- *[[H. E. Pettyjohn|RonRon]] is the first of my Starforged protagonists for the [[Glossary#The Starforged of Eden|The Starforged of Eden.]] This will all make infinitely more sense as I go. In the meantime I'm going to need you to trust me. The narrative below starts at the end of the jump into [[Morien Crossing|Morien Crossing]] Sector, home of the planet [[Petra]] and its settlement [[Wellspring]], as [[H. E. Pettyjohn|RonRon]] makes contact with Wellspring Orbital Traffic Control.* --- # Prologue ## Landing at [[Wellspring]] The Proximity indicator comes on, we are nearly out of [[Glossary#Eidolon Drive|eidolon]]. I can hear [[Protocol Bot - Algernon|Algernon]] getting in his harness. [[LaChance|Ginger]] rattles and whines as she always does. I drop out of [[Glossary#Eidolon Drive|e-drive]] near Petra's host star, and it's an absolute monster. Like Betelgeuse of old. I forget its official designation. People call it different things depending on their perspective. It's simultaneously the top of the teapot and the bottom of the shoe to two different people on two different ends of [[The Forge|the Forge]]. Either way, I engage the reverse engines to slow us down. >ALGERNON: Wellspring Orbital Traffic Control, Mockingbird-six-four-four-November, Perimeter Buoy 2-6, request I-F-R for arrival hand-off, Mockingbird-six-four-four-November. > >WELLSPRING OTC: Mockingbird-six-four-four-November, Wellspring Orbital Traffic Control, cleared for I-F-R to Perimeter Buoy 2-6-alpha and prepare for arrival hand-off, Wellspring Orbital Traffic Control, good evening. > >ALGERNON: Wellspring Orbital Traffic Control, Mockingbird-six-four-four-November cleared for I-F-R to Perimeter Buoy 2-6-alpha and prepare for arrival hand-off, Mockingbird-six-four-four-November, good evening. *How do we prepare for arrival handoff? And one or two more dialogues with Algernon.* Wellspring OTC starts to [[Glossary#Gravline|tether]] the [[LaChance]] once we make the buoy. I look toward the OTC Tower and I can see the lock-lamps coming on in the distance, and can feel... three, four, five, six [[Glossary#Gravline|lines]]. I quickly put on my flight goggles to be able to "see" the invisible gravity tethers. I had Al help me mod the augmented reality filter to make the beams look like the beams from the proton packs from [[Ghostbusters]]. Anyway, [[LaChance|Ginger]] slows as each line holds, we're oriented very Newtonian for a moment (I'm kind of tilted starboard and down), and then I feel the momentum change as the cords tighten and smooth out the ride to my re-entry glideslope. Once the gravlines are released, I feel my weight come out of the chair as Petra's planetary mass gravity picks up where the tethers dropped off. >ALGERNON: Gravlines released. > >RONRON: Thank you, Mr. Non. Re-entry filters, if you please. > >ALGERNON: Re-entry filters, aye-aye. If you've never seen the interior of a stock [[LaChance|Ornithor]], the cockpit is a hard top with forward- and side-facing windows, but the ceiling is all switches and knobs and bits and bobs. I can always put on the goggles to see more of my surroundings. They're connected the outboard cameras that Ginger's integrated AI uses to generate a real time image of the ship's exterior inside the pilot's visor. *(description of re-entry filters, which are a set of HUD settings that make piloting a ship easier. There are several sets of filters. The HUD can be used either through live viewports, or via optical headset.)* We free fall for a just a moment while I juice the engines and adjust the attitude so we're falling heat shields down. Re-entry varies from place to place, but Petra is Earth-like so it's a lot of orange-yellow glowing and sparkles. In the LaChance there's also a lot of rattling, but no whining. >RONRON: Pretty. Once we've slowed and I can pilot again, I line up on the runway, and bring it in at the spaceport atop Wellspring Mesa. ATC vectors me to Gate 11F. I taxi to Gate 11F and get up to go. Al pops out of his harness and scampers along the consoles as I rise to leave, and I time my walk so that I arrive near a place where he can jump high enough to leap onto my shoulder. The heat of Wellspring is high but not intolerable. The dimness of the ambient light is a byproduct of the dimness of the host star. Big as it is, it shines black and red and faint in comparison to even the humblest yellow pinprick. There's some incredible diversity to the way places in the Forge look. The Grand Fountain and the Courier's Office are close to the spaceport. This is a beautiful community. Where the people have manipulated the natural beauty that already existed, they have made their architecture accentuate the natural environment. More recent hand-carved passages have been seamlessly married to the ancient passages [[Petra]] carved herself with wind, sand and time. Moisture veins form intricate spirals from high above, and end in delicate points inches above the collector springs below. If you take the stairs down from the Grand Fountain into the lower galleries, the droplets from the collectors patter like rainfall into the cistern below. The people of Wellspring have mastered the use of water to such a degree that their knowledge of water capture and water infrastructure is one of their chief data exports. Galleries dot the entirety of Wellspring but it's easy to see why the Grand Gallery is so named. A massive fountain stands at the center with geysers changing aim, direction, velocity, and shape all while people fill cups from the jets. This is the cleanest water I've observed in [[The Forge|the Forge]]. No question. The [[Glossary#Bio-Chromatic Display (BCD)|BCDs]] show a mixture of announcements: recycling collection intervals are shortened to 48 hours and all necessary prescriptions must be filled in the next 72 hours; menu changes at communal eating areas and dining establishments are now mandatory; diets switched to an Alert-2 status, non-combat footing. News bites say that communications have been lost with Sulis, and the last NavData has been declared obsolete. All ships headed to [[Sulis]] have been grounded for a little over three weeks. Forty-eight hours after the [[Glossary#Driftwake |Driftwake]] wiped NavData, a courier left to chart a new route to Sulis and is now overdue. There have been two additional 'wakes since the Courier left. My job will be to chart a new route. it will be neither the fastest nor the safest but it will be free to all. Others who chart routes do so for a fee. The Couriers do it as part of their job. --- ## The Courier's Office Once I get to the Courier's Office, [[Asha Silva|Asha]] greets me warmly, though there's obvious concern in her demeanor. A brief embrace. Eye contact. She smiles weakly. >ASHA: Good to see you, Ron-Ron. > >RONRON: How's the rains? > >ASHA: It comes down in buckets. > >RONRON: What can I do to help? A chest-high counter runs the length of the front of the Office, and Asha moves behind it to the nearest computer terminal, leaning over the keyboard and in toward the monitor as opposed to sitting back down comfortably. She places her terminal fob in the computer's side port. From the end of the fob dangles a small dreamcatcher woven out of stiff metal filament. I look at the fob itself, curious to see if her fidgeting with it over the last few months since I've seen her last has further smoothed the iron. It has. It's mirror-polished on the one side now, grimy on the other. I move to a terminal on the opposite side of the desk that faces out towards customers. When she speaks she does it in her official voice. >ASHA: You are required to generate new nav data to [[Sulis]] and the [[Redemption Research Initiative]]. The slightest pause. >ASHA: If possible, locate [[Ulon Quon]], Callsign "Wormser", IDNS 9822A1A-1. Last known coordinates unknown, but fragmentary flight path and astrometrics data available for sync. She pauses for a brief moment before making eye contact again. Our eyes finish the conversation. *"If possible" means, to whomever gave Asha these orders, "not a priority."* She puts the fob on the counter. It's the official Courier fob, but the Iron is hers. Eye contact. >ASHA: On the Iron. I run the fingers of my left hand across the side where her worries wore it smooth, then solemnly put my right hand on the fob. She places her right hand atop my own, holding me to it. I put my other hand in my jacket pocket. I look Asha in the eye. >RONRON: Ready when you are. She looks down. She taps a key. Eye contact again. >ASHA: Recording. > >RONRON: I am Hieronymus Emerson Pettyjohn, Courier of the Commonwealth of Worlds. I am bound by my duty, by my loyalty, by my word and by the [[Courier's Corner#**Iron**|Iron]]. I will chart a new route from the community of Wellspring to the world of Sulis, resting place of the UNAS Redemption and home of Wellspring's [[Redemption Research Initiative]]. I will make it freely available to the Commonwealth of Worlds. I know the task is dangerous. I know the path is frought. I make my vow upon the Iron. My vow is Iron-wrought. > >ASHA: Recording complete. I relax and begin to pull my hand away. Hers doesn't move from atop mine. I blink down at my hand, then look back at Asha. A moment passes between us and I understand. I'm about to make another vow, and this time she's recording me only with her eyes. >RONRON: How long has he been missing? > >ASHA: Twenty four days. Declared missing seven ago. > >RONRON: I am Hieronymus Emerson Pettyjohn, friend of Asha Silva. I am bound by my duty, by my loyalty, by my word and by the Iron. I will search for Asha Silva's missing friend, Ulon Quon, as if he were my own. I know the task is formidable. I know the path is fraught. I make my Vow upon the Iron. My vow is Iron-wrought. *(she removes her hand first)* I take my hand from the Iron and start to shift my satchel to my front so I can take out my datapad for what information she has on Ulon. I put my datapad on the counter. She jacks in. I can see the upload going, going, going, complete. She jacks out and turns her attention back to her own terminal. I put my datapad back into my satchel. *I need to know if there is another faction at play here. I asked the Oracle, Likely, and get a yes. I roll up the [[Suns of the Silver Legion]] via the Factions section of the book (p. 340-347).* *(Let's see if Asha knows anything about the rationing. Maybe it's related to the [[Glossary#Driftwake|Driftwakes]]? Is it related to the Redemption Outpost? Is there a connection between the rationing and Sulis?)* >RONRON: Anything I should know about the news I caught walking over? > >*Roll - Action/Theme = Learn/History* > >ASHA: A few days ago, there was excited chatter coming out of the Science wing about intact caches at Redemption that needed cataloguing. Then the 'wake happened and now we need a new route. > >RONRON: The Suns know about Redemption? *Ask the Oracle: To the best of our knowledge, do the Suns know about Redemption Outpost? My guess is it's likely. Wellspring is an open society and seeing as the Suns are a spy faction...* >ASHA: The Suns know about Redemption. > >RONRON: Ok. Well, my shields are charged. > >ASHA: Be careful. Bring him back here. > >RONRON: I'll find him, Ash. > >ASHA: Be careful on your way out, Magnus has been sniffing around for you. You must really be behind on paperwork. > >RONRON: (sigh) Thanks, I'll take the long way round. I hug Asha on my way out, and I turn left instead of right. This route takes me away from the Grand Gallery and towards the First Terraces District. It's "the scenic route," as Doug used to say. Longer, but the views of the mesa floor is unmatched. To my left are the terraces of living quarters the refugees built when they made landfall in the Exodus. To my right are the views. *Scenic indeed, Doug,* I think to myself. The deserts of Petra extend beyond the horizon, broken only by other mesa, plateau and canyon visible from this vantage point. I don't slow while I look, taking it in as I try to make it back to the hangar before I'm spotted. My detour fails, though, as Magnus proves once again he uses all of his intelligence just to be right, but he keeps answering inconsequential questions. Magnus is leaning against a Petra-carved pillar, trying to look casual as he does so. He's very tall and very thin for a dirtborn, so he gets mistaken for a belt roach all the time. I like to needle him about it whenever I can. >MAGNUS: Starport's that way, RonRon. > >RONRON: There's no fooling you, Magnus. *I crane my neck in an effort to mock height* You can see it from here. > >MAGNUS: You need to finish the job, RonRon, and no amount of trying to skip town without coming by the Guild office is going to change that. You made the vow just like the rest of us. > >RONRON: Walk and talk Magnus, walk and talk. I know, Magnus. Do you pay attention to current events at all? There's been a disturbance in the Force. I quicken my pace. Magnus matches me. >MAGNUS: I heard about the 'wake, if that's what you mean. > >RONRON: Not just the 'wake. Wormser is missing. Magnus' mask of authority slips for a moment. He blinks once, takes a brief moment to look in the direction of the Courier Office, then back to me. >MAGNUS: I'm sorry. For both of you. I didn't know. > >RONRON: I'll get the data ingested into the archive as soon as I get back. I promise. He makes a point to exaggeratedly roll his eyes. >MAGNUS: [[Glossary#^43a6ba|That's one for the Iron]]. Head shake. >RONRON: I'll let you say I told you so if I don't come through. Fair enough? > >MAGNUS: Fair trade. Fly right, homie, but I will find you when you get back. --- # Chapter 1: The Path to Redemption *I head to the starport, board, taxi and depart.* ## Departure The rest of the walk to the ship is uneventful. I try to take in as many of the sights and sounds as I can on the way. The light from Petra's star begins to climb the cliff as evening deepens. I can see a few other spacecraft coming and going from the starport. Dense space traffic is rare in most places of the Forge, but there can be genuine backups [[Petra|here]] from time to time. I enjoy visits to busier places like this because it reminds me there are places where life carries on. I'm concerned about [[Ulon Quon|Wormser]] but need to keep calm so I can think. As far as I know he's somewhere on the way to Sulis. At least that's the hope. The LaChance is right where I left her and the ground crew are removing the umbilicals. I don't know them personally, only by familiarity so I wave warmly and they wave back. One tech nods his farewell. The crew gradually clear the deck for me to depart. Al hops off my shoulder and scurries towards the ramp. He makes it to the ship long before I do. The lengths of his hops are fun to watch. By the time I make it to the ramp, he's already in his harness and flipping the fusion switch. Life support comes on first, which I feel as a breeze on my face on the rampway. Next is the main drive, which dims the lights and makes the deck boards rattle. I can hear the engine spin up, which kind of makes the walls resonate and hum. It hurts my inner ear and I don't like it but it never lasts long. I think to myself how much I don't like that sound and then let it pass. Once the main drive is on the ship's tone becomes a steady droning. Soothing background noise. I reach the cockpit and settle in to my chair. I buckle in and feel my chair sliding forward into it's departure position. Al's begun the pre-flight procedures and I grab my clipboard to cross-check. The clipboard is dirty in places where I've habitually touched it over the years. I'll wash my hands once we're in the vacuum. Al and I do the checklist together. >ALGERNON: Engines. > >RONRON: On. > >ALGERNON: Life Support. > >RONRON: Nominal. > >ALGERNON: E-Drive. > >RONRON: E-Drive online. > >ALGERNON: Auxiliary Power. > >RONRON: Batteries online, 100% charge. > >ALGERNON: LaChance ready for departure. > >RONRON: Thank you, Mr. Non. Contact the tower and ask for departure clearance. You have the helm. I want to go start running the calculations to our first waypoint. > >ALGERNON: Aye aye. Al presses a tiny button on his console and opens communications to the orbital traffic control tower. >ALGERNON: "Wellspring Orbital Traffic Control, Mockingbird-six-four-four-November, requesting departure clearance and taxi to Perimeter Buoy 5 for eidolon transition, Mockingbird-six-four-four-November.” > >WELLSPRING OTC: "Mockingbird-six-four-four-November, Wellspring Orbital Traffic Control, cleared for departure and taxi to Perimeter Buoy 5 for eidolon transit, Wellspring Orbital Traffic Control, good evening." ## A New Path Let's get that new route to Sulis done. I can use old data to rechart a course. I'm going to scan old charts to see if some of the previous data might still be useful. I'll have to cross reference it against the Driftwake's path. I spend some time going over the previous charts and Al and I crunch some numbers to figure out if it's possible to re-establish a link with the previous anchorage. Obsidian. >ALGERNON: Obsidian. That was a real one. > >RONRON: Your diction amuses me. ### Eidolon Jump to Obsidian *What does it feel like to be in eidolon travel? is it bumpy? is it smooth? how much of your attention does it require? How long does it take to recharge the e-drive battery?* *First leg strong hit, smooth ride.* Sure enough, the old route works. Previous anchorage re-established. The previous charts work wonders and I'm at my first stop. Obsidian. It's an astonishing place considering it's a furnace world. Blinding ash storms and fiery world spanning chasms abound. That it can harbor life at all is amazing but it's biodiversity is difficult to overstate. It's the kind of world that Yautja would've picked for sport. The good news is from here we should be able to make the next e-jump with relative ease once the batteries recharge. > ALGERNON: New Vesta. > > RONRON: That was the one that shorted our re-entry shields. > > ALGERNON: Sure was. > > RONRON: Good times. ### Eidolon Jump to Nu Vesta Jump leads to weak hit. Bumpy jump, I lose some rations to the floor and that makes me sad. -1 supply (now 4), -1 spirit (now 4) Another furnace world but this one is unlike Obsidian. No settlement either. Nu Vesta it's called. It's totally unlike old Vesta. It has a marginal atmosphere with dense, lightning-wracked ash clouds and silica storms. Extinct. Would be a bit like trying to explore Venus. >RONRON: Where to next? > >ALGERNON: The Dancer's Eye. > >RONRON: Piece of cake. *I go on to completely fail the roll.* ### Eidolon Jump to XY-Mwanamuziki (The Dancer's Eye Singularity) Sometimes you can make a calculation and be off by one and it makes a difference large enough to land me where I am right now. I'm going to have to redo this leg because funny story, my math was wrong. Off by one. The good news is all it did was make me miss the Eye by four light-minutes. The bad news is that means I have to turn the ship around and redo it and that costs me twelve hours. I have to orbit the eye and recharge, jump back to Nu Vesta, recharge, and recalculate the route to The Dancer's Eye for a second jump. I loop back to Nu Vesta, recharge, and redo the route to The Dancer's Eye. This time, the calculation is correct, but due to pilot error, --- *move this into Eidolon travel* I nudge the flight controls a little too far port which brings us closer to the event horizon than [[LaChance|Ginger]] wants to be and of course I'm not buckled in and am thrown laterally towards the starboard side of the cockpit. Thankfully Al is buckled in so he's okay. Me, I hit my ribs on the right pretty hard on the co-pilot's console. The pain is instant and glows white in my eyes. I can hear myself make a sound halfway between a bark and a croak and I collapse to the deck. Al's got a control column in his cubby, so he keeps us from falling into the Eye. Not exactly my best moment. The engine pitch has changed, too, so I need to go aft and check on it. --- The Dancer's Eye itself is beautiful, a blue/white black hole with a field of frozen asteroids in a stable orbit that extends thousands [[Glossary#Astronomical Units|AU]] beyond the event horizon. We are above the plane of the asteroids and just lazily floating along while I head back to the engines to see what's making them sound different. Changes in engine noise often means something's broken. Sure enough the engine housing had a bolt come loose and fly free in the turbine, so I need to spend time replacing it with a new fan blade. The eidolon drive takes six hours to recharge, so I use that time to fix the sublight engine. I run the numbers for the route to New Vulpecula. Al and I are confident in our math. ### Eidolon Jump to New Vulpecula The trip to New Vulpecula is actually smooth for a change, so that's nice. We drop out of eidolon near the star (*roll*) and take our six hours. (*What do we do?*) ### Eidolon Jump to Rhiannon Outpost Eidolon Jump to Rhiannon Outpost goes smoothly. I remember Rhiannon was originally established as a mining colony because of its dense mineral asteroid field. What makes Rhiannon extraordinary is it's actually built within the remnants of a Precursor structure which is believed to have served the same purpose for its original builders. Rhiannon's Host star is a creepy white dwarf. Tendrils of shifting colored plasma and gas are constantly thrown off the star, making it look like it's reaching out to grab you. Rhiannon is a simple design, almost a letdown to humans when we found it. It's a boring old torus to look at, Wide and thin like an old dirt bike tire. It's got no spokes though, it's just big thin donut. Its diameter is four kilometers, so it's a pretty big tire. We suspect the Precursor homeworld was more massive than Earth as the centrifugal spin of the station was 1.3G, but we slowed it down to .9. *Settlement Oracles Projects - Habitat building* *Settlement Oracles Trouble - Communications lost* *Settlement Oracles First Look (5 - 6) 1–4 Rounded or curved architecture 3* *Settlement Oracles Trouble (3 - 4) 70–71 Outcast seeks revenge 72–74 Elaborate hoax* *Rhiannon's lost comms with RRI, attacked by the Suns of the Silver Legion. Tricked into thinking they'd acquired peace with the Suns of the Silver Legion but newp?* *H. E. Pettyjohn>Communications were lost with Sulis and with Wellspring but now we're getting it all back online.* ## Redemption Research Initiative >To be continued... # Chapter 2: Where's Wormser? --- [^1]: Hey cool look! It's a footnote!