Previous episode: Exchange

In hyperspace, on the way to the House of Defiance base at Gefe, the mysterious passenger woke up, asking where she was and where the ship was going. Unity immediately called the Captain and Kelda - who was suspiciouly covering the newcomer with her rifle. In a flash the mysterious woman leapt up from the cot and a strange energy blade appeared in her hand. She grabbed Kelda and put the blade to her throat before anyone could react.

A moment of tense negotiation followed, but she was persuaded to back down and tell the crew who she was. The energy blade disappeared into the nowhere that it had come from. Her name was Karla Krace, and she wouldn't go much into her background, except to say that she had been raised on a farming planet before she had left it to study with her "mentor", about whom she would say nothing. She and her "team" had been on Aerris to rescue a trio of Guild negotiators who had been on the planet to broker a peace deal between the Realists and the Operationalists. The Realists had taken them hostage to use as a bargaining point. But while they were on the planet, the mysterious device was delivered to the camp. The team siezed the hostages and the device and left the planet, but they were foolish enough to set off the device shortly thereafter. The device was a weapon - designed to subdue an entire planet all at once, although the effects were nonlethal.

Relena and Noumalia tried to get more information out of her about the strange device - it certainly wasn't any kind of machine that Noumalia was familiar with. Karla said that it was made mostly out of diamond. Noumalia asked Karla if she could read her mind for further information about the device, to which Karla agreed, warning Noumalia that it may be more than she could handle. She was right. Noumalia fainted, but she was able to get an impression of a vast and ancient alien power, like a swollen balloon with a pinhole to let out whatever it contained. The pinhole was Karla Krace, a tiny conduit for the power to pass into the universe. Karla called the power "Sorce", and demonstrated a few of her abilities - providing light and opening doors without touching them. She also demonstrated a slightly different kind of power - an emanation of absolute mindless terror that she could induce in other people. All except Kelda were affected.

Karla also said that it would be exceedingly dangerous to make planetfall on Gefe, as the Imperials would be following the Shark in hyperspace and would stop at nothing destroy it, even if it meant being destroyed themselves by the House of Defiance when they arrived. She presented the Captain with a bold plan. She would calculate a manoeuvre where upon leaving hyperspace they would dump all their velocity very quickly, which would give them the ability to change vector to Spicer VII in the Demilitarised Zone and jump immediately out of the system. When pressed, she admitted that the manoeuvre was quite risky and almost certainly illegal - their excess velocity would be transferred to any debris in the area when they arrived, which would be accellerated directly at the spaceport. However, she was confident that the Imperials following the Shark would be blamed for the attack.

On arrival at Gefe, this manoeuvre was executed flawlessly and the Shark was on its way to Spicer VII.

Spicer VII is heavily industrialised commerce planet, and Karla wanted to go there to meet her mentor. But she also didn't want to meet her mentor at all - she appeared quite frightened by the idea of it. Regardless, Relena got the Shark a berth at the spaceport and gave Karla two days to conclude her business - ostensibly to get rid of the strange weapon. The crew got two days of shore leave as well.

Lance went shopping for cyberware, and bought a quick-attach flamer to extend his offensive capability. Relena and Noumalia purchased a cargo, and then went to the docks to investigate upgrades to the offensive and defensive capabilities of the Shark. Kelda went to a bar.

Unity, however, went on a spiritual search of the churches and temples in the area around the spaceport. After offending one congregation and being forcibly ejected, he was approached by a man in an immaculately tailored suit, who caught his eye and put a briefcase in front of him before leaving without a word. The briefcase had a note attached to it - "you know what to do". Unity of course had no idea, and the briefcase appeared to be empty. But he picked it up, intending to give it away to a charity, but there appeared to be no convenient charities about. The problem was solved, however, when a woman with asian eyes took the briefcase equally silently.

He returned to meet Kelda. While in the bar he noticed the woman with asian eyes in deep conversation with another man in an immaculately tailored suit. They were interrupted by Karla Krace, who insisted that they had to leave immediately out the back door, because "they're here". At that moment two thugs entered the bar and made for the trio. Kelda alerted the Captain and Lance (who by this time had returned to the Shark. Lance started prepping the ship for immediate departure.

Karla led them down the alleyway, and the two thugs followed them down a dead end. Suddenly they looked very frightened and ran away very fast. Turning, Unity and Kelda saw a tall figure in a hooded black robe behind them. No features were visible inside the hood save a pair of glowing red points in the place of eyes. Kelda started to drag Unity away, but there were another two of the figures blocking the entrance to the cul-de-sac. Karla locked eyes with the figure behind them and eventually she announced that they could leave, which they immediately did.

Lance had set a course to emerge from hyperspace in an uninhabited region of deep space, from which they could plan their next destination - Karla suggested the planet Velke, which was nearby in the Guild. Relena questioned Karla hard about the mysterious figures, which Karla referred to as "Warlocks". But she was stunned when Karla also told her that she was a Warlock too. Kelda checked the cargo hold for the mysterious weapon, but it was gone.

What will happen when the Shark reaches Velke? Have they escaped the mysterious Warlocks? Stay tuned!

Bluebooking: Kelda and Karla

Next Episode: The Hockey Match

Quote of the session:

Chris (Lance): I'm working on a bag that I can put my spare arms in.
Peter (Unity): An arm-oury?