Firefly: Black Cat Blues - 6.14 The Unmasking
Um so yeah if you're at all interested in what happens in my Firefly game you probably want to read this plot summary, just letting you know.
Also, inspection yesterday turned out GREAT - no concerns at all that some dirt and a caulk gun can't fix in a couple hours. Now we wait to find out what our closing date will be, and we probably won't know that until after the bankruptcy clears on July 17 or thereabouts.
Previous episode here.
Nicolas flies Black Cat toward its meeting with Sekhmet on the Alliance cruiser Blue Nile as Osiris does his best to tend to Quinn. Her physical injuries are easy enough to handle, but Osiris is having a much harder time snapping her out of her general unresponsive state. In fact, when Nicolas calls Osiris up to the cockpit to speak to him, Quinn sneaks away and hides somewhere in the ship in order to be away from the crew. Marsh also seems deeply affected by what he saw, though he's responding in a different way. He tells Nicolas of his intentions to expose the lies of the Alliance and Blue Sun by any means necessary, and that he intends to use the information he's gathered to tell the world about what he's seen and learned as soon as he can. Nicolas is not necessarily opposed to this idea, but suggests that Marsh might want to hide his notes and documents on Black Cat just in case Sekhmet or someone else on Blue Nile might object to his plan.
The crew arrives on Blue Nile and is met by a squad of soldiers who ask them to leave their weapons behind and makes sure that all of the crew members are present and accounted for. Nicolas had initially wanted to leave Osiris and Quinn behind, since he's concerned about their mental stability right now and doesn't want to make a tense meeting worse, but the soldiers say that Sekhmet's orders insist that everyone come along. So the crew has to hunt around the ship until Osiris finally finds Quinn's hiding place. He calmly and gently tells her that she needs to get out and join the crew, and after some cajoling he convinces her. The crew then follows the soldiers to a conference room deep in the cruiser, where Sekhmet and Luke are waiting.
Sekhmet immediately tells the crew that Luke has told her about the crew's investigations into the Dionysus Project, and that she imagines that with what they've recently learned, they probably want to make sure it's destroyed completely. However, Sekhmet says in no uncertain terms that if they value both their lives and the 'Verse as a whole, they must walk away. Understandably, the crew doesn't react very well to hearing this, and demands that Sekhmet explain herself - which, for the first time, she does. She says that she, too, has looked into the Dionysus Project, and that it's not what the crew thinks it is. It is an abomination, certainly, but not one perpetuated by the Alliance; the official story of the Alliance discovering the Dionysus Project after the war and shutting it down after bringing all the survivors to trial is indeed the true one. Sekhmet blames Blue Sun for its continuance, and says that Blue Sun has occasionally appropriated the Alliance logo in doing so in order to confuse the issue and cast suspicion on the Alliance.
She also says that the Dionysus Project as a whole has been grotesquely misunderstood by everyone in that it didn't start out as a project to create Reavers as so many have assumed; no one, no matter how evil or misguided, would do such a thing for its own sake. The truth of what it was for can be found in the fact that the Planetary Terraforming Division started it, as well as in the project's name - Dionysus as the god of wine represented savagery and uncontrolled passion, but wine also represents civilization. The 'Verse has a limited amount of space for a growing population, and much of it is overrun with Reavers; it's the PTD's job to give people somewhere to go. The Dionysus Project wasn't the PTD attempting to create Reavers through nanotechology - the PTD was trying to cure them.[1] But because no one has ever been certain how Reavers get made, and because it's foolishness to try to capture them, the PTD soon realized that they would have to make their own Reavers for experimentation, using condemned criminals and other social undesireables. The project started with what Sekhmet terms as noble intentions; the trouble is that as soon as Reavers get involved, things will always get out of hand.
Though Sekhmet herself seems to hold little personal estimation of the Dionysus Project, she realizes that the 'Verse as a whole will not see it the same. If the project's existence comes out, Sekhmet will be dragged in front of all sorts of inquiries, tribunals, courts martial, and investigative committees (though she will not tell the crew exactly why this is). She simily will not be able to conduct her work under those conditions - work that she believes to be crucially important. According to Sekhmet, Blue Sun is trying to take control of the 'Verse away from the Alliance using nanotechology as their main weapon, and if they are allowed to win the consequences for everyone will be immense. Average people don't know about this secret war, and the Alliance itself doesn't fully believe it's happening; Sekhmet and those loyal to her are the only ones standing in Blue Sun's way. Blue Sun can recover from a blow to its credibility in the public sector. Sekhmet cannot - and if she is obstructed or removed, there is no one to take her place.
Sekhmet will be the first to admit that the Alliance has made many mistakes in the past, the original iteration of the Dionysus Project among them, but she believes with all her strength that it is truly committed to fostering order in the 'Verse in a way that Blue Sun is not. If word of the Dionysus Project gets out - and word will get out if she allows the crew to continue on their current path - not only will proof of the existence of Reavers destabilize the 'Verse even more, the Alliance's credibility could be irrevocably damaged, enabling Blue Sun to make its move. Sekhmet promises that the Dionysus Project will go down when Blue Sun does - but it can't be attacked before that. Doing so will start a war before Sekhmet and her sympathizers are in position to win it. That war will certainly cost millions of lives, and at this point in time the outcome is far from assured. If the crew believes at all in the importance of a stable 'Verse, or in the right of others to a peaceful existence, they must walk away.
It should come as no surprise that the crew does not take this well. They say that more than anything they have no reason to believe Sekhmet is telling them the truth - not only does the whole story border on unbelievability, Sekhmet has lied to the crew's face on more than one occasion already, so why should they believe her now? Nicolas asks for some sort of proof, which Sekhmet is unwilling to provide - either they believe her or they don't, and right now they're all leaning toward "don't" (except maybe Quinn, who has spent the whole discussion humming quietly to herself and probably having no idea of what is going on). But regardless of whether the crew might eventually come around to see things from her perspective, Detective Marsh is having none of it. He angrily tells Sekhmet that nothing she could possibly tell him would ever change his mind about the need to share the truth about the Dionysus Project with everyone. He says that she's spent so long manipulating people like chess pieces that she doesn't have any sense of right and wrong anymore - but Marsh does, and so does the rest of the 'Verse. He's still going to take the evidence he has and share it with anyone who will listen.
Sekhmet doesn't seem too concerned about this. Sure, Marsh has some documents and photos, but such things can easily be faked and thus disavowed. Why should anyone believe them? In response, Marsh grins and unbuttons the top few buttons of his shirt, revealing a wire taped to his chest! He's been recording the entire conversation, including Sekhmet's admissions. "You can't stop the signal!" he says triumphantly.
Sekhmet's response: "Watch me." In a single fluid motion she draws a pistol from somewhere in her clothing and shoots Detective Marsh between the eyes.[2]
As Marsh's body slumps across the table, chaos breaks loose. Osiris and Quinn rush to Marsh's side trying to remove the wire and what it recorded, while Archer, Birgitta, Nicolas, and surprisingly enough Daisy charge at Sekhmet. They dogpile onto her and knock her to the ground, though Sekhmet proves surprisingly strong and quick and is fending them off for now. That's when Nicolas grabs for Sekhmet's mask and pulls as hard as he can. One of the side straps snaps and the mask falls aside...revealing the scarred, torn, and twisted face of a Reaver. And that's when Osiris, seeing all of this from his vantage point on the table, remembers where he's seen Sekhmet before. It was in the Dionysus Project - but not as a doctor or perpetrator as he has long feared. Sekhmet was actually one of his victims!
That's when the door to the conference room bursts open and a small squadron of Alliance soldiers enters, under the command of Admiral Rebecca Shole. Obviously infuriated by what has just happened, Shole starts barking orders, telling some soldiers to take Sekhmet away, others to remove Marsh's body, and still more to take the crew into custody - with the exception of Luke, who is being told to come with her. Over their protestations, she says it's clear that they've been working with Sekhmet for some time now and might have crucial information about her, and she'll detain them until they share it. From out in the hallway, gunshots and a few bloodcurdling screams are heard, and the crew sees Sekhmet literally tearing apart an Alliance soldier and then running at top speed down the hall and around a corner. Shole continues yelling for Sekhmet's access to be disabled and for the soldiers to find her before she causes any more damage, even as the crew is taken away to a holding cell.
The crew is stripped of any armor or gear remaining and locked away. Not too long after that, a soldier comes by to take Nicolas in for questioning. It soon becomes clear to Nicolas that Shole still doesn't know that much; apparently, Sekhmet's anti-surveillance devices prevented Shole from putting any audio bugs in her conference room, but they were still able to tap into the video system and see her shooting Marsh. But Shole still doesn't know why Sekhmet would do such a thing, and she wants the crew to tell her. Nicolas does his best to give Shole only the most blatantly obvious information ("I understand you were working for Sekhmet." "Yes." "What do you know about her?" "Well, apparently she's a Reaver") and stonewalls her otherwise. Shole picks up on this and says that Nicolas and his crew will talk if they ever want to get out, then sends him back to the cell.
Not much later, some soldiers come by for Birgitta. She's feeling smug as she goes into the interrogation room, remembering her past association with Rebecca Shole and hoping to use that to her advantage. But it soon becomes clear that Shole is having none of it. She coldly tells Birgitta that when she became an admiral she was able to look into records that had been sealed to her before, so she now knows of Birgitta's past as the Cat - and she's disgusted by it. (Birgitta recalls that even during the war days, Shole didn't think too highly of the Cat.) Shole doesn't want to question Birgitta about anything - just tell her that she thinks Birgitta is a monster, and that if she doesn't cooperate in every way possible, Shole will pass her identity along to some Browncoats who would love to get revenge on the Cat. She then sends Birgitta back to her cell.
The next to be taken in for interrogation is Osiris. But instead of being escorted to a sterile conference room like the others, he is taken much farther away into a small room containing only a metal chair and table bolted to the floor, and a small porthole looking out at space. Osiris is shackled to the chair and waits until the door opens and a nightmarish figure walks in, wearing a thick leather suit and a terrifying mask and carrying the same style of black box that Luke has been seen carrying before. The Inquisitor enters and calmly tells Osiris that under the orders of Admiral Shole, he has been dispatched to interrogate Osiris about his relationship with Sekhmet and with the Dionysus Project - using any means necessary. Osiris realizes how much trouble he's in, and starts spilling his guts immediately, telling the Inquisitor everything he knows. He talks for a solid hour and holds nothing back. But when he's finished, the Inquisitor cocks his head and says, "You've been very helpful, but you must understand it's best to be sure about these things. I hope you won't take it personally." The Inquisitor reaches into his black box, withdraws some tools of torture, and starts in on Osiris. And that's when Osiris realizes that the figure now cutting into him has a familiar voice and bearing. The Inquisitor is none other than Luke Kano - and nothing Osiris can say to him will make him stop...
By now, Osiris has been gone for a couple of hours, and the crew (particularly Quinn) is beginning to worry. Their worst fears are confirmed when a screen within the cell comes on, and Sekhmet's face is revealed. Though the crew initially expresses their anger at seeing her again (since they've been spending the past few hours talking about how much they're looking forward to killing her when they get the chance), their tone changes a little when she shows them footage of what's going on inside the interrogation chamber. Sekhmet explains that Osiris is being tortured for information by a feared interrogator known as the Inquisitor, and the session is being recorded for Shole and Nolan's future perusal. If Osiris breaks - and Sekhmet seems to think that he will - there will be a record of every aspect of the PCs' involvement with Sekhmet, the Dionysus Project, and so many other shady and suspicious things that none of them will ever be released. Moreover, Osiris will probably be killed once he's no longer useful. It is essential for the crew to find where Osiris is being held, free him, and erase the recording being made of the torture session. Because Sekhmet's access is being cut off as she speaks, she can't do much to help the crew save Osiris from the Inquisitor - but she can override the electronic locks on their holding cell and release the crew to do as they wish. Nicolas is not especially grateful for this small amount of help, and tells Sekhmet that her apparent concern for the crew doesn't change anything, and that he still intends to kill her the next time they're both in the same room. Sekhmet's response is, "I would expect nothing less." The transmission ends.[3]
Despite the crew's general mistrust of the source of this information, they waste no time in getting started with Sekhmet's instructions. Two guards are nearby at a security station, and the crew brings them down with a combination of the guards' own stun guns, and suppressive fire from an assault rifle stolen by Archer out of a nearby armory. Unfortunately, one of the guards raises an alarm as he's being shocked into unconsciousness, meaning that the crew has to vacate the premises quickly and find a place to hide out. With guidance from Archer (who never served on Blue Nile, but remembers plenty of general security protocols from her time serving as Sekhmet's chief of security), the crew accesses a terminal in a disused conference room and figures out that Osiris is probably being questioned in one of several "interrogation cells" at the extreme opposite end of Blue Nile. Because it is so far away (several miles through the halls), the crew decides that they will need to take a tram that runs the length of the ship in order to get there as quickly as possible. After a few close calls with both security guards looking for the escaped prisoners, and other Alliance enlistees aboard the ship who have been made aware of the crew's description, the crew reaches the tram station. They get aboard the next tram with no passengers (hiding in lockers to avoid the people getting on and off others), then have Birgitta override the tram controls so it will just keep moving and not pick up other passengers until it reaches the place where the crew needs to go.
About twenty minutes later, the tram arrives at its destination. The crew disembarks and makes their way to the one room with an "in use" light, though it's locked with an electronic mechanism that the crew has little hope of breaking. So brute force ends up being the way to go. The crew uses the stolen assault rifle to shoot out the locking mechanism, then forces the door open. This startles the three technicians inside who are easily ordered into surrendering, and prevented from raising any alarm. Archer then settles in to stop the recording and erase it from the system. But there's another locked door between the crew and Osiris, and what they see on the other side after using a technician's card to open it is something that no one expected.
The situation inside is much as the crew saw it on the video feed - Osiris chained to a chair with the Inquisitor looming over him. With their meager guns pointed, the crew tries to intimidate the Inquisitor into letting Osiris go, knowing it's probably futile. But they all get the shock of their life when Osiris speaks up through a mouthful of blood. "You know that now that they've seen who you really are, they're not going to let you go, Luke." The rest of the crew isn't sure whether to believe what Osiris has just said - until the Inquisitor acts. He pulls from his black case a familiar gun - the extra-destructive "volcano gun" that Luke owns - and uses it to shoot out the small porthole in the room! As alarms sound and the air begins to be pulled out of the room, the Inquisitor touches a single button on his glove, and the entire room is filled with a painful, blinding light that (oddly enough) seems to come from the disguised mini-camera around Birgitta's neck.
For the moment, the question of whether the Inquisitor is actually Luke is forgotten as the crew scrambles to save Osiris (who is still chained to the chair) and eliminate the light source that is making it almost impossible to do anything. Birgitta rips the necklace from her neck and allows it to drift out the window (along with the Inquisitor, who is seen calmly floating away into the vacuum of space as if there is no problem), then starts tearing at Osiris's chains with all her strength. Nicolas and Quinn help out, then focus on forcing the door shut so that the vacuum will be contained; they know they have to get away fast, not only because of the physical danger but because the decompression alarms will start drawing attention very soon. As they drag Osiris out of the room, they are shocked to see Archer collapse to the floor, completely unconscious for no apparent reason. Daisy takes over for her in erasing the recording, while Nicolas looks more closely and notices a small needle mark in her chest near the locket she always wears - another gift from Luke. Realizing what's going on, Nicolas shouts for everyone to get rid of anything that Luke ever gave them. He discards his compass and Quinn her swallow pendant by tossing them through the door and into space.
Soon, Daisy announces that the recording has been erased. The crew physically picks up both Archer and Osiris and starts dragging them back to the tram, dodging troops all the way. The tram ride is uninterrupted thanks to Birgitta's modifications, but the crew knows that they are still going to have to figure out a way to get back to the docking bay undetected. At the tram stop nearest the docking bays, Quinn notices some carts, boxes of paper products, and Alliance mechanic coveralls that have been set aside for cleaning, and comes up with a plan: She, Birgitta, Daisy, and Nicolas will disguise themselves using the coveralls, and conceal the unconscious Archer and Osiris within a wall of paper towel boxes. They'll blend in to the other engineers in the docking bay and get aboard Black Cat this way. But there's a problem with this plan - it violates Nicolas's recently-made rule that it is not permissible to wear disguises aboard Black Cat.[4] Daisy does her best to convince him - "Nicolas, I love you very much, and I respect your rules, but you need to do this" - but Nicolas is having none of it. That's when Quinn comes up behind him and does the only thing she can think of to resolve the problem - stun him with her stun gun, tie him up, and stick him on the cart with Archer and Osiris.
The crew's plan is unoriginal but effective, and they get aboard Black Cat without any problems. Getting off Blue Nile is another story altogether. The docking bay doors normally wouldn't open without clearance from the traffic control tower, but considering Black Cat's status there's no way that they're getting that by asking politely. Quinn asks Birgitta if she knows of any way to sabotage the doors into opening, and Birgitta quickly realizes that in the event of a major fire, the docking bay doors will open automatically both to provide a means of escape and a way of quenching the flames. So she sneaks back out into the docking bay to sabotage the bay's oxygen sensors, making the cruiser's controls think that there's a huge fire so that the doors will open automatically. Birgitta succeeds easily and gets back aboard the ship quickly in the chaos that results from an unexpected opening of the docking bay doors.
Now it's up to Quinn to get Black Cat safely away without being shot out of the sky by Blue Nile's guns. She brings every ounce of her piloting skill to bear and soon gets the ship out of range. Then she lays in a course for the place she's been wanting to go for a long time - the so-called "Q planet" that the Reavers on Osiris wanted her to take them to. She doesn't know its exact location, but with a general idea she can get the ship well on its way and figure out what to do next while in transit. Quinn then starts giving the rest of the crew orders to remove every gift that Luke ever gave them from Black Cat, just in case he left any other surprises. The rest of the crew is deeply saddened to know that this means that Luke may never be coming back from being the Inquisitor, that they were lied to all along, and that their close friend has now become their enemy.[5]
Quinn is just beginning to settle down to consider these things when the ship's communications relay beeps. Quinn answers the call when she sees it's not the Alliance, and sees an unfamiliar woman on the other end of the line. "Hello," the woman says. "I was told to contact you by Hector Marsh."
TO BE CONTINUED...
1 - This is a twist I'm particularly proud of. *smug*
2 - I think this might be the single most badass thing I've ever done as a GM. The looks on the faces of players and observers were priceless. Thanks for this one, humbleminion!
3 - The players' general response to this dilemma? "Congratulations, Beth - you've managed to one-up 'four rounds until the missile hits you.'"
4 - This rule was actually made in downtime (no explanation given - it's always funnier that way!) but I don't remember if I mentioned it before now, because, well, it was never really relevant until this point...
5 - Yup, here we have the second player removal. tankmancr is moving to Chicago and thus had to be written out of the game on a fairly permanent basis (though with luck we will have him back for the finale this fall/winter!). I'd hoped to be able to have him here for this session, but that didn't end up working out, unfortunately. And if you were wondering, the surprises in the gifts were all the player's idea, and were implemented years ago, actually.
Also, inspection yesterday turned out GREAT - no concerns at all that some dirt and a caulk gun can't fix in a couple hours. Now we wait to find out what our closing date will be, and we probably won't know that until after the bankruptcy clears on July 17 or thereabouts.
Previous episode here.
Nicolas flies Black Cat toward its meeting with Sekhmet on the Alliance cruiser Blue Nile as Osiris does his best to tend to Quinn. Her physical injuries are easy enough to handle, but Osiris is having a much harder time snapping her out of her general unresponsive state. In fact, when Nicolas calls Osiris up to the cockpit to speak to him, Quinn sneaks away and hides somewhere in the ship in order to be away from the crew. Marsh also seems deeply affected by what he saw, though he's responding in a different way. He tells Nicolas of his intentions to expose the lies of the Alliance and Blue Sun by any means necessary, and that he intends to use the information he's gathered to tell the world about what he's seen and learned as soon as he can. Nicolas is not necessarily opposed to this idea, but suggests that Marsh might want to hide his notes and documents on Black Cat just in case Sekhmet or someone else on Blue Nile might object to his plan.
The crew arrives on Blue Nile and is met by a squad of soldiers who ask them to leave their weapons behind and makes sure that all of the crew members are present and accounted for. Nicolas had initially wanted to leave Osiris and Quinn behind, since he's concerned about their mental stability right now and doesn't want to make a tense meeting worse, but the soldiers say that Sekhmet's orders insist that everyone come along. So the crew has to hunt around the ship until Osiris finally finds Quinn's hiding place. He calmly and gently tells her that she needs to get out and join the crew, and after some cajoling he convinces her. The crew then follows the soldiers to a conference room deep in the cruiser, where Sekhmet and Luke are waiting.
Sekhmet immediately tells the crew that Luke has told her about the crew's investigations into the Dionysus Project, and that she imagines that with what they've recently learned, they probably want to make sure it's destroyed completely. However, Sekhmet says in no uncertain terms that if they value both their lives and the 'Verse as a whole, they must walk away. Understandably, the crew doesn't react very well to hearing this, and demands that Sekhmet explain herself - which, for the first time, she does. She says that she, too, has looked into the Dionysus Project, and that it's not what the crew thinks it is. It is an abomination, certainly, but not one perpetuated by the Alliance; the official story of the Alliance discovering the Dionysus Project after the war and shutting it down after bringing all the survivors to trial is indeed the true one. Sekhmet blames Blue Sun for its continuance, and says that Blue Sun has occasionally appropriated the Alliance logo in doing so in order to confuse the issue and cast suspicion on the Alliance.
She also says that the Dionysus Project as a whole has been grotesquely misunderstood by everyone in that it didn't start out as a project to create Reavers as so many have assumed; no one, no matter how evil or misguided, would do such a thing for its own sake. The truth of what it was for can be found in the fact that the Planetary Terraforming Division started it, as well as in the project's name - Dionysus as the god of wine represented savagery and uncontrolled passion, but wine also represents civilization. The 'Verse has a limited amount of space for a growing population, and much of it is overrun with Reavers; it's the PTD's job to give people somewhere to go. The Dionysus Project wasn't the PTD attempting to create Reavers through nanotechology - the PTD was trying to cure them.[1] But because no one has ever been certain how Reavers get made, and because it's foolishness to try to capture them, the PTD soon realized that they would have to make their own Reavers for experimentation, using condemned criminals and other social undesireables. The project started with what Sekhmet terms as noble intentions; the trouble is that as soon as Reavers get involved, things will always get out of hand.
Though Sekhmet herself seems to hold little personal estimation of the Dionysus Project, she realizes that the 'Verse as a whole will not see it the same. If the project's existence comes out, Sekhmet will be dragged in front of all sorts of inquiries, tribunals, courts martial, and investigative committees (though she will not tell the crew exactly why this is). She simily will not be able to conduct her work under those conditions - work that she believes to be crucially important. According to Sekhmet, Blue Sun is trying to take control of the 'Verse away from the Alliance using nanotechology as their main weapon, and if they are allowed to win the consequences for everyone will be immense. Average people don't know about this secret war, and the Alliance itself doesn't fully believe it's happening; Sekhmet and those loyal to her are the only ones standing in Blue Sun's way. Blue Sun can recover from a blow to its credibility in the public sector. Sekhmet cannot - and if she is obstructed or removed, there is no one to take her place.
Sekhmet will be the first to admit that the Alliance has made many mistakes in the past, the original iteration of the Dionysus Project among them, but she believes with all her strength that it is truly committed to fostering order in the 'Verse in a way that Blue Sun is not. If word of the Dionysus Project gets out - and word will get out if she allows the crew to continue on their current path - not only will proof of the existence of Reavers destabilize the 'Verse even more, the Alliance's credibility could be irrevocably damaged, enabling Blue Sun to make its move. Sekhmet promises that the Dionysus Project will go down when Blue Sun does - but it can't be attacked before that. Doing so will start a war before Sekhmet and her sympathizers are in position to win it. That war will certainly cost millions of lives, and at this point in time the outcome is far from assured. If the crew believes at all in the importance of a stable 'Verse, or in the right of others to a peaceful existence, they must walk away.
It should come as no surprise that the crew does not take this well. They say that more than anything they have no reason to believe Sekhmet is telling them the truth - not only does the whole story border on unbelievability, Sekhmet has lied to the crew's face on more than one occasion already, so why should they believe her now? Nicolas asks for some sort of proof, which Sekhmet is unwilling to provide - either they believe her or they don't, and right now they're all leaning toward "don't" (except maybe Quinn, who has spent the whole discussion humming quietly to herself and probably having no idea of what is going on). But regardless of whether the crew might eventually come around to see things from her perspective, Detective Marsh is having none of it. He angrily tells Sekhmet that nothing she could possibly tell him would ever change his mind about the need to share the truth about the Dionysus Project with everyone. He says that she's spent so long manipulating people like chess pieces that she doesn't have any sense of right and wrong anymore - but Marsh does, and so does the rest of the 'Verse. He's still going to take the evidence he has and share it with anyone who will listen.
Sekhmet doesn't seem too concerned about this. Sure, Marsh has some documents and photos, but such things can easily be faked and thus disavowed. Why should anyone believe them? In response, Marsh grins and unbuttons the top few buttons of his shirt, revealing a wire taped to his chest! He's been recording the entire conversation, including Sekhmet's admissions. "You can't stop the signal!" he says triumphantly.
Sekhmet's response: "Watch me." In a single fluid motion she draws a pistol from somewhere in her clothing and shoots Detective Marsh between the eyes.[2]
As Marsh's body slumps across the table, chaos breaks loose. Osiris and Quinn rush to Marsh's side trying to remove the wire and what it recorded, while Archer, Birgitta, Nicolas, and surprisingly enough Daisy charge at Sekhmet. They dogpile onto her and knock her to the ground, though Sekhmet proves surprisingly strong and quick and is fending them off for now. That's when Nicolas grabs for Sekhmet's mask and pulls as hard as he can. One of the side straps snaps and the mask falls aside...revealing the scarred, torn, and twisted face of a Reaver. And that's when Osiris, seeing all of this from his vantage point on the table, remembers where he's seen Sekhmet before. It was in the Dionysus Project - but not as a doctor or perpetrator as he has long feared. Sekhmet was actually one of his victims!
That's when the door to the conference room bursts open and a small squadron of Alliance soldiers enters, under the command of Admiral Rebecca Shole. Obviously infuriated by what has just happened, Shole starts barking orders, telling some soldiers to take Sekhmet away, others to remove Marsh's body, and still more to take the crew into custody - with the exception of Luke, who is being told to come with her. Over their protestations, she says it's clear that they've been working with Sekhmet for some time now and might have crucial information about her, and she'll detain them until they share it. From out in the hallway, gunshots and a few bloodcurdling screams are heard, and the crew sees Sekhmet literally tearing apart an Alliance soldier and then running at top speed down the hall and around a corner. Shole continues yelling for Sekhmet's access to be disabled and for the soldiers to find her before she causes any more damage, even as the crew is taken away to a holding cell.
The crew is stripped of any armor or gear remaining and locked away. Not too long after that, a soldier comes by to take Nicolas in for questioning. It soon becomes clear to Nicolas that Shole still doesn't know that much; apparently, Sekhmet's anti-surveillance devices prevented Shole from putting any audio bugs in her conference room, but they were still able to tap into the video system and see her shooting Marsh. But Shole still doesn't know why Sekhmet would do such a thing, and she wants the crew to tell her. Nicolas does his best to give Shole only the most blatantly obvious information ("I understand you were working for Sekhmet." "Yes." "What do you know about her?" "Well, apparently she's a Reaver") and stonewalls her otherwise. Shole picks up on this and says that Nicolas and his crew will talk if they ever want to get out, then sends him back to the cell.
Not much later, some soldiers come by for Birgitta. She's feeling smug as she goes into the interrogation room, remembering her past association with Rebecca Shole and hoping to use that to her advantage. But it soon becomes clear that Shole is having none of it. She coldly tells Birgitta that when she became an admiral she was able to look into records that had been sealed to her before, so she now knows of Birgitta's past as the Cat - and she's disgusted by it. (Birgitta recalls that even during the war days, Shole didn't think too highly of the Cat.) Shole doesn't want to question Birgitta about anything - just tell her that she thinks Birgitta is a monster, and that if she doesn't cooperate in every way possible, Shole will pass her identity along to some Browncoats who would love to get revenge on the Cat. She then sends Birgitta back to her cell.
The next to be taken in for interrogation is Osiris. But instead of being escorted to a sterile conference room like the others, he is taken much farther away into a small room containing only a metal chair and table bolted to the floor, and a small porthole looking out at space. Osiris is shackled to the chair and waits until the door opens and a nightmarish figure walks in, wearing a thick leather suit and a terrifying mask and carrying the same style of black box that Luke has been seen carrying before. The Inquisitor enters and calmly tells Osiris that under the orders of Admiral Shole, he has been dispatched to interrogate Osiris about his relationship with Sekhmet and with the Dionysus Project - using any means necessary. Osiris realizes how much trouble he's in, and starts spilling his guts immediately, telling the Inquisitor everything he knows. He talks for a solid hour and holds nothing back. But when he's finished, the Inquisitor cocks his head and says, "You've been very helpful, but you must understand it's best to be sure about these things. I hope you won't take it personally." The Inquisitor reaches into his black box, withdraws some tools of torture, and starts in on Osiris. And that's when Osiris realizes that the figure now cutting into him has a familiar voice and bearing. The Inquisitor is none other than Luke Kano - and nothing Osiris can say to him will make him stop...
By now, Osiris has been gone for a couple of hours, and the crew (particularly Quinn) is beginning to worry. Their worst fears are confirmed when a screen within the cell comes on, and Sekhmet's face is revealed. Though the crew initially expresses their anger at seeing her again (since they've been spending the past few hours talking about how much they're looking forward to killing her when they get the chance), their tone changes a little when she shows them footage of what's going on inside the interrogation chamber. Sekhmet explains that Osiris is being tortured for information by a feared interrogator known as the Inquisitor, and the session is being recorded for Shole and Nolan's future perusal. If Osiris breaks - and Sekhmet seems to think that he will - there will be a record of every aspect of the PCs' involvement with Sekhmet, the Dionysus Project, and so many other shady and suspicious things that none of them will ever be released. Moreover, Osiris will probably be killed once he's no longer useful. It is essential for the crew to find where Osiris is being held, free him, and erase the recording being made of the torture session. Because Sekhmet's access is being cut off as she speaks, she can't do much to help the crew save Osiris from the Inquisitor - but she can override the electronic locks on their holding cell and release the crew to do as they wish. Nicolas is not especially grateful for this small amount of help, and tells Sekhmet that her apparent concern for the crew doesn't change anything, and that he still intends to kill her the next time they're both in the same room. Sekhmet's response is, "I would expect nothing less." The transmission ends.[3]
Despite the crew's general mistrust of the source of this information, they waste no time in getting started with Sekhmet's instructions. Two guards are nearby at a security station, and the crew brings them down with a combination of the guards' own stun guns, and suppressive fire from an assault rifle stolen by Archer out of a nearby armory. Unfortunately, one of the guards raises an alarm as he's being shocked into unconsciousness, meaning that the crew has to vacate the premises quickly and find a place to hide out. With guidance from Archer (who never served on Blue Nile, but remembers plenty of general security protocols from her time serving as Sekhmet's chief of security), the crew accesses a terminal in a disused conference room and figures out that Osiris is probably being questioned in one of several "interrogation cells" at the extreme opposite end of Blue Nile. Because it is so far away (several miles through the halls), the crew decides that they will need to take a tram that runs the length of the ship in order to get there as quickly as possible. After a few close calls with both security guards looking for the escaped prisoners, and other Alliance enlistees aboard the ship who have been made aware of the crew's description, the crew reaches the tram station. They get aboard the next tram with no passengers (hiding in lockers to avoid the people getting on and off others), then have Birgitta override the tram controls so it will just keep moving and not pick up other passengers until it reaches the place where the crew needs to go.
About twenty minutes later, the tram arrives at its destination. The crew disembarks and makes their way to the one room with an "in use" light, though it's locked with an electronic mechanism that the crew has little hope of breaking. So brute force ends up being the way to go. The crew uses the stolen assault rifle to shoot out the locking mechanism, then forces the door open. This startles the three technicians inside who are easily ordered into surrendering, and prevented from raising any alarm. Archer then settles in to stop the recording and erase it from the system. But there's another locked door between the crew and Osiris, and what they see on the other side after using a technician's card to open it is something that no one expected.
The situation inside is much as the crew saw it on the video feed - Osiris chained to a chair with the Inquisitor looming over him. With their meager guns pointed, the crew tries to intimidate the Inquisitor into letting Osiris go, knowing it's probably futile. But they all get the shock of their life when Osiris speaks up through a mouthful of blood. "You know that now that they've seen who you really are, they're not going to let you go, Luke." The rest of the crew isn't sure whether to believe what Osiris has just said - until the Inquisitor acts. He pulls from his black case a familiar gun - the extra-destructive "volcano gun" that Luke owns - and uses it to shoot out the small porthole in the room! As alarms sound and the air begins to be pulled out of the room, the Inquisitor touches a single button on his glove, and the entire room is filled with a painful, blinding light that (oddly enough) seems to come from the disguised mini-camera around Birgitta's neck.
For the moment, the question of whether the Inquisitor is actually Luke is forgotten as the crew scrambles to save Osiris (who is still chained to the chair) and eliminate the light source that is making it almost impossible to do anything. Birgitta rips the necklace from her neck and allows it to drift out the window (along with the Inquisitor, who is seen calmly floating away into the vacuum of space as if there is no problem), then starts tearing at Osiris's chains with all her strength. Nicolas and Quinn help out, then focus on forcing the door shut so that the vacuum will be contained; they know they have to get away fast, not only because of the physical danger but because the decompression alarms will start drawing attention very soon. As they drag Osiris out of the room, they are shocked to see Archer collapse to the floor, completely unconscious for no apparent reason. Daisy takes over for her in erasing the recording, while Nicolas looks more closely and notices a small needle mark in her chest near the locket she always wears - another gift from Luke. Realizing what's going on, Nicolas shouts for everyone to get rid of anything that Luke ever gave them. He discards his compass and Quinn her swallow pendant by tossing them through the door and into space.
Soon, Daisy announces that the recording has been erased. The crew physically picks up both Archer and Osiris and starts dragging them back to the tram, dodging troops all the way. The tram ride is uninterrupted thanks to Birgitta's modifications, but the crew knows that they are still going to have to figure out a way to get back to the docking bay undetected. At the tram stop nearest the docking bays, Quinn notices some carts, boxes of paper products, and Alliance mechanic coveralls that have been set aside for cleaning, and comes up with a plan: She, Birgitta, Daisy, and Nicolas will disguise themselves using the coveralls, and conceal the unconscious Archer and Osiris within a wall of paper towel boxes. They'll blend in to the other engineers in the docking bay and get aboard Black Cat this way. But there's a problem with this plan - it violates Nicolas's recently-made rule that it is not permissible to wear disguises aboard Black Cat.[4] Daisy does her best to convince him - "Nicolas, I love you very much, and I respect your rules, but you need to do this" - but Nicolas is having none of it. That's when Quinn comes up behind him and does the only thing she can think of to resolve the problem - stun him with her stun gun, tie him up, and stick him on the cart with Archer and Osiris.
The crew's plan is unoriginal but effective, and they get aboard Black Cat without any problems. Getting off Blue Nile is another story altogether. The docking bay doors normally wouldn't open without clearance from the traffic control tower, but considering Black Cat's status there's no way that they're getting that by asking politely. Quinn asks Birgitta if she knows of any way to sabotage the doors into opening, and Birgitta quickly realizes that in the event of a major fire, the docking bay doors will open automatically both to provide a means of escape and a way of quenching the flames. So she sneaks back out into the docking bay to sabotage the bay's oxygen sensors, making the cruiser's controls think that there's a huge fire so that the doors will open automatically. Birgitta succeeds easily and gets back aboard the ship quickly in the chaos that results from an unexpected opening of the docking bay doors.
Now it's up to Quinn to get Black Cat safely away without being shot out of the sky by Blue Nile's guns. She brings every ounce of her piloting skill to bear and soon gets the ship out of range. Then she lays in a course for the place she's been wanting to go for a long time - the so-called "Q planet" that the Reavers on Osiris wanted her to take them to. She doesn't know its exact location, but with a general idea she can get the ship well on its way and figure out what to do next while in transit. Quinn then starts giving the rest of the crew orders to remove every gift that Luke ever gave them from Black Cat, just in case he left any other surprises. The rest of the crew is deeply saddened to know that this means that Luke may never be coming back from being the Inquisitor, that they were lied to all along, and that their close friend has now become their enemy.[5]
Quinn is just beginning to settle down to consider these things when the ship's communications relay beeps. Quinn answers the call when she sees it's not the Alliance, and sees an unfamiliar woman on the other end of the line. "Hello," the woman says. "I was told to contact you by Hector Marsh."
TO BE CONTINUED...
1 - This is a twist I'm particularly proud of. *smug*
2 - I think this might be the single most badass thing I've ever done as a GM. The looks on the faces of players and observers were priceless. Thanks for this one, humbleminion!
3 - The players' general response to this dilemma? "Congratulations, Beth - you've managed to one-up 'four rounds until the missile hits you.'"
4 - This rule was actually made in downtime (no explanation given - it's always funnier that way!) but I don't remember if I mentioned it before now, because, well, it was never really relevant until this point...
5 - Yup, here we have the second player removal. tankmancr is moving to Chicago and thus had to be written out of the game on a fairly permanent basis (though with luck we will have him back for the finale this fall/winter!). I'd hoped to be able to have him here for this session, but that didn't end up working out, unfortunately. And if you were wondering, the surprises in the gifts were all the player's idea, and were implemented years ago, actually.