Tales of the John Henry

Tales of the John Henry 

 

Setting Info: 

I’ve started running UW for the Sunday Skyper’s crew which is our actual play gaming group.  The modular transport John Henry is run by an NPC Captain, Silvas Trask, and each of the PC are shareholders.  How they each became a shareholder has not been revealed,  saving that for flash backs/debt. 🙂 

 

We have Jaxon Kane (a shady info-dealer, Technocrat / Scoundrel / Galactic), Omega (a ‘vanity clone’ of pop-star Nova Starburst, Personality / Academic / Productive), Febe Keergard (a salvager foreman, Galactic / Industrial / Personality), and Jason Flanders (a space merchant, Commercial / Starfarer / Crowded). 

 

Other named crewmen; Juanita Price – a jump drive tech on loan from Nakamoto, Taylor – fellow engineer and a bit of a letch, Frick and Frack – hairless ‘rad hardened’ engineering clones that spend a lot of time in the aft section. 

 

The John Henry is a non-military transport in a dumb-bell configuration with a multi-level crew section up front, a skinny spine for carrying modules and cargo, and an engine section aft.  It is not designed for atmospheric flight.   

 

In our setting, AI never developed (or has been effectively and perhaps brutally suppressed.)  This has led to the rise of Second Life and the use of clones for cheap labor instead of robots or androids.  Most clones are treated as property or the local equivalent to serfs, but there are free clones such as Omega.  How the law reacts to clones varies from world to world.  In general, purpose-build clones are not known for their independence and free will.   

 

Material (ala 3d) printing is common, but complicated parts and materials requiring special processing are done at factories with purpose-built facilities.   

 

There is no anti-gravity, but most ships have a really efficient form of fusion drive and can maintain constant thrust when not docked.  Similarly, most space stations are either built in the ring or cylindrical configuration that spins to provide gravity. 

 

The jump drive is an energy sponge and sucks up waste heat (well, nearly any form of energy for that matter.)  So, most starships don’t run with radiators although you could add radiator modules if you knew you were going to be sitting still for a long time and not going to jump.  The jump drive can be ‘saturated’ and will stop taking in heat.  At that point you either jump, cook, or dump fuel to cool down the engines/reactor.  Non-FTL space ships and stations have radiators built in by design and necessity if they have a large reactor. 

 

On the big picture, the crew is in the Yanapol Expanse, a relatively new region of space that is mix of old colonies, new colonies, mining, and unexplored systems.  Further coreward are the Core Worlds and the birth place of humanity.  These systems are predominantly human controlled by the Empire of a Thousand Suns.   

 

The Session Report 01: 

The game starts with the crew having just completed a jump from the agro-world of Han’s Landing.  The ship has executed turn-over and beginning the long deceleration burn towards Marsk Station which orbits Marsk Eta, a cold dead rock of a planet.  Marsk Station is a dedicated research facility that is off the normal trade routes.  Ships that do visit tend to bring in food or entertainment goods while ferrying people to and from the other systems.  Elliot’s Hope, an industrial world, forms the other corner of this little trade triangle. 

 

The lion’s share of the facility, its labor force, and security are handled by Second Life.  There are a number of smaller tech firms like HyperLight Technologies that have space here and enjoy the relative privacy and security that Marsk Station provides.   

 

To warm up the players, I started with “Gimmie a project you’re working on or deal with the cramped quarters for six days.”  Jason started on market research.  Omega locked himself into his cabin where only a mysterious green light could be seen from time to time.  Febe decided that team building meant “Let’s build a rail gun and play tag.”  Surprisingly enough, no one was seriously injured.  Jaxon tried a little skullduggery and didn’t meet with too much success.  It didn’t help that some idiots were running around the ship with an unshielded rail gun. 

 

Approach was uneventful with Captain Trask handling the hand shaking with traffic control.  Docking was a paint scraper which embarrassed the captain.   Juanita got the blame for that.  She might have ‘borrowed’ the docking range finder for the rail gun project and forgot to put it back (or gambled poorly that the ship would dock on the starboard side.) 

 

The trip through customs was uneventful.  Jaxon was able to smuggle some items in without tripping the sensors.  Flanders declared his pistol, but was warned that using it for anything other than self-defense was a crime.  Omega showed the custom officer his free clone card and was given ‘the look’ since security was being ran by Second Life staff.  Febe actually debarked with a fair amount of tools, perfectly legal, but was warned about job licensing and fees on station. 

 

Marsk Station is a counter-rotating wheel design with the center core being a zero-G docking hub and loading zone.  Febe show boated in zero-G, everyone else managed to stay out of trouble.  The near ring is the public zone; housing, clubs, the market, administration are all there.  The far ring is strictly corporate territory.  Because the rings are counter rotating, the only (legal) connection points are in the central hub.  Elevators in the spokes of the wheels take people and goods to the rings and back.  It’s a good sized station with thousands of people.  Almost everyone in the service industry is a clone with a Second Life logo on their chest. 

 

As per tradition, the party immediately splits up.  🙂 

 

Febe takes her engineers to a local pub and buys the first round. 

 

Trask and Jason head down to the market to set up their wares. 

 

Jaxon does a does a little info gathering and hacking. 

 

And Omega wanders about, fails to be stealthy (or manages to look incredibly suspicious) and gets accosted by an Internal Security Officer. 

 

Jason and Jaxon both discover that HyperLight Technologies might be a buyer for the salvaged  jump drive that they have in a cargo net on the outside of the John Henry.  Of course, they do go about it in different ways. 

 

Trask more or less pawns off the selling of goods to Jason while the Captain heads off to a meet and greet with the station administrator. 

 

Febe calls tries to get Jason involved in a deal, but it turns out she’s not happy with meeting with any corporate weasel types.   

 

Jaxon (Kane) failed to find a buyer for his illicit financial information, which is why he started digging into HyperLight. He called Febe to get in on the jump drive deal, but she was still sore about their Cramped Quarters failure so she turned him down.  Taylor reminds everyone why he’s a letch, but gets rebuked (as usual.)  Febe leaves the engineers to their drink. 

 

It turns out Jaxon tripped an alarm at HyperLight, but he slips past the station cops like a ghost.  We’ll see if the impact of that comes back to bite them. 

 

Febe discovers one of the ‘open air’ ballrooms that the locals have set up to amuse themselves with, boredom is a real problem on the station.  Their style of dance is an alien thing to her and refuses an invitation to participate.  Sitting on the sidelines, she observes that it is a spectator sport as well, but she can’t figure out who’s winning. 

 

Omega wanders in from a different direction and in a rare moment of exhibitionism drags Febe on to the dance floor during a break in the dancing.  All aboard the awkward train as Febe freezes up in from of an audience of curious onlookers.  Also, the DJ recognizes Omega (well Nova Starburst) and plays one of Nova’s love ballads.  (Probably triggering even more moments of recognition.)  Did I mention it was a train wreck? 

— 

TAZ