The Ozymandias Reborn
Technically, the name plate says "Vindictive," but nonetheless the ship is a fair sight better than it was back on Cauchemarem. Brushed dark metal and copper-toned surfaces gleam in the low red glow emitted from the ubiquitous tubes running throughout the ship, and metal buttresses (with repeated circles cut from them of varied sizes) cast ominous shadows. The chairs are nicely upholstered, and securing straps have been added to avoid embarrassing deck-jogs when the ship is jostled. The captain's station features a ship's wheel and various levers - the captain is evidently meant to stand, with a rail about him to offer support - with a hand-shaped imprint in the console just before the wheel. In front of the wheel and down a level, a magic circle has been engraved in the floor, with a glowing crystal ball on a pedestal nearby. Multiple circular view-panes give a commanding view of space, and of the jagged ramming prong.

Fuel systems are check. The remaining "mysterious blue stuff" is secured away in a tank in the ship's stores, for further study by the Empire of Stars. Ragged and frayed uniforms and rusted bucklers and corselets have been exchanged for new uniforms of black and red, with burnished bronze and dark metal armor.

Jason has meticulously checked the ship and verified that, yes, all the black boxes are back in place - and all of the power glove outlets are in place as well (for better or for worse). The aircar has been shuffled around a bit to keep it away from VNPC eyes, but it's presently stowed away in one of the spare ornithopter stalls (while Mara has another to use as her "nest").

The ship has stocks of water and food supplies, though there's no obvious way to test to see whether or not the Sage's promised "protocols" have come into play to make sure that they're from the Real World and not the artificial stuff of this one. (It certainly doesn't smell or look any different from the real thing - but as has been evidenced in this world, that's insufficient proof.)

The local crew have "helpfully" provided a course for a quick flight to Gormenghast, whether or not that's where the crew actually intends to head next.

Somehow, the locals seem to have bought the misdirections and outright fabrications made regarding the ship's crew - Captain Randall has rightly judged that the locals have no notion about the "power glove" and its amazing ability to bypass the need for a full crew, and that it might stretch credulity if they were to believe that this ship could operate JUST with a sorcerer (of no great title), an apprentice (of even less), one captain, and an engineer. So, as far as Tesliem is concerned, the Vindictive has its skeletal crew on board somewhere, and nobody cares enough that there aren't names and faces to apply.

"Course plan approved," comes a signal from the tower (a literal fortified tower, that is, not the stuff of modern airports). "Cleared to depart."

Randall adjusts his captain's hat. As young as the hispanic police officer seems, when he speaks it is with a fine imitation of a captain's authoritative tone. "Assistant Akiko, if you would handle communications? Set signal lamps to blue, white, blue to indicate we're departing. Engineer Drachehand, engines to ready. Lady Holly, please stand by in case they wish to communicate magically."

Jason waggles his fingers and resists commenting on the 'Captain's' obvious delight in his current roll. "Aye-aye," he says instead and inserts his glove hand into the control console on the bridge.

Sitting the magic circle, Holly looks back over her shoulder (and up) to the Captain's Dais. "Aye aye," she replies.

As Jason uses the power glove console to "do his thing," he finds he has a commanding view of the docks, now that the blast shields are up, and there aren't makeshift barricades blocking off against potential hellbat incursions. It's a mishmash of anachronisms - fantasy architecture, but dominated by metal structures with oversized rivets, with brushed metal and decor that suggests a bit of art deco thrown in for good measure (especially with all those vanes that keep exchanging blasts of electrical-ish energy with Tesliem itself). It would be easy to be distracted by all that and not notice the little details, for the commanding view, but nonetheless somehow he notices something hurtling in on the other side of the docks - quickly obscured by the central fortress, but it looked like it was a smaller Stellar Imperial craft, trailing debris. A brief moment later, there is a flash of light.

Far from being delighted, Randall looks through the windows of the bridge to observe the dock's defenses and how much attention they seem to be paying the Ozymandias as it warms up. "Let's head for Gormenghast first, then once we're far enough away, kill the lights and switch to Shipwreck. I don't want 'em to have any second thoughts about cutting us loose. Jason, bring us out nice and easy."

The cleared-for-departure signal comes again from the tower. "Uhm ... do I need to respond to that?" Akiko asks. "I mean, they already sent that signal. You'd think they were in a hurry to get us out of here." She grins.

"Captain, we have a ship crash in the docks. Something just ... entered and landed, I believe. It looked like a small ship ... but I'm not certain ... I wonder if it was Sasha. We never did find her, did we?" Jason says a bit worriedly.

"No need, we're just running lights as a cautionary for other ships in the area," Randall says, drawing on Imperial Harbor Protocols (vol. 1, chapter 3, Departure Procedure).

The police officer blinks. "No, no, we didn't. Anything on the magic detector, Holly?"

The magic detector is still dominated by the massive fluctuations of power coming from Tesliem itself - practically useless at this proximity, except to the keenest of studied eyes.

"Wait.. what was that about a crash?" Holly asks, turning to the crystal ball. "The detector will still be swamped this close in to Tesliem," she reminds, and queries the ball instead, "Orb, what just crashed into the dock?"

"I think the Captain should radio the launch tower and ask ... out of concern for our launch safety and that of the docks, of course," Jason suggests.

The orb has returned to its "computer interface" appearance, now that all the VNPCs have departed, and "Strict Roleplay Protocol" seems to no longer hold. A display window appears. "Query Result: No Crashes Detected at Tesliem Station 6."

"Radio would be a fine idea if we had it," Randall frets. "Can you steer us out on a course where we can get a look at that side? I'll send a query to tower to ask if they're aware of incoming traffic." He goes to assist Akiko in the comm codes.

Akiko asides to Randall idly, "You'd think, what with all these color signals, they could manage to give us some interior lights in something other than ... oh ... red or blue?"

"It's free with the fuel glow, evidently," Randall points out. "The Empire is a thrifty place."

Akiko nods with a sigh, and returns to cycling the "running light" signals. As clever as all the mechanics are, this is one particular function that is still manual, and can't be "programmed" to repeat itself automatically.

"Red preserves night-vision," Holly comments, and taps the crystal ball on the side to see if reception improves. "Okay.. uh.. I think that ship or whatever is spoofing the system somehow. The orb is being jammed."

"Want me to try and over-ride the jamming?" Jason asks as he tries to bring up the access controls he had when they were under attack.

Randall looks over to Holly. "That's got to be Sasha then. Jason, is this where you were going to kill me if I tried to talk to any other Light sources?"

"After extreme torture, yes," Jason drolls. "Wait until we know what it is this time."

Randall grins wryly. "In that case, you'll be glad to know you're in charge of that little detail. I'm going to back us out slowly, and tilt our course so you have a good view of the other side of the station. Can you send RIU out to investigate?"

"Taking to the captain's roll of sitting on your butt, I see," Jason remarks with a smirk. "RIU, stealth yourself. Can you investigate that dock safely while we back out?"

Randall takes charge of the wheel and engages the engine slowly. "It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it!"

Holly looks over to Akiko, and asks, "Just in case, do we have any bombs or rockets?"

Akiko turns about. "No, sorry. We just have a bunch of 'javelins' for the mass-driver catapults."

The tower flashes a warning sequence. The best Captain Randall can piece together (going from memory - so many codes to remember!) is that it's some sort of complaint that the ship is deviating from its plotted course.

Randall brings up speed a little, then tweaks the wheel ever so slightly. "Akiko, signal the tower we're checking our manuevering thrusters."

Meanwhile, the orb's "fuzzy" aura goes away, as a fishbowl view of the outside world comes into view, as if a camera feed from a bobbing and weaving viewpoint - such as, for instance, an invisible little dragon.

"I'm sure Holly could conjure some bombs. Or barring that something to entangle like an octopus," Jason remarks absently.

Akiko fumbles about, then looks over at the "cheat sheet" she has tacked up next to the controls. She takes the long route, "spelling" out the message, since she can't find a specific shorthand code for it.

"Ah, I have a feed from RIU!" Holly announces. "And bombs are expensive to conjure up."

"RIU is en-route to the location where it appeared that an impact occurred. Everyone stay alert. We need to be careful," Jason remarks.

The orb's view changes, as RIU shoots around and over (unlike aether ships, which are pretty much constrained to the Aether plane, to sail around the base). On the far side, there's a fire at one of the docking stations, and the remains of a ship being hosed down. There's some sort of commotion down there, as it looks like a man in a ragged uniform is struggling with several personnel from the base. All of them appear to be of the Empire of Stars - there's no sign of anyone resembling Sasha, or her cat.

The view from the orb is hard to focus on, however. RIU's viewpoint keeps jogging to one side or the other, never focusing directly on the scene for more than a split second.

"Well, yes, sort of," Holly explains. "And RIU is making me nauseous. Is he taking evasive action? I couldn't tell if that was a zombie at the dock.."

"Something is trying to push RIU away. It reminds me of one of those protocols that attacked Inari," Jason comments calmly. "Should I disengage him or try to get him to press on as much as possible?"

A window pops up with an icon of a speaker, as sound plays, projected from the orb. "You're not real! You're just puppets! You're not real!" the ragged-looking man (an officer?) screams.

"That's certainly not Sasha," Randall muses distractedly. He's checking the tower for return signals at the same time. "It could be another player, trying to infiltrate the Empire. Can you--"

The tower has gone back to just repeating the same "cleared-for-departure" signal. It hasn't bothered to repeat the protest over the deviation from course.

"He's acting crazy enough to be one of us," Holly admits. "Are you going to send Mara out to pick him up?"

Randall frowns. "Either Mara or the aircar, if you can give us something to cloak us from detection."

"I can probably make Mara invisible," Holly notes, then turns to Akiko. "Are in a Roleplay Enforcement zone again, Akiko?"

"RIU feels very uncomfortable too. I can feel it through the link," Jason says, echoing Akiko's worry, "Can Inari clarify her concern any?" He then tries to direct RIU to position himself so that he can emit an electrical discharge into platform to stun everyone and look like just a dock discharge accident.

Akiko shakes her head. "I don't know what to make of it. I know this doesn't make any sense, but it just feels like a different flavor of wrongness."

The police officer studies the orb intently. "What are the odds of someone else having stumbled into this world, and managing to escape to Tesliem in a small ship? It's days away from Cauchemarem. Keep RIU hidden if you can, watch what he does after."

The view from the orb drops suddenly. A guard comes up with a polearm with a tip on the top that looks like a blunted pike point, but with several metal rings stacked around it, of decreasing sizes (smallest toward the tip). It crackles with blue energy, and the guard touches the crazed man with the tip. The man lets out a cry and shudders from contact - and just then, RIU lets loose....

"That's about how I would try to describe it too. So ... well, at least you and Inari are feeling more like a player and link now," Jason suggests hopefully.

Three explosions of blue ball lightning blast into the crowd, striking the guard and two others.

All three go down, thrashing, and the ragged man falls to the ground as well. The others standing there for a moment seem shocked as well, looking around as if lost as to what just happened, and what to do about it now.

Holly gets up, asking Randall, "Shall I go make Mara transparent? She'd be a lot faster than the aircar, and wouldn't need help picking the guy up."

Well done, RIU! Now remained stealthed, no more attacks for the moment," Jason commands. "Do we want to radio the tower and ask them about problems on the dock and if they wish us to investigate? We just picked up a surge, of course..."

Through the orb, it looks as if RIU's viewpoint is no longer jerking like it was before. The fire, further down the dock, has been put out. The remaining dockhands almost robotically start to move to grab the fallen ragged man, as they start to resume dragging him toward the central fortress, heedless of their stunned comrades.

Randall frowns. "I'll go with you. I don't have the 'remote view' connection that Jason does, so I'll be going in with Mara. No, I don't want to bring the Ozy in. But you just gave me an idea." He studies the scene through the orb. "See anything flammable or that'd distract the guards to go fix it before they get back to our stranger here?"

"Fire solves everything, eh?" Holly asks, as she heads for the passageway. "I'll have the spell ready when you get to the hangar."

"RIU, can you locate anything flammable near? Anything that would distract the dock hands? Or better, knock their captive into space so we could grab him?" Jason asks his Avatar.

Through the orb view, it looks like there are several canisters stacked up, full of "the red stuff," with clear glass portals to bathe the surrounding area in an eerie red projected glow (in addition, of course, to the bright crackle from Tesliem). According to manuals, these containers can be highly explosive. (For some reason, the substance isn't nearly so bad when it's running through pipes in a ship, but there seems to be a need to have barrels-of-explosive-stuff in the universe.)

The police officer adds, "You have the bridge, Jason. If something goes wrong, just get out of here, we can stay in touch over the links." He rushes after Holly.

"RIU, do you have enough left to stun those deck hands," Jason asks his Avatar.

On the orb, a power meter icon appears. "9/20" it reads, with a little call-out - "Invisibility: 5; ZapZapZap Plus: 6."

"Okay, stun them like the others. If you require, I will use myself as boost," Jason tells the little dragon as he focuses on the link between them.

In the hangar, Holly chants her spell. "Just keep walking honey. Don't look at that poor man, he can't help it," she invokes, conjuring up a pair of oversized novelty sunglasses. They're pink, covered in glitter, and have heart-shaped lenses.

"Well, wouldn't you pretend not to see somewhere wearing these?" Holly asks, handing the glasses to Randall. "They'll cover you and Mara."

FROTZ! The view on the orb flashes blue, as it seems like there's been a lightning strike on the docks. When the light clears, RIU's video feed shows a bunch of crewmen sprawling around, staring off into space in a daze, and occasionally jerking.

Randall grins. "Okay, here, Mara. Time to accessorize you!" They're oversized for him... Just right for her?

Mara's dignity does seem at least a little bit compromised by the sunglasses. It almost makes her ... cute. She doesn't seem to mind, though.

The police officer pats Mara's neck, then saddles up. "That's my beautiful girl," he says encouragingly. "Let's go find this guy and get him out of there!"

Mara lets out a wyvern cry, which blends in with the whine of her propfans as she powers up for takeoff.

Holly goes for the hangar controls, and opens the door enough for Mara to fly out.

"You are the best Avatar ever," Jason tells RIU over the link. "Monitor the dock now and try to stay hidden. If you think you can safely check it, see if you can lock the door leading to that dock, too."

Randall stops himself from hitting the police flashing lights and siren - darn that reflex! - and flies Mara out toward Dock Six. He nervously keeps an eye out in case Holly's 'don't look at me' device doesn't work as well as she'd expected.

Mara also has the presence of mind not to announce her flight to the world with another wyvern cry (let alone the siren). She banks about, circling out and gaining altitude, to offer a more commanding view over the fortress station. Soon, Captain Randall can see the dock station with the smoking remains of a crashed ship, and several sprawled bodies lying about - as some crewmen lumber about, closing in doggedly on a prone, ragged figure. There's no sign of RIU (no surprise there), though a few odd crackles of blue "static energy" play teasingly off some of those notoriously explosive barrels near the scene.

Over the comlink, Randall radios, "There're a couple dock workers reinforcing them, they must really want this guy." He directs Mara into the dock hoping to be able to do a snatch-and-grab, but for safety's sake he arms his gun.

Standing next to the door controls (but leaving the hangar open in case Randall needs to get in quick) Holly asks over the commlink, "If Randall does bring that guy back, do any of you know first aid? Or should we bring him to one of the holding cells?"

Despite the approach of more dock workers (none of whom look especially suited for combat), it appears that neither Mara's nor RIU's presence has been detected.

Suddenly, Mara jerks to one side in a spasm, but she recovers quickly, and bears down on her "prey."

"Happy-hat-boy should know first aid. They teach cops that, along with how to eat fifty donuts without indigestion," Jason claims over the link.

"I missed the donut-eating class," Randall claims. He pats Mara's shoulder. Let's do this.

"He knows how to throw people into a cell too, and we're all out of donuts," Holly reminds.

The viewpoint of the orb shows the stunned bodies still lying on the ground, with no indication that they'll get up anytime soon. The camera angle nervously jogs toward the approaching dockhands (who have expressions more appropriate to a zombie horror flick than anything else - minus the gore), and then nervously back ... as it looks like the ragged body is lifting into the air!

"Akiko ... is it possible for a VNPC to become, well, completely sentient and as close to real as we are? Or at least somehow broken its link to the AIs?" Jason asks the asian woman on the bridge with him.

Randall nervously pulls Mara back out, covering the dockworkers as he goes in case they draw weapons and start shooting.

Akiko frowns. "That should be impossible. Physically speaking - I mean, as we would see it here - a good portion of the VNPCs' brains is just mush. Filler. They've got, essentially, just the processors they need to handle motor coordination, and some basic functions, but their personalities are all handled remotely."

"Yes, but if something went wrong," Jason suggests, "Would our avatars be able to sense it?"

Some of the dockworkers look up agape at the scene. Some of them just shudder, their eyes roll back in their heads, and they flop down to the ground. Others, however, let out a cry of rage, and charge onto the scene. One stops, thrashes about, and starts screaming, "Error! Protocol violation! Error! Error!" before falling to the ground.

Akiko looks askance toward the orb. "Uhm ... and ... I think something broke. They shouldn't be ... you know ... saying out of character stuff like that."

Randall says over the comlink, "Warm up the engines, we're getting out of here." He turns around and engages main thrusters.

"Engines engaged and ship moving," Jason replies as he guides the ship slowly away from the station, "RIU, return to me immediately. Your safety is paramount."

As evidenced by the sudden shift in the orb's projected image, RIU spins about 180 degrees, and shoots off into the air, arcing over the fortress, and then barreling down to the Vindictive/Ozymandias, where it chugs along through the Aether.

"I ... bloody hell, I think I know what is happening," Jason suddenly says. He starts looking for signs of programmer links to the Teslium station. "I think Blake may be attacking the actual protocols holding Teslium together."

Over the comlink, Randall says, "Holly, Jason, they said something about 'Protocol violation'. Remind me - there're Diversion Protocols, Anachrony Protocols, and... Which one are we violating?"

Grabbing on to a support strut as the ship starts moving, Holly says, "We aren't violating any of them that I know of! Not anything that would cause this!"

Around the bridge, flags and displays show up, with a maze of information. Lots of them scream various types of errors, violations, etc. There's one particularly ominous one that says, "Request Pending: Emergency Shutdown of Tesliem Zone. Priority One Request [White]: Divert all PCs from affected Zone."

The police officer looks worried, echoing his wyvern's inner fear, but returns his gun to its hidden spot in his uniform and pats her shoulder as he heads for the hangar. We'll deal with it together, he thinks to her.

Off from the station, the Aether itself seems to be churning. A whirlpool of energy begins to form and spread out ... a vortex into which the Aether is slowly pulled. The Vindictive begins to drift off course, pulled toward the vortex.

"Folks, get to the ship now. The zone is being shut down. We have to go. Once you're onboard, I'm opening engines to full," Jason commands into the link. "Sorry Captain, for overstepping, but we're not bout to die out here. Not again!"

The hangar bay doors are still open. Under Captain Randall's guidance, Mara folds in her wings and expertly exploits the buoyancy of the gravity-plane running right down the middle of the hangar, coming to a bouncing skid, and then shooting out her wings again and reversing the fans to come to a stop.

"No worry, Jason. It's not like I'm really an Imperial captain either," Randall says jestingly into the comlink, though his voice is tight as he makes the manuever. "We're in - shut the doors and let's boogie!"

The orb's display, meanwhile, shows the interior corridors of the Ozymandias shooting by, as RIU weaves through (using every shortcut he knows of) to make his way back to the bridge. Jason suddenly feels a weight, as if he had been pounced upon from behind by a scared housecat. An unseen weight curls on his shoulders and shivers violently.

Holly shuts the doors, and says, "Okay Captain, cell or infirmary for our guest?"

Jason reaches up and pats RIU as he starts doing numbers in his head. "We might be able to use that whirlpool to our advantage. If I can get the angle right, I can use its pull force to boost our own ships velocity and slingshot us out of here," he says into the link. "But this will be a rough ride. I'll need you on the bridge, Captain, Holly. I may need your help with this." He starts pushing the engines to power.

The bridge's Proximity Alarm goes off, as the klaxon drops from the ceiling and starts blaring. It would seem that, whatever useless state the Thaumaturgic Detector has been reduced to, the maelstrom nonetheless stands out against the energy fields of Tesliem.

The turbines churn the Aether, which, in the vicinity of the whirlpool, manifests itself in visible ripples of light and sprays of glowing particles.

Running to the bridge (why does the ship have to be so long?) Holly says, "I hope our guest doesn't go crazier if he wakes up in the talons of a cyber-wyvern!"

On the bridge, a memo pops up, just as Randall gets to his station. "Chaz: Did 'Wrath of the Golems' break Tesliem? I've got player complaints coming in like wildfire."

Jason hurriedly tries to figure out the ship's mass. "Akiko, can you tell me what the approximate force that whirlpool is generating and the rate at which it is growing?" he asks. To himself, he mutters, "They used to do this with probes all the time. Use the gravitational field to slingshot accelerate them..."

"We don't have time to secure him otherwise," Randall says to Holly as he takes stock of their situation and studies the ship's gyroscopic compass and the map. It's a gamble, to be sure.

Back in the magic circle, Holly catches her breath. "Okay... are we out of blast range yet if Tesliem is gonna blow?" she asks.

Another memo pops up: "Archus: Some joker is sabotaging Tesliem! It's internal. I'm trying to run a trace - need to do an emergency zone lockdown - this is serious!" "ThorWannabe: Hey, I've got some data streams coming in from an inactive sector. I don't recognize the name. Skyrmir? How do you say that anyway?"

Akiko says, "Paperwork! They gave us a total calculated mass for the ship and ..." She digs around for the forms. "I don't think they added in the aircar ... no, wait, we listed that as 'secret cargo.' Here!"

"I'm trying to use the whirlpool to give us an acceleration boost. We're probably going to need it," Jason shouts as he puts his plans into motion by grabbing the paperwork from Akiko and looking other the mass numbers and again doing some approximate-math in his head. "Can you follow this course, Randall? It should follow the force contour of the whirlpool if I'm right and speed us up ... but we shouldn't get sucked in if my numbers are accurate!" Jason asks and sends a new route over the commlink.

Randall dons his Captain's hat again and a feeling of calm settles in over his face. He twirls the tip of his mustache, then settles his hands on the wheel. "Okay, let's do this, Jason. Engines to full speed!"

A new memo appears: "LokiJr: White is taking initiative, generating some gate maelstroms to send PCs out of zone. I'm not sure about the destinations, though. One of them isn't even in the charted play area. Is that recoverable?" Followed by a stream of jargon and data.

"I am the giant Skrymir," Holly mutters under her breath. "That could be Blake's system login."

"I'm bringing up a route simulation. I've entered inn our ship mass along with some guesswork on the force trends of the whirlpool. It should help us adjust the path as needed, I hope!," Jason calls out and sends over the animated map and projected path information over to Randall's PDA.

"Demeter: I'm getting a false recipient error - faked address. Someone's tapping into this channel." "LokiJr: All right, this has to be sabotage. Maelstrom link - 'Skrymir' - that's what it said, and then it cleared out to garbage. You're just going to have to trust me. I can't replicate it. We don't even have a Skrymir."

"By Maverick, by Goose and by Sky Captain," Holly chants, "Don't let Randall screw up!"

Holly takes a pair of Air Force aviator glasses from inside her robe, and hands them up to Randall. "Put these on!"

Randall grins and snaps them into place. With wrist PDA set to holo-mode, projecting an image of the Ozymandias in relation to the vortex, he sets his hands on the wheel. "All hands stand by to action stations," he announces. "Initiating slingshot manuever... Now."

The engines protest, and buttresses strain, as the Ozymandias banks and rides on a wave of Aether, catching the rim of the force pulling into the maelstrom and using it for a slingshot maneuver. Timing is critical, lest the Ozymandias be flung right into one of the "orbiting" stations or perhaps into the heart of Tesliem itself ... but Captain Randall does not disappoint, nor do Jason's calculations. (Those aviator goggles don't hurt, either.) Pipes burst, sending red spray shooting down the corridor. Alarms scream. Rivets shoot out and ricochet across the walls. The angry flare of the maelstrom casts harsh shadows across the bridge, through the viewports. Pieces of debris fly by, uncomfortably close, on their way to being pulled in. A few bounce off of the ship's reinforced armor.

Almost lost in the confusion, another memo pops up. "DocFrankenfurter: I've got some of those VNPC errors cropping up again - right near Station 6. That illegal access interfered with the clean-up protocols. I think we've got another rogue."

Jason's attention, once more, seems to shift as it looks like the arc calculations will work, his attention shifts to the chat link as he crafts a garbled, but partially readable, message to inject: Hobbit: Experimental Zone Skrymir, , Location: Hidden, , Owner: Blake Forester. Owner is suspected of misuse of corporate network by security. .

"Hang on, folks," Randall says as he adjusts the thrusters by tiny increments, reacting to the currents of the Aether as it's drawn into the vortex. "Coming up on periapsis!"

Another memo - "Chaz: HOBBIT?! Hobbit, where are you? What's going on? Dear God, you won't believe what I've heard - Tracer's been trying--" And then, all the memos disintegrate, as the orb flashes wildly, and the ship shoots off into the Aether with such force that it may very well be off the plane.

Akiko wavers and slumps over, though fortunately the restored station chair has restraints so she doesn't go careening into the ship's hard metal surfaces.

So this is what a gravity whip feels like, Randall thinks dizzily, bracing himself against the stress forces. He lines up the exit vector by painstaking degrees. At this point of closest approach, even the tinest nudge can make a huge difference.

Time passes. Well, really, not much time passes at all, but somehow Jason and Randall each get the feeling from their respective Avatar links as if much time should be passing, as if they were going for a great distance, across a great span of time. Outside the viewports, they see glittering shards off ... that way. From the shimmering in the distance, it seems that they have indeed ended up somewhere off the plane, and the Ozymandias has rolled a bit to port. As they progress, it looks like, further ahead, the aether takes on a faint glow - seeming less like a deep and empty void, but more like an endless sky, with a warm and inviting sun waiting for them. But before that shining place, there is a brewing storm, low and close to the Aether plane. Lightning flashes, and Aether-clouds brew, and fragments of doomed shards are tossed about. There is an eye in the middle of it, within which float a cluster of broken fragments - and a mass of wreckage. As they continue, it becomes evident that the a

As they continue, it becomes evident that the arc of their journey is going to take them somewhere into the midst of that storm - perhaps even into the eye, to join that massive heap of wreckage.

Something has happened to the ship's generated gravity, as everything - and everyone - experiences a gradual shift to weightlessness. (Reports from Mara in the hangar indicate a similar phenomenon going on there as well.)

"Cutting engines and reinitializing into reverse thrust to slow down," Jason comments in forced calm as he issues commands to the vessel via his gauntlet. Of course when he feels gravity breaking down, well ... there's a minor/ shout of panic.

The ship's turbines make a strange whine. It would seem that they are spinning faster than ever, simply because, for the time being, they have nothing against which to find purchase.

"Well, at least we know why it's called Shipwreck now," Holly notes, and stays firmly strapped into her chair.

"Shipwreck," Randall's voice says as if from afar. "There's supposed to be a free trading port in the center of that storm - well, the ship's logs call it a 'wretched hive of scum and villainy'."

"Then give it something Miss Mage!," Jason retorts to Holly. "Summon a giant fire extinguisher trapped to the hull we can use for thrust!"

Floating objects begin to settle back down. Gravity seems to be reasserting itself. The storm looms closer.

"How big of a nudge do we need?" Holly asks, trying remain calm about it. "Or... well, maybe we'll just fall back into the Aether on our own. Hmmm."

"I hope no one left the toilet seat up and always remembered to flush," Jason mutters as Gravity begins to resume. Jason tests the directional controls to see if they have come back.

"We're inbound," Randall says, adjusting his aviator's glasses and settling his hands back on the wheel. "Brace yourself, folks, this could be a rocky ride."

Off to the port side, a huge, ebon shard floats by. Lights flash and flare from myriad points, as if multiple fierce battles are taking place down below. According to the navigational map, that must be Blackstone.

With gravity seeming to work again, Holly leaves her chair for the circle. Just to be safe, she slides her hands over the symbols to 'warm them up' in case something needs to be done. "You know, they really need to add padded knees to these mage uniforms," she mutters.

A tiny brigantine ship with faintly-glowing sails glides along, skirting the edges of the violent tempest. Elsewhere, a black sloop prowls the Aether, with sails that look as if they're fashioned from the wings of a great dragon - wing bones and all still in place. Even at this height, enormous Jolly Rogers can be seen painted across the sails. But they soon whip by, as the clouds begin to close in on the Ozymandias.

"Back there when I injected that message ... it sounded like your daughter was probably looking for you, Holly," Jason comments as he carefully monitors ship's operations. "I also hope we look scary enough that no one attacks us..."

The Ozymandias slowly rights itself in relation to the Aether plane (though this has no effect on the apparent direction of "down" according to the gravity experienced by those on the bridge), so it's no longer to so easily see the shards and ships gliding by below. Instead, there are only clouds and lightning strikes, and the occasional silhouette of great monsters that seem to be free to travel apart from the plane. Gauges indicate that pressure is returning to normal levels outside the ship's hull - so it's no longer approaching hard vacuum out there, thank goodness.

"What?" Holly asks, distracted from the circle. "She's been in touch with the company then? I hope.. If Blake so much as looks at her, I'll..." The rant fades into the subvocal range, thankfully.

"Relax, she'll be fine," Randall reassures, but his gaze is on the storm ahead of them, as he tries to identify debris and figure out what course corrections they'll need to avoid them.

Ahead, the clouds part again, giving a glimpse of the swirling chaos that is Shipwreck. The many lights - golden, blue-hued, and other - that shine from it might be considered welcoming, if not for the current velocity of the Ozymandias's approach. What are the odds? It would seem that Jason's calculation is being borne out with the precision that could only be expected in a computer simulation, and the impact point of returning to the Aether plane is located dead center of Shipwreck.

"Jason! Get ready, we're going to flip the ship and fire the engines on a reciprocal vector," Randall says. "Holly, warm that orb up, get me a plot of local ships and objects so we can avoid a collision."

Akiko slowly stirs and rights herself, putting a hand to her head. "Wha? What happened? Are we there yet?"

"We're approaching Shipwreck. We're trying to slow down and ease in under control," Jason answers as he prepares for Randall's next order.

"Funny you should say that, hang on 'cause we're almost there," Randall says with a grin.

"Orb, give us a visual on all nearby object trajectories," Holly says, and then tells Akiko, "We'll be there sooner than you'd probably like. Don't unbuckle, but keep an eye on the magic detector okay?"

Akiko looks relieved, clearly not having had a chance to properly take in the forward view. "All right. Should I send any signals to show we're friendly?"

The orb projects several windows (angled to accommodate the different positions of viewers about the chamber), showing a 3D map of the local storm, and various "Aether Currents" that twist like a pretzel through it, above the plane. Ordinary skyships used to sailing in a two-dimensional environment might be in for quite the rollercoaster ride if they get caught up in these paths. It would seem that the Ozymandias hasn't yet reached the edge of the "pretzel" - and that its course is likely to cut right across most of those points. A few hapless ships can be found going through the circuit - it would seem that crazy travelers must hit the Storm with great frequency (not surprising, perhaps, considering the high population of crazy adventurers in this universe), and that few of them must know how to do so with any degree of dignity.

RIU, meanwhile, buries his face in Jason's back, hiding behind him as if that'll keep him safe from the outside world.

Randall says thoughtfully, "They probably won't have much chance to check our lights out at this speed, but run yellow-blue-yellow, 'Stand clear'." He works out the details of the revised sim with Jason - they need to kill their velocity, and preferably avoid going right across one of these ships.

"Any of these currents of use to us?" Holly asks the ones actually flying the ship.

"Bwah! Cold nose!" Jason blurts and dances around like a loon for a few seconds around Randall. "Ahem, sorry," he adds, then resumes work.

Randall, distracted by Jason's dance, shakes his head to Holly. "I was mostly reviewing the practical stuff - how to get us repaired and refueled, and look like I knew what I was doing. Deep Aether piloting was in the next volume I hadn't gotten to."

Akiko pipes up, "The javelins can have chains attached to them, for boarding actions."

Jason looks over the numbers again and the ships readout. "We have a problem," he says, "So do you want good news first, or bad news?"

"Bad news. This ship can't thrust off air, which is most of what is here. The only places where we'll get any reverse thrust are those streams," Jason comments. "And I lied, there is no good news."

"Right, chains and javelins it is then," Holly notes. "Orb, what masses are in firing range?"

Randall groans. "Okay, so we need to find an unoccupied stretch of aether current that's long enough we can actually brake?"

"That's one option. Chains are another. Third is Mara helping with thrust brake too," Jason offers.

The orb display lights up, highlighting various ships caught in the Aether streams (of various sizes). None of the big floating fragments of rock seem to be within firing range of the ship's current trajectory. Actually nailing one would require a course change - somehow.

"We're going to pass by a lot of these smaller ships," Holly notes, point out trajectories. "Wait.. air? There's air outside?"

"Yes! Huh, make a really BIG parachute attached to the ships butt! Helping diaper of slowdown!" Jason announces.

Akiko looks confused. "What's this about air and ... parachutes?" She finally looks out the front ... and it dawns on her what she's seeing. "Oh ... my ... gaw--"

"Okay, give me a moment to think," Holly says, looking at the magic circle. "We have control surfaces right?"

Randall eyes Jason. "I think you may be misremembering exactly how big Mara is compared to the Ozy. But all right then. Akiko, Holly, get to firing controls and let's get a chain javelin ready. Jason, soon as we hit an aether current, I'm going to hit the thrusters and try to change our course to pass close to one of those rocks."

"Can you handle the javelin's by yourself, Akiko?" Holly asks. "I think I can help slow us down, or at least redirect us."

"We have turbines ... and some sails! Hmm. Maybe we should deploy the sails," Jason suggests.

Akiko flails around the controls. "Sails ... sails ... oh no - there's just a call tube. I guess I'm supposed to call the engine room and someone down there deploys them. Unless this is one of those power glove things again?"

Jason slaps his forehead in a mock-salute to Holly. "Aye-Aye, short stuff!", he says and heads back to the controls. In goes the gauntlet as he tells the ship, "Deploy main sails and cut turbines. We are going to air power for a bit."

Randall nods. "It's your show, Holly," he says as he takes the wheel again and refers to the orb so once they're deployed, he can use what limited control the sails offer to manuever.

The turbines stop whining, and the ship rattles as the spined wing/sails snap back from the hull and immediately fill out, even as the spines telescope to full length, and a gauzy, faintly luminescent material spreads out to fill the spaces.

Holly turns to the orb, and queries about where best to apply some wind to slow them down.

Jason wows. "Okay, the sails are pretty," he comments as he looks out at what little he can see of them.

Randall eyes the red-glowing sails. "They're going to think the Empire's coming to pay their little black market operation a visit," he opines.

A flood of data pours out from the orb - air currents, blasts of the storm, shifts in the aether streams, and even predictions of where it is going next. With skilled tweaking, Holly barks instructions to the orb, and eliminates extraneous data, cutting it down to what's relevant. And what seems to be most relevant is that, if this model is correct, there's about to be a tremendous gust that, if they could just avert their course a bit to starboard somehow, they could catch with the sails and slow their descent considerably.

The sorceress activates the appropriate region of the circle corresponding to the port side of the ship. "We need a nudge to starboard, captain, and we can catch this gust here," she tells Randall, pointing to a section of the display. "I'm going to give us the nudge. Everyone turn towards port and lean back in your chairs!"

Jason, for his part, focuses on the glowing red sails. He's rebuilt this ship so many times now, he practically knows how it feels. Anytime a slight groan occurs, he adjusts the sail pitch slightly. Sometimes just the height. And even once, he just adjusted the tension of the sail itself. Everything to give Randall the finest control possible.

Randall laughs. "And get prepared to get blown out of our seats!" He braces himself.

Jason, satisfied now with the sails, grips his seat and leans back. "If we die ... I'm so going to be mad!" he tells Holly.

Holly utters an advertising phrase from the previous century, and several things happen at once. Sunglasses and scarves materialize on everyone, their seats briefly become leather reclines, and small end tables with glasses of wine appear next to them. Then, from outside the ship, comes a tremendous NOISE that blows at them, even through the hull. Hair and scarves flap, the wine moves precariously close to falling from the table.. and then the ship moves just enough for Randall to be able to take advantage of the wind stream, before everything goes back to normal.

Yawning to pop her ears, Holly says, "And here I thought there'd never be an advantage to marrying a marketing geek.."

Randall pulls his hat back on from where it was blown off. "Right, I've got this, Holly," he says with a grin.

The erstwhile captain adjusts his glasses so the dark lenses catch the red light of the bridge. Spreading his hands like a maestro's, he settles them upon the controls. A little feather nudge here to avoid incoming debris, halving the sail coverage there to speed them through the aetheric current just ahead of a passing ship, lights flashing 'Keep Clear!'... And as they come into sight of their destination, he tilts the sail to give them a victory spin, three times around their long axis.

"That ought to let them know we're no ordinary Empire ship," Randall says as he adjusts their spin back to a stable position.

The Ozymandias slides through the Aether streams. A sky-brig sweeps by, and for a fleeting moment, the bridge crew catches the faces of stunned adventurers in gaudy armor and robes looking up in mixtures of awe and disbelief as the Ozymandias sweeps by. Only belatedly do a few magic arrows and power bolts shoot off in its wake, as someone must have supposed this was the prelude for a surprise "boss fight."

"Or you just told everyone we're a drunken party ship. Was the spinning necessary? I feel like my feet are in my throat," Jason complains.

Randall laughs. "It's a victory roll, don't tell me you never competed in a spaceship regatta?"

"Fly up the Jolly Roger, why don't we?" Holly asks, rolling her eyes at the fancy aerobatics.

The Vindictive slides in to Buccaneer Bay - an artificial "harbor" formed by two peninsulas of outward-jutting wreckage, sweeping about to form a shield of sorts from random debris blasted about by the Storm outside the Eye. The docks have persons topside and bottomside - for gravity reverses at the level of the Aether plane here, rather than going nice and round as it would on a regular shard. Pirates and scoundrels and ne'er-do-wells and the occasional out-of-place obvious Adventurer (with a capital A) watch in slack-jawed awe as the Ozymandias makes its grand and ostentatious entrance. No one even dares to challenge it, despite the numerous cannon emplacements lining the harbor mouth.

"Careful when saying that. It makes the universe want to smack you," Jason points out to Akiko as he undoes his seat belt and stretches. "How is Inari and your connection to her feeling after that encounter in Teslium?"

"Yes, now we just have to try and talk to an Adventurer without getting attacked," Holly says. "That will be Randall's task."

Akiko looks uncertain. "Sorry ... I don't know how to answer that properly. I usually only feel something when something's going wrong. Nothing ... unusual."

Randall smiles. "Funny you should mention that. We're now adventurers who've captured a ship of the Empire, in for resupply before we return to Ithalbar." At the mention of their 'guest' however, his smile fades. "Yes, we'd better do that. I'll handle docking if you want to check on him."

Akiko nods. "Captain - should I send any sort of signals? I think they know we're here now, in any case. I'll go see if I can wake up Inari once you don't need me for signals."

"Right. I'll go check on the 'guest' then," Jason comments and pats RIU on his shoulder. "Wake up, might need you if he decides to attack," he tells the dragon as he leaves the bridge.

"Don't worry about it, I'll handle it," Randall says, nodding to Akiko. He sends a request for a docking station, identifying them as the Ozymandias.

"I'll go check the hangar and see if he's decorated it with his lunch or not, and keep Jason company," Holly volunteers, and heads after Jason.

At the dock, a fellow with a bright green handkerchief wrapped around his head, and dressed in striped stereotypical "pirate crew" gear waves a flag around, signalling the Ozymandias into what looks like the largest spot in the harbor.

Akiko nods and unbuckles her harness, then retreats to the (newly restored) bridge armory closet.

Randall furls the sails - hardly needed in port - and takes the Ozymandias into the designated port. Over the comlink to the others, he says, "Let me try something, once you're down there, I'll try telling Mara to release him to your care. Let me know when she does."

The way through the ship is a lot quicker now that there aren't fallen supports and other hazards to carefully tread past. In short order, Holly and Jason make it down to the hangar bay. It's still under the odd gravity effect it usually is in between shards - meaning that Mara is floating in her berth, keeping watch over a ragged-looking man who clings onto the supports of one of the access railings. While she doesn't look especially hostile (the glasses have vanished), it appears she's not letting their "guest" wander far.

"Soldier," Jason calls out to the ragged man and trying to sound calm and collected himself, "Have you calmed down? Can you explain just what happened to you and your ship?"

Mara looks up and withdraws a bit, as if to make it clear to the newcomers that she is deferring to their judgement ... but staying at the ready and watchful, just in case she's needed.

Holly sticks close to the doorway, just in case the stranger tries to make a break for it.

The man looks warily to Jason, and tries to right himself, though he's on a structure that is one of those peculiar zones of gravity, and it doesn't look like his ship role gives him much time messing about in the hangar. "General Vilius Irongrip," he says, shakily. "Formerly in command of Tesliem Station 1."

"What happened to station one? Why were you calling the people on the docks puppets?" Jason asks next.

The man looks surprised. "You ... you saw that. Tell me ... who are you? What is your name? ... Who are your parents? Where were you born? How OLD are you?"

"That's a rather odd question for a VNPC," Jason answers and crosses his arms over his chest, "But to answer: Jason Edwards, age twenty five. Owner of a security company. Care to answer those yourself?"

"VNPC," the man repeats, flinching. "VNPC!" he repeats, jerking again. "What is that word? Is it a magic word? Why does a word so simple do what it does?"

"I think he's gone off-script," Holly whispers to Jason. "Do we have an MRI or some sort of medical scanner on this ship?"

"Calm down," Jason tells the man, "Tell us what happened to you. It's important." To Holly, Jason asides, "No, we don't have a medical scanner."

For a moment, a flash of indignation shows in the man's face, but he stifles it. "I am General Vilius Irongrip. I have a long and storied history ... little of which I can remember now. It's as if I left part of my mind behind when I escaped Tesliem One. Something has happened. Something is happening to the Empire. Some sorcery...." He looks suspiciously over to Holly. "Someone is turning our minds to mush ... turning the soldiers of the Empire into ... into zombies!"

"Explain what happened? How were they zombies?" Jason asks simply. His main focus is currently on RIU...

"Interesting," Holly mutters. "Could have been part of Blake's attack, do you think?"

Holly's and Jason's comlinks pick up a text message from Randall. It reads, "Dates and times avoided in ship's manuals, game AIs must not like to refer to it. V. interesting he asked how old you were."

"I ... no, I can't tell you what was going on at Station One," Vilius says, uncertain. "Security. I don't know your clearance. I ... I don't know if that really matters anymore. I can't discount yet that this might be some elaborate trick to try to get me to divulge secrets. So-called heroes of the Light will resort to anything - feeling justified that simply because they are Light, then all that they do is right. But ... no, I'm rambling. Zombies." He looks as if he's struggling to figure out where to start.

Quieter, to Holly and the link to Randall, "His stats are ... crazy. He no longer is a VPC OR VNPC. He is a rogue denizen." Back to the floating man, he asks, "Tell us about the zombies then. It is important. I believe there is a third faction at work, seeking to undermine and enslave both Shadow and Light."

Vilius looks shocked. "Then you know already." He sighs. "It shouldn't matter anymore. They destroyed it all, regardless." He looks up again. "By my authority, I command you to secrecy. This is privileged information. I am only divulging it to you by authority of Emergency Protocol 42, Section 3, Condition 7." He straightens up.

Another text message from Randall: "He thinks we are officers. Temporary clearance, need-to-know. Play along."

Vilius nods, satisfied. "It all began with the creation of the golems. I personally observed as the scientists implanted the brains into the creatures," he explains. "There was something about the sight of it ... I felt a lancing sympathetic headache, the likes of which I cannot recall ever suffering before or since. A few of the workers were staggered as well - the scientists blathered something about latent psychic effects or other such nonsense, claimed it was just a byproduct of the process ... inferred none-too-subtly that it might only affect the weak-minded."

"Curious. Did you run clearance checks on the scientists to ensure they were not compromised by outsiders," Jason inquires. "Do you have a list of names?"

"Yes," Vilius confirms. "Constructed through alchemy. In its ultimate state, it should be possible to construct complete homunculi in whole form, but at this stage ... ah ... what is the phrase? Some assembly is required. I found myself unable to focus," he continues, sounding shamed at admitting it. "We had been putting in extended hours, and the energies of Tesliem can't have been helping - nor this 'psychic' nonsense. I retired to my office ... and just spent my time thinking back over my schedule...."

Vilius looks distracted, annoyed. He strains, then shakes his head. "Doctor Prometheus was presiding. I should know the names of the other doctors. I do not."

"In any event, please continue. What happened when you retired to your office?" Jason asks.

"Yes," Vilius says, taking a breath and then continuing. "I found myself struggling to remember simple details of what was in my schedule. I knew I was busy, and I knew I had been performing my duties all day ... but I could not recall the particulars. I had the disturbing sensation that I had been spending much of the day simply standing in place in my office until it was time for me to walk into the operating room, and merely deluding myself that I was busy."

"Curious," Jason says with a short nod. He casts a short, worried, glance to Holly. "Does the name Blake, or Forester mean anything to you, by chance? Have you heard them before?"

"I was suspicious, in retrospect, of some of the 'doctors' in that operating room," Vilius continues. "Some of them looked rather muscular, rather tall for their role. And some rather ... feminine. I felt a nagging notion that something was amiss ... and at the same time, I felt a sharp pain anytime I started to head to the door, to go back and check on matters. I resolved to press on. I was then shocked to see, striding down the hallway with the barest of disguises - a lab coat thrown obviously over armor - some fellow and his pet Avatar. A Link of the Light, pantomiming like he was sneaking down the hallway, like a bad actor in a burlesque!"

Vilius seems to just shrug off the mention of the name. It doesn't seem to register with him.

"I called out to the guards - but they paid no heed to me - a general!" Vilius says, sounding scandalized. "Surely you realize the severity of punishments for such blatant insubordination ... but as you can well guess by this point, it couldn't have been any fault of their own. It was some sort of sorcery of a sort I've never associated with the Light before. I took matters into my own hands. I was hardly prepared for combat, really - I had only a stylus I had been holding in my hand, intending to work on papers - but the Link seemed so shocked when I responded. It proved a worthy enough weapon to stab him with. I felt ... momentarily surprised that I could strike such a lethal blow with such a puny weapon, and only require a single hit."

"He seemed to be equally surprised," Vilius says. He shakes his head. "His last words were something like, 'No fair. I'm stealthed! You were supposed to be easy bonus points!'"

Jason's brow goes up at that and a series of very bad thoughts flurry through his mind. "What happened to him after you struck and those words?" he asks.

Vilius sighs. "All that armor, and no helmet. What an absolute idiot. And of course, once he went, well, the Link vanished, too, since he wasn't there to maintain the summon. It had no chance to respond. But I was lucky, I realized. If he'd landed the first blow, I would have been 'easy bonus points,' I'm sure, if I catch the gist of his blather."

A supplementary text message from Randall: "Separated from his command. May try to take charge. Undercover agents, pretending to be heroes. Experimental vessel. Secret mission. Buy him passage back to Empire, warn them about zombies?"

"So, Heroes of the Light had infiltrated the base and were using some sort of... aura of stupidity... that was affected your personnel?" Holly asks for clarification.

"That was my working theory," Vilius said. "The guards only belatedly responded, after the immediate threat was dispatched. I insisted that they sound the alarm - and they seemed rather sluggish to respond. Fortunately, I have two perfectly good hands of my own, and was able to sound the nearest bell myself. The response was mixed. We had obvious Light infiltrators running about, to varying degrees of competence - I couldn't count on all of them being idiots, by any means - and the guards' responses varied just as wildly. What have I been drilling into them all these years?" He pauses again. "Years? Honestly, I have no idea how long I've been stationed there."

"You can see his stats still, right?" Holly whispers to Jason. "Does he have an AI affiliation still?"

Jason taps RIU to bring up the stats again, focusing on AI control and his brow goes up. "Well, out in space time always seems a bit strange. So, you sounded the alarm. Judging by your crash-landing in the docks, I assume it did not stop the attack," he comments. To Holly, Jason whispers, "There is no AI control link. Nothing. He's operating off his own ... mind."

"Eventually, it seemed that even the most stupefied of the guards were responding to the obvious danger," Vilius says. "I was outraged at their sluggishness, but in retrospect I must forgive them, as they managed to shake off the strands of that sorceress web at last. The battle seemed to be turning - despite the high numbers of agents of the Light, and the fact that they were very organized ... I don't quite know what to say, but it seems as if they had been through a situation like this before - they already knew about the golems - and they acted as if they fully expected a particular sequence of events to occur ... and since it wasn't happening as planned, they were thrown into chaos, and some were panicking outright. Several agents of the Light who could have turned the tide of the battle simply vanished into thin air, along with their Links."

"The raid script ended and people couldn't adapt, heh," Jason whispers to Holly. To the General, he nods, "Most curious, that. Perhaps their sorcerer was defeated and they lost a mind link that was allowing them to predict actions?"

"This hooded angel of death appeared," Vilius says, shuddering. "I could only barely see it. It hurt to look directly upon it. He uttered strange jargon to me - and expletives unfit for noble lips, when it seemed I wasn't responded as he desired. Then, with his appearance, things went badly for us. Explosions ... guards dropped dead ... it was madness. These entities ... it was as if they were gods among mortals, unseen by the Links they were helping, limited by ... who knows what limited them, really? Such power as to wipe us from existence with a wave of the hand, it seemed - yet they toyed with us."

"Zone termination due to system faults," Jason whispers to Holly. To the General, Jason asks, "How did you escape?"

"I gathered those such as would respond to me," Vilius says. "Most of them, I recognized from the laboratory. I had expected, at the very least, some of my most loyal men ... but I struggled to even remember their names. It was frustrating - I would think, try to remember, remember nothing ... but then fully a second later, it would suddenly come to me, as clear as it had ever been. Scientists, janitors, soldiers - it mattered not, really. At that point, I only wanted to deny these monstrous 'angels' their prey out of spite just as much as I wanted to survive. We commandeered one of the ships that the agents of Light had used to come here, surprised and overpowered those aboard, and set out to the next station. Station Two gave no reply. Only Station Six showed signs of being free from the siege, so I headed there. The ship experienced so many malfunctions ... sabotage by some agent of the Light we must have missed."

"This news if very disturbing," Holly notes, putting on a dour face. It's the face she uses on underage hackers.

"Not surprising. We fought off a strange attack when we entered the system ourselves. It may be that either the Light has a new weapon, or there is a third faction at war with us," Jason remarks grimly.

"I jettisoned the main fuel pod - manually," Vilius says. "I only spent ... no ... I can't remember how long. In the navy." He shakes his head. "It doesn't matter. We were undercrewed. The tower wouldn't respond to us. I knew something was wrong, but by that point, we had no chance to avert course." He shakes his head. "I can only presume you witnessed what happened next. We disembarked, and the crew had this ... look. It was like back on the station, when some of the guards began to go mad, under power of the death angel."

"I saw none of the death angels - but treachery! They still came at us. I assumed they must be controlled," Vilius says, "but I had no choice but to raise arms against them. I had wounded, and I saw one of these dockhands cut down one of my men mercilessly. I grabbed up the soldier's sword and cut the head of the worker - split his skull like a ripe melon. But ... now I've just gotten a primer of what a brain should look like, and that was no brain. I felt splitting pains to even look at it - something didn't want me to look. But I saw, and I knew. These were no men."

"Red and blackness. Ichor. Fluid," Vilius says, shaking his head. "And something altogether out of place. Crystal, I'm sure I saw a glint of it." He coughs. "I got cocky. I got mad. I ordered my men over to one of the other boats. I thought I could hold them off. I might have, really, until those barrels exploded. And then more of them. What madness! But I should have known, somehow. I lost my sword - and then they got me. And then ... then I came to, here."

"Your memory problems concern me," Holly notes. "I'd like you to stay in the infirmary for now, if you don't mind General. We're on a secret mission, so can't take you to Gormenghast yet."

Holly feels a nose against her shoulder. "Psst," Inari whispers, a shimmering silhouette in the air nearby. "I am listening. I feel as if something in me should be fleeing at the sound of this ... but I am not. I wonder why."

"We were in station six docks undergoing repairs. We are the recovery crew assigned to the Vindictive. We were launching to resume our mission when we saw the attack on the docks. We disabled those who were attacking you and brought you onboard. Station six ... we believe was destroyed by a great storm. That storm blew us out to Shipwreck. And as our mage says, we cannot directly return you to Gormenghast. We must first complete our assigned task. I am certain you can arrange transport here. But for now you should head to the infirmary," Jason says.

The general looks as if he's about to protest, pull rank, or something of the sort, but he also looks as if he's wounded and some of the strength has been taken out of him. "Very well then. I will want to speak to your captain, when he is available. I would like to find out what became of the rest of my men - and to notify Gormenghast of this threat."

"You aren't under VNPC limits anymore," Holly whispers to Inari. "And I wish we had an x-ray machine."

"I will send the captain to the infirmary to meet you," Jason says with a slight nod. "For the sake of all of us, I hope the cause of this ... chaos, is located and destroyed."

Back on the bridge, our heroes (Inari staying as Inari for the time being) return to compare notes, while their "guest" is safely stowed away in the infirmary (and the infirmary locked, "for security reasons" just in case the general gets the urge to get up and explore while nobody's watching).

"Just try to hold still, Inari. I need to, well, examine you in detail," Jason tells the scary fox-creature. The next direction goes to RIU, asking the little dragon to give him a detailed readout of Inari's settings.

"They seem to have bought our cover story that we're adventurers who borrowed a nice shiny ship from the Empire," Randall reports to the others. "They like gold here but they'll take payment in crystals, shekels, zorkmids, and a few other currencies I didn't quite catch. And they'd appreciate us not shooting up their port, thank you very much."

Through RIU, Jason gets some flag readings: "VPC - Class Mage (Sub-Class Illusionist) [class mismatch error; not in master database]"

The captain says with a wink, "Regardless, port fees are covered and I don't think I got overcharged terribly. Just the standard 'first time visitor' markup."

Jason ... for some reason, can't help but smile. "I don't believe it, it worked," he croons and spins his chair.

Inari raises an ... eyebrow? Well, she's not a real fox, so it seems she's entitled to them. "'It' worked? What 'it' worked? I assume this is good, whatever 'it' is."

Jason also does the unthinkable when his chair quits spinning; he grabs Inari and hugs her.

"Welcome to being a VPC class mage, Inari," Jason tells her when he lets go. "The AIs have no control over you any more. Blake cannot affect you like he used to; you have free will. The flag reset I did in battle actually worked."

"Oh!" Inari says, her vulpine eyes widening just a couple of millimeters. "Well ... I'll forgive you that, then. Although I can't believe that any of us are truly free from the AIs ... wait ... I just said 'AIs.' Have I ever said that before?"

With a smirk, Randall adds, "Also, remember when he was threatening to dump you out of the aircar, Inari? You've come a long way, Jason, I'm very happy for you." He takes a step back out of swatting range.

"No, you haven't," Jason notes, then points at Randall, "And who is that? Other than someone who is extremely annoying?"

"Our guest seems to be.. close to being free from them, if he isn't already," Holly comments. "Akiko said that Blake believed the Diadem was becoming a real world. Could some of the VNPCs be evolving into living beings as a result?"

Inari frowns. "I ... I think I am ... computers. VNPCs. These things. They are ... part of my vocabulary." The fox-thing's frown lightens up into an impish grin, as she bounds to the other side of the bridge. "Aggro! Mobs! In character! Out of character! Clipping errors! Hahahahahaha!"

Randall gives Inari a smile. "I think you've got someone who speaks your language, Jason. So, here's my thought, the General may be on his way to being a real person, but I don't think he's going to fit in on our mission. Unless you have an idea for that?"

"You're welcome," Jason tells Inari as she sproings about. He sits back in his chair, looking smug. To Randall, he says, "I suggest we buy him passage here back to Gormenghast, no questions asked, and just send him on his way."

"We should drag him along if we can," Holly says. "If he's becoming real, then the people in charge need to be aware of it."

Inari drops her jaw. (This has no effect on her speech, since she's still "speaking" without moving her mouth.) "Wait ... wait ... I think I have an idea. It's so evil." She turns about. "Irony. The programmers have a big thing for irony. Taste of your own medicine."

"That zone was reserved for a roleplay group, right?" Inari posits. "You were talking about restricted roleplay zones, yes? Special rules? Avatars is a game for a wide range of ages. It doesn't go above - in the old movie terms, 'PG rated' - but it's not always 'G rated' for everybody. It depends on player age and permissions. Sometimes there are events meant to be more horror-ish ... horrific, that is. No young-ones allowed. More gore. More gross stuff."

"Well, yes. The age rating settings for areas," Jason nods slowly, still not understanding where this is going.

Inari frowns slightly, then says, "It was probably mechanized. I've heard of a few instances where the Big Bad got a Taste of His Own Medicine. And I'm just thinking ... well, it was an evil thought, really, but I can imagine that if there was that sort of an ending for the Evil Doctor - or the Evil General, if he was supposed to be in that role - then he'd probably fall into the brain-extractor machine or such."

"You know ... after a dramatic sword-fight," Inari says, sounding a little less certain, looking around the room as if for confirmation.

"Well, it's plausible it might happen to the big bad guy in a game story, yeah. But, uhm, ow. Are you suggesting we extract his brain?" Jason asks uncertainly.

"Why would he be made aware of it though?" Holly asks. "What's the point in making a puppet suffer?"

After a moment, Holly mutters, "And can we use the censorship flags to keep you from having to duck into closets?"

"She's only doing that now because she doesn't want to upset Randall and I, I'm certain," Jason claims.

"I have to wonder if it was an issue back in Blake's teeny-bopper wonder-land though," Holly notes.

Randall grins. "Oh, no. She's suggesting that we send the General to take charge of such an operation." More soberly. "Folks, the General is loyal to the Empire. He killed a Link, and if we don't do something about him, he's either going to wind up dead at the hands of his own forces, or he's going to take charge of the Empire's forces and make them not only smart enough they won't fall for any of the dumb tricks the players do anymore, thus making them the deadliest enemy that Avatars has ever known."

"But they'll have some real motivation to get out there and do something, because they won't be just, I'm guessing here, the fall guys for 'malevolent evil empire out there', they'll have someone actually in charge," Randall finishes.

"Well, what do you want us to do about him?" Jason asks. "If he's becoming real I have a bit of a hard time killing him. But, if you, as the captain, wants to issue summary judgment, well, I won't stop you."

Inari frowns. "That's ... that's not at all where I'm going. But you made a good point. Killed a Link. That's supposed to be nearly impossible. Links get knocked out and wind up back home. Maybe wounded for a while, with a limp or a scar or something ... but not dead. For that to happen, you have to pretty much be suicidal. Small wonder some of them started fleeing outright, if they saw VPCs could die. But ... that's still just their characters, not the players. Right?"

"Okay, I think I see what Inari is talking about now," Holly notes. "Boss battles. The villain always gets knocked into the vat of acid or whatever that is conveniently close to his lair. The General's description of the head he chopped open sounds a bit like what the police found when they autopsied Penny Arcadia too. He wasn't supposed to see that though, since he had the same reaction that Inari used to. Maybe because the game scenario had exposed him to what brains are supposed to look like.."

"Maybe. I had a thought that it could have killed the player. I wish I had a way to check. If the input feed was strong enough, it might force the player's brain to simply stop the heart, or worse," Jason comments and holds his head in his hands.

"I doubt induction helmets would be allowed if they could do that," Holly tells Jason.

"The game didn't, this universe did," Holly notes. "It doesn't tell us if the General's got a more realistic brain now or not after just having seen what one is supposed to be like though."

Randall grimaces. "Well, we can hope there wasn't some kind of feedback effect. But, here's the thing. Our General needs a new mission. And we have some enemies who are very powerful. Is there some way we can kill two birds with one stone?"

Inari nods to Holly. "What I mean is, I think the general - and miscellaneous 'VNPCs' present who might have had a chance at suffering a similar dramatic fate - might have needed to have brains. Physical brains. Maybe looks were all that's needed, but this is a case of programmers giving instructions to AIs. The AIs take the simplest course, whatever that is."

"So, in making a smarter VNPC for more challenging encounters.. they.. made them smart enough to notice the game?" Holly asks Inari.

"Making an artificial one," Jason offers, then shrugs. "Maybe. I guess it's possible. But then why doesn't he show ANY control flags anymore?"

Randall looks surprised. "That's... Very likely," he tells Inari. "Or, it may have simply looked like brains, but been affected by this 'quantum contagion' effect that makes the synecdoches."

"The fact that the programmers monitoring things mentioned 'rogue' as if it had happened before worries me a bit," Holly notes. "Maybe there's no flags because he's been removed from the environment he's meant to react to."

Inari ponders. "That reminds me of something someone ... oh, wait, I said that. You are what you pretend to be."

"Train a rat to run a maze until he's really good at it," Holly says. "Then take him out of that maze and put him in a basketball court. What's he going to do?"

"So we need to show him a new piece of cheese?" Inari offers, trying to follow the allegory.

"How about this? Give me time to examine everything about him from a game system perspective before we decide anything," Jason offers, suddenly sounding tired.

"We've got time for that, at least," Holly agrees. "With luck, we can get in touch with someone here at Shipwreck that can get us in contact with the tech people."

The police officer turned pirate captain looks around the bridge thoughtfully. "You got it," he tells Jason. "Truth to tell, he's not going to be anything more than a road bump if we tell him about Blake right off. I had a tiny idea forming, something about mobilizing the Empire against Cauchemarem, but. If they took over the test version of North Bend, they'd be just one slip away from the real world themselves."

"And you and I are high-XP VNPC types to them, Inari," Holly notes. "We can't possibly pass for VPCs."

"Of course, will they listen to any of us? I mean ... we're just a bunch of goof-off adults in their game world," Jason grumbles.

Inari frowns. "If you're a VNPC, just promise them gold and XP, and I'm sure they'll do anything."

"Oh, I was just going to flash my badge and tell them I'm a police officer and need them to contact my supervisors," Randall admits.

"The Diadem is FULL of goof-off adults," Holly tells Jason. "You think it's just little kids who play Avatars?"

A shimmering golden exclamation point suddenly materializes over Inari's head, bobbing slightly in place.

"We just better act soon before they organize to attack our.." Holly starts to say, before she too notices the icon over Inari.

"Are you alarmed by something, Inari?" Holly asks. "And please, if this is just a manifestation of your mood, try to avoid any of those giant Anime sweat-drops in the future. They seriously creep me out."

"Well, I had best fix the few broken rivets and ruptured pipes before I head off the ship. And oh, yes, arm some straps in case anyone decides to explore our ship," Jason says and pushes himself up from his chair. "In anyone wants to help, well, come along. If not, believe me, I understand." Looking decidedly tired, he walks off the bridge.

Captain "Grey" Randall grins to Inari's visual pun, then nods to the others. "Okay. After Jason does a check-up on the General, let's check out the docks and get a feel for the layout of the place. See what people are talking about. Holly, do you remember what your daughter's character's name was? Could be she's out in these parts..."