Session 27 (24 November 2023)

Location: The "ghost planet" orbiting Ossobo, the larger of two main sequence red stars in a binary system (Far Home 0928)

Date: 161–5600

Travellers: Ada Windsor (navigator), Sasha Danlami (comms), Torka Jax (security), Dr Jaxxon Fomstep (ship's doctor)

NPCs: Sath marine squad, Captain Marika Covrig

As the now-familiar temporary disorientation of whole-planet temporal-dimensional displacement recedes, reassuring indications of the success of your manipulation of the phasing device begin to flow in. Your comms are now picking up signals from that comms probe you'd sent out two weeks ago: it's still positioned to relay signals back to Bathur's Edge. And there's something new: you are soon hailed from an approaching space vessel: it's Haruto Wood! He's about an hour away, on board an 800-ton ship bristling with weapons.

Crucial decisions need to be made. First, the Sath: they're confused and alarmed by what's just happened. Soon, they realize that they're no longer in contact with their spy satellite, nor with the stream of communications coming in (with a 6-hour delay) from their colonies orbiting the companion star 16 billion kilometres away. The sergeant assembles the marines outside the laboratory to discuss the situation. They're getting nervous; some may suspect you of concealing information. The truth, of course, is that you've brought them to a human-dominated place and time in which they're widely considered to be "the enemy." How will you break this bad news to them?

Meanwhile, there's also the problem of the laboratory cabinet that you believe may contain samples of the deadly pathogen that wiped out this planet's population thousands of years ago. You try to kill any living viruses using ultraviolet light, but fail. Further investigation reveals that the pathogen is actually artificial nanotech. This is somehow even more alarming. What would happen if someone got their hands on it and tried to weaponize it? Should you remove it or destroy it to keep it out of the hands of evildoers? 

Finally, and most alarmingly, you realize that this last dimensional shift has undone the delicate jury-rigged repair you'd made on the reactor inside the base of the ziggurat. It has resumed its unstable thrumming: you can feel it through your boots. Once more you face the possibility that it could quickly crescendo and trigger an unplanned shift to yet another timeline. You could, of course, get off-world immediately and save your own skins, but what of the pathogen and the Sath?

Time is of the essence. You open a channel to Haruto Wood. He's delighted to hear your voices and congratulates you on the success of your mission: you've proven that his theory of the existence of the ghost planet is correct! He explains that the comms relay probe you sent out transmitted data from your expedition for a few hours and then registered the sudden disappearance of the entire planet ... and the Dejah Thoris along with it! Assuming that something — perhaps your presence — had triggered the planet's stealth technology, Haruto Wood brought the news to Duke Norlande who immediately authorized a mission to make contact with the newly discovered world. The incoming ship, as your scopes gradually reveal, is large and very well armed: a bit unusual for a scientific expedition, but perhaps not out of line with the realities of the jealous feudal ruler of an independent system. If such stealth tech exists, the duke wants to be the first, and only, ally of whoever created it. Wood is brimming with excitement and can't wait to arrive and join you in exploring the world. He wants to know everything you've discovered before his ships makes orbit in less than six hours.

You reply with circumspection, emphasizing the instability of the strange devices you've discovered. You say nothing of the pathogen nor of the Sath. While you're buying time with Wood, you formulate a plan. You will send the Sath back to their own timeline by instructing them in the use of the control panel, impressing on them the need to press ONLY the one button that corresponds (you believe) to their home dimension. You tell them to wait 23 minutes after the Dejah Thoris takes off to press the button: that's the time you need to clear the atmosphere. Then, they are to immediately vacate the ziggurat to prevent harm from the unstable reactor. But that's only part of the truth; you conceal from the Sath the fact that you've placed powerful explosives in the reactor chamber, timed to detonate minutes after the Dejah Thoris is safely clear of the ghost planet. And to kill two birds with one stone, you've placed the laboratory samples in the reactor chamber as well, hoping they will be destroyed when the bomb goes off. The Sath take some convincing but agree to your plan. You hope they don't deviate from it. And you hope the erratic operation of the displacement device doesn't trigger a random shift before the plan can be enacted.

You say your goodbyes to the Sath marines and, in a final touching act, Ada exchanges watches with the sergeants. Wishing them a safe return to Sathspace (and -time), you board the Dejah Thoris and take off. Luck is with you: shortly after your shift enters the black, the ghost planet shimmers and disappears. As the seconds and minutes tick by, you can only wonder what events followed. Did the Sath press the right button, or did the device act independently of them?  Did they clear the chamber before the bomb exploded? Were the nanotech plague samples destroyed in the blast, or were they released? You will probably never know.

What you do know is that Wood is on the comms, frantic over the ghost planet's re-disappearance. You reiterate the instability of the situation, suggest that the planet may well return at some point, and calm him down by emphasizing that he will go down in the annals of science as the person who correctly theorized its presence. Somewhat mollified but nonetheless deflated, he announces that his ship will dispatch a cutter to deliver your payment and retrieve Captain Covrig. As he moves away from the vidscreen, another figure comes into view: it's the commander of the 800-ton vessel, here to convey precise instructions for your rendezvous with the cutter. He flashes you a smile, but it's cold as ice. "Dejah Thoris, please follow these coordinates. I'm happy to give your the payment you deserve."

Maximilian Stana: friend or foe?

It's Maximilian Stana, the mercenary whose plans you disrupted on the iceworld of Pel Avena and whose comrades you killed in the belly of a dead space whale. You are 99% certain that Stana was on the ship that fired a missile at the Dejah Thoris as it left Pel Avena. Griff know him from his marine days as a ruthless, violent, and vengeful man. 

Has he perhaps let bygones be bygones? Does he simply intend to fulfil his duty to his patron, Duke Norlande, or will he seize this golden opportunity to do you some harm?  

Image credit: Stana created with AI Comic Factory.