCAPE YOU?!" The robes flap about vainly, until there is a blast of multi-colored light and crackling energy that cascades about the room - but unlike last time, has no discernible effect other than a mere light show.
Just then, Inari bounds out from behind the dressing screen. "I'm ready - I ..." The cascading effects subside, and the robes hang limp from the frame, held in place by the tape and the wall. "Oh ... hmph. Never mind then." She trots back behind the dressing screen.
"Is the robe still okay?" Holly asks. "I'll be needing it, probably."
"Do you live in a world all your own?" Jason asks Holly after the danger of being killed seems to have passed. To the dressing screen he says, "Uhm, sorry Akiko?"
"We have incoming," Randall's voice comes over the comlink. "How are you doing down there?"
"I'm trying to be practical," Holly asserts. She says into the com, "Okay, just a little hiccup with the former tenant. What's their ETA?"
From behind the dressing screen, there's the sound of rustling cloth. Akiko says, "I'm not complaining."
A pause. "Is she dead?"
"She was already dead," Holly reminds. Then thinks about it. "Jason, is there a crystal in the robes?"
Jason starts wobbling. "I ... don't know," he admits. So .. he goes to inspect the rope a bit closer.
*** Note to GW: Check all occurrences of 'rope' to see if they're really 'robe.'
As Jason prods the robes, he notices a glow from within. Something slides within the folds, and then a glowing crystal floats out of the hood.
Jason makes a grab for the crystal. "Yeah, it's dead," he explains, "And I really need some coffee."
"I see. Rest in peace, Moire." Randall says. And that seems to be all the eulogy that she's going to get. "Thank you for working on the spirit containment device, Jason. There's no way to tell exactly when they'll catch up, but at the rate they're going, it's a toss-up whether they get to us before we get to Tesliem."
"Well, do we want to slow down then?" Holly asks the captain.
"Well, we could just stop and wait for them," Jason points out.
Randall's voice: "We'll slow down a little and bank to the side. Holly, can you shutter the light beam? Three short, then three long, then three short bursts."
"S.O.S? That's primitive," Jason remarks in the comm.
Holly thinks about it, then says, "Okay, going to try that now." She taps that series on the circle area where the spell was launched. "Think anyone will recognize it?" she asks.
"Then again, we're lucky to have decent bog rolls. Primitive it is," Jason concedes.
The light effect in the sorcery chamber strobes in time with the signal.
"Hopefully they'll recognize it's an effort at communication. Give that a few tries, then kill the light and I'll key up our running lights so you can save your energy, Holly." Randall's voice goes quiet a second. "Hmm. That's odd. They somehow jumped."
"Come again?" Jason asks, "Akiko, can ships, er, warp around?"
"Time contraction," Holly comments. "Are they close enough to see us without the beacon?"
Akiko steps out from behind the screen, making a few final adjustments to her uniform, and straightening the collar. "As Holly said. There's no warping - but if they're players, they'll be experiencing time differently than we do. Or ... no, that's not quite the accurate way to put it."
"They're still a distance away, but I think we can assume we're dealing with Players here, not VNPCs," says Randall over the comlink.
"They've engaged their boredom filters?" Holly suggests, and gradually lets the searchlight fade. "Jason, could you do me a favor?"
"We had all better get to the bridge, then," Jason says as he heads towards the exit. He pauses midstep, then asks, "What sort of favor?"
"Rather, the 'boring stuff' gets glossed over," Akiko amends. "If it's a long journey, then the heroes go through the barest motions of bedding down for the night, or just looking intently toward the horizon - and things go forward. If there's anything interesting going on - a discussion, a fight, et cetera - then it's not time for a fast-forward. Something like that. There's a bit of complexity that goes into it, when several players are in the same area. I've heard of some players deliberately trying to exploit how the system works - but I suspect the system has been tweaked a few times. My knowledge on that is bound to be out of date."
"See if that crystal ball is connected to anything," Holly asks. "Having it down here when we need to be on the bridge is inconvenient."
Some clicks over the comlink. "Running our lights now," Randall reports. "If you can join me on the bridge, that would be excellent."
Jason spins around and marches back to the crystal. "Be there in a second. I'll send RIU on ahead," he says.
The bridge of the Ozymandias has a new feature: a faintly glowing crystal ball on a pedestal that has been removed from the sorcery chamber and now instead securely bolted down near the spot Akiko set aside earlier for the makeshift magic circle.
There's a pull-down periscope viewer that Captain Randall (AKA Officer Cranston) has been employing, turned about so he can spy for any sign of the ship's pursuers. Meanwhile, the ship's magic-detector shows three white pinpricks that indicate the position of the three Light sources that have changed course to intercept the Ozymandias/Vindictive.
"Any idea how powerful they are? And any hope they'll talk first and shoot later?" Jason asks from where ie's taken up position next to the engineering controls.
"Now that we're going to be dealing with Players shortly, do you want to tell them the straight story or pretend to be adventurers?" Randall says to the others. He's dressed in the standard captain's uniform, but his chest has been padded out a bit by the bulletproof plate from his police armor.
Randall shrugs. "We didn't make blips like that."
"I doubt they would believe the real story," Jason remarks.
"And if they don't believe it, they might not help us," Holly adds, inspecting the sorceress' exorcised robe.
The robe, despite all the abuse, is remarkably free from any sign of wear or tear.
"Okay, Magical Robe, are you One Size Fits All?" Holly mutters, and slips into the robe to see if it adjusts to her smaller (and decidedly unimposing) frame.
Akiko looks with concern at the magic detector. "I'm sure they must be players ... but what does this represent? If they're putting out this much Light, why aren't they being swarmed by everything Gormenghast can throw at them?"
Randall nods. "Okay. We're low level adventurers who ventured out a little too far and got shipwrecked on an island way the heck out, we came across this cool ship and managed to salvage enough of it to work, and now we're limping back to Ithalbar. We picked them up on sensors and wanted to get some help making our way back to civilization. Sounds good?"
"Maybe Gormenghast is busy sending their own fleet to Cauchemarem to investigate," Holly suggests.
Ah, the convenience of magic! The robe fits like it was tailor-made. It even looks as if the gems were chosen to compliment the shade of Holly's eyes, and the trim goes nicely with her hair.
"Or ... maybe they're people like us, actually stuck in this world," Jason suggests with a shrug. "Hard to say without talking to them."
"Okay, this could solve a problem," Holly notes as the robe adjusts for her. "Akiko, want to try this on?"
Akiko raises an eyebrow. "I would have given a kidney to have clothes that did that, back in the real world. Sure, I'll give it a try."
Holly passes the robe to the younger woman. "If it works, you can go see if it shifts when you switch to Inari."
Akiko looks a bit uncertain after taking the robe, since it remains in Holly's size after it's removed - but once she pokes her head into it, it starts reforming itself. Although the uniform legs poking out the bottom look a bit odd, it fits her just as well as it did Holly - and it has definitely changed its color accents to best suit the wearer as well. "I just hope I don't break anything if I shift. This is just too nice."
"Well, try shifting and if it starts having problems, shed it," Jason suggests.
"It'll be worth the risk of ruining it for the convenience of it working," Holly notes.
Randall smiles at Holly's playing mother to Akiko. "Don't worry, it's only a virtual object. We can find replacements."
"Best not to get too attached to 'loot' here," the police officer turned captain notes. "If they offer us a lift, we might wind up leaving the Ozymandias behind. Though... Would the time warp effect work for them with us aboard?"
The navigation map makes a light chiming noise - an actual, mechanical chime, it would seem, built into the console. A blinking ring around Tesliem appears to be calling attention to the fact that the Ozymandias is very close to approaching it. Judging by the distances and speed so far, it would appear that arrival at Tesliem is but a couple of hours away. At the rate the pinpoints of light have been "blinking" and jumping ahead, however, it's possible they could catch up anytime within the next few minutes ... or an hour or so from now.
"Better stop the ship," Holly suggests. "If we get any closer the Lighters may suspect a trap."
"I bet that the ships will intercept us or not, depending on what we want to have happen," Jason suggests as he peers at the engineering console. "So, decision time. Either we stop and wait, or we press on."
Akiko frets. "Well ... this may be my last chance to check. I'm just going to hustle out and give it a try. It'd be nice not to have to shred a uniform if I suddenly have to let Inari step in, in the middle of negotiations."
"Good luck!" Jason tells Akiko.
Randall nods to Akiko. To Jason, he says, "Let's stop the ship. Retrothrusters?"
Holly smiles reassuringly to Akiko. With the glowing eyes and wild hair though.. well, she hopes it looks reassuring.
Akiko nods and slips out, taking a right turn and heading into the next chamber over (a mini-armory, though the weapons are mostly rusted to uselessness).
"Yavol, mon-capi'tan," Jason declares in a ridiculous accent. In goes the gauntlet, along with the orders to ease the ship to a stop.
As soon as Jason places his gauntlet into the console, a shimmering, cloaked, winged form appears in the center of the bridge - translucent, but three-dimensional.
"I hope they have a Light source for recharging RIU and Mara," Holly says. "Maybe that's why they're so bright on the scope?"
Randall grins to his erstwhile engineer. "You know, you keep up that accent, you're going to be stuck with it in front of company." He raises his eyebrow. "This is new, Jason."
"I hope that isn't the angel of death," Jason mutters to himself at the appearance of the form.
"You're the Captain," Holly whispers to Randall. "Talk to it."
"Programmer Alert," the winged being intones, its face hidden under a hood. "Tesliem Zone has been flagged for Strict Roleplay Enforcement for a Special Event. Anachrony flags are present on this vehicle object."
"I guess that means we stop," Holly says, and looks to the map display. "Or do we need to back out until that circlet vanishes?"
"Oh great," Jason mutters and covers his face. "RIU, any chance you can interface to that thing?" he thinks, "I could try to convince the system to ignore us..."
The police officer stands, trying to look as Captainly as possible. "I'm Captain Randall of the Ozymandias. It is not our intention to violate your controlled space, spirit. But if you have time for a few questions before we retreat?"
The figure continues, though it's unclear whether or not it's actually responding. "Protocol conflicts detected. Exposure to Strict Roleplay Enforcement protocols may result in interference in Programmer activity, and/or permanent loss of data. If proceeding, please verify that all necessary data has been backed up."
Randall gives Jason and Holly a 'help me out here?' look.
RIU just conveys to Jason a feeling of confusion. It's unclear whether RIU is simply uncertain how to proceed, or whether he's failed to emotively pick up the particulars of Jason's instruction.
"I think what he says is if we continue on, we may lose our custom links in this ship. You know, the ones that actually keep it running and let us control it?" Jason tries translating.
"We're Beta Code," Holly suggests. "We might crash."
Inari strides back in, wearing a bejeweled collar. "So, what do you th-- WHAT IS THAT?!"
"I knew that," Randall says. "The question is, can we do anything useful with Mr. Programmer Alert?"
Jason pulls his gauntlet from the controls and walks towards the form. "Maybe I can over-ride it if I touch it," he thinks.
"Something big is scheduled for Tesliem Zone," Holly tells Inari. "And it's a nice collar." She goes over to the orb and taps on it. "Wakey, wakey," she intones.
"Anachrony Protocol Error," the entity says. "VNPC Awareness Conflict. Unable to suspend error-causing VNPC activity. Compensating."
The gauntlet touches the helm of the entity's phantom robe. The entity vanishes.
Inari cries out in pain, writhing on the floor.
"Uh. This could be good or bad," Jason says, then jerks at Inari's screams. "Ship, pull back now," he yells and darts for the controls.
Randall waves a hand to see if the cloaked figure will take any notice. "Attention please--" As Inari collapses however, he calls to Jason, "Hands on the wheel, full reverse!"
"Shift back now, Inari!" Holly tells the fox-creature. "The enforcement rule shouldn't affect Akiko!"
Alarms sound, as the ship suddenly lurches.
Inari is about to go rolling for the side, but the captain bravely interjects himself, keeping her from smashing into the sharp, pointy bits of the rusty consoles that haven't been fully refurbished yet. Fortunately, the rest of the crew manages to brace in time: the ship lurches about, and the alarm continues, but at last it appears the craft has come to a stop.
This time, there's a different alarm: The proximity sensor is causing a ruckus, as it seems those pinpoints of Light have caught up well enough to be within its threat range.
"Now, reverse. Get us away from Teslium," Jason orders the ship, "I'm not going to let Inari or Akiko be harmed by this. She's part of the crew, dammit."
"Player group presence detected," the unseen entity intones, despite the fact that it's no longer visible. "Anachrony Protocols have been alerted."
"Shut that thing off!" Holly pleads to Jason. "Inari wasn't supposed to see that messenger. I think the system thinks we're testers because of Jason's glove. It's probably the only way to reconcile our non-standard existence."
Inari's form shrinks and shifts - and the collar expands - until the large fox has been replaced by an unconscious Akiko in spellcaster's robes.
Randall catches the fox up, trying to make sure its thrashing paws (and any attendant claws) are aimed away from his face, letting out a sigh of relief as she shifts back. "Bring us back to a safe distance," he calls to Jason. "Holly, comm control, over there! Give them a hailing code. Yellow, blue, yellow."
Trudeau moves as directed, and taps the colored buttons.
"Dammit," Jason cusses again as he struggles with the system, "RIU, link me to the protocol controls. I've got to stop this thing before it kills all of us!"
"What are the Anachrony Protocals?" Holly asks, aiming her question at the orb.
Folders materialize in the middle of the air. An article appears, scrolling in place.
Randall explains while trying to secure Akiko, "We just put out a naval comm code, means we're manuevering with difficulty, we need them to stand back while we do. When we're back in order, yellow-blue means we want to talk to them."
"Right," Holly replies. "Tell me when we're back in order."
"Subroutines in place to eliminate anything that counters the current directives, Holly. Think of it is a way to deal with a virus or otherwise unwanted intrusion," Jason calls out.
It would appear, from a hasty skim of the article, that there's some mention of a need for systems to ensure a "more immersive experience" for players, to handle "acting out" by certain players who deliberately seek to introduce "anachronistic" elements into the game (and here "anachronistic" seems to be a word coopted to mean "out of character for the setting," rather than any time-related meaning).
"Upgrade the ship's version number then?" Holly suggests. "Orb, respond to all requests from Jason Drachehand."
Suddenly, Jason's eyes unfocus. He's got that staring-into-space look again, like what he had back in Tracy's room at the terminal.
"Working ... on ... it," Jason says, voice suddenly sounding lost and momentarily confused. "It's a job", Jason tells himself, "Don't worry about them, just do your job. Right." A deep breath and Jason's hands move to tap around as if he's trying to bring up information about something unseen.
Randall takes charge of the ship controls while Jason is doing His Thing, checking that they're moving away from the Tesliem zone. Inevitably we get shocked when playing with electrical objects, he muses, worried for Akiko.
RIU weaves his way over to the orb, and then touches it with a whisker. At once, ghostly images begin to appear about the interior of the bridge. There's a shimmering, indistinct form that corresponds to the hooded figure from earlier, hovering just where he was before. There are faintly glowing path-lines that seem to correspond to the ship's hidden electrical system, with a lot of activity directed toward the magical components of the ship's controls and sensors. There are many panels and strange symbols and collections of numbers and data hovering around Holly, around Akiko, around Randall, around RIU, and around Jason. There's a faint path-line going directly between Jason and RIU - and another that leads from Randall somewhere back, and through the door to the corridor.
There appears to be some sort of stream of energy (or light or whatever you want to call it) connected between the hooded entity, and a point out in space - most likely, somewhere anchored on Tesliem, given the way the line's direction changes as the ship continues to rotate.
Tries to read the hovering data fields while tapping the running-light color buttons. "Flags.. flags.. I don't know what this stuff means," she mutters. "Game stats?"
"Isolate codes for system wide scanners and control routines for immersive maintenance," Jason thinks as he works. His hands wave as if tapping on something unseen before him. "Code isolation and stream isolation. Projection source distant. RIU, locate identity codes for each of us and provide. We need to insert a filter into the stream feeding the projection and its projector. We need to hide our true selves from the maintaining immersive reality. We can't change what we are, but nothing says we can't hide from these protocols under overlays..."
As Holly focuses on the bewildering layering-upon-layering of data, she's able to pick out iconography she recognizes from her security work - and some of the details are in English (or at least numbered). It's the ghostly "layered" effect that makes it hard to read at a glance, since there's so much of it. There's a flag for character status - ERROR: UNDEFINED TYPE. There's another flag: Class type: MAGE (CONJURER) - Subtype ERROR.
"Yeah, fake IDs are what we need, Jason," Holly agrees, watching the various flags to see if Edwards is successful in spoofing them.
Layer by layer, extraneous flags, data paths and object relations vanish, until the majority of them are just those that hover around Jason, Holly, Randall and Akiko. A ghostly sphere of multiple bands appears around the bridge - only visible where it intersects the bridge into open space. The bands have a yellow-black caution pattern to them, and here and there, readable or reversed, it reads, "UNDER CONSTRUCTION" and "CAUTION."
Randall concentrates on getting the ship out of the Tesliem hex. Something's happening in there, he thinks to himself. "If the players are here for the special event, and it's in Tesliem... Where are the rest of the players?" He glances toward the magic detector to see if it's picking anything else up.
The disembodied voice intones, "Protocol conflict isolated. Anachrony tags suppressed. ... Caution: Player group approaching area. Diversion protocols ineffective."
On the magic detector, there's a mass of color in the general direction of Tesliem. Any individual points of magical energy may well be lost in the crowd. It could either be that a shard interferes with this detector's ability to pinpoint any strong source of magic on its surface, or perhaps there's something peculiar about Tesliem in particular.
"Secondary request, RIU, try to locate the link to Inari and the control relays. I want to see if I can change her status to that of player. Time for a little free-will. The shadow can go kiss my fanny, as can Blake," Jason says as he continues the battle to suppress the flags triggering the system defenses.
"I hope we have a ship-to-ship com system that works," Holly says, eyeing the various warning bands surrounding them. "Is Jason putting those up, or are they the Diversion Protocols," she asks the Orb, if it has any attention left to respond.
"Leaving Tesliem Zone," the voice intones. "Ending projection." Then it goes silent, and the faint ghostly image blinks out, along with the trailing data path.
Randall sighs with relief. "Okay, go to yellow and blue, we have time to talk to them now, Holly." He goes to check the magic detector. "That's either an awful lot of activity around Tesliem or it's pretty magically active itself."
The orb, meanwhile, displays another article, with some animated displays that show the "UNDER CONSTRUCTION / CAUTION" bands. According to the brief, these displays are only visible to programmers in zones when pathways have been set to visible. VNPCs should not act as if they see these bands, and will avoid them. VPCs will be directed by subsystems to divert them from any areas so flagged.
"May be a battle on the surface," Holly suggests, switching to just yellow-blue now.
"Shoot, if we want to talk to the Players we have to clear those warnings, Jason," Holly says.
A "player" flag appears over Akiko's unconscious form, and some of the other flags are replaced with garbage data.
Randall grins wryly. "Or go meet them."
Thinking better of playing with the detector, Randall unlocks the ship's periscope and swings it over in the direction of the light sources to see if he can pick up any return signals they might be sending.
Through the viewscope, Captain Randall picks out not a cluster of skyships as might be expected ... but rather three flying creatures with glowing halos of energy about them: a flaming white winged lion, a bear riding a cloud, and a unicorn prancing through open space with flower petals wafting in its wake. Riding on the backs of the creatures would seem to be three teenaged heroes in elaborate fantasy garb.
"Oh. My. God." Randall.
"Working," Jason says a bit shortly. "The flags are needed if we want to be protected from the system. It makes us an '00C' zone, as it were ad follows standard LLC protocol for programmer work. I don't want to clear them until it's safe to do so. Besides, the system will clear it itself, eventually. " His attention seems to focus on Akiko now as he flips through page after page of her overlayed stats, checking for what indicates what about her and her joined link, Inari, are. "No more messing with her, Blake..."
There is quite a lot of data to sift through, attached to Inari, a lot of it occupied with garbage, several of the flags being "orphaned" or having no particular meaning - quite possibly being reference flags that had meaning in the "local database" back in Blake's world, but since rendered meaningless here as the cross-referenced data is no longer at hand.
Randall says, "Remember our friends from the test zone? They're back. Blake, 'Small' Fry, and Jenny. No signs of Sasha but good bet she's around, sneakily." He frowns. "Okay, passing ourselves off as low level adventurers probably won't work on this bunch."
"Why are they here at all?" Holly wonders out loud. "Did Blake give up on his private world and decide to get everyone out, or are they here to make sure we don't get out?"
Outside the Under Construction sphere, a barrage of data streams hits: they're all coming from the direction of the approaching riders. Data requests. Then, override requests. Then ... deletion requests.
Jason continues his work, oblivious to Randall's statements. "Now, where is the control key for Inari? The one Blake used to control her and alter her. If I can alter it..." he thinks, though abruptly halting when the new attacks hit. "Oh hell no," Jason growls ... and tries to set up a fast and simple defense ... reflect all their incoming commands back at the approaching kids.
RIU's eyes glow intensely. His body twitches with each flickering of the Under Construction bands, as he focuses intently in the direction of the oncoming attacks.
"He probably ran with the line we gave them - going to make an assault on the heart of the source of Shadow," Randall surmises. "What he intends-- oh no. Mara's in trouble - they're trying to do something to her!" He gets up and goes to the door, clearly intending to run down to the hangar.
"Can you make them think we've been deleted?" Holly asks, abandoning the buttons now.
"I'm going back to the circle," Holly says, heading for the bridge door. "I'll try to throw up a defense barrier, if it will do us any good."
Randall nods. "It's a programmers' fight now, Jason, you have the bridge, Holly, do what you can. I'm going to check on Mara."
Explosions sound from somewhere in the depths of the Ozymandias.
The police officer takes off at a dash.
As Randall dashes down the corridor, he can see that a few pipes have broken loose, spraying blue corrosive fluids on the walls and floor. His view of the "overlay" fades once he exits the sphere - and at a glance back, he can't even see evidence of it in his wake (and the contents of the bridge are hazy and indistinct).
Once back at the magic circle, Holly tries not to think about the explosions. She plants her hands on the circle, and chants, "Mirror, mirror, on the hull; shunt those attacks to Dev-slash-Null."
Randall thinks to himself, Mara, Mara, hang in there, I'm coming for you! If you can shield yourself... Do it!
For a fleeting moment, Randall sees waves of error messages streaming past him. There's another explosion nearby - disturbingly close.
Just as quickly, the "error messages" fade away again, returning to normal vision. A section of the wall breaks away - and Randall recalls that was one of the places where Akiko showed him there was a "black box" behind the wall of unknown purpose, tied in with the ship's seemingly redundant electrical system - and in some cases, not connected to anything at all.
On the comlink, Randall yells to Jason, "They're exploding the black boxes! Those are the devices Blake must have put in, when he was remodeling this ship."
Over the com, Holly asks, "Jason, can we safely enter Tesliem space now? Those boxes are what let the glove control the ship, aren't they?"
"Control points. They're masked access keys," Jason growls back to Randall as his fingers flurry. "I'll try in a moment," he tells Holly, "Busy!"
As the ship continues to shake, Randall grabs hold of a handrail and swings himself down the stairwell, heading down the 'express route' to the hangar deck.
Holly wracks her mind. The black boxes aren't magic, so the attacks on them probably aren't magic-based either. But are her own spells, strictly speaking, magical or based on weird science effects? "My dispel may not work against their attacks, or... Deflection is merging with Jason's Under Construction protection sphere though. So maybe.."
Down the corridor, Randall hears a warning wyvern cry.
Despite the fact that it probably won't work against whatever's attacking them, the police officer finds himself drawing his gun. "Mara!" he yells. "Hang on, I've got you."
Jason tries to enable the ships engines to coast it back towards Teslium, in an effort to get the attackers to break off. He takes a different approach next in his defence, next he tries to reset one of the player flags to VNPC on the attackers.
As Randall rushes up to the hangar bay, he is suddenly treated to the unexpected view of open space. The hurtling remains of a good portion of the ship's tail end are drifting off. Mara clings with a claw to a twisted brace, while her other claw hangs onto the aircar. One of the ornithopters hangs in space, held in the remains of its cradle, but the others have drifted off with the wreckage.
"But," Holly continues, working things out, "the control boxes wouldn't be on the ship's magic network, so the circle can't access them. I don't think I can dispel the attacks from here, I'd have to hit the casters directly.."
Jason changes attack in mid-course. Instead, he focuses on the black box units. "Command access codes, scramble, single authorized interface, Edwards, Jason," he mutters.
"They blew off part of the ship! Mara's hanging onto the aircar," Randall yells into the comlink. He holsters his gun - useless against this enemy - and goes to help Mara, trying to secure himself on her back.
The alarming chain of explosions abruptly comes to a stop - though from Randall's point of view, the damage is already quite extensive.
"Randall!" Holly yells into the com. "Can you see if the kids are moving in on that hull breach?"
Reassessing the situation, Randall stops going for Mara's saddle and instead looks for the cords. He calls into his comlink, "One thing at a time! Give me a hit of retrothrusters in five secs, Jason. Mara, brace yourself and get ready to catch the aircar! I'm gonna lash it back in place."
"Holly, can you make it look like the ship explodes?" Jason calls into the comm.
"Not without Inari," Holly replies. "I can try a big burst of light though."
"Not good enough. Can you hold the ship together with your tape, then?" Jason calls into the comm next.
In the distance, Randall catches just a fragment of voice - as it seems that there's still air of some sort even in "space" here - " ... too late for them, so sorry...."
"That.. might work," Holly notes. "But the side effects will slow us down I think, or worse."
"Just don't lash the propellers or directional flaps!" Jason says worriedly.
Catching wind of this, Randall pops the comlink again. "Jason - comm panel on the right. Red, white, red!"
"Well.. I'll do what I can," Holly says, and focuses on the magic circle again, trying to use it to find out where the ship is coming apart.
Jason pauses before entering that code. "Are you sure we should show them we're still functional?" He asks, his left hand hovers over the input panel.
"He just tried to tell them that it was 'too late for us'," Randall reports back. "So far as I know, they still think they're on the side of good."
Randall adds, "As long as your defenses are up, he knows that we're actually alive. He probably wants them to blow us up."
As Holly tries to reach out with her magic, it seems that for some reason it doesn't respond - not like it has been so far. Something is interfering, perhaps. Or maybe she's just too exhausted....
"I have a bad feeling about this, Randall," Jason says worriedly ... then enters the sequence he requested.
A ghostly figure appears in the middle of the bridge. "... reentering Tesliem Zone," can be made out, over the alarms and shouts.
"Retrothrusters? I'm standing by with cables to lash the aircar in place, once we get it parked," Randall calls.
"Make up your mind! In the zone, out of the zone," Jason growls. "Ship, reverse to gather our aircar!"
"I just need a kick of retro, then leave us stopped," Randall explains.
The ship responds ... but it seems that a few parts of the ship don't respond like they ought to. Perhaps a few too many black boxes have been blown.
One of the turbines kicks into the reverse, but the other doesn't. The ship lurches madly about before Jason is able to reassert control.
"Okay, going to have to do this blind," Holly mutters, running her hands over the circle. The trick will be to conjure something that by its nature will only affect the damaged areas. "Okay.. I call upon the Great Spirit Ron of Popeil," she intones, "and his servant Bondo! Fill the gaps, cracks and scratches Just Like New!" She pushes the Entangle spell into the circle and hopes for the best.
Strong forces almost wrench Randall free from the ship - and Mara, and the aircar - but the wyvern, with a cry of defiance, swings a wing out to shield Randall - and she holds relentlessly onto the aircar, somehow understanding its vital importance to her master and his companions. Just when it seems that even her supernatural effort won't be enough to stay on - a mass of tape swarms around the open gaps of the hangar, creating a rather sticky, but effective cushion.
The Ozymandias spins toward Tesliem like a thrown bola - with bits of debris and the remnants of its tail held together with massive bands of sticky tape.
"Anachrony Protocol Alert," the phantom figure intones, repeating its warning about the "Strict Roleplay Protocols" enacted in this area.
"Controls are hosed, folks, sorry," Jason's tired voice comes in over the intercom. "So, if we're going to die, I might as well try one last thing against Blake."
"You wanted to fake the ship exploding," Holly notes, wishing the magic circle came with seatbelts or something. "Shall we evacuate and try to hide in the debris?"
Randall clings to Mara, resting his cheek against her cool surface as he catches his breath. "We're secure. Thanks to Holly's tape. Which... Means that Mara isn't going anywhere for the next little while. Better than the alternative!"
Mara makes a deep rumble, evidently happy at keeping her master from being flung into the void. A faint glow and a clinging mist suffuses her form.
Mara seems a bit ... larger now.
Randall catches the sound of a girlish scream from somewhere out in space.
Randall says tiredly and not on the comlink, "You done good, Mara. You done good." Not that Holly will appreciate the dents on her car, but it's better than a lost car.
Into the comlink, Randall adds, "Jenny just screamed. I, ah... think they just ran into Mr. Programmer Alert."
"Or my rearranging of Blake's face scared the crap out of them," Jason remarks into the controls. "I fiddled with his image maps..."
Laughter accompanies Randall's reply. "You rock, Jason."
"Okay, what now? Do you think the flags you set up will protect us going into Tesliem?" Holly asks. "And.. can you fix my hair like that? Wait.. forget I asked!"
"Challenge Protocol Conflict," the phantom figure intones. "Shadow Entity of inappropriate challenge level for Local Event detected. Compensating."
"Tell me that when I stop the spinning. Any power left, Holly? Can you summon a GIANT fan onto the ship to blow opposite our rotation and halt our spin?" Jason calls into the comm as he focuses his attention on trying to stabilize the ship now.
"And I hope that Shadow entity isn't coming this way," Jason says weakly.
"I hope that means he's teleported back to Gormenghast or something," Holly replies, and then thinks about Jason's request.
Randall says quietly into the intercom, "When you flagged Blake to look like a monster of shadow, was it just an appearance change or did you... um... flag him to the system as a shadow entity?"
"I don't think dispel works on physical forces, and the aircar is too small to make a difference," Holly says. "Is there anything out there we can throw an anchor onto?"
The ship rocks a bit, as Jason manages to figure out which systems are still there, and which aren't, and compensates as he issues orders through the glove to stop the lopsided spin. Both turbines are back on forward motion - though one of them appears unable to go into reverse unless someone's there to physically turn the wheels and throw the levers in the engine room.
Randall works with Mara to get the aircar lashed down, once Jason's done adjusting for spin. This thing's not going walkabout again!
The detector no longer shows three points of Light chasing the ship. They seem to have gone elsewhere. However, the detector's display grows increasingly distorted and cluttered as the ship continues toward Tesliem.
With the immediate danger dealt with, Holly returns to the bridge to check on Akiko. "Hey Orb," she says, "What's happening down on Tesliem?"
"Well, I tried to change his flag to be a shadow agent, sort of. I was in a hurry!" Jason babbles into the comm. "C'mon, baby. I brought you back from the dead, you have to have a little life left in you. There! Okay, I think I have the ship stabilized, but I've lost remote control of one of the engines. Can one of you get to the engine bay? If we want to stop, or even land, we'll need some manual intervention. RIU, are you holding together?"
"Mara and car are secured. I'm on my way to the engine bay," Randall says over the com.
"That entangle spell won't hold for long," Holly tells Jason. "Landing may not be a good idea if we plan on getting aloft again afterwards."
A several-foot-long cybernetic oriental dragon is coiled around the pedestal and the scrying orb, its whiskers coiling around the orb, and traces of energy running around its body. At hearing its name called out, it turns to look at Jason ... then lets out a happy little squeal, and shrinks back to its normal, housecat size again. It weaves over to Jason and gives him a whisker-tickle on his cheek.
"Hmmm," Holly ponders, watching RIU and the Orb. "Oriental Dragons carried pearls of wisdom with them," she notes. "Maybe we can take the orb with us."
"Without extensive work, this ship isn't going anywhere anymore. We need to land to just fix this thing now," Jason admits. He reaches over to actually give the little dragon a hug and tell him, "You did great. Thank you."
Holly's eyes glow an intense, rich amber-brown. A magical nimbus surrounds her hair - which seems to float a bit as she moves, as if it were weightless.
Over the radio, Randall's voice says, "Standing by in the engine room. Do we still have company?"
The little dragon, even though he's returned to his normal size, looks a bit different as well - he looks a little more streamlined, less chubby, and with more intricate patterns to his scales. But then, there seems to be something different about Jason, as well: a faintly glowing pendant rests around his neck, shaped like an open book.
"Are these little visual tweaks your doing, Jason?" Holly asks, as she goes to the Orb.
"I didn't intentionally alter our appearance code," Jason says with a small shrug as he examines the pendant. "Is Akiko changing too?" he asks Holly.
Holly pauses and turns back to the unconscious woman to check for any new features.
As the "flags" are still visible, Holly can make out layer after layer of flags popping up and blinking out - most of them filled with error messages and garbage data.
"Our pursuers are one," Jason tells Randall through the comm unit. "But, we're approaching the mass that is Teslium. You're still the captain, so should we all-stop or try to land?"
"She's still buggy, it looks like," Holly says. "Too bad we can't separate Inari out into a distinct companion Avatar and leave her as a Player."
Catching that over the open comlink, Randall throws this in, "Mara seems a larger and different. And ah. Did any of you acquire a new necklace?"
"I did," Jason answers. To Holly, he asks, "Do you want me to try and look into Akiko's flag structure more?"
"See anything you can hide us behind? I want to stop and investigate what this 'special event' is about, and we really don't want to trigger a flagrant breach of these Anachrony Filters," Randall opines.
"It could all be from the Roleplay Enforcement stuff," Holly suggests, and then nods to Jason. "We need to fix her if we're going to get her safely to the Light zones."
"I have changed her flag to be a Player, so I hope it means the system won't auto-screw with her anymore," Jason answers as he returns his attention to the controls. He looks for anything he could park the ship behind for a bit.
Holly goes to the Orb again, and tries to address it in a more character-appropriate manner. "Minion, scry me a window into what lies before us in Tesliem!"
Tesliem itself, now that Jason has a chance to look properly at it, consists of a main shard surrounded by lightning storms, with arcs of energy lashing about dramatically. It looks like landing on the shard itself would be a hazardous undertaking indeed. Fortunately, it seems that might not be necessary: orbiting around the shard - on the aether plane level - are several smaller structures - some of them looking like fragments of the shard (with occasional jumps of blue lightning shooting between the facing edges), and others looking like iron citadels serving a similar role but with some sort of vane-like structures on the Tesliem-facing side.
Randall inspects the engine room in the meantime. He's always viewed it as Jason's domain... But it looks like he'll have to be substitute Jason for a bit while the real Jason is at the controls. There must be something that gives indications on ship's status...
"There are some docks orbiting the shard we could probably land at," Jason tells the others in the comm.
Holly's scrying sphere, meanwhile, conjures up several translucent windows that materialize into view points of the world's surface. Despite the hostile environment, it looks like there are indeed structures down on the surface, with lightning striking uncomfortably close to any vantage point. The bulk of the Empire's presence seems to be on the orbiting structures, however.
Hearing Jason's suggestion, Holly asks the orb, "Which of the citadels is best equipped to service our ship."
Jason tries an experiment while the ship slogs forward. He tries to select an isolated, unoccupied, damaged part of the ship and bring up its stats. "I wonder if I can just update the stats to indicate repaired," he mutters.
"Alert," the phantom image says. "Programmer activity restricted within this range. System bypasses restricted to top security." A visual image depicts a zone closer to the planet that the ship is just approaching the fringe of.
"Find the backup data before trying that," Holly suggests. "Oh great, forget that suggestion."
Flags appear showing the status of the indicated portion of the ship as repaired.
"Do your glove-magic quickly, because I think we'll have to do things manually by the time we get close enough to dock," Holly says.
"Holly, can the orb show this section of the ship?" Jason asks Holly and pokes the indicated part of the map.
"Orb, obey Jason Drachehand's requests," Holly tries.
The orb shows a diagram of the affected area, with a flag over it that says "Repaired."
Randall says over the comm, "Any signs of ship-to-ship combat going on out there? Or other ships in the Tesliem area?"
"RIU, go check this area and send me a visual feed," Jason tells the little dragon.
The dragon shoots off to the area ... and finds a torn-up mess, even though the diagram stubbornly insists that the area is repaired.
"No good. I can't enact repairs directly," Jason says with a sign. He tells the system to restore original flags to that area instead. "We need to just dock for repairs or steal a new ship."
Holly goes back to trying to use the Orb to find the best docking site. "Anachronistic or not, someone here must be able to fix this thing," she mutters.
Jason uses the time for the moment to go back to examining Akiko and Inari and try to determine just what sort of state she is in.
The orb cycles through, showing some of the ports, and indicates some of them with red flags, with notes such as "Reserved for Special Event." Another shows, "Off Limits to Players; Future Expansion." Yet another has no particular flags on it - but it looks like a heavily-armed fortress as well as a docking platform.
Akiko is slumped near the Proximity Console (which is currently unreadable what with all the random distortion and flickering lights). She appears to be unharmed, physically, but is nonetheless unconscious.
"Okay, no way we're getting to the off-limits area without another visit from Casper the Annoying Ghost in the Shell," Holly says. "So that leaves the big one with nothing in particular going on."
"RIU, come try to wake Akiko, please," Jason thinks. To the others, he says, "Pick a place, we'll land. We don't have much choice."
RIU weaves back into the bridge room, then dives down on Akiko. He tickles her experimentally with a whisker, then licks her cheek.
"Uh?" Akiko blinks her eyes open, then lets out a shuddering squeal as RIU gives her another whisker-tickle for good measure. "That's enough! That's ENOUGH!"
Randall on the comlink: "Kill the running lights. Run up yellow, black, yellow - means quarantine. Means a medical quarantine - we should be able to get fuel and supplies but they shouldn't be anxious to board us."
"Are you okay?" Jason asks distractedly, "Is Inari okay? We just had a run-in with ... Blake." At Randall's commands, he grins a bit and tries to enact them with the ship.
"You missed ALL the fun, Akiko," Holly says, and goes to work the lights so Jason can focus on flying.
Randall briefly ponders, "How exactly do we get black lights on the ship's running lights... Must be a dark spot where a light should be, or else a gray light."
A light signal flashes at the Vindictive. Alas that Randall isn't on the bridge to interpret it.
Jason tries to relay what he saw of the signal back to Randall.
As Jason repeats the sequence, some glowing lights appear on the navigation display, matching them. Then, some words appear: "Stop and Identify. If Ship's Mage, Make Available to Receive."
"Receive what?" Holly asks, eyebrows rising.
"Hey Ships Mage," Jason remarks towards Holly, "You're up. They want you to receive something."
The orb helpfully shows a display of some sort of magical diagram, and a scene of a ship's bridge, with a projected image of a sorcerer.
Randall listens to Jason's transcription of the light. "They're asking who we are, and... The last is military code. Wait-- right. This ship has lights that can transmit in a band that only certain creatures - and mages prepared for it - can sense."
"Okaaaaay," Holly says, eyeing the displayed diagram.
"Stopping is difficult, extensive damage to control systems," Jason tries to relay. "Mage is moving into position."
"Seems like the Empire of Stars uses mages so they can transmit high-security information without other people being able to pick it up," Randall says. "Bring us to a stop and run yellow, black, blue, red. We'll have them send us a tug to bring us over. I'm going to head up to the bridge."
"I need you to halt that engine, then, Randall," Jason reminds the 'captain' as he tries to bring the other engine and the ship to a halt.
As Holly goes through a few hand movements and motions within the circle, which don't seem to actually involve any spellcasting, per se, a crystal structure set in the ceiling of the bridge glows faintly. The crystal is cracked, and the resulting "magical projection" is suitably warped and cracked as a result: a stern-looking older woman with long stringy white hair and a crooked nose - and in robes similar to those worn by Akiko - looks down upon Holly and her circle.
Holly's eyes glance from the image to the orb's display, in case it's offering any more information; like what sort of protocol she needs to follow.
"Juggernaut Vindictive," the old sorceress hisses. "It was thought you were lost on Cauchemarem. Eh? Where is Sorceress Moire?" Her eyes scan, though it's unclear what exactly of the scene on the bridge she's able to see.
"Moire the Malevolent did not survive the battle," Holly reports. "We are the recovery team."
The sage looks disdainful, but then says, "Forward your captain's landing protocols, then."
"Randall, we need the landing protocols," Jason whispers in the comm.
"Just a moment please," Holly requests. "He's inspecting the engines right now."
Randall looks skyward - well, ceiling-ward. "Um, let's see. Red, white, red, white, red. Blue, red. White, blue, blue, white. Yellow, black. Yellow, black, yellow. Blue, red again."
Jason dutifully signals that sequence on the controls.
Holly watches the port mage's image in the meantime, keeping her own 'corporate face' up.
"Verified and secured," the phantom mage responds. "You are cleared to approach, and may take up your business with the dockmaster." The image fades away - and in the distance, several lanterns illuminate a docking station on the perimeter that rings the fortress.
"I need a drink," Jason mutters as he tries to guide the ship towards the docking station very slowly and carefully.
"At least she didn't ask about our uniforms," Holly notes with a sigh of relief.
Randall lets out yet another sigh of relief - yet another close call in a day that's had three of them in the space of an hour. "Should have packed some along," he agrees. "You want to risk a little virtual booze, Jason?"
"No, I don't," Jason admits and slumps down in his chair, "I just hope this isn't a moment of 'Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire.'". As he watches the lights approach under limping control of the ship, he can't help wonder just what Blake turned into...
Holly goes to the orb, and starts querying about taking on a more portable form, such as jewelry. "I hope they have a tailor here," she notes. "We'll need better clothes and other supplies if we can get them. And you boys better figure out how to explain Mara and RIU before repair crews come aboard..."