Move 3 (Chapter 1.3)

[yhlee]

Time: 361 (high calendar)
Place: out-rift near Station Moongray

[Edited to add: NOTE: I'm flying back home tomorrow but will be keeping an eye on this move or any questions you might have. I should be able to resume normal GMing activities starting Wednesday. Sorry about that!--YHL]

[GM's note: feel free to continue to wrap up any last business in Move 2.]

Whoever is monitoring the Wasp notes that there are no major issues emerging from the rift into the target place and time. The visuals show strange energies crackling around the moth as it passes back into normal space-time. For days afterward, the energies' patterns haunt your dreams, as though conveying a coded message in a language you knew before your birth.

It doesn't take long for someone to notice your arrival. A transmission arrives from the direction of Station Moongray. The Wasp's mothgrid asks for your attention, and plays it. The message is given first in the high language, then repeated several times in other "low" languages: "Greetings, travelers. This is Station Moongray of the heptarchate, under the command of Administrator Nirai Paerani. Do you require an escort to the station?" It is accompanied by a local starmap giving coordinates to the station and the identifying information of a proposed escort, a non-combat research moth called the Butterfly Lens that has been patrolling the rift. The transmission goes on to offer succor in exchange for information about the other side of the rift.

[Players should feel free to discuss their response then, possibly, open communications with the station. The administrator will repeat the greeting message until someone responds or the Wasp attempts to approach the station.

Yehan will notice that someone has taken the task of translation very seriously--the heptarchate doesn't have the greatest track record in this area, but the low language translations are extremely competent, fairly polite, and convey a sense of eagerness for contact with people who can bring the station information about other times and places.

The Wasp's more advanced scan functions can verify the presence of the Butterfly Lens about a half day away and whoever queries scan will be almost certain that it only has the kind of light armaments that you'd use to defend against local debris.]

Comments

comms! in the FUTURE!

[zuhrovet]

As the moth enters normal space, Sasha hastily hits 'record'. The lights are beautiful; she's better with sound editing than visuals, but even a bad copy is worth keeping. She bites her lip, hoping that looks more professional than dancing in her seat. She's in a new star system! In the future! And it's not a secret rebel base, so nobody's going to try to stop her from looking at the constellations.

Sasha doesn't pay much attention to the official contact message; that will be Ashari's problem, or somebody else whose job is talking to humans. (She is a little surprised to hear the Naxorian version, though. She knows her home planet must be conquered eventually-- the heptarchate is evil, after all-- but she thought Naxarat remained free for another century at least? Pity the historian chose a different mission.)

Instead, Sasha monitors computer-to-computer transmissions. Were any viruses attached to that friendly welcome? Is anyone on the Wasp trying to slip a query past her firewall? Can she catch any chatter from the station?

[If the Space Internet is up already, Sasha will check headline news and keep an eye on the feed from her pre-programmed innocuous requests, too.]

Re: comms! in the FUTURE!

[yhlee]

There is, in fact, a virus attached to the friendly welcome. It seems mostly to be designed to sit quietly and report back to its masters, but who can say how mutable the thing is. It's not difficult for Sasha to quarantine it or scrub it, whichever she prefers.

First few items on the headline news from Space Internet:
1. The Rahal magistrate assigned to the station has just been caught in a scandal involving a shortage of remembrance candles, which he is believed to have sold to black market traders in heptarchate tchotchkes to line his pockets.
2. Civilian duelist Izmay Wen is favored 8-3 in the semifinals to the Annual Dueling Championship in this march.
3. A whole lot of gossipy coverage of Heptarch Kel Osmal's latest marriage. Even for a Kel she has a large family; this will be her seventh wife.

Re: comms! in the FUTURE!

[zuhrovet]

Sasha quarantines the virus long enough to run a set of tests. Ideally, she'd like to know whom it's reporting to. Being able to fake a report would be interesting, as well.

Failing that, she'd like some sense of the virus's design: is this off-the-shelf, or an artisanal creation? Does it feel particularly Shuos, or particularly Nirai?

[Still working on username habits, sigh.]

Ashari's plans [paging Sasha, Kaliyan, Yehan, & the Rest of the Team]

[smokedetective]

Ashari paces back and forth in their office. They called a small meeting as soon as the message was received, and are looking very pensive. They have a plan already. Accept the escort and try to look as confused as possible, but the rest of the team could have other opinions. And stepping on any toes this early on could have a negative effect.

The instant the first person arrives, they turn to them and say, "Any thoughts?"

[Asking specifically for Sasha as the cyber security expert, Kaliyan as the on-board second in command, and Yehan for a look at the language. But they also do genuinely want to know what the rest of the team makes of the situation]

Re: Ashari's plans [paging Sasha, Kaliyan, Yehan, & the Rest of the Team]

[slybrarian]

"Requesting an escort could be a chance to make ourselves seem more helpless than we really are," Alaric suggests, looking at the people more experienced with Heptarchate officialdom to see if that's a reasonable reaction to expect. "Oh dear me my engines were damaged, we might need a tow?"

Re: Ashari's plans [paging Sasha, Kaliyan, Yehan, & the Rest of the Team]

[lleullawgyffes]

“I would tend to agree, although we probably don’t need to justify it beyond being caught out of time,” Virmad says. “Especially to Nirai — I’d worry about lying about our technical situation lest their scanners catch us out in the lie.” He pauses. “It would be a lie, right?”

Re: Ashari's plans [paging Sasha, Kaliyan, Yehan, & the Rest of the Team]

[yehan]

Yehan listens thoughtfully to the full recording in each language offered, taking a few notes down as she hears them. "The translations are...actually not bad," she admits. "If I'm remembering my history right, the low languages they've included are from some of the least assimilated planets in the heptarchate, at least in this time period." She doesn't mention the Naxorian translation, but she knows very well that her home planet is still a relatively new "acquisition" of the heptarchate in 361. "But I would have expected more foreign languages than they've included. Is the Gwa Reality around yet?" She makes a point to check on foreign entities with the grid. "Seems to me they're a lot more concerned with potential internal visitors than foreigners."

Looking at the high language version more closely, she frowns slightly. "And what do they mean by 'succor'? That's...incredibly vague. If we take their escort, we need to be careful that we get more information from them than the other way around."

Re: Ashari's plans [paging Sasha, Kaliyan, Yehan, & the Rest of the Team]

[lleullawgyffes]

[@ YHL: "is the Gwa Reality around yet" seems like a question Virmad would probably know the answer to offhand, but I have no idea what the answer is.]

Re: Ashari's plans [paging Sasha, Kaliyan, Yehan, & the Rest of the Team]

[lleullawgyffes]

Virmad looks up from the screen for a moment when he hears the words “Gwa Reality”. “The Gwa Reality won’t be officially established for another few hundred years,” he says. “There’s a sort of precursor polity at the moment where they speak an older from of Tlen Gwa.” He realizes at this point that he’s probably the only one on the ship who cares, but he pushes on regardless. ”In any case, while I’m not as certain of this as I should be, I don’t believe the Heptarchate and the Gwa-an share a border yet.”

Re: Ashari's plans--Sasha's report

[zuhrovet]

"Three thoughts!" Sasha reports. "First, that welcome memo came in with a virus attached. Don't worry, I de-activated it. But I thought you should know: it was designed to access the grid's voice-recognition system and report any conversations about the rift, maybe other stuff too. Typical Nirai work, could even be the magistrate himself. Whoever made that thing got weirdly excited about compression algorithms and started writing a custom wavelets routine."

"Second, this magistrate obviously cares a lot about where and when we came from. We need to make sure we've all memorized our fake itinerary and maybe even spin up some art involving the rift we supposedly entered."

"Third, there's some kind of scandal on station involving smugglers and remembrance candles-- it's all over the news-- so let's not tell anyone we're smugglers yet."

Re: Ashari's plans [paging Sasha, Kaliyan, Yehan, & the Rest of the Team]

[after_almsivi]

Kaliyan is sitting in the pilot seat when the transmission comes in. After informing the rest of the crew, she takes a few minutes to make sure the Wasp didn't get too roughed up exiting the rift.
She messages Ashari that she'd rather stay close to the ship controls, just in case, when they call for a meeting, and asks that they let her participate remotely. She listens carefully to the conversation, as she fixes the map, brows slightly furrowed.

“I don't know Boss. That Butterfly makes for a shitty escort if you ask me. We know they want intel. That little ship might not have the firepower to bully us out of it, doesn't mean it won't try to steal it. Better safe than polite.”

Re: Ashari's plans - Response to what everyone's said so far

[smokedetective]

"I'm going to request a transport," says Ashari. "Alaric, I'm going to need you to act more incompetent than you are and make it seem like you're not sure if something's wrong. Or that you're lying to me about something being wrong. That way, if we're caught on our engines being not as damaged as we say, you can act like you had business with or information you wanted from our escort, and then whoever is Captain can act enraged and play at throwing you in the brig for a couple of days."

"Sasha, is there a way that you can feed the virus needless information and chatter? Maybe you and Alaric can make it look like our comms and vocals are just a little frazzled and tend to cut in and out. I'll need it to look like that when I send out the response, too. To keep up the fiction."

"Kaliyan, I appreciate your concern and will need your utmost vigilance. If anything seems off to you, let me know immediately, even if it's might be nothing. As you said, better safe than polite. But requesting an escort seems to be the safest option when it comes to not raising suspicions. In the meantime, I think we should start on our way towards the station. Slowly."

"Yehan and Vermad, I need you to take a final look over the cover stories to make sure nothing is out of place. The accents especially are going to be tricky. I've been working on mine, but I want you to make sure everything looks good. Ask Sasha for help if there's any last minute records that need forging."
[OOC: well, as players, we have to invent those individual cover stories in the first place... I think everyone can make their own and then we can all help each other and throw in details where it helps. I'll make a thread for it here.]

"As for the project..." says Ashari, and stalks over to a large rectangular frame draped in white fabric. With unnecessary flourish, they whip the fabric off and let it fall to the floor. It reveals a loom with about a thick fabric woven almost a fourth of the way to completion. Behind it, some basic plans of the rift and a vast array of printed reference sheets are attached to the wall.

The loom's frame is transparent barely noticeable, making the unfinished fabric look like it's floating at first glance. The fabric itself is a deep, soul-wrenching black, with a few wild strands of white darting through it and at places hanging out wildly in a way that is both neat and deliberate, evoking the image of strangely organized chaos.

It took Ashari one too many hours and one too many curses to get what they wanted from the matter printer. Still, they eventually managed to wrangle the separate components out of damn machine and put everything together.

When they turn back to the assembled crew, there's a slightly manic glint in their eyes. "I also have a couple of pieces of embroidery, but I'm afraid they're in my room. I... Haven't done this in a while but I believe it's a fairly decent imitation of some of the minimalism circa this time period. I'm going for a more... ah... fashion-focused approach, rather than straight forward high art. One thing that remains true throughout all of time is that no one quite understands fashion."

[The last sentence there is a practically word-for-word quote from my fashion major friend. Hopefully it pays off..."

Re: Ashari's plans - Response to what everyone's said so far

[slybrarian]

"Aye-aye, captain, plausibly-deniable incompetence coming right-" Alaric stops as her words catch up with his brain. "More incompetent than I am? Maybe it's just a language difference but I'm sure that didn't come across the way you intended."

[Off topic: fashion]

[yhlee]

[If, uh, your fashion major friend is ever willing to talk to a writer about how fashion might work in science fiction, let me know. ^_^ --YHL]

Re: Ashari's plans - Response to what everyone's said so far

[zuhrovet]

Sasha stares at the weaving for a full minute. It's actually beautiful, not polite noises beautiful. Ashari knows what she's doing on this front, at least.

"I can't really fake bad communication while the lattice [Space Internet] is up. We could stage a grid crash, though. Clock problems are even plausible. Tell me when to start."

temporality [time is fake]

[lleullawgyffes]

Virmad’s first priority is going to be query the space internet for the exact date and time — so he can be prepared to brief people on upcoming remembrances, etc. as appropriate — as well as probably some general news.

[my goal is to get Virmad that headline about the Rahal magistrate, on the hypothesis that some legal troubles involving Rahal might give him or Sulen a potential in to the station hierarchy. there's probably no reason Sasha would volunteer the headline to the group, so Virmad's going to have to come across it himself.]

Re: temporality [time is fake]

[yhlee]

Space Internet tells Virmad that it's Month 2, Day 14, Hour 6.12 (Hour 6, Minute 12). No remembrance today, but there will be one upcoming in three days. [You are welcome to invent details of the remembrance, or I can do it if you'd rather.]

[NOTE: Both the heptarchate and the hexarchate had 25-hour days; each hour has 100 minutes. Largely to simplify the math for my convenience.)

[Virmad comes across the Rahal magistrate headline no problem while digging about. It looks like the Nirai administrators have sent to local Rahal headquarters for a replacement magistrate, and the existing Rahal magistrate is pulling strings trying to avoid getting into trouble.]

Re: temporality [time is fake]

[lleullawgyffes]

[a note re what I'm thinking for this remembrance — it's one that people from the future would be familiar with as requiring some particularly unpleasant public torture, although in this period it only (“”) requires, in places sufficiently populous for it to be feasible, a public execution (otherwise, something with effigy candles); Station Moonray is probably sufficiently populous for an execution (and if it weren't, possibly the corrupt Rahal magistrate would motivate the Rahal and Vidona to arrange one for good measure, anyway?). venndaai and I are considering some possible courses of action based on this, but nothing definite yet.]

Re: temporality [time is fake]

[venndaai]

Sulen walks up and reads over Virmad's shoulder. They would loom over his shoulder except that they're considerably shorter than him. "Find anything interesting?" they ask. They're not particularly good at computers so would rather let someone else do the querying.

Re: temporality [time is fake]

[lleullawgyffes]

First Virmad points at the date. “Month 2, Day 14 — so it’ll be the Cold Sun remembrance in three days. An execution, probably; Station Moonray’s just big enough for it.” Then he pulls up the Rahal magistrate story, shifting out of the way so Sulen can read it unobstructed. “And then there’s this.”

COVER STORIES

[smokedetective]

[Let's face it. We need to get these straight. Fake names, fake professions, fake interests, when and where the people are from... Plus it's good to have a reference post to look back on later. We haven't really talked about individual cover stories yet, so I think this would be a good place to discuss anything.]

Re: COVER STORIES - Ashari's ideas

[smokedetective]

Ashari's current vague plan for cover stories:

-The Wasp, while in possession of contraband and manned by smugglers, also takes on multiple over-board jobs to look clean. This includes ferrying goods and passengers to wherever (destination decided by whoever will pay the most).

-Ashari poses as a rich but lazy Andan artist and fashion designer from vaguely around this time. Their main wealth comes from their family and from good investments. Their current aesthetic obsession is the minimalism, and their interests include rifts and other space phenomena, though they're not very knowledgeable about anything other than how those things look.

-Kaliyan poses as the actual captain of the ship who defers to Ashari only because she's getting paid.

- 2-3 people pose as Ashari's assistants. They suggest Virmad, Istradez, and Mikodez.

-Alaric, Sasha, Ankat, Sulen, Yehan, and Iawa pose as crew members. (Special private request to Iawa to stay on board the ship.)

Re: COVER STORIES - Ashari's ideas

[mercuryhatter]

[I am good with this and will make a full post working out stories when I get to my computer later today.]

EDIT: RESPONSE

Istradez snorts a little at the comment about fashion, impressed as everyone else is by the loom.

"That all sounds reasonable," he says. "I've been reading up on the period which did include some fashion, but not too much art. I think I could pull off a personal assistant fairly easily, though. Scheduling and so on. My name should work fine unless we need to signal something specific with the false names; it doesn't mean anything in this time and place anyway." He means the name he gave to the crew, which he assumes Ashari will understand.

He notes that the plan as is has himself, Ashari, and Avrayen working together. He plans to try speaking with Avrayen one on one when possible to try to figure out what's going on with him.

Re: COVER STORIES - Ashari's ideas

[venndaai]

Sulen shoots a look at Virmad.

"Actually, I was thinking I might wander about," they say. "As a Rahal. With a contemporary uniform, if the matter printer can manage it, but if not mine should probably do, it isn't as though our fashion sense ever changed in seven hundred years. I can get a sense of public opinion here, and maybe even bluff my way into the magistrate's office, get a look at how they're managing the calendar. I know I'm... not ideal for undercover work, but I'm good at being a Rahal. I think I can do this for you."

They look at Ashari. "It's up to you," they say.

Re: COVER STORIES - Ashari's ideas

[zuhrovet]

"I'll be a really boring IT person," explains Sasha. She is sad for a moment, as nobody seems surprised [if your character objects to this characterization they will be Sasha's new and perhaps first best friend]. Then her enthusiasm for THE FUTURE re-asserts itself.

"On the name front, Yehan made a list, right? She'll be the best at characterizing what names are in and out of fashion. Sasha's a common nickname back home, and none of your identities should be recognizable in this time period, but we won't want our true names in heptarchate records later."