Session 16 Summary
Back on the Dire Straits, Chris takes the Baneseye agent Teneral to the medbay and restrains him there. He creates a batch of pheromones that he knows will keep Teneral docile, and they talk for a bit.
Steve Irwin files a flight plan to undock from Alreekt, taking a retrograde stellar orbit to Carkargar. The space traffic control of Alreekt Station recognises Steve Irwin and the Dire Straits. Delano Mack undocks and starts on the flight plan and maneuvers the Dire Straits so it stays outside of Alreekt’s sensor range, and so they could return there in about an hour.
Teneral's story is pieced together in the conversation. Teneral was sent out, like Chris was, but over 10 years ago, to find the Invicta princess. He hasn't seen another Invicta since. He was captured by the Bane's Eye Space Navy and passed onto some scientists... after that things are fuzzy, and he only remembers following order from his new master, stalking and fighting like a drone soldier would. His master did not use pheromones to control him.
Jithal examines the implants in Teneral to which the camera had been connected. He determined that the implants included a series of small explosive devices spaced along his spinal cord. There was a series of connections that led deep into Teneral's brain, probably the source of how the Baneseyes controlled him without pheromones.
Chris asked Teneral where he got the camera. Teneral responded that his master < So'enela name> gave it to him, and that he wanted to return to his master.
Jithal had noticed the implants spread throughout Teneral's skull and along his spine, and attached to the camera that they had removed. Given the opportunity to examine the implants more closely, he saw that they were a series of small bombs that would kill him if triggered... and possibly others around him. There were also connections into specific parts of his brain: the bombs and the connections into his brain all led to a small device near the base of his skull, that Jithal called "the control node". Jithal and Chris discuss and decide the best way to deal with it was to operate on the device and try to disconnect the small device from the connections. After a difficult surgery this was accomplished.
The rest of the crew question Teneral some more after he regains consciousness. Teneral is confused, like a new-born Invicta, who is usually taught and managed via the use of pheromones.
During the conversation Jithal notices a sensor glitch, similar to the glitch he saw when Jim Dade, Steve Irwin, and Dohpaz Vito went to meet Dohpaz’s business contact at Cuthbert Station. He lets the rest of the crew know. Chris jumps into Chrysalis and the rest of the crew take their stations.
If the glitch was caused by a stealthed ship like the one they fought at Cuthbert Station, they would best avoid another fight by moving into the more trafficked space near Alreekt.
This gambit does not pay off, as the stealthed ship powers up their weapons. This is the same class and design as the ship they defeated around Cuthbert. The Chrysalis launches aggressively, and weapons fire is exchanged. The hostile ship is disabled, its engineering section opened to the vacuum of space, one of the small unknown aliens is ejected from the engine compartment. Using knowledge of the ship they had explored after their battle at Cuthbert, Jithal lets Chris know which area holds the stealth gear. Chris uses Chrysalis’s short range lasers to cut out that compartment and pulls it free.
Jithal asked the hostile ship to surrender, they did not, and their reactor exploded, leaving only fragments of the ship behind.
The Dire Straits crew pulls the stolen equipment into the Dire Straits cargo hold, and rescues the alien survivor from the long fall into the star of Bane’s Eye.
While the alien survivor was unconscious, they managed to remove the collar he was wearing that appeared to be wired into his nervous system; every alien they have seen from this culture has worn a collar similar to this one.