Tonight we reconvened online to play Final Voyage of the Selene by James Mullen. We begin by seeing how each of us originally boarded the ship. Ambassador Masiri, flanked by security personnel, races to board the Selene, leaving a killing field of bodies behind on a planet bathed in the light of a red giant star. Lt. Kazarian stands among such a wasteland surrounded by the bodies of her comrades in arms, swearing to seek revenge for their deaths before becoming security on the Selene in her search. Professor Carris meets with his old student Dr. Tsien about joining them as a passenger on the Selene in order to study the substitial space the exists between the nodes. Juve Jax Mahler, a scavenger on a war-decimated planet, slips aboard the Selene when it stops for spare parts. Adam Pryce touchingly bids farewell to his mother and his homeworld a dozen years ago, and proves his strength aboard the freighter by working his way up to Chief. Doctor Tsien works at a hospital caring for children but leaves abruptly to join the Selene as their colleagues look on baffled.
In Act One, our dramatis personae get to know one another. Chief Pryce and Doc Tsien talk of sports and the captains of the Selene, who may need replacing. Juvenile Jax Mahler learns of the stellarnet from Prof. Carris and confesses he stowed away aboard ship. Ambassador Masiri and Lt. Kazarian bond over the costs of war and the need for peace over dinner. Dr. Tsien takes Juve Mahler under their wing and ask the youth to check out the contents of the cargo bay. Lt. Kazarian discuss the rumors of a stowaway and the exigencies of love with Chief Pryce before running into Juve Mahler, who they fail to identify as the stowaway. Prof. Carris discusses how stymied is his research with Dr. Tsien and Ambassador Masiri, who can’t help mentioning those slaughtered in war, even at dinner.
In Act Two, Dr. Tsien is discovered rummaging through the cargo bay by Lt. Kazarian and convinces her that they’re looking for evidence of smugglers. Juve Mahler is caught in the bowels of the ship by Chief Pryce, who ends up teaching the boy everything about the ship in a montage that ends with the discovery of the captain dead in his cabin. Prof. Carris erects a complex instrument on the observation deck to study a tear forming in the fabric of substitial space that draws the attention of Ambassador Masiri. He learns that the Ambassador turned his mate into a poisonous weapon before leaving her behind in order to ensure her fidelity, or at least his revenge upon anyone with whom she might be unfaithful. Lt. Kazarian and Ambassador Masiri meet and share a moment before Juve Mahler comes and confesses to having manufactured the machines that massacred her patrol at the Battle of Frakus. The Lieutenant tells Juve that he’ll need to testify to what he knows and takes the Ambassador back to her room. Chief Pryce has assumed command after the captain’s death and Dr. Tsien has proof, they say, that Lt. Kazarian poisoned the captain, so they rush to her room to quarantine the soldier and confront the Ambassador about his secrets.
In the Epilogue, the tear in space sends the Selene hurtling out of substitial space into a crash course with Earth. The Ambassador releases Lt. Kazarian, who accepts Masiri’s alien infection, from quarantine and they use an artifact to escape the crash together. Chief Pryce sacrifices himself to save the lifepod the others have all escaped to. With his dying breath, he successfully converts Juve to his own faith. Doctor Tsien does not make it back to Earth, finally succumbing to the disease that sent them aboard the Selene to seek across the galaxy for a cure. Not long after landing safely on Earth, ancient Professor Carris reports to the intelligence bureau all the information he has gathered about the alien infection Ambassador Masiri carries and the mass killings he’s perpetrated in his missions of peace. Juve Mahler not only converts and makes it to Earth aboard the same lifepod as the others, but also becomes a wealthy, bestselling author. Many years later at an author reading, he hears the words of forgiveness he has long wished for from a much-changed, now-alien Lt. Kazarian.
Story Games Club 