Episode 2.02: Rivulets of Copper, Eyes Aflame

[Doug Burke]

"Asha is about to beam up for dinner; since I'm having trouble focusing on anything else, I was going to discuss some aspects of the case with her, see if she had any ideas. Would you and T'Kiri care to join us?"

Sorak nods, "Indeed, that seems a most logical course of action, sir."

[Patrick Goodman]

Treyva smiled. "As long as our spouses agree, then, we should be fine." He turned and entered the transporter room, Sorak immediately behind him. He approached the console and handed Chief Ma a data cartridge with Asha'a coordinates on it. Turning to face the platform, he said, "Whenever you're ready, Chief...energize."

[Davy, aka GM]

The familiar whine of the transporter effect fills the compartment and Asha's shapely form materializes on the pad. A bright smile on her face, she's about to greet Treyva when she spies Sorak next to him.

"Don't tell me my husband pulled you off your leave for this terrible business, Mr. Sorak," she says, giving the Vulcan a sympathetic look.

[Doug Burke]

"More accurately, I voluntarily returned from leave, as my own wife is serving as a liaison between the Drake and the Vulcan investigation," Sorak replies, "So the Captain did not need to 'impose,' as it were."

[Davy, aka GM]

Asha's expression is slightly dubious, but she accepts the explanation and steps down from the pad, brushing the back of her hand against her husband's as she stands next to him...

A half-hour later, the quartet of Asha, Treyva, Sorak, and T'Kiri sit in the captain's dining room, enjoying a combined dinner of Denobulan and Vulcan cuisine. The women start getting to know each other first through describing their parents' "signature" dishes, then invariably moving on to their children.

"I admit I carry pride for Sonek and his achievements in his young career," T'Kiri states. "There was some controversy at his secondary school when he chose to apply to Starfleet Academy instead of the Vulcan Science Academy, but he has proven more than once to be his father's son, and his choice has been revealed to be a wise one.

"Oh, wouldn't that be nice," Asha quipped over a bite of greens, causing her counterpart to raise an inquisitive eyebrow. "Sorry. I don't know if it's the discipline that seems to be inherent to your Vulcan culture that gives your children such certainty, but I'm having a heck of a time trying to get any of my kids to pick a path."

Turning to Treyva, she continues, "You don't know this yet, but Bogga and Dara have both waffled so much over choosing a field to focus on at uni, this week their counselors put them both into Open Study.* My kids, in open study. What's this galaxy coming to? And do you realize that Anari has flip-flopped between three instruments this year? I don't know what gene in my pool did this, but I'm going to give mother a talking to when I get back home."


* Think of Open Study as a student "taking classes without a major in mind."

[Patrick Goodman]

OOC: I have an Associates of Science degree in General Studies. I can relate.

Treyva leaned back and shrugged. "I have no room to talk," he said, "considering my own career path before entering Starfleet Academy." He looked at his wife. "Is Selanna still pursuing culinary school? She seemed pretty locked-in on that in your last couple of letters."

[Doug Burke]

"I admit I carry pride for Sonek and his achievements in his young career," T'Kiri states. "There was some controversy at his secondary school when he chose to apply to Starfleet Academy instead of the Vulcan Science Academy, but he has proven more than once to be his father's son, and his choice has been revealed to be a wise one.

"Of course," Sorak interjects, "The true irony is that, unlike Sonak, I attended both schools. It took two attempts to find my true path."

[Davy, aka GM]

Treyva leaned back and shrugged. "I have no room to talk," he said, "considering my own career path before entering Starfleet Academy." He looked at his wife. "Is Selanna still pursuing culinary school? She seemed pretty locked-in on that in your last couple of letters."

Asha sighs. "Oh, she's back on it, but not before deciding she wanted to be a wildlife preserve caretaker for three months, then thinking following Miral into Starfleet would be an incredible life. She was devastated when I told her Starfleet culinary specialists don't go to the Academy, and rarely become officers."

"Well, as my husband says, even we Vulcans can be vulnerable to the directionless-ness of youth," T'Kiri notes with a slight upturn of the corner of her mouth. "It may not seem so svi' wuh svitan t'vel - I believe the closest approximation in Standard is 'in the middle of things' - but, I can assure you, children do eventually find their way, and all will be well."

"I hope so," Asha says. She shakes her head and adds, "I'm sorry I turned this into a therapy session. We're supposed to be enjoying a double date."

"It is no burden on our part; however, it is an honor that you trust us so with your dilemmas," the V'Kor investigator counters.

"Well, you and your husband make it easy to trust," the geologist responds. "Now, since I pulled us all into this, let me get us all out of it and tell you about this interesting concept I heard about at my conference."

She proceeds to describe the morning session on the RAMSYNTH* presentation, and the next half-hour revolves around the implications of replicator technology on society, especially if it could be adapted for personal use.

* Editor's Note: It's the acronym the engineers were using for their 'raw material synthesis & replication manufacturing' (aka early stages of replicator technology) process.

OOC: Okay, feel free to turn the discussion toward the mission when you're ready, gents.

[Patrick Goodman]

Treyva leaned back and steepled his fingers. "Whatever you do when you go home, do not tell Selanna about this. That sort of technology could render chefs obsolete, and the last thing you need is her changing her mind again." He paused, and then said, "You minored in statistical analysis, did you not, beloved? I ask because we have a couple of interesting puzzles I was hoping you could help us with." He turned to T'Kiri and added, "If that's permissible, that is."

[Davy, aka GM]

Treyva leaned back and steepled his fingers. "Whatever you do when you go home, do not tell Selanna about this. That sort of technology could render chefs obsolete, and the last thing you need is her changing her mind again."

"Like any synthesizer could capture with any finesse the complex flavors of Senishyn coulcoun," Asha quips.

He paused, and then said, "You minored in statistical analysis, did you not, beloved? I ask because we have a couple of interesting puzzles I was hoping you could help us with." He turned to T'Kiri and added, "If that's permissible, that is."

"Your investigation," T'Kiri reminds the captain with a slight nod.

Asha adds, "I'd be happy to, my love. What do you need pieced together?"

OOC: Coulcoun is a Denobulan haute cuisine I just made up. In my head, I see it being pronounced in an archaic tongue as "KOOL-koon," but modern pronunciation shifts render it "kuh-kOON." More than a couple regions are known for variations of the dish, so I made up Senishyn as a translation of the demonym for one of them.

[Doug Burke]

"Not unlike the opening position in kal-toh," Sorak explains, "We have an abundance of t'an and no specific idea of the final outcome. We have several murders committed by person or persons unknown, with little, if any, details that would link the victims, a suspect held on the most circumstantial of evidence who protests his innocence, and evidence which implies a well-planned and executed, if the expression could be forgiven, plot. But we have no indication yet of motive or alternative suspects."

He turned to his wife, "I have spoken to Storvant as we discussed. The ionizer was of Starfleet manufacture, but the trail of its provenance is lost after being entered into the inventory at the Eridani Shipyard. Also, the initial contact for Storvant's investigation was apparently murdered by our killer while the investigation was ongoing."

[Davy, aka GM]

"Not unlike the opening position in kal-toh," Sorak explains, "We have an abundance of t'an and no specific idea of the final outcome. We have several murders committed by person or persons unknown, with little, if any, details that would link the victims, a suspect held on the most circumstantial of evidence who protests his innocence, and evidence which implies a well-planned and executed, if the expression could be forgiven, plot. But we have no indication yet of motive or alternative suspects."

"So, we need to find a connection between the victims to see if there's a common reason they were, uh, chosen?" Asha clarified.

T'Kiri nodded. "The only links we have so far is the physical proximity of two pairs of victims, and only in one of those pairs were the murders also temporally proximal."

He turned to his wife, "I have spoken to Storvant as we discussed. The ionizer was of Starfleet manufacture, but the trail of its provenance is lost after being entered into the inventory at the Eridani Shipyard. Also, the initial contact for Storvant's investigation was apparently murdered by our killer while the investigation was ongoing."

The investigator nods twice at the news. Her expression is neutral, but Sorak knows his wife well enough to understand that she's unsettled by the idea of murders having more than one degree of connection to their family.

Sensing the discomfort on the other side of the table, Asha steers the conversation back to the main subject by announcing, "I have access to a couple different analysis tools that I can adapt to help out. It may take me a bit to link to the databases we need, but it should speed up the process more than a little."

[Davy, aka GM]

OOC: Okay, we'll create a gated challenge.

The first gate will use Asha's Reason + Engineering (11/3) vs. Difficulty 3 to build the database to perform correlation. Any Main Character may assist also with Reason + Engineering, and the ship will also assist with a Computers + Engineering task (since she's performing the work on the ship's computer). Asha's Statistics focus will apply. This will include a Success at Cost (Not Enough Correlation Complication, which will apply to the second gate task).

The second and final gate will use Asha's Insight + Science (10/4) vs. Difficulty 2, increased to Difficulty 3 (Limited Personal Data Complication), to perform the analysis. Again, any Main Character may assist with Insight + Science, and the ship will assist with Computers + Science. Again, Asha's Statistics focus will apply.

Patrick, please roll Asha's tasks. Nolmir, please roll the ship's assist. Main Characters roll their own assists.

Note that you can still cancel Limited Personal Data with a Threat purchase.

Technically, this work takes place in the morning (and will consume most of it). Once the tasks are attempted, I'll put together a narrative that will include Tobin reporting his findings to the rest of the crew, and will include information that T'Kiri's officers were gathering.

Current
Momentum 1
Threat 10
Limited Personal Data Complication (when analyzing victim background information & public records)

Oh, on a side note, I've included all characters introduced in the story in the Standing & Current Episodes Directives thread. This will always include all player-introduced characters (for purposes of counting Crew Support), all Ally Characters (who don't count against crew support, and who spend Threat instead of Momentum), and all RP-only (to date) characters (i.e., those who aren't (yet) involved in performing tasks on behalf of the Main Characters.

[Doug Burke]

Sorak's Assist on Gate One"

Reason (11) + Engineering (5) = 16, Computers Focus

Rolled 1d20 : 3, total 3

[Patrick Goodman]

Asha, Gate 1 Task. Reason + Engineering (11/3), D3. Statistics Focus applies (crit success rang 1-3).

Rolled 2d20 : 12, 9, total 21

Dunno how much help Treyva will be, so it's fortunate that there's an engineer handy

Treyva, Gate 1 Assist. Reason + Engneering (10/1). No applicable Focus.

Rolled 1d20 : 7, total 7

Let's see how this works out.