Session 001

Human Date: 2533, January 8
Ribbons of red down Dove's back. Instructed not to clean the sheets.
Last night, Drops of Crimson was engaging in discussions with other political figures. Instructed to forget the specifics, although she could clearly remember that Drops of Crimson's guests were required to treat Dove as an equal.
Some studies on political theory, more dance and vocal practice.
There's a knock on the door later in the morning - near afternoon; guests aren't uncommon as Drops of Crimson is a director of research in the biological division.
Dove is aware, at least subconsciously, that Drops of Crimson is an expert on the chip.
Live in the highest floor of one of the tallest buildings of Silver to the Sky; great inland sea that the city is built alongside.
Outside the door is a friend; E2N-Shanti. A cyn that she met a few months ago while she was associating with a few other Assistants.
She has access to a large collection of literature that most do not.
She's never visited here before and is a little out of breath and seems happy that Drops of Crimson isn't home.
Previously, Dove has seen her in the Beryllium District; it's where Dove does most of her shopping.
Shanti asks Dove to accompany her to the Internal Affairs office; she gathers a few spare uniforms as well as her decorative choker; a golden necklace with a small sample of Drops of Crimson's blood in a recess at the throat.
In the past, Shanti has claimed that owner works at the Museum of Exotic Life; a collection of displays on exo and primitive life.
Shanti reveals that she doesn't actually have an owner.
Dove inquires whether she works as an independent Assistant for Internal Affairs. She says she does not.
Shanti looks nervously at an agent on the monorail - Dove recognizes them as Blades of Emerald, thin feathers that almost resemble pine needles with a deep green coloration. They do in fact work in Internal Affairs on extra-departmental investigation.
Shanti reveals that she's anxious because she's in trouble with the Accords and needs to leave the planet. She insists that whatever she's doing won't hurt Drops of Crimson, so Dove decides that she can assist.
We arrive at Internal Affairs; Shanti pretends at a vacant expression when an agent looks at her but Dove just smiles and heads to the elevator.

On the 40th floor of the Internal Affairs department, Ibis is assisting her Owner - Stroke of Sunrise - at work.
They're in the office much earlier than usual, and instead of heading for Stroke of Sunrise's office, they head in another direction.
Stroke of Sunrise has been summoned by her direct supervisor, the director of the Internal Affairs investigation department, Leaves of Maple - a reddish/brownish tellura comparable to a red hawk.
Ibis is fairly familiar with Leaves of Maple; almost friendly. Sunrise & Maple are friends. As much as an Assistant can be friends with a free tellura, Ibis is too.
Maple looks grim, despite her usual friendliness. She looks the other way when Sunrise pecks Ibis on the cheek as she is dismissed, since Maple insists that this isn't a conversation for Assistants.
Maple reveals to Sunrise that someone reopened a closed case and some footage was discovered in the archives. Sunrise seems grim about it.
It's apparently incriminating toward Sunrise, and there's implication that Sunrise will be chipped.
Maple claims that she'll try to keep Sunrise and Ibis together, but they don't have much negotiation.
There's an exchange of "I'm sorry it had to come to this." "I'm sorry you drove Rust away."
Maple gives Sunrise the day off from work to take care of affairs.
Ibis is familiar with an old friend of Sunrise's; Feathers of Rust. She was a high-ranking engineer but Ibis doesn't know specifically what her rank was. One day, Sunrise stopped talking about Rust and told Ibis that Rust wasn't their friend any more and that she didn't want to hear Ibis talk about them again. It's one of the strangest requests that Sunrise made of her.
- A couple of weeks after that order, a scandal broke of a group of tellura and their Assistants, headed by one Feathers of Rust, deserting.

Shanti is looking for record room 281 (high-confidentiality records) on floor 38. It's curious that she had to look at the printed directory to discover which floor she needed to go to.
The hallway they head to is occupied by a pair of Assistants socializing. One of them is an exo assistant; the much-clearer wings and broader feathers of an algata.
Shanti's card doesn't seem to work on the door so they need to call someone over. One of the Assistant mentions that it's not that uncommon; this scanner has had issues.
One of the Assistants also gossips that there's been some shakeups with someone negotiating with non-tellura. Apparently, three different supervisors have come up from processing after a meeting in one of the upper offices.
A tellura with orange-ish feathered tellura comes over to wave Shanti and Dove through the door. He also impresses that she's to get her chip repaired as soon as possible.

Stroke of Sunrise's desk has already been emptied of any confidential documents.
Ibis inquires why Sunrise would be made into an Assistant.
Sunrise is startled that she was overheard and doesn't answer.
There's a picture on her desk of the one time they spent off-world; the two of them floating in zero-g.
Sunrise unlocks her secured cabinet and sends her to file them properly with records, as well as sort her assignments into two piles; one for those who have a second agent assigned, and one for those who need to be reviewed by the director.
Ibis doesn't have that many that she needs to sort through, but it gives her purpose.
There were a couple files that were missorted into the wrong sections, and she takes the opportunity to distract herself by sorting those as well.
One of the files is from four or five years ago that definitely shouldn't be with the rest; it's notably classified and should be sorted in section 281. Ibis will make sure that it gets sorted into the right place.

Shanti asks Dove to swipe her in to section 281.
Dove refuses.
Shanti pulls out a lock-pick set.
Dove informs Shanti that she's not supposed to have one of those. Shanti asks Dove to trust her.
Dove asks what Shanti isn't telling her. Shanti asks her to just trust her.
Dove says that she will, because she doesn't have many friends.
Shanti finally admits that she's not an Assistant.
Shanti also says that she wouldn't be able to share books with Dove any more if she gets caught.
Dove hesitates, and agrees to help.
There's a guard inside.
He instructs them both to stay where we are. Dove freezes. Shanti knocks him unconscious with a headbutt.
Dove cannot move. Shanti asks her how to find her file. Dove informs Shanti that it's filed under the middle three digits instead of the last three.
Shanti instructs Dove to enter debug mode, authorization code 32117.
She reassigns Dove to her; biometric identification provided by a kiss on the forehead.

Ibis arrives at section 281 and confronts Shanti & Dove.
Shanti accidentally shoots Ibis.
Guards are approaching; Shanti instructs Dove to block them. Dove slashes apart the entry keypad.
Dove buys some time by instructing the guards that some people went downward rather than up. Instead, we head for the fire escape.
The alarm sounds, locking down exterior doors and internal elevators except for the service and executive elevators.
Dove breaks through the window with a well-placed slam.
They manage to get to the executive elevator and up to the roof.
Shanti hot-wires the shuttle.
The service elevator dings, signalling the arrival of Stroke of Sunrise, Leaves of Maple, and three guards.
Sunrise seems furious to see Ibis hurt.
The shuttle takes off just in time.
Dove shouts before they take off, "Director! Please apologize to Drops of Crimson for me!"
Shanti flies like a madwoman through the city, sticking low to avoid anti-air.
Shanti takes us to the Museum of Exotic Life. She stashed her ship in the closed exhibit.
We're interrupted by a light-blue feathered tellura who had been walking arm-in-arm with a grey-feathered Assistant.
They have an Internal Affairs badge and are pulling a firearm.
Dove positions herself between the agent and Shanti as they run. The bullets miss, and Shanti orders Dove to run ahead.
The closed exhibit houses a ship; one with blue & teal paint that shimmers in a disorienting way, vaguely wing-shaped.
Dove waits all of thirty seconds before realizing that Shanti is farther behind than she should be and heads back.
The blue-feathered Agent is pointing a firearm at Shanti.
Dove convinces him that the real target is on the ship and that they're just Assistants. He pulls out a chipping gun and heads into the ship.
Shanti has a subdermal wrist interface projector; she uses it to close the ship and activated the fire suppression to knock him unconscious.
Dove drags him off the ship and places his chipping gun and sidearm in the cockpit.
Ibis is fading in and out of consciousness; she's carried through mixed wood-panel and metal hallways.
Shanti settles Ibis into the medical bay.
Dove secures the IA agent to a railing and wakes him up. She requests that he please let Drops of Crimson know that she was reassigned and that she was sorry.
He attempts to use the IA override code to get her to help him. She ignores it.
We take off in the shuttle.
This is the first time that Dove can remember being in space.
The ship pivots around the cockpit toward a vertical profile.
8Gs of flight for quite a bit of time. Dove is delighted.
The cockpit turns transparent and Dove can see everything.
This ship apparently has both a shift and skip drive.
We hit super-luminal shift.

Date

January 26, 2022

Stardate

January 8, 2533