Session 1.13 Index Session 1.15
We all meet up on the 'Fantasy' to discuss what we have found out, and we all exchange the information we have found out.
Ozymandias wants to clarify our objectives and priorities. He thinks we should get information that would allow us to incriminate SuSAG, not go for revenge on our own. He is not bothered about the methods we use, though we should perhaps be.
We check in the ship's library regarding Imperial Law as it relates to illegally obtained evidence. It turns out that evidence so obtained is admissible, but also very easy to challenge in court. It can be used by the police as pointers to information which can be obtained through legal means. However, there are not Imperial law enforcement personnel in the Caliburn system - the closest are at the TIPA office in the Caladbolg system.
The question is, how can we get the TIPA to step in here? Could we perhaps ally duress to a LFM board member and pass what we find out to the TIPA?
Also, having discovered that many of the old anagathic research team from the University of Rhylanor at Stillingfleet are now based at Gorre, the moon of the gas giant Clarent, it would be nice if we could find out what was at Gorre and elsewhere on the moons of Clarent. From the Caliburn internet, this information cannot be found out - data is definitely being hidden. Even so, could we perhaps fabricate invitations to Gorre?
We definitely need more information on Clarent's moon. There are signals coming from the direction of Clarent and its moons, but as there is always a lightspeed lag of at least two and a half hours between Arthur and Clarent, these all seem to be data traffic - emails and newsgroup data.
So, to find out more, Ak goes onto the internet, and Ozymandias onto the newsgroups.
Ozymandias is looking for people who would be interested in our services, and who may help our licence. Perhaps by letting us go out to Clarent or Gorre as an example of what we can do.
Ak goes back into the city to an internet cafe, from where he can anonymously log into the LFM internet. We do have an internet account as part of our ship's landing fees, but obviously that is traceable...
Ozymandias find that there is an 'alt.space.traffic.spotters' newsgroup, to the members of which our arrival is the biggest thing in years. There is an urgent message with pictures of the 'Fantasy' that was posted within minutes of our landing. The contact details we put on the chameleon hull seem to be giving us some nice free advertising, though!
There has been lots of discussion about us on alt.space.traffic.spotters since we landed. Opinion seems to be divided on our reason for coming here:
The posters on alt.space.traffic.spotters know that we have rented offices, and are here as a space vehicle escort service. They clearly have far too much time on their hands.
Meanwhile, Ak looks at the internet from the cafe. There are system-wide and local public web pages. It seems that LFM has a similar structure, but in its private intranet. He logs onto that too, and looks around for insights into Gorre and what goes on there.
From the LFM intranet, he finds that both inhabited moons of Clarent, Gorre and Camberiet, are leased to SuSAG. There are a number of facilities on the moons:
In addition, there is a community on Gorre - named Gorre Town, it is a single town of forty thousand people, with restricted access. The research stations on Gorre are around the town, some way out and separate from the town and each other. There are LFM and SuSAG corporate security forces on both Gorre and Camberiet, as well as two SDBs and various ground-based defences, including a hundred-ton missile bay, six triple laser turrets, and three triple sandcaster turrets, all evenly space around the town. Some satellites orbit both moons, in surveillance and communications roles. There is a visitors hostel but no hotel at Gorre.
Gorre Town is a hemispherical dome two hundred metres across with a two hundred metre circle of cleared ground adjacent to it forming the spaceport. The Research Hospital, Genetic Engineering Lab and Research Division Lab are each a hundred metre hemispherical dome a kilometre from Gorre Town and linked to it (but not to each other) by a single monorail line. The Extra-Imperial Division Distribution Centre is a collection of fifty-metre diameter hemispheres the same distance from Gorre Town, also linked to it by monorail, and has its own small spaceport.
He then looks into what is being requested by the bases on Gorre, in the hope that that will give us a way in. They are seeking Laboratory supplies of various kinds, volunteers for medical trials, teachers for Gorre's schools, a General Practise doctor.
Ak checks the CV requirements for the various posts. Off-worlders are acceptable, but will be subject to security checks and the signing of a non-disclosure agreement, and as new starters will have probationary citizenship only. Identities will be checked. Applicants are expected to bring their own bona fides, and we could, perhaps, forge them...
Ak returns to the ship, and we discuss things. Perhaps we could send Bingbong or Szechuan to Gorre as teachers, with Scarlett as a spouse of one of them, and Ozymandias as a spouse of the other. The four of them could go in under cover while Ak flies in the ship. But the question is, where to hide it once it arrives, before we find out enough to know (for example) who to kidnap? We want to abduct someone, get information from them, and have them not be in a position to inform on us once we are done. Perhaps we could manufacture an 'accident' for them?
We decide we do not want to fight our way to Gorre if we can avoid it. Perhaps we could distract the SDBs away? Even so, we would have to disable three of the ground turrets to put a hole in their defence coverage.
Bingbong and Szechuan use the internet to apply for jobs with Scarlett and Ozymandias as their respective spouses. They fill out on-line forms. Interviews will take place here, at Camelot, but scans and identity checks will be involved there, too...
Ak goes back to the cafe, and hacks the transport system, to see if we can forge ourselves a way onto Gorre.
After a bit of work, Ak finds that transports do go into and out of Gorre. Data, samples and some people seem to be the main things carried out of Gorre, while spares and supplies and support staff go in. These imported supplies include small amounts of industrial catalysts and enzymes, as well as computer software. All of Gorre's supplies come into Gorre via Camelot.
He then checks to see if we could impersonate a support person. It turns out that internal flights do have some security checks - no weapons are allowed (travellers are scanned for them), and fingerprints and face are matched to those on ones papers (that is, they check that you match you Id card, not against the entire identity database); matching to the whole identification database can be done if there is a manhunt on, but is not done as a matter of course. There do not seem to be DNA scans on internal routes.
We do conclude that we cannot just go in guns blazing, as attractive as that may be to some of us. We need information on the situation on the ground.
Ozymandias comes up with the idea of a publicity trip - we take a 'lucky winner' to Gorre, then have a 'crisis' that lets them (and us) stay for a while. Interstellar aid and assistance laws mean that we will be able to land. Perhaps appendicitis, or the drug-induced equivalent would do the trick. However, that will only last a day or so, and we really need longer...
We could perhaps select people from the alt.space.traffic.spotters newsgroup as our lucky victims. But again we have too little time - we need background information before we go to Gorre.
Perhaps we could arrange to be invited to Gorre by SuSAG. Brandon Telsen does have family in-system. He himself works in the CBW facility on Camberiet, but he does have a brother who works in LFM HQ on Camelot.
Then we check whether the service companies have the same level of security as LFM itself. Unfortunately they do, at least, they do it themselves, following LFMs guidelines. How well they do it seems to vary.
Scarlett suggests that we kidnap the children of Vladimir Smith and using blackmail on him to get us there. However, there are doubts that we could keep it quiet enough, though.
Abrey Tolivarn, the Junior Vice-President of Security, must know something. For example, where did the 'nutters' that the customs officers who checked the ship mentioned attack? From the internet we find an LFM news report that says they attacked the genetic engineering facility on Gorre. Well, that is a start at least.
Ak returns to hack the LFM system again, looking for internal reports, and more information on the 'nutters', this time. After a while he does indeed find a report on the LFM network. It seems he has struck gold - it is a full internal security report, which tells a rather different story to the official news.
Apparently subjects from test programme XB647-Z became distressed and irrational due to the side effects of their treatment. They did volunteer for the treatment, a new form of anagathic research, but the side effects of that batch (progressive memory loss) were unexpected. They managed to escape containment, killing Dr Gagarinian and injuring Doctors Zornash, Trevor and Hwang in the process (this is the first we have heard of Drs Trevor and Hwang). All the injured were treated on Gorre. Apparently the experimental subjects were able to escape because they had surprise on their side - they were brighter and more annoyed than had been expected for the senile old cronies they were before the treatment. They then stole a ship, and went into Jump from about two metres off the surface of Gorre while under fire from the ground defences. It is not known where they went, but ships were summoned to search for them. The report states that it is imperative for the subjects to be captured alive, for reasons of potentially lucrative research. It includes the genetic codes and pictures of the escapees, but no fingerprints. And they are indeed us, plus five other people, presumable the corpses that were in the damaged low berths on the Dolobid.
This report was issued by the office of Professor Clytemnestra Orkisthros on Gorre (which tells us where she is, which we did not know before). It is classified 'SuSAG Top Secret' with the caveat 'Do Not Store On The Intranet'. So someone is breaking security quite badly by having the report here...
Ak quickly takes an electronic copy of all this!
Then he checks who this belongs to. Apparently Inspector Jared Varinga of the LFM Corporate Police, based at LFM Headquarters in Camelot, is responsible for this security breach.
He checks who would investigate this breach were it to be revealed. Apparently the LFM Legal Office staff investigate problems with the Corporate Police.
Then he checks whether there is anyone form Gorre on Camelot at the moment, and finds that seven people from Gorre are on Camelot at the moment, all staying at the hotel. They are:
We decide that seduction is our desperate plan...
Of these seven, three are women and four are men. The women are aged 18, 32 and 47, but only one of them, the 47 year old, is unmarried. This unmarried woman is Dr Amanda Neshzaku, who works in genetic engineering research at Gorre and who is staying in Room 26 of the hotel. She is in town for a week. From her file, she is big-built, not very pretty, with a faint moustache, but dresses smartly. She has published some papers, which are available on the internet, involving the genetic engineering of micro-organisms for medical research purposes.
Bingbong is chosen as the one to do the seducing part of the plan. He is not at all keen on the idea of being a toy-boy, but everyone else bullies him into it, and make him read all of Amanda's published papers. He starts feverishly looking for information on Gorre in the hope of finding some alternative plan.
He finds that there are prospectors operating on Gorre. Perhaps we could pose as one of them? However, this still leaves the problem of how to get there. Also, we would a prospecting license.
Also, it seems that there is now an in-system manhunt on for Randy Seq (Ak, that is), but not, as yet, for anyone else.
Scarlett goes out to equip Bingbong for his mission of seduction. She buys him a suit, plus engagement and wedding rings (200 Cr for the suit, 2000 Cr for the rings). She also buys some aphrodisiac drugs in case they are required for both Bingbong and Amanda; recreational drugs are legal in Caliburn, so she buys some hallucinogenic drugs, some euphorics, and some aphrodisiacs...
With that done, Scarlett searches for Amanda. She is apparently in an all day meeting, but once that is over, Scarlett tracks her down in the hotel bar.
All of us troop down to the bar. Bingbong is dressed in smart but casual fashion. He is sent off to get drinks with the threat that we'll shoot him if he leaves the bar with no date. On the way to the bar he 'spots' Amanda, goes over and gets talking to her. He has briefed to show that he recognises her, knows her work, is intelligent, and to ask intelligent questions, and this he seems to do. She is drinking non-alcoholic beverages and working on a hand computer. She proves to be not the most socially adept of scientists, and Bingbong seems to be doing quite well in talking to her...
Eventually the conversation runs down, but Bingbong does make a date to take her out for dinner tomorrow night at eight o'clock.
As the rest of us covertly observe all this, Ozymandias uses the internet to apply for a prospecting licence for our company. Our cover for doing this is that it will be a sideline for 'Fantasy Escort Services', something to get us some money while waiting for our escort licence to be granted and also when the escort market is quiet.
And so to bed...
Next morning, Bingbong reluctantly, at the prompting of the rest of us, arranges things for his dinner tonight. We think he should buy her a present. Flowers, for example. However, flowers are very expensive here - a bunch of posies costs 500 Cr. We balk at this price. However, plasti-paper flowers are the accepted thing in Caliburn, so we buy a buy a bunch of hand-folded origami paper flowers for 50 Cr instead.
Then it is time for our tour of LFM Headquarters, so off we go.
A female guide meets us in reception and directs us about the headquarters complex. The tour is incredibly dull. We start in the Exhibit Hall, which contains pictures of various dignitaries who have visited here, exhibits on the properties, collection and processing of liquid and gaseous hydrogen, others on in-system prospecting and the history of Caliburn. Others yet on corporate sports teams and so on. Dull, dull, dull...
Then we go on to tour offices, conference rooms, the process control room, the vending suite, and the canteen. Piped muzak follows us. Imported potted palms dot the corridors. This tour is very dull.
Ozymandias tries to hold on to the will to live by asking very dull questions, all of which our guide takes entirely seriously.
Eventually, after two hours of tedium, we make our way back to reception. Ozymandias is effusive in his thanks. Our guide gives us her card - she is part of the PR branch of LFM's operations here.
And we leave LFM headquarters, vowing to kill the man responsible for the tour - Vladimir Smith.
We have some lunch in a cafe, then go back to the hotel to prepare some drugs for Bingbong's date this evening. A low level does is prepared for Amanda in case she does not drink this evening.
We receive an email telling us that our prospecting licence has been approved. Our escort service licence has not yet been approved, though.
So we go out to shop for prospecting equipment and so on as part of our cover. We are able to find maps of existing prospecting and claims, and some information. Our plan is to simply prospect using the high-tech sensors of the 'Fantasy', then sell the locations of what we find to miners. We begin to plan our search patterns.
Eventually the evening rolls around. Bingbong is spruced up and goes off on his date. He is not seen again that night.
The next day, he returns. Apparently she's not had many boyfriends. And he's meeting her for lunch today.
And around noon, off he goes for lunch, returning only to head off for dinner in the evening. This time he brings chocolates. We cannot help noticing that Bingbong is starting to drink heavily and trying to hide it from the rest of us.
Time passes. Bingbong proposes to Amanda. She accepts. She is, it seems, desperate for love. Bingbong is suffering from more than a little guilt. "Just because we hate her company and everything it stands for doesn't mean this relationship is built on a shaky foundation," someone comments.
Amanda wants to get married on Gorre. And soon.
So Bingbong is left with an allowance, a communicator with which we may be contacted later, and Amanda.
The rest of us arrange to make contact with Bingbong later, we also having a communicator, separate from the ones on the ship, for doing so. We take to the 'Fantasy' and head for Clarent and its moons via normal space...