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Please read the following story, and tell me what you think happens next.
Panther
Ruissel is a non-aligned world on the edge of Rigellian space. It had maintained its independence since settlement, but, over the last twenty years, the growth of piratic activity in the sector had taken its toll, and Ruissel had appealed to Rigel for help. After deliberation and some negotiation, Rigel despatched a light cruiser, supported by a tax levy from the local inhabitants. The pirate threat receded, and the light cruiser was assigned elsewhere. The taxation continued.
In 2781, Markus Aspic had a chance meeting in an off world bar that promised to change the fortunes of Ruissel for ever. Six months later, two weeks before tax time, a stranger made planetfall at Ruissel's rudimentary space port. The stranger booked himself into the only hotel, which doubled as a goods warehouse when free-traders visited the planet. His business card, beamed from his ship to the port authorities (the port authorities were an elderly former space pilot and two sleek but lazy cats) during descent, said that the stranger was a tax-consultant, and that he went by the name of Smitt.
Mr Smitt did not stay at the hotel long. He soon took up residence with the mayor of Ruissel, who explained that for the sake of Ruisselian hospitality, the visitor could scarcely remain in a guest house more than three days.
A week later, one week before the annual visit of the tax freighter, the Mayor held a public meeting. Ruissel is not a particularly modern world. There are no holo-decks, no VR terminals, and no mind-conferencing facilities. But there is an effective makeshift system for meetings. Across the planet, communities gathered around video screens and comms units. A couple of local traders, for a notional fee, put into space to act as the satellites which Ruissel no longer had -- they had been among the first victims of piratic attacks.
The mayor was the first to speak. He explained how Markus Aspic had met Mr Smitt, and explained Mr Smitt's credentials, and explained that Mr Smitt had found a way for them to cease to pay taxes. Then Markus Aspic spoke. He confirmed the mayor's account of affairs. He thanked all those assembled for courteously giving their time. He thanked Mr Smitt for making the extensive journey. And he explained that, in return for some small services that he, Markus Aspic had rendered, Mr Smitt was giving his valuable time and yet more valuable advice on a strictly charitable basis.
Then Mr Smitt spoke. The citizens of Ruissel had had little experience of tax consultants before, but if they had, they might have been surprised by Mr Smitt's manner. Perhaps they were surprised anyway. Smitt did not mince his words. He described the Rigellian taxation as an offence against humanity. He referred to the Rigellians more than once as 'the oppressor'. He referred to the assembled company frequently as 'comrades'. He once went so far as to call them his 'brothers in arms'.
The citizens of Ruissel might equally have been surprised by the content of Mr Smitt's proposals. Mr Smitt did not raise the issue of deductibles, or of transferable assets, or indeed of legal redress. Smitt's solution was simple and dramatic. Ruissel must simply refuse to pay the taxes. Rigel had no right to levy them, and the non-aligned worlds, the independents, the Democratic league and the Magellan Confederacy would exert pressure on Rigel if it pushed forwards its demands in the face of a gesture of opposition.
Smitt may have had an unconventional approach to tax law. But it was clear that he was well equipped for the task of rabble rouser. He spoke quickly, and for only a few minutes. Then the mayor welcomed comments from the floor. At first the questions were few and cautious. But, with each response from Smitt, the assembly grew more agitated. After an hour the mayor was having difficulty keeping control of the meeting. After two hours somebody proposed a vote. At first the mayor gave the impression of trying to restrain the meeting. He suggested that there had not been time for everyone to express their views. He recommended caution, and proposed an adjournment for people to consider their positions. The calls for a vote grew more strident. The mayor reluctantly acquiesced. A vote was held. There were two abstentions - the Mayor, as chair, and Mr Smitt, as an outsider. There were no votes against. Ruissel's adult population (and some non-adult) voted unanimously that they should communicate immediately with Rigel to indicate that no taxes would be forthcoming. The mayor asked, somewhat whimsically, if anybody wished to request a recount. There was no call for a recount.
Mr Smitt made a further speech, followed by various community leaders from across the planet. At midnight the meeting broke up.
It was early the next morning that Smitt, unshaven and in his shirt sleeves, sat with Markus Aspic and Mayor Short in the warm summer breeze, eating breakfast on the veranda,
"So, my friend," the mayor was saying, "you have the result you were looking for. But you know as well as I do that the Rigellians will not back down. Like as not they will send troops with their tax collector."
"I'm counting on it" Said Smitt, who was more often known as Belan Mordillo. "In the last seventeen incidents of this kind the Rigellians have despatched a gunboat to demand their tribute. In each case except one the citizens paid their taxes forthwith. On the single other occasion the taxes were not forthcoming, and the Rigellians bombarded the planet until it surrendered."
"This is scarcely encouraging." Remarked the mayor, and tore off another hunk of bread to dip into his coffee.
"This is where I come in." Said Markus Aspic. "You remember that your original instructions to me were to make contact with the Fortuna pirates and see if there were a way to negotiate a stand off with the Rigellians, which would leave us free."
"And you succeeded?"
"I failed. I was unable to locate anybody who could speak for Fortuna, or was willing to identify someone who could. That was until I met Belan Mordillo. With him, they were willing to speak."
"And?"
Mordillo leaned back from the table, and put his fingers together in a pyramid, as if thinking. Then he said: "Fortuna is willing to produce a stand off with Rigel on one condition. That we give to them a Rigellian signature chip from a current vessel. I told them that once they had helped us, we would obtain their chip. They told me that they would not put a ship into space until the chip was delivered. I told them that we would have it within two months. That was three weeks ago."
"And do you have it?"
"Of course not. But we will get it. The Rigellians will send a gunboat, and we, as good, cowed citizens, will fly up to it a leaky tug to negotiate our surrender. A gunboat carries a crew of 24 when up to full strength, but ours will be lucky if it has fifteen. We will arrange for a contingent to be visiting the planet when we make our negotiations, which should leave no more than a half a dozen on board. The leaky condition of our tug-boat will mean that we have to make the trip in space suits. A gas charge in the air-ducts will fill the gunboat with somnin for about five or six minutes before the life-support detects it and clears it. Long enough for the crew to succumb while we conveniently breathe from our suit tanks. "Over the last five years a growing number of Rigellian crews with their ships have deserted. Most have gone over to the Magellans as defectors, but one or two have gone over to pirate companies, which is why the Rigellians changed their signature chips a few months ago. We will simply pilot the gunboat to Fortuna, hand over the chip, and return with the fleet to stand off whatever the Rigellians try to do."
"And you really think this will work? Has it ever been done before?"
"It has never been done before. That is why it will work."
"I just hope you're right."
The revenue-freighter Cresson made planet fall in the early evening. It was customary for the Mayor to invite the captain and his officers for a meal on arrival, and, naval rations not being what they once were, Captain Désrues had timed his arrival carefully to ensure that the meal was not overly delayed.
He waited in dress uniform, having carefully instructed his crew and ensured that his officers were well preened. At eight o'clock he found that the time had begun to drag. At nine o'clock he began to be impatient. At ten o'clock he sent out a junior officer to find out what the devil was going on.
At ten-thirty the junior officer returned with the mayor, and two others with whom Captain Désrues was not previously acquainted.
The mayor explained that he was very sorry he had not come earlier to welcome the captain, but he had been entertaining guests, and felt it was appropriate to wait until after dinner to recommence their acquaintance.
Captain Désrues replied, somewhat stiffly, that he felt sure that he and his crew would have the pleasure themselves of dining with the mayor the following evening.
The mayor once more expressed his regrets. He feared that a message which had been transmitted to the Rigellian revenue authorities had in fact not been communicated onwards in the appropriate manner to Captain Désrues. He was, of course, referring to the democratic referendum which had taken place shortly before on the continuance of the mutually beneficial relationship between Rigel and Ruissel. He felt sure that there had simply been an oversight in informing Captain Désrues, and that this would be straightened out once the Captain returned to Rigel. He explained once again, because it appeared that Captain Désrues had not entirely followed his line of thought, that Ruissel had allocated the budget previously set aside for support of a Rigellian cruiser to another account heading, since it was felt that the cruiser was no longer necessary, nor, indeed, present, in the Ruissel system. He explained how grateful the people of Ruissel felt towards the Rigellians, and that they wished to express that gratitude by rectifying an error which had no doubt been an administrative nightmare for the Rigellian government - that is, dealing with the overpayment of taxes for so many years. And, finally, he presented Captain Désrues with an invoice for the said overpayment, backdated fifteen years, and wondered aloud if Captain Désrues would perhaps give a personal cheque, in the absence of an official Rigellian credit transfer.
It says much for Captain Désrues that he did not explode with anger on the spot. Instead, he courteously thanked the Mayor for clarifying the misunderstanding, and at once returned to his ship and raised Rigel on the comm-link. Instantaneous communication by gravitic propagation cannot function close to a massive object such as a planet or sun. In the normal way of things Captain Désrues would have relayed via one of the four geo-stationary satellites which circled every inhabited world, except, of course, that there were no satellites around Ruissel. This was an unexpected obstruction, but Désrues kept his cool, and punched his message out through a relay satellite on the edge of Ruisselian space. The citizens of Ruissel were used to the four hour wait on each end of a message, but it was an additional trial for Désrues.
While he waited, he put his crew on full alert, which is how the scanner officer came to notice the descent of a new star in the sky, a light that appeared from nowhere, and hung for a moment, before sliding swiftly to the horizon. It was like nothing that the officer had ever seen. A ship approaching under power begins as a pinprick of light as it leaves dimensional travel to enter a solar system, far enough from its destination to evade the ubiquitous force of gravity It grows slowly for hours before it makes braking orbit, suddenly growing brighter as the shields spark against atmospheric dust. A ship coasting in - a dead ship - creates no light until it begins to burn up in a planet's atmosphere, slowly falling through the clouds as its orbit decays, brightening as it falls.
Désrues included the strange light in his follow up report. It caused more consternation at Rigellian control than the original message, but this fact was never revealed to him.
Twelve hours after planet fall, the Cresson lifted from Ruissel, four days ahead of schedule, and to cheers from half the town.
It takes eight days to despatch a gun-boat from the Rigellian base on Propus to Ruissel.
Eight days while the general population celebrated, but those close to the Mayor Short waited nervously. On the ninth day Belan Mordillo walked out of the Mayor's house, and looked disconsolately at the sky. Mayor Short came up behind him.
"You think they've just given up?" He said.
Mordillo shook his head. "They won't give up. It's possible they didn't have a gun boat available at Propus. Sending one from Polaris would take two days more. Our package may arrive tomorrow."
On the tenth day no gunboat appeared in the skies.
"You know, I really think they might have given up." Said the Mayor at dinner that evening. Mordillo shook his head again. "They will not give up." He said.
On day twelve, just as evening was beginning, there was a new star in the sky.
Mordillo, Aspic and Mayor Short went to the veranda to watch it grow from a pinprick to a discernible form. Short took out a binocular scanner and looked covetously over the ship. He could make out the glistening Rigellian insignia, the engines and control decks, and what he took to be gun ports. Then he passed the binocular to Aspic, who finally passed it to Mordillo.
"So, your plan is working." Said Short. "Tomorrow we will arrange a bull-fight here on the planet, and offer to meet them in space to discuss our terms." He rubbed his hands together.
Mordillo took the binocular, and gazed long and hard at the ship. Then he folded it back together and replaced the cover.
"Something is very, very wrong." He said. "We must consider our next move carefully."
"But the ship is here, just as you said. A few days late, but who is arguing with that. Mr Mordillo, we must press on and take our gunboat." Said Short.
Mordillo turned sharply to look at him. "That isn't a gunboat." He said. "It's a battleship."
------------------ M A R T I N T U R N E R
My assumption would be that the Eagle would assist the Hawk.
------------------ If murder were legal, you'd be dead.
This is good, but as to me predicitng what comes next, it's like all your writing. It completly boggles my mind as you do the unexpected.
Capt. Whitehawk
------------------
Err....... Shouldn't this be in Chronicles, or could you not wait?
Eagle? Hawk? Have I missed something? My mind wants to connect the name Mordillo, Eagle and "pesky fighter" but I haven't played Frozen Heart in a LONG time.
Eagle? Who or what is that?
Also, very good story, but wasn't the waiting a bit obvious? 12 days - 4 jumps for a ship with 3 days per jump. But never mind - there's nothing wrong with the obvious.
PS: My brother and I are going to design a plug-in for EV Nova (it'll take a while) which will beats yours, Martin. Hopefully, that is. So watch out! You're going to get some competition!
------------------ Jude's left. sniff We'll miss you/are missing you! sniff sniff
Quote
Originally posted by SilverDragon: **Eagle? Who or what is that? **
Alana asked Lars if he was the famous "Hawk" (Mordillo), and Lars responded something like "I guess you could call me the Eagle. The only bird that can take on a hawk."
And I've been waiting for a sequel to FH and FF for a while. Hope it comes out soon.
------------------ "States should have the right to enact reasonable laws and restrictions particularly to end the inhumane practice of ending a life that otherwise could live." "I think 'Thou Shalt Not Kill' is pretty universal." Is Dubya thinking of eliminating the death penalty, or just being hypocritical about abortion?
I don't remember that.
Is that in FF, or some string in FH I never found.
I got up to the black hole one, but if there are any Rigellian or Magellan missions then I missed all those - I like to stay away from Magellan space and only go to Rigellian space to eat Luxury liners.
Although the vessel is a warship, it likely has several disadvantages due to its size. For example, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be able to hit something dead astern. Mordillo, with his absurdly fast Hawk (presumably upgraded after Lars junked it), should have only minimal problems getting there and shooting up the engines, while his "eccentric" partner occupied the fighters. Any Pirate reinforcements, should they be in the system, would be able to use long-range weapons to distract the battleship's main guns.
However, from what little I know of the character, that doesn't seem Mordillo's style.
Perhaps some of the following then?:
1. The Mayor immediately gets on the horn and apologizes profusely for his citizen's belligerance. They had been lead astray by this Smitt, a notorious terrorist playing on the poor citizens of Ruissel in an attempt to bring ruin to their world (or something). The Mayor will throw himself on the mercy of the Rigellian Empire (insofar as it exists) and immediately surrender, inviting the captain down to the planet to sign the surrender documents and receive the back taxes. They also enthusiatically hand over Smitt, who've they've just learned was the notorious Baron Mordillo. Perhaps have someone rough him up for effect. As Mordillo is escorted back to the battleship, he'll have to do a little James-Bondian escape work, hijack the transport, ram it into the battleship's bridge and get the chip. That, or take the captain hostage.
2. If the system has any conveinient asteroids or natural satellites, Mordillo could use them for cover in order to sneak up to the ship. The battleship would have to drop its shields, possibly to let the Mayor board for negotiations, or possibly from some sort of technobabblish shield harmonics rotation thing. Mordillo floats up to the ship, and VERY quickly jets underneath it/right next to the bridge, inside the shield grid and offensive radius of the ship. Mordillo, possibly disguised as a deranged native of the planet, threatens to detonate his ship (conveniently loaded with explosvies) and take out the ship unless his demands are met, which he, of course, reads out.
3. The isolation of the planet may have allowed unique strains of typically benign diseases to evolve. The captain could carry this back to the ship and incapacitate his own crew. The planet could explain the lethal nature of the disease and offer assistance...for a price. Unfortunately, this requires the medical crew to be extremely stupid. However, if the disease is sufficiently exotic or ancient ("What?! Influenza? We haven't had any need for influenza vaccines since 2020!" "So...we don't have any then?" "Uh oh."), it could work.
4. If the planet uses any paper or hard currency, a page could be taken from The World Is Not Enough: the currency is laced with a reactive substance, a time-sensitive catylst for the reaction hidden in amongst the bills/bars/credsticks/coinage. This could produce (a) an explosion, ( hordes of insidious nanites (27th century technology would permit this), a horrible mutagenic virus, (d) nothing. In the case of (d), it is implied the undetectable and deadly ( or were released. Measures would have to be taken to invoke paranoia, such as mysterious rashes, strange smells, or odd malfunctions. The planet would eventually offer to help. Mordillo could be snuck on board as part of the engineering/medical team, and (a) steal the chip and replace it with an old one, ( take the engine room hostage, accidentally cause a catastrophic accident neccessitating escape pod useage, (d) gas everyone, basically, getting everyone off the ship very quickly. Pirates could be smuggled aboard to commandeer the ship.
5. Your description of a ship leaving hyperspace seems ripe for exploitation. Such a phenomenon could be faked to imply the approach of a huge pirate (or Magellan) fleet, or to hide one.
6. This would work easier if the Rigellians had any sort of positive public image to retain. Construct a potential political fiasco: a contemporary example would be the US spy plane incident in China. The Rigellians would have to be convinced the only way to save face would be to let the planet off. This could be accomplished by having that Princess pay an unofficial visit to the world to visit some friends, to be shocked and appauled the soldiers are bombing it into the ground.
7. Very difficult, but very effective. Construct a fake Magellan fleet/ship, and send it in. The Rigellians are ordered to surrender.
8. EMPs are great.
Sorry, but I'm really stuck for ideas. Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat books are usually good sources of devilishly clever plans.
Originally posted by Captain Whitehawk: **This is good, but as to me predicitng what comes next, it's like all your writing. It completly boggles my mind as you do the unexpected.
**
Hold it, didn't you make a big dramatic announcment about leaving the boards since Jude resigned? yet you post here? something smells.
------------------ Greetings from your semi-friendly EV Image Gallery mod. The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." Visit my web page at: (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/typhoon14/typhoon.html")http://homepage.mac....14/typhoon.html(/url) Visit my webboard at: (url="http://"http://pub45.ezboard.com/btyphoonresearchanddesignwebboard")http://pub45.ezboard...ddesignwebboard(/url)
Whitehawk didn't post that. He was considering leaving, so he had the documents ready, but it was a sibling of his that actually posted.
Mm - political fiasco. Sounds tempting.
Originally posted by SilverDragon: **Whitehawk didn't post that. He was considering leaving, so he had the documents ready, but it was a sibling of his that actually posted.
Bull, that's just the cheap excuse he came up with when his initial posts didn't have the desired effect. I think he was hoping people would beg him to return so he could make a good show of finally deciding to stay. When it failed, he decided to pin it on a "family member" and erase the evidence. Very cheap thing to do.
Just thought of a few other things.
1. This ship wasn't the one originally intended to go on this mission, and was diverted from an existing assignment policing an inner Rigellian world, correct? It can be assumed, due to the mundane nature of this mission and the mundane nature of the ship's former post, that this captain may not be the pride of the Rigellian navy. I envision someone not too bright, who hasn't seen much combat, does things by the book and, due to his proximity to the homeworld, probably calls his superiors a fair bit for advice. In short, no spur-of-the-moment-type like a Picard or Kirk. Mordillo could use the time delay of transmissions to and from Rigellian HQ to fake a recall notice to the ship. It would've been sent mere hours after the captain got his current orders, so it should come as no surprise to he/she the message is only just now arriving. Have it report a major Pirate raid the next system over, requiring immediate backup. This'll buy Mordillo a day or two. Better yet, start up a jurisdiction war, with the captain's immediate superior ordering one thing and a certain High Fleet Admiral Aran M. Bordillo ordering the opposite.
2. Along the lines of the political scandal thing, call in the Democratic media. Have Mordillo send back holovids of Rigellian soldiers burning houses and kicking people, hoping for protests from human rights groups (hey, it worked for MOSOP in Nigeria). The Democratic press villianizes the Rigellians, the government threatens economic sanctions, the Rigellians might back off.
3. It has been established (via the words of the Rigellian princess) the Rigellians are partially iscolationist, and consider themselves the best at nearly everything (see the princess's surprise at her prized scientist's translation being incorrect). Unless this captain is one who gets out to the fringe worlds and interacts with non-Rigellians frequenlty, he/she's probably swallowed this same propeganda. If Mordillo could manufacture something which looks like some exotic Death Ray of Doom, shoot it at a spacecraft, and have said ship go up in a storm of glorious pyrotechnics after a glancing blow, the captain might be a wee bit intimidated.
4. The easiest solution is probably to just call in Lars, or, better yet, those fellows from Femme Fatale with the Vipers. By the way, has anything been done about their AI? It's a bit embarassing to have a fleet of Viper escorts only to have them commit seppuku by shooting 12 IMPs at a passing fighter.
To Martin Turner:
Warning: The following thoughts are from someone who just finished the Frozen Heart novel but never played Femme Fatale or Frozen Heart for longer than 10 minutes (Don't ask me why. I can't figure it out myself. I tried numerous other supposedly good plug-ins. I simply can't get hooked on plug-ins. I'm sorry.) Take them for whatever they're worth.
As a side note: The novel is fantastic. I read my share of books. This is one of the few stories where after I read it, I felt compelled to pick it up again and start reading my favorite parts for the second time. I regret that I don't work for the New York Times. Otherwise, I'd write a favorable review for it. Outstanding work.
Keeping in mind my relatively limited exposure to FH, I assume that you intend to progress further on the main storyline by perhaps revealing the aftermath of the story as described by the novel. That will necessitate revealing any possible changes to the Rigellian Empire. The original post can be a fairly good lead-in.
Perhaps the colony will be obliterated, with Mordillo barely escaping.
Perhaps he will be captured by the Rigellians, immediately triggering intervention from Lars and others.
Like I said, my knowledge of the 2 plug-ins are practically blank so my speculation may be worthless. If somebody can fill in more about the events there, perhaps I can bring my idle speculation into sharper focus.
Once again, I think I speak for many others when I say that your contributions have been most invaluable to the EV/O community. I look forward to future works from you. (I suppose the postponement of parliamentary elections gave you some spare time?)
------------------ JC21EV9EVO12EVDC8EVBB17EVN16
Hmmm....... One particularly good way of getting out of the situation is the age old trick of saying the Rigellian battleship doesn't belong to the Rigellians....
Hmmm........ Who was that "good" Rigellian person? I seem to vaguely remembering marriage coming into it............ Alana?
Hmm.
I'm not sure that Alana could be described in any morally unambiguous sense as 'good'.
I like the ideas I'm hearing... now, if only there's a way to incorporate all of them...
Any more?
Mr. Turner, escape velocity needs you like earth needs an atmosphere.
why worry about input from the boards? both of your released stories are polished, engaging works, and it would seem appropriate to continue without diluting your creativity. too many cooks spoil the broth, and all that.
------------------ coming soon: (url="http://"http://thunder.prohosting.com/~vasska/strandwar.html")War Without End(/url), a continuation of the Strand saga
Actually, I crave input. Frozen Heart (the novel) took six years to finish, because I was never sure it was any good and therefore never sure it was worth finishing. Frozen Heart (the plugin) took 14 months, partly for the same reasons. Femme Fatale, on the other hand, took about 3 months because I had loads of people giving input and pushing me along.
Charles Dickens used to write his stories in episodes, and they were published often before he had written the next episode. For one book, Dombey and Son, he received a letter from a fan which said 'I cannot believe that Edith is Carker's mistress'. Dickens thought about it, agreed, and re-invented the rest of the plot.
But thanks for the compliment.
Martin
Crawler, Whitehawk told me that before he got the "undesired" answers. So stop being so cynical
Oh, this is SilverDragon, but I don't remember his password........... Oh well, I could do with a change.
------------------ A.S.S Beatrix, Alexandria, Save the Queen.
Originally posted by Martin Turner: **
While he waited, he put his crew on full alert, which is how the scanner officer came to notice the descent of a new star in the sky, a light that appeared from nowhere, and hung for a moment, before sliding swiftly to the horizon. It was like nothing that the officer had ever seen.
Well, this bit actually provides quite a few interesting options. For the moment, let's rule out the sudden appearance of any non-human(oid) race with superior technology. That wouldn't be a very good idea right now.
So, in my interpretation, it would point at the presence of the tach fighter in the system. But is this coincidence (Lars about to do some archaeological research or to have a short, inconspicuous holiday with Alana on Ruissel?), or has Lars somehow been alerted to the situation there? For example by Mordillo, who thought it may be wise to have Lars around, who is a) a dedicated democrat who has the brains, experience and contacts to stir up a big and most likely effective fuss if the Rigellians annex an independent planet (This is where Section_8's idea of political fiasco would come in...) an excellent pilot with a powerful ship c) a resourceful bloke who tends to find ways of getting out of sticky situations.
Or Lars ran across someone who happens to know what Mordillo is up to, and Lars decided to keep an eye on things, so they won't get too out of hand.
Or is it not Lars's tach fighter, but someone else has somehow managed to get their claws on Emile's technical documentation, built another prototype and just happens to be testing it in this remote area of the galaxy? (Actually, thinking about it, probably not. Although I think that the tachyon technology would be of great interest to power-hungry governments and individuals, and sooner or later, you might find it a useful subject to transport some ideas - or to simply tell an exciting story - it wouldn't quite fit in at this stage.)
Could it be that instead of just a gunship, the battleship was sent not because Ruissel is so important as a Rigellian "possession", but because Alana (or some other Rigellian bigwig) is getting a little paranoid about Lars's prediction in Frozen Heart that the empire will last for maybe another 25 years? The fact that an insignificant satellite colony which doesn't even have its own space militia or fleet dares to resist the mighty empire could easily lead to further uprisings on planets which were subjugated in a similar or worse manner some years or decades before. The Rigellian economy is not quite as strong as propaganda would have it (corruption, coercion, greed, sabotage, ignorance, disinterest, factions struggling for power, extremely long transport distances, outdated technologies, etc.), and having to deal with several rebellions AND the constant skirmishes with the Magellans simultaneously would require even higher, even less affordable military, secret service and police budgets. The economy would come apart at the seams, and higher taxes, forced labour in the war industry and the re-introduction of conscription would lead to even greater dissatisfaction. So Ruissel MUST be kept, even at the cost of serious diplomatic (and other) consequences.
Apart from that, the Magellans are rather likely to take advantage of the situation, aren't they?
Maybe they already are: another, rather different option: Magellan intel may have found out about the Ruissel situation, and they have dispatched a captured Rigellian battleship to destroy the actual Rigellian gunboat sent and then to provoke an incident on Ruissel which would give them an excuse to "liberate" a few Rigellian colonies from their "oppressors". And the "new star in the sky" above is not the tach fighter, but a new, extremely fast type of Magellan spy ship observing developments in the Ruissel system. One weak point: how would such a big lump as a battleship get to Ruissel from Magellan space that quickly? Hmm. It's been a while since I played Frozen Heart, so I don't quite remember the exact details of the galaxy map. Is there a system with an uninhabited planet nearby where the captured battleship could have been kept hidden as a kind of "mole" waiting for an occasion of this kind to jump in and mess up things for Rigel?
And not only the Magellans would see an advantage in this situation. The imperial family is bound to have a branch or two whose members aren't completely satisfied with the distribution of wealth, power and titles, or are simply p*ssed off because their patri- or matriarch was placed behind a column at the last state banquet and couldn't see the exotic dancers....
Endless ideas. But I seem to be getting carried away with the more "strategic" aspects of the story, which I suppose you've already more or less sorted out for yourself, anyway. The ideas I've had so far about how to continue directly from the point where you stopped aren't really worth mentioning. But that little mind of mine may yet cough up something I like, so I might get back to you in a while. Hope the stuff above is of any use to you.
This is very nice stuff Galactic Punk. Much for me to mull over. Thanks.