Art and Politics

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

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

2. Lisa Padol -- Marius Lecks, empathic doctor

Marius and Jealousy were on a planet that was the Federation capital for the next decade. Jealousy's mother, a Federation administrator, was there, as was the rest of her family.

Marius was contacted by his paternal uncle, who asked him to help out Joram, a friend who had been robbed. This was the latest in a rash of art thefts where the artwork was held for ransom. The thieves threatened to destroy the art if they did not receive payment within 3 days.

Jealousy laid a few traps involving surveillance and nanotechnology, using logical targets as bait. A couple of thieves were caught, and at least one wound up dead. Jealousy's ship computer, a developing AI, noticed this.

AI: Mom, the one in the aircar's not breathing. Shouldn't he be breathing?

Surprised at how the computer was addressing her, Jealousy nevertheless agreed that he should be breathing. She alerted Marius, and he was able to keep the next prisoner alive, despite the thief's having two implanted suicide devices. I think one was a cyanide tooth or equivalent, and the other something more complicated.

The thieves were being used. They'd been criminals who had fallen into an unknown party's hands and been conditioned. They were also, IIRC, being blackmailed, possibly with threats to their families. It was unclear who was behind everything, but evidence pointed to militants who wanted the Federation to become more extreme in certain military ways, and there were hints of non-Federation aliens behind this group, using it without its knowledge.

The thieves had indeed been serious about their threat to destroy unransomed art. However, most of Joram's collection was retrieved, along with both a fair amount of art from other victims and more conditioned thieves.

However, Jealousy and Marius were attacked while eating in a crowded cafe. Although the attackers used stunners, Marius was furious that civilians were involved. This gave him a bonus die to empathy, though I forget how he used it. Marius, Jealousy, and the cafe staff stunned the attackers, and the staff stunned Marius and Jealousy on general principles, letting the authorities sort it all out.

The authorities did this, arresting the attackers and releasing Marius and Jealousy. Jealousy was contacted by Federation authorities, specifically, her mother, and asked to help with further investigation. Specifically, she was asked to grab Marius and vanish, playing bait, but not obvious bait, while others either investigated or kept an eye on Marius and Jealousy, in case they needed help.

Jealousy agreed and set up a kidnapping. She met Marius at a restaurant, trying to get him to shake hands with her so that she could slap a bone conductor on his hand and explain what she was trying to do, subvocally.

However, Marius became suspicious when Jealousy walked up to him and tried to get him to shake hands. It was out of character for her, and he tried to evade the attempt. She managed to get the conductor on and sub-vocally asked if she might get his permission to kidnap him. Marius tried to send a wave of amused chagrin to Jealousy, but alas, he was unable to penetrate her mental defenses. He was worried because he wanted to cooperate, but the logical thing to do to make it look good was to pull his blaster and stun Jealousy.

Jealousy (sub vocal, guessing his train of thought): Go for the blaster. I'll stop you.

He did, and she did. Marius woke on board the Monarch, and Jealousy explained their mission. Marius asked why she'd made an approach guaranteed to arouse his suspicions.

Jealousy: I was trying to keep things quiet.

Marius: But it wasn't quiet! I'm sorry about that --

Jealousy: No, it was fine. You were perfect.

Slightly confused at Jealousy's apparent mixed goals, Marius asked where they should go. They decided to explore rumors of great treasure to be found on a distant planet.