accomplishedCHARACTERS
Henri Calaxco (Steven Ross) - Space Technician
Jana Riffin (Tammy Powers) - Interplanetary Pilot
March 1st, 2701 AD
The player characters wake up to find themselves coming out of cryosleep (the proper term is Vitrification) aboard the Tambour, a Stepship out of Alpha Centauri, bound for the Alpha Mensae system and then on a longer trip to a new colony world. The revival process is highly uncomfortable and disorienting, but both Henri Calaxco and Jana Riffin are aided through the process by the med techs led by chief medical tech Orra Kimber.
Once both have recovered sufficiently, Henri and Jana are told that they have been revived because there is a problem with the ship, well actually two problems. They learn the situation from the ghostly voice of the Stepdaughter, Liliana... The Tambour has arrived on the edges of the Alpha Mensae system, and is almost ready to head in-system... The pilot who would normally be awoken has suffered some neural damage during Vitrification, and his alternate is not "viable" for awakening at the moment, so it's a good thing that Jana, one of the civilian passengers on board is a qualified in-system pilot. And Henri learns that they awoke him as there is a problem with the cryovault chambers; several of the cryovaults are failing, and their occupants in danger of death.
Once the two characters have had a chance to clean up and have a bit of food, using the medical area shower shower facilities and mess, both Jana and Henri feel more themselves, and are ready to get down to business. Following the instructions of the ship's AI, Albert, Jana is led to the transit tubes that takes her from E-deck up to the Command Deck, B-deck. She enters the stepship bridge and is somewhat awed by it, though it is somewhat similar to that of most interplanetary vessels she's been on. She gets access to the pilot's station, but is informed that the neural interface will not be available to her due to its more sophisticated technology level. She activates the boards, but has to manually input requests.
Henry Shaginn, the senior medical tech, and one of the others, works with Henri Calaxco to figure out the problem with the failing cryovaults. After seeing the readouts and examining the circuits in the medical bay cryovault chamber where he and Jana Riffin were vitrified, he determines that the failure is in the cryovaults in the Cargo Bays down on F-deck. The fact that the stepship is carrying six times more than its normal carrying capacity may have something to do with the failures, though he can't be sure, unless the system is unable to draw enough power from the ship's systems. He, Henry, and the other tech, Thomas, head down for the cargo bay, having to suit up in standard vacc suits, since the cargo bays are currently being kept in vacuum. He asks Henry why the ship's own techs were not awoken for the task, and is told that this is a simple mechanical and/or electrical failure of some sort; the ship techs who are going on to the colony world are too valuable to awaken at this time.
Bringing up the visual holo display, Jana Riffin sees the Tambour is decelerating into the Alpha Mensae system. She sees from the displays that she has access to that the ship has slowed too much, and that on its present course, will miss the target destination, Gardenhome, and its station. She notices that the fuel consumption readings are off, and sees that as the ship arrived in system, they had to avoid an object, seemingly an asteroid, in their path. Correcting the ship's course and re-plotting their path, she sees that they will arrive at Gardenhome in 16 days, 23 hours, 13 minutes, and 42 seconds. Liliandra interrupts her musings saying this is unacceptable; the Tambour must reach Gardenhome in 14 days, 16 hours, and the ship has a timetable that must be kept to.
Entering the airless cargo bay, Henri has a couple of mishaps before getting his bearings, and he, Henry, and Thomas assess the damage to the systems. The cryovault failures are due to a simple malfunction of the ship's systems, with the energy being routed through a convoluted and complex set of pathways. Henry tells him this merely requires an adjustment or three at a specific junction tube area. Henri goes to deal with the problem, having some climbing and jumping problems in the near weightless vacuum conditions, and Henry asks him why he's not having the mech robot do the task. With the assistance of Albert, the ship's AI, the mech robot is programmed to make the repairs, while the three humans go back to the cargo bay bank of controls, and watch as the red indicators turn back to green as the robot completes its work.
After several hours of gruelling work calculating various sets of data that connect the whole, Jana is able to plot the course within the timetable required by the Stepdaughter of the Tambour. She initiates the course, and the Tambour heads in system, for Gardenhome station.
March 15th: Some fourteen days later, both Jana and Henri have adjusted to life on the slowing regaining life Tambour, as the crew is awakened. The Captain of the ship, Garrett Letrand, thanks both of them for their service. Summoned to the bridge to bring the ship into dock at the station, Letrand's communications officer, Angie Veloros, delivers two messages to Jana. The first is to her from Edward Harper-Yung of the Sarpeidon Transport Collective (STC), congratulating her on a safe trip from Alpha Centauri, welcoming her to Gardenhome, and informing her that she's to report to the offices of STC on Gardenhome Station at 0900 on 03.17.2071. The second message is from Captain Voracek of the STC vessel Tamara Lee. The first part of it welcomes Jana to the system, and is delighted to inform her that her application has been accepted and that she's been hired to serve aboard the Tamara Lee. The second part of the message is to be relayed to one Henri Calaxco.
Returning to E-deck, Jana and an unobtrusive man in his mid 30's, with green eyes, and blond hair cut short talk, whom she recognises as having coming out of cryosleep three days previous, and he introduces himself as Dr. Marshall Tenifort, a doctor specialising in xenology, cryogenics - and who turns out to be the ship's doctor for the Tamara Lee. After they chat for a while, she talks to another cryosleep waker, Jacob Haas, who tells her he is one of the pilots of the Tambour whom she had to replace, well was one of the pilots. He's decided not to continue on with the Tambour to the new colony world, instead hitching a ride with the Tamara Lee to the Folly Belt and work for a while as a belt miner. It turns out that his "date", Kristin Hopkins, is the XO of the Tamara Lee. Jana notes that she plays the female ditz at times...
Catching sight of Henri Calaxco, Jana goes over to him and delivers the message for him from her compad onto his PDA. The message, from Captain Vorachek of the STC Tamara Lee, informs him that he has been assigned as a Technician, 2nd Class, aboard the Tamara Lee and is to report to the ship at his earliest convenience. He learns that the ship departure from Gardenhome Station will be on 03.18.2701 at 1422 hours GMT. Jana then steers him over to meet Jacob Haas, and then tells Henri that he's one of the folks whose cryovaults was failing that he fixed. Jacob says that he owes him his life, and that he'll find a way to repay him, somehow, sometime.
With the Tambour fully docked at Gardenhome Station, the two player characters and the rest of the debarking passengers and some of the crew head onto the docks of the station.
Thus came to an end this single session scenario of the River of Heaven RPG. Both Tammy and
spross had a relatively good time of it, and enjoyed the afternoon game, and liked the basic game system and the set-up that I gave them, though Tammy had thought there was going to be more of a mystery component to it, as I had hinted at this somewhat during the conversation I'd had with her earlier in that week. I thought the game session went relatively well, though I wasn't fully healthy when I ran this, and while the story and plot may not have held together too well, I accomplished what I set out to do in this adventure - provide the players and their characters an introduction to the game universe of River of Heaven, keep it simple, and hopefully bring out some of the character personality. I like to think I accomplished all of that.In any event, I'm looking forward to the next session of the game. :)