Of course, now I need to upgrade Stephanie. This actually ends up being a custom order… one of the executives at Norikama REALLY wanted a luxury ship he could “appreciate…” part of the deal, though, is that we needed to repaint the interior for him.
We of course start by temporarily transferring Stephanie to the shuttle. Then repaintimg actually works.
“Okay Stephanie,” I begin before the transfer, “Please remember, this ugly rust bucket is just a temporary body; it’s not going to be the beautiful form you’ll have,” I don’t want her accepting the shuttle as her real body… because then I won’t have any escape from the pink, “Once we have you in your permanent home, you’ll be beautiful again… and far more powerful to boot.”
“Yes Captain, I understand,” I’m unclear which portion of this she understands… but that’s okay. As long as she doesn't properly accept the shuttle in the two months until her new body is ready, we're good to go.
I power her down, transfer the data module containing her to the shuttle, and power her back up.
“How are you feeling?” I ask when she boots back up.
“A little disoriented,” she begins, “but okay.”
“That's good to hear,” I reassure her, “This body is just a temp.”
We go back to doing cargo for a while - this ship isn't as well suited to survey work, and that takes a bit too long anyway: We need to be back in two months. But we do have four cargo bays in here.
The loaders get really confused by the apparent door from nowhere when we park in the station and open the cargo bay doors, though: An invisible ship is funny. Once inside, of course, it's just a luxury shuttle that's been bulked up for more space and armed a bit: A nice little space yacht. But, the loaders are professionals: Once they get over the fact that they can't see it from outside, it's business as usual (for them): Pick up a pallet with the forklift, drive it up the loading ramp, set the pallet down, secure it, and go get another.
It seems strange to me, though: I suppose I grew accustomed to Stephanie's reactions, and she's just not feeling it now.
When they're done, we close up and head out to the colony planet they're supplying… after I secure some less… carnal… entertainment archives. Stephanie tells me it's a twenty-one day trip.
As we exit the Drift, we encounter a distress call: “Mayday, Mayday, we are under attack…” We can see it though: Seems some pirates decided to hang out around a drift beacon and snagged a merchant vessel that has more cargo than guns.
I shake my head as I give the orders, “Stephanie, let's try this out: Keep them in range of our guns, but us out of range of their sensors: We're invisible, but I don't want them knowing that. Cowbird, you take the turret guns, see if you can disable the pirates… I want a captured shipsl, not skeet. Euler, feed me information on what they're using.”
I get a chorus of “Aye Captain” from my crew as I pull up coms, “This is Captain Alex Abrams; let's see what these pirates are made of. I'm guessing candy; but we'll see when we pop the pinata, eh?”
While I banter, I divert power to the engines, giving Stephanie a bit more speed to play with, and Euler tells me what we're up against, “That's a Corvette, Captain. Six crew, eighty-five hull points, type ten thrusters, average maneuverability. Not too hard to hit, shields are full and rated at twenty-five points in each quadrant, pulse red power core; they have a heavy laser cannon and a tactical nuclear missile launcher on the bow and a flak thrower on the stern. I'll have the others for you in a minute.”
I nod as I watch the tac screen… Cowbird opens fire, but both shots go wide… pity. Still, we're at a pretty extreme range right now. It's more important to tell them they're not alone.
The pirate continues the assault on the larger vessel that sent out the mayday, seemingly ignoring us….
And so we keep going; I continue feeding power to the engines as Euler reads off more of the ship's statistics, “The turret has a chain cannon and a light particle beam; they have escape pods, a medical bay, science lab, cargo hold… and that’s it.”
Stephanie keeps us moving, Cowbird takes more shots… and this time, one hits… their shields soak.
“Stephanie, get us closer; I'd like to make things a little easier for Cowbird,” which will include adding several hundred cubic centimeters to her chest when this is over, “In the meantime, Euler, take one of the two guns so Cowbird doesn't need to divide her attention. I'd like to see just how much damage we can do…” I divert power to the weapons as Stephanie closes… and gets us into the pirates starboard arc, where they currently have a lot less shielding because they were focused on where we were before… smart lady.
And this time, both Euler and Cowbird hit… and their shields collapse on that side: We even make a dent in their hull.
“Keep us moving Stephanie, I want to keep them guessing on where we are; good work on the maneuver,” I praise as I divert power to the weapons again, “and nice shooting you two.”
As the guns charge, we get a com transmission, “Oh please, that was just a lucky shot. As far away as you idiots have to be, our engineer can keep the shields up forever… you can't take us if you don't close, and if you do, you're dead. Run along, little fly.” I have a nice view of his taunt… he fails in distracting Euler and Cowbird - we hit anyway… this time on his bow, because Stephanie pulled around again, and their shield balancing to cover the hole we punched means we collapse that arc now and ping his hull.
Normally, Taunting is great: It briefly disrupts the enemy crew, and can cause them to mess up their tasks. But I break the rules, and now that I've seen Mr. blonde with the scar over his left eyebrow and the two lanky low-gravity human men at consoles behind him… well.
I cast: “I Wish you and your crew were stranded on that last life-bearing planet I found on Survey.”
… and suddenly the coms go silent. We still have a nice view of their bridge, though. It's empty.
“What just happened?” Euler seems perplexed.
Pathfinder's Wish is a fun spell. Normally it’s far too expensive to actually use - it has a cool twenty five thousand gold piece component which it burns up - but I get to skip those thanks to Telepathic Casting. Just now I invoked the Transport Travelers clause: “From anywhere, to anywhere, regardless of local conditions” for up to my caster level in people (nineteen, thanks to Spell Enhancer and other boosts). They get a save to stay where they are… but I have a nasty save DC. That ship is empty. And the uninhabited planet now has some castaways. They won't be breeding, though: That requires men.
“Tasty… but we won't be able to recruit them if they're that far away,” I'm aware, Patricia. I don't want them.
Yes, we could have slowly whittled them down, but that would take a long time, we'd still need to deal with the pirates themselves, and I'd have a lot more repair work to do to salvage their ship. This is faster... and no headache yet, so... I'm okay.
“Cease fire. Stephanie, bring us even with our prize,” I order, and then explain, “I have the means to move people without their consent: I just need to know who to move. They annoyed me, and so I put them elsewhere. They're now castaways on a habitable planet with nobody else around, deep in The Vast. If I was particularly annoyed, I would have dropped them into the black hole at the center of the galaxy. Regardless, though, that ship is empty. Who's up to piloting it back to Absalom Station?”
Euler speaks up, “I can handle that, Captain. But… are you a deity? You break the rules, create servants, and empower people to an absurd degree.”
No, but I have some of the same abilities… and I can empower you further if you worship me, “If it helps, you can think of me that way. It's… close enough to true.”
And… Stephanie, Euler, and Cowbird are now pinging on Know the Faithful. I have worshippers now, I guess.
“Oh,” I continue, “and we should probably tell the merchant. Stephanie, pull them up on the coms, please.”
“Yes Captain, connected,” she obeys instantly.
“This is Captain Alex Abrams: It's over. We're claiming the enemy ship as our prize,” I start in as the screen shows a humanoid with two antenna on her forehead - a Lashunta.
“Thank you for the assistance, Captain Abrams,” the other shipmaster begins, “I'm Captain Coelris. I won't contest your claim. Two questions, though… what happened, and why can't we locate you on our sensors?”
Ah, right. Witnesses. “That's classified,” well, in the sense that I don't want it bandied about too much, “and as you aren't on the cleared list, we might get in trouble if anyone figures out how we rescued you,” more specifically, if someone figures out the trick, they might come up with a counter, “I would appreciate it if you limited the information to who and what, making no mention of how, and instructed your crew to do similarly. That will hopefully keep me out of trouble while still letting me claim that ship.”
Captain Coelris considers, and nods slowly, “Certainly, Captain Alex. I'll have it in the logs as you say. Thank you.”
I chuckle, “You’re welcome. If honest folks don't watch out for each other, civilization falls apart. Good day.”
“Good day,” she closes.
Now for the prize….
Of course, now I need to upgrade Stephanie. This actually ends up being a custom order… one of the executives at Norikama REALLY wanted a luxury ship he could “appreciate…” part of the deal, though, is that we needed to repaint the interior for him.
We of course start by temporarily transferring Stephanie to the shuttle. Then repaintimg actually works.
“Okay Stephanie,” I begin before the transfer, “Please remember, this ugly rust bucket is just a temporary body; it’s not going to be the beautiful form you’ll have,” I don’t want her accepting the shuttle as her real body… because then I won’t have any escape from the pink, “Once we have you in your permanent home, you’ll be beautiful again… and far more powerful to boot.”
“Yes Captain, I understand,” I’m unclear which portion of this she understands… but that’s okay. As long as she doesn't properly accept the shuttle in the two months until her new body is ready, we're good to go.
I power her down, transfer the data module containing her to the shuttle, and power her back up.
“How are you feeling?” I ask when she boots back up.
“A little disoriented,” she begins, “but okay.”
“That's good to hear,” I reassure her, “This body is just a temp.”
We go back to doing cargo for a while - this ship isn't as well suited to survey work, and that takes a bit too long anyway: We need to be back in two months. But we do have four cargo bays in here.
The loaders get really confused by the apparent door from nowhere when we park in the station and open the cargo bay doors, though: An invisible ship is funny. Once inside, of course, it's just a luxury shuttle that's been bulked up for more space and armed a bit: A nice little space yacht. But, the loaders are professionals: Once they get over the fact that they can't see it from outside, it's business as usual (for them): Pick up a pallet with the forklift, drive it up the loading ramp, set the pallet down, secure it, and go get another.
It seems strange to me, though: I suppose I grew accustomed to Stephanie's reactions, and she's just not feeling it now.
When they're done, we close up and head out to the colony planet they're supplying… after I secure some less… carnal… entertainment archives. Stephanie tells me it's a twenty-one day trip.
As we exit the Drift, we encounter a distress call: “Mayday, Mayday, we are under attack…” We can see it though: Seems some pirates decided to hang out around a drift beacon and snagged a merchant vessel that has more cargo than guns.
I shake my head as I give the orders, “Stephanie, let's try this out: Keep them in range of our guns, but us out of range of their sensors: We're invisible, but I don't want them knowing that. Cowbird, you take the turret guns, see if you can disable the pirates… I want a captured shipsl, not skeet. Euler, feed me information on what they're using.”
I get a chorus of “Aye Captain” from my crew as I pull up coms, “This is Captain Alex Abrams; let's see what these pirates are made of. I'm guessing candy; but we'll see when we pop the pinata, eh?”
While I banter, I divert power to the engines, giving Stephanie a bit more speed to play with, and Euler tells me what we're up against, “That's a Corvette, Captain. Six crew, eighty-five hull points, type ten thrusters, average maneuverability. Not too hard to hit, shields are full and rated at twenty-five points in each quadrant, pulse red power core; they have a heavy laser cannon and a tactical nuclear missile launcher on the bow and a flak thrower on the stern. I'll have the others for you in a minute.”
I nod as I watch the tac screen… Cowbird opens fire, but both shots go wide… pity. Still, we're at a pretty extreme range right now. It's more important to tell them they're not alone.
The pirate continues the assault on the larger vessel that sent out the mayday, seemingly ignoring us….
And so we keep going; I continue feeding power to the engines as Euler reads off more of the ship's statistics, “The turret has a chain cannon and a light particle beam; they have escape pods, a medical bay, science lab, cargo hold… and that’s it.”
Stephanie keeps us moving, Cowbird takes more shots… and this time, one hits… their shields soak.
“Stephanie, get us closer; I'd like to make things a little easier for Cowbird,” which will include adding several hundred cubic centimeters to her chest when this is over, “In the meantime, Euler, take one of the two guns so Cowbird doesn't need to divide her attention. I'd like to see just how much damage we can do…” I divert power to the weapons as Stephanie closes… and gets us into the pirates starboard arc, where they currently have a lot less shielding because they were focused on where we were before… smart lady.
And this time, both Euler and Cowbird hit… and their shields collapse on that side: We even make a dent in their hull.
“Keep us moving Stephanie, I want to keep them guessing on where we are; good work on the maneuver,” I praise as I divert power to the weapons again, “and nice shooting you two.”
As the guns charge, we get a com transmission, “Oh please, that was just a lucky shot. As far away as you idiots have to be, our engineer can keep the shields up forever… you can't take us if you don't close, and if you do, you're dead. Run along, little fly.” I have a nice view of his taunt… he fails in distracting Euler and Cowbird - we hit anyway… this time on his bow, because Stephanie pulled around again, and their shield balancing to cover the hole we punched means we collapse that arc now and ping his hull.
Normally, Taunting is great: It briefly disrupts the enemy crew, and can cause them to mess up their tasks. But I break the rules, and now that I've seen Mr. blonde with the scar over his left eyebrow and the two lanky low-gravity human men at consoles behind him… well.
I cast: “I Wish you and your crew were stranded on that last life-bearing planet I found on Survey.”
… and suddenly the coms go silent. We still have a nice view of their bridge, though. It's empty.
“What just happened?” Euler seems perplexed.
Pathfinder's Wish is a fun spell. Normally it’s far too expensive to actually use - it has a cool twenty five thousand gold piece component which it burns up - but I get to skip those thanks to Telepathic Casting. Just now I invoked the Transport Travelers clause: “From anywhere, to anywhere, regardless of local conditions” for up to my caster level in people (nineteen, thanks to Spell Enhancer and other boosts). They get a save to stay where they are… but I have a nasty save DC. That ship is empty. And the uninhabited planet now has some castaways. They won't be breeding, though: That requires men.
“Tasty… but we won't be able to recruit them if they're that far away,” I'm aware, Patricia. I don't want them.
Yes, we could have slowly whittled them down, but that would take a long time, we'd still need to deal with the pirates themselves, and I'd have a lot more repair work to do to salvage their ship. This is faster... and no headache yet, so... I'm okay.
“Cease fire. Stephanie, bring us even with our prize,” I order, and then explain, “I have the means to move people without their consent: I just need to know who to move. They annoyed me, and so I put them elsewhere. They're now castaways on a habitable planet with nobody else around, deep in The Vast. If I was particularly annoyed, I would have dropped them into the black hole at the center of the galaxy. Regardless, though, that ship is empty. Who's up to piloting it back to Absalom Station?”
Euler speaks up, “I can handle that, Captain. But… are you a deity? You break the rules, create servants, and empower people to an absurd degree.”
No, but I have some of the same abilities… and I can empower you further if you worship me, “If it helps, you can think of me that way. It's… close enough to true.”
And… Stephanie, Euler, and Cowbird are now pinging on Know the Faithful. I have worshippers now, I guess.
“Oh,” I continue, “and we should probably tell the merchant. Stephanie, pull them up on the coms, please.”
“Yes Captain, connected,” she obeys instantly.
“This is Captain Alex Abrams: It's over. We're claiming the enemy ship as our prize,” I start in as the screen shows a humanoid with two antenna on her forehead - a Lashunta.
“Thank you for the assistance, Captain Abrams,” the other shipmaster begins, “I'm Captain Coelris. I won't contest your claim. Two questions, though… what happened, and why can't we locate you on our sensors?”
Ah, right. Witnesses. “That's classified,” well, in the sense that I don't want it bandied about too much, “and as you aren't on the cleared list, we might get in trouble if anyone figures out how we rescued you,” more specifically, if someone figures out the trick, they might come up with a counter, “I would appreciate it if you limited the information to who and what, making no mention of how, and instructed your crew to do similarly. That will hopefully keep me out of trouble while still letting me claim that ship.”
Captain Coelris considers, and nods slowly, “Certainly, Captain Alex. I'll have it in the logs as you say. Thank you.”
I chuckle, “You’re welcome. If honest folks don't watch out for each other, civilization falls apart. Good day.”
“Good day,” she closes.
Now for the prize….
