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'Memory Lapse'


Session 1.13: Caliburn


Session 1.12   Index   Session 1.14


We come out of Jumpspace one hundred diameters out from the large gas giant Arthur, on one moon of which, Camelot, is the capital and administrative headquarters of Lunion Fluid Management (LFM) in the Caliburn system.

We quickly pick up various radio emissions from several of Arthur's moons, plus the Caliburn and Ron belts, and the moons of Clarent in the outer system. It is cold here; the systems star, Notavalon, is small, dim and red. We pick up the emissions of a couple of 'Kantrex' class (Tessalon-type) ships around Camelot, the Prevalite and the Vesanoid, and also a couple of system defence boats (SDBs) the Mephyton and the Nilandron. No-one seems to have detected us yet.

Our plan is to hide in plain sight as the 'Fantasy Escort Service'. We intend to set up offices in-system as a cover for our work, a 'branch office'. Ozymandias has been spending some of the weeks in jumpspace making up our business plan. We are all in disguise at this point and intend to be for the rest of our stay! We shift the 'Fantasy's chameleon hull into a blatant advertisement as we begin to power in towards Arthur to refuel. It will take about thirteen hours to reach Arthur from here.

As we go in, Szechuan looks into turning missile warheads or CPR gun shells into bombs. The missile warheads are shaped charge HEAP warheads, while the shells we have are just HE, and easier to turn into bombs. Szechuan starts to do this...

Bingbong tells us more research results. He has been looking at the anagathic virus, and has managed to sequence its DNA. It is a genetically engineered life form, made from some common harmless virus. It is short-lived, can't live outside the human body, has a very low mutation rate, and needs specialist nutrients to survive and grow. As we fly in we listen to some of the broadcast signals. Some are in-system news (all quite dull). There is a corporate information channel about LFM LIC. Apparently they operate all over this and the Lunion and Mora subsectors. They have a monopoly in the Caliburn system. They also host the research labs of LFM and its parent company, SuSAG, and license asteroid miners. They also license other service providers - hospitals, food suppliers, entertainers, shops, schools, computer services and so on. There is no university here.

Apparently non-employees (non-citizens) still pay taxes, but have fewer rights under the law. Citizen-Employees (which include the dependants of employees) have the right to a disciplinary hearing with LFM (the in-system LFM Board of Directors are the ultimate court); non-citizens do not, and are usually just deported, though the system does have a death penalty for serious offences. Citizens are subject to LFM disciplinary procedures.

There is no university at Caliburn - people have to leave the system for that - but there are on-line learning courses, the costs of which are nominal for employee-citizens, but more expensive for non-citizens.

Also from the corporate information channel we learn the names of the Board of Directors of Caliburn:

One name springs out at us - Abrey Tolivarn, whose name was mentioned by the crew of the Tessalon, all those months ago. He quickly moves to the top of our potential kidnapping list, though Szechuan is not keen on this idea! Dr Vivian McAndrews is also high on our list of potential targets.

As we head in to Arthur, Szechuan re-wires one of our CPR gun shells into a bomb with a timer and radio trigger with 4096-bit encryption. At least, he thinks he has done this. The timer will go off when it reaches '37', not zero.

After thirteen hours we reach Arthur, and refuel in its atmosphere, then head back out to the moon of Camelot, which takes another few hours. We go into orbit and radio traffic control. There is not a lot of traffic about, one a few orbital tank complexes, and it takes ten minutes for a rather flustered-sounding traffic control to get back to us. They give us permission to land at the Camelot City Spaceport (the only real landing facility on Camelot), and down we fly, taking about ten minutes from orbit.

As we come in to land at Camelot City we cannot help but notice that the spaceport is quite well-defended. There are a couple of starship missile bays and laser turrets about, and also a landed system defence boat, the Mephyton, which our ships NAS sensors tell us currently has ten people on board (about 1/3 of what we estimate is its operational crew). The city itself appears to be a collection of domes all abutting up to one another, varying between ten and fifteen stories high.

We also pick up a much larger number of people from the parts of the city close to the spaceport.

Traffic control tells us not to leave the ship, but to wait for customs, and this we do. Twenty minutes later, two people in 'uniform' vacc suits bearing the LFM Corporate Police insignia arrive at our airlock, and are admitted. Szechuan's DNA scanner jammer is definitely on at this point; the LFM customs inspectors do not seem to notice this.

They begin with questions. "Why have you brought a small warship like this one to the Caliburn system? Also, we have licensed brothels here - we have no need for the competition from your 'Fantasy Escort Services'."

We once again tell our tale of being a military escort service, not the other kind, and our intention to set up an office here.

They are dubious about hijackings, and the need for a non-LFM escort service. However, when pressed they do mention one recent incident of hijacking, some months ago. "Some nutters broke into a research lab and stole a ship," says one of them. However, that was all handled internally to LFM.

"SuSAG has dealings outside the Imperium and could benefit from our services," Ozymandias tells them. "We will stoop to things like bounty hunting if necessary."

The customs officers look dubious, but progress on to their inspection of the ship. We move the CPR gun shell modified by Szechuan about the ship ahead of them, as it is the sort of thing they would ask questions about! We manage to avoid their seeing it.

They examine everything, and eventually OK the ship, and depart. However, no non-melee weapons are allowed off the ship...

Ak looks at the old census data and discovers that his former self was based at Quillion in the Caliburn Belt.

We contact the Camelot City internet and use it to check in to the only hotel in town - the Camelot Grand Hotel and Conference Centre. That done, we fly our air-raft the hundred metres to the city and enter via a high-level airlock there.

It is bright and warm inside, quite a contrast to the dim red cold outside. Another LFM police officer, on duty at the airlock, directs us to the hotel, and we walk through the corridors of the city (which seem supplied with grav plates and security cameras) to it.

The receptionist has the LFM corporate logo on their lapel, clearly an employee-citizen. We check in and head up to our suite of rooms. Once we are settled in we check the Camelot City internet again.

The first thing we check is things to see and do in Camelot City itself. The list is not very impressive:

This list does not do much to change our opinion that Caliburn is an extraordinarily dull place in the back of beyond...

We check to see if SuSAG have offices here, and if we can tour them. However, although they do have an office here, it is just that - an office. No tours available. Damn.

We leave the hotel and go for a wander over to the LFM Headquarters Park. It is a subtropical enclave of growing things, cunningly landscaped to seem bigger than is really is, with some birds and rodents living in it too. Children and families play there. To one side are the large and impressive main doors of the LFM Headquarters. As we go that way, Ak has a feeling of familiarity, as if he has been here before, and an idea of what's inside. He draws a quick map of what he thinks is there in case it's actually true, for later confirmation.

In we go. Ak's map seems to be pretty accurate.

We ask the receptionist about having a tour of the place, but it turns out that today's tour is long over. We arrange to go on the tour that starts at 10 AM tomorrow instead. Apparently, no cameras are allowed ('damn', we go, our ship having holographic cameras as part of its equipment), but postcards can be bought once the tour is over, or indeed now - there is a small carousel of cards on the reception desk. The obviously well-trained receptionist ignores our rather sarcastic reception of this news.

Scarlett buys two sets of very dull postcards. They have pictures of the LFM logo, conference rooms, doors, hallways and so on.

We leave LFM headquarters and go to a cafe with internet terminals looks out onto the LFM Headquarters Park. The cafe serves all kinds of beverages, as well as alcohol and drugs. We check the internet to see what events are on today:

We decide we desperately need to import drug to this place!

We use the internet terminal to rent ourselves some offices on-line. However, with the rental agreement comes a disclaimer - we will require a licence from LFM to operate here. Ozymandias fills out the licence application form too, and sends that off.

While he does that, Scarlett heads off to Peoples Park to look for anyone we may recognise at the concert.

Ak looks for information on the people we are interested in on the internet, in particular Professor Brandon Telsen, the third-in-command of the disgraced research team at the University of Rhylanor at Stillingfleet thirteen years ago, who originated in Caliburn. He also looks for location information on our former selves. This he finds quite quickly:

However, all of us seem to have retired to Ricasso in the Caliburn Belt.

Scarlett arrives at Peoples Park to find several hundred people milling about around a traditional bandstand. The park itself is very similar to the LFM Headquarters Park. Some people are picnicking; some are buying things from food stalls. She wanders about, and after a bit notices that Vladimir Smith, the PR and Marketing Officer of the LFM Board of Directors, is here with family (wife and three children aged roughly eight, eleven and fifteen), friends (divided between some who are clearly close personal friends, and some who are aspiring corporate people) and four bodyguards. After a bit the brass band comes on at starts to play. They seem all right, but Scarlett dislikes their music...

Back on the 'Fantasy', Szechuan is making more bombs. Converting four more shells into bombs (for five total), that is.

Ozymandias completes the licence application form and sends it off. No response comes back. He pays money to rent the offices anyway, on spec.

On the internet, Ak finds that Brandon Telsen is in the Caliburn system. However, his location is corporate classified. As he seems familiar with the system he attempts to log on as his former self, Randy Seq, letting his fingers type the password of themselves. This seems to work, and he is into the system.

The first thing he does is check whether using this account has raised an alarm flag. It has! He tries to stop the flag message propagating, but fails, and in fact raises another flag in doing so. He quickly sets up a new account and covers his tracks as best he can, redirecting his actions to another randomly-selected account which happens to be logged on at the moment.

Then he logs out as Randy Seq and logs back into the new account. He tidies it up so that it looks as legitimate as possible, then starts to play, looking for Brandon Telsen again. This time, coming from inside LFM, he is able to contact details and an email address - Professor Brandon Telsen is at the Gorre Research Laboratory, on Gorre, one of the moons of the gas giant Clarent, it would appear. He looks for information on the rest of the research team, and finds that:

In Peoples Park, the brass band concert ends and the audience disperses, mainly into bars and night-clubs. Vladimir Smith and his party head off into what is obviously one of the richer areas of the city. Scarlett sneaks, very effectively, after them, doing her best shadow impression. The aspiring corporate people quickly go their own ways, but Smith, his family, and the real friends go into a smart apartment. She loiters about in sight of the door, and over the next two hours sees all of the friends leave. The bodyguards do not leave, at least no by the front door.

In the cafe, Ozymandias orders furniture for the new office, as well as stationary, business cards and so on.

Then we all head back to the 'Fantasy' to discuss the situation and what we have found out...


Session 1.12   Index   Session 1.14

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