"What still feels a little strange is that the people on the planet were shocked to hear that Hughes was a fake. If I were setting up that sting, I would have made an attempt to lock down the landing party to prevent communication with their ship. With a gun and a boot knife, they LET us tie her up and take a hostage of our own. I suspect that the impostor was working alone, at least on-site, anyway. If I knew I would have the only gun in the room, I'd have searched her before leaving..."
Besides thinking out loud, I'm just waiting for the situation to develop.
"Good thoughts; keep them in mind. Once I'm comfortable that we're free of any pursuit, I'll want to sit down with the landing party along with Phil and George and see what sense we can make of all this."
What are your character's hopes and fears in this situation? You just rolled an excellent GE roll, and to some degree you can write your own preferences into the story at this point.
--M. J. Young
{Well, being right about the fake being just a solo agent would be cool, but should that be too much of an effect on the plot, becoming apprentice engineer AND apprentice security would be nice. My mind's worst-case scenario would be similar to Tom's thoughts from the beginning: that the whole mission was a huge trap from the landing to the base; that everyone was in on it from the old woman to Gary and fake Ann.}
If Burly and Toni have things that need to be done in the present sense, I'll get on those. Barring that, I'd be doing whatever housekeeping is possible in Engineering: straightening up, organizing tools or parts, tool maintenance. Simply put, busy work. I'm stalling, but trying to be useful in the meantime.
You spend about half an hour mostly trying to be useful. Burly interrupts you a few times to point out gauge readings and explain that they are outside normal parameters because of the high speed or quick directional changes or other reasons related to the escape, and that this is normal in these situations and not a concern.
After that, John announces that it's pretty clear there's no pursuit. Apparently the plan revolved around this one agent getting aboard Destiny.
A message is received from the planet's resistance group. It appears that the false Ann was helping their organization in part to build a sufficient cover identity to get her aboard and in part to learn the identities and locations of all the key members of the resistance. They've found her data files, which she had not transmitted perhaps for fear that the transmission would be discovered (or perhaps to ensure that she got full credit for the work, instead of someone else in the chain taking it). They think the damage has been contained.
They've gotten some information about the Federation spy network from her, which they are going to transmit to Destiny as soon as they have it organized.
They've also located the real Ann Hughes, busily working on another planet elsewhere in the galaxy. She is fine.
--M. J. Young
I guess that all worked out, then. Unless otherwise disturbed, I will be going about the normal routine, except whenever I get some time to myself, I'm going to try to find Ishara and ask him if he'd show me how to better use the hand held weaponry on the ship. It was probably quite rare that I was the only one with a gun in a bad situation, and I don't enjoy being that helpless.
We're going to need to fill in your missing attribute scores to resolve this--Persuasion, Animal Magnetism, and Charisma. Care to make any comments on where you fall in regard to these?
(Animal magnetism addresses initial reactions and the degree to which you attract attention e.g. at parties. Charisma is more your long-term ability to maintain good relationships. Persuasion is rather obvious.)
--M. J. Young
Animal magnetism, I would say average. Out of 10 first impressions, one would be bad, two would be good, and seven usually end up as, "Eric who?" This is due to the fact that I try very hard to not stand out until I feel I'll get a positive response.
Charisma, I'd say a little above average. If someone can stand me, and I can deal with them, we're usually fast friends. I pick up on slang, mannerisms, and other colloquialisms quickly, with context alone. I have a good memory for details, and that helps in maintaining or progressing relationships.
Persuasion is kind of tricky. I'm very persuasive when I can use logic. Not so much when the core argument is like, "Just do me this favor, please?" More debate than "I just can't say no to that guy."
So you see Ishara somewhere when he does not look busy, and you walk up to him and say...?
--M. J. Young
When I get a hold of Ishara, I'll ask, "Ishara, I want to talk a second about that mission we were on. I'll be frank: it was dumb luck that we got out of there clean. I can't always depend on being the only one in the room with a gun.
I think it would be wise if you could show me a few things to help better defend myself and through me, the others as well. I don't like feeling helpless or being a burden. I can assure you I'm very diligent and I'm no slack-@$$."
Ishara suggests that you check out a weapon and take it to the shooting range near the recreation center to practice.
--M. J. Young
I figured it wouldn't be that easy. I'll just remember that eventually he WILL need something from Engineering. Since it's only Burly, Toni, and myself here, and I'm the least likely to be busy with something critical or that can't be interrupted.
In the meantime, I do just what he suggests, and whatever downtime I have from my Engineering shifts I dedicate to weapon familiarity and target practice.
You don't actually have engineering "shifts". No one has a schedule, there are no duty rosters. People on this ship make themselves useful doing what they know how to do. Burly and Toni run engineering because someone's got to do it. Torbin, the computer, can monitor the system when they're not there and alert them if there's a problem. You're a welcome extra hand, but no one is telling you what you have to do.
Which is to say there is no requirement that you be in engineering at all, and if you wanted you could spend every waking minute at the shooting range. (It would not help that much--there is a saturation point, beyond which diminishing returns means you're not getting significantly more benefit for the additional time.) But it's your call. You make your own schedule.
--M. J. Young
Oh. I still want to keep helping in Engineering, but when the workload lulls, I'll head to the shooting range. Honestly, the ship is too big for me to just explore without purpose.
We're going to move this game to the new system, at Destiny of Eric 2 Pursued, because this is a good break point for the transition.
--M. J. Young