Three Planets

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

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

2. Lisa Padol -- Marius Lecks, empathic doctor

Jealousy and Marius had been asked to disappear for a time so that aliens hostile to the Federation would look for them. Jealousy staged a "kidnapping" of Marius, and the two took off on Jealousy's ship, Monarch, which was also an AI.

After a trip outside Federation space, they re-visited a water world where they had once taken a cruise on a living ship when it had been hijacked. They had a much quieter time, but left quickly on hearing that someone from Jealousy's detective agency had landed. This person was looking for Jealousy. He always found his quarry, but he always had a long list of people to look for. It seemed quite likely that Jealousy's name might be taken off his list before it became a priority to track down her in particular.

Marius and Jealousy next re-visited the planet Lauren, where both fell victim to a friendly ambush.

Lauren had been in the throes of a civil war, with many rebel factions fighting the aristocratic government and each other. The fighting was beginning to die down as a corporation secretly backed by one of the rebel factions began negotiations to purchase the planet from the government. Marius' brother, Curtis, was working as a journalist on Lauren, attaching himself to a group of rebels led by a woman named Katrina.

Curtis had figured out that Marius and Jealousy were on Lauren. Unsure of the story behind his brother's kidnapping, he asked Katrina to help, and she agreed, taking down the formidable Jealousy Jones. Marius tried to take Katrina down, but Curtis shot him from behind. Marius' empathy picked up both the shooter's presence and an odd feeling of chagrin, as he blacked out.

When he woke up, Curtis explained what had happened, and Marius, partly from pique and partly from suspicion, decided to neutralize Curtis. He did this by offering to show his brother, a receptive telepath, his mental impressions of briefly melding with the group mind of Shalaran. As he'd expected, Curtis was accepted the offer and was quickly overwhelmed by the sensations.

Leaving Curtis unconscious in the room, Marius explored his surroundings. He found Jealousy enjoying a sparring match with Katrina. She confirmed that the situation was as it seemed. Highly embarrassed, Marius explained that he'd, ah, given Curtis something to knock him out and hastened to reverse the process. Under the watchful eyes of Katrina's people, he gave Curtis something harmless while mentally guiding Curtis back to normal consciousness.

Curtis privately told Marius not to do that to a telepath he didn't want to break. This surprised Marius. Marius knew he'd been childish, rather than strictly practical, in attacking Curtis, but he'd taken for granted that his older brother could handle anything he could. After all, Marius himself had managed to resist being pulled into the planetary group mind of Shalaran. Curtis reminded him that, in some ways, telepaths were more vulnerable to mental attacks than empaths, and explained that getting the Shalaran experience second hand meant that one was reaching for a transcendence that wasn't actually there.

Marius explained to Katrina and Jealousy that, while he could operate as a soldier and take orders, he should not be mistaken for a competent commander. Curtis noted that Jealousy and Marius should probably not continue to re-visit former haunts if they actually wanted to be difficult to find. Jealousy noted that she and Marius had standing orders to kidnap any journalists who found them. She asked if Curtis would be willing to consider himself kidnapped and catch up with them later. Curtis and Marius were highly amused, as this was the equivalent of giving parole in their home planet's equivalent of a friendly war / mass duel. Curtis agreed in exchange for Marius' promise of an exclusive interview, once Marius was cleared to give such a thing.

Curtis left Lauren a few weeks after Marius, Jealousy, and Monarch departed. He tried to catch up with them, but as he had to book passage on other ships, and circumstances forced the Monarch to keep moving, this didn't happen until the matter in question was resolved and Marius had returned to their home planet. Curtis was annoyed; after all, if Marius had wanted to meet him at home, he had but to say so. Still, Curtis had adventures of his own, some of which he found quite satisfying.

As Jealousy and Marius headed for somewhere new, Jealousy's ship, Monarch, who was also an AI, informed Jealousy that she'd picked up a plague alert.

Monarch: Should I tell Dr. Lecks? He'll want to commandeer the ship if I do.

Jealousy decided to tell Marius the news herself.

Jealousy: You know how it's been boring lately?

Marius (with alacrity): Ms. Jones, I assure you that I am not in the slightest bit bored!

Jealousy: You're going to commandeer my ship.

Marius (amused): You kidnap me, I get to commandeer your ship? Is that how it works?

Jealousy (abandoning subtlety): We're picking up a plague alert.

Marius (abandoning humor): I'm commandeering your ship.

The plague alert came from a mostly abandoned planet. The only people on it were a group of rich students who decided to camp out there, even though they weren't supposed to. Hey, a forbidden world with rumors of hidden treasure in the form of regalia belonging to their planet -- how could they resist? One of the students had sent out the plague alert. He had also disabled their ships, to everyone else's annoyance. Marius approved, though his stern lecture to the students left them unimpressed.

The plague was easily cured. It was an old plague, created by a corporation a couple of centuries earlier. It had been released when the students stumbled across a long abandoned trap, and there were other traps, more mechanical, but no less lethal. Marius cured the students while Jealousy disarmed a few of the traps and located the long lost regalia.

Marius also discovered that a couple of the students had been tampered with psychically. One tried to commit suicide, unsuccessfully. IIRC, Marius took Monarch to the system the students had come from, and he sent a message to Psychology. He then returned to the hotel where he'd been staying. A journalist awaited him there.

Marius had standing orders to kidnap any journalists who discovered him and / or Jealousy. He poured the reporter a (drugged) drink and explained that he'd already promised an exclusive to another reporter. She said she understood, and turned to go, leaving the drink untouched. Marius shot her in the back, stunning her. He brought her back to the Monarch, removed the devices she'd had implanted so that her paper could monitor her location, and sent her back to her paper, unconscious, on a ship, with an apologetic note.

Meanwhile, Jealousy dealt with a group of unscrupulous mercenaries known as Randall's Rangers. The Rangers had been hired to make sure that the students wound up dead. Jealousy captured or otherwise dealt with their forces on the ground, then proved more effective than the Rangers had expected, using Monarch's lifeboat against their ship until Marius and Monarch arrived to back her up. The Rangers agreed to withdraw and either pay a large sum of money, or, if their employer did not supply this, to reveal their employer's identity. In the meantime, Jealousy kept one of their sergeants as a hostage.

Wisely, the Rangers' employer supplied the money. They also made it clear that they had great respect for Jealousy and would gladly take her money and work for her.

Marius and Jealousy brought the students and the lost regalia home. Psychology stepped in at this point, and neither PCs nor players yet know what was going on.