Nihao!
Friend of mine ask that I post this for your reading pleasure. In case
you're wondering, this is based off of a role playing game that he came
up with, which in turn was based off of Tenchi Muyo! and other scorces
and used the system in the RBG Bubblegum Crisis. Please send all C&C
(and please do send some!)to agyor@saturnnet.com or post it to the list
and I'll forward it to him.
Thanks,
Jusenkyo Guide
Maelynn Part One: Enter the Demon Child and the Ghost Ship
Iberton System, Capital Station
Cali set the plate of food down in front of the Iberton Federation
Police inspector. He rarely entered the Purring Kitty Inn except to
track down criminals, so she was somewhat surprised at his presence.
She was even more surprised when he got down off his high horse to speak
to her lowly self.
"Do you know anyone from Neer?"
Cali leaned over the table, giving a tempting view down her loose
blouse, and replied, "A few spacers come through here who crew
freighters that make runs delivering manufactured goods in exchange for
food stuffs or furs or booze--I occasionally get a tip in the form of a
case or two of Neer Beer--otherwise, just the occasional tourist coming
to look at the capital. Why, investigating something?"
The left side of the inspector's scarred face twisted upward as he
replied, "Yeah. I'm assigned to chase a myth. The infamous Ghost Ship
that haunts the 3rd Precinct. There's no doubt something's out there,
but I do doubt it's a ghost."
"Well," responded Cali, "Let me know if you find it."
Neer System
Junior Patrolman Bella L. Abel of the planet-wide Abel family sat idly
next to her partner, and immediate superior, Senior Patrolman Liana Oko
of some obscure family without any real importance. Normally Liana
would be seriously attending to her duties, but her cat, Fluffy,
wandered onto the bridge. Therefore, Liana paid serious attention to
Her Majesty. Bella liked animals--especially the furry kind--and they
liked her, but she craved attention and despite Fluffy's affectionate
mewing she was becoming quite vexed with the animal.
Then a small section of Bella's control board lit and a cubic box
appeared around a new contact. Taking her feet down off the navigation
panel in a demonstration of incredible agility, Bella glanced at the
panel and reported, with a distinct whine of disappointment, "The
salvage ship Oyster just return to normal space."
Her partner turned her attention away from the cat long enough to
confirm the sensor readings and reply for the log, "Confirmed."
"So," began Bella in the hope of turning attention back on her, "did
that super-inspector arrive yet?"
Scratching Fluffy's belly Liana replied absently, "He arrived with the
Badger before it went on a deep patrol mission. I think his name's
'Morgan' or something."
"I wonder what he looks--whoa!" Another contact appeared on Bella's
console. "New contact. No ID. It's a medium bulk freighter--armed to
the hilt and slabbed over with armor."
Liana toggled her communication array and sent a tight beam
transmission to the unidentified vessel, "This is IFP patrol ship
Dragonfly to freighter. Identify yourself."
Bella glanced over from her sensor readings and informed Liana, "It
slipped out from behind that moon and is on an intercept course with the
Oyster. We couldn't see it, so it couldn't see us. It probably
expected us to take the same route we did last time which would have put
us on the other side of the system, but here we are only one twelve
thousand klicks away."
Liana set her controls for maximum STL velocity on an intercept course
for the unidentified ship. Three seconds later the pirate ship fired on
the Oyster with pulse ion cannons and heavy neutron guns. The former to
disable the ship and the latter to kill the crew. The Oyster
counterattacked with pulse lasers and a tachyon cannon--it didn't even
scar the armor. Two seconds later and another salvo was exchanged. The
two ships ineffectively blasted at each other until six seconds later
the Dragonfly added her fire into the fray. However, even her heavy
tachyon cannon couldn't dent the armor.
"We're still out of range for a missile, Bella, so keep firing that
cannon--you might get lucky and find a kink in its armor like you did on
our last deep patrol."
"Yessir."
Two seconds later a missile fired from the Dragonfly carrying an
anti-matter warhead sure to blast through just about any armor passed a
missile carrying a plasma warhead that could easily destroy the small
patrol ship. Computer operated point defense cannons spat invisible
fire from each ship at the incoming missiles and disintegrated their
respective targets.
"Well," said Bella, "this is turning out well. Identification based on
configuration incoming. It's a known pirate vessel called the Buccaneer
Neer OB reports that its scrambling fighters. ETA two minutes."
"Gre-at. Too bad this battle might be over in as many seconds."
In the brief moment while the cannons recharged, Bella checked the
positions of the fighters and the patrol ship Wolverine just then
leaving Neer Orbital Base. Then a new contact appeared on her screen.
"Whoa! Another ship just appeared just starboard to the Oyster. Its
firing! The pirate ship's gone! Now that other ship's gone! Trace
matter from the pirate ship detected; the other ship just disappeared."
"Was it some kind of cloaking device?"
"Bosswoman, no cloaking device works like that. I think we've just
seen--"
"--the Ghost Ship. Swell. Lets escort the Oyster back to port."
Neer Orbital Base
Senior Detective Morgan waited just station-side of the airlock of
Dragonfly's berth. He had listened to the communications and watched
the base sensor display. To all immediate appearances he just saw his
target appear out of nowhere, rescue a civilian ship, and disappear
again. When the airlock cycled and the two women crewing the ship
emerged, he put on his most intimidating facial expression.
"Make sure you include your sensor logs in your reports. Now, I want
you to come with me: we're going to have a talk with that salvage ship
captain."
When he turned to leave, Bella and Liana looked at each other and
shrugged before following him. Unlike the navy blue uniforms they wore
over their biosteel armor, he wore the traditional grey overcoat like
the inspectors of earth long lost. While they carried their handguns
and COMSENDATs conspicuously on their belts, his was hidden in amongst
his clothing. The gloves suggested that he hid the standard issue form
fitting biosteel armor of the IFP.
The officers followed the detective into a bar that operated near the
main cargo bays and freighter berths. Frequented by spacers of a wide
variety, it could attract any kind of person. Today it attracted the
curious--for this is where Pearl, captain of the Oyster, went to get a
drink.
Sitting at the bar with an untouched drink nearby sat a woman of medium
build. Muddy yellow hair cascaded down her back and sides--unusual
since most spacefarers keep their hair short. Surrounding her, besides
her excessive hair, spacers intently listened to her story.
". . . Then out of nowhere," she made a sweeping gesture that knocked
her glass over and sent the liquid across the bar, "the Ghost Ship
appeared. Then boom!" She brouyght her hands back together in a loud
clap. "It incinerated the Belt Pirate."
The bartender set another drink down in front of her just as the IFP
officers approached her. Morgan towered over her and asked, "So it was
a Belt Pirate?"
Captain Pearl looked up at him, smiled and batted her eyelids, "It's
not the first time its happened. Besides, its a fairly standard
configuration for ships funded by the ruler of the Belt." She turned to
the women and smiled even broader, "So, are you my rescuers? Or at
least would have been had not the Ghost Ship appeared?"
Liana nodded seriously as her cat jumped up on the bar. Bella smiled
back and gave a flirting twitch of her head.
"Great!" replied Pearl, making another sweeping gesture that knocked
her drink over again. "I would like to thank you anyway."
Morgan, somewhat annoyed, cleared his throat to bring Pearl's attention
back to him. Then he continued his questioning, "You believe this was
indeed a Ghost Ship?"
"What else?"
"That's what I'd like to find out. I'd like you to send your sensor
log to me ASAP."
"Um, that could be a problem, sir." Pearl sidled up close to the
detective; his scars took on a ruddy color. "You see, one of the ion
blasts wiped out part of my computer. I was able to observe the
incident with my own eyes, but the computer couldn't record it." She
leaned into him some and whispered through pouty lips, "I'm sorry."
Morgan coughed and rolled his shoulders back. Looking for a
distraction, he reached out to touch Fluffy who began languidly walking
across the surface of the bar. The tips of his fingers made it about
two inches away from the cat's ears when it freaked. In one bound it
leaped into Morgan's face to add some new scars before dropping to the
ground and rubbing up against Bella's leg, purring.
When Pearl pressed up against the inspector, the crowd let out a
universal "oooh". Now they laughed hysterically at the bleeding cop.
If fact , one of the wittier ones called out "Bleedin' cop!" to
encourage the laughter. Bella joined in with that quip, but stopped
short as Morgan turned toward her. Meanwhile, Liana was petting her cat
and asking, "You didn't hurt your pwecious claws did you, my pwetty
kitty?"
IFP Sector Headquarters, Neer OB
Detective Morgan sat in the Lieutenant's office as the straight laced,
primly dressed man perused his report. Expressionless, his eyes passed
over his screen. Finally, the lieutenant glanced up.
"So, other than some obscure sensor readings you have absolutely
nothing."
Which was more than Morgan ever expected, but he instead said,
"Actually it is the first time the Ghost Ship appeared in-system. All
other accounts have been at jump points in deep space."
"So, what does that tell us?"
"I have no idea."
"Well it's your job to find out, so why don't--"
Simultaneously their respective COMSENDATs demanded their attention.
Morgan removed his from inside his coat and activated it. A dispatcher
appeared on the console and reported.
"Patrolman Barker reports a corpse in Cargo Bay 651."
The lieutenant looks up from his own console and orders, "Go check it
out."
Cargo Bay 651, Neer OB
The lieutenant passed the patrolmen guarding the personnel access
portal and looked and followed the stream of searching patrolmen and
crime scene analyzers to where the corpse lay. It was a young man in a
spacer's jumpsuit.
Finding the maintenance worker who discovered the body, he asked the
routine questions. He only touched the body to see if it was alive. He
didn't move anything. He reported it immediately. He came to check on
the security camera that was malfunctioning. No, he found the body
first and didn't get a chance to look at it so he doesn't know what was
wrong with it.
Meanwhile, Bella and Liana, who had been assigned by a sergeant on the
scene to help search for any evidence laying about or tucked in a
crevice. Liana was in a bad mood since they wouldn't allow her to have
her cat near the crime scene. Bella in her usually jubilant attitude
walked beside her scanning the crates with her COMSENDAT. When they
reached the end of the row, Liana looked up and frowned.
"Bella, these crates don't rise all the way up to the ceiling. We
better get up there and look."
Bella whined since she knew that meant she would have to give her
partner a boost. About five minutes later Bella finally managed to
muscle Liana into a position from which she could clamber up onto the
crate. The crowd of cops that gathered to watch this comedic display
clapped sarcastically. Bella took it in stride and bowed. Liana just
rolled her eyes.
The commotion attracted Morgan, who charged down the alley like a bull
elk among his harem. He opened his mouth to chastise them when Liana
yelled.
Attention drawn to her, she made a visual recording of that at which
she looked. Then she announced, "I've found the weapon."
Using an evidence collector, the pin sized object was collected.
Returning to the body where the medical examiner was still making his
preliminary observations, Morgan shoved the object in his face.
"We'll need biological data on whoever touched this."
The examiner glanced at it and replied, "If that's a laser, then I'll
give you ten to one the only evidence on that will point to Spaceman
Angus here."
Morgan's eyebrows drew closer to each other. The detective asked,
"What gives you that idea?"
"This poor bastard wasn't killed by a laser."
Morgan waited a moment before he realized the examiner wasn't going to
continue. Drawing in a breath the prompted, "Then what was he killed
by?"
With a ludicrous smile the examiner replied, "I thought you'd never
asked." Then he continued quickly before the big man strangled him, "It
was some kind of overpowered stun weapon used at close range and for
long duration. I think."
"You think?"
"Well, I've never seen anything like it, but there's no external damage
to the body. Not even a pinprick--or laser score. I happen to know
that prolonged exposure to a stun weapon can eventually kill someone.
Also, I figure it had to be fairly powerful to drop him without much of
a struggle. further, it wasn't some kind of hand held neutron gun, they
have those now, because there is no radiation burns or residual
radiation in the body or surrounding area. But of course, this is just
based on what I have seen before. And like I said, I've never seen
anything like it."
Morgan grunted and looked at the body. "Do your full fledged exam as
soon as you can. Give me a thorough report when your done. I want your
current data transferred to me immediately. I'm taking this pin laser
to the tech boys."
As he turned to leave Bella and Liana caught a glance at the corpse and
looked at each other. Touching Morgan's arm gently, Bella managed to
get his attention. Turning to her, he gave her an impatient look, but
waited for her to speak.
"If high and mighty is willing to permit me, I would like to point out
an observation."
Liana rolled her eyes and spoke up, "That's one of the Pearl groupies
at the bar."
Morgan turned around and looked at the body again, but didn't recognize
it. Of course, Pearl was quite distracting. And later the blood in
eyes kept him from seeing too much of anything.
Turning back to the patrolmen he replied, "I wondered if you would
notice or not."
Liana and Bella gave each other a suspicious glance and followed him
out of the room to make their reports. The remaining cops continued
searching the premises and preparing the corpse for transport.
IFPHQ, Neer OB
The lieutenant leaned over his desk and looked directly into the
inspector's eyes. "Please, Morgan, explain these reports?"
The man grunted--his equivalent of a sigh. "All right. We have a
corpse killed by an unknown weapon. The camera that would have
witnessed it was disabled by some external interference. Again, we
don't know what it was."
"What about the pin-laser?"
"All the bio's on that indicated that it was the weapon of the
deceased. We guess he was after someone and got ambushed."
"So your telling me you know nothing?"
"No, we know something. We just don't know what it is."
Liana sat back in her chair scratching Fluffy's ears. Bella sat across
from her with her legs crossed on top of her own desk. Liana gazed
contemplatively at the ceiling while Bella pouted at her screen. She
was losing the game she played on her COMSENDAT.
Liana leveled her head and asked, "Did super-cop have the tech boys
check the interference against the weapon data? It might turn out
they're the same foreign technology."
Bella gave a frustrated squeak and looked up from her screen.
Answering Liana she said, "Probably not. He certainly doesn't solve
cases with his brains. Too dependent on his scars. You know, I think
we should go have a drink with Captain Pearl. The way she greeted us
she probably thinks she owes us one."
"Or wants us to think that."
Neer Beer Bar
Three women cornered a table between them. A soda rested on the table
in front of Bella. Liana gripped a mug of beer. An unidentifiable blue
liquid filled the small glass in front of Pearl.
"Did you finish trading your salvage?" asked Liana to the Oyster's
captain.
"Yep. Some more rest and relaxation and a couple of prayers to the
gods of fate and I'll be ready to head out again."
Bella put on her best pout, "Are you sure you won't stay a couple of
days? I really would like to get to know you better."
Captain Pearl's eyebrow lifted. "Now that was loaded with innuendo."
"Then let me save you," interrupted Liana. "Did you know that Angus
guy that got killed?"
"No, though someone did mention he was one of the gawkers from
yesterday. Never met him before then. I think he had a crush on me."
"How's that?"
"He kept rubbing up against me. Maybe he was just a lecher." Pearl
turned to Bella and winked.
IFPHQ, Neer OB
Morgan began reading the messages accumulated on his COMSENDAT. One in
particular caught his eye. It began "Here is the report Officer Liana
Oko said you wanted" and continued to give an analysis of the murder
weapon and the camera disrupter. Of course, he thought to himself (as
opposed to thinking to someone else), I should have thought of that.
Reading more carefully he discovered that the energy weapon used to kill
the spacer was also used to disrupt the camera.
Another thought hit him like an anvil. He sent an order to the techies
to analyze the sensor logs of the Dragonfly concerning the Ghost ship
and compare them to the energy weapon used at the murder scene.
Returning from the Neer Beer Bar, Liana and Bella spoke quietly between
themselves. Bella asked Liana, "I wonder if that report on the murder
weapon and camera disabler made it into Morgan the Brain Muscle's hands
yet?"
Liana didn't answer the question. Instead she asked a question of her
own. "What other bizarre, alien energy weapon have we noticed in the
past couple of days?"
Bella's eyes widened as she replied, "The Ghost Ship!"
With a glance between them, their relaxed pace transformed into a
sprint.
When Liana and Bella entered IFPHQ Morgan glanced up and gave his
announcement. The Ghost Ship's weapon and the Murder weapon held a 92%
probability of being the same technology. Liana and Bella glanced at
each other with a nod.
Morgan activated his desk console. "Port Authority! Do not allow the
Oyster to leave port. Her Captain is under arrest." Switching over to
IFP communications, "All officers, locate Captain Pearl and place her
under arrest."
The reply from the Port Authority then came back, "IFPHQ, Captain Pearl
has already departed aboard the Oyster. She is six minutes from safe
hyperjump zone. Will demand that she return to port."
Morgan turned to order the two women to their ship, but they had
already left down the passageway.
Neer System
With deft, trained movements used to conserve energy and maximize
reaction time, Liana and Bella prepared their ship for emergency launch.
Liana received clearance for departure and took the Dragonfly out.
Bella began checking the weapons systems.
"Wolverine is on intercept course. Oyster is not replying to
communications. All weapons on-line and fully charged."
Liana acknowledged Bella's report with a grunt and gave her own status
for the log, "Intercept with Oyster in under a minute."
Close to a minute later Wolverine and Dragonfly came within weapons
range of the Oyster. Liana continued to try to get Captain Pearl's
attention. Finally the Oyster's captain replied.
"Dragonfly, Oyster. Tell Amagotten he has to do better than that. His
genefreak isn't worth my effort. To think he could drug my drink!"
Bella, without lifting her head from her nav/wpn display, asked quietly
of Liana, "Whose Amagotten?"
Liana replied with a shrug. Before she could relay this question to
Pearl, another incoming communication from the Oyster arrived. "I've
had my fill of prisons, so I really don't feel like returning, even if a
couple of nice IFP types let me out. So it's good-bye for now. Don't
let any pirates get you!"
Liana sighed, "Take her down."
Bella mimicked Liana's sigh and began firing ion cannons. The
Wolverine began firing its own cannons. Both barrages struck the Oyster
directly and the salvage ship stopped maneuvering. Disabled, it sat
adrift while the Dragonfly took it into tow. The Wolverine provided
cover in case it was playing possum. The Dragonfly released the ship to
tugs that moved it up to a docking collar where it was secured to the
station.
Neer OB
While the Dragonfly towed the fleeing vessel in, Detective Morgan
mustered a SWAT team. Adding a helmet and air supply to his armor, he
joined them with his laser riffle at the ready. When the Oyster was
secured to the station, Morgan nodded to the sergeant in command of the
SWAT team and he move his unit into position. Overriding Airlock
controls, they entered the ship.
Beyond the ship's inner air lock door was a long corridor leading to
another set of doors. The airlock's indicator showed that the airlock
was pressurized, but the space beyond was not.
It looked like a trap. Only two people could fit in the small airlock,
so in order to pass through, they would have to move a pair at a time.
Not willing to move without fire support, Morgan ordered the corridor
evacuated as well as the airlock. Opening the double doors, they looked
out into an open space as big as the ship.
It was a husk. Judging from the scarring on the internal hull
reinforcements, some kind of anchor was used to support some object in
the center. Possibly another ship. Only there was no indication of
doors to allow said ship to leave.
Unsatisfied, Morgan wanted to try another way in. Making an
extra-vehicular assault on the cargo bays located in the aft of the
ship, they entered to find an intact engine and drive system. Perfectly
intact. No ion damage.
There were no control systems to be found.
The sergeant looked at the detective and said, "I guess the captain
wasn't the only pearl inside this oyster."
Morgan just groaned.
IFPHQ, Neer OB
When word of the "egg without a yoke yet no cracks in its shell"
reached the ears of Senior Patrolman Liana Oko, she gave a general
prayer to any god who might have his or her ear turned her way. She
felt extremely lucky she didn't suffer the fate as the crew of the
Buccaneer.
Now she sat with Bella and the inspector trying to find out who Captain
Pearl really is. Besides being the Demon Child pilot of the Ghost Ship.
They discovered that Pearl and the Oyster didn't appear in Iberton until
around twenty years ago. Using what she said about being in prison,
they checked for any woman leaving prison twenty years ago that
corresponded to Pearl's general description. Of course, the description
took into account different hair color, eye color, and skin color. It
also considered an 85% confidence in facial appearance.
They failed to find any record.
Then suddenly Morgan's head popped up. "I think Captain Pearl commands
the Ghost Ship--it was inside the Oyster!"
"My hero," whispered Bella under her breath. Liana just rolled her
eyes skyward--as if issuing another prayer.
Going back to the research, Liana discovered a fatal flaw in their
search. They had assumed the reason that Captain Pearl appeared twenty
years ago was because she was released from prison then. The assumption
was based on the fact that the best youth preservers could only manage
to make a forty year old to look like twenty-five. Considering the fact
that she appeared twenty years ago, suggested that she had to have been
released about that time--or have been too young to be in prison. A
teenager would have been to a re-education camp instead. But if she
possessed the advanced technology she displayed, then she might have far
more advanced youth preserving methods. She could be an old woman, even
ninety or one hundred years old.
Considering that pushing one hundred and fifteen pushed the threshold
of individual human age, and considering that her technologies might
prolong that, Liana decided to run a search for any female prisoners in
the database from the past two centuries.
Of course, Pearl could've just been lieing about being in prison.
Running her search with new parameters, she found one match. The
possibility score next to the entry read 100%. Liana blinked and
checked that she entered the parameters correctly. Assuring herself she
made no mistake, she accessed the file.
NAME: MAELYNN
ALIAS: NONE
OUTSTANDING WARRANTS: PIRACY (8), THEFT (4), MURDER (56), TAX
EVASION (1)
*NOTE: ALSO WANTED BY KINGDOM OF EILLIS FOR PIRACY, MURDER, AND
TREASON
DESCRIPTION:
SEX: FEMALE
HAIR: BLACK-RED
EYES: GOLD
BUILD: MEDIUM
DOB: 4 AV
RECORD
19 AV ARRESTED AND CONVICTED OF PIRACY SENTENCED TO ASTOPH
PRISON
109 AV RELEASED FROM ASTOPH PRISON
178 AV TO 184 AV ACTIVE IN PIRATE WARS
SHIP: FIREHAWK
MODIFIED BULK FREIGHTER. EQUIPPED WITH TACHYON CANNONS AND A-M
MISSILES. NOT OBSERVED SINCE 184 AV DURING PIRATE WARS. NO SPECIAL
SYSTEMS.
Liana wasn't sure what she just read. According to it, Pearl--or
Maelynn, was over two centuries old. She checked the current year on
her COMSENDAT just to make sure. Yep, it was still 228 a.v. The
murderess was two-hundred twenty-four years old.
Bella suddenly yelled. "Whoa! I got an ID on the Ghost Ship! I had
to dig deep, but I found a ship of a similar configuration. A pirate
ship belonging to a pair of pirates named Rick LaVente and Maelynn--no
last name--um, they were captured planetside and the ship took off. I'm
going to check out their records."
"No need," replied Liana, showing the file on Maelynn.
Bella's eyes grew wide. "She's still alive?"
"Apparently."
Meanwhile, Detective Morgan was looking back and forth between the two
women. Looking at the research they gathered, he stood up and declared,
"It's about time you caught up with me."
Liana's head dropped into her hands and Bella looked at the ceiling as
if hoping to see the meaning of life. Fluffy began running in circles.
Ignoring them, he continued, "Now let's see if you can figure out who
this Amagulagan-guy is."
With timing only the fates could swing, a cute desk jockey approached
and set a data sliver on his desk. "Here's all the information I could
find on Dr. Amagotten." Winking at the two officers, she smugly walked
away.
Somewhat distracted by the retreated rear, Morgan absently mumbled
something about delegating authority as being part of good leadership.
Liana mumbled something about it being the last resort of incompetent
middle managers.
Fluffy meowed incessantly.
--Malcolm John Wilson 1997
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