Interstellar Cruise Ship Scorpio - Earthbound OOC
Six months ago on the planet Beylix on the edge of Known Space, a Wanted Space Pirate, A Londinium Spy, and a Wildly Eccentric Robot with Multiple Personality programming issues and steampunk style rang the door bell for the Brotherhood of Man Temple. When nothing happened for a minute, they rang the bell again. And again. And again.
Finally, a small door opened and a bleary-eyed young initiate looked out and said crossly, "Oy! Keep it down, mate! It's the flippin' middle of the night and I gotta get up in an hour for morning ritual! Do us a favor and come back then!"
"No," said the Robot with the Linden Jars strapped to its back. "We come to deliver her into your care."
"Huh?" blinked the Initiate. "Deliver who?"
The robot stepped aside to reveal a young blonde-haired girl who smiled up at the initiate.
"Cor, who are you?"
"Butterfly?" the girl asked, leaning towards the Space Pirate.
"She's the Wanderer," the Robot told him, a hint of reproof in its electronic voice.
"Eh? OY!" the Initiate yelled, pointing his finger at the robot, "You shouldn't go around pointing fun at other people's religions! Bad karma, that! Save you from getting your head bashed in!"
The robot's eyes flashed several different colors before settling back down to black, and shaking its head.
"Summon the Master of the Gate and rejoice, you fool," it ordered scornfully. "A new Wanderer has been found, and she needs all the protection of the Brotherhood of Man."
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Beylix
Interstellar Tourist Location & Alien Marketplace
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During the Pax Confederation, Beylix was a minor mining world. The richest veins proved to be in the desert, so the mining companies built small company towns around them, ignoring the more temperate zones with their lush vegetation and somewhat aggressive predators. Civil war broke out and the miners left.
Years later, a Blue Confederation convoy, escorting refugee ships from a dozen worlds through the system was attacked by raiders from the Red Faction. The civilian ships made a run for the mining plane to put as much distance between them and the fighting. However, as they passed Beylix's smaller moon, they came under attack by a wing of Red Faction fighters. Afraid they were about to be destroyed, the civilian captains ordered the refugees to the lifepods and to abandon ship.
When the Blue Confederation commander realized what was happening, he gave orders to retreat. Those ships still able to make the jump to hyperspace left, chased by the surviving Red Faction ships. Fighters and small craft of both sides, unable to make the transition, were left behind.
A truce was declared, both sides following the lifepods down to the surface, following a beacon left behind at the miners' rather basic starport. They wound up settling in clumps - the civilians occupying the miner's quarter and the lifepods of the new quarter, and of course the soldiers occupying the shanty towns of the Blue and the Red Quarters. And they waited for rescue. And they waited.
Finally, a Wilder, an alien being from an uncontacted planet, convinced the refugees and the soldiers that if they would not move from the starport for the more temperate areas of the planet, then they would have to dig a canal to bring fresh water from the mountains to them.
It took them months of hard work, with many deaths and injuries to build the canal. The Wilder himself did not survive, but his dream of bringing water and building a community worked. They raised a statue to the Canal Builder and for the most part gave up hope of rescue.
Finally, after sixteen years, two ships arrived in system, both heavily armed and speaking a language unknown to most of them. They weren't of any known faction of the Pax Confederation, but were instead an alien race from an uncontacted world - Humans. Just like the Canal Builder and a girl they had found in a forgotten stasis chamber.
While relations with the Humans were a little strained at first by the theft of an engine component by some Red Faction fanatics, the curiosity of finding so many different races living in a system not that far from Sol with a compatible environment, not to mention a mysterious statue of a human standing in the central square, turned it into the first interstellar tourist spot, and the location of the first temple of the Brotherhood of Man.
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To Sum Up What Was Learned Previously
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The Girl known as Butterfly has been confirmed by the Brotherhood of Man to be a Wanderer - in truth, a very human-looking alien who belongs to a race that most believed was mythical rbrm before the Pax Confederation was formed over a millennium ago. Her true name was Reifani, and she had been mind-wiped and banished by her people for breaking their most sacred law - opening up the barrier that hides their world from outsiders in order to rescue a dying human whose ship had gotten lost in space.
The human, the son of Earth Ambassador Paris, wound up under the control of Lord Vargas, a stout segregationist who believed the only way to protect Zaya from discovery was to ensure no one could threaten it. His father had destroyed the Pax Confederation, he would ensure the downfall of this new alien threat that had landed on their doorstep. Paris became Vargas' unwilling personal assassin, sent back to the human colonies to spy on them and to destroy any threat Lord Vargas perceived.
Including Reifani, Paris' rescuer, who after two decades in stasis awaiting her banishment was teleported by technology unknown to human kind into the laundry room of the Interstellar Cruise Ship Scorpio. The only reason she survived was the help she received from a handful of the passengers, most notably - Daniel Doverton-Hawke of MI-6 from the Londinium Colony; Llewellyn "Kes" Caesaro, a wanted space pirate from Kzae; and a rogue robot S.C.H.I.Z.O (Socially Compatible High Intellect Zest Outfit).
She also received help from two Zayans - Helene, Reifani's aunt, who works for the underfunded Zayan Bureau of Other Worlds Intelligence (BOWI); and Eachert, a copy of a personality implanted as a sort of personal tutor from the Zayan Mind Banks and eccentric genius, now implanted inside S.C.H.I.Z.O.
Paris, who had died once during interrogation by Daniel, was regenerated by Lord Vargas. Following Vargas' arrest, Paris was taken back by Helene and the BOWI to Zaya and his fate is unknown.
In the six months that have passed, Reifani, now known as "Butterfly", has become the Brotherhood of Man's own version of the Dali Lama. Unable to recover her destroyed memories, they have started schooling her in basic knowledge and skills. However, there is a pressure on the Brotherhood of Man to bring Butterfly to Earth to meet with the Council for a planned month-long visitation. The Brotherhood of Man has decided she would travel best with familiar friends, and have reached out to the ones who brought her to the temple - Daniel, Kes, and S.C.H.I.Z.O./Eachert.
The ship that will bring Butterfly to Earth? The Zodiac Line's Interstellar Cruise Ship Scorpio.
Originally Posted by deamonstalker
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