Seven Hard Questions
You fidget in your seat nervously as the man who clearly has it in for you adjusts the last set of lights for the interview. Anyone who's anyone in your colony is tuning in. Your crew doesn't really care; they know who you are and trust in your command. Most of the marines and the colonists though... to them you were just some person who happened to be in charge. They don't know who you are, and a few are more inclined to question your command of the situation.
They do have a right to know who you are. They do deserve to see you stand or fall upon your own credentials. You just wish that this 'reporter' would actually do his job properly, rather than clearly having it in for you.
Still, you've crossed swords with Sam Whittaker once before, and now you'll do so again.
One last microphone check and he begins.
“Greetings ladies and gentlemen of Niflheim Colony, I am your host, Sam Whittaker. Today we will be interviewing someone not well known to us, but is someone chiefly responsible for our survival in this new and hostile universe. Captain Mira Sheridan,”
Rolled: 81 + 14 = 95
You feel the cameras upon you and give them a nod with a winning smile. You haven't lost your edge in the slightest. In fact, you think you may have gotten sharper.
“Mr. Whittaker,” you say by way of greeting.
“I'll get straight to the point, does a captain of your level of experience have what it takes to act as our military governor?”
Rolled: 55 + 14 + 20 = 89
“What do you mean by my level of experience?” you ask.
“Well, you are just a transport captain, ma'am, no offense,”
“None taken, Mr. Whittaker. I rose up through the ranks same as any other. In fact, my rise was just a bit too quick, by the time I'd earned a promotion to captain there were simply no ships left in the fleet for me, not without pushing out someone who deserved their command just as much. I was assigned to the L'Amour until there was an opening in the ranks,” you explain.
“So, you're just a substitute captain then?” he asks.
“Not at all, I've been in command of the L'Amour for two years now, and I take command of her quite seriously. A transport vessel is just a few upgrades in terms of armour and armament away from being a fully fledged warship, much like the Centaur class a generation back, so command of such ships is not doled out lightly,” you respond.
Making no clear headway, he skips to his next question.
“Captain, given our current situation, should the military really be calling the shots?”
Rolled: 41 + 14 + 20 = 75
“TCA law and regulations stipulate that in a survival situation without any meaningful support, the military is to do all it can to safeguard TCA citizens. Furthermore, colonies under a certain size and standard of living must be assigned a military governor. As the military chain of command stops with me, under these circumstances it is both lawful and necessary for me to 'call the shots',” you explain.
“Surely that can't be fair,” he protests, “our civilian government certainly deserves a chance to be in charge of affairs.”
“With all due respect to the esteemed candidates running for the current election, no. All colonies under a certain size are ascribed a military governor until standards of living and stability is assured for all its citizens. As of right now, that's not possible. Perhaps in the future as our population grows we might be able to transition to a system where supreme executive authority is wielded by an elected official, but now is not that time. If it's any consolation, I grew up under such a system on the colonies and paid attention to the politics of the time. Rest assured I know how much, and how little, to intefere with the domestic side of politics.”
Mr Whittaker shifts gears again as you deflect his questions with ease.
“Many of us are beginning to wonder if we'll ever see our homes and families again, considering how rapidly we're putting down roots here. Why the lack of even a pretence of attempting to find a way home?”
Rolled: 74 + 14 + 20 = 108 (Supercrit)
Oh? Hardball is it? Hah.
“Mr. Whittaker, I don't think I need to remind you what the usual result of a misjump entails. The fact that we beat the odds and neither wound up skipping off into eternity nor crashing into a gravity well and dying horribly if quickly is already a miracle of the highest order. To repeat that trick, backwards and blindfolded, is more likely to kill us all, if it even is repeatable in reverse in the first place. I needn't remind you that those people who might have misjumped in a manner such as ours have all failed to return home and report in,” you say.
“But we haven't even tried to fire up the jump drive,” he says.
You suppress a smirk at that. His delivery is poor and makes him look whiny. You captalise on that mercilessly.
“Mr. Whittaker, the jump drive nearly tore itself out of its housing and was shut down for safety long ago. This universe operates under a completely different sent of physical laws, and given the effort it took to puzzle out jump drive theory in the first place in our universe, it seems that we'll require a lot of time and resource in order to pursue that avenue of research, time and resources that are, for now, better put towards our survival.”
Oh yes. Nailed it. You can see him subtly grinding his teeth in frustration and the urge to do a little victory dance is almost too good to resist. Almost. You know you've won, he knows you've won, and just like that he changes the subject.
“Although we are now well ensconced in our new homes, it took us a while to get there. Why did it take so long to establish housing on Niflheim?”
Rolled: 41 + 14 + 20 = 75
“We had to prioritise material and agricultural income upfront before we could afford to begin moving people down to the surface. In the former case, this has allowed us to relax rationing somewhat and may well put us on the path to eliminating them altogether in due time, whilst the latter case is so that we can always have a stockpile of material on hand to avoid wasting the precious time we do have waiting for the appropriate supplies,” you say.
At this point he doesn't even bother with a follow up question. He just changes the subject, desperately looking to stick you with something.
“We made first contact with aliens shortly after arriving here. Why are civilians being denied access to the aliens?”
Rolled: 86 – 8 + 20 = 98
“We're in the process of learning more about the aliens and determining their threat levels. We're confident that once we've learned more about their language and their customs that civilians will be able to regularly contact them soon. I think we'd all rather avoid an affair where someone makes an offhand remark that translates to a terrible insult for our alien guests and the only recourse for them is to wage a terrible war for generations before forgiveness can be bestowed,” you explain, smirking towards the end.
“Given that our alien 'guests' have some form of ESP, what precautions are being taken to guard against alien telepathy?”
Rolled: 45 – 8 + 20 = 57
“As far as our alien guests surmise, we appear to be immune to their telepathy. They can neither sense our presence nor read our minds,” you reply.
“But you only have their word,” says Mr. Whittaker, “they could be lying.”
“Possibly,” you admit, “but given their cooperative nature and having met with them a few times, it strikes me that deception is not necessarily within their nature.”
“That seems a bit naive, Captain,” says Mr. Whittaker.
“Naivete has nothing to do with, Mr. Whittaker. They're children who have been through a harrowing experience, and they owe us for getting them out of that rust bucket alive,” you reply.
Not your best performance, but you'll deal, you can feel that this interview is just about over.
“Final question, Captain. One of your crew members died shortly after arriving in this new realm. Is there any reason his death was kept a secret?”
Reaction: 90 + 14 + 20 = 124 (Supercrit)
Hot button: Deal with internal rage, shame, guilt.
Rolled: 55, 88, 71
Your eyes narrow as your opinion of Mr. Whittaker drops through the floor like a lump of neutronium. He wouldn't ask this question unless he knew everything. If you try to dodge he'll nail you. The only recourse is to nail him right back.
“There are still unknown factors surrounding Ensign Jackson Kelly's death, such as why he awoke just six minutes after our misjump as opposed to several hours for the rest of us, his clearly delusional behaviour as caught on our security film, and the ultimate reason for his suicide. Because of our tense situation upon our arrival here in this new universe, I felt it best to keep such a sensitive matter firmly to those it affected most; my ship and crew,” you explain tersely.
“But surely the public have a right to know about such military casualties,” says Mr. Whittaker, “we surely owe it to Ensign Kelly to remember his sacrifice.”
Hot button: Deal with Rage
Rolled: 77 + 14 + 20 = 111 (Supercrit)
“Tell me about him, then,” you ask.
“Uh, what?” asks Mr. Whittaker, confused by the sudden turnaround.
“Tell me about Ensign Kelly, Mr. Whittaker. If you are intent upon remembering his noble sacrifice, then by all means, eulogise him,” you say viciously.
“Uh, um, well, he uh, he signed up for the military in uh-”
“Just stop,” you say, almost hissing, before turning to a more gentle tone, “His favourite ice cream was chocolate mint. He was such an enormous night owl that we assigned him the grave yard shift in engineering and he never even noticed. He had a collection of World War Two fighter memorabilia that took up his entire allotment of personal items. He never made a fuss, was always the quiet but sensitive one of the group, right up until you got a few beers into him and he started telling the funniest jokes you'd ever heard, and if we were still alive today, Mr. Whittaker, he'd have given you the meanest right hook for trying to make hay of his or anyone's death. This interview is over.”
You peel the microphone off and stalk out.
–
Overall Reception:
95 + 89 + 75 + 108 + 75 + 98 + 57 + 124 + 111 = 832 / 9 = 92.44
Reward: Your population not only knows who you are now, they saw you completely destroy every question thrown towards you. You faltered a bit on certain points, but overall, you were forthright, honest, strong, and above all, the very picture of someone that people want to have in charge and making the big decisions.
Your reaction to Mr. Whittakers 'gotcha' question regarding Ensign Kelly is something especially notable. People remark about your apparently effortless self control combined with your well tuned moral outrage. More to the point, you hear from quite a few people that there were standing ovations at your reaction and even a few tears.
You've absolutely solidified your position as military governor of your colony.
–
Code: Select all
To: Captain Mira Sheridan
From: Sam Whittaker
Subject: RE: The Interview
Well played, oh captain our captain, most entertaining indeed.
The Blue Rose cell will be at your service the next time you have need of us. Sam will be our point of contact with you in future. Please try to avoid harbouring ill will, he did work quite hard at making you look good.
Regards,
Blue Rose Cell,
TCA Special Operations Division.
PS: Don't worry about deleting this email. We've got it covered.
<< Turn 5 Results || Ice and Fury
>>