A Planet Named Lauren

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

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

2. Lisa Padol -- Marius Lecks, empathic doctor

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

Jim, Marius, and Jealousy were all on the same space station, for different reasons. Jim was working freelance for the station. Marius had probably just stopped to refuel. Jealousy may have been investigating something, but if so, I forget what.

All three pooled information about various oddities they'd noticed, including the numerous medium class ships docked at the station. They came to the conclusion that the station was allied with pirates. Jim was fired for breaching his contract by telling the others what he'd learned in the course of his job. Jealousy, though glad to take advantage of Jim's breach, tartly asked him what he'd expected, and the two broke up, again.

It turned out that most of the pirate ships operated in or near a particular system. A discreet visit was made, and Jim, Jealousy, and Marius discovered that that there was a civil war on a non-federation planet in the system, named Lauren. The local aristocracy had rules that amounted to debt slavery for most of the non-aristocracy. There were over a dozen different rebel factions of varying positions on the continuum from moderate to extreme. The pirates were rebels. The corporation that owned the station which sheltered the pirates had several major shareholders who were rebels that had somehow managed to buy themselves out of debt and emigrate.

Marius was outraged by the government, if unsure what to do on a large scale. On a small scale, he filled his ship with people who wanted to emigrate, probably kids young enough to have little or no debt, although he wasn't sure how one could ensure they not return as rebel extremists. Marius also called his brother, news reporter Curtis, to suggest Curtis come to Lauren to write an expose. Curtis was pleased to oblige.

Jealousy returned to the station and spoke to the chief administrator. She suggested that the corporation that owned the station buy Lauren from the aristocracy. He was intrigued by this idea.

This is where the full group adventure ended. Beth decided that, if nothing disturbed negotiations, the aristocracy would sell to the corporation. While some of the sellers might know who the buyers were, the fiction that they did not would have to be maintained.

Meanwhile, Curtis Lecks visited Lauren, and Beth did 1-on-1 roleplaying with me. After Curtis had been on Lauren for some time, Marius returned there, and they did some catching up. This is always awkward for the two brothers.

Marius is an empath. Curtis is a receptive telepath. Neither knows of the other's ability. An outsider watching them interact would see two reserved men getting yet more reserved the more they interact. In reality, it was as if each brother heard the other screaming, unaware of how loud he was.

Marius and Curtis usually did their best to minimize eavesdropping. So, Marius did not know that Curtis had fallen in love with one of the saner rebel leaders. He knew from Curtis' words and emotions that there was someone on Lauren that Curtis wished he could convince to leave, and that this person felt far too great a responsibility to the planet to leave. He also knew that someone had bailed Curtis out of a tight spot. Curtis had been attacked by a mob of children who saw that his blaster did not have a kill setting.

Marius warned Curtis against losing one's heart to a planet torn by civil war, having done just that himself. He explained that his CO decided to get the helpful offworlder off the planet, and when Marius refused to go, stunned him with a blaster and put him on a ship heading out of the system. Marius was a good pilot, but not good enough to return through the blockade.

Curtis pointed out that if Marius had gotten captured, someone might have tried to collect a ransom from his family. This would have been a bad idea: Ivic tends to respond to such demands by offering at least as much for the kidnappers' heads, or by sending its own forces to do likewise. Even families who generally feuded with the Leckses would help explain this Ivic custom.

Curtis also noted that one frightening thing about Lauren's civil war was that, horrible as it was, it was fought with a semblance of civility. For example, the government was not pursuing the total destruction of areas with high rebel concentrations. If civil war ever broke out on Ivic, Curtis said, it would be short, but quite brutal, with little sense of what could not be done.

Marius: I won't come back for it! I don't care what my contract says; they can fight it without me!

Curtis: And when the mob kills Quintus and comes for Serena?

As Quintus is their teenage brother and Serena their even younger sister, Marius found himself with no response to this. He hopes the question remains purely hypothetical.