The Living Ship

HUB: The Living Ship

Hub is Elizabeth Bartley's campaign set in the universe of James Schmidt's Hub stories. Players for that session included:

1. Erik Hanson -- Patch Brierson, aka Briar Patch

2. Joshua Kronengold -- Jealousy Jones, psi resistant detective

3. Lisa Padol -- Marius Lecks, empathic doctor

4. Matthew Stevens -- Jim DeGris, suave retired catburglar with telekinesis

All of the PCs were taking a cruise on a ship at sea. The ship was bioengineered, basically alive. Marius was there because there was a medical conference on the planet, and all the attendees had been offered a free cruise. Patch had won his ticket in a gambling game or a lottery. Jealousy was on planet taking pictures, and she decided to buy a cruise ticket. Jim was with his Most Important Person, aka his Girl of the Week, aka Gotwe. I forget her actual name. He'd either bought or won their tickets.

I think Jim, Gotwe, Patch, and Jealousy were eating together at one table in the ship's dining area, while Marius was eating in the same area, but at a different table. His dining companion was Dr. Zy Blan, a woman with whom Lecks found himself becoming infatuated, but to whom he'd never spoken of his feelings.

Patch's sixth sense went off, and he decided it was time to breath into a handkerchief or to get nose plugs. Seeing this, and knowing of his abilities, Jealousy quickly followed suit. Marius, seeing this, got his own nose plugs, after asking Zy if she had a pair for herself. I think Jim and his girlfriend did something similar, at Patch and Jealousy's urgings.

Seconds later, hijackers announced their presence on the intercom, warning that any interference would result in their tinkering with the living ship to make it produce poisonous gas. The hijackers wanted to take the ship somewhere under their control and ransom it and the passengers for huge sums of money. They figured that this would not be too difficult, as most of the passengers were just doctors.

Unfortunately for the hijackers, top level doctors at this Hub universe medical conference were quite competent and tended to view hijackers as an infection that needs to be cured, ruthlessly. (1) And, while the hijackers had released sleep gas in the dining area, the PCs' actions ensured that most of the doctors were alerted, and a fair number of them had nose filters or the equivalent. Those who didn't were given medical aid by their colleagues.

Marius warned Zy to move apart from him when the hijackers entered the room, as he tended to draw the attention of people like hijackers. (2) She did, but it was a moot point.

Patch dove from his seat at a table under a balcony to under a table. Several others followed his example, correctly assuming that he knew what he was doing. A number of armored hijackers appeared on a balcony, and they quickly learned just how capable their potential hostages were. Several of the doctors shot the balcony's supports, causing it to collapse onto the area where Patch and the others had been sitting. Other doctors and some of the PCs shot at the hijackers, stunning some, despite the armor. Zy, Marius, and other doctors threw a variety of unpleasant things at the remainder.

Soon, most of the hijackers were unconscious. Marius used his empathy to locate someone who was faking unconsciousness, and perhaps someone who was posing as one of the crew, but was really a hijacker. Shortly thereafter, all of the hijackers in the room were unconscious.

Jim sent his Gotwe to wait in their cabin, and he and Jealousy worked their way to the control room. Patch, Zy, and Marius took a more frontal approach to distract the hijackers from Jim and Jealousy's stealthy approach. Zy and Marius tossed some nasty itching powder grenades that Zy had developed. Marius also used his empathy to get the hijackers in the control room focused on and furious at him, determined to shoot at him to the exclusion of all else. Patch took advantage of this, staying behind available cover, including Marius, and picking off hijackers where he could.

Eventually, Marius was grazed with a stunner, but he had successfully prevented the hijackers from noticing Jim and Jealousy. The two of them quickly captured the remaining hijackers, and determined that the threat to kill the ship's passengers and crew had not been a bluff. Fortunately, the hijackers had not had time to carry out their threat.

Zy gave Marius a stimulant to revive him, privately wondering about his reckless tendencies. The hijackers were questioned by a couple of doctors whose researches were adaptable for quick interrogation techniques. This primarily involved using drugs to make the prisoners talk, although other effective, but unpleasant, methods were used as well. While I doubt outright torture per se was used, Beth noted that the doctors-cum-interrogators were competent, but not very nice.

The hijackers revealed that they had an accomplice among the passengers, and we decided that this should be Jim's Gotwe. Marius went to her cabin, ostensibly to tell her all was well. She didn't open the door, but Marius' empathy could still pick up enough to know that she was indeed working with the hijackers. He told Jim.

Jim confronted his Gotwe, who denied everything. Jim was unconvinced, and handed her over to the authorities with the hijackers. Beth noted that Gotwe would probably get a relatively light sentence, and that she'd likely hold a grudge against Jim, whom she considered obligated, as her escort, to believe her story of innocence in the absence of real evidence to the contrary. She was unaware of Marius' empathic abilities.

By now, Jim, Patch, and Jealousy had figured out that Marius was attracted to Zy, and urged him to do something about it. Patch and Jim suggested that he ask Zy if she wanted to get naked. Marius decided to pass on this option and suffer in silence.

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(1) Beth commented:

Note that most doctors in the Hub universe are like most doctors today -- oh, maybe a little more likely to be able to handle a gun, since stunners are fairly easy to obtain in the Hub and it can be a violent place. But basically most doctors are highly-skilled professionals in a nonviolent trade.

Doctors at this -particular- medical conference, however, were doctors towards the top of their fields in a world where things are often violent when the stakes go up and the police highly approve of self-defense. They -all- had stunners, at least in their luggage, and they -all- knew basic marksmanship. Many of them had stunners or blasters on them and knew rather better than basic marksmanship. Some were as capable in a skirmish as the PCs, and Zy Blan and Marius Lecks weren't the only doctors present carrying a bag of dirty tricks in case of emergency. (And indeed, since there were doctors working for rival corporations present, there was a slim-but-existent chance that the doctors would have provided their own emergency if the hijackers hadn't provided one first.)

(2) I did a brief riff off a possible episode from Marius' past.

Terrorist Type (to Marius): Right, you. Drop the bag, and lie down on the floor.

Person on Marius' Side: He's our doctor!

Terrorist Type: I don't care! (to Marius) Lie down one the floor!

Beth agreed that Marius probably did attract that kind of attention.