Ransom's Crew

'Ransom's Crew' is the name taken by followers of Marcus Ransom.

Exigence

During the Fourth Age, planet Altronis was subjugated by a consortium of business corporations, through gradual monopoly of all resources, and had begun a consequent ecological collapse. When Marcus Ransom arrived on Altronis, he objected to this situation; and supported by Gudersnipe School, organized a counter-initiative.

Purpose

Ransom's Crew was essentially a 'world-building' project, in so far as it meant to weaken the corporations' social model while replacing it by one more wholesome and self-perpetuating. To that end, members of the Crew were separated wholly from mainstream Altronis by N-Dimensional Travel and placed aboard Ransom's crippled spaceship, the Asho Zoroaster, from which they advanced into the corporations' reality for individual assignments.

Structure

The Crew was divided into multiple sub-crews or 'Cells', of which each believed itself the entire Crew, and between which Ransom and his supporters at Gudersnipe alone had social intercourse. Many members entered and exited the Zoroaster at least once; but only six, known as the 'Core of the Crew', had regular access to't;––– Slade, Hammer, Nexa, Belfast, Dallas, and Gabriel;––– other than Ransom and 2-5 lieutenants.

Recruitment

Most members were recruited by gradual introduction to the Crew's doctrine (see below); a few exceptions included Gabriel, who suffered direct initiation.

Members

• A. J. D–––: an iconoclastic native of Altronis; Ransom's first contact on that planet. Known to the Crew as 'Adrienne'.

• A.E. Clipson: a cousin of A.J.D.'s; recruited probably for that reason. Known to the Crew as 'Slade'.

• Helena Ganzfeld: a computer-hacker recruited by Ransom; operator of a secret society known as the 'Nexus'. Known accordingly as 'Nexa' to the Crew.

• Elizabeth ('Elysia') Cornwell: a vociferous crime-fighter recruited by Ransom. Known to the Crew as 'Hammer'.

• [Joseph Thomas] Lancelot Tarquin O'Malley: An architect or scholar, and the voice of reason among Ransom's followers. Known to the Crew as 'Belfast'.

• [Name here]: An engineer, lawyer, and medical expert. Known to the Crew as 'Dallas'.

• Gabriel Rikart: A youth recruited by Clipson; later successor to Ransom's father.

• Vera: an offworlder brought by Ransom; married a native.

• Tom: Local of Altronis recruited by Vera; later married to her.

• Nicole: a Veterinarian recruited by Ransom; later his wife.

• Rashmi: another native of Altronis; recruited by Ransom but working sometimes with Gabriel.

• [Etc.].

Doctrine

Members of the Crew, including the 'Core', lived by quasi-religious beliefs dedicating themselves wholly to Ransom himself, and keeping them nearly ignorant of the Crew's true structure and that of their operations. According to these beliefs, the area traversed by N-Dimensional Travel was the 'real world' obscured by the corpocratic social reality, and spatially quite narrow until the corpocracy was overthrown, at which (the Crew said) it would encompass the known universe. Crew Members knew little or nothing of the interstellar community; but had some knowledge of the Roads War, reïmagined as a war between two factions of gods. All Members believed in dragons, but said nothing thereof to Ransom, who disapproved of the species after a childhood quarrel (by the Crew named only vaguely, and in whispers) in the Djr Archipelago; but both attitudes resulted of the same beliefs. Speech among Members excluded most references to Altronis' popular culture (including colloquia), to release the speaker from corporations' control.

Dissolution

Soon after the corpocracy was overthrown, and Altronis established in the Alliance, the Crew took to separate vocations, as below:

Nicole married Marcus Ransom and gave birth to their son Nathan;

Belfast, Ransom's confidant, once visited Arindell but returned to Altronis;

Gabriel, Ransom's protegé, attempted the Trials;

Slade resumed his right name of A.E. Clipson, as whom he became a husband and the father of two sons, accompanied (though not wholly in the begetting) by the dragon Traroth;

Hammer became foster-mother to 4 children;

Adrienne, Slade's cross-cousin, became a great Stateswoman;

[etc.]

Elixirs

Rumours persisted even after dissolution that Ransom's Crew, and Ransom himself, imbibed certain elixirs or draughts before any assignment, whereof each was useless alone but in combination increased the drinker's strength, stamina, intelligence, and agility by 10 times its own degree, for 6 hours even. Their formulae were discovered by Slade and Belfast, when the former imbibed a mind-opening draught devised by the corpocracy.