4524

4524.010

The Galactic New Year passed with no fanfare. We arrived in the Regalian system, but, of course, things right away started veering off from the plan. We found a Federation warship, or frigate or some kind of armed, official spaceship that I don't really know the classification of, in orbit around the planet and learned that a splinter sect of the Psi-Minders has entered into a standoff with the Federation. We learned this because the Federation ship boarded us, asked us what we were doing, and took the Psi-Minders we had aboard for questioning. We ultimately got roped into playing mediator, since both the Federation and Psi-Minders recognized us as unaffiliated free traders with no real stake in this dispute. The crux of the dispute is that the Psi-Minders said the Federation was taking unauthorized scans of their sacred temple. The Federation claimed it was just doing a standard hydrology survey. I'm sure there was more to the story, but that was our starting point.

We agreed to help the Federation resolve this dispute. The ranking officer on the ship said that he would procure a license that would expedite our travels through Federation space. We apparently we be entered into some pre-approved registry so that we wouldn't have to file as many forms and make as many stops when we went through Federation territory. That sounded like quite a nice thing to have, all things considered, so I was happy to help them resolve this dispute. It just so happened, I was interested in learning more about the Psi-Minders as well. I know there is more to them and their history that will be of interest to us, but I don't know what.

4524.017

We are back in hyperspace now, on our way to the Old Frontiers Sector, after our stop on Regalia to help with a minor hostage situation. I was quite sympathetic to the Psi-Minder sect that sparked the hostilities, though at first I thought they may just have been a bunch of zealots. In fact, they had a charismatic, even-tempered leader (Whit), and all they really wanted was for their sacred site to be left alone. The site in question, a temple, had been included in Federation scans of the surface, and that didn't go over so well with the Psi-Minder "fundamentalists," for lack of a better term. Evidently, that was not in keeping with Federation law or something, but I don't really know who is in the right legally. Ethically, however, I think the Psi-Minders are perfectly within their rights to keep their sacred temple private. Certain groups within the Federation disagreed, including what, from all accounts of the Psi-Minder leader and others, included members of the Federation Psi-Corps. It took a little time, but we were able to negotiate a bargain that both sides could live with, involving a promise for clandestine data dissemination, and the return of the hostages to the Federation.

More interesting than the dispute itself was what we learned about this temple and the Psi-Minders. As expected, all the Psi-Minders with any degree of talent were able to determine that we were mages, but it turned out that there was more to it than just that. They knew our aura from ancient records, where people with auras nearly identical to our own came out of the desert and founded the Psi-Minder sect. That, or some early founders met these people and established the sect afterwards. I wasn't really clear on that, and I didn't feel like prying too much into their business. It did seem, however, that we were almost fated to meet these people, that perhaps we had met them before. In a way, it reminded me of some of the myths on Diskordia regarding the Lizard King, the Slayer, and the First Ranger. It speaks of the cyclic nature of time, or perhaps the lateral nature of worlds. I don't have any concrete theory about that, just that my interest in this temple has certainly been piqued. I have a feeling the temple itself is a special site, perhaps even the kind of thing we are looking for in our mission. We were told that some pockets of mana exist out there that have gone unnoticed or ignored by The Cabal. They only seem to get interested when an entire world has mana, or at least when there's a large presence of mana. It would make sense from the mythology that this temple could have a zone of magical energy, or that it houses some piece of technology capable of producing it. Maybe they have their own NEMA reactor?

It never seemed appropriate to ask for admission to the temple on our trip. We were busy gaining their trust and sorting out what could potentially be a volatile situation between the Psi-Minders and Federation. The Federation got their hostages back, and the Psi-Minders were able to secretly pass along the story of this Federation incursion on its own people. With luck, this will be the end of it, and we can return one day to find out more about the temple, the Psi-Minders' history, and learn more about their techniques.

4524.026

We arrived at Bannar in the Old Frontiers sector. We determined that we would need to head for Byte, some rockball near the middle of the sector, to pass the data from the Psi-Minders along to a news agency. Byte is the information hub of the Old Frontiers. Bannar was not a particularly appealing world; it was home to yet another bizarre religious sect, but these ones seemed more active and political than the Psi-Minders. Whereas Regalia was fairly open and free, Bannar was more repressive.

During our trip, Ambrose had been talking non-stop about how we were going to get rich off of environment suits. The idea was to buy them in places like Bannar that were heavy agricultural worlds and take them to planets with hostile climates. As it happens, a rockball like Byte is just such a hostile world. Ambrose spent time searching around the spaceport for a load of environment suits and found someone selling a lot we could afford at a very low price. Someone must have had a major surplus, because we got them far below typical wholesale prices.

Once our load was safely on board, we went back into hyperspace. We didn't even stay at Bannar an entire day which, to be honest, I'm glad. I didn't like the feel of that place. They did have an interesting selection of distilled spirits in their lounges, but the atmosphere was all wrong. They weren't any fun; they seemed to be strictly business all the time, obsessed with their next source of profit.

4524.037

The trip from Bannar to Byte took 10 days, and we spent another day or so stuck in the Byte spaceport trying to make contact with some alcoholic reporter. That did give us time to search out a buyer for the environment suits, and we managed to make a massive profit on them. We are finally starting to get ahead of our expenses. That said, we didn't have much luck obtaining any new cargo here at Byte. It is an interesting world, a sort of semi-lawless, corporate hacker planet, but the sector itself has a different kind of law. The whole sector is controlled by a network of gangs, sometimes in cooperation and sometimes at odds. Organized crime on an interstellar level.

We did eventually track down a reporter who could take the account of the Psi-Minders and make it public. I was a little skeptical of this guy, Abercrombie Mulcahy, because he seemed kind of incompetent and perpetually drunk. He apparently had some success as a journalist earlier in life, but seemed like a has-been at this point. I was hoping that he was just down on his luck and would bounce back with a story like this to reestablish a good name for himself. I saw flashes of a desire to do that, but, usually, he seemed apathetic.

We didn't pick up any cargo at Byte. We decided it was time to head for the Stronti system, where our NEMA Reactor was waiting for us. The Stronti system itself has a bad reputation. It is full of gravitational anomalies, something like singularities orbiting where planetary bodies used to be, as well as other singularities where there used to be comets, and so on. The only "habitable" planet there is Gith, which itself has a bunch of extra anomalies in orbit. Otherwise, there is a gas giant, some mining operations in the asteroids, and little else. An experimental energy company has facilities on Gith, and there are apparently pirates in the area as well.

4524.043

We have the NEMA Reactor (sort of), and I'm not yet convinced it was worth the trouble. First of all, the Stronti system itself is a death trap. Fortunately, Mike managed to navigate us safely to the ERG station in the asteroid belt there. The station was little more than a bunch of interstellar shipping containers and cargo bays assembled into a jumbled mess. We arrived to find another ship docked at the station and, after some sensor work, we determined there was nobody on the ship, but the station itself had people in excess of its normal staff. In other words, it looked like everyone from the ship - a free trader like ours, albeit armed - was on board the station. It appeared to be pirate activity. We decided to make haste to the dock, and entered the airlock ready for trouble.

We made our way aboard the station and were greeted by an armed guard and a scientist. Something seemed a little off. This guard didn't look quite right, and seemed more like a mercenary than station security. The scientist was also behaving a little strangely. The guard was clearly communicating with someone else on board the station. He told us to follow along with the scientist and we would meet the man we needed to talk to. At one point, as we got close to our destination, I saw the guard lift his rifle. I couldn't be sure what his intention was, but I decided to act. I stepped back and knocked the rifle out of his hand. Doolish and Ambrose set on him before he could react. He kept talking on his coms, though, so, while they had their weapons trained on him, I removed his helmet and visor. He was a grizzled-looking fellow. He had clearly seen some action. At that point, something came clattering down the corridor from the direction we were headed. Ambrose shouted, "grenade," and I shoved our captive into a laboratory and hit the deck. He laughed, the scientist seemed perplexed, and the lack of an explosion confirmed that Ambrose had misread the situation. In fact, it was just a radio communicator.

We negotiated with the head of the pirates who had taken over the control room. After receiving a bunch of threats and more bluster, we agreed to go meet with him and all of his crew. It didn't seem like we were going to be able to fight our way out of this one, but it also seemed like there was no need. We went to the control room and, sure enough, the pirate captain and all of his mercenaries and flunkies were there, along with the rest of the scientific staff of the station, but not the scientist we were here to meet, Malachai Foyle. He had apparently hidden himself somewhere on the station, and they couldn't find him. We learned they were after him for a monetary debt, or something like that. We agreed that we all had the same goal, to find Foyle, so we proposed helping them out. Foyle was not going to reveal himself to them, since they were obviously violent, but he might speak to us if we could find him. They suspected he was somewhere in his laboratory. The captain, Kroichech, told us we'd have 15 minutes to find him, otherwise he was going to evacuate the air from the entire station, which he would also do if we got up to any shenanigans. It seemed like a bluff to me; it's hard to collect money from a dead man.

We went to Foyle's lab and, after a short time of poking around, he revealed himself to us. He had been hiding in a device that looked to me like a pile of junk. In fact, his entire laboratory was little more than a glorified two-room pile of junk. I was starting to have some doubts about the reactor. On the subject of the reactor, he said it wasn't on board, that he had put it in storage on Gith. He told us that this group of pirates was after him for failing to deliver a weapon of mass destruction to them. They had obtained some necronium, some kind of exotic material forged in only the hottest supernovae, which they wanted him to use to build a bomb. Necronium is highly illegal, of course, and very rare. He apparently used the necronium in our reactor instead. In a way, we were indebted to this guy for that. Ambrose campaigned for eliminating the pirates. He pointed out they would certainly come after us and, if they were the sort to try to make a bomb like this, they were in the business of large-scale killing. All good points. The problem, however, was that we had no feasible way to win. Navigating back to the control room or trying to hold up in the reactor room both appeared to be losing scenarios. We couldn't hope to best them, being so outnumbered and outgunned, and not to mention them having complete control of the entire station.

We eventually decided to just flee. Foyle created a distraction that gave us time to run to the airlock where our ship was docked. We hopped on board and set off in short order. The pirates hailed us and immediately started issuing threats, to which Captain Mike responded by ramming their ship clean off its docking clamp, putting it adrift. I didn't know Mike had it in him; it was an impressive shot, and I don't think our ship even got scratched. We figured it would take them long enough to get their ship back under control that we could make it to Gith and get the hell out of this forsaken system before they could even hope to give pursuit. We did just that, and never saw those pirates or their ship.

The reactor itself was not functional. It had to be installed and rigged up, and to do that we needed to find a spaceport where Foyle could get some supplies and direct some technicians to get it all set up. We decided that Carstairs seemed like a good destination for a quick stop. It has little in the way of regulation, and a suitable spaceport. It is something of an agricultural backwater, but they supply enough food to the sector that their spaceport isn't a total dump. So, we set our course for Carstairs. We also learned from Foyle through various conversations on the station and then again on the ship that, in fact, the necronium hadn't just fallen into the hands of some random pirate captain, but that this Kroichech guy had been working for Madame Fang, who herself was the head of a large criminal organization that is arguably the most powerful entity in the entire system, the local triads. So, we didn't feel like sticking around in the Old Frontiers that much longer. Carstairs wasn't explicitly a triad-controlled world, but we had little doubt we wouldn't be safe to stay there for long. Our plan was for a quick in and out to install the reactor, perhaps pick up some cargo, and get going. Amanda expressed an interest in getting back into a more legitimate line of work, so we agreed to drop her at a suitable spaceport where she could book passage back into civilized space and join up with a more normal operation. I couldn't fault her. If you hang around us too long, it means you're hanging around Ambrose too long, and that seems dangerous and unwise.

4524.053

We had an uneventful trip from the Stronti system to Carstairs. Carstairs seems like a decent place to visit; there isn't an obvious triad presence here, so we're not likely to be immediately hunted down and killed. Our initial talks with the local engineers indicate this reactor will take a couple of days to install, though nobody is entirely sure what will happen when it's operational. The consensus is it will generate some kind of power, but whether it can be used, and how, remains to be seen. We have decided to take a little R&R here, and explore some local ruins near the north pole that evidently date back to the Dark Ages after Earth's destruction.

4524.054

It's clear that Foyle is going to be a lot of trouble. He disappeared into the underworld, all the while racking up gambling debt to the local criminal enterprise, itself part of a larger, sector-spanning criminal outfit known as the Syndicate (apparently the major rival of the Triads in the Old Frontiers). We had to bribe and talk our way through a series of low-lifes in and around the spaceport to learn that Foyle had been carted off to some farming town, apparently to work off his debt by refurbishing their VR parlors. It all sounded a little ridiculous, but Foyle clearly is an irresponsible weirdo degenerate, so it's not unexpected.

We rented an aircar and headed up to their two-horse town that may as well have been in the middle of Iowa, back on Earth. To be fair, they did have a lot of different kinds of beer, so at least there's that. We checked around at the local VR parlors and found the one where the Syndicate had stashed him. I got the sense that Ambrose was ready to cut some people up, but we fortunately were able to talk to their local boss, a guy named Sven, to get everything sorted out. It involved a giant payment to cover some of Foyle's debts (I'm not even sure if we paid them all off...), and I'm pretty sure the figure got inflated to line Sven's pockets. He went on about how valuable Foyle was to them for his ability to make their VR next-generation. Foyle himself seemed like he wanted to stay, but we decided that we needed to get him somewhere safer, well away from the Triad and, besides, we needed him to help us figure out how to use the NEMA reactor, and in case any further work was required to make it useful.

Part of our arrangement with the Syndicate was an assurance that we would speak to our contacts in the Phoenix Domain to help establish some mutually beneficial trade between the Domain and the Syndicate. It seemed like the Syndicate had been trying for years to make inroads into the Domain, but had gotten nowhere. This is understandable, as I'm sure it's hard for people on both sides to trust each other.

I also took the opportunity to buy a lot of paper, ink, and some brushes to begin work on some thaumatological writing. It seems like any legitimate sources of information regarding magic are practically non-existent. If there's anything out there, we certainly haven't found it or heard about it. If we're going to have any hope of restoring magic, we're going to need magicians, and magicians are going to need to know the basics. I figure with all the time we have aboard the Hyperion, I should be able to find some hours to spare to put my knowledge to paper. I just hope the day comes that someone can actually put it to use.

4524.055

We wrapped things up with the NEMA installation and made our way to the northern hemisphere to find the ruins we had heard about. This trip proved beyond valuable. First, in what was the most promising glimmer of hope we have encountered yet, we noticed the presence of magical energy - mana - in the vicinity of the ruins. It wasn't very widespread, but we could feel it in a few places. It wasn't all fun, though, because some guardians of some sort had been left behind. These flying, glaring eyeballs set upon us. When they gazed at us, it drained our life away. Doolish took it the worst of any of us, but we managed to hold them off long enough for Ambrose to skewer them all.

After we defeated these creatures, we encountered a spirit. It was either a spirit, or perhaps a programmed hallucination or hologram. I'm not really sure. She gave us some frustrating riddles and, after we struggled until we were able to think of the solutions, perhaps with a little help from Fate itself, she agreed to answer some of our questions. The most important answer we got was that there was a deep, mystical link between magic and psionics. In fact, psionics may be magic, albeit a limited form. Apparently, psionics are able to generate small amounts of mana to power their abilities. The mana they generate is focused - most psionics can only do a few different, related things. The mana also doesn't last. It is used, then vanishes until they generate more. They can sustain some powers for short durations and, I presume, their interaction with mana causes physiological changes in them. I wouldn't know what, exactly.

We also learned that the presence of mana on a world has to do not just with the world itself, but also the host star. Apparently, mana cannot arise around just any star. It takes special properties. My personal theory is that it is related to the presence of necromium in the star, but that's just a wild guess. I suppose stars formed from supernova remnants that have necromium could maybe host mana worlds, but stars formed from other types of nebulae, where necromium is absent, may not be able to host mana worlds. I hope we can learn more about this and figure out what to scan for in our search for mana worlds.

After our questions were answered, the ground started to tremble. We felt the magic drain from the area around us. We didn't waste time and rushed back to the ship. We got into the air in time to avoid getting bowled over by a giant geyser. It appeared that a massive flood was about to occur and that the ruins would soon be entirely submerged.

I found this news very encouraging, and it made me want to get back to Regalia, post-haste. I want to know about the origin of the Sci-Minders, and more about their techniques. It may be the case that we can learn how to generate limited amounts of mana as well. If we learn how to do that, we'll have a much better chance of surviving the rigors of the galaxy.

We set course for Bannar, to stop there before heading back to Regalia in Federation space.

4524.060

Our journey in hyperspace was interrupted by some sort of gravitational anomaly. We found ourselves in the vicinity of the Deerstalker Nebula, which houses the mysterious, dead world of Carcosa, which orbits around Styx, an irregular pulsar (who knew there was such a thing...). Ambrose said he had gotten a message that he believed was from Carcosa in his dreams. We decided to investigate by first getting closer to the nebula, then going inside. We did notice a ship "parked" outside the nebula, but it didn't answer our hails and didn't seem to be doing anything. It was an odd, unregistered design. Seeing as how it was humongous, though, we decided to avoid it and go straight into the nebula.

The nebula proved wildly dangerous. It was eating away at our shields the entire time we were there, and it made sensor work almost impossible at anything more than close range. Doolish believed we could make it to the planet and back before our ship was corroded to the point of being unspaceworthy, so we took our chance and went for it. Unfortunately, we got little out of our trip. There were ruins on the surface, though we couldn't get much information about them, and there was a ship in orbit above the ruins. Its design resembled that of the mammoth ship outside the nebula. Our sensors proved useless on it, and it seemed to ignore us for a while, until (against my wishes) we conducted an active sensor scan of the ship. That didn't tell us much, either, but it was clear we were getting a response, as they started scanning us, too. Whatever defenses they had, they entirely blocked our sensors. We couldn't tell anything about their weapons, their defenses, or how many people (if any) were onboard.

We decided at this point it was a good idea to leave. Not only was the nebula slowly eating our ship, but now we had a potential problem with some entity with technological capabilities that clearly surpassed out own. Doolish took the quickest route out of the nebula that he could plot, and we got out fast. We jumped immediately back into hyperspace and made for Bannar.

4524.061

Doolish and I both received the same dream message that Ambrose did earlier, before we journeyed to Carcosa. The dream came to us all multiple times, but faded in strength as we got further from the Styx system. It was full of occult imagery, but seemed to be beckoning us to come for a visit. It hinted at secrets that lay hidden for millennia in the ruins of Carcosa. There were voices, strange buildings, and people. Humans. At least it was just humans and not some alien race bent on our destruction. I'm not sure what to make of the dream, but it's clear we're coming back here at some point. We all had the suspicion that we may have just encountered the Cabal, but perhaps they didn't know who we are or care about us enough to find out. It was obvious they had us one-upped, technologically, and we have no way of knowing if they had any magical capability. But, the Cabal is the only group we're aware of that is certain to be in possession of technology that is more advanced that the rest of the stuff we know about in the galaxy. If it is the Cabal, I hope they don't want to or aren't able to obliterate anything and everything that would be of any interest to us.

See Also

4523

Diary of Lisa Chan

GURPS Darkstar